Melinda's Top Ten Literary Picks for 2017

The following list is in alphabetical order by author's name.  The list includes fiction, nonfiction  & poetry and is compiled from books read this past year.  The writers are American unless otherwise noted:

1.   Judd Apatow's "Sick in the Head - Conversations About Life & Comedy"  Nonfiction

2.   Paul Beatty's "The Sellout" awarded the Man Booker Prize

3.   Alain de Botton "The Course of Love" Swiss author awarded The Fellowship of Schopenhauer

4.    Michael Chabon "Moonglow" Memoir - Pulitizer Prize winning author

5.    Maylis de Kerangal "The Heart" French author nominated for Concourt des Lyceens

6.    Galway Kinnel "Strong is Your Hold" Poetry - Award Pulitzer Prize for Poetry & a Nat'l Book
       Award winner

7.    Dolan Ryan "All We Shall Know" Irish author nominated for the Man Booker Award

8.    George Saunders "Lincoln at the Bardot" - Mann Booker winning author

9.    Jesmyn Wards "Sing, Unburied Sing" awarded the Nat'l Book Award

10.  E.B. White's novella on NYC "Here is New York" Pulitzer Prize Special Citation writer

Jesse Ball's Novel "A Cure for Suicide" I Couldn't Endure this Psychological Fiction Depiction

Jesse Ball (b Amer 1978) is a novelist, poet and sketch artist.  "A Cure for Suicide" was long listed for the Nat'l Book Award (2015).  I couldn't endure the sparse, irritating context of a man (the claimant" and a woman (the examiner).   The examiner is steering the claimant to start his life over; having no knowledge of his personal history or how to function in the world.  The examiner (who asks to be called Teresa) informs the claimant (whom she names Anders) "We give you the freedom to make every conceivable mistake and have them all be forgotten."  The sic-fi psychological premise might have held promise but the outline is so blank it was too frustrating & tedious to engage with the characters.  The banal & uninspiring dialogue is dull.  "What would you call me"  I would call you examiner.  That's right, and why am I an examiner?  Because your work is to examine people and things and help to achieve balance."  Teresa mentors Anders with baby step guidance that goes at a torpid pace.  There is such sparse insight or background into how either Anders or Teresa present circumstance that there is nothing from which to build any curiosity.  "Teresa, he said.  I want to know more about your life."  It is a part of the help I bring you, she said.  One day, you will have heard so much that you tire of it."  I tired from their baffling and mind numbing exchange.  I did not venture to invest more time in this novel I found so off-putting.  "A Cure for Suicide" was too dormant for me to trudge through.  Perhaps I may find some intriguing prose in Ball's poetry.  "A person can travel when they have music.  Just as much as by walking."

Sam Shepard's "Spy of the First Person" Posthumously Published - Preambles to Mortality

Sam Sheperd (b Amer 1943-2017) was a Renaissance Man.  He was Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Oscar nominated actor and was a finalist for the W H Smith Literary award for his story collection and accomplished musician.  He was a member of the Amer. Acad. of Arts & Letters and an inductee into the Theater Hall of Fame.  Sheperd left a legacy of more than 50 plays and appeared in over 60 films.  He also left a legacy of two sons, Jesse and Walker and daughter Hannah.  Sheperd's final literary work "Spy of the First Person" was completed days before his passing in July and published posthumously.  The prose is an elegiac musing of his past, his family's history, social issues and his progressing illness.  It reads in part as a fable and in part as a memoir.  His narrative directed to the reader is intimate and revelatory.  "I'm not trying to prove anything to you.  I'm not trying to prove that I was the father you believed me to be when you were very young.  I've made some mistakes but I have no idea what they were.  And I've never desired to start over again.  I have no desire to eliminate pats of myself."  The novel has a magical sense of time which is hazy & perplexing.   As Sheperd mulls "Once upon a time - once upon a period in the past.  Many different things going on and so many of these different things seemed to matter.  Now they don't.  Then they did, but now they don't."  There is a voyeur glimpse of a doppelgänger figure whose declining health mirrors his own waning capabilities.  "Spy of the First Person" is a preamble requiem of a life filled with adventure, achievements and accolades.  Sheperd's eminent fulfilment came from familial love and the assurance of his progeny.   "I'll never forget the strength I felt from my two boys behind me.  Following us were my daughter Hannah, both my sisters and my daughter-in-law."  "The thing I remember most is being more or less helpless and the strength of my sons."

Pulitz. Prize Author Elizabeth Stout's "Anything is Possible" Ties Her Last Heroine Lucy Bates but Doesn't Rate

Elizabeth Stout (b Amer 1956) is a best selling novelist.  Her novel "Olive Kitteridge" received the Pulitzer Prize (2008) and was made into a mini-series starting Bill Murray & France McDormand.  She maintains repeating motifs dealing with the struggle to rise above one's station in life.  Her novel "Olive…" was structured with numerous characters set in a small town whose lives intertwine in unexpected and rewarding ways.  The story seemed a loose string of adept novellas bound together into a cohesive & clever novel.  Stout's previous novel "My Name is Lucy Barton" was met with critical & financial success.  The heroine Lucy Barton is brought into "Anything is Possible" as the fulcrum for the tangential characters are either family members or have connections to her, her family or her childhood  hometown.  Having left behind her impoverished & bleak small town, Lucy has achieved success as a writer having moved to Chicago.  The undercurrent of this ambitious but unsatisfying novel is the overbearing weight of inertia.  The prevalent despair impairs consideration of the possibilities for obtaining love, happiness and fulfillment.  Annie is the doppelgänger for Lucy. They're  from the same place, both raised in poverty with a dysfunctional family but managed to tear themselves away and achieve a modicum of joy & acceptance in the art world.  They escaped from the binds that stagnate their peers.  Lucy is an acclaimed writer & Annie an actress of recognition.  They both take a return visit home to visit their family.  For Lucy it brought on a panic attack and for Annie, an epiphany.  Annie realizes her siblings lack passion & curiosity.  "Her brother and sister, good respectable, decent fair-minded, had never known the passion that caused a person to risk everything they had, everything they held dear heedlessly put in danger - simply to be near the white dazzle of the sun that somehow for those moments seemed to leave the world behind."   Stout's characters are not all decent & respectable.  Several characters are layered in shame for their cruel & immoral acts.  And, still others feel the uncontrolled assault of shame knowing its unwarranted.  The droves of story lines veer into so many tangents it makes the story too disjointed.  The unifying theme is that as humans we're all just a mess trying the hardest we know how;  capable of loving, but loving imperfectly.  Humans are hard wired to always look for ways to feel superior.  Still, people can surprise with kindness and their keen abilities to express things in just the right way. Thomas Wolf said "You can't go home again."  Annie's grandmother told her "Don't come back. Don't get married.  Don't have children.  All these things will bring heartache."  "Anything is Possible" proves Stout is still at the top of her writing acumen.  Her crafty writing is packed with sharp-witted observations.  The massive consensus is that happiness is rare.  The dismal tone and fractured demanding structure make "Anything…" difficult to embrace.

The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott Acclaimed Novelist & Pulitzer Prize Finalist

Alice McDermott is an esteemed American novelist.  She's received won the Nat'l Book, twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize & received the Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in Amer. Lit.  McDermott is a writer of grace and remarkable insight.  Born in America (1953) McDermott's novel share a commonality of Irish immigrants coming to the US.  "The Ninth Hour" is set prior to the turn of the 19th C in Brooklyn, NY bustling around a Catholic Convent whose Sisters altruistic charitable acts in their community helped care for the poor & misfortunate.  The Sisters maintained a certainty that all human loss would be restored.  The Catholic Church also believed in their responsibility to dole out punishments for those who strayed from the strict rules of the Church, committed sins and failed to be cleansed by confession.  The clever narrative comes from scores of voices in McDermott's theological liturgy.  Some may consider the novel sacrosanct but the majority will find her observations sagacious, satirical & credible.  The nuns who've chosen a celibate, sacrificing life to serve others are cognizant of the many rules of the Church, demands of the city and requirements of polite society.   Annie "Mc-something" finds herself in an unbearable situation at the start of the novel.  She is widowed by her husband's suicide and expecting a child.  The Sisters swoop in and see to her care & future welfare.  They provide Annie with employment doing laundry for the Church.  The Church becomes a haven for Annie & her daughter Sally who is raised within the Church.  This leads Sally to have a discernment towards becoming a nun. But, she realizes she's not destined for the lonely life of hard labor & long sacrifice.  Annie's best friend, Mrs. Tierney believed "that any woman who chose to spend a celibate life toiling for strangers was, by necessity a little peculiar."  Yet, she holds an adamant & grateful belief in the fact of heaven. The Sisters believed without doubt that all human loss would be restored.  Perhaps, not surprisingly, their compassion & patience fails even them in their love for God's people which couldn't outweigh their disdain for their stupidity, selfishness and sins.  McDermott's meme of immigrants' single-minded resolve towards moving up in the world is recurring theme in her novels.   This novel has a minor character who served in the Civil War for another man (Mr. Tierney's father); a one-time opportunity allotted the wealthy.  The Catholic Sister's answering the call to sanctity and self-sacrifice, the delusion and superstition it required from the world during this epoch, were fading and a dying breed even then.  What continues to blur the line between holiness and morality is the absolution of heinous behaviors based on one's justifications rather than societal laws.  "The Nine Hour" is written with a gleaming virtuosity that never cleanses the unrelenting wash of man's filth, misery & inhumanity.  As Sister Lucy told Sally said "Never waste your sympathy.  Never think for a minute that you will erase all suffering from the world."  

Khaled Hosseini's "And the Mountains Echoed" Reverberating Storytelling that is Grating

Khaled Hosseini is the best selling author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Suns."  Hosseini is an American writer born in Afghanistan in 1965.  His family moved from Afghanistan to Paris for his father's work when he was 11.  The family was unable to return to their native country because of warring factions and sought political asylum in the US in 1980 when he was 15.  Hosseini did not speak English at the time and the move was very jarring.  He was educated in the US and is a physician as well as a best selling author.  The novels echo back to his family's diaspora.  Hosseini's contrivance in his newest novel "And the Mountains…" is to weave interlocking stories of family members and friends who are become separated and yet their lives miraculously intersect in the future.  As one of the novel's main characters who becomes a plastic surgeon learned in Kabul "…it is that human behavior is messy and unpredictable and unconcerned with convenient symmetries.  But I find comfort in it, in the idea of a pattern, of a narrative taking shape".  I find the forced of tying all the timelines tiresome although Hosseini heavily relies on this gimmick "like you have missed the beginning of a story and now you are in the middle of it, trying to understand." I find the loose threads tying the main characters together to be a tiresome stretch which steers away from the gravitas of the political/social & economic strife the underlines the novel.  Mostly, I found the meanderings tedious mawkish melodrama.  "It's important to know this, to know your roots.  To know where you started as a person.  If not, your own life seems unreal to you.  Like a puzzle."  I'm puzzled why "And the Mountains Echoed" garners mass appeal.  Tt felt like a doppelgänger of his previous best selling books.  (Oh, now I get it.  I just don't find his writing worth investing the time.)

Tom Perrotta's MRS. FLETCHER Makes Mrs. Robinson Seem a Tame Dame

Tom Perrotta (b Amer 1961) is a novelist and Acad. Award nominated screenwriter for his novels "The Election" and "The Children".  His novel "The Leftovers" was turned into an HBO TV series.  But seriously, too-koo-ka-choo Mrs. Fletcher you are not a dame destined for fame or deserving of blame.  Mrs. Fletcher is a divorced mother of a son, Bernard, who is just about to depart on his debacle of a freshman semester of college.  Bernard is no saint and calling girls bitches ain't the way to talk or treat the ladies.  There are many more players in this novel of a middle-aged woman muddling her way through lonely nights mostly by watching porn.  I don't foresee "Mrs. Fletcher" being turned into a screenplay but if it is, it will just cut out the foreplay and head straight into sexual liaisons in countless couplings: hetero, homo, menage a trois, transgender and so on. Or, not at all for those who consider themselves asexual.  Asexual is explained as someone who wants to be with people but doesn't want to do anything with them.  This novel is a toast "to people being whatever the fuck they wanted."  It's a light read that tries for heavy philosophical mores by finding enlightenment in open minded views towards a progressing spectrum of sexuality in terms of acceptance, appetites and  attitudes.  Autism's broad spectrum and individualities are included as part of Perrotta's syllabus.  So too are the concepts of masculinity & femininity as embodied in the context of the novel as a continuous whole.  Overall, Perrotta's novel offers the ideals of trying something different, meeting new people, and making one's world bigger rather than withdrawing from life & becoming disconnected.  This all comes wrapped in a large lubricated condom.  The conundrum is it's partially engrossing, not totally dumb or grossing.

John Green's "Turtles all the Way Down" - A Teen Who Struggles with OCD as does He

John Green is a best selling author of novels including "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Paper Town" both of which were made into successful films. Green's characters are h.s. students experiencing the jubilance of youth & the bonds of friendship & romance formed during this youthful epoch.  The characters are admirable & likable.  His writing is abundant with literary & cultural references.  The term young adult fiction applied to Green's genre is balked at by this thoughtful & creative writer. His stories have intrigue & resonate deeply with emotions of angst & love; they're universal, stirring & enjoyable reads. "Turtles all the Way Down" shifts his storytelling to a deeper, more personal level.  Aza, our 16 year high old heroine has a lot of wonderful qualities but she's burdened with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).  As the book was released, Green shared his own struggles with these disruptive issues that overtake his life at times.  Aza is dealing with rites of adolescence, dating, friendship and thought to her future.  She allows us an insight into the troubling & at times overwhelming battles suffering from anxiety & OCD.  Aza's irrepressible friend Daisy has a sunny, funny disposition. Azi is just embarking on a boyfriend relationship with Davis.  Aza & Davis have both lost a beloved parent.  Aza still has her steadfast loving mother but Davis' billionaire father abandons him & his brother fleeing prosecution for shady financial dealings.  Daisy draws Aza into the mysterious disappearance of Davis' father for reward money for information leading to his whereabouts.  But what this novel is uncovering, is the mystifying, hard to fathom suffering of people afflicted with these disorders.  Daisy helps to draw Aza out of her downward spiraling vortex of dysfunctional thoughts that become so intrusive they leave little room for her to navigate in the world. Aza know's she has a serious problem.  But is unable to figure a way through to fixing it.    Aza describes her intrusive thoughts as a kind of bacteria that colonize her brain where she feels powerless to choose her own thoughts.  She feels trapped by thoughts that take over forcing her to think & behave in a repetitive, choking downward spiral.  We learn through Aza'a mom, friends & therapists how exhausting, disturbing, painful, off-putting & difficult it is for people within a close orbit of someone who manifests Aza's symptoms to cope.  Compared to Green's previous novels "Turtles all the Way Down" is more of a downer and less of a joyride.  It's the exploration into the vast unreachable understanding of another human being. "Nobody gets anybody, not really.  We're all stuck inside ourselves." The reward comes from finding empathy, compassion and support and trusting it will be there when you are burdened under heavy shells pushing you down.

NonF MAKE YOUR BED by Admiral William McRaven (US Navy Retired)

Admiral William H McRaven served 37 years as a Navy Seal, commanded US forces at every level and is currently the Chancellor of the Univ of TX System.  His commencement speech at the Univ of TX in Austin in May of 2014 became an inspirational viral hit.  I'm not a fan of the self-help guru, tell you what to do genre. I am fascinated with the psyche & physical stamina of those who conquer consummate obstacles to achieve a Navy Seal rank.  Navy Seals are the elite in the upper echelons of physical & mental toughness and their little known testing of endurance is intriguing.  I was curious e to read Admiral McRaven auto-bio novella imparting his experiences, insights & motivational hooyahs.  However, I take issue with the military mentality that goes unquestioned at the cost of so many lives and immeasurable pain.  Putting one's life at risk and the taking of lives is not to be abided without a coherent understanding of its purpose.   McRaven's explanation for an insane regiment of physical rigors and humiliation is to separate the wheat from the chaff or as he puts it, to determine "those who can lead."  But the oxymoron of this parable is to lead, you must follow blindly.  There's essential logic to a unit functioning by following orders in combat while at war, but at present, we are entangled in five "undeclared wars" with Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen & Somalia.  Advanced military technology now enables the US to fight "such wars" in a covert less transparent manner and to sustain operations over several years.  Battles are more often being waged without troops physically being engaged.  As for McRaven's inspirational wisdom, I found it pithy. "Stand tall and strong against the odds.  Then life will be what you make of it and you can make it great." I adhere to the Admiral's comment. "SEAL training was a great equalizer.  Nothing mattered but your will to succeed; not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status."  But I give the Admiral demerits for not calling out the merits of a required nat'l commitment to service.  Education and economics are currently the major factors for those who enlist; those with fewer options are more likely to opt for the military.  The Admiral should advocate for our country needing to be physical fit and assigned humanity services.  He boasted of his fearlessness in training on a timed obstacle course.  "I pushed my fears aside, mounted the top of the rope and thrust my body head first down the slide for life."  I denounce a heedless, reckless mentality.  It takes courage to think for one-self, to question authority and proceed with caution.  I will not join the ringing bell of praise t clanking for McRaven's precepts.   I learned early on to make my own bed and to seize control of my own course of actions.  

Jesmyn Ward's "Sing Unburied Sing" Wins 2017 Nat'l Book Award

Jesmyn Ward (b MS 1977) just received her 2nd Nat'l Book Award for her brilliant & haunting novel  "Sing Unburied Sing" (2017).  She received a Nat'l Book Award for "Salvage the Bones" (2011).  Ward uses her home state and pulls from its past history of slavery, its present oppressive racial prejudice & in equality and stumbles towards a dismal future of mass incarceration & racial inequality.  In "Salvage" Ward's heroine is a young black teen without a mother subjected to neglect, abuse and sexual supplication in a futile search for tenderness.  "Sing Unburied Sing" the hero is JoJo a 13 year old boy.  His black mother Leonie & white father Michael are both in high school when she gives birth.  They also have a daughter Kayla who clings to her older brother for protection rejecting her mom.  JoJo gets his moral compass & familial love from his mother's parents Pop & Mam.Mam knew "Leonie never had maternal leanings."  Leonie leaves the raising of JoJo & Kayla to her parents.  Leonie and Michael stay with her folks.  His parents will have nothing to do with niggers & their son's mixed race abominations.   Leonie,  JoJo & Kayla share blood & the paranormal ability to see & converse with the dead; those who've not found solace in passing.  There are 2 ghosts tied to JoJo's family; Leonie's brother Given killed by his white classmates & Richie connected to Pop as a young boy while both were sentenced to the same brutal prison. The novel begins with Leonie's road trip to get Michael who is being released from prison.   Leonie's poor decision making & reckless parenting determines that JoJo & Kayla should come with her.  She brings her friend & co-worker, Misty who shares loving across color lines.  Misty's black boyfriend is in the same prison as Michael.  The disastrous trip includes a stop to at a crack house.  An officer pulls their car over on the return trip.  Leonie swallows a bag of meth to avoid arrest.  JoJo is the one the officer tackles & cuffs before begrudgingly releasing them.  Richie is an uninvited passenger returning with them from the prison.  He haunts JoJo relentlessly for answers from Pop. Ward divides her chapters into the different characters, including the ghosts but JoJo is the novel's reckoning voice.  The barbarities of past lynchings are present in the cover-up killing of Given, the oppression, inequalities & racial hatred that shackle us cutting deep within our psyche tethering our spirits to social demise.   Ward's writing is in league with Angelou, Baldwin, Faulkner and Morrison with her painful prose and stagnating social commentary.  After slavery, "White people couldn't get your work for free, they did everything they could to avoid hiring you and paying for it." "It ain't natural for a colored man to master dogs.  A colored man doesn't know how to master because it ain't in him to master."   This is a masterful work by Ward well deserving of this year's Nat'l Book Award.  

PERFUME RIVER by Pulitzer Prize Novelist Robert Olen Butler - War, Family and Relationships Run Deep

Robert Olen Butler is a prominent writer of historic & psychological fiction and family dynamics all entrenched in emotional credibility.  Butler (b Amer 1945) writes with clarity & understanding for his characters who tend to put up barriers rather than build bridges to benefit relationships. PERFUME RIVER is Butler's latest forceful & engaging novel is a reconnaissance mission aimed at family dynamics, marital relationships, familial obligations & deterioration.  Butler also addresses philosophical issues of war, religion and relevant social issues such as homelessness & gun laws.  The Quinlan brothers, Robert & Jimmy come to a major crossroad during the Vietnam War.  Their tyrannical father fought in WWII and his glory days are behind him as part of the Greatest Generation.  Robert is older & enlists to earn his father's approval.  Jimmy chose to avoid the "illegal & murderous" war justifying himself & those who said no to their county as heroes.  Robert's never served in battle in Vietnam but bares the scars of having killed a man.  H grapples his act & tries to convince himself he was justified along "Stand your ground laws".  Both he & his wife Darla hold this view in contempt.  Robert never confides to his wife Darla about the Vietnamese woman he loved or the man he killed out of fear for himself.  PERFUME RIVERS brims with gleaming insights and murky reasonings.  The major dilemma Butler battles is the question of how soldiers in battle reconcile their lives apart from their killings as humans who are not, in fact killers.   Butler did serve in Vietnam from 1969-71.  In addition to a Pulitzer he has been given the Vietnam Vet's Literary Award for outstanding contribution to American culture.  Relationships between spouses, parents & siblings remonstrate their breakdowns which may have been salved were it not for the loss of connection in mind and heart buried too much incommunicado.  Small things bind men at war as certainly as they are bound by spilt blood.  Simple acts of kindness and spilling of our innermost secrets with  loved ones are the bonds that cement us to each other and make us stronger.  Every page is laden with abandoned mournful precepts.  PERFUME RIVER catapults the reader to consider preconceived notions from different perspectives.

Poetry by Pulitzer Prize And Nat'l Book Award Winner Galway Kinnell STRONG IS YOUR HOLD

I only recently uncovered the elegiac genius of Galway Kinnell's (b Amer 1927-2014) clever and haunting poems on the subway with MTA's Poetry in Motion.  Kinnell is a national treasure whose poetic largess is a legacy of intuit emotion.  STRONG IS YOUR HOLD was published in 2008.  In this masterpiece collection Kinnell pays tribute to those killed "When the Towers Fell"  "Often we didn't see them, and now, not seeing them we see them."  "Some left hand in had that their fall down the sky might happen more lightly."  Kinnel dedicated STRONG IS to Walt Whitman from whose poetry he titled this collection & quotes within When the Towers... "City of the world!...Proud and passionate city".  He also wrote personal elegies to his loved ones.  Many of the poems reflects on mortality and his legacy. "Sometimes, rising from my desk thick with discarded wretched beginnings the only way I know I'm alive is my toe- and fingernails grow.  Oh what I could have written!  Maybe will have written...Tonight I will work late, then bed, then up, then...then we'll see."  The poem I first noted HIDE-AND-SEEK demonstrates his keen witticism of pitting pride against humility: "Once when we were playing hide-and-seek ant it was time to go home, the rest gave up on the game before it was done and forgot I was still hiding. I remained hidden as a matter of honor until the moon rose." His wry & poignant humor is pervasive. "Do you feel a draft? It could be a lost moment, unconnected with earth, just passing through.  Or did I forget to shut the front door?"  The depths of Kinnell grasp on the human condition expands the bounds of expressing our own emotions wrapped within our souls.  His poem WHY REGRET?  "Doesn't it outdo the pleasure of the brilliant concert to wake in the night and find ourselves holding each other's hand in our sleep?"   My favorite example of conflicting & shifting moods of glee and self-admonitions & purpose came in his poem  IT ALL CAME BACK.  Kinnell writes of the outburst of laughter at his young son's expense when the boy inadvertently sat upon his own birthday cake.  "-he was so muscled and so outraged...And it came to me:  I was one of his keepers.  His birth and the birth of his sister had put me on earth a second time with the duty this time to protect them and to help them to love themselves.  And yet here I was locked in solidarity with a bunch of adults against my own child, heehawing away."  STRONG IS YOUR HOLD is a stirring collection of poems that intermingle warring feelings that give rise to a firm grasp of what unites us and allows us to be remarkable in & of ourselves.  "Everything startles with its beauty when its assigned value has been eradicated."

MANHATTAN BEACH by Pulitzer Winning Author Jennifer Egan Misses the Boat Big Time

MANHATTAN BEACH is a novel whose heroine, Anna, is a young woman living in NY during WWII with the audacity & drive to become the sole female trained as a scuba diver.  Anna is an admirable as a young girl for the care she bestows her severely disabled sister.  Her sense of character & self-assuredness serve to guide her.  She's an impressive maverick with a healthy disregard for norms imposed by society & for authority.   Jennifer Egan (b Amer 1962) received the Pulitzer Prize for A VISIT from the GOON SQUAD in part for her innovative storytelling that disregards timelines or conventions to great effect.  LOOK at Me was a Finalist for the Nat'l Book Award with penetrating character studies.  In MANHATTAN BEACH, Egan's format is conventional storytelling and muddled cardboard character stereotypes.  Unfortunately, Egan's timepiece novel ventures to sea during WWII, waddles through puritanical double standards and gets mixed up in the underworld dealings of criminal hierarchies.  Anna is admirable & ahead of her time.  It's the plotting of the story that is tedious.  Anna is the central character tethered to an odd triangle involving her father Eddie & gangster Dexter Styles. Eddie bails on the family after becoming meshed in a crime syndicate. He  reported to mob boss Dexter.  Anna first encounters Dexter as a young girl at his home along the shores of Manhattan Beach by her father during a brief business dealing.  The novel jumps years at a time (which is not a crime).  Anna has an adulterous affair with Dexter after her father abandons the family & Anna runs into him at one of his nightclubs.  Dexter leaves Anna in a family way.  This relentless scenario is disastrous for unmarried women of the era and proves fatal for him.  {Buzz kill} Dexter is riddled by bullets from a hit most likely ordered by his wealthy upper crust father-in-law who lets others do his dirty work.  I did relish the training Anna received as a scuba diver and the sexism she battled.  Eddy's tale of survival after his war ship is torpedoed is also absorbing.  Issues of racial & ethnic prejudice & woman's oppression drift in and out but without an anchor.  This WWII epic on land & at sea felt adrift and misses the target of a compelling story.  The misfired trajectories were weighed down upon the shore.  MANHATTAN BEACH is a major bore; a disappointing read from a gifted writer.      

The French Novel THE HEART by Maylis de Kerangal - A Lyrical Contemplation of Human Connections

French novelist Maylis de Kerangal (b 1967) received the Grand Prix Lire & Student Choice for Best Novel (2014) for THE HEART.  The nucleus of this exquisite elegy to life and the fibrous interconnections we create circulate around a heart transplant.  Simon is a virile 20 year drawn by the pulse of the tides.  He surfs & revels in the thrill of becoming one with the ocean.  The energy he draws from his passion cresting the waves is boundless.  However, our ties to life are tenuous.  Simon is returning home from an early exhilarating morning of surfing with his friends when the car crashes sending Simon head first through the windshield.  The force of the impact causes a complete loss of brain function.  Simon's heart continues its function of pumping blood throughout the body.  Simon's traumatic head injury proves fatal.  His mother is notified of her son's accident and fears for the worst.  Hastily, she leaves Simon's young sister with a neighbor & phones her ex, Simon's father.  After seeing their son who appears to be in a deep sleep, they're ushered into a private room where a surgeon informs them Simon is in an irreversible coma; mort.  The anguish of his parents is unbearable, emotions raw.  His parents are then pressed (as there is limited time line) if their son would have wanted to donate his heart & organs to enable others to go on living.  Maylis' lyrical writing intwines Simon's life with those lives he impacts going forward: medical staff involved in removing & transplanting his organs and the woman who will be the recipient of the life saving gift of his heart.   The constraints of the novel are driven by the pressure of time that is limited in order to carry out successful transplants.  The reader is rushed along the hospital procedures & guidelines with trajectories flowing into a vast divergence of lives that become joined.  This isn't a technical examination of scientific & medical technologies.  It's a profound understanding of the ephemeral ties we make in life, the constant flux of emotions and our unattainable mortality.  Maylis writing is mournful and poetic.  "What will become of everything that filled that heart, its emotions slowly deposited in stages since the first day, inoculated here & there in a rush of enthusiasm or a fit of rage, its friendships & enmities, its grudges, its vehemence its serious and tender inclinations?"  People's lives are splayed in infinite possibilities but our human essence bonds us all.  THE HEART is a life affirming novel and stirring homage to the adage, wake up & smell the coffee.

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng - Scorching Sequestered Secrets and Social Dilemmas

Celeste Ng (b Amer 1980) won the Amazon Book of the Year Award for EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU (2014).  LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE shares story arcs based on maintaining secrets  which lead to false conclusions and calamitous repercussion.  LITTLE FIRES begins with a destructive house fire whose culprit is assumed.  The story sizzles along to its combustive outcomes.  This novel draws on numerous characters & broaches hot topics.  There are two main families, the Richardsons who live in wealthy, pristine Shaker Heights, CL.  The mother is a reporter (with her own repressed story) the father, an atty. and 4 robust, high school kids, 2 girls Lexi & Izzy (a volatile & much maligned daughter) 2 boys, handsome, athletic Trip and Moody, pensive & sincere.  Moody befriends Pearl, the new girl, Mia's daughter.  Mia is an enigmatic single parent and prodigious photographer.  Pearl (name derived from SCARLETT LETTER) and Mia have been living an itinerant lifestyle according to Mia's whims.  Moody & Pearl became fast & furious friends; both share a sensitive nature.  Moody brings Pearl into the Richardsons household where she becomes affixed to the family.  Mrs. Richardson sees things in terms of black/white, right or wrong.  She is self-righteous & manipulative.  She believes passion, like fire is a dangerous thing & too easily burns out of control.  Mia, is a mysterious observer who navigates in a gray area where things are neither quite right or quite wrong.  Mia may view issues from multiple perspectives but she intervenes when she perceives an injustice.  The novel makes nuanced observations, reveals unexplored convictions and & closely examines compelling social issues.  It appears many parents are unable to appreciate their offspring as well as those outside the family.  Photography becomes a metaphor for seeing things from opposing perspectives like comparing a photograph to its negative image.  Pearl melds into the Richardson's family & as Izzy & Lexi become deeply attached to Mia; positions blurred.  Mia is a subsidized tenant of Mrs. Richardson who rents to those deemed worthy of her generosity.  However, Mrs. Richardson is unable to see the bigger picture or outside a set frame of thinking.  There is a heart wrenching custody case involving an infant left at a firehouse which ignites heated debate.  The court must decide whether the birth mother or foster parents are entitled to custody.  The battle pits Mia surreptitiously v. the couple vying for adoption who retain counsel from Mr. Richardson.  Teenage drama sparks the storyline with lust, secrets and turmoils.  "The young are the same always & everywhere."    LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE ignites fiery emotional responses to this thought provoking and enthralling novel.  

Nicole Krauss' FOREST DARK - A Melange of Mysticism, Memoir and Existentialism

Nicole Krauss (b Amer 1974) is a gifted novelist (A HISTORY of LOVE) whose novel THE GREAT HOUSE was a Nat'l Bk Award finalist.  FOREST DARK is a novel that loosely connects two characters with their ties to the Hilton hotel in Tel Aviv.  Nicole is the female protagonist, an acclaimed Amer. novelist with 2 young sons & a marriage hanging by a thread.  The male protagonist, Jules Eisman, is a wealthy Amer. atty., father of 3 young adults, recently divorced from a long & seemingly copacetic marriage.  Krauss discreetly intertwines different people from different walks of life.  Nicole & Jules are both of the Jewish faith with indeterminate religious convictions .  Still both maintain a cohesive connection to their Jewish heritage and to Israel.  Jules is the vociferous character used to being in charge & doling out commands.  Not to say Jules is a tyrant, but there is an irony to him playing the role of King David in a film towards the end of the novel.  Jules is going through an existential transformation purging himself of most of his valuable possessions.  He sojourns on a journey to Tel Aviv at the happenstance urging of a Rabbi.  Nicole who shares the same name as the author bears other similarities with the writer; such as 2 sons and a dissolution of a 10 year marriage.  The foundation is laid to make assumptions the fictional Nicole represents Krauss herself.  Nicole is experience the same nagging rootless & restless feelings experienced by Jules.  She imagines herself both in the future and in a future that is tied to the present.  She too leaves her home in the US to awaken her creativity & a sense of herself.  She believes it's only with distance & her eventual return to the home that shelters her can she discover her true self.  Both character's feckless behaviors make them both seem too easily lead.  But, their contemplative, inward reflections draw them out as both surreal & complex people.  "Some of us are touched too much, and some too little; it is the balance that seems impossible to get right."  Both Nicole & Jules ponder spirituality, heritage and the legacy they will leave.  The climatic deja vu entendu ending is both calming & horrific.  It speaks to the never ending search for or believing in meaning.  Krauss continues to expand her craft as a writer of great intelligence.  She creates in a diaphanous style that bridges mysticism & exceptional storytelling.

Yaa Gyasi's Novel "Homegoing" - Slave Trade Stemming from 18th C Ghana

Yaa Gyasi (b Ghana 1989) marks her debut novel with an epic an intimate look at slavery from within the African nation of Ghana & its war faring tribes and the far-flung tragedies of slavery.  The novel is broken down into separate families that broke off at 2 unbeknownst sisters and their family lineage & legacies.  The chapters break off the story-telling into many fractions that became too much of a distraction.  I kept putting down the novel with its truly devastating historic travesties and kept finding it harder to go back to Gyasi's "Homegoing" novel.  Although there is much to commend Gyasi's novel for including its courageous content and dazzling writing I made it half-way through this arduous journey and decided not to return.  "Homegoing" is an inspirational as well as purposefully shameful retelling of history's notorious practice of slavery.  I don't want to discourage readers from this well-worth reading tale, but truth be told, having gone on a journey half-way round the world and half-way through this dense book, I will not be returning.

"Miss Jane" A Novel by Brad Watson based on His Aunt Born with a Debilitating Congenital Disorder

"Miss Jane" is an old fashioned novel, set in MS in the early 20th C written in a languorous style.  Our heroine Miss Jane is born into a stoic farming family in a rural MS town.  Jane's birth, which was not a heralded event by the Chisholm household.  She was born to an embittered mother and stoic father.  Complicating the unwelcome child into this household which had its share of death, is the child's rare congenital disorder.  Brad Watson's unhurried storytelling slowly reveal the specific birth defect that mars Jane's future chances at finding love and forming her own family.  Watson (b Amer 1955) is a distinguished novelist.  "The Heaven of Mercury" was a Nat'l Book Finalist and "Aliens at the Prime of Their Lives" won the Pen/Faulkner Award.  Watson's languid writing allows the reader to assume the girl is a hermaphrodite; having birth female & male genitalia.  The local country Dr. Thompson who delivers Jane will remain a major companion in her life.  Dr. Thompson instructs the embittered mother to raise their newborn as a girl.  The parents have buried two children & their 2 oldest sons have already left to raise their own families.  The only sibling living at home is Jane's much older sister Grace who assumes the key role in raising her while devising her own nefarious escape from this desolate place.   Jane is mystified with a sense that she herself is some kind of curious creature; unlike other females.  Jane's congenital disorder is persistent cloaca  revealed later in the story.  Persistent cloaca is when the body develops only one orifice for the anus, urethra and vagina.  In small towns, there are no secrets, plenty of gossip & resentments.  People's cruel ignorance abounds within & outside of the Chisholm home.  Moreover, the novel is a thoughtful examination of the melancholy borne of being alone in the world.  Knowing of Jane's palpable isolation we still see her as an impenetrable force in the world.  Dr. Thompson, a steadfast confidant answers all Jane's inquiries candidly to the best of his ability.  He assures her the highest form of love transcends physical love and that the love of one person for another defies classification.  "Miss Jane' is a character driven story underscored by human nature that defies the need for physical perfection.  Sadly, human nature also has the tendency to dissipate over time.  "Beauty is truth, truth beauty that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." (J. Keats)

Literary Legend E.B. White's "Here is New York" Speaks Eloquently to NYC's Past, Present & Future

E. B. White (b Amer 1899-1985) is one of America's most distinguished writers of the 20th C.  White's writing has earned every prestigious literary award.  These awards include a Pulitzer Prize, an Amer. Acad. of Arts & Letters Honor and the National Medal for Literature.  President John Kennedy bestowed White the Meal of Freedom in 1963.  White's writing is astutely observational & companionably, conversational.  Needless to say, I regard his brilliant writing with the utmost esteem.  "Here is New York" is an astute essay that paints New York's past; its people, places & pervading tones with an undulating patina. His clever candor in dissecting the metropolis' population into 3 groups is humorous & haughty.  I concur with White's assessment that the heart & pulse of the city comes from those who chose the city as their home with a passion to succeed in their aspirations,  and aim to make the city their home.  Those born here are seen as fortunate by the luck of their birth.  The   upper east siders alluded to as jaded & shrouded behind their inherited wealth.  The milieu of commuters are scorned for taking what the city provides them in income only to retreat to their strewn suburbia.  These commuters enter & exist the city without taking in all the allure & mystique  waiting around every corner in the multitudes of uniquely defined neighborhood.  Not everything is portrayed from behind rosy glasses.  In fact, the grunge, poverty and olfactory offenses are dutifully noted.  So too are glimpses of budding romances & ubiquitous parades that pummel the city relentlessly.  Nonetheless, there is an unmitigated, self-congratulatory pride for all who chose to reside in the most remarkable & indomitable city in the world.  White believes it essential for NYC to solidify.  "In New York smolders every race problem there is, but the noticeable thing is not the problem but the inviolate truce. The city has to be tolerant, otherwise it would explode in a radioactive cloud of hate and rancor and bigotry."  E.B. White's profound essay written in 1948 is disturbingly prophetic.  "The city at last perfectly illustrates both the universal dilemma and the general solution, this riddle in steel and stone is at once the perfect target and the perfect demonstration of nonviolence, of racial brotherhood, the lofty target scraping the skies and meeting the destroying planes halfway, home of all people and all nations, capital of everything, housing the deliberations by which the planes are to be stayed and their errand forestalled."

Margaret Atwood's "The Heart Stops Lasts" is Dystopian Society and Dysfunctional Affairs of the Heart

Margaret Atwood is one of Canada's most prominent novelists.  Born in 1939, Atwood is highly acclaimed for her sci-fi futuristic dystopian novels (The Handmaid's Tale & Oryx and Crake).  She's also writes essays & political commentary seeking social reform & environmental conservation.  "The Heart Stops Lasts" fits the dystopian genre yet it generates more heat entwining sexual mores & prison reform.  Stan (the man) and Charmaine (charming & gentle) are newly married. They're full of hopes & dreams that come crashing down soon after their vows & are now living in a survivalist "road warrior" world as the economics comes crashing down.  They live in their car in constant fear & long for normalcy.  The US is now a dystopian nightmare & the reality of their dire circumstances leads them to an experimental, self-contained community; plenty to eat, clean living conditions, safe & secure behind a citadel.  This haven is known as Consilience & Positron.  It has a few catches.  First, you have to be selected.  Then, you must sign away your right to ever leave.  One more thing, while you get to live to in clean safe surroundings, proffered plenty to eat, every other month you must live within the confines of a benign prison.  The sexes are separated & the prison requires you to share a cell & do assigned work.  The alternating month outside the prison also comes with work assignments but it feels like heaven to Charmaine compared to the barbaric conditions outside the compound.  Atwood is at her best constructing a society that credibly & chillingly starts to constrain any pretense of liberation.  Humans are hardwired for survival & for disavowing responsibility for one's own actions.  What may have started as a misguided plan for a utopian society by politicians to create jobs, save taxpayers money & avoid anarchy is too easily corruptible by oligarchs.  The new society model misappropriates people's bodies & eliminates all human rights.   Added intrigue is produced by sexual oppression & animalistic libidos (hints of Huxley's 1984).  The infinite suggestibility of the human mind is also examined.  Atwood cuts into both Stan & Charmaine's minds; an increasingly twisted & troubling place to dwell.  The title "The Heart Stops Lasts" refers to a procedure never referred to as murder but undesirables or bodies desired for their parts are drugged causing the heart to stop.  Poor Charmaine, they Positron big wigs "expected her to use her head & discard her heart, but it wasn't so easy because the heart goes last and hers was still clinging on inside her all the time."  Don't deceive yourself.  Looks are deceiving.  Poor Charmaine may not be as pure as perceived.  There are boundaries & then there are boundaries.

"The Boy Who Loved too Much" Williams Syndrome

Williams syndrome is a genetic disorder resulting from missing chromosomes of an individual's DNA genome.  The disorder presents itself with physical traits of short stature, pear shaped body types tending to being overweight and "dwarf" like facial features of enlarged foreheads, pointy chins, gapped spaced teeth and flat fingernails.  The common disabilities stem from low I.Q.s, enlarged aortas & heart issues, persevating on objects (vacuums in particular), anxiety & phobias and a propensity for a rapacious need for physical & social contact.  People with Williams syndrome have little impulse control and a compulsion for physical contact with everyone; hugging everyone, inlcluding complete strangers.  Youngsters with Williams are unflappable, happy & guileless which renders them vulnerable to being abused. As adults, those with Williams need ongoing support & supervision.    Reporter & author of "The Boy Wh Loved Too Much" Jennifer Larson,  ponders life in a constant state of euphoria and its ripple affect on humanity.  They love & trust everyone unconditionally.  Would this be a lifestyle to aspire?     follows Gayle, the mother of Eli who has Williams & shares Gayle's hopes, heartaches & struggles.  First, the ideal of an irrepressible spirit of joy appears to have its appeal.  The reality of caring for Eli as a child, adolescent & planning for his future is all consuming, exhausting, frustrating, heartbreaking and relentless worry.  A parent with a child with a disorder that limits their indepence & abilities must relent their hopes for what parents of healthy, mentally capable children take for granted.  Gayle's life & Eli's became irrevocably entwined and she realized that this was harmful to both in the long run.  The social impulse for unconditional love for humankind is not a gift.  The social drive lacking the cognitive ability to use it effectively is a major obstacle to fitting into society that is so earnestly craved.  The author did an exceptional job evoking empathy & understanding the stresses, obstacles and of living with Williams and living with a person with Williams.  The various responses from those who interacted with Eli ranged from derision & disgust to compassion & empathy.  The salient achievement of "The Boy Who Loved Too Much" was  empathy for others and a scientific understanding of the Williams disorder.  I recommend this intelligent & poignant book for everyone.  The one failing was the unnecessary & religious proletyzing Larson included in her final chapters.  "Christians make an effort to embrace the same openness, trust, and wonder found in Williams syndrome following Jesus' admonition...". The quote Larson chose in the beginning best outlines the humanity found in this ephiphanous work.  "We got a future.  We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us...Because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you." (J Steinbeck)

Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Chabon's "Moonglow" Memoir Gleaning His Grandfather's Amazing Life

Michael Chabon (b Amer 1963) is a gifted writer.  Chabon is a successful novelist, screenwriter & columnist whose won a Pulitzer & Hugo Prize.  His book "Moonglow" is a memoir of his family rotating around his maternal grandfather's storytelling.  "Moonglow" received a Nat'l Book Nom.  It's a  stunning achievement for eloquent writing & bio of his grandfather; an extraordinary man.  It's significant that Chabon clarifies "…90% of everything he {my grandfather} ever told me about his life.  I heard during his final 10 days."  Michael informs us everything was kept to himself until completing his research & memoir.  Michael's mom brought her father home to care for him during his final months with terminal cancer.  The family patriarch Michael had regarded as stoic & measured, discloses his incredible life to his crafty story writing grandson.   The grandfather was a soldier in WWII.  He married a Jewish, French woman who survived the camps but not emotionally unscathed.  She suffered  mental illness requiring hospitalization.  The grandfather's fascinating life included work as an engineer.  He served in the military & time in both military & civilian prisons.  He worked various odd sales jobs, was a rocket scholar and highly intelligent.  Michael's mother is his grandfather's step-daughter.  Her heretofore undisclosed, disturbing origins; a child of Nazi rape, had remained concealed.  During the war, grandfather was assigned to capture technicians & men of science on the black list for the US to propel their own scientific agenda; in particular the development of rocket ships & bombs.  Wernher von Braun (b Germany 1912-1977) was grandfather's lifelong nemesis and focus of admiration.  Having come close to capturing von Braun in WWII, he succeeded in recovering many of WvB's hidden papers.  The two crossed paths in FL in 1975 when von Braun received the Nat'l Medal of Science.  Chabon's grandfather was a sagacious & remorseful man.  "von Braun should not be extolled & glorified without shouldering the shame of the slaughter of millions."  He also noted "Ambitious men from Hercules to Napoleon have stood ankle-deep in slaughter as they reached for the heavens."   "The ideals of justice, of openness, of protecting the weak - of fundamental decency for which I had fought,….meant nothing to the country that espoused them.  They were encumbrances to be circumvented in the exercise of power."  Glimmering throughout this enlightening memoir are Chabon's literary references to the mystifying beauty of our moon. "He passes silver moon trees like the skeletons of cacti." "Though the moon was high and nearly full, its light hung diffuse & opaque as if moonlight were only an inferior brand of darkness."  Despite all the amazing accomplishments, Michael's grandfather felt only failure. "You look back and you see all you did, with all that time, is waste it.  All you have is a story of things you never started or couldn't finish."  "Moonglow" is a masterpiece that radiates.

This Summer's Beach Book "Today Will be Different" by Maria Semple ("Where'd You Go, Bernadette)

Maria Semple (b 1964) had a runaway best seller with her 2012 novel "Where'd You Go, Bernadette." For those who loved this novel (and I'm not among you) you will have a lot more to cheer for and for those who only liked it (I'm among the later) you'll be delightfully surprised by Semple absurdist satirical look at the contemporary "Odd Mom Out" humor.  Semple is also a screenwriter & successful TV writer ("SNL" & "Arrested Development." Eleanor, the odd mom out heroine shares Bernadette's impactful personality that borders on madness.  Only, there's much more than the hysterical lambasting of today's helicopter parents seen through the eyes of less driven & more disorganized mom who doesn't make the bake sales.  Humor stems from Eleanor, an older mom who had a career as a moderately successful illustrator, finds love, marriage to Joe (a successful hand surgeon) and from her dealings with their son, Timby (auto-spell checked from Timothy.)  Timby is a precocious  10 year old who manages to manipulate his manic & self-destructive mom in ways both endearing & off-putting.  Timby is triumphant & stole the spotlight whenever he was on the scene.  The novel takes many twists & turns and looks back into Eleanor's childhood. Her childhood revolved around her beloved younger sister Ivy.  The sisters thespian mother whom they adored, died when they were young.  After their mom died, their alcoholic father moved with the girls to CO where he left them for weeks on end to fend for themselves.  Ivy is an interesting piece of work.  She lived a quixotic & nomadic lifestyle until she meets Bucky (inadvertently through Eleanore).  Bucky is an eccentric southern aristocrat. Ivy & Bucky marry soon after meeting.  Bucky is another unexpected & amusing character.  He stirs the novel with his haughty pretensions & indomitable personality.  Semple's fast paced writing makes this a novel you won't want to put down.  She captures the ambience of a dank Seattle, the alchemy of the art world and  the mid-life neurosis of a strong willed yet likable heroine.  Religion is denounced & then reconsidered by Joe, her steadfast husband and physician for the beloved Seattle Seahawks.  Adding to the pastiche  is Eleanor's love for poetry.  Her mentor poet rakes out a living wage at Costco.  The lampooned scenes in Costco are LOL & chillingly precise.  Semple's fondness for poetry favors Yeats.  "The best lack all conviction while the worse are full of passionate intensity."  Other astute observation are:  "change is the goal, insight the booby prize."  Most importantly, Eleanor realizes the importance of life is loving we'll the people you love most.  "Today Will be Different" is an insightful & enjoyable read you will polish off in a day or two.  

Irish Author Dolan Ryan's "All We Shall Know" A Remarkable Tale of Torment and Redemption READ IT!

Ryan Dolan (b Ireland 1977) is an acclaimed writer of novels & short stories.  Dolan's novel "the Spinning Heart" was listed for the Man Booker Award & received the Guardian First Book Award ('13).  "All We Shall Know" is a story that is filled with torment, grief, betrayal, misguided loyalty & convictions, compassion & redemption.  Ryan is a skillful writer who embodies the voice of our female heroine, Melody.  We meet Melody as a young teen while at a private Irish high school.  She is an outsider who forms a tight friendship with Breedie.  Both girls are looked down upon by the popular school set.  Ryan fully embodies the mindset of Melody.  He cleverly builds tension by structuring his novel charting the weeks & progress of Melody's pregnancy.  The narrative follows Melody's illicit conception, to the birth of her beloved baby.  Her developing pregancy coincides with the brewing feud between warring clans leading up to both the birth of her child & the cataclysmic combustion between opposing bloodlines.   As a teen, Melody's headis was turned by Pat, the 1st boy she ever kissed & later marries.  Their high school romance elevates Melody into the in crowd abandoning Breedie to fend for herself.  Both Melodie's betrayal to her friend and her illegal & adulterous affair are intimated early in the novel.   But, Ryan's stark & poignant writing slowly & painfully release all the hefty damages & remorse with unbearable madness & torment.  The observations on a marriage made at too young an age are solemn & sagacious.  "How did love's memory fade so completely from us?  We should have seen more of the world, less of each other, and more of other people.  We fastened ourselves too tightly together; we were two people sharing one life, so we had only half a life each."  Melody is aptly named for the pervasive melancholy & her failure to forgive herself her transgressions.  While pregnant, Melody attaches herself to a young woman named Mary who is shunned & brutalized by both her family & members of the clan into which she married for her damnatory disloyalty.  The novel at times is overburdened by religious fervor, barbaric clan violent retribution, cruelty & insurmountable shame & guilt.  Still, there is a prevailing strength, dignity & compassion that persists.  There is boundless love between Melody & her consoling father, between Melody & her unborn child & Melody with her selfless protectiveness over Mary.   Ryan's literary style is poetic and scorching.  "All We Shall Know" is an unforgettable, graceful, ambitious work that spans the range of humanity.  "No one can tell the story of a life or a friendship or a death or a marriage day for day for day."  

Norway's Award Winning Author Author Per Petterson's "I Refuse" A Masterful & Powerful Novel

Per Petterson (b Norway 1952) is a highly acclaimed literary novelist.  His previous novels "Out Stealing Horses" ('06) won the Int'l IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize & "I Curse the River of Time" ('08) earned the Nordic Council Literary Prize.  "I Refuse" is another stunning novel written in Petterson's sparse style, set in the frozen & steely Norwegian landscape.  Petterson's evocative storytelling in "I Refuse" differs from his previous novels.  Here, Petterson chooses to utilize multiple characters voices and an outside narrator.   The novel implements varying voices as well and uses a non-linear timeline.  There's an overriding sense of gloom & missed opportunities.  Regardless, the novel garners its strength from the lifelong friendship between Tommy & Jim.  Tommy has a slightly younger sister Siri & much younger twin sisters.  Tommy is the main recipient of their abusive father's beatings.  He becomes the patriarchal saint at age 14 protecting his sisters after his mother vanishes one morning, never to return.  Jim moved with his mother to Tommy's town as a young boy.  Jim is as an only child & with a single mother.  Both boys share a kinship that is indivisible.  Tommy contends with his father's violence until he reaches his breaking point.  He strikes back seriously injuring his father.  The father abandons his 4 children as Tommy intended.  He & Siri serenely care for their younger sisters for short period until social services disbands the girls into appropriate parental households.  Tommy is questioned by the local police regarding his father but remains steadfast as to his innocence.  Jonsen, a bachelor known to the family steps up to assume responsibility for Tommy.  Jonsen is a kind & mentoring figure for Tommy.  Jonsen's history is slowly revealed and the intertwining of his life with Tommy is both surprising & bittersweet.  The skillful writing, crystal descriptions and intriguing characters create a layered novel with icy depth & hardened reflection.  "I Refuse" has a shadowy ambience blurring dusk & sunset.  Insomnia, solitude, restlessness & immense voids in life are harkened throughout this profound work.   The characters combat a pervasive perdition, some with more vigor than others.  No one remains unscathed.  Still, there is an undeterred wanderlust for travel & a fortitude sustained through friendship.  Petterson gracefully pays homage to Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel.  "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.  I travel for travels sake."  "No man is useless while he has a friend."  (RLS)

"Lab Girl" Geobiologist Hope Jahren's Autobiography Wins the Nat'l Book Critics Award (2016)

Hope Jahren's life can be described as groundbreaking and heartbreaking.  After reading her tale of her trials & tribulations in a male dominated scientific academia world, I've come away with a fertile  fascination & stirred awareness of trees, plants & ground beneath my feet.  Jahren's profound affinity for studying trees, plants, flowers, seeds & dirt has sprouted a steadfast curiosity & awakening to the miraculous nature of...nature.  Hope's life is no less fascinating although not without debilitating struggles with mental illness.  Much has to be said for her lifelong lab partner Bill.  His unique personality, drive and devotion to Hope are remarkable.  The passion Hope shares for plants & her unflappability in the face of diversity pique one's own wherewithal within the world we take up space.  Partly an erudite master class in botany & scientific study and part intimate & uninhibited life story, Hope's "Lab Girl" is engrossing & thought provoking.  It's also a conservation wake-up call for our planet.  Please, someone notify the president to make note of Hope's findings.  There is an appalling sparsity of funds allocated  to significant scientific study & discovery.  This is a particularly  inspiring read for girls as encouragement, not only towards the realm of scientific study, but to persevere & pursue their own interests.  The joy of accompanying an original thought is infectious in a fecund & ferocious manner.  Hope demonstrates a willingness to struggle and commit not only to research but as a partner with someone that is quite extraordinary.  Having read "Lab Girl" I've learned many miraculous things that occur in our midst daily & those that have evolved over time.  Spending time reading Jahren's Nat'l Book Critic winning auto-biography has enriched my sensitivity to the environment and to the miraculous super nova of possibilities around us.

Swiss Author Alain de Botton's "The Course of Love" It Never Runs Smooth but It's What We Do, WHY?

Alain de Botton (b Switzerland 1969) is a Swiss/British writer of fiction and non-fiction; "How Proust Can Change Your Life" (1997.)  His philosophical & moving novel about romance & marriage with its trials & tribulations between Rabih and Kirsten is endlessly fascinating & profound. "The Course of Love," is befuddled as to "... why anyone wants to get married."  The author makes clever  clinical observations on the evolution of romance to love, marriage, baby carriage, infidelity, cruelty & perhaps compromised comfort in companionship.  However, nothing is mundane or pedantic in this charming & alarming wake-up call as to what we should consider when considering the other person in our relationship.  De Botton observations are referred to as "romantic order" - not as a command, but in the natural progression of romance, relationships & life unfolding.  The unlikely pairing of of the swarthy, reserved Rabih, born in Lebanon and the resourceful Kirsten, a fair skinned bonnie lass from Scotland is in itself a miraculous compilation of coincidental connections.  Typically what we call love, is merely the start of love as it veers & develops in unpredictable ways.  But, the lure (for sure) is the promise of ending loneliness.  Still, marriage is an optimistic gamble where the house generally wins.  If only the ecstatic feelings compelling us forward into marriage could be perpetual. But, blissful & wishful emotions erode over time.  De Botton's penetrating writing explores more than the love between a couple.  He captures the transforming power of love for one's children.  And, wittingly, notes obsolete notions of marriage, parenting, monogamy and expectations for harmony.  There is a plethora of wisdom in witnessing the evolution of Rabih & Kirsten as individuals, as a couple and parents.  We're privy to their marriage counseling.  This proves humorous as well as sagacious.  Rabih justifies his adultery because monogamy is tantamount to an infidelity towards the richness of life.   Rabih realizes a loving marriage & children kill erotic spontaneity and an affair can destroy a marriage.  There is no solution for combining the paradigms for sexual exploration & maintaining security within the family.  The narrator speaks for both parties (but mostly from Rabih's perspective) notes:  "Marriage:  a deeply peculiar & ultimately unkind thing to inflict on anyone one claims to care for."  Many tongue in cheek comments are tinged with wry witticism & tenderness of heart. "The Course of Love" was contemplative & cunning from beginning to end.  Don't detour from this delightful discourse on the course of love.  "Love is a skill, not just an enthusiasm."

"The Portable Veblen" by Elizabeth McKenzie - Nat'l Book Award Longlist

Elizabeth McKenzie's novel is a quirky, unique, bizarre, thoughtful social commentary on marriage.  But that's only peanuts because it's also a serious commentary on the never ending machination of war, and the inhumane treatment of our veterans.  There's plenty more buried kernels of provocative criticism regarding our over medicated society, and the nefarious practices of pharmaceutical companies.  McKenzie unearths family dysfunction, narcissism & and mental illness.  Our main heroine is Veblen, a 30 something single woman and only child.  Her mother drives her daughter nuts with her neurotic, hypochondriac shenanigans.  Veblen's father resides in a mental institution after having suffered from PTS in Viet Nam.  After the war, he was never the same.  Who can fault Veblen for thinking she is able to communicate & maintain a relationship with squirrels.  A little crazy, maybe, but understandable & even admirable.  Veblen works as a temp at a medical research office at Stanford where she meets Paul, a neurologist research Dr.  The two have a whirlwind romance that falters along a bumpy road to the altar.  Paul also comes from dysfunctional family which includes a mentally challenged brother.  Still, Veblen & Paul are a couple whose romance you very much want to succeed.  Veblen is a likable, steadfast individual who communicates with squirrels.  Her hero is Thorstein Veblen the pragmatic socialist (b Amer 1854-1929.)  His most memorable quote being "Invention is the mother of necessity." Another of his statements "All business sagacity reduces itself in the last analysis to judicious sabotage" Paul discovers to be true as his medical innovation is perversely manipulated for commercial gain. He becomes a whistle blower against the pharmaceutical conglomerate.  Of course this is a couple we'd like to find wedded bliss together.  Although McKenzie observes some trials & tribulations of being a couple as "a phasing out of one's own's likes," "perpetual acts of insolence" and "the deterioration of intimacies."  "The Portable Veblen" is an endearing novel that digs up many serious & troubling issues with a love story to treasure.  It's an amazingly nutty find.

Adam Johnson's "Fortune Smiles" Wins Nat'l Book Award-Unfortunately He Plagiarized "Goodbye for Now"

Adam Johnson (b Amer 1967) is a writer of immense talent.  His novel deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize in (2013) for his piercing tale of the brutal regime inside North Korea.  "Fortune Smiles" a collection of short stories won the Nat'l Book Award (2015) but should be discredited for plagiarizing Laurie Frankel's novel "Goodbye for Now" (2013).   Frankel's novel & Johnson's short story "Nirvana" have way too much in common.  Both male heroes are tech savvy geniuses who've developed algorithms that reincarnate a loved one on the internet allowing for an ongoing simulated conversation that is eerily real.  Frankel pursued the comfort or grief of maintaining a dialogue with someone revered after their death.  "Nirvana" the 1st short story in Johnson's collection  is about a husband whose a whiz at writing programming code.  His wife Charlotte, has been suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome leaving her totally immobile from her shoulders down for the past 9 months.  Most patients recover mobility but for those who haven't had any improvement in 9 months, the prognosis is poor.   The only comfort in Charlotte's life comes from listening to Kurt Cobain's music.  To persuade his wife life is worth living he's willing to do anything.  He develops an algorithm program that archives a person's images, videos and data; essentially everything recorded by an individual and allows for the image to respond in a coherent conversation.  The idea & content for Johnson's "Nirvana" is notoriously appropriated from Frankel's 2013 novel "Goodbye for Now."  The 2nd story in the collection is "Hurricanes Anonymous".  It takes place in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.  This short story is a disaster.  It's ambigious what it's trying to achieve.  Is this about the failure of our nation to respond or of a man who floats along through life whichever way the wind blows?  Nonc is the main character.  He assumes the child left in his van is his from a previous relationship but he doesn't fully assume fatherhood.  It's also a story about Nonc & his dysfunctional relationship with his mute, dying father.  This story left me speechless for someone as gifted a writer as Adam Johnson.  "Dark Meadow" is a disturbing story of child sexual abuse and child pornography on the internet.  The other 2 stories "George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine" delves into prison life in East Berlin before the wall came down and "Fortune Smiles" revisits the oppressive N Korean regime.  Adam Johnson proved himself a master storyteller in "The Orphan Master's Son" but is disappointedly adrift in the short story format.  Most unfortunately, "Nirvana" is NOT an original idea.

Canadian Author Alistair MacLeod's "No Great Mischief" Winner of the It'l IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

Alistair MacLeod (b Canada 1936-2014) has received numerous literary awards including the Int'l Dublin IMPAC for "Not Great Mischief" and the PEN/Malamud Award.  MacLeod's expansive novel is an epic tale that traces the MacDonald clan from Scotland at the end of the 18th C to Nova Scotia where the family brood took root and ventured out up until the 1980's.  The underlying pulse to the novel is the importance of blood and family loyalty.  The historical background from their origins on the Highlands of Scotland is told from the family patriarchs repeatedly throughout this family saga. For fans of the show OUTLANDER (and I'm one) this is somewhat interesting but also somewhat labored.  The MacDonalds are a proud & hard working people of sturdy stock.  Except many also become heavy drinkers and social outcasts; living off the rough land & becoming eccentric & self-destructive.  Alexander MacDonald is the narrator whose coming of age story reflects on his undying love for his clan, their hardships, unconventionalities and firm reliance on one another.  Alexander & his twin sister are orphaned at a young age when their parents & an older brother drown while crossing over the ice to the lighthouse they maintained.  The depiction of this tragedy is both harrowing & beautifully told.  Alexander & his twin sister are left to be raised by their hard working & hard drinking grandfather.  Alexander's three older brothers are they left to live on their own in a rustic shack with no plumbing or heating.  Still, none waver in their faith & loyalties to one another.   Such strong family ties builds divides between people of different lands; different languages, views & ways of doing things.  Adversities & resentment develop between those outside the family with drastic consequences.  The unifying language among humanity comes from music.  Music is the lubricant that makes life easier and unites people.  I felt "No Great Mischeif" became overburdened in its repetitiveness.  The trope touted throughout "look after your own blood" and it's a shame "to care too much an try too hard."  MacLeod's steadfast efforts to create a family saga of a devoted clan did not move me enough to care.

Melinda's Top Ten Book Picks for 2017

The following are my favorite books for the year so far listed in alphabetical order by author:


1.   American writer Judd Apatow's "Sick in the Head"  Interviews of top comedians

2.   Irish author Sara Baume's "A Line Made by Walking"

3.   American author Chris Bachelder 's "The Throwback Special

4.   Irish author Sebastian Barry's "Days Without End"

5.   American author Paul Beatty's  "The Sellout"

6.   Israeli author David Grossman's "A Horse Walked into a Bar'

7.    Irish author Patrick McCabe's "The Butcher Boy"

8.    Indian author Karan Mahajan's "The Association of Small Bombs"

9.    American writer George Saunders' "Lincoln at the Bardot"

10.  Scottish author Ali Smith "Autumn"

Israeli Author David Grossman's Novel "A Horse Walked into a Bar" The Human Comedy of Grief & Guilt

Israeli writer David Grossman (b Israel 1954) is a highly acclaimed & awarded writing of both fiction & non-fiction.  His most recent novel "A Horse Walked into a Bar" received the Int'l Man Booker Prize 2017.  This is a novel of trenchant searching for the unique essence of each individual, "that thing that comes out of person without his control."  Grossman's profound genius for storytelling is artful & impassioned.  He spins a complex yarn that threads together 3 lives in a masterful game of chess.  Dovelah Greenstein is the star of this show.  He's a standup comic with a routine that includes a litany of jokes "A horse walks into a bar and asks the barman for a Goldstar on tap." One of  many running comedy bits that start but veer off, not into a laughable punchline but quixotically through his pathetic & self-effacing life.  In the audience is a retired prestigious judge,  Avishai Lazar, with whom Dovelah remembers as having a brief but meaningful friendship in their youth.  The great thing about humor, sometimes it allows you to laugh allowing for a brief reprieve from torment.  The clever contrivance of novel unfolds relentlessly over one standup routine Dovelan delivers with the intent of obtaining some validity or penance from his old friend whom he's not seen in 4 decades.  Dovelah is a rapacious raconteur able to elicit a connection with his audience that stirs up a murky pleasure both sickening & alluring.  The reader becomes captive to Dovelah's routine; a loose camouflage to convey the oppressive guilt & remorse he endures.  Avishai surprises himself by agreeing to come to listen & staying for Dovelah outpourings on stage.  Avishai is jolted into recalling memories of his life which have been suppressed and the grief he harbors for his wife.  He consents to provide a brief "judicial" reckoning for Dovelah from watching his performance art.  Both men are surprised by the presence of a diminutive woman in the audience who recalls Dovelah as the kind boy in her neighborhood who walked on his hands giving a topsy-turvy view on things.  She adds her own adamant vantage of the boy she remembers.  The consummate force of this remarkable work is how it grasps the reader with its stunning recognition of what it means to survive.  Just to be alive, how subversive it is and what a rare treasure to be able to experience life.   "A Horse Walked in a Bar" is a strenuous journey through life's suffering mitigated with the miracles of love & laughter.   I recommend reading this novel & nominating Grossman for a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Collected Short Stories by Roxane Gay "Difficult Women" Well Written but Painful to Read

Roxane Gay is a writer of great skill & creative genius.  Her collection of short stories "Difficult Women" were all impregnable & deeply disturbing.  I was fascinated & repelled by her powerful short stories.  Her troubling tropes all tie in with themes that make life difficult for women.  Once I succumbed to her omnipotence as a storyteller I surrendered to horrific subjects of physical abuse, sexual abuse and a base animalistic nature possessed by women that harbors incredible rage & anger. Gay writes convincingly of the transparency of women except as sexual object.  Several of Gay's stories deal with the immense agony of losing one's child & the guilt that can only be mitigated seeking penance by being brutally beaten or sexually molested.  Interestingly, Gay writes often about children without siblings whose parents only had enough love for one child.  Twins appeared to be the only ones able to love selflessly & maintain healthy relationships.  For the most part, there was a plan for escape from relationships or a need to push a loved one away.   Gay confronts racism & "jungle fever" a lust for women of color.  Brown enough to satisfy sexual desires but not too dark as to be considered unattractive of problematic.  Prejudice is seen as being passed from generation to generation.  There was an overall oppressiveness to Gay's stories.   Even a mother's misguided words or advice prove excruciating.  A mother mourning her child killed in an accident is blamed by her mother "How could you let this happen."   The stories are over wrought with rage, violence resentment and self-loathing.  In addition to the hostilities & self-destruction is the pall of despair & worthlessness in many ways handed down from the mother.  One mother shares her misguided wisdom "You make friends with the ugliest kid in your class and you make friends with the loneliest kids in your class.  The ones off by themselves.  They will be the best friends you've ever had and they will make you feel better about yourself."  And the advice one mother gives her daughter for holding onto her man, "No mystery to keeping a man.  You do whatever sick thing he wants, when he wants and you'll never have a problem."  I have no quarrel with the expertise of Gay's piercing stories that cut like a knife.  However, the stories are grim, depressing & upsetting.  These stories are not for the tame.  

Irish Author Sara Baume's "A Line Made by Walking" - Art and Sadness which Last Forever

The last line of Irish writer Sara Baume's (b UK) entertaining & intellectual melancholy novel "Art and sadness which last forever" resonate throughout this captivating book.  The novel's narrator Frankie speaks directly to the reader and cuts deeply into the human soul.  Frankie is a 25 yr old art school graduate who has been dealing with a deep sorrow since childhood.  Now at 25, she has cut herself off from social interactions except for her always understanding & supportive mother.   Frankie knows she must accept that her want of artistic accomplishment has not led to creative genius and she must stop her perpetual bereavement for lack of talent.  She is also still grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother.  Frankie persuades her mother to allow her to reside in her grandmother's remote home until it can be sold.  This only leads Frankie further down the rabbit hole of isolation & despair.   She has construed a photographic art project of shooting only animals she discovers in their demise.   With impactful encounters or emotions, Frankie tests her knowledge of artists' works that share a significance.  Baume's cleverly construed novel is an interesting foray into the art world as well as into the troubled pscyche of a very disturbed & self-destructive young woman.  Frankie wants to live her life at the basest level of engagement taking up as little space in the world as possible.  Frankie never achieved the notoriety of artist claim she sought but Sara Baum's "A Line Made by Walking" is an arresting, exceptionally impassioned work that delves plea for art's importance in the world; best art achieves is to uncover what is unrecoverable.  And, thoughtfully considers the worth every individual brings into the framework of humanity.  The last painting that Vincent Van Gogh (VVG) completed depicts with excruciating beauty an angry churning sky, tall yellow stalks, a grass green & mud-brown path cutting through the stalks, tapering into the distance, a line made by walking.  The last words spoken by VVG to his brother "The sadness will last forever."

Judd Apatow's "Sick in the Head" A Fascinating Compilation of His Interviews with Celebrity Comedians

Judd Apatow ("Knocked Up" & "This is 40") was obsessively drawn to comedy as a boy.  His insatiable fascination with comedians led to an audacious drive to connect with his comic heroes & interview them.  As high school student in the early 1980s he sought & graciously received numerous interviews from the humorists & entertainers at the highest echelons:  Garry Shandling, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Allen & Martin Short to name just a few.  The comedy legends he interviewed as a teen, he revisits as an adult with a successful career in filmmaking, comedy writing and TV producing.  These  interviews are invaluable and should placed in the Smithsonian Institute & the Broadcast Hall of Fame.  They are invaluable with genuine warmth, mutual respect, helpful advice, intelligence, candor & wit.  The analysis by these comic celebrities of their crafts and work processes are contemplative & insightful.  Apatow's natural ability to converse & elicit information from the most successful & funniest entertainers of the last 3 decades is nothing short of miraculous.  The book has interviews from the funniest people on the planet:  Mel Brooks, James L. Brooks, Albert Brooks, Martin Short, Key & Peel, Steve Martin & Mike Nichols.  There are also many interviews with female comics & writers:  Lena Dunham, Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer to name a few.  Judd writes an intro for each individual telling us of his admiration for the person & any personal relationship.  Apatow & Sandler were roommates as struggling comics in their early 20's.  The enduring relationships Apatow maintains throughout his career is admirable and the creative genius these artists possess is enviable.   Some of the comics dealt with their own demons and were forthright in discussing.  (Apatow whined too much about being a child from a divorced household.  Boo hoo hoo, get over it).  Regardless, reading these intimate behind the scenes dialogues with comic geniuses is endlessly fascinating.  The craft of writing & performing is revelatory and exceptionally entertaining.  This is as close as mere mortals can get to being included into the camaraderie of comic megastars.  The spirit of generosity & encouragement among these talented artists is magical & heartwarming.  The ability to make others laugh is arguably the most wonderful gift someone can share with the world.  I strongly urge everyone to read "Sick in the Head" and argue these precious recordings be placed into our national treasure troves for posterity.            

Irish Writer Sebastian Barry's "Days Without End" An Endless Odyssey of Grandeur & Devastation

Sebastian Barry (b Ireland 1955) is considered one of Ireland most distinguished authors & poets.  His eloquent stories are mainly set in his native Ireland.  "Days Without End" is a remarkable, historic epic.  Our hero is Irish born Thomas McNulty.  He shares his life story starting with his  sadistic trans Atlantic crossing in a cargo ship to the U.S.  He sails alone as a young man in the early 19th C.  "A man's memory might have only a 100 clear days in it & he has lived thousands."  Thomas must fend for himself in the harsh new world.  Tom's indefatigable human will gives homage to surviving as a victory.  He has a strange & fateful encounter with a young John Cole.  In Cole, he finds a "Friend for a whole life.  We were two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world."  Together the two journey through an extraordinary odyssey.  They experience the savagery of battle for the Union Army.  After the war they enlist as troopers & ordered to annihilate the Indians.  During the Civil War Tom notes "Killing the Confederates was not like running at Indians who are not your kind but it is running at a mirror of yourself."  After the War, "Our work was to be the Indians.  People wanted rid of them.  Wanted them routed out."  Tom understood they were plain & simple killers; like no other killers that had ever been.  The pain & injustice never set right in their hearts.  Amidst the carnage & mayhem, Tom & John found their passion for each other in an unknown realm as lovers.  They also forged a paternal bond for an Indian girl whose entire tribe was slaughtered by their troops.  Together, they raise her lovingly as their daughter.  Barry is an exceptionally gifted writer.  In "Days Without End, Tom's voice is reminiscent of the free thinking Huck Finn, one who sees the ills in the world but dares to carve his own courageous path of love, friendship and decency.  I strongly recommend this finely crafted & beautifully told tale.  

The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan-Listed for Nat'l Book Award

Karan Mahajan was born in American in 1984 and raised in India.  His 2nd novel "The Association of Small Bombs" earned him an Anisfield-Wolf Award ('17) and was long listed for this year's Nat'l Book Award.   The ambitious storytelling is told from a cast of characters, from victims to terrorists.  The havoc of the deadly explosions is powerful.  The aftermath of the carnage is felt from the survivors, their families and from the perpetrators.  Frustration, hostility and swift illogical vengeance are at the corrosive center of this devastating novel.  The perpetual quest for reprisal & vindication for violence give this novel its unrelenting pulse.  Mahajan's characters are religious zealots or dissociated people grasping for meaning in their lives.  The prison system is unveiled for its corrupt & horrific systematic  torture.  The novel takes an oppressive position of violence.  The world needs to function through force & brutality.  The ability to make people empathize felt futile.   "I had always thought you had to educate others about your pain, show them how to solve it.  Now I realize you have to make them feel it."  Mahajan refers to 9/11 as a more heroic endeavor in arousing awareness than perpetual bombings that take the lives of fewer people.  The writing is gripping and intelligent.  Still, I found this a burdensome read that left me tattered.  "People say 9/11 was the worst terror attack of all time-was it?  I think the small bombs that we hear about all the time, that go off in unknown markets, killing five or six, are worse.  They concentrate the pain on the lives of a few.  Better to kill generously rather than stingily."  The irrational perpetuating thirst for revenge rather than peaceful discourse of reason proved omnipotent.

Marlena-Troubled Teens' Fast and Furious Friendship

"Marlena" is a novel by Julie Buntin who writes about 2 teenage girls from broken homes who find refuge & in each other.   Catherine "Cat" is 15 when she moves to the desolate MI town with her mother & older brother, Jimmy, after her father abandons the family.  "There aren't words for the catastrophic dreariness of being 15 in northern MI at the tail end of winter."  The move takes her from her privileged private school (on academic scholarship) to the public high school and a rundown home which Cat's mother can barely afford.  Jimmy defers his college scholarship so he can be the breadwinner.  They move across the street from Marlena, 17, who lives in a run down barn with her dad & younger brother, Sal.  Marlena's mom left their family leaving Marlena to care Sal while dad is either making/selling meth or getting high.  We know from the start that this coming of age story ends tragically for Marlena a year after they meet & Cat now as a working woman in NYC has her own battles with alcohol.  Although the novel deals with very harsh issues of drug addiction & sexual abuse it's also about the power of friendship as a teen that overshadows everything else.  "A best friend is a magic thing, like finding a stump full of water that will make you live forever."  A cautionary tale of self-destruction, family dysfunction and the intense bond of teen friendship that is a driving force of youth.

"The Hearts of Men" a Novel by Nikolas Butler-"Lord of the Flies" and the Continuing Adult Saga

"The Hearts of Men" begins in the summer of 1962 with our young hero, Nelson Doughty, a pre-teen at Boy Scout Camp in norther WI.   We feel empathy for Nelson dubbed ignominiously "Bugler"for his bugle playing reveille & taps.  He is either ostracized or tormented by fellow campers.   There's one older boy, Jonathan Quick, who parcels out acts of kindness that Nelson so desperately seeks.  Quick is not the wholesome, decent person Nelson at first believes.  The camp trauma is eerily reminiscent of "Lord of the Flies" with "Bugler" as "Piggy." The novel is most compelling as the reader becomes an onlooker to the cruelties inflicted on Nelson.  The abuse is egregious & the reader, complicit.  The flagrant attrocities are commited under the noses of adults, not on an abandoned island without adults.  Before departing camp, the director tells Nelson he will become a leader of men; he rises above the rabble.  His solicitous behavior sways a naive Nelson to unwittingly betray the older campers.  The atrocious behavior of the boys towards Nelson evokes our sympathy yet it's also off-putting.  The novel's intensity & interest wobbles as the author brings the characters into adulthood. Nelson is at the knot holding the story together.  The author trails Jonathan's adulthood, adultry and parenting.  The blazing beginning smolders into a weary paragon of decency, loyalty and human frailty.  Jonathan does merit a valid parenting tip. "Try to remain silent however long it takes.  Most of the time parenting is like a contractual negotiation.  Let them spill their guts."  Jonathan has a pragmatic perspective on life which at times seems callous & calculating.  But he does try to mentor his son to navigate in a grown-up world.  "It is a difficult thing, you see, to be a good man.  The whole world will try their level best to make you swerve, to bend your principles."  Butler gives marriage a terrible rap but he also lashes out against guns & war.  Trying to conceive what happens to boys who grapple with a "Lord of the Flies"firestorm is intriguing, unfortunately, "The Hearts of Men" implodes in adulthood.  

Lincoln at the Bardo by George Saunders-A Novel Unlike Anything You're Thinkin'

George Saunders (b Amer) is an award winning writing of short stories ("The 10th of December") essays & novels.  His novel, "Lincoln at the Bardo" is a work of genius unlike anything I have read.  I highly recommend this profound theological perusal & anecdotedly footnoted historic study.   It's also a poignant reflection on grief & empathy.  Most assuredly, it's a lyrical affirmation of the wonders of life.  Nonetheless, its multiple narratives by the dead may repel many as macabre.  Perhaps some, believing the religious afterlife sacrosanct, will find the novel impertinent.  I argue the novel's wisdom is its unifying empathy for humanity.  Bardo is a term for the existence between death & rebirth which varies for each individual and determined by the life they've lead & age at the time of their death.  The novel combines factual history pertaining to Pres Lincoln & the Civil War and the President's painful grieving process for his son Willi.  Willi died at age 11 during the 1st year of the Civil War.  Pres Lincoln's personal, abysmal suffering is compounded with the understanding of the suffering the war is inflicting to so many under his command.  "Sorrow was not uniquely his.  All were in sorrow, or had been or soon would be."  Willi is laid to rest by his unconsolable father.  Willi's spirit becomes tethered to an afterlife in the graveyard where he is mentored by fellow spirits who've remained in a state of bardo. These ghostly beings learn from Willi the ability to immerse themselves into the beings of both the living and the dead and by doing so, fully come to understand, admire & respect the the other person.  "One must try to remember that all were suffering "none content; all wronged, neglected, overlooked, misunderstood, and therefore one must do what one could to lighten the load of those with whom one came into contact."  "Lincoln at the Bardot" so eloquently & uniquely speaks to the universal right for freedom and the cruelty of the oppressed.   Saunder's exceptional novel is a eulogy for the shared torment of loss & an ode to the limitless bounty of beauty found in nature & life.

Min Jin Lee's "Pachinko" Portrays Japanese 20thC Dominance over Koreans

"Pachinko," by Korean American writer Min Jin Lee (b S Korea 1968) is historic fiction that follows the threads of a Korean family from 1910-1989.  Pachinko refers to pinball gambling machine.  The pachinko "gambling" operations were one of the few business Koreans were able to run.  A few Koreans prospered greatly while many gambled away their meager earnings to these tampered machines.   The gangster image of the pachinko operators were stereotypical.  So too were the Japanese negative generalization of Koreans as criminal, lazy, filthy and aggressive.  Lee's family saga is a deceptively simple overlay to the overt hatred & oppression of Japanese towards Koreans in the 20thC.  The Japanese thought Koreans were worth so little, fit only for the dity, dangerous & demeaning task.  The novel begins in a 1910 in a peasant, fishing village.  Korea has been annexed by Japan for nearly 3 decades.  The matriach of the family is Sunja.  Sunja is the daughter of an arranged marriage between 2 impoverished families.  As a young woman she encounters the older, affluent Korean, Hansu in the village's marketplace. He will steer the course of the rest of her life.  Hansu's fortune stems from racketeering & pachinkos.  He's fluent in both Korean/Japanese & able to straddle successfully both societies.  He maintains a menacing authority figure.  Sunja was easily seduced & became pregnant by Hansu whose already married.  His offer to support her & the child are ignoble & unacceptable. Sunja is married by a Korean minister as a Christian act of magnanimity.  They return as a couple to Japan.  There, Sunja gives birth to Hansu's biological son, Noa. The novel highlights the reckoning of Eastern & Western religions & philosophies.  We also learn how Koreans were forced to live every day in the presence of those who refused to acknowledge their humanity.  Hansu didn't believe in nationalism or religion.  He believed in education, money & power.  So unravels 4 generations of a Korean family suppressed by the Japanese.  Life was a constant struggle for survival.  There were dire hardships, deprivations & devastations from WWII.  Hansu comes to the rescue of Sanju & Noa countless times. The soap opera plot enfolds spaning decades, revealing the loathing, oppression & maltreatment of Koreans by the Japanese.  Discrimination & persecution persisted after WWII Japan despite Japan no longer reigning Korea. Returning to an embattled Korea was not a safe option.  Koreans born & living in Japan were required to register as foreigners & remained subject to deportation.  Despite Noa's education & ethical behavior "He was a Korean, after all, and no matter how appealing his personality, unfortunately he belonged to a cunning and willy tribe."