It wasn't until I was 30 that I realized I knew people who didn't like their families. People who had siblings with whom they would not speak or parents they despised etc. Somewhere in my 30s I realized my sisters and I are in the minority of families for all generally liking each other and seeking each other out on a regular basis. That's not to say it's always smooth and friendly, but if push comes to shove we are a united force against any outsider every time, even if it's our parents. The crazy thing is we are like that and we weren't abused as children. Go figure.
The Summer We Fell Apart is a novel about the four mostly grown children of two wildly incompetent parents. It's told in sections, one per child (with a final chapter narrated by Mom), and although the time frames of each section occasionally overlap, on the whole they span enough time to cover about a 15 year period in the kids' lives. It's not a great fifteen years for all of them.
The first section is narrated by the baby of the family, Amy. She's about 17 at the time. I find in novels like this one I'm often times so influenced by the first character's view of things it's hard to see the others experience clearly. That is is definitely the case in this story. Not only is Amy first, she's the youngest and least complicated at this point in her life. Her narration seems more objective for its innocence. She sets the stage for a summer where everything changed and then jumps forward to nursing her father on his deathbed. Clearly, her damage has made it impossible for her to abandon him the way he has her.
The second section is all about George, his story gives us a little better look at Amy and a deeper look into the failings of their shared parents. I like him because Amy does and because he seems most normal, except for when he doesn't. George has a host of his own problems his burgeoning affair with the father of one of his best students among them. George reinforces for the reader that no matter how fucked up family and love can be, they are so much better than being alone.
Next we have the older sister Kate, who is the overachieving, successful, disdainful one of the group. Her narration does less to propel the understanding of the family shortcomings than any of the others. Partially because she still idealizes her failed father and partially because her experience if his failure is pretty middle of the road standard Daddy doesn't like my boyfriend kind of stuff. Amy doesn't like Kate much and honestly you can't blame her. The insight into her life does little to make her more sympathetic, but she seems just unlikable rather than damaged or broken.
Finally, we get in a few short pages Finn, the alcoholic middle child who's the most compelling and gets the least space. Finn teeters throughout all the stories on the brink of the abyss (even as a teenager) until he finally drops over the ledge. Another author would have let him die. This one didn't.
In the end the novel, Mom gets to weigh in. There is a final chapter where all the damage comes to stay in the same house to celebrate a joyous occasion and for the first time Mom sees what she might have lost. You can respect her though because she doesn't try to make amends or lament and beg forgiveness, she keeps on with what she's got and hopes for more.
On the whole it's an entirely enjoyable read. The characters slide almost into caricature in a few places: Kate is described as having a look on her face like she smelled something bad, sucked lemons, and injured her eye all within a few short pages. We get it. She's dour. There are a few descriptions that sound a little like a grad school writing course: "He spent the afternoon crashing [from caffeine] like a novice skier on a black diamond trail." Ugh. But, on the whole the novel is compelling and you want to see where these kids end up. If they find something on to which they can hold. Having their primary bond with both parents be so tenuous, especially when those parents are present and just choose not to be available messes with each of the Haas children in different ways, but ways that sometimes give them the tools to understand each other; and sometimes, as with Kate, they don't.
Natural Flights of the Human Mind Clare Morral
Natural Flights of the Human Mind is a novel set in the present day in the seaside town of Devon. It centers on two central character, Stracker a 50-something year old hermit, who lives in a lighthouse; and Imogen, a 40-something school caretaker. Both characters are initially described in ways that can only be termed unattractive, as they struggle to hide from their miserable pasts.
When Imogen inherits a cottage from her little known Godfather in Devon, she rushes to the seaside town to collect her bounty. Unfortunately, she finds the cottage in near ruins. Enter Stracker, who despite his refusal to speak to anyone in Devon for the last 25 years wanders into Imogen's yard and sees her struggling to fix the roof. They meet, annoy and offend one another, and move on. Stracker then inexplicably returns to her cottage during the week to make repairs for her unsolicited. As a reader, I'm already struggling. For the life of me, I cannot make the leap this character does in the opening 50 pages. He's been basically silent, keeping to a routine and obsessed with the number 78 (potentially the number of people he killed maybe accidentally) for 25 years until an unattractive, spiteful, rude woman unleashes her anger on him. It just doesn't seem quite right.
The two eventually become a kind of team, working on Imogen's little cottage and they eventually find a bi plane in the barn on the far end of the property. The site of which sends Stracker reeling. The mystery of the 78 slowly starts to unravel and the reader learns about the accident involving a small plane piloted by Stracker and a commuter train and why Stracker blames himself. Simultaneously, Imogen is working out her own demons, living down the memory of a husband who left one day (on the train) and never came back.
In the meantime, Stracker is exercising his demons by writing to the families of his victims in a vain and self-important attempt to "not let them be forgotten" as if. Several of the families figure out who he is, despite his ruse that he's a reporter, and they eventually come looking for him. At this point all plausibility, which was wanting from the start, completely breaks down. It's just completely unbelievable.
The writing of the book though, is beautiful. The prose are compelling, the dialogue (interior more so than shared) resonates in ways that makes the characters more compelling than they might be otherwise.
When Imogen inherits a cottage from her little known Godfather in Devon, she rushes to the seaside town to collect her bounty. Unfortunately, she finds the cottage in near ruins. Enter Stracker, who despite his refusal to speak to anyone in Devon for the last 25 years wanders into Imogen's yard and sees her struggling to fix the roof. They meet, annoy and offend one another, and move on. Stracker then inexplicably returns to her cottage during the week to make repairs for her unsolicited. As a reader, I'm already struggling. For the life of me, I cannot make the leap this character does in the opening 50 pages. He's been basically silent, keeping to a routine and obsessed with the number 78 (potentially the number of people he killed maybe accidentally) for 25 years until an unattractive, spiteful, rude woman unleashes her anger on him. It just doesn't seem quite right.
The two eventually become a kind of team, working on Imogen's little cottage and they eventually find a bi plane in the barn on the far end of the property. The site of which sends Stracker reeling. The mystery of the 78 slowly starts to unravel and the reader learns about the accident involving a small plane piloted by Stracker and a commuter train and why Stracker blames himself. Simultaneously, Imogen is working out her own demons, living down the memory of a husband who left one day (on the train) and never came back.
In the meantime, Stracker is exercising his demons by writing to the families of his victims in a vain and self-important attempt to "not let them be forgotten" as if. Several of the families figure out who he is, despite his ruse that he's a reporter, and they eventually come looking for him. At this point all plausibility, which was wanting from the start, completely breaks down. It's just completely unbelievable.
The writing of the book though, is beautiful. The prose are compelling, the dialogue (interior more so than shared) resonates in ways that makes the characters more compelling than they might be otherwise.
Bloodroot Amy Greene
Wally Lamb said about this book, It has everything I look for in a novel." Pretty tall praise if you ask me.
I liked this novel, but honestly, for me, it didn't quite deliver. It's a multi-generational story about a family in the Tennessee Smokey Mountains living under a curse. The novel is broken into three parts covering the 3 generations, each with it's own fixation on Myra, the child born who should have broken the curse.
The early part of the novel, narrated by Myra's grandmother Byrdie, is vivid and engaging. Byrdie has the "gift" she inherited from the granny women. The description of her love for Myra, juxtaposed against that of Douglas, who loves Myra from a far during her childhood portrays Myra as an almost enchanting character. One wonders about what gifts Byrdie may have passed on to her. Unfortunately, the enchanting set up is lost after the first section as the novels circles in further and further on the hurt and disappointment suffered by the Lamb family.
The second section is narrated by the now adult twin children of Myra, who suffer in their own ways from the fall-out of her decisions. Although the reader still doesn't know the source of these decisions. The children are adrift, separated from each other in childhood yet still spiraling in the circle their heritage seems to have destined to them. In the final pages of the novel, I think we are suppose to find them hopeful, and I might be able to see it with Johnny, just a little, but I don't with Laura, at all.
The final section of the novel gives a first hand account of Myra and her husband John Odom. I have to be honest, I was disappointed here. Greene has a true gift for capturing horrific moments, of rendering the inexcusable part of every day life in a way that can be breath taking. However, the violence feels almost forced and this reader hoped for more than lustful romance turned sour when fermented in broken dreams and alcohol. I have to be honest, there also seems to be a kind of cultural acceptance, and community complicity about the way things are. At one point, Myra tells her granny, who comes willing to save her from her atrocious marriage, "I made my bed." A similar attitude resonates among other characters as well. It made this reader expect something more, some exceptional pull or force, most likely borne out of the mountain that held things as they were. The beginning of the novel seems to set up something like that, and more. There were moments, early on in the novel that reminded me of Gloria Naylor. I anticipated that kind of subtle magic and it never came.
The novel, is if nothing else, a successful love letter to the mountains. Greene brings the mountains to life in a way that makes you want to see them, breathe them really. The mountain is almost a character itself in the novel, pushing and pulling other characters in one direction or another.
I liked this novel, but honestly, for me, it didn't quite deliver. It's a multi-generational story about a family in the Tennessee Smokey Mountains living under a curse. The novel is broken into three parts covering the 3 generations, each with it's own fixation on Myra, the child born who should have broken the curse.
The early part of the novel, narrated by Myra's grandmother Byrdie, is vivid and engaging. Byrdie has the "gift" she inherited from the granny women. The description of her love for Myra, juxtaposed against that of Douglas, who loves Myra from a far during her childhood portrays Myra as an almost enchanting character. One wonders about what gifts Byrdie may have passed on to her. Unfortunately, the enchanting set up is lost after the first section as the novels circles in further and further on the hurt and disappointment suffered by the Lamb family.
The second section is narrated by the now adult twin children of Myra, who suffer in their own ways from the fall-out of her decisions. Although the reader still doesn't know the source of these decisions. The children are adrift, separated from each other in childhood yet still spiraling in the circle their heritage seems to have destined to them. In the final pages of the novel, I think we are suppose to find them hopeful, and I might be able to see it with Johnny, just a little, but I don't with Laura, at all.
The final section of the novel gives a first hand account of Myra and her husband John Odom. I have to be honest, I was disappointed here. Greene has a true gift for capturing horrific moments, of rendering the inexcusable part of every day life in a way that can be breath taking. However, the violence feels almost forced and this reader hoped for more than lustful romance turned sour when fermented in broken dreams and alcohol. I have to be honest, there also seems to be a kind of cultural acceptance, and community complicity about the way things are. At one point, Myra tells her granny, who comes willing to save her from her atrocious marriage, "I made my bed." A similar attitude resonates among other characters as well. It made this reader expect something more, some exceptional pull or force, most likely borne out of the mountain that held things as they were. The beginning of the novel seems to set up something like that, and more. There were moments, early on in the novel that reminded me of Gloria Naylor. I anticipated that kind of subtle magic and it never came.
The novel, is if nothing else, a successful love letter to the mountains. Greene brings the mountains to life in a way that makes you want to see them, breathe them really. The mountain is almost a character itself in the novel, pushing and pulling other characters in one direction or another.
The Dead Republic Roddy Doyle
I've done it again. I hate this. I find a book at the library, it's part of a trilogy or series - the end of it usually - and the library doesn't have any of the rest of the books. This is the case with TDR. I checked it out anyway. Now I'm going to have to find the other books in the series.
TDR begins with Henry Smart returning to Ireland after a long hiatus, film crew in tow intent on filming the movie of his life. Turns out the movie they are making is a watered down, romanticized version of his life. It's more a love letter to Ireland than a true telling of his story. You see, Henry Smart was part of the IRA in early days. There was nothing romantic about his years there. He was a good, successful soldier on whom the organization eventually turned. He lost his wife and children while they were on the run, along with his leg. The reader learns all this through flashbacks where Henry remembers how he narrated his story to Tom Ford, the movie producer in love with Ireland, over the course of three years.
On the way to Ireland, Henry finds the updated "fixed" script of the movie of his life and sees what Hollywood has done to his story. Instead of sticking around to consult on the IRA sections of the movie, he takes off and carves out a life for himself in a suburb of Dublin. First, he's a gardener until he becomes the handyman of a boys school and eventually retires. Pretty normal stuff, except of course, Henry isn't normal. He's a famous former IRA member and he hasn't returned unnoticed.
Even as an old man, Henry finds himself entangled again in Irish politics. He is not unhappy to be there. The more involved he gets, the more the mysteries around his early involvement and the actions of the IRA over the last thirty years unfold. The machinations behind the scenes sometimes seem to be a bit much, but overall the story is compelling and Henry is a totally enjoyable narrator.
I'm sure having read this first will affect the my reading of the earlier novels, but I can imagine Henry in his youth based on Henry in old age and I want to read more.
TDR begins with Henry Smart returning to Ireland after a long hiatus, film crew in tow intent on filming the movie of his life. Turns out the movie they are making is a watered down, romanticized version of his life. It's more a love letter to Ireland than a true telling of his story. You see, Henry Smart was part of the IRA in early days. There was nothing romantic about his years there. He was a good, successful soldier on whom the organization eventually turned. He lost his wife and children while they were on the run, along with his leg. The reader learns all this through flashbacks where Henry remembers how he narrated his story to Tom Ford, the movie producer in love with Ireland, over the course of three years.
On the way to Ireland, Henry finds the updated "fixed" script of the movie of his life and sees what Hollywood has done to his story. Instead of sticking around to consult on the IRA sections of the movie, he takes off and carves out a life for himself in a suburb of Dublin. First, he's a gardener until he becomes the handyman of a boys school and eventually retires. Pretty normal stuff, except of course, Henry isn't normal. He's a famous former IRA member and he hasn't returned unnoticed.
Even as an old man, Henry finds himself entangled again in Irish politics. He is not unhappy to be there. The more involved he gets, the more the mysteries around his early involvement and the actions of the IRA over the last thirty years unfold. The machinations behind the scenes sometimes seem to be a bit much, but overall the story is compelling and Henry is a totally enjoyable narrator.
I'm sure having read this first will affect the my reading of the earlier novels, but I can imagine Henry in his youth based on Henry in old age and I want to read more.
The Last Witchfinder - James Morrow
I really wanted to like this book. I really did. I started and stopped three or four times and I finally finished it because I didn't have anything else in the house. It's not that it's terribly bad, it's just that it's so not as good as it could be.
It's hard to explain, first of all the story is narrated by a book. Wicked cool idea no? And yet, I feel like the invention wasn't developed and explored in ways I had hoped. I enjoyed the sections the book "narrated" but I wanted more of them.
The Book, which is Newton's Principia Mathematica is taken by Jennet Stearne after her dear Aunt, who has been her teacher, is hanged as a witch - by her father. Her Aunt implores her to use the PM along with Aristotle's elements to disprove witchcraft once and for all. Immediately following her father is sent to the colonies to do his witchfinding there. He is apprenticing his son and takes his work very seriously. Jennet, who is not convinced, hides her research and she attempts to slowly work out how she will what her aunt wants. The rest of the novel is an exploration of reason against superstition with some religion thrown in to boot. This is the kind of stuff that generally gives me goosebumps.
I can't put my finger on what it is that put me off about the novel. There's a great cast of well developed characters, Jennet is true to form throughout the novel, her adventures - if not a bit fantastic - are fun to read. I want her to succeed even though I don't particularly like her. Maybe the story is just too long and ultimately takes too long to get where I know we are going. Maybe I was just in a mood, but something about this novel didn't click for me.
It's hard to explain, first of all the story is narrated by a book. Wicked cool idea no? And yet, I feel like the invention wasn't developed and explored in ways I had hoped. I enjoyed the sections the book "narrated" but I wanted more of them.
The Book, which is Newton's Principia Mathematica is taken by Jennet Stearne after her dear Aunt, who has been her teacher, is hanged as a witch - by her father. Her Aunt implores her to use the PM along with Aristotle's elements to disprove witchcraft once and for all. Immediately following her father is sent to the colonies to do his witchfinding there. He is apprenticing his son and takes his work very seriously. Jennet, who is not convinced, hides her research and she attempts to slowly work out how she will what her aunt wants. The rest of the novel is an exploration of reason against superstition with some religion thrown in to boot. This is the kind of stuff that generally gives me goosebumps.
I can't put my finger on what it is that put me off about the novel. There's a great cast of well developed characters, Jennet is true to form throughout the novel, her adventures - if not a bit fantastic - are fun to read. I want her to succeed even though I don't particularly like her. Maybe the story is just too long and ultimately takes too long to get where I know we are going. Maybe I was just in a mood, but something about this novel didn't click for me.
One Thousand White Women - Jim Fergus
This is a great Western (two words I didn't ever think I'd write next to each other about something I'd read) that centers on the women who participated in President Grant's fictional Brides for Indians program in order to try and get Native Americans to be more agreeable to reservation life and assimilation. The novel centers on the fictional journal of Mary Dodd, who volunteers for the program in order to escape the asylum she's been committed to by her family for having illegitimate children with a man below her class. the unknown life of the fronteir is better than the life she knows and she only has to commit to the program for two years. The point is to bear mixed race children afterall.
Mary is joined as the first group in the 1000 women exchange by a cast of characters who are mostly even more desperate than Mary. A ruined Southern Belle, two former prostitutes, the religious zealot who goes for the missionary potential, the former slave. Each of the women, and there are more, are vividly portrayed in their own right.
Frontier life too, if vividly portrayed. There is a frankness in the writing that is sometimes unexpected, but always appreciated. As the women, to varying degrees, assimilate into their new Native families the interactions and understandings they develop are poignant but not romaticized. There is ugliness too: drunkeness and rape, no one is idolized over another, but the attempt at understanding that happens between this small group of women and their families speaks volumes towards what could be accomplished. I read this novel the same weekend I went to anti SB1070 where I was disappointed by the lack of white faces in attendance. I couldn't help marveling over the parallels in this book and our current political climate.
Mary Dodd is an engaging narrator. She is sharp and witty and wise beyond her young years. She is pragmatic and honest and eventually transformed. This first group of women is, of course, also the last. The others never follow, instead war comes. The mindless, hateful machine backing up policies intended to exterminate what it can't understand is laid bare far more clearly than in any history class I ever took.
Mary is joined as the first group in the 1000 women exchange by a cast of characters who are mostly even more desperate than Mary. A ruined Southern Belle, two former prostitutes, the religious zealot who goes for the missionary potential, the former slave. Each of the women, and there are more, are vividly portrayed in their own right.
Frontier life too, if vividly portrayed. There is a frankness in the writing that is sometimes unexpected, but always appreciated. As the women, to varying degrees, assimilate into their new Native families the interactions and understandings they develop are poignant but not romaticized. There is ugliness too: drunkeness and rape, no one is idolized over another, but the attempt at understanding that happens between this small group of women and their families speaks volumes towards what could be accomplished. I read this novel the same weekend I went to anti SB1070 where I was disappointed by the lack of white faces in attendance. I couldn't help marveling over the parallels in this book and our current political climate.
Mary Dodd is an engaging narrator. She is sharp and witty and wise beyond her young years. She is pragmatic and honest and eventually transformed. This first group of women is, of course, also the last. The others never follow, instead war comes. The mindless, hateful machine backing up policies intended to exterminate what it can't understand is laid bare far more clearly than in any history class I ever took.
In the Woods Tana French
I read The Likeness before I read In the Woods and it was a mistake. I hate it when that happens. You read the more recent, better written novel first and then go back. Which isn't to say ITW isn't a great novel, but having just finished the former it made ITW easier to work out and thus a little disappointing.
The story begins with a tale about three kids that wander into the neighborhood woods one afternoon and many hours later one is found clutching a tree, terrified, speechless, with blood pooled in his socks. It's one of those stories that never get solved. The tragedy that looms. From there, the novel centers on Cassie Maddox and Rob Ryan, detectives on a fictional police force in Ireland who get called to the scene when a dead body is found in the middle of an archealogical dig, just outside the neighborhood where the kids disappeared 20 years ago. So, we have as a reader, two mysteries to solve.
SPOILER ALERT
Turns out Rob Ryan is the kid clutching the tree in the old mystery. I'm not sure how big a spoiler that is cause most readers had to see it coming. Anyway, Cassie is in on his secret but they don't tell anyone so he won't be taken off the case. You know that's going to cause some trouble.
Cassie and Rob start canvasing the area questioning the neighbors trying to figure out who would have killed a teenage girl and left her displayed in the middle of a dig. There are potential political motives with a new road being constructed destroying the dig site and affecting the surrounding property values, there's the 20 year old mystery that wasn't solved but many of the players are still around - adults now raising their own children, and there's a key investigator who's judgment is skewed.
The way the story unfolds is compelling and the layers of mystery that have to be peeled back are totally satisfying. The only problem was, I new who the killer was upon introduction. I don't know if it's because I had already read The Likeness of it's because it was that obvious, but it took a lot of the steam out of the story for me. To the point where I felt the killer was so obviously written it was at times insulting that the reader was suppose to be surprised. I wonder if it would have been the case if I'd not read her other work. Even knowing who it ultimately is that's done the deed, the unraveling was still a totally enjoyable read.
The story begins with a tale about three kids that wander into the neighborhood woods one afternoon and many hours later one is found clutching a tree, terrified, speechless, with blood pooled in his socks. It's one of those stories that never get solved. The tragedy that looms. From there, the novel centers on Cassie Maddox and Rob Ryan, detectives on a fictional police force in Ireland who get called to the scene when a dead body is found in the middle of an archealogical dig, just outside the neighborhood where the kids disappeared 20 years ago. So, we have as a reader, two mysteries to solve.
SPOILER ALERT
Turns out Rob Ryan is the kid clutching the tree in the old mystery. I'm not sure how big a spoiler that is cause most readers had to see it coming. Anyway, Cassie is in on his secret but they don't tell anyone so he won't be taken off the case. You know that's going to cause some trouble.
Cassie and Rob start canvasing the area questioning the neighbors trying to figure out who would have killed a teenage girl and left her displayed in the middle of a dig. There are potential political motives with a new road being constructed destroying the dig site and affecting the surrounding property values, there's the 20 year old mystery that wasn't solved but many of the players are still around - adults now raising their own children, and there's a key investigator who's judgment is skewed.
The way the story unfolds is compelling and the layers of mystery that have to be peeled back are totally satisfying. The only problem was, I new who the killer was upon introduction. I don't know if it's because I had already read The Likeness of it's because it was that obvious, but it took a lot of the steam out of the story for me. To the point where I felt the killer was so obviously written it was at times insulting that the reader was suppose to be surprised. I wonder if it would have been the case if I'd not read her other work. Even knowing who it ultimately is that's done the deed, the unraveling was still a totally enjoyable read.
gun, with occasional music - jonathan lethem
The jacket cover of this novel compared the author to Carver, 'nough said. I have to say, it did not disappoint. This book is a hell of a lot of fun.
gwom is sci-fi noir in a dystopic future setting where Kangaroos carry guns and work as mob henchman, and sheep are kept as lovers. In the middle we have Metcalf, a PI with a mild drug addiction, not many karma points, and a mystery that's leading him nowhere good. When one of his clients gets accused of murder and then ends up dead it sets the authorities on his path. He's not the type that can walk away to save his own hide, no matter how bad it gets so he investigates even when he knows he doesn't want the answer.
The dialogue is fantastic. Metcalf remains true to character throughout and working through the other characters' response to him is half the fun. The world Lethem creates drips off the page. The (mostly) subtle commentary on where we're headed isn't as off-putting as it could be and the imagination behind some of the ideas is pretty inspired. I really enjoyed this novel and will definitely read more.
gwom is sci-fi noir in a dystopic future setting where Kangaroos carry guns and work as mob henchman, and sheep are kept as lovers. In the middle we have Metcalf, a PI with a mild drug addiction, not many karma points, and a mystery that's leading him nowhere good. When one of his clients gets accused of murder and then ends up dead it sets the authorities on his path. He's not the type that can walk away to save his own hide, no matter how bad it gets so he investigates even when he knows he doesn't want the answer.
The dialogue is fantastic. Metcalf remains true to character throughout and working through the other characters' response to him is half the fun. The world Lethem creates drips off the page. The (mostly) subtle commentary on where we're headed isn't as off-putting as it could be and the imagination behind some of the ideas is pretty inspired. I really enjoyed this novel and will definitely read more.
The Emporer of the Ocean - Stephen L Carter
The Emperor of Ocean Park took a little while to grab me, but eventually I got into it.
The story is a mystery, which isn't normally my kind of thing. It starts out slowly with the protagonist, Talcott Garland, with is wife and child getting the news that his father, a once famous, then controversial, and ultimately humiliated former judge has died. The novel spends some time establishing the kind of marriage Talcott has, his love for his son, and the difficulty of having been the child of the once lauded, conservative, African American judge, who was publicly disgraced. Cleary, there is a lot going on. Not only that, Talcott is a law professor and his wife is up for a judge appointment. One can only assume that now that the judge is dead, more about the circumstances that ended in his disgrace will come to light, and they do. However, they are not what you would expect.
One of the things that seemed funny to me is how dense Talcott sometimes seemed in this novel. Clues are dropping all over him about what might be going on and what might be at stake and generally speaking he has to be hit over the head with it before he gets it, but then I remembered he's not a super spy. He is just a guy, a law professor with a struggling marriage and a once famous, now dead father. He isn't suppose to know how to deal with intrigue and drama outside of his little academic nest.
Eventually, the mystery starts to unravel and little is as it seems. Although Talcott's father appears to have died of a heart attack, his sister believes there has been foul play. Talcott asks a few questions trying to appease his sister and suddenly finds himself wading in a much deeper pool than he expected. It starts to drive him a little nuts. He gets a little paranoid and takes unnecessary risks in a way that seemed to me to be totally believable. His ruminations on race and gender issues as he muddles his way through are interesting and not too preachy.
Ultimately, the novel is longer than it needed to be. There are ideas repeated that don't have to be and sometimes the build up takes longer than it needs to on the way to the next clue. Once in a while you want to shake Talcott and say COME ON, but I liked the novel on the whole.
The story is a mystery, which isn't normally my kind of thing. It starts out slowly with the protagonist, Talcott Garland, with is wife and child getting the news that his father, a once famous, then controversial, and ultimately humiliated former judge has died. The novel spends some time establishing the kind of marriage Talcott has, his love for his son, and the difficulty of having been the child of the once lauded, conservative, African American judge, who was publicly disgraced. Cleary, there is a lot going on. Not only that, Talcott is a law professor and his wife is up for a judge appointment. One can only assume that now that the judge is dead, more about the circumstances that ended in his disgrace will come to light, and they do. However, they are not what you would expect.
One of the things that seemed funny to me is how dense Talcott sometimes seemed in this novel. Clues are dropping all over him about what might be going on and what might be at stake and generally speaking he has to be hit over the head with it before he gets it, but then I remembered he's not a super spy. He is just a guy, a law professor with a struggling marriage and a once famous, now dead father. He isn't suppose to know how to deal with intrigue and drama outside of his little academic nest.
Eventually, the mystery starts to unravel and little is as it seems. Although Talcott's father appears to have died of a heart attack, his sister believes there has been foul play. Talcott asks a few questions trying to appease his sister and suddenly finds himself wading in a much deeper pool than he expected. It starts to drive him a little nuts. He gets a little paranoid and takes unnecessary risks in a way that seemed to me to be totally believable. His ruminations on race and gender issues as he muddles his way through are interesting and not too preachy.
Ultimately, the novel is longer than it needed to be. There are ideas repeated that don't have to be and sometimes the build up takes longer than it needs to on the way to the next clue. Once in a while you want to shake Talcott and say COME ON, but I liked the novel on the whole.
Seabiscuit - Laura Hillenbrand
I know it's old, but I just got around to it and I'm glad I've never seen the movie. Seabiscuit is a fantastic read. My only complaint is that it slides into moments where it felt like an academic project converted to a novel, but those moments are few and far between and the research ultimately worth it.
Hillenbrand brings her characters to life. Alcoholic jockey, stern silent trainer, flamboyant owner. You root for all of them, everytime. If her version isn't the truth, I would rather not know. The true coup of this novel though, is Seabiscuit. Hillenbrand's protrayal of the horse is so incredible it's hard to explain. I am a person who is loathe to use the word spirit, but the kind of spirit she infuses into this horse and his relationships with the people around him is awe inspiring.
There are moments that I don't want to ruin for anyone who hasn't read it, but racing moments where you actually feel like you know how this horse felt. How he did the things that he did and why. I will be honest, I cried a LOT in the last chapters of this book and then handed it over to my husband to read. Right now.
Hillenbrand brings her characters to life. Alcoholic jockey, stern silent trainer, flamboyant owner. You root for all of them, everytime. If her version isn't the truth, I would rather not know. The true coup of this novel though, is Seabiscuit. Hillenbrand's protrayal of the horse is so incredible it's hard to explain. I am a person who is loathe to use the word spirit, but the kind of spirit she infuses into this horse and his relationships with the people around him is awe inspiring.
There are moments that I don't want to ruin for anyone who hasn't read it, but racing moments where you actually feel like you know how this horse felt. How he did the things that he did and why. I will be honest, I cried a LOT in the last chapters of this book and then handed it over to my husband to read. Right now.
A Biagmist's Daugher - Alice McDermott
I cannot describe how much I loved Charming Billy . I love sad books. I love dark books. I love reading any writer who handles the language well so Alice McDermott is a safe bet most of the time.
ABD is about 20 something Elizabeth, who works for a vanity press in NYC. She spends her days filling the heads of would be writers with big dreams of best sellers she never read. It's her job to get them to believe that despite the rejections they've received to date, there is an audience for their work and if they just get it out there - on their own dime of course. She whips em up into a frenzy and then cashes their check. It's a pretty morally bankrupt job, enough so that even her assistant doesn't want to be promoted to it. Add to that Elizabeth's hopeless nights in an empty bed ever since she swore off sex without love over a year ago and you have a woman in need of something.
Enter Tupper Daniels, author extraordinaire. He bring his novel to Elizabeth to get it published. He's so charasmatic she almost reads his book, but in the end settles for a basic skimming just to get the contract signed. The next day he seduces her. Not just sexually, but intellectually as well. His novel is unfinished. It's about a bigamist from his hometown but since he doesn't know what happened to him he doesn't have an ending to the book. Oddly enough, Elizabeth's father spent his life traveling, so much so that she's convinced he was a bigamist, what are the odds?
It turns out the odds don't matter. The rest of the novel plays itself out as Elizabeth re-examines her memories of her father and family experience in an attempt to help Tupper finish his novel. She becomes far more compelling than the whiny, morally bankrupt girl we first meet although no less mercenary and still a tad melodramatic. Tupper for his part is the self-obsessed would be writer you can like even as you hate him. This is McDermott's first novel, I think, and you can see how her style has developed and grown over time. And this novel leaves the same kind of pang, dead center in your chest that Charming Billy does. It's not as pronounced and the recovery is quick but the impact is still there.
ABD is about 20 something Elizabeth, who works for a vanity press in NYC. She spends her days filling the heads of would be writers with big dreams of best sellers she never read. It's her job to get them to believe that despite the rejections they've received to date, there is an audience for their work and if they just get it out there - on their own dime of course. She whips em up into a frenzy and then cashes their check. It's a pretty morally bankrupt job, enough so that even her assistant doesn't want to be promoted to it. Add to that Elizabeth's hopeless nights in an empty bed ever since she swore off sex without love over a year ago and you have a woman in need of something.
Enter Tupper Daniels, author extraordinaire. He bring his novel to Elizabeth to get it published. He's so charasmatic she almost reads his book, but in the end settles for a basic skimming just to get the contract signed. The next day he seduces her. Not just sexually, but intellectually as well. His novel is unfinished. It's about a bigamist from his hometown but since he doesn't know what happened to him he doesn't have an ending to the book. Oddly enough, Elizabeth's father spent his life traveling, so much so that she's convinced he was a bigamist, what are the odds?
It turns out the odds don't matter. The rest of the novel plays itself out as Elizabeth re-examines her memories of her father and family experience in an attempt to help Tupper finish his novel. She becomes far more compelling than the whiny, morally bankrupt girl we first meet although no less mercenary and still a tad melodramatic. Tupper for his part is the self-obsessed would be writer you can like even as you hate him. This is McDermott's first novel, I think, and you can see how her style has developed and grown over time. And this novel leaves the same kind of pang, dead center in your chest that Charming Billy does. It's not as pronounced and the recovery is quick but the impact is still there.
Juliet Naked - Nick Hornby
I love reading about people who love obsessively. There is something about they way obsession fills a page that thrills me. In Juliet Naked, the obsession is music - double bonus.
In this case, the obsession is doubly impressive because the obsessive, Duncan, is a truly intolerably prig without it. He is the worst kind of academic. The kind that knows more than you do and assumes it's a mark of your character how much you care about the subject of his obsession - no matter how obscure. And we've all met this guy right? There's a reason the obsession has to be so obscure, they can't risk any real competition and if too many people know about their topic they're bound to get it. The fact that Duncan seems periodically aware of the ridiculousness of his obsession only made him seem more pathetic, and yet still somehow compelling.
Obsessive Duncan lives with bored Annie. She has shared lodgings and an uneventful life with him for 15 years; the good fifteen years. She's frustrated and tired and feeling like she's missed so much it's probably not worth chasing anything new. So, clearly, they're equally intolerable on their own. Annie is not obsessed, but she tolerates and enables Duncan's obsession, all the while laughing a little behind his back.
The subject of Duncan's obsession is a singer songwriter, Crow, who went to the bathroom 25 years ago while in a club watching another band. Afterwards, he went home and never wrote another note or sang in public again. The mystery of the event has taken him to cult status, (that and the internet) for a couple hundred people who call themselves "Crowologists". Duncan is their leader.
Hornby establishes the obsession with a brief trip to the states where Duncan is visiting all things related to Crow, including the toilet where he apparently had an epiphany that lead him to leave music forever. One afternoon soon after Annie opens Duncan's mail and finds a disc he's overlooked in his busy, academic, pretention. Turns out it's an early recording of Crow's best ever album, Juliet. It's the pared down version, the basics: it's Juliet Naked. Annie listens to it without Duncan (causing an even bigger fight) and for the first time forms her own opinion of Crow's work. It's not a good one. Duncan of course thinks it's fantastic and writes all about it on his Crow website from which he leads the Crowologists. Two days later he agrees to post Annie's review of the album, which is the polar opposite of his. Duncan warns her about the crazy responses she'll get and to be tough skinned. Instead, she gets a thank you note from Crow himself.
The rest of the novel is an entertaining look at the difference between the idols we worship and reality. Crow is, of course, not the kind of man many would look up to. He is laid bare on the page for everyone to see. He is however likable and this reader anyway was rooting for him a little. Annie of course now has the bestest secret ever (even better than the one Duncan confesses about 1/3 of the way through) and her relationship to that secret and Crow himself alter her in more profound ways than Duncan's obsession seems to have altered him.
Ultimately, it all unfolds with less drama and romance than one might expect. Hornby's style strips everything down, where we expect romance we get conversations about safety issues concerning sex after a heart attack. Where we expect bitter battles we get quiet acceptance of the mundane. Although we expected something different, somehow we knew what was coming all along, didn't we?
In this case, the obsession is doubly impressive because the obsessive, Duncan, is a truly intolerably prig without it. He is the worst kind of academic. The kind that knows more than you do and assumes it's a mark of your character how much you care about the subject of his obsession - no matter how obscure. And we've all met this guy right? There's a reason the obsession has to be so obscure, they can't risk any real competition and if too many people know about their topic they're bound to get it. The fact that Duncan seems periodically aware of the ridiculousness of his obsession only made him seem more pathetic, and yet still somehow compelling.
Obsessive Duncan lives with bored Annie. She has shared lodgings and an uneventful life with him for 15 years; the good fifteen years. She's frustrated and tired and feeling like she's missed so much it's probably not worth chasing anything new. So, clearly, they're equally intolerable on their own. Annie is not obsessed, but she tolerates and enables Duncan's obsession, all the while laughing a little behind his back.
The subject of Duncan's obsession is a singer songwriter, Crow, who went to the bathroom 25 years ago while in a club watching another band. Afterwards, he went home and never wrote another note or sang in public again. The mystery of the event has taken him to cult status, (that and the internet) for a couple hundred people who call themselves "Crowologists". Duncan is their leader.
Hornby establishes the obsession with a brief trip to the states where Duncan is visiting all things related to Crow, including the toilet where he apparently had an epiphany that lead him to leave music forever. One afternoon soon after Annie opens Duncan's mail and finds a disc he's overlooked in his busy, academic, pretention. Turns out it's an early recording of Crow's best ever album, Juliet. It's the pared down version, the basics: it's Juliet Naked. Annie listens to it without Duncan (causing an even bigger fight) and for the first time forms her own opinion of Crow's work. It's not a good one. Duncan of course thinks it's fantastic and writes all about it on his Crow website from which he leads the Crowologists. Two days later he agrees to post Annie's review of the album, which is the polar opposite of his. Duncan warns her about the crazy responses she'll get and to be tough skinned. Instead, she gets a thank you note from Crow himself.
The rest of the novel is an entertaining look at the difference between the idols we worship and reality. Crow is, of course, not the kind of man many would look up to. He is laid bare on the page for everyone to see. He is however likable and this reader anyway was rooting for him a little. Annie of course now has the bestest secret ever (even better than the one Duncan confesses about 1/3 of the way through) and her relationship to that secret and Crow himself alter her in more profound ways than Duncan's obsession seems to have altered him.
Ultimately, it all unfolds with less drama and romance than one might expect. Hornby's style strips everything down, where we expect romance we get conversations about safety issues concerning sex after a heart attack. Where we expect bitter battles we get quiet acceptance of the mundane. Although we expected something different, somehow we knew what was coming all along, didn't we?
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