Swedish Author F Backman's Int'l Bestseller "A Man Call Ove"

Fredrik Backman's (b. Sweden 1981) novel "A Man Called Ove" was relentless; kicking repeatedly the overplayed theme of an old curmudgeon with a big heart.  The story starts with some charm in the guise  of an angry old grouch Ove, who is at war with the world.  Ove is maniacal in his meticulous convictions on - everything.  He complains to his beloved Sonja and we're sympathetic, but not surprised to learn that he is in fact a lonely widower.  I was besotted by their love story told in flashback and amazed at the stalwart love that Sonja showed for Ove; much like Edith for Archie.  Next, new neighbors move in next door with 2 adorable precocious girls, & patient pregnant mother & hapless father.  Yadah Yadah - the gruff carapace cracks and Ove becomes LOVEd despite of and for his indomitable qualities and capacity for fair play.  However, the goodwill wanes and the story moves forward at a tortoise pace.  Some will be delighted by this disarming story, but I say - bah humbug.  

Jamaican Author Marlon James Wins Man Booker for "A Brief History of Seven Killings"

Marlon James (b. Jamaica 1970) is the recipient of several prestigious honors for "A Brief History of Seven Killings."  The novel won this years' Man Book Prize, was a finalist for the Nat'l Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Lit. for fiction.  I read only 100 pages of this densely packed 700 novel.  Perhaps, I'm too dense to comprehend the multiple narratives and too uncomfortable to deal with the violent historical unrest in Jamaica in the mid 1970's.  Having said that, I do perceive the literary genius in James' complex writing.  The multiple narratives, including ghost voices of the dead, are all tied around the world famous singer Bob Marley & the major concert he is about to perform in his native country.  Marley's rocket rise to fame is even more incredulous knowing his impoverished & violent upbringing in a country that is basically corrupt.  I applaud the writing, deplore the historical events and regret that I did not have the temerity to persevere.  Perhaps I will return to this novel after putting it aside.  But, the storytelling does not facilitate an ease for picking up & putting down.  It demands a focus to keep pace with the turbulence that confronts you from numerous angles.  A light vacation read?  Absolutely not - it is a tour de force that may fire over most people's heads (including my own.)  This explosive novel is nothing like the Disney "Cool Runnings" film (1993.)

REFUND short stories by Karen Bender Bargain at Twice the Price

American novelist and short story writer, Karen Bender has received many literary honors.  Her recent short story collection REFUND was a Nat'l Book Award Finalist (2015.)  Her competition this year most have been incredible because her writing skills are in a class with Updike, Cheever and Monroe.  Bender's contemporary succinct writing creates an immediate connection to  her characters.  She also paints a lucid canvas of pressing concerns & events of the 21st C.  The title story "Refund" is a mounting story of agitation in the periphery of the terrorist attack on 9/11.  It packs a blind sided wallop. Still, it is Bender's brilliant, nuanced written work that instills us with befuddlement of how we arrived at where we are and the epiphany of life's ephemeral beauty. "Is this where my life has led?  Where do I go now?  How long do I have to live, anyway?"  I guarantee her stories will grab you.  If not, I'll  refund your money back.

The Kitchen Help-Important Historical Fiction that Needs Help with the Writing

Kathleen Grissom's novel "The Kitchen Help" is historical fiction portraying the brutal oppression of slavery in our country.  Canadian author Grissom takes on the heinous brutalities inflicted on slaves as seen through the eyes of an indentured white girl, Lavinia, and Belle, a black slave both living on the same plantation.  Lavinia was 5 when her parents were sailing to America from Ireland in 1791.  Both parents died on board.  Gravely ill, she was brought to the plantation by its owner.  Her parents were to work off their passage as indentured slaves.  The plantation master brought Lavinia back to work as indebted by her parent's.  Caring little for the sickly girl, Lavinia was placed among the slave quarters where she finds acceptance, love and family. Belle, is the child of the Captain & one of his slaves. Belle receives his doting and affection which also brings resentment from others.  Both girls are living in a world apart; below white aristocracy and above harsh conditions of field slave hands.  Belle, takes it upon herself to care for Lavinia and is warmly embraced by black slaves that form Belle's extended family.  The parallel narratives was a clever device.  However, this novel would have worked better written as Young Adult fiction.  We watch Lavinia discover divided stations in life as she grows into adolescence.  "I was awakened to a new realization and made aware of a line drawn in black and white though the depth of it still had little meaning to me."  The important messages are lost in an undertow of stupor.  A missed opportunity; this should have been something super.

Richard Ford's "Let Me Be Frank With You" Receives a Pulitzer Prize Nom.

Richard Ford latest work,"Let Me Be Frank With You" a novella of 4 linked stories, heralds the return of Ford's main character, Frank Bascombe.  Frank was the hero of a trilogy of novels. "Independence Day" won Ford the Putlizer Prize.  "Let Me Be…" earned Ford another Pulitzer Prize nom. & deserves accolades for his deft writing I find reminiscent of literary giants such as Updike and Roth.  All 3 prolific writers have carried a person into subsequent novels.  What makes these characters so inhabitable are the astute observations rendering them all zeitgeists.  Ford reportedly retired Frank Bascombe but the tempest of Hurricane Sandy and it's massive destruction volted his resurrection.  The carefully strewn events & characters in Frank's life are given their due and their story arches.  The eye of the hurricane in these brilliant novellas is the Hurricane itself and its aftermath. "There's something to be said for a good no-nonsense hurricane to bully life back into perspective."  Ford refers to life's ever changing impacts all leading towards death; the final, permanent transition.  Far from being macabre, Ford's eloquent writing is dense with profound observations of life & love.  "Love isn't a thing, after all, but an endless series of single acts."  Frank's wife "views life as one thing leading naturally, intriguingly to another; whereas I {Frank} look at life in terms of failures survived."   To be perfectly honest "Let Me Be Frank With You," is a work of literary genius.  I recommend reading everything written by Richard Ford, including his afterword in "Let Me…" where he argues his prerogative to call upon his alter ego Frank.

THE HUSBAND'S SECRETS by Australian Chick Lit Author Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty (b. Australia 1966) is a best selling author of chick lit genre.  This book makes a plane ride fly by quickly. There is intrigue, an unsolved murder and infidelities.  The cunning plot has clever commentaries on marriage, family & relationships. The story begins when Cecilia, the married mother of 3 inadvertently finds an envelope written by her husband marked "to be opened only in the event of my death."  Cecilia questions her husband before opening the envelope which piques Cecelia's curiosity. She does what we want- reads the letter which opens a pandora box of pandemonium and evil.  Several interwoven plots are built together which come crumbling down; much like the Berlin wall.  One of Cecilia's daughter's is obsessed with learning about the Berlin wall.  The metaphor for putting up barriers are heavyhanded and the final deconstruction of events is less than gratifying.  But the (female) reader will be driven to read on to find out who done it and who will pay.  It's no mystery why this is a guilty pleasure but I have no interest in opening more Moriarty's novels.    

Jonathan Franzen's Novel PURITY is Not Worthy of Your Time

PURITY is Jonathan Franzen's most recent novel.  Franzen is a best selling author (FREEDOM) & received the Nat'l Bk Award for CORRECTIONS in '01.  Known for writing vivid,vile characters and capturing the current significant events of the time, Franzen's writing is recognizable in PURITY.  Despite creating repellant characters in these novels, they were also riveting.  However, the characters in PURITY are mentally unstable and incredulous.  Purity, "Pip" the central young heroine, does not have great expectations for her life.  She's managed to graduate college despite being raised by a single mom, living in impoverished squalor.  Laiden with huge student debt, Pip is at odds with what to make of her future.  Do not have great expectations for where the road will lead for Pip.  The intertwining storylines & characters provide an unadulterated mess of unrealistic twists & turns.  The ubiquitous use of the term purity is a sounding board for evil, insanity and obsession.   The extremely flawed characters make reading PURITY a pain.  Their relentless expectations & demands put Miss Havirsham to shame.  The big reveal is a big letdown.  PURITY is contaminated with the behaviors of the mentally deranged.  Pip does her best to rise above the fray.  I was dragged down in this plodding novel.  

AMERICAN SUBLIME-Pulitz Prize Nom. POETRY by Elizabeth Alexander

Elizabeth Alexander's "American Sublime" is remarkable collection of poems that form a stirring quartet of historical events, Afr-Amer history, contemporary artists and autobiographical reflections.  Her writing has a bluesy melancholy mode, a strong sense of pride and a dreamlike quality.  Alexander was chosen by Pres Obama to deliver a poem at his 1st inauguration, "Praise Song for the Day." I strongly urge reading both her inaugural poem and "Amer Sublime."  This poetry collection is an informative accounting of slavery and a tribute to poets, musicians, political activists and writers of the 20th/21stC.  The "Amistad" section outlines the mutinous rebellion of captive slaves from Sierra Leone aboard the Spanish ship in 1839, their amazing journeys and the historical judicial proceedings in our nation's early history.  The poem Cinque Redux is told in the 1st person by the leader of the rebellion.  "I will be venerated, I will be misremembered…violent acts will be committed in my name."  "I will not proudly sail the ship home….Many things are true at once."  "Amerian Blue"segment is a moving homage to influential artists, family members and those who left an indelible imprint on her life. "Tina Green" is a loving tribute to her teacher's kindness as well as the cruelty of her peers being the "only-black-girl- in-my class story."  Alexanders' gift of words addresses issues of race in a startling manner. I was expecially struck by "Approach:" "The dark creatures are seen to be seals,….some the dull gray of the guns our captors used to steal and corral us, some the brown-black of our brothers, mothers, and two milky blue-eyed albino pups.  Albino: the congenital absence of normal pigmentation.  Something gone amiss. Anomaly, aberration.  Her poem "Ode" is a poem that resonates with warmth for all women.  "I love all the mom bodies at this beach, the tummies, the one-piece suits, the bosoms that slope, the wide nice bottoms, thigh flesh shirred as gentle wind shirrs a pond"