Dave King's 1st Novel THE HA-HA Has Many Touching AH HAH Moments

King's THE HA-HA has been awarded the Quill's Fdtn. Best Debut Novel.  It is a very touching & affecting novel the speaks directly to the heart.  It's protagonist, Harold, a Viet Nam Vet., lost the ability to communicate verbally from a severe head injury that nearly killed him a few weeks into his tour of duty.  Physical therapy restored his strength & mobility.  He sustained a grotesque disfigurement to his skull and speech therapy was unsuccessful.  His guttural gruntings and physique created a barrier between himself & most people.  Harold displays a card stating he is of normal intelligence but unable to speak which is a source of humiliation. "I'd have loved more people if I hadn't been injured." Ha-ha is defined as a landscape design element that sets up a barrier while permitting views. Our protagonist, works as a gardener for a nunnery. He is cut off from others. Yet, we experience & empathize with everything he feels & thinks.  I thought of him as a kind, misunderstood character similar to the hunchback of Notre Dame. Harold's only romantic link was to Sylvia from high school. Sylvia is deceivingly self-centered & self-destructive. She uses Harold and he is at her beck & call.  She's headed to drug rehab & asks Harold to care for her 9 yr. old son, Ryan, on a moments notice for an indeterminate amount of time. Their growing connection causes Harold to feel "Something has shifted, and one more something has switched open within me."  King has written a winning novel about human connection, unrequited love, kindness & cruelty.  Harold is an unforgettable character.  He  learns "…to choose this life more than {he} thought. " THE HA-HA is a powerful testament to the healing power of human contact and the collateral toll of war.  

R Denfeld's ENCHANTED a Spellbinding Tale of Prison & Redemption

Rene Denfield is a journalist and int'l best selling author of Non-Fiction  (The New Victorians.)  ENCHANTED is her 1st novel which has been nominated for the Flaherty-Dunnan Prize.  I drew comparison with Emma Donague's novel ROOM ('10) a Man Booker Finalist.  Both darkly beautiful novels deal with imprisonment.  In ROOM the 5 year old narrator is being held captive with his mother who transforms their Hellish confinement into a sanctuary of love & wonderment.  ENCHANTED is told by an inmate on death row who escapes his forsaken lifes by reading & enshrouding himself in an imagined fantasy world.  The inmate's name is revealed only at the end.  The mute prisoner painstakingly reveals his life story.  Born to a mentally impaired mother unable to care for him, they both become prey to relentless, sexual abuse.  He becomes a ward of the state at 9 and placed in mental health institutions until he turned 18.  He is set free with no one to turn to or any understanding of how to cope in the outside world.  Still, "There are some acts that defy redemption or rage. We all just want to close our eyes to them and forget."  ENCHANTED is a mesmerizing story of the tortuous abyss of prison life. There are caring individuals working inside that provide comfort for the inmates while coping with their own grief.  "Even monsters need a person who truly wants to listen- to hear."  Their stories are as compelling as Arden's.  They provide hope, humanity and the pull of life.

Sue Miller's The ARSONIST is rubbish

Amer. novelist Sue Miller is a best selling author.  Her novel WHILE I WAS GONE was an Oprah Pick and two of her earliest novelist made into films.  I think that Miller's earlier works such as FAMILY PICTURES or THE WORLD BELOW were intelligent, beautifully written novels.  In other words, I feel her writing has gone downhill, way below the quality of her earlier novels.  THE SENATOR'S WIFE which came out in '08 was a disappointing, soap operish novel of infidelity within political circles which felt dated.  THE ARSONIST is a contemporary love story set in a small town between Bud and Frankie.  Frankie is the female protagonist. She has been an aid worker in worn torn countries in Africa and meets Bud on her return to her family home in a small New England Town.  Bud has taken over the local paper after leaving his political reporting job in D.C. to live a life in the bedrock of a small community.  Frankie has always wanted more than her provincial life and strains against the ties that bind.  The banal happenings in this quaint town take a combustible turn as an arsonist begins burning down local homes.  Miller touches lightly on several hot topics: world hunger, social divides, misognystic attitudes, and senility.  These all flammable topics that get mired in the unresolved mystery of the arsonist.  It also gets watered down by the silly dilemma of Frankie's torment:   "Even if she'd found a way to lead a life big enough for her here…she couldn't stay. She couldn't make Bud her life."  The ARSONIST didn't kindle any substantive interest.  Her promising earlier novels are worth your time but this latest work has burned bridges for the future.

Kent Haruf's last work OUR SOULS at NIGHT

OUR SOULS at NIGHT is aptly named.  The novel by award winning novelist Kent Haruf (PLAIN SONG) is being posthumously published. The title refers to liberating oneself from convention and pursuing our heart's desires.  Haruf wrote this tender love story knowing it would be the last novel he would complete before dying of cancer.  His simple, clear prose is perfect for the purity of the love that blossoms late in life for two septuagenarians; Addie & Louis.  We become attached to these warm individuals and empathize with their contemplative reckonings.  Addie gets the gumption to approach a neighbor whom she barely knows with an unusual proposal. ("People can do the unexpected.") Addie asks Louis to share her bed at night for a platonic, comforting companionship.  Louis though taken aback, admires her courage, honesty and her ability to live without concern for what others think.  "I don't want to live like that anymore-for other people, what they think, what they believe.  I don't think it's the way to live."   Louis agrees and their soul baring pillow talk leads to richer lives.  Still, there are nay sayers among family and local gossips.  Louis tells Addie "You have been good for me.  What more could anyone ask for?  I'm a better person than I was before we got together." I commend Haruf's charming and inspiring swan song.    

John Green's PAPER TOWN is Worth Reading

PAPER TOWN is a literary Y/A novel by the best selling author John Green (The FAULT in OUR STARS.)  FAULT dealt with young star crossed lovers and paid homage to Shakespear.  PAPER TOWN is also about high school students and a seemingly unrequited love story between the femme fatale hottie and boy next door; several stratas lower on the high school social hierarchy.  Green's crafty storytelling weaves Whitman's poetry and legendary jazz & country music mostly unknown to todays'  teens  Light is also shed on the impetuous behaviors oblivious to today's parents.  Margo, is anything but your typical teen.  Besides being unbelievably gorgeous, she's an enigma whose escapades are legendary.  She also has a history of running away from home.  Margo easily persuades Quentin to be her driver on an all night mission impossible adventure.  Quentin barely gets him before he's roused for school.  At school, Quentin meets up with his 2 best buds but Margo is a no show & remains missing.  Margo is 18 and her parents fed up with her antics, change the locks on their home.  When she doesn't return days later, Quentin & his amigos go on a madcap road trip pursuing her esoteric clues in hopes of finding her.  The movie PAPER TOWN is soon to follow.  The novel pursues a lengthy trail that gets wearisome but is well worth reading for its many charms & youthful exuberance.

Nick Hornby's Funny Lady-Not Funny, Fresh Or Entertaining

British novelist Nick Hornby is a best selling author.  His acclaimed works ABOUT a BOY & HIGH FIDELITY were both made into successful movies.  FUNNY LADY is a departure from his other comedic novels.  In his current novel, Hornby is more ambitious in scope.  The novel traces the origins of British comedy & political norms from the 1960's to the present.  Hornby outlines how & what conventions were shattered.  This is admirable, however, the novel reads more like a thesis regarding  groundbreaking television sitcoms once considered shocking and now appear merely tame or lame.  Also noted are politcal changes involving homosexuality, women's rights, class system and racial integration.  Funny Lady refers to Barbara who in the early 60's knew she wanted more than her provincial life. Through  spunk & hard work, she made a name for herself in entertainment. While references are made to I LOVE LUCY, it brought to mind the Dick Van Dyke show. Barbara like Rose Marie were the only females contribuing to a comedy show. I was also reminded of Archie Bunker, the lovable working class bigot.  "The BBC believed that comedy was the enemy."  Hornby has documented a pivotal epoch that today no longer shocks.  The novel has historic intellectual roughage but is lacking in delightful enjoyment.