NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY-Don't let this get away

Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leafs a flower, But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf, So Eden sank to grief.
So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. (Frost)

Ron Rash's short story collection pays homage to Frost's alluring & melancholy poem.  The stories all share a theme of loss, solitude and forewarning.  Heed one own's instinctive "alarm bell." Know that "luck is due to run out." Do not give into temptation, lest you pay dearly for you choices.  Rash's stories speak of the loss of innocence, "fighting the Japanes in WWI you weren't even a man anymore. It's a wonder any of us could come back & be human again." The stories also smite those who judge.  Judge not lest ye be judged.  Collectively, they evoke a remoteness of an older era.  All the stories are poignant & poetic.  I was most moved with the story of 2 black runaway slaves.  A Confederate farmer entraps the 2 men.  The younger knew to flee but was lured back. The older slave is allowed to escape after he binds the young runaway who was left behind to face the noose.  The stories in NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY are etched with sorrow in realms of gold.

We are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Karen Fowler's novel is about your typical family, unless you find raising a chimp with your children to be atypical.  Rose, our beguiling heroine, becomes a sister to Fern, a newborn chimp. Rose's parents accepted Fern into the family when both were infants.  Rose's father is a psychologist conducting a study to learn whether chimps can learn language skills.  Lowell, Rose's older, wiser & more militant brother asks "Why does she have to learn our language?  Why can't we learn hers?"  Both Rose & Lowell become devoted to Fern.  Both learn to communicate in simpatico with Fern.  As the daughter of a psycholgist, Rose determines that "the thing being studied is rarely the thing being studied."  Fowler is a skillful writer.  "Completely"is vastly entertaining and exasperating.  Rose likes to tell her story from the middle, and skip the beginning.  We learn that as the infernal talking "monkey girl," Rose is friendless until her college years.  Her college life begins with her arrest although she is an innocent bystander in a cafeteria melee.  The boundaries between animal & human behaviors are blurred.  Memories and their accuracies are susceptible to change.  Definitely, life with Fern is astonishing.  But, when Fern is removed from the home, for disputable reasons, the fallout proves devastating.  As an animal advocate, Fowler is preaching to the choir.  As a storyteller, Fowler brought her A game, completely.

Pulitz Prize '13 - The Orphan Master's Son

Adam Johnson's novel, The Orphan Master's Son, is this year's Pulitz. Prize winner.  It is a gripping and relentless look at life in N. Korean under the terrifying, sequestered reign of Sun Young II.  Torture, starvation, forced labor & constant fear and forced labor typify life in N. Korea. The people of N. Korea are coereced into tortuing & kidnapping each other.  Adam Johnson, an American author, who is reknowned for contesting propoganda on all fronts.  Here he writes a very disturbing and complex novel.  He utilizes the narrative of 3 voices, Jon Do, Commander Ga and Jon Do as the "replaced" Commander Ga.  Human life in N. Korea holds no significance.  A person's life/history is subject to rewriting or dismissal.  The novel exposes the dangers of propoganda & brainwashing.  Despite the oppressive life in N. Korea, Johnson also explores the depth of love & sacrifice.  English speaking Jon Do, is sent to the U.S. as an interpreter on a detente mission.  The biting irony of looking at the U.S. from the viewpoint of N. Koreans is also a clever stab at propaganda.  This is an intelligent & demanding novel that is richly rewarding.  It has received many literary awards in addition to the Pulitz.; the Nat'l Book Circle '12. The Orphan Master's Son is an important work of artistry that I recommend everyone should read.  I speak the truth, not propaganda.

Love Anthony by Lisa Genova, Unconditional Love

Lisa Genova is the award winning, best selling author of "Still Alice," which chronicles a woman who has early onset Alzheimer.  In "Love Anthony," Genova examines life as an autistic boy, Anthony, and the heartache & love this brings to a family.  The novel is set in Nantucket where two women are dealing with cracks in their marriage.  Anthony is the son of Olivia & David.  The anguish of managing Anthony siphons the love from his parents marriage which does not survive.  Beth & Jimmy, parents of 3 girls, have separated as a result of Jimmy's adulterous affair.  Beth returns to her writing & channels inside the mind of an autistic child & gives voice to his perceptions .  There are also Olivia's journals reflecting on caring for a child with autism.  Genova is not only a gifted writer, she holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard.  Love Anthony makes for a compassionate, heartfelt story.  "Love Anthony," is about what people need from each other to feel loved in a marriage and what it means to love unconditionally. 

This Will be Difficult to Explain-Easy to Enjoy

Johanna Skibsrud's This Will be Difficult to Explain: and Other Stories, is a quirky &  hypnotic collection of short stories.  "Difficult" will give those who love the artform reason to cheer.  For those who have maximum indifference to short stories, this collection is bound to convert you to appreciate the powerful impact laden in this format.  Skibsrud is a Canadian author whose 1st novel The Sentimentalist '10, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize & her poetry has been shortlisted for the Atlantic Prize.  Her intriguing stories paint vivid characters whose lives have taken unexpected & mostly undesirable  turns.  There are recurring themes to her stories that are presented fresh in each with entirely unique characters & scenarios.  It's intriguing to read her stories dealing with death, filial bonds & resentments, & sexual promiscuity.  "I am uncertain that she will ever die, and as she overwhelms my daily life, my daily bread, I long for her exit."  It is difficult to do justice to the creative writing in these stories that are entirely engrossing.