tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82662227509099252182024-03-14T07:50:17.401-07:00Marnes and Noblemarnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-84276777683250241012015-09-02T12:06:00.001-07:002015-09-02T12:06:32.105-07:00Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill CleggIt’s hard to find the words to summarize this beautifully crafted novel. It’s a harrowing story, a heart-breaking story, a story that makes one shake their head to tamper down the bubbling and repeating question of Why? Why? Why? Even though it’s fiction – I still wanted to be able to change the events, to reduce the tragedy, to save well-drawn characters from senseless deaths. <br />
<br />
But the tragedy has already occurred when the novel begins. A boy wakes up, tokes from a bong and whispers to himself: “I’m okay. Everything’s okay. Nothing’s happened.” But something harrowing has indeed happened. We jump forward to watch as the lone survivor of a house fire takes off driving aimlessly without a driver’s license, belongings or an actual destination. It’s only later that we learn that the house fire occurred the night before her daughter’s wedding. Her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her boyfriend and her ex-husband all perished in the fire.<br />
<br />
Clegg is a magnificent story-teller. In the beginning, I was frustrated with all the shifting voices and the dancing around the central action of the story. But as I continued reading, I marveled at how the pieces fit together and came to completely trust Clegg for the scattershot way he scripted the novel. I was enthralled by the way the plot moved both forwards and backwards. The pacing of the book is hard to truly capture. There isn’t a great deal of forward movement for each character. Instead we get shifting voices filling us in on vital elements of the back story. Months pass quickly for certain characters –June, Lydia—because they are stuck in grief and the events of their lives have completely slowed down. Eventually the book culminates with a beautiful crescendo. The last voice to speak may surprise some but the book delivers a clear point: it isn’t always the people most connected to a tragedy who can explain it.<br />
<br />
While reading I couldn’t help but think of the Christmas fire in Connecticut in which a woman lost her three daughters and her parents. I also thought about the tremendous memoir Wave written by a woman who lost her parents, her husband and her children in the tsunami. How can one possibly go on in the face of so much loss? Clegg successfully captures this breaking wave of catastrophic grief with great authenticity. It’s hard to grapple with such a large tragedy and yet the reader easily moves forward wanting to discover how each chapter can possibly end and how the entire story will wrap up.<br />
<br />
I found myself ruminating over Bill Clegg’s ability to characterize people. For example, I stopped to cherish and linger over a father’s description of his son’s daughter-in-law.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Who knows what draws people together? Lolly seemed unformed to us. Young. She was colorful and chatty, full of stories, but had few questions. She drew you in, but once you were there, you sensed she could vanish without warning. She had a way of telling two stories at once, looking behind you when she spoke. She seemed like someone who covered her bases, kept several balls in the air so she always knew she would have at least one in hand at the end of the day. She was clever, but not careful…”<br />
<br />
Clegg’s writing is simple, and direct but also evocative and lyrical. At multiple points, I stopped to actually jot down his writing. For example, I took notes on the following passage in a June chapter: “To be given a glimpse now was a bitter miracle, a ghostly caress that left more regret than solace.” (pg. 203)<br />
<br />
I know I will think about this haunting and lyrical novel for a long time.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-10616425134460067362014-10-27T11:36:00.002-07:002014-10-27T11:36:28.603-07:00Brewster by Mark Slouka<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
can’t think of a single year more important in American history than 1968. The
assassinations of MLK and Robert Kennedy, race riots, the Tet Offensive,
African American athletes raising their fists from the podium at the Olympics.
I wasn’t alive in 1968, but I happily sat through a college class titled
American in the 1960s. I devoured the class readings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wrote my undergraduate history thesis about
the culture of the 1960s. I’ve retraced the places in DC that were burned to
the ground during the 1968 riots. I’ve been fascinated with trying to
understand this distinct time period in American history for the last eleven
years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So
its no surprise I found Mark Slouka’s novel Brewster fascinating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is set in Brewster NY in the year of
1968.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story is a coming age story, a
story of friendship, a tragedy. But it is also a vivid depiction of life in
America in 1968.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Slouka
is masterful at creating the setting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jon Mosher, the protagonist, carries around a picture of Tommie Smith
and John Carlos on the medal stand in Mexico City.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He explains:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I knew they were fucked. It didn’t
matter. If anything, it made it better. They’d <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">done
it, they said, for all the people nobody said a prayer for.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But Jon is aware
of the universe he lives in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We
could change the world, rearrange the world, but that’s not how it felt, ever.
Not in Brewster. How it felt was like somebody twice as strong as you had their
hand around your throat. You could choke or you could fight.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jon
and Ray are two boys who hate Brewster and have good reason to want to escape
their wintery small town, a world not yet opened up by the currents of the late
1960s (“Woodstock may have been just across the river, but Brewster was a
different world).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jon’s parents are
Jewish immigrants who fled Germany and have been rebroken by the death of their
first-born son in a household accident that Jon can barely remember. They have
abandoned Jon emotionally in the wake of his older brother’s death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jon has no memories of a normal family
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Growing up in a cold quiet house
where his mother opens his brother’s curtains daily he feels as if he is the
one who has died and nobody wanted to admit it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ray’s
mother left when he was nine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
father, a World War II veteran and ex-cop collected Nazi fingers and spends
drunken nights breaking glasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
leaves Ray to care for his baby half brother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jon
and Ray are two individuals who would seem strange friends in a suburban high
school: the successful student and the loner always in trouble for fighting. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, the boys are drawn together by their
deep desires to escape the families they have been born into.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jon
is frozen by his cold home life and his staid hometown where asking questions
in classrooms renders one a troublemaker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But he is opened up by two experiences: joining the track team and
befriending Ray. It is these two experiences that help him to survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jon explains of the track team: “We had one
thing in common, at leas the runners did: we believed in time, pledged
allegiance to it—one nation, utterly fair, under the second-hand god of Falvo’s
watch.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ray comes to stay at Jon’s
house, and his parents open up to Ray in ways they do not to Jon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jon and Ray, stay up late listening to
records and talking and it is the closest to having a brother Jon ever gets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
then Karen arrives and both boys fall in love with her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this isn’t the real conflict in the
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The real problem is Ray’s
abusive father who becomes increasingly more violent. Ray and Jon and Karen and
their friend Frank devise a plan to escape for the summer and take a trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an escape clause devised by seventeen
year olds who feel they have no other options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Slouka writes: “Where do you go? When you’re seventeen? When there’s
nowhere to go.” This question becomes further complicated by the fact that Ray’s
baby brother Gene is returned to their father’s care. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Slouka’s
storytelling is masterful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the
elements lead us to a terrifying climax, that shows exactly what happens to
seventeen year olds with nowhere to go. A reader might ponder: why don’t these
young people ask adults they know for help? But it’s clear that Ray and Jon
have few adults they can trust and rely on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
deeply enjoyed this story and it will stay with me for quite a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I will especially treasure the way he
captures the specific zeitgeist of 1968.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jon explains: “<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“People love to tell you afterward how
they saw this and saw that. We didn’t see a thing. We heard about Vietnam, we
heard about Newark, Detroit, other things—but it was like listening in on a
party line: You’d hear voices talking over each other, a man chuckling over a
joke, a sound like somebody crying—and then Rowan and Martin would yell ‘SOCK
IT TO ME!’ and that woman on the show would get knocked in the head with a
giant hammer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The closer something is, the louder it
sounds; hold a baseball to your nose, it’s big as the earth. It takes time for
things to find their distance. We misheard pretty much everything, sang words
for years no one had ever written. We confused the large an the small, what
mattered, what didn’t. There’s somethin’ happenin’ here, Stephen Stills sang
and we all sang along, a bunch of blind men staring off in a dozen directions,
waving our canes line batons.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-10206543141234560612014-10-16T13:28:00.001-07:002014-10-16T13:28:48.467-07:00Home Leave by Brittani Sonnenberg<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_RmUPRvsCCvYYGnhyPPhtanMlYbzzQGgCqHR93o8ChX32PqFS8_U4GtkJ3mbWqtYroi9vwSJnRKWvmEJsfjGMp5ULoAKrxROf0GYWJUa5Vhi9tLb49gvhYyo58VlF8WjsOZMgoMVMtLQg/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_RmUPRvsCCvYYGnhyPPhtanMlYbzzQGgCqHR93o8ChX32PqFS8_U4GtkJ3mbWqtYroi9vwSJnRKWvmEJsfjGMp5ULoAKrxROf0GYWJUa5Vhi9tLb49gvhYyo58VlF8WjsOZMgoMVMtLQg/s1600/images.jpeg" height="142" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“</span><i style="color: #131313; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Start telling the stories that only you can
tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be
smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at
doing this or doing that - but you are the only you</i><span style="color: #131313; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">.” – Neil Gaiman</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">As
I read Home Leave, the above Gaiman’s quote echoed through my head incessantly
(until I eventually googled it to find the exact right wording).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Home Leave is a perfect example of an author
telling a story only she can tell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sonnenberg’s own childhood growing up on three continents allowed her to
convincingly write about an American family’s expatriate life. Her own
experiences give her characters an authenticity that grounds the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
read about Sonnenberg and review of Home Leave before actually reading the
book, so I was aware that the main storyline tracked Sonnenberg’s own
experiences. The novel is about an American couple raising their two daughters
abroad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tragedy strikes and the novel
probes: would this tragedy have occurred if the family was living somewhere
else?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sonnenberg, grew up outside the US
and suffered the death of her sister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She initially started writing a memoir but found fiction to be a better
vehicle for making sense of her own history. While Sonnenberg’s experiences
ground the novel, it is her inventive narration that captured my interest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
novel is told from various perspectives. The first narrator is the house at
1116 Arcadia Avenue, Elise Kriegstein (formerly Elise Ebert) childhood home.
1116 Arcadia Avenue is a unique narrator and her voice is quite distinct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even upon re-reading I marvel over the
sentences: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">“But I was so thrilled to see Elise that I didn’t dwell on her
odd behavior, or on the fact that my insides felt like they had ten years
earlier, during Vidalia’s only recorded earthquake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of my friends, the older ones, can
recall similar incidents of shakiness or decay and the depression that
followed, knowin they were now officially over the hill.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s
a clever construct to have a house reveal family secrets, and yet one that
makes so much sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much occurs
within a family home, and so many stories lurk inside physical spaces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A house with an aging matriarch would see and
understand a family but also have its own unique lens outside of each family
member.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1116 Arcadia Avenue reveals a
great deal about the Ebert family, and her narration helps the reader to
understand why Elise desired to leave Vidalia and her family history behind,
and why she has been away for five years. She also slowly reveals additional
details about the tragic events in Elise and Chris’s life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1116 Arcadia also narrates Ada’s (Elise’s
mother ) decline and mourns the loss of its complicated inhabitants. Later,
Sonnenberg introduces the idea that deceased people can come back to life in
the form of houses – an interesting idea that connects to other fanciful
narrations in the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Next
the reader journeys to a retirement community in Chariton, Indiana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chris Kriegstein’s parents are newly ensconced
in this world, when they receive a phone call from a student creating a
Chariton High Athletes: Where Are They Now feature for the school
newspaper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chris was a basketball star
at Chariton High School; his skills on the court catapulted him from his small
town to the University of Georgia and eventually to a professional life that
spanned countries and continents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chris
Kriegstein’s parents – Joy and Frank-- have compelling voices. They sound like
many aging seniors. They gave up their farm, they wish their son was closer,
they don’t understand scanning, they try their best to understand the next
generation’s choices. Joy believes her daughter “missed her train” when she
broke off her engagement to a high school geometry teacher in 1975.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frank has started tearing up quite a few
times a day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He takes it upon himself to
respond to the high school newsletter which was factually inaccurate and writes
a letter to the editor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ultimately Joy
decides to write her own article too – about her single fifty year old daughter
who “puts things where they belong.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Overall, this chapter helps the reader to understand Chris’s unique
family history while also seeing that storytelling is uniquely different based
on who controls the pen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Part
two finally provides the perspective of Chris and Elise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Germany in 1981, Chris rides his bike to
work each weekday, and Elise sleeps in while gestating their first daughter.
Elise is contacted by a German family with a similar last name who is mourning
their daughter and mother and is powered forward through a unique
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new parents are then in
India and Philadelphia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eight thousand
miles apart from each other, each encounter a corpse and are deeply shaken.
Both return home with important news – another baby and another home base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are introduced to the idea of the new
child, before we suddenly learn of her death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
some ways the structure of the novel is unsettling. In the beginning it was
hard to figure out where the story was going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It took a while to realize that part of the novel was being narrated by
a ghost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I think the unsettling
narration successfully helps the reader to better understand the experience of
being an expatriate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are jostled and
zoomed forward, we arrive places before we are ready to get there. We have to
turn back to previous chapters to remind ourselves of specific details.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are traversing different time periods and
continents and thus we can truly understand what it means to live life in a
different country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
Part four, we see the aftermath – we get to see the experiences of the family
through the eyes of the remaining daughter, and we get to feel her sense of
displacement as well as her hunger for a sense of home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also get to see how Chris – the roving
father—has been affected by his loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
dreads Leah’s wedding as it marks a further step away from the time when they
were an intact party of four.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #131313; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sonnenberg
has created unique characters with unique experiences and very specific lens on
the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They felt deeply real to me –
self-centered, flawed, broken, striving, human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She has taken her own experiences and used them to create such an artful
universe full of probing and lingering questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I highly recommend Home Leave and know I will
read it again and likely glean even more meaning from its themes and stylistic
choices. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-83345125231530303032014-08-15T12:56:00.005-07:002014-08-15T12:56:52.886-07:00The Unknown Americans by Cristina HenriquezThe "Unknown Americans" in this novel are Hispanic immigrants living in Delaware. The novel mostly centers on Alma and Arturo Rivera and their daughter who suffered a brain injury in Mexico (spurring their journey to the US so she can attend a special school), and a neighbor teenager named Mayor Toro, whose family immigrated from Panama before he was born. But the voices of other Hispanic immigrants in the complex are interspersed at the end of each chapter as well.<br />
<br />
Cristina Henriquez deftly weaves a lot of themes into this unfolding story. Through the characters eyes, the reader experiences the dislocation and confusion of the immigrant experience (not knowing where to buy groceries, having to find new foods to subsist on, not being able to communicate on a public bus, struggling to figure out school enrollment, etc.). The reader also sees how immigrant children often feel caught between two competing worlds. Henriquez also does a great job explaining how "legal" immigrants can easily be forced to become "illegal" immigrants when they lose the jobs that provided their initial sponsorship.<br />
<br />
I learned a lot from reading this novel and I think it does a great job in engendering conversation about the immigrant experience. I very quickly became immersed in the story and couldn't put the book down. Even now I can recall the unique stories of some of the tertiary stories (for example the young woman who moved at 18 to New York to become an actress). I ultimately found the story of what happened to Arturo deeply tragic and it made it hard for me to continue reading. I'm still trying to decide if I view his tragic story to be a realistic choice. Even though the ending upset me, I found this book to be a truly engaging story of resilience and love and a distinct part of the American experience. I could also imagine using this book as a discussion piece in a high school English class.<br />
<br />
<br />marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-62939283663007852292014-08-15T12:24:00.003-07:002014-08-21T19:56:12.943-07:00The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings<div class="MsoNormal">
I started reading The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings on
a day when I was feeling particularly glum.
You wouldn’t think reading about a grieving mother would be uplifting,
but I closed this book feeling totally rejuvenated. Kaui Hart Hemmings created
such vivid, real and memorable characters and I enjoyed learning their stories.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was immediately by Sarah St. John’s unique voice and the
Breckenridge setting. I’ve never been to
Breckenridge, and it's hard for me to imagine growing up in a resort town and yet Sarah’s
narration helped to transport me and to consider her unique childhood.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The book begins with Sarah pretending she isn't a local. She’s
“a woman from Idaho, on vacation with friends,” she’s a “newlywed from Indiana,”
she’s “an unremarkable guest at the Village Hotel.” She’s not notable. She’s
cloaked in anonymity; she’s an everywoman. She’s pretending. We quickly learn that Sarah is a forty year
old woman, who newly lost her only son. She’s returning to work, and to life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sarah had left Breckenridge as a young woman desiring to be
a broadcast journalist. But her accidental pregnancy at twenty-one gave her
reason to “whittle life down,” and return home to a smaller universe with less
pressing and more immediate choices. Sarah’s son, Cully, gave her life a sense
of meaning and she struggles to find meaning after his tragic death. It was strange as a thirty year old woman to
consider how appealing Sarah found it to return home at twenty-one. I don’t
believe at that age I would have responded similarly; but from the vantage
point of the future I was almost jealous of the choice she faced. It’s so easy to look back and wish I had made different decisions. But even while dealing with the death of her son and her
lodestar, Sarah St. John is resolute in not doing so. Like many individuals, she is insecure and doubts
that she could have been successful with her dreams even if she hadn’t gotten
pregnant so young.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In one passage she recalls: “I remember something
insignificant just then from college—leaving an interview and not knowing how
to get back on the freeway. It’s silly
to think that I’ve forsaken an opportunity, silly to think that I could have
been somebody when I couldn’t even find the freeway. Diane Sawyer could have done it on mescaline,
and there I was in a cul-de-sac asking a girl with a single dread popping out
of her head like a cactus where to go.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a clear example of Sarah’s humanity. She is flawed and discounts her talents. As a woman scared to drive on highways, I
could deeply relate to Sarah's reflection of her driving foibles; this passage deeply resonated with me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <u>The Possibilities</u>, the possibilities are
varied. Sarah faces life anew (with new options before her but a totally different world view) and soon
has a surprising encounter with a friend of her son that opens her up to
one specific possibility. Sarah’s
retired father, who shares in her grief and provides a great deal of the comedic relief in the novel,
has his own possibilities to consider. And Sarah’s friend Suzanne faces life
with the looming possibility of a divorce with her husband who she still loves. And there
are other possibilities too for all the young people who come to Breckenridge
delaying their adulthood.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the end, it isn't clear how the story ends for Sarah and
her motley crew of family. But the reader is left inspired. Sarah
thinks: “I wouldn't have chosen these things to take place, but now that they
have, I can’t stop looking, fascinated by my life, his life, just plain life. I
can’t wait to see what else happens.” It’s impossible to read such resilience without feeling personally buoyed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Overall, I came to deeply cherish the characters in The Possibilities and to love the rich world Hart Hemmings created. I highly recommend this book.<o:p></o:p></div>
marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-22460057582360555632014-08-10T12:23:00.000-07:002014-08-23T12:30:03.008-07:00The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Mira JacobI loved the entire experience of this novel. The gorgeous picture on the cover, the almost five hundred pages packed with shifting story lines, Jacob’s use of language, the themes: first generation American life, Indian immigrant communities in random locales, loss of a family member, the endless grief of parents who have lost a child, being of two worlds, how one choice can alter a life. Holding the heft of this novel in your hands, it is clear the time and creative energy and deep reflection that went into creating this engaging story.<br />
<br />
I enjoyed this novel so much I started marking passages with post-it notes so I could easily find them later and ruminate further over the language and ideas. So much of this engaging story is thought-provoking. But it is also deeply real, incredibly well-composed and artful.<br />
<br />
The story starts in Seattle in June of 1998. Amina Eapen is busy working as a wedding photographer when she receives a phone call from her mother revealing that her father has been conversing with his dead mother (who died twenty years before). Amina’s mother doesn’t believe he is delusional, simply filled with weakness and devilish spirits.<br />
<br />
The story shifts to India in 1979. Amina is eleven. Her immediate family has journeyed to her father’s former hometown to visit with his mother and brother. They bring American trinkets for the extended family, play cricket with their cousin, and watch their grandmother’s scheming, and their uncle’s bizarre night time behavior and then the visit is cut short. This creates a rift in the family and Amina’s uncle’s last words will soon be deeply prophetic.<br />
<br />
The family interactions in this novel are deeply realistic. At the center of the India drama is Thomas Eapen (Amina’s father), the brother who left, and Sunil, the brother who stayed behind and feels like a failure. Ammachy, their mother, wants her first born son to return home and may be one of the few Indian mothers not to kvell over a successful brain surgeon son (she snaps: “Well no one asked you to become a brain surgeon”. His choice to be a brain surgeon makes it impossible for him to work in India which creates a tension between him and his mother and him and his wife). She’s so caustic and particular and thus deeply authentic in the eyes of this reader. She tells her granddaughter she must be clever since she’s not pretty, she calls one of her grandsons a no-brains, she meddles endlessly and she refuses to accept that her son’s home is anywhere but the one she created for him. She also disparages Thomas’s wife for being too dark.<br />
<br />
Back in Seattle (or the present day of the novel), Amina prepares to put her life on hold and return to New Mexico to help her parents. We learn all about her budding love affair with photography and the story behind the photograph that stalled her career as a budding photo journalist.<br />
The novel shifts again to a time during Amina’s adolescence when her brother struggled with a unique medical malady. The novel does an artful job of showing how even a family helmed by a doctor can ignore signs of serious illness. <br />
<br />
I connected deeply to Amina’s experience of taking care of her father as he fights cancer. Jacob, who lost her own father, writes about the experience of facing the perilous future so giftedly. Simply sentences resonate deeply. For example, “It was getting harder not to spiral these days, to hear one thing and think of the next and the next, until all that was left was a closet of her father’s sweaters and shoes” (397). I was deeply moved by the scene that follows. Amina’s father asks her how she knows when to take a picture. And together they decide the reason he can’t get a good photograph of his wife is that “she’s a pretty woman who makes ugly faces” (398).<br />
<br />
I also greatly enjoyed Amina’s romantic story line. She connects with a boy from her high school past – something that some would perceive as cliché. But the relationship between Jamie and Amina is complicated and authentic. It also made me consider my own parents relationship with a new sense of perspective (they were high school sweethearts who reconnected in their thirties).<br />
<br />
There were many occasions while reading that I stopped to linger over Jacob’s use of language. For example:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“They were luminous. Pieces of moon fallen from the sky, still reflecting every bit of light from the known universe. Smiling at her across the yard in a way she hadn’t seen in years, may have never seen.” (pg. 449).</blockquote>
Or<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Because really, it didn’t matter whether he was the by-product of Thomas’s tumor or some filament of time slipped through a chink in the universe; it didn’t matter that Kamala and the others could not, would not, would never see him. The very idea that Akhil could be in the garden had brought back his loss, pushing it into every corner until the house bled with it. If she shut her eyes, Amina could feel exactly how gone her brother was, her ability to weigh his absence extra keen, dialed up like a blind person’s ability to hear.” (pg. 457).</blockquote>
<br />
There is a rhythm to Jacob's use of language that is uniquely her own.<br />
<br />
The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing is a tremendous feat. It’s a story that brings the reader inside its rich worlds to struggle and grieve and discover and fall in love with the Eapens and their extended family. It’s a story that brings us inside the experiences of a loving community of Suriyani Christian Indians. It’s a story that shows how adolescence can deeply shape us and mold our later choices. It’s a story that shows that even with deep sorrow there can be magic moments found a midst family.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-31549636848972497382014-07-27T12:27:00.000-07:002014-08-23T12:27:26.957-07:00The Vacationers by Emma Straub<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">As someone who enjoyed Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, I was looking forward to reading Emma Straub's latest The Vacationers. Sadly, the book didn't meet my expectations at all. I remember being completely drawn in by the story of Laura Lamont; I was not drawn into the world of the Post family. Potentially due to all the pre-publishing hype, I simply had unrealistic expectations, but I believe the story itself could have been so much better. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">While I enjoyed the opening scene of the novel (the scene in the cab is so typical of New Yorkers), I had a really hard time getting into this novel. I am a compulsive reader who usually finishes a book in a day or two, and I found myself having to work at reading this book. Potentially the fact that it took me so long to reach the end of the story impacted my enjoyment of reading it, but many other books beckoned to me over the same time period.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I love stories about dysfunctional families. And the Posts certainly fit that description. But yet I found most of their conflicts didn't intrigue me. It's not even that they are unlikeable characters (because while they have their foibles I wouldn't define them that way)- they are realistic in some ways but not that worthy of zooming in on. Additionally, the son doesn't seem to fit in his cerebral family. Overall, I just wanted the story to reach its reasonable course and I found so much of the denouement of the story easily predictable and ultimately unsatisfying</span>marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-44188962741021341092014-05-24T21:05:00.000-07:002014-09-18T21:05:49.802-07:00The Splendid Things We Planned by Blake BaileyI picked up four new books from the library this afternoon - all novels except for Blake Bailey's memoir, The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait. Hours later, I opened Bailey's memoir after briefly reading one of the novels. The cover, the title, and the prologue all quickly demanded my attention. The majority of my reading is fiction and fictional stories usually beckon me the loudest. Yet, I have recently been barreled over by a series of non-fiction books. And when I think back over the last ten years I can think of countless memoirs that have captivated and haunted me.<br />
<br />
Fiction is marvelous and in my eyes one of the greatest joys of my life. But there is something about a true story that demands a different type of attention. As human beings, we feel an imperative pull to make sense of the world around us but also a deep pull to schadenfreude. We read every detail about Adam Lanza in the hopes of making sense of the unfathomable. But we also drive by a car crash and crane our necks. We tune into 20/20 and get drawn in by the story of a man stolen as a baby. We feel a deep desire to discover his personal truth as if it is our own. And we open our newspapers and peruse stories accessible and impenetrable. We try to understand the mistakes of others. And sometimes we try to put ourselves in other's shoes. We study an individual's actions and family in the hope of learning lessons that will make our own pathways easier. And thus memoirs continue to find audiences.<br />
<br />
I have read other memoirs because I couldn't pull myself away. I have read them because the story was so unbelievable and the language so stirring. But I have also read memoirs because they reflect back to me an experience through which I can make better sense of my own experiences.<br />
<br />
The implosion of Bailey's family is something very foreign from my own lived experience. But there were still elements that helped me to make sense of my experiences. For example, while reading about Bailey's delayed adolescence (and long path to his eventual success as a literary biographer), I felt a loosening of some of my own anguish. <br />
<br />
I think what drew me the most into Bailey's story was the concise and calm way he reveals the events of his brother's life. A screaming baby morphs into a thirteen year old who masters German, torments his younger brother needlessly and works harder for his parents' attention. He goes off to NYU only to quit without even attempting to complete a semester. He eventually joins the Marines and finds success at least in the eyes of his mother while continuing down the same spirals.<br />
<br />
Bailey is deeply honest and also deeply detached. He reveals details about his own family as if he is writing a dictation of their life events and not an autobiography. He imparts his own thoughts and feelings about events and yet they are delivered without real emotion.<br />
<br />
Bailey has a (unsurprisingly) keen eye for detail and a no-nonsense approach to writing. But part of me wanted more from the memoir. Bailey fails in the end to explain his brother's behavior and also at times fails to humanize him. As an adult, he is quick to dismiss his brother and wish him dead (he seems to think time and time again: it's enough already, he will never change). He also seems unable to understand why his mother was unable to give up on her son.<br />
<br />
The memoir ultimately raises many more questions than it answers. Could the Bailey parents have done more to prevent their son's failures? Were the Bailey parents too lax? Did Blake owe his brother more kindness? Was Scott schizophrenic or bipolar and self-medicating? <br />
<br />
Even though I wished for more emotion and more definitive answers, the memoir is a deeply fascinating read. There are two main themes that reverberate throughout the book - the first is the idea of complicated love. The epigraph before the book states: "That's one of the damnedest things I ever found out about human emotions and how treacherous they can be--the fact that you can hate a place with all your heart and soul and still be homesick for it. Not to speak of the fact that you can hate a person with all your heart and soul and still long for that person." Bailey asserts that even though his brother was an addict who wreaked havoc in their family, he is still the only sibling he had, the brother who held him when he was a baby, the only person who shared his childhood memories. His own feelings for his brother seem overwhelmingly negative but maybe that is just the feeling one gets from the second half of the book. And even so, it is clear that Mariles still longs for her son. The second main theme is the question of what does a parent owe a child and is it ever acceptable for a parent to give up on their adult child? Bailey recalls his father saying, “When a child is young, you can catch him if he falls. Then he gets a little older and falls from a higher place. Maybe you can still catch him. But finally he’s a full-grown adult and falls off the top of a building—then you have to decide: either get out of the way or be crushed.” Bailey's parents (who divorced) had different responses to their sons troubles and thus represent the ends of the spectrum.<br />
<br />
The memoir is captivating and thought-provoking and their are ideas and images from it that will stay with me for a while.marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-42719997904754232912013-12-15T09:46:00.001-08:002013-12-15T14:12:51.780-08:00The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth Silver<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/entertainment/books/2013/08/28/the_execution_of_noa_p_singleton_by_elizabeth_silver_review/execution_of_noa_p_singleton.jpg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/entertainment/books/2013/08/28/the_execution_of_noa_p_singleton_by_elizabeth_silver_review/execution_of_noa_p_singleton.jpg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I finished this book without the sated feeling I normally feel when I finish a well-told story. I felt perplexed, sucker-punched, confused, and ultimately like I needed more. A number of hours have passed and I am still befuddled by some of Noa's actions. And yet they felt then upon first reading and feel now upon further contemplation believable and real. Her actions appear human.<br />
<br />
Elizabeth Silver succeeded in creating something truly novel in this story. The Execution of Noa P. Singleton provides a window into an experience that is deeply foreign, an experience most individuals do not even care to contemplate. What is it like to be a woman on death row? And what events could lead an intelligent woman who is admitted to an Ivy League School to find herself on Death Row? Additionally, why would someone facing death row refuse to help the attorneys trying to defend her? The story of Noa P. Singleton feels deeply real because humans are complex and baffling individuals. People often say "truth is stranger than fiction." We live in a world where a troubled young man chose to enter an elementary school and kill 20 sixth graders and 6 adults and another troubled young man hunted down TSA agents. We live in a world where a high school student sexually assaulted his teacher and killed her in a school bathroom before dumping her desecrated body in woods behind the school. We live in a world where over 11,000 people have been killed by guns since Newtown. Our reality is baffling.<br />
<br />
Some will say Noa P. is a psychopath, but I didn't read her that way. She went to UPenn, she lived in Philly. I have lived both of those experiences. She was raised by a mother who told a story that loomed large in her psyche. She didn't meet her father until she was eighteen years old. She suffered two devastating losses at early ages and was not provided with the necessary guidance to help her make peace with these deeply traumatic experiences. I have thankfully not lived those experiences.<br />
<br />
This novel is a story of death row and of murder, but it is also a story about dysfunctional parenting. It is a story of the events that bring together two dramatically different women--Noa, an intelligent college dropout and Marlene Dixon, a high-powered attorney and the mother of Noa's victim. Silver helps the reader to see that Noa is not completely evil and Marlene is not completely a victim or person deserving of sympathy. The theme of agency looms large in their intertwined story. But the whole novel seems an artful take on delving deep into the ways the events of our childhood stay with us forever and lead us to particular fates. Noa had been fed a particular story by her mother for countless years. Her mother didn't want to own up to dropping her baby, so she manufactured a story of a home invasion. Noa internalized the moral of this story; she chooses at thirteen to cover up her own worst act. And twelve years later when faced with another dangerous situation, she chooses again to embrace creative truth telling. After this event she refuses to provide any explanations or stories. She spins no new yarns until right before the end, when Marlene arrives with an assistant, proclaiming she is now against the death penalty and wants to help Noa. In the end, Noa's explanation is buried and forgiveness and clemency are thrown aside as unworthy goals. But the reader is left pondering: What is the point of all these machinations and missteps? What can be learned from these choices?<br />
<br />
I'm still perplexed even as I sit here trying to make sense of this artfully drawn story. Why did the author make these particular choices? How do we understand the emotions and choices that drive all of the flawed characters in this story? I think The Execution of Noa P. Singleton is an excellent choice for a book club. There is so much in this compelling story worthy of probing and it would be helpful to make sense of this novel with others.marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-6002527483810522472013-10-19T22:41:00.002-07:002013-10-19T22:41:54.779-07:00On Being Away, On ReturningI have been the world's most delinquent book blogger. I'm on goodreads and from time to time I write a review. I can throw out excuses. Grad school and law school, the bar exam, trying to meet new people, crafting a new life. I can easily spin together some sentences to explain why I took such a long break from writing and pontificating about books.<br />
<br />
But the truth is: deep down I was always disappointed with myself. I have ravenously read library books. And the desire to write about these books was always present, just pushed down. The desire to use language to script my own thoughts and feelings and appreciation for books has never departed.<br />
<br />
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The two most enduring loves of my life are stories and
language. Nothing makes me happier than wrapping myself in an unfolding story
and relishing well-composed sentences. I love to linger inside a story, savoring the words and events that carry me forward towards fulfillment. Reading and writing are the acts that connect me most fully to the truest version of myself. And so it is imperative that I return. To writing about books and writing about so many of the other thoughts that tumble through my head.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I'm so excited to return to being Marnes and Noble. </div>
marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-41623768370337306892013-06-21T18:34:00.000-07:002013-10-19T22:30:59.822-07:00A Book Review from Eight Years Ago: Away From You by Melanie FinnI just read a beautiful book, a hauntingly beautiful book, that made me think about so much I can barely bring my thought process back around.<br />
<br />
For some reason I've always been beguiled by Africa. And these days race has become a major part of my life. The book is called Away from You by Melanie Finn. It is about Africa. It is about legacy. It is about putting the pieces of your history back together and letting go. Th is a really poor Reader's Response.<br />
<br />
I escape to books. They help me catch perspective. They help me grow as an individual.<br />
<br />
I think I am secretly--no, openly--in love with Barnes and Nobles and its odd green carpet. I don't even mind how uncomfortable it is to sit with a shelf poking into my back.<br />
<br />
The details in this book are really quite astounding, affecting.<br />
<br />
The words throbbed and lingered inside my head. Even as I numbed myself with my IPod.<br />
<br />
I love how concise the author is. She uses her words sparingly. It is like she collects and polishes only the good ones.<br />
<br />
pg. 217<br />
"The stories he tells me of his life, the words weave a cloth that binds me and anchors me. The words are my way home to Peter who sits at the kitchen table and loves so patiently. What we share of ourselves, what we speak and give is not enough. But we are only the dust of stars and it is all we have to keep from blowing away."marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-21108503938467093432013-05-15T13:37:00.000-07:002014-09-17T13:42:48.654-07:00The Mothers by Jennifer Gilmore<div class="MsoNormal">
In my former stint as a middle school ELA teacher, I
gave mini lessons on author’s purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
found the concept a little bizarre at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, I can barely recall the four reasons I
listed in those long ago mini lessons. Authors write to persuade, to inform, to
entertain and. . . I suppose it’s easier to explain these verbs to thirteen year
olds than to say writers write to make sense of their worlds, writers write to make sense of the bewildering, writers write to
tackle demons, writers write because writing makes them sane, writers write
because they love sculpting words, language and events into a greater whole.
Writers write <i>so they can share their take on the human existence with other
people.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>As I sit thinking back about The Mothers</i> by Jennifer Gilmore,
I am brought back to the concept of author’s purpose. Why do we write? Why does
Gilmore write?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why do so many fiction
writers weave autobiographical elements into their fiction?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was enthralled by Gilmore’s previous novel <i>Something
Red</i>. It drew me into a world I deeply wanted to understand. I loved <i>Something Red</i> and viewed it as an amazing accomplishment. Gilmore was able to create such vivid and human characters while also capturing the essence of the 60s and 70s and the zeitgeist of that time. In Something Red, she
created a truly believable world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>Before reading <i>The Mothers</i> I had read <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/my-bridge-to-nowhere/" target="_blank">Gilmore’s NYT Opinionator essay</a> about her own experiences trying to adopt domestically. So I knew this novel was autobiographical fiction. In
some ways the fact that Gilmore and her husband went through similar
experiences than Jesse and Ramon distracted me from the story. I found myself
wanting to know how Gilmore’s husband differed from the fictional Ramon, how
Gilmore differed from Jessie (besides being employed as a writer who teaches writing
as opposed to an academic). Did Gilmore have a similar relationship with her
own mother-in-law? Was Jessie’s family similar to her own family? All of this took me away from the story in
some ways. But I suppose it also added another layer of analysis and metacognition
into the process of reading this novel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At times it was hard for me to read <i>The Mothers</i>. I have
known I want to have my own children since I was a child myself. There is a
great deal of my future I cannot script, and yet that part has always been
clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a soon to be thirty year old
single woman, it’s hard for me to read about a woman in her late thirties
hungering for a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s close. I
understand Jessie’s anxiety and anguish, even if my own anguish and anxiety is
slightly different.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jessie constantly does math to calculate how old she will be
once her child is born, once her child graduates from high school. And I found
that behavior so painfully true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every
time I read about a woman with children I do mental math to calculate how old she
was when her first child was born. I do similar mathematical calculations when
reading about weddings and couplings as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Reading about Jessie’s calculations made me realize that so many people
have invisible anxieties that trap them in unhealthy behaviors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Mothers</i> was so deeply believable and true, and I guess
that is because of Gilmore’s own experience. Jessie and Ramon are the only
couple at a party without children, I am often the only single person in a
gathering of my college friends. Why is it so natural and painful to recognize
these comparisons?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some ways, this
book allowed me to envision more uncomfortable comparisons that may be part of
my future. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am stuck with so much unknown, just as Jessie and Ramon
were. They had no control over whether a birth mother would choose them to
parent her child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even with perfect
photos and a great description and social workers telling them they would win
in a “who would you pick to be your parents” game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Overall, <i>The Mothers</i> was a thought-provoking and an emotional
read.<o:p></o:p></div>
marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-42381400407441527802013-04-14T11:04:00.002-07:002013-06-24T05:25:59.494-07:00Love Water Memory by Jennie Shortridge<br />
I've been thinking about good story telling a lot lately. On Friday evening I sat at the Rittenhouse BandN with a friend and I read aloud to her a passage from a novel that I found amusing. She commented: "I've heard or seen something like that before. Maybe on a sitcom." This same friend recently read a book based on my recommendation and had analogous feedback. "It wasn't novel. It felt derivative." She said she only enjoys books that are different. I've been mulling over whether it is possible to truly create something different and new.<br />
<br />
I remember a creative writing professor in college talking about three main stories: love, death and war. In trying to find what he was quoting, I have found many other quotes about fiction and literature.<br />
<br />
Paulo Coello: "Borges said there are only four stories to tell: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power and the voyage. All of us writers rewrite these same stories ad infinitum.”<br />
<br />
Willa Cather: "There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercly as if they had never happened before."<br />
<br />
Others assert that there are seven basic plots.<br />
<br />
So what truly makes a novel story? <br />
<br />
Potentially, I am just not a discerning reader, but I like reading different takes on the same idea. I love reading about interesting family dynamics, I love reading about change over time, I am a sucker for a good romance or a good coming of age story, and I devour thought-provoking contemporary fiction.<br />
<br />
So I suppose the idea of reading about someone who has woken up from a dissociative fugue didn't feel completely new to me. And yet there were so many aspects of Love Water Memory that felt unique. I disappeared inside the book for most of the afternoon and evening yesterday. I was captivated by the experiences of 39 year old Lucie Walker who was suddenly cast in the role of anthropologist and detective of her own life.<br />
<br />
The novel starts with Lucie standing knee deep in the San Francisco Bay. Asked if she is okay she replies "I don't know." She can't feel her legs, she does not know her name. She can discern that the decor of a hospital room is straight out of the early 90's and yet she has no autobiographical memory. Shortridge does such a fantastic job of allowing the reader to share in Lucie's confusion and her dawning sense of discovery, fear and revelation.<br />
<br />
Since the story is told from both the perspective of Lucie and that of her fiance. Grady, the reader is able to understand how maddening and disorienting amnesia can be for both the individual suffering through it and their family members. How do you bring someone home who doesn't remember you at all? How do you respect their privacy and try to get them to love you again? This sort of story has been told in a Nicholas Spark's novel/movie and it came across as treachly and unrealistic. Shortridge does an excellent job making Lucie and Grady's story feel realistic. There is an element of representing them as being destined to be together in some ways, but it doesn't come across as too much.<br />
<br />
It was fascinating to watch Lucie view her former life through new eyes, and to eventually understand why the two wildly different Lucie's came to be. I walked away with questions about how realistic Lucie's experience with dissociative fugue was, and yet I found Shortridge's telling of Lucie's story incredibly real. In learning more about the former Lucie, I came to question why Grady was with her, or why she was in some ways cold and disconnected from others, but eventually that part of her character is explained.<br />
<br />
I also really enjoyed the imagery in the story. Water plays as central a role in the characters lives as love and memory. Lucie wakes up, reborn, a new version of herself (or an old one I suppose) with her feet in the Bay. Grady breaks his foot, and this immobilization is key to a great deal of character development. Because of this injury he is for the first time a fish out of water (unable to swim) and this immobilizes his development in some ways, but also forces him to greater understanding.<br />
<br />
I found myself particularly taken with this late "coming of age" story. Lucie is on the verge of forty and still discovering herself. Grady is beyond forty and still coming to terms with his own past, still looking to be a better person. It makes someone like me (who is on the verge of 30) feel a little bit better about what I often view as my own late development.<br />
<br />
Love Water Memory was a very thought-provoking and engaging read. I'm interested to hear what others thought of the book.marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-33820149947595629672012-06-27T04:53:00.002-07:002012-06-28T11:53:55.806-07:00Waiting on Wednesday: You Are the Love of My Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhdO2bAZRfxKEgFUsVvJ3JQ_jGnhVA5PTFO3mzMOQBzXWrAAtE1mE-hcWcBS6LIcnSD5Y0EymTQQcfuicfHoA2diJJunu6hQk58tTqmI2iDLzQyM1SyPcQifMsOS9WZmIlrXvnUj5kvJRq/s200/WoW.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhdO2bAZRfxKEgFUsVvJ3JQ_jGnhVA5PTFO3mzMOQBzXWrAAtE1mE-hcWcBS6LIcnSD5Y0EymTQQcfuicfHoA2diJJunu6hQk58tTqmI2iDLzQyM1SyPcQifMsOS9WZmIlrXvnUj5kvJRq/s200/WoW.JPG" /></a></div>
Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> that spotlights new releases book bloggers are eagerly awaiting.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKc4mIx_CqQg1IgB0KhpIkx0dpsxe2d7_EF7iSjIZRBJRKYlqSYJVztiHE71b5bFg02LIVmwyPraiyXPWhbfCQmSEcO4z3XSQgeDBwjCynuM02FUSQTdKrqP6kTyXxzYhMcGOjCMPejxbH/s1600/jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKc4mIx_CqQg1IgB0KhpIkx0dpsxe2d7_EF7iSjIZRBJRKYlqSYJVztiHE71b5bFg02LIVmwyPraiyXPWhbfCQmSEcO4z3XSQgeDBwjCynuM02FUSQTdKrqP6kTyXxzYhMcGOjCMPejxbH/s1600/jpg.jpg" /></a></div>
My selection this week is: <br />
<b>You Are the Love of My Life</b><br />
By: Susan Richards Shreve<br />
Publication Date: August 20, 2012<br />
<br />
<br />
From Amazon:<br />
<i>It is 1973 and Watergate is on everyone's lips. Lucy Painter is a children's book illustrator and a single mother of two. She leaves New York and the married father of her children to live in a tightly knit Washington neighborhood in the house where she grew up and where she discovered her father's suicide. Lucy hopes for a fresh start, but her life is full of secrets: her children know nothing of her father's death or the identity of their own father. As the new neighbors enter their insular lives, her family's safety and stability become threatened.</i><br />
<br />
This book sounds so intriguing as I enjoy books about the 60s and 70s and that take place in Washington D.C. (Something Red one of my favorites falls into both of those categories as well). I also can't wait until August because then I can resume my normal compulsive reading ways. <br />
<br />
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<br /></div>marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-76762297881544334932012-05-23T08:30:00.000-07:002012-05-23T08:30:00.585-07:00Waiting on Wednesday: Brand New Human Being<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjVewRjqb8f60k5JTGUtdM_MzLNvI_tR7IInwpjB0OwtCmRlnCJwUG_8udIKBXs_RXFRPtT30KZOOg5dflA5wiNlqY_FXk9rFtKft-hDWh7Wru3_8yLXe-NGkQEpbZ4uxu1l7u40VePCE/s200/New+WoW.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjVewRjqb8f60k5JTGUtdM_MzLNvI_tR7IInwpjB0OwtCmRlnCJwUG_8udIKBXs_RXFRPtT30KZOOg5dflA5wiNlqY_FXk9rFtKft-hDWh7Wru3_8yLXe-NGkQEpbZ4uxu1l7u40VePCE/s200/New+WoW.JPG" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/">Breaking the Spine</a> which spotlights upcoming new releases.</div>
<br />
This week I have selected:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRYqTDyeHdLcDud8C7Hkv8Xp47bWQX8keOCd9BZvhY7eqR6uYbVBQ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRYqTDyeHdLcDud8C7Hkv8Xp47bWQX8keOCd9BZvhY7eqR6uYbVBQ" /></a></div>
<br />
Brand New Human Being<br />
By Emily Jean Miller<br />
Publication Date: June 12<br />
<br />
From Amazon:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>I’m putting the drill back in the safe when my fingers touch something unexpected—paper. An envelope. I take it out. Where an address should be, my name is written in Gus’s unmistakable, back-slanting hand.</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Meet Logan Pyle, a lapsed grad student and stay-at-home dad who’s holding it together by a thread. His father, Gus, has died; his wife, Julie, has grown distant; his four-year-old son has gone back to drinking from a bottle. When he finds Julie kissing another man on a pile of coats at a party, the thread snaps. Logan packs a bag, buckles his son into his car seat, and heads north with a 1930s Lousville Slugger in the back of his truck, a maxed-out credit card in his wallet, and revenge in his heart.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">After some bad decisions and worse luck, he lands at his father’s old A-frame cabin, where his father’s young widow, Bennie, now lives. She has every reason to turn Logan away, but when she doesn’t, she opens the door to unexpected redemption—for both of them.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A deftly plotted exploration of marriage, family, and the road from child to parent,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Brand New Human Being</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">is a page-turning debut that overflows with heart and grace</span>marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-85184601003504168992012-05-21T12:19:00.003-07:002013-02-06T18:18:57.883-08:00The Invitation by Anne Cherian<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmRCaiHUoMATeye0hk_yW4PP9Wcdjpe1rYMIWrew2f50MMSFrG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmRCaiHUoMATeye0hk_yW4PP9Wcdjpe1rYMIWrew2f50MMSFrG" /></a></div>
Cherian writes such thought-provoking and compelling accounts of the Indian immigrant experience in the United States. <u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Invitation-Novel-Anne-Cherian/dp/0393081605">The Invitation</a></u>, allows her the opportunity to present four different accounts of this experience. The book recounts the varied experiences of Jay, Frances, Lali and Vikram, four friends who met in the 1970s while pursuing graduate degrees at UCLA. Frances is a Goan who was raised to believe in love matches and who schemed to find a way to study in the US. Jay grew up in a wealthy Indian family that wanted him to return to India and work for a family friend and accept an arranged marriage. Having resisted that pull, he has struggled economically in the US. Jay and Frances had easier initial transitions to the US than their two friends but twenty-five years later the former "golden couple" which united the foursome is struggling both personally and professionally. In contrast, Vikram, the nerd who was one of the first to leave his small village in India and who embraced an arranged marriage, has been wildly successful in America. He built a successful computer company and sent his son to MIT--Mighty Indian Triumph. Lali took a totally different path, after a young sexual experience made her believe she would not be a suitable match for an arranged marriage, and moved to San Francisco and married a white man. While she has the trappings of success-- a Harvard-educated cardiologist husband and a son enrolled at Harvard--she is at a cross roads as an empty nester and feels disconnected in her marriage when her husband rediscovers his Jewish roots. The four friends are forced to examine their divergent choices when Vikram sends out an invitation to a graduation party for his oldest son. <br />
<br />
I love reading about different cultures especially Indian culture. I was particularly excited to read about the Goan experience, as my former roommate's family is from Goa and I've always wanted to learn more about her culture. Cherian is able to explain so much about the different castes and cultures in India through this one constrained narrative. The novel also vividly depicts the varied experiences of first generation Indian Americans and the conflicts between their dual cultures. For example, Vikram's son has followed the path his father has outlined for him and been a good dutiful Indian son. He studied hard, got into MIT and graduated with honors. But he has grown up in the US and wants to pursue his own passion. Jay and Frances's oldest, Mandy, was once a gifted student but is floundering academically as she faces the stereotype that all Indians perform well. That one idea was something I wanted to read more about. I wish the story had given even more attention to the experiences of the children, possibly providing some of their own voices.<br />
<br />
My other criticism is that I wanted more from the ending of the story. It was wonderful to see the four friends interact with one another twenty-five years later. And I understand some of the choices the author makes in terms of why she chose her open-ended closing, but I still longed for more of a neat wrap-up. Overall, I highly recommend both of Cherian's novels. I was left wanting more closure for the characters, but I found them to be incredibly well-drawn and realistic.marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-51962930412312092882012-05-09T20:14:00.001-07:002013-02-06T18:22:18.940-08:00The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQgqMOAvru0679r-huzdVj8rbkgx8pzxOrVrJtY_YelxQ4x0w2w" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQgqMOAvru0679r-huzdVj8rbkgx8pzxOrVrJtY_YelxQ4x0w2w" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't figure out why I never picked up </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Myth-You-Me-Novel/dp/1400098068"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Myth of You and Me</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> before (it came out in 2005) as I genuinely enjoyed Stewart's latest novel </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Husband and Wife</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. But I'm so glad I finally decided to dive into this thought-provoking and engaging story. I can already imagine re-reading it in the future. The characters and the themes have stuck with me for days. In fact, after finishing the book, I immediately started scrolling back (oh how I prefer a real book to a Kindle!) to re-read parts of the beginning. The book also inspired me to write a journal entry considering the different ways I could choose to narrate my own romantic life. The novel had me thinking deeply about friendship, love, story-telling, adolescence, forgiveness, the different types of love people seek as well as a variety of other topics.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The novel is narrated by Cameron, a twenty-nine year old woman who is adrift in life. Cameron has been running away from connection for years, after a falling out with her closest friend. Cameron and Sonia met at fourteen and formed a tremendous bond. Together they grappled with a variety of challenges and eventually journeyed from their small hometown to college at Vanderbilt University. In the present, Cameron receives an unexpected letter from Sonia ten years after the incident that ended their friendship. Cameron doesn't initially reply but is eventually forced to track Sonia down after her boss assigns her a final task to deliver a package to Sonia. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I loved the deeper themes running throughout the novel. It made me think about what it means to truly be connected to someone, and what happens when we end a meaningful relationship. Can two people with a great deal of history reconnect after many years of estrangement? Are some relationships so defining that they live on even as the two people are out of contact? </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Myth of You and Me</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> made me consider the way I narrate the events in my own life, and to consider which relationships in my own life define me and tether me to former versions of myself.</span><br />
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<u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Myth of You and Me</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> is also artfully told. Some of the story is told in flashbacks and thus the story itself evolves in different directions. I loved meeting Cameron and Sonia at fourteen, and being privy to the events that cemented their deep bond. I also loved reading about Cameron and Sonia's college years and it made me nostalgic for my own college years. It was fascinating to trace the trajectory of Sonia and Cameron and their supporting cast over fifteen years. The characters were flawed and real and vibrant.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I highly recommend </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Myth of You and Me</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and think it would be a great book for a book c</span>lub.<br />
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marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-48736579208972398272012-05-09T08:53:00.002-07:002012-05-09T09:07:06.708-07:00Waiting on Wednesday: Say Nice Things About Detroit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at </span><a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Breaking the Spine</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, that spotlights upcoming releases.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> My selection this week is: </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <b>Say Nice Things About Detroit</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> By Scott Lasser</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Release Date July 2, 2012</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> From Amazon:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A novel about second chances from a writer of "stirring, poignant and profound" work (Wally Lamb). Twenty-five years after his high school graduation, David Halpert returns to a place that most people flee. But David is making his own escape--from his divorce and the death of his son. In Detroit, David learns about the double shooting of his high school girlfriend Natalie and her black half-brother Dirk. As David becomes involved with Natalie's sister, he will discover both he and his hometown have reasons to hope. As compelling an urban portrait as The Wire and a touching love story, Say Nice Things About Detroit takes place in a racially polarized, economically collapsing city that doesn't seem like a place for rebirth. But as David tries to make sense of the mystery behind Natalie's death and puts back the pieces of his own life, he is forced to answers a simple question: if you want to go home again, what do you do if home is Detroit?</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This novel sounds intriguing to me on so many levels. First, anything compared to The Wire is worthy of attention. Second, I am fascinated by the evolution of changing cities. Third, I find stories about individuals "returning home" really intriguing. I can't wait to read this novel!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-51591248414095366882012-05-07T10:59:00.002-07:002013-10-19T22:45:51.519-07:00I Couldn't Love You More - Jillian Medoff<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was surprised to find Medoff's latest novel on the table of the Barnes & Nobles at Union Station yesterday--I thought it wouldn't be out till the 15th. I remember really enjoying the way Medoff captured family dynamics in her last novel. I remember how the pink cover seemed to trivialize what was a very serious story. Similarly, the cover of<u> I Couldn't Love You More</u>, makes it seem like light summer reading but it isn't a breezy story. A day after finishing the novel, the characters are still with me. I can picture Eliott with her new hair color and persevering seven year old Gail with a slight limp in her gait and Hailey the four year old de fuhrer. I can picture the clear V of Grant's back and I can picture the face of fourteen year old Charlotte, clear and unsullied with make-up, ready to trust. I have my own idea of what their future holds since the book ends without everything resolved.<br />
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Medoff is incredibly gifted, as she was able to create such a believable story. There were moments when I was absolutely furious with her characters. There were moments where it was painful to continue reading as I was so angry with the events in the story. I had to actually remind myself--<i>this is fiction, it isn't a true story</i>. I found myself so drawn into the unfolding narrative. <br />
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According to the discussion guide, the central conflict revolves around having to make an unfathomable choice between two children. The books raises questions about how one can be a successful step mother while also being a mother to a biological child. It also centrally seems to ask: What does it mean to be a good mother? In the world we live in today this is such a loaded concept. Do good mothers stay home with their children? Co-sleep? Breastfeed? Balance work and family? Is it ever acceptable for a divorced biological mother to let her children live with their father? Can a good mother blog about their child's daily life? In her essay that follows the novel, Medoff explains that part of the story was developed when she started to consider how children react to a parent writing about them. Medoff explains that she had quit the writing life, but was compelled to write a scene in which the adult daughter of a memoirist describes how it felt to be the subject of her mother's books. It is compelling to consider how being the subject of her mother's memoirs affected Eliot's development. <br />
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Medoff writes provocatively about motherhood, family relationships and modern life. I genuinely enjoyed this novel. It is well-crafted and incredibly thought-provoking. I can't wait to hear others thoughts on <u>I Couldn't Love You More</u>.marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-4651336025295257642012-05-02T08:06:00.002-07:002012-05-09T20:29:34.871-07:00Waiting on Wednesday: My Top Picks for May<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXkLjTcwzWaxYMG41b_0wowkYqsfTNxxoObAGjAVCMCOcPU2qJJTeK_G5_G5dSZJDCd-CCpQAJWCZsPdSEJBK5Dhb98hquOrNNnuxrNpOlka7oFWlFF6fm4Nom1RGPc73EJIAOkMcmfo/s200/New+WoW.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXkLjTcwzWaxYMG41b_0wowkYqsfTNxxoObAGjAVCMCOcPU2qJJTeK_G5_G5dSZJDCd-CCpQAJWCZsPdSEJBK5Dhb98hquOrNNnuxrNpOlka7oFWlFF6fm4Nom1RGPc73EJIAOkMcmfo/s200/New+WoW.JPG" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">"Waiting On" Wednesday is a
weekly event, hosted by Jill at <a href="http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Breaking the
Spine</span></a>, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly
anticipating.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">One day soon I will return to posting book reviews (June
can't come soon enough). But I thought I'd take the opportunity to list the
upcoming May releases that I'm the most excited about.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Only two more days until the release of Jennifer Paddock's <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Weight-Memory-Jennifer-Paddock/dp/1596923768">The Weight of Memory</a></span>, which will reconnect me with Chandler, Sarah and Leigh, the
character's from Paddock's first novel <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/A-Secret-Word-Novel/dp/B000C4SH5O/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b">A Secret World</a> and Walker Galloway, a character from Paddock's second novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Point-Clear-Novel-Jennifer-Paddock/dp/B005Q73126/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1">Point Clear</a></span>. The book description explains: "In The Weight of Memory,
memory is the common thread running through the storylines of Chandler, Sarah,
and Leigh . All three women are from the same hometown, witnessed the death of
a boy they all loved in high school, have complicated relationships with their
fathers, and ride out Hurricane Katrina together in Destin, Florida." I'm
very excited to learn more about these characters and to savor Paddock's prose. I re-read A Secret World two
summers ago and I love Paddock's writing.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I'm also excited for Anne Cherian's <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Invitation-Novel-Anne-Cherian/dp/0393081605/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336620158&sr=1-3">The Invitation</a></span> which is released May 14. I learned about this book a
while ago and I just re-read Cherian's first novel <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Good-Indian-Wife-Novel/dp/0393335291/ref=pd_sim_b_1">A Good Indian Wife</a></span>. I highly recommend the book which is incredibly
thought-provoking. I love reading about Indian families and I found Cherian's
depiction of an arranged marriage and a man torn between the cultures of India
and the US truly insightful. Cherian's newest book focuses on a group of
first generation Indian immigrants. From Amazon: "When Vikram
invites three of his college friends to his son’s graduation from MIT, they
accept out of obligation and curiosity, viewing the party as a twenty-fifth
reunion of sorts. Village genius Vikram, now the founder of a lucrative
computer company, is having the party against his son’s wishes. Frances and Jay
regret accepting: Frances, a real estate agent, hasn't sold a house in a year;
Jay’s middle management job isn't brag worthy; and their daughter is failing
the eleventh grade. Lali plans to hide the fact that her once-happy marriage is
crumbling because her American husband is discovering his Jewish roots. Each
had left UCLA expecting to be successful and have even more successful
children. At Vikram’s Newport Beach mansion, the showmanship they anticipate
dissolves as each is forced to deal with his or her own problems. The follow-up
toA Good Indian Wife, Anne Cherian’s novel resonates with the poignancy of real
life colliding with expectations unmet."</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/I-Couldnt-Love-You-More/dp/0446584622/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336620505&sr=1-2">I Couldn't Love You More</a></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> by Jillian
Medoff comes out May 15. I read Medoff's previous novel <span style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Point-Novel-Jillian-Medoff/dp/B000CC49MQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336620556&sr=1-1">Hunger Point</a></span></span>
when it came out in 2002. I'm excited to see how her writing has
changed--there is a lot to capture in how society has changed. The book
description: "Eliot Gordon would do anything for her family. A 38-year-old
working mother, she lives an ordinary but fulfilling life in suburban Atlanta
with her partner, Grant Delaney, and their three daughters. The two older girls
are actually Eliot's stepdaughters, a distinction she is reluctant to make as
she valiantly attempts to maintain a safe, happy household." Then
Finn Montgomery, Eliot's long-lost first love, appears, triggering a shocking
chain of events that culminates in a split-second decision that will haunt her
beloved family forever. How Eliot survives-and what she loses in the process-is
a story that will resonate with anyone who has ever loved a child."</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I am also eagerly awaiting Meg Mitchell Moore's second novel <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/So-Far-Away-A-Novel/dp/0316097691/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336620226&sr=1-1">So Far Away</a></span>
which comes out May 29. I thoroughly enjoyed Mitchell Moore's debut novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Arrivals-Meg-Mitchell-Moore/dp/0316097713/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1">The Arrivals</a>. Here is the book description: "Thirteen-year-old Natalie
Gallagher is trying to escape: from her parents' ugly divorce, and from the
vicious cyber-bullying of her former best friend. Adrift, confused, she is a
girl trying to find her way in a world that seems to either neglect or despise
her. Her salvation arrives in an unlikely form: Bridget O'Connell, an Irish
maid working for a wealthy Boston family. The catch? Bridget lives only in the
pages of a dusty old 1920s diary Natalie unearthed in her mother's basement.
But the life she describes is as troubling - and mysterious - as the one
Natalie is trying to navigate herself, almost a century later."</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I'm super excited that these books will soon be in my hands!</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</span>marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-60425382188874403892012-03-21T05:35:00.002-07:002012-03-21T05:41:10.336-07:00Waiting on Wednesday: The Red Book<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hfJByLmFL._SL500_AA266_PIkin4,BottomRight,-32,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hfJByLmFL._SL500_AA266_PIkin4,BottomRight,-32,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXVa4iTW5IEHCXtG8IqEyrpqvKAis_52W5spiftaR28ShskZVh-vZ9ulqp6aQ7YNwVNI_mTRvPT0XnQ0LwJ0-IPImwAdFZBmzP5IeOU1kSN4zZiEtHktIgJRxq669LgxOCGAXyv74TdbI/s1600/New+WoW.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 197px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXVa4iTW5IEHCXtG8IqEyrpqvKAis_52W5spiftaR28ShskZVh-vZ9ulqp6aQ7YNwVNI_mTRvPT0XnQ0LwJ0-IPImwAdFZBmzP5IeOU1kSN4zZiEtHktIgJRxq669LgxOCGAXyv74TdbI/s1600/New+WoW.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I've decided I need to return to book blogging. And what better way to do so then to get back into Waiting on Wednesday. I've been eagerly awaiting a new book from Deborah Copaken Kogan for ages. I thoroughly devoured Between Here and April, and I'm already intrigued by the blurb for The Red Book.<br /><br />My Pick:<br />The Red Book<br />By Deborah Copaken Kogan<br />Publication Date: April 3, 2012<br /><br /><br /><br />From Amazon:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The Big Chill meets The Group in Deborah Copaken Kogan’s wry, lively, and irresistible new novel about a once-close circle of friends at their twentieth college reunion. <br /><br />Clover, Addison, Mia, and Jane were roommates at Harvard until their graduation in 1989. Clover, homeschooled on a commune by mixed-race parents, felt woefully out of place. Addison yearned to shed the burden of her Mayflower heritage. Mia mined the depths of her suburban ennui to enact brilliant performances on the Harvard stage. Jane, an adopted Vietnamese war orphan, made sense of her fractured world through words.<br /><br />Twenty years later, their lives are in free fall. Clover, once a securities broker with Lehman, is out of a job and struggling to reproduce before her fertility window slams shut. Addison’s marriage to a writer’s-blocked novelist is as stale as her so-called career as a painter. Hollywood shut its gold-plated gates to Mia, who now stays home with her four children, renovating and acquiring faster than her director husband can pay the bills. Jane, the Paris bureau chief for a newspaper whose foreign bureaus are now shuttered, is caught in a vortex of loss.<br /><br />Like all Harvard grads, they’ve kept abreast of one another via the red book, a class report published every five years, containing brief autobiographical essays by fellow alumni. But there’s the story we tell the world, and then there’s the real story, as these former classmates will learn during their twentieth reunion weekend, when they arrive with their families, their histories, their dashed dreams, and their secret yearnings to a relationship-changing, score-settling, unforgettable weekend</span>.<br /><br />I'm glad I don't have to wait that long!marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-18302701426974099422011-08-30T18:29:00.000-07:002013-02-06T18:32:23.146-08:00August Reads1) The Art of Forgetting - Camille Noe Pagan<br />
2) French Lessons - Ellen Sussman<br />
3) Close Your Eyes - Amanda Eyre Ward<br />
4) Girls in White Dresses - Jennifer Close<br />
5) A Year and Six Seconds - Isabel Gillies<br />
6) I Gave My Heart to Know This - Ellen Baker<br />
7) Coming Up for Air - Patti Callahan Henry<br />
8) This Beautiful Life - Helen Schulman<br />
9) What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty <br />
<br />marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-56599918128607756492011-08-24T08:07:00.000-07:002013-02-06T18:30:52.744-08:00Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult<a href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQN-l7_W2e1EwSiMIVT8M2ISRNwCczi5QjrW8iC1kK5g1sjTrMYBA" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQN-l7_W2e1EwSiMIVT8M2ISRNwCczi5QjrW8iC1kK5g1sjTrMYBA" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 190px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 125px;" /></a>
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I tried to recommend this book to a friend going to the beach and she responded with: "I don't like Jodi Picoult. That book where the sisters and the organs." Her response made me chuckle. So many people struggled with that book. The thing is Picoult's books are always thought-provoking and intriguing. Who wouldn't sign on for a thought-provoking read? This book is no different.
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Unlike most of Picoult's books, a reader doesn't know when she begins what the main issue is in the novel. I like that I truly didn't know what was coming. I also found the focus on embryos and legal rights fascinating as it is something I briefly studied in my 1L contracts class. Can two parents create a contract explaining what happens to their future embryos if they divorce? In some states yes. In others these are not binding. And what happens if there is no contract? In Sing You Home, a marriage falls apart after ten years of infertility, and the ex-wife and ex-husband dramatically change their lifestyles. Max, seeking for something to guide him, becomes deeply religious. Zoe, falls in love with her friend and embraces life as a lesbian. Zoe and her partner want to use Zoe and Max's remaining embryos. Max does not accept homosexuality and decides any baby of his would be better off raised by his brother and sister-in-law (who also struggle with infertility). And so the legal brouhaha begins.
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This was a thought-provoking and engaging read. And while I found it hard to believe two people who spent nine year living together could wind up so far apart and unaccepting of the other's life styles, I was able to suspend belief enough to accept the tenor of the story. My mother also enjoyed this book although she wanted even more resolution at the end. What did other's think?marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-57934688520588649092011-08-23T09:18:00.000-07:002011-09-05T12:14:28.405-07:00Short ReviewsSince I've been so delinquent at reviewing lately, I thought I'd try to make things easier on my self. Here are some short reviews of some of my recent reads.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Then Came You</span> by Jennifer Weiner<br />I found the topic of this book incredibly interesting as I recently spent time learning about the legal issues involved with surrogacy and donor eggs. Before delving into the book I learned that <a href="http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/a-baby-with-three-mothers/">Weiner was inspired by a recent NYT Magazine article</a> penned by Alex Kuczynski about hiring a gestational surrogate to carry her baby. I remember that article and the evocative pictures quite well (I can still recall the mother with her baby nurse at her side juxtaposed with the barefoot pregnant surrogate) and thought a fictional take would be quite intriguing. I definitely enjoyed the book but at times I felt that the characters were too stereotypical or stock. I also missed Weiner's signature snark. Overall, I thought the book succeeded in showing that while the main four women belong to different socioeconomic classes they were shaped by similar experiences and could have wound up in the positions of one another. India could have easily been like Annie if she had made different choices. It was interesting to see Weiner's take on why a Princeton student would choose to be an egg-donor. In college our school newspaper had many ads for egg donors. And it's interesting to consider why someone at an Ivy League school would make such a choice. While I understand Jules's decision and was happy the book ended with her in a good position, she was in many ways a heartbreaking character in such a terrible position even if she was at an Ivy League school. It's hard to imagine their are many people of her position at Princeton (especially based on my recent conversation with a friend who attended Princeton). This was certainly an engaging and interesting read but it isn't my all time favorite Weiner novel.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">What Alice Forgot</span> by Liane Moriarty<br />I know some other <a href="http://booksaremything.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-alice-forgot.html">book bloggers have really enjoyed this book</a>, but I had a lot of trouble accepting the premise. While I can suspend believe and accept that it is possible for someone to get amnesia that causes them to forget ten years of their life (well I actually can't, but I can for the purpose of reading fiction), I simply found it hard to believe that so much would change in a person's life and personality in ten years. I know that is the point of the novel. Ten years and three children changes a marriage and causes a person to change. Maybe when I am in this position myself I will suddenly look back and accept the premise of this novel. But in the meantime the premise just seemed farcical. The book was engaging enough but I just found myself not 100% invested.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The End of Everything</span> by Megan Abbott<br />This book was so incredibly unique and in many ways off-putting. I loved the language and I thought the perspective of thirteen year old Lizzie was authentic and vibrant. Lizzie and Evie are next door neighbors and best friends and when Evie disappears Lizzie gets actively involved in figuring out what happened to her friend. She believes she would know if Evie was dead and she sets out to help bring her friend back. The book is quite surprising as it isn't a story of a "typical" abduction (or at least the way the stories of abductions are portrayed in the news). The book also raises a great deal of questions about what is an appropriate relationship between a father and daughter and a male figure and a daughter figure. Is it acceptable for Mr. Verver (Evie's father) to talk about love with Lizzie. Is it acceptable that in many ways Lizzie has a crush or infatuation with her friend's father? Lizzie's own father doesn't live with her and e she hungers for fatherly attention. Does this make Lizzie's behavior more acceptable? I saw that a reviewer on Goodreads (who is a therapist) stated that she saw a lot of pathology in the book. I would agree. There is a lot going on in this novel that isn't kosher in the eyes of society. There is a lot going on in the book that is understated and in the shadows. Abbott has a real gift with the way she hints at things. She never overtly hits the reader over the head with details. This is a powerful story about friendship and coming of age but also about family complexities and realizing we cannot truly know someone if they don't allow us to. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">French Lessons</span> by Ellen Sussman<br />This was a really fun read and an interesting character study. I appreciated the structure of the novel which focuses on three French tutors and their tutees. In the end the stories interconnect in such an artful way. I was very intrigued by the lives of the French tutors. They were teaching French but all wanted to be doing something else. They are young people unsure how to chart their futures but they are French and they seem so different than their American counterparts. They struggle and yet seem so much less weighted down by their problems. The American characters' problems seem so much larger. Josie is recovering from a forbidden and now lost love and runs away to Paris. Riley is a young mother living abroad finding Parisian life anything but enjoyable. Jeremy is trying to figure out how to deal with his wife's large and loud lifestyle. I loved the characters Sussman created and am in awe of how well she develops each of them in their short novella like chapters. A truly wonderful and novel read. Plus, it's like one big tour of Paris!<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">A Year and Six Seconds</span> by Isabel Gillies<br />I loved Gilles'<span style="font-style:italic;"> It Happens Every Day</span> and was excited to read about her new marriage. I found the book engaging but not as interesting as her first memoir. The chapter in which she details her meeting and courtship with her husband were incredibly engaging (and he seems wonderful) but I think the beginning of the book was less engaging. The story of a mother with two young children who must return home to her parent's apartment in NYC is of intriguing but I found myself somewhat detached. That being said Gilles tone is the same: intimate and conversational. We feel her depression over her failed marriage and her insecurity over needed her parents while a thirty-something young mother. We sit with her as she tries to cobble together a future for herself and her sons. In the end, I was so overjoyed that Gilles found new love and a pathway to happiness.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Mothers and Daughters</span> by Rae Meadows<br />I loved this book. I could really feel for Samantha, a young mother trying to balance her artistic impulses, motherhood and grief over the loss of her mother. I really appreciated the elements of undiscovered family history and the three different voices.marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8266222750909925218.post-22048773385764152622011-08-06T11:03:00.000-07:002011-08-06T11:33:17.761-07:00The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSRgpwHJayGQrSMtajy4Dd-afDeRxEtX4qR4NklDjK7MKDaO8w_"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 268px;" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSRgpwHJayGQrSMtajy4Dd-afDeRxEtX4qR4NklDjK7MKDaO8w_" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I just received an email from the library that they have assumed I have lost this book as it was due back in late June. I've been holding on to it with the intention of writing a review. Book Blogging Fail. Now that I've acquired an immense amount of fines I need to actually write a review.<br /><br />I absolutely loved this book. It had my favorite recipe: interesting family, unique settings and change over time. Even a month and a half later certain key scenes stick out in my mind. It is a story that will stay with you and keep you thinking about the characters long after you close the book (if you aren't using an e-reader of course). <br /><br />The book is dedicated "to everybody who left home." And in that simple dedication, as in the evocative title, a bigger message is sent. This is a story about growing up, leaving a provincial world for a bigger one. It's about the dreams we give up on and the new ones chartered in the midst of the heavy sting of reality. It's about looking back and finally understanding that people weren't lying when they said: "when you are older you'll understand." It's about four siblings in Iowa with disparate dreams and ricocheting life paths. But the stories of these four siblings allow Thompson to ruminate on a plethora of topics: the drudgery of stay-at-home motherhood, the realities of marriage, the Vietnam War, the naivete of youth, Alcoholism and its effect on family members, post-partum depression, brain injuries, divorce, the move away from an agrarian society.<br /><br />When I started reading about a wedding in Iowa in January 1973, I didn't envision that the book would span out to so many diverse locales and time periods. Like many family stories, the one at the center of this book is hard to predict and filled with ups and downs. There is a moment early on where I was truly devastated for one of the characters. She doesn't get the opportunity to leave home, at least not in the way she imagined (and she only leaves home much later). I found that the characters were incredibly flawed and human. I didn't always care for each one of them as a person, and yet I cared deeply about what would happen to them.<br /><br />At the end of the book one the characters (a Vietnam vet who has never truly been alright since his service) says: "Why not, It's my goddamned country too." And then: "It's like family. No matter how fucked up it is, it's the only one you got." It's not a new sentiment. And yet the whole idea of savoring what you have (even if it is flawed) is such a central message of the novel. This is a human family with individuals who hurt each other, and disappoint one another, and find each other in places they never envisioned. And yet they carry on. And sometimes they even return home.<br /><br />I know this is a book I will read again. Hopefully next time I won't accrue as many library fines!marnesandnoblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04948686357689516692noreply@blogger.com0