Irish Author Deidre Madden's TIME PRESENT & TIME PAST

Award winning Irish novelist, Madden has crafted a luminescent novel pondering life's fleeting & grounding moments.  Fintan, 47 & a successful legal advisor is the matriach of an intriguing family of well drawn characters. He has a kind, doting wife, 2 older sons who bewilder him, a young daughter he loves beyond measure, an irascible mother, his mother's kindhearted sister & his own sister who resides  with their aunt.  The character's are beautifully drawn, yet for Fintan they remain enigmas. Fintan does categorize his family members as either hawkes or doves based on their aggressive or gentle dispositions.  Fintan, becomes fascinated with photography after sorting through old photos with his sister.  Fintan becomes drawn to the capacity photos have to "stop time" and "reconcile the past & the present."  Madden's elegaic prose is a reflection of life's swiftness, of "time racing on, racing like a palpitating heart."  Time is well spent reading this masterpiece.  It has the power to cause you to cherish  your memories and to be grateful & cognisant of living in the present.      

ONE PLUS ONE Ad hoc Families Improvising as Best They Can

British author Jojo Moyes' novel "One Plus One" takes many unexpected twists for the strewn together Thomas family, spearheaded by single, working class mom, Jess, her math prodigy daughter Tanzi from estranged husband, Marty & Nicky, Marty's son from a former relationship.  Jess became pregnant with her daughter while in high school.  She's determined to provide a loving, stable home for her daughter.   Life rarely follows a smooth path.  Obstacles abound making life's journey arduous & unpredictable.  Marty proves to be a major screw-up & soons abandon Jess & Tanzi but not before leaving Jess with his son Nicky.  Tanzi is 2,  Nicky 8, when he 1st comes to live with them. Tanzi ask's Nicky what their family relationship is, he quips "we're a family of losers."  Tanzi is a math "geek" oblivious to her social pariah status.  Nicky is all too aware of his outcast status.  He is a relentless target of vicious beatings from bullies.  Meanwhile, unflappable Jess, is working 2 jobs; barely scraping by & with barely enough time to spend with "both her children."  The love connecting Jess, Tanzi, Nicky & Norman, their wolf size lunk of a dog is endearing & resilient.  Today's families are in constant flux.  Jess is the responsible/caring parent who holds their family together.  She provides unqualified love and moral fortitude.  Jess tells Nicky & Tanzi "I've learned it's best to be honest & stand-up & follow the compass."  Their paths cross with Ed, a decent kind man except for the fact he's under investigation for insider trading.  A hilarious romp ensues in Ed's van with Jess, Nicky, Tanzi & Norman.  This joyride of a novel does not so much pontificate "to do the right thing," as it speaks to fallibility, kindness to others & the indefatigable human spirit.

A Sense of the World, bio of pioneering explorer James Holman; Sightless & Fearless

A SENSE of the WORLD is the remarkable life & travels of James Holman.  Holman (b. Britain 1786) is the 1st blind person to span the globe to every inhabited continent.  His life appears incredulous,  sightless, intermittently crippled, he traversed the seas & foreign lands independantly.  Jason Roberts (b. Amer.) is the author of A SENSE of the WORLD, which earned a Nat'l Book Award nom.  By any account, his travels & struggles should lend themselves to a riveting tale of adventure & discovery.  Alas, I was anchored down by the minutia attached to his feckless plans & wrangled means for maneuvering himself.  His impressive exploits were downplayed.  Ensued blindness was stigmatized.  The vast blind population survived as mendicants. "He was expected to do nothing but sit quietly for the remainder of his life."  Taking to the seas appeared far more appealing the young impoverished seaman rendered restless with few options.  He seemed more resourceful than courageous; an opportunist willing to travel alone relying on assistance from strangers.  I was put off by Roberts' assumptions of how blind people are perceived.  "The notion is that they spend their lives in that uncertain, unsettling state."  Roberts contends his book "documents not just a profoundly inspiring figure, but one of history's most richly lived lives."  I enjoyed the historical context during the time of Holman's travels.  The skirmishes at sea that continued to plaque Americans after the Amer. Revolution.  The British continued to abduct sailors from American vessels.  His Majesty did not acknowledge his subjects the right to revoke their British citizenship.  The barbaric medical treatments of the day were also eye opening; lancings to the eyes, leeching, scolding of skin & blood letting.  Holman relied on observations from others to record his encounters he had published with some success from 1819-1832.  I recommend skimming over A SENSE of the WORLD & glancing at Holman's own writings.      

COLOMBIAN author Juan Vasquez's "The Sound of Things Falling" Resonates

The seductive & eloquent novel by Vasquez (b. Columbia 1973) is set in Bogota during the bloody drug cartel years of the 1980's.  Drug lord Pablo Escobar reigned terror on the streets of Bogota.  People lived in daily fear of  indiscriminate shootings.  Escobar became incredibly wealthy & notorious from drug smuggling & murder.  Each generation has its defining historic events.  Vasquez somnolent prose lends a dreamlike quality to the cataclysmic, life altering events during the Medellin cartel.  The novel is devotes itself to the damaging exercise of remembering.  Antonio, a young Univ. professor befriends the elderly Ricardo & their lives intertwine briefly.  Ricardo is released after serving a long jail term for flying cocaine into the U.S.  Ricardo is killed in a drive by shooting alongside Antonio who is left physically & emotionally scarred.  Ricardo was eagerly awaintg the arrival of his estranged American wife after their lengthy separation, hopeful of a reconciliation.  Antonio obtains the cassette belonged to Ricardo containing the recording of the black box from the doomed flight with Ricardo's wife on board. The book's title refers to "the sounds of live being extinguished, the sound of things falling from on high."  Recorded messages from those trapped in the Twin Towers to their loved ones are tragic & deeply personally deserving of our acknowledgement & respect.  Vasquez quotes an  Aurelio Artoro poem written in 1929, "Unblinking, I watched it collapse and fall like a rose petal under a hoof.  Walls fell over the beloved voices... toppling like a city collapsing in screams."  This unflinching & poignant novel cautions: "There is no more destructive mania than the speculation over roads not taken." Take time to read Vasquez's award winning novel "The Sound of Things Falling."  It resonates deeply with sorrow, wisdom & beauty.