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.