Book #3 CBR-III
Carry Me Home takes place in 1940, in rural Wisconsin, although it could just as easily be many other places in the country. The rural community Krig creates is as lush and interesting as any community about which I've read in years. Every character leaves an impression that lingers, hanging around long after they've left the page. The rural setting combined with the not-quite-right teenage protagonist will undoubtedly result in comparisons to Faulkner. I generally hate that anything rural gets related back to Uncle William, but in this case the comparison is probably merited. Although this narrative is simpler, Krig has some bone crushing observations via the innocence of Earwig, the teenager in question, that can't help but to put one in the mind of Benjy.
The novel hinges on the relationship between Earwig and his big brother, Jimmy. Jimmy, fiercely protective of his younger brother helps Earwig to carve out a life in his small town where he balances for most of the novel between child and man, although his mental capacities will never reach full maturity. The reader watches Earwig struggle with the responsibilities of almost adulthood, while still getting the "pass" among many of the town's citizens of a child. As a result, he is privy to many interactions, conversations, and information that he might not otherwise be. It's the processing of all that information and figuring out what to do with it that drives Earwig. When his brother goes off to war the simplicity and innocence with which he worries for him is heart breaking. As he watches the town he loves buckle under the pressure of the war and their missing boys he seems to be the only one who can understand what's really going on.
As I type this, I realize it might sound trite. It is not. Krig has a wicked control of the language and although there are plenty of places where this story could fall into sticky melodrama, it doesn't. Jimmy returns from the war changed in ways that only Earwig refuses to ignore. Instead of coming across as cheap commentary on the "wise-ness" (is that a word) of the innocent, it comes across as nothing more than the result of the power of the love between Earwig and his brother. Earwig doesn't understand everything, but he understands enough, and more importantly, he understands a lot more than most.
# 4 The Swan Theives - Elizabeth Kostova
I read The Historian last year and I loved it. I love a well written book, I love a little surprise, and I just think anything vampire related is a little bit sexy. I found The Swan Thieves in the airport on the way home from another crappy three days in Houston and it made the 2 hour delay almost tolerable, although it probably shouldn't have lasted that long...
TST, succeeds on a lot of levels; however, it is not as good as The Historian . Like her first novel, this one has multiple narratives, descriptions that border on laborious, and a love story (two, actually). There are two narratives at work in this novel, although the second one isn't introduced until almost a hundred pages in, and although it turns out to be compelling, it served as nothing but distraction for this reader for at least a hundred pages if not more.
History is at the center of Kostova's first novel and Art is at the center of this one. All the main characters in the novel are artists, and specifically, painters. The novel focuses on Marlowe, a painter turned Psychiatrist. Marlowe is treating Oliver, a painter who recently attacked a painting, was arrested, forced into care and refuses to speak. Oliver has had two significant women in his life, both painters, with whom Marlowe confers trying to untangle the mystery of Oliver's behavior and refusal to communicate. The second narrative, introduced via letters in Oliver's possession, also involves painters. A young woman painter and her older male mentor, at the turn of the century in France. Their narrative also involves a mystery and it requires solving the 100 year old mystery to unravel Oliver's current day issues.
Kostova spends a significant amount of time waxing poetic in this book and generally she has such astute control of the language I don't mind. However, there are sections that begin to lag, where the lack of action or growth from the characters becomes frustrating no matter how compelling the sentence structure. I imagine lovers of Jane Austen and her ilk will be more patient with Kostova than the general public. It's not always what happens that's important but what doesn't or rather how it doesn't. Kostova seems to have nailed that, at length.
TST, succeeds on a lot of levels; however, it is not as good as The Historian . Like her first novel, this one has multiple narratives, descriptions that border on laborious, and a love story (two, actually). There are two narratives at work in this novel, although the second one isn't introduced until almost a hundred pages in, and although it turns out to be compelling, it served as nothing but distraction for this reader for at least a hundred pages if not more.
History is at the center of Kostova's first novel and Art is at the center of this one. All the main characters in the novel are artists, and specifically, painters. The novel focuses on Marlowe, a painter turned Psychiatrist. Marlowe is treating Oliver, a painter who recently attacked a painting, was arrested, forced into care and refuses to speak. Oliver has had two significant women in his life, both painters, with whom Marlowe confers trying to untangle the mystery of Oliver's behavior and refusal to communicate. The second narrative, introduced via letters in Oliver's possession, also involves painters. A young woman painter and her older male mentor, at the turn of the century in France. Their narrative also involves a mystery and it requires solving the 100 year old mystery to unravel Oliver's current day issues.
Kostova spends a significant amount of time waxing poetic in this book and generally she has such astute control of the language I don't mind. However, there are sections that begin to lag, where the lack of action or growth from the characters becomes frustrating no matter how compelling the sentence structure. I imagine lovers of Jane Austen and her ilk will be more patient with Kostova than the general public. It's not always what happens that's important but what doesn't or rather how it doesn't. Kostova seems to have nailed that, at length.
The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb
This is my first installment for Cannon Ball Read III.
I loved Wally Lamb's previous two novels, although it took me some time to embrace his second, so I was excited to begin The Hour I First Believed . I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I have the same love hate with this book that I had with I know this Much is True . I started that book four times before I finished it and I only stuck it out after both my Mom and my Sister swore me a blood oath that I would love it if I could get through the first 100 pages. That's a lot of pages to force yourself through, but they were right and I was so glad I did. TFHIB was the opposite. I found the first half totally mesmerizing and the second half lost me a little.
The story center on Caelum, a school teacher and his wife, Mo, who survives the events of Columbine. They are both employed at the school, but Caelum is out of town when the massacre happens. The first half of the book centers around Mo trying to regain her sanity and Caelum trying to navigate living with this new woman who used to be his wife. I found it unbelievably compelling. The ways in which Caelum and Mo cling to a relationship that is fraying from every direction, and which we slowly learn may not have been the kind of relationship songs are written about anyway is convincing. As is Mo's struggle to deal with real life after her tragedy. Lamb depicts her in a way where as the reader you half want to shake her and say snap out of it and half realize that might just be exactly how you would react yourself.
The problem is, the tragedies just keep coming and eventually it seems like too much. The point of the collateral damage is compelling, but begins to feel false. At the same time, Caelum begins his epic quest for meaning. His quest parallels that of his grandmother, whose letters and journal are discovered in the matriarchal home and then researched and presented as a doctoral Dissertation by the women's studies tenant to whom he rents his attic. Really? The sections of Caelum's history, via letters etc is distracting and doesn't do much to propel the story. I found myself speed reading through them wanting to get back to Caelum's "real" life.
All in all, it's a good book. It is, of course, also a long book. Although it didn't keep me riveted all the way through, I do think the opening half and the moments throughout that look closely at victimhood and recovery and the small steps one must make to keep living are so vividly and convincingly told that it would be a miss not to read them.
I loved Wally Lamb's previous two novels, although it took me some time to embrace his second, so I was excited to begin The Hour I First Believed . I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I have the same love hate with this book that I had with I know this Much is True . I started that book four times before I finished it and I only stuck it out after both my Mom and my Sister swore me a blood oath that I would love it if I could get through the first 100 pages. That's a lot of pages to force yourself through, but they were right and I was so glad I did. TFHIB was the opposite. I found the first half totally mesmerizing and the second half lost me a little.
The story center on Caelum, a school teacher and his wife, Mo, who survives the events of Columbine. They are both employed at the school, but Caelum is out of town when the massacre happens. The first half of the book centers around Mo trying to regain her sanity and Caelum trying to navigate living with this new woman who used to be his wife. I found it unbelievably compelling. The ways in which Caelum and Mo cling to a relationship that is fraying from every direction, and which we slowly learn may not have been the kind of relationship songs are written about anyway is convincing. As is Mo's struggle to deal with real life after her tragedy. Lamb depicts her in a way where as the reader you half want to shake her and say snap out of it and half realize that might just be exactly how you would react yourself.
The problem is, the tragedies just keep coming and eventually it seems like too much. The point of the collateral damage is compelling, but begins to feel false. At the same time, Caelum begins his epic quest for meaning. His quest parallels that of his grandmother, whose letters and journal are discovered in the matriarchal home and then researched and presented as a doctoral Dissertation by the women's studies tenant to whom he rents his attic. Really? The sections of Caelum's history, via letters etc is distracting and doesn't do much to propel the story. I found myself speed reading through them wanting to get back to Caelum's "real" life.
All in all, it's a good book. It is, of course, also a long book. Although it didn't keep me riveted all the way through, I do think the opening half and the moments throughout that look closely at victimhood and recovery and the small steps one must make to keep living are so vividly and convincingly told that it would be a miss not to read them.
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