Barbara Kingsolver's UNSHELTERED - Unfettered Cleverness of New Ideas Past and Present

Barbara Kingsolver (b Amer. 1955) writes novels that contain themes concerning social justice, environmental protection, religious zealots and freethought.  UNSHELTERED contends with the adamant, sacrosanct opposition to Darwinism in the US in the years following the Civil War and tackles the current environmental destruction of our planet.  The storylines in late 19th C and 21st C are brought together under one roof.  Thatcher Greenwood is a science professor who is met with bombastic enmity for broaching evolution theories.  He lives with his new bride, Rose, her sister & mother in a small NJ town in a house barely standing alongside his crumbling marriage.  In present day, our world is about to implode due to greed & negligence of the planet.  Willa & her family are currently living in the same location (perhaps, same house) far worse for the wear.  Willa's home has been condemned.  Her last prayer is if she can prove the home has historic significance they might receive grant funding for restoration before its demolition.  The too clever connection & coincidences are too much to withstand.  Thatcher befriends his neighbor Mary Treat (b Amer. 1830-1923) a predominant botanist, entomologist and collaborative correspondent to Charles Darwin.  Thatcher finds a kindred spirit with Mary amidst a brutal, closed minded town that would sooner tar & feather him rather than concede scientific evidence that question religious beliefs in God's almighty creation.  The most intriguing part of Kingsolver's novel is Mary Treat and the dawning curiosities of scientific reasoning amidst overwhelming public vehemence. "Presumptions of a lifetime are perilous things to overturn."  Unfortunately, Kingsolver is overly clever in constructing her novel.  The parallel plots segue from Willa's family dysfunctional drama back in time to Thatcher's life.  Willa's husband is also a professor whose remained untenured and detached from the dire situations within his own hearth.  Willa is caring for her son's newborn & her flailing  racist father-in-law.   Willa's daughter Tig is a dynamo pragmatist who proselytizes til the walls come tumbling down on the crucial need to conserve & protect our environment.  Kingsolver should've taken a lesson from Occam's Razor whose theory she refers & gone with a simpler format. Instead she throws in too many convoluted tangents.  Willa's name was no random choice as Willa Cather is oft quoted, "Unsheltered I live in daylight."  Kingsolver's prose and meaningful issues were undermined by a sodden foundation.  

Melinda's Top Ten Book Picks Since July for 2018

The following are my top ten selections for books read in 2018 in alphabetical order by author.  Surprisingly, all my picks are by American authors.  I'll have to make a stronger effort to read authors outside the US but this year, the following works compile my favorite picks:


1.  LINCOLN at the Bardot by George Saunders (2017 Man Booker Prize)

2.  IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK - James Baldwin

3.  THE NIX - Nathan Hill

4..  WHERE the DEAD SIT TALKING - Brandon Hobson (Nominated for National Book Award)

5.  THE MARS ROOM - Rachel Kushner (Finalist for Man Booker Prize)

6.  THE FRIEND - Sigrid Nunez (2018 National Book Award)

7.  TRAJECTORY - Richard Russo (4 short stories). (Pulitzer Prize winner for EMPIRE FALLS)

8.  CALYPSO - David Sedaris (memoir)

9.  IMPROVEMENT - Joan Silber

10 ALTERNATE SIDE - Anna Quindlen (Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary)

Special commendation to the non-fiction worK:
A SAINT on DEATH ROW by Thomas Cahill - Capital punishment must be abolished NOW

Jodi Picoult's Great Small Things - Racial Injustice, White Supremacy and a Litigious Society

Jodi Picoult is an American novelist whose books frequent the NYTimes Best Selling List.  While her books are fast reads, they are far from frivolous.  They tend to delve into pertinent social issues from varying vantages. Her previous best sellers include "My Sister's Keeper;" a young girl seeks medical emancipation from parents wishing to "harvest" organs and "19 Minutes;" the aftermath of a school shooting.  Both novels dealt with real life scenarios.  Litigation factored into these novels.  Litigation plays a major role in "Great Small Things".  After the ordeal of an infant's death while in the care of a hospital.  The parents of the deceased baby are both militant white supremacists.  The nurse assigned to care for the mother & child is Ruth.  Ruth is a 20 year nursing veteran at the hospital and esteemed colleague.  The reception Ruth receives from the mother and father, Turk is loathsome owing to the fact Ruth is black.  Turk demands the supervisor insure Ruth not interact with their son.  Ruth is upset when she sees a sticker placed on the couple's file informing Ruth not be involved in any further care.  Bedlam occurs at the hospital.  Ruth is left to watch over the infants in neonatal care while the only other nurse on duty is called to an emergency.  Tragically, an emergency happens involving Turk's son.  Ruth followed Dr's orders to assist resuscitation but the infant died.  Not surprisingly, Ruth is the one person charged with murder.  Public Defender Kennedy is arbitrarily assigned Ruth's arraignment and inveigles her way into becoming her permanent public defender.  This will be Kennedy's first murder trial and she's determined to win the case (for both Ruth's sake & her own). The novel is told from these 3 narratives:  Ruth, the black nurse, Turk, the white supremest father determined to seek vengeance against Ruth and Kennedy, the white public defender,  Both Ruth & Kennedy have a child.  Ruth's son Edison is a senior on full scholarship at Dalton in NYC.  Ruth has worked arduously as has her mother so she could have an education.  Ruth is dedicated to providing for Edison's tuitions.  Kennedy's daughter is a pre-schooler allotted privileges her parents can more easily provide having had a rung up inherent & perhaps taken for granted due in part to their white race.  Picoult creates 3 dimensional characters we empathize with or despise as in Turk's case.  "Great Small Things" accomplishes significant things. It calls out social injustice, blind hatred, familial love and dawning epiphanies on underestimating mundane & major inequalities inherent with race.  Picoult also manages to write a driving novel with mounting tension.  Ruth grandstands on the witness stand & Turk takes a turn towards humanity v. hatred that tip the scales towards heavy handedness.  Still, I find in favor of this prescient novel. Picoult argues harrowing injustices from different vantages in a palpable summation so as to reach a larger jury pool.

The NIX by Nathan Hill - Some Priceless Scenes Strewn amongst Today's Isolation and 60s Social Revolution

Nathan Hill's novel "The Nix" is an odd & behooving read that grabs one from the get go and never lets the reader know where it's heading next.  Samuel Anderson is our forlorn hero whom we meet at middle age at a flailing midwestern university teaching literature to a class of students who are nonplussed & non present to whatever is presented to them.  Anderson himself is at loss with himself & spends an inordinate amount of time online in a fantasy world with anonymous gamers.  Anderson was abandoned by his mother at an early & raised by his dad in a laissez faire manner.  Hill's hilarious writing, surprising twists & keen observations place The NIX alongside notable writers & social commentaries such as Russo, Irving, Updike & Upton Sinclair.  THE NIX begins betwixt Anderson's startling adolescence and older adulthood.  Anderson's professional career is mired in his own inertia and dissociated, self-indulgent students.   The scene between Anderson & a female student who pleads innocent against plagiarism by lying, denying & conniving.  This winsome waif finds the means to besmirch Anderson & receive accolades for herself.  Hill has his pulse on the today's generation nurtured in ethical nihilism.  Anderson is culpable of a fledgling work ethic.  He spends wasteful time online and remains bereft of social interaction.  Hill cleverly connects today's corrupt political posturing & today's apathetic opposition to the 60s era of protest and social justice.  He's given an advance to write about his mother whom he barely knew but recently has been outed as a militant protestor.  The novel is strewn with unrequited love, loneliness and nuclear armament among other social indignations.  While solving the mystery of his mother's whereabouts, Anderson uncovers corruption, deceit, and lives filled with drudgery and endless toil. Perhaps this explains why  Anderson is far from being alone in finding solace in front of a computer rather than face one's stagnant life.  However, Hill's storytelling is anything but mundane.  THE NIX is a unique dissection of societal morass that releases adrenaline & wit into a marvel of a brilliant novel.  "Nobody cares about antique ideas like true or false?"  THE NIX is a mirepoix of ideas meshing into a beguiling mix of pessimism and optimism - societal dissolution and rejuvenation.  Anderson comes to realize the compulsive immersion in the gaming world blurs the real world when it's essential to realize the real world is what matters.  One cannot endure this world alone.  You will be constantly delighted if you dig deep "...under the hood of someone's life, you will find something familiar."  THE NIX leaves me wanting to read whatever Nathan Hill writes next.

Michelle Obama's Autobiography BECOMING is Enlightening, Inspiring and Somewhat Self-Indulgent

Michelle Obama's BECOMING reflects back on her life from a young child on the South side of Chicago (which is mentioned umpteenth times) to meeting & marrying Barack, having babies and becoming the First Black Family in the White House.  She writes candidly what this entailed from her personal view point.  "I'm an ordinary person who found her-self on an extraordinary journey."  I believe BECOMING was written without the aid of a ghost writer.  Michelle's direct & eloquent style mirrored her public persona.  BECOMING is a rare & exciting opportunity to understand what life was like for her as First Lady.   She shares her objectives, her triumphs & failures and those of Barack's.  We admire her unflappable attitude that sustained her & her family through the exciting privileges and the oppressive rigors & restrictions that come with her unofficial role in the White House.  Michelle's life is anything but ordinary.  But as she reiterates throughout, given her humble beginnings she would not have imagined "the swerve in the road" her life took when aligning herself with Barack.  Michelle pays homage to the devotion of her loving, hard-working self-sacrificing parents.  I found the story of her childhood & college days quite interesting.  She professes a mantra of hard work, organization & tenacity as her modus operandi.  It's fair to say that there is a fair amount of conceit in Michelle's self-described drive and self-reliance.  However, the hubris is well founded and lends credibility to her storytelling.  Hearing about the unique experiences, meetings with world leaders & perks as the First Family was fascinating.  So too were her missions to accomplish things to benefit children's health, veterans and education for young women.  There is an eye-opening understanding of the double-edged sword that comes with the responsibilities & privileges.  I hadn't realized the anguish that comes with being placed in this unique & perilous position.  Fear for her family's safety & well-being was omnipresent. This is Michelle's story to tell and her sentiments & experiences reflect heavily on race; the disadvantages, obstacles and injustice that are inherent in our nation to people of color.  "We were the 44th First Family & only the 11th family to spend 2 full terms in the White House.  We were, and would always be, the 1st black one."  Michelle stated, "When Barack was 1st elected, various commentators had naively declared that our country was entering a 'post racial' era, in which skin color would no longer matter."  She went on to enumerate numerous tragedies proving the fallacy of this optimistically "naive" position.   Regardless, Michelle recounts her amazing life in a clear, forthright voice that I wish was still as privy to the public as when  First Lady.  Her overriding message of her memoir is noteworthy.  "There's power in allowing yourself to be known and heard...And there's grace in being willing to know and hear others."

James Baldwin's Novel "If Beale Street Could Talk" (1974) Barry Jenkins is Adapting it into a Film ('18)

James Baldwin (b Amer. 1924-1987) is one of the most prominent & brilliant novelists, playwrights and social critic of the 20th C.  His 1974 novel "If  Beale Street Could Talk" addresses racism, poverty, mass incarceration of men of color & blacks subjugation to social injustice.  "If Beale Street Could Talk" confronts the vicious cycle of cruelty, oppression & poverty that are unsurmountable for  people of color in our country.   Baldwin gives us Tish and Fonny, a young & in love couple to expresses his social views, "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power is the most ferocious enemy that justice can have."  Tish & Fonny grew up together on the same impoverished streets.  Their childhood attachment grows into a love that is wondrous & overwhelming. "Fonny loved me too much, we needed each other too much.  We were part of each other, flesh of each other's flesh."  Their love story and the familial love they maintain humanizes their despair against the brutalities of an unjust & racist society.  Fonny is arrested on trumped up rape charges by a white officer angered at being knocked down a notch in public when a white woman stood up to defend Fonny against a white man.  The lawyer they hire at great expense tells Tish, "It isn't much of a case. If Fonny were white it would be no case at all."  The white officer sought revenge and rounded Fonny up for a line-up where he was falsely identified as the perpetrator & sent to prison to await trial.  Tish & Fonny had heard horrors stories of arrests & incarceration from their friend Daniel also unfairly victimized in the court system and coerced into taking a guilty plea to a felony.  Daniel tells his friends, "They were just playing with me man because they could.  And I'm lucky it was only two years, you dig?  Because they can do with you whatever you want."  Baldwin's indelible prose & memorable characters make "If Beale Street Could Talk" into a compelling plea for social reform.  "Neither love nor terror makes one blind; indifference makes one blind."  Baldwin writes poignantly on love, grief & despair.  This stirring novel also poises dignity & compassion.  "Despair can make one monstrous, but it can also make one noble."  Tish & Fonny were supported by family & by  friends from a local restaurant who saw they never went hungry.  Tish knew she & Fonny had caring support. "Others love him, too, so much that they have set me free to be there.  He is not alone, we are not alone."   I recommend reading this and everything written by James Baldwin.  I'm sure Barry Jenkins("Moonlight") will do a remarkable job turning Baldwin's novel into another award winning film.

IMAGINE ME GONE by Adam Haslet Nominated for Putlizer Prize and Nat'l Bk Award '17

"Imagine Me Gone" was short listed for both the Putlizer and Nat'l Book Award ('17).  An award for masochism is bestowed to whomever completes Adam Haslet's sorrowful novel.  It's about a family  contending with multi-generational mental illness & suicide.  Haslet's writing is suffocating.  It creates a fugue state of overwhelmingly depression.  The novel begins with a death that foreshadows an ominous veil of darkness.  It shifts back to a light young romance between Margaret, a young American woman and John, a charming British gentleman in London in 1960.   The two become engaged and Margaret returns to the states to plan their wedding only to be called back to tend to her hospitalized fiancee.  What Margaret didn't or couldn't comprehend is what John's on-going mental illness & how it impact their lives.  Writer William Styron ("Sophie's Choice") wrote about his battles with depression in his memoir "Darkness Visible."  Both Styron and Haslet are brilliant writers.  "Imagine Me Gone" attempts to capture what Styron expressed in his memoir by letting the reader into a world of darkness that is unfathomable but for those who suffer from debilitating depression.  Styron wrote, "No light, but rather darkness visible."  Margaret and John get married & move to the states where they raise their children, Michael, Celia and Alec.  The story has the narrative of all 5 family members.  John's depression, the "beast" returns if it ever went away only to project everything he is incapable of doing or feeling and from which there is no getting better.  John takes his young children, Celia & Alec out in a boat.  He tells them to imagine him gone, it's just the two of them and imagine him gone.  He asks them now what do you do?  Stuck out in the boat they lose one oar & find themselves helpless & adrift.  Michael the eldest has his own madness.  Margaret, Celia & Alec struggle to contend with a beloved sibling which is a demanding & futile undertaking.  Haslet's penetrating writing carves some understanding of mental suffering.  "What do you fear when you fear everything?  Time passing and not passing.  Death and life.  I {Michael} could say my lungs never filled with enough air."  Clearly, the pain it exacts on loved ones is behemoth,  although no one's capacity is infinite.  Michael is also consumed with gaining restitution for slavery and issues of social injustice.  The only relief Michael finds came from music.  Haslet's potent writing snares the reader in  crushing tentacles of agony.  Had I imagined how grueling & how far the suffering in "Imagine me Gone" would go, I would not have commenced this forlorn sojourn.  "I had never before understood the invisibility of a human...a spirit we can never see."

Brandon Hobson's "Where the Dead Sit Talking" Is a Coming of Age Novel of a Native Amer. Boy in Foster Care

 Brandon Hobson's novel "Where the Dead Sit Talking" was a selected as a finalist for the Nat'l Book Award ('18).  Hobson's beautifully voiced narrative is set in 1980s rural OK.  Sequoyah is a young Cherokee boy whose single mother struggles with alcohol & drugs land her in prison and sends Sequoyah into the social system which has him in & out of shelters & various foster homes.  He loved his mother despite her haphazard lifestyle and the accidental scarring of his face she caused by splattering bacon grease.  His facial disfigurement sets him further apart from others.  Sequoyah narrates with an authentic dispassion that served to shield him from perpetual displacement.  Sequoyah believes everything that happens in his life is his fault.  His pain & loneliness make him feel invisible. He wants to become someone else entirely.  He couldn't allow himself to feel sad for his mom being in prison.  He grew used to being separated from her.  Still, he clung to the hope of being reunited knowing it wouldn't happen.  Sequoyah's lyrical plaintive voice is deeply moving.  While at his mother's probation hearing which was denied "She turned and looked at me which destroyed me.  I was overwhelmed by grief & couldn't bear to feel anything more."  Sequoyah tries to convince himself it's better to feel empty but he yearns for a friend, a connection a safe haven.  His fear of people leaving him is constant.  His desire to appease whatever family takes him in is aching for the reader.   How can he get his foster families to like him and make him feel welcome?  The shelters where he was placed were cold, dead and lonely, filled with a sadness he couldn't bear. In most foster homes he felt as if he were a chore and not worth the money they were paid.  At age 15 Sequoyah is placed with the Troutt family who have 2 other foster children; George & Rosemary.  George is Sequoyah's age & they share a room.  George has debilitating trauma of his own.  Rosemary is slightly older and of Cherokee lineage.  Sequoyah forms a strong attachment to Rosemary that is anchored by hope & grief.  He is struck by the strength of grief which seemed to hold him together.  "Where the Dead Sit Talking" is a magnificent work suffused with melancholy & lyricism.  Spending much of his time in solitude he listened for the voices of his ancestors who spoke of secrets and the future. "When I spoke to them they listened.  Staring up at me with huge, watery eyes, I talked to them when I was afraid or angry or hurting."  Hobson is a member of the Cherokee Nation Tribe.  His masterful novel is powerfully wrenching.  It's imbued with dignity along with the suffering  of growing up without a permanent home.

Sigrid Nunez's Nat'l Book Award Winner '18 THE FRIEND is a Novel Reader's Best Friend I LOVED IT!

THE FRIEND which took home the bone for this year's Nat'l Book Award is about the relationship between a woman & her best friend, her dog Apollo.  This ingenious & captivating novel by Sigrid Nunez (b US 1951) is about so much more than a friendship between a human being and a dog.  This friendship between an unnamed narrator and her inherited Great Dane she names Apollo, surpasses what constitutes friendship.  The female narrator is grieving over the recent suicide of her dearest male companion.  Both are writers and each other's intellectual soulmate & confidant.  Her psychiatrist tells her she is mourning as a lover or wife would.  But she never suspected her friend was contemplating taking his own life.  After the funeral, wife #3 (the man was an ignominious womanizer) asks if the woman would take ownership of the Great Dane whom her departed husband found abandoned and adopted.  Despite protestations that her building wouldn't permit her to have a dog (which are true) and the fact that she's always been lifelong cat person, she agrees to take ownership of the dog.  Perhaps her decision is made out of loneliness or a means to stay connected to  her closest friend.  As her grief and depression escalate her feelings for Apollo become profound.  "I sing with joy at the thought of seeing him and for sure this love is not like any love I've ever felt." We feel sympathy for the narrator whose aware her most significant relationship is with a dog.   The narrator maintains a perpetual dialogue with her deceased companion.  She ruminates with him over their past lives, literature and the demise of nobility in being a writer and the vast apathy for reading. She thinks writers are elitist, egotistic and privileged snobs.  She incessantly drops literary icons like  Woolf, Chekov, Proust, Rilke  and their views.  Particularly she mentions Ackerly & his madness at the heart for his dog.  And Rilke's view on love.  She asks Apollo what are "if not two solitudes that protect and border and greet each other."  The narrator makes astute observations on how she perceives others and how she perceives them accessing and Apollo.  She has a discerning eye and a hilarious self-deprecation.  Nunez's novel THE FRIEND is a melancholy & endearing treasure.  "What we miss-what we lose and what we mourn-isn't it this that makes us who, deep down, we truly are."

A PLACE for US by Fatima Farheen Mizra - India's 2nd Generation Siblings Assimilation in CA

Fatima Farheen Mizra (b US 1991) was raised by parents who immigrated from India to CA.  Mizra's long winded meandering contemporary saga is of a family of Indian heritage, Islamic faith & Muslim traditions.  Unquestioned traditions, faith & social decorums become questioned & adapted by the children of immigrants from India much to the dismay of their parents.  The father Rafiq & Layla had an arranged marriage.  They met only briefly before they wed and moved to CA.  Layla had never been far from her family's home in India.   Rafiq & Layla become immersed in their Muslim community in CA which revolves around the Mosque.  Mizra's melancholy & thoughtful novel is as much about family dynamics & dysfunction as it is about the assimilation of a 2nd generation.  The novel begins with the wedding of the oldest daughter, Hadia to a man she chose.  This is radical & defies a sacrosanct tradition.  The novel shifts chronologically between past & present where propriety & beliefs were omnipotent.  Huda is the 2nd daughter & Amar, the favored male child.   The narration comes through all 5 voices and the perspectives are an eye opening emotional coaster ride.  Rafiq & Layla accepted their Islamic faith as habit, a way of living steadfastly held.  Men & women were kept apart at worship & at all social gatherings.  The siblings were able to look beyond limits of propriety that their parents could not.  A teenage Amar falls in love with the daughter of a family from their religious community.  Still, this is scandalous beyond acceptance.  The repercussions of coercing an end to their platonic young relationship have crushing consequences for Amar & his family.  A PLACE for US becomes repetitive & uneventful in too many places.  However, there are situations of poetic beauty, familial love and ephiphanies that fill the pages with a shimmering richness & tenderness.  Rafiq regrets his strict parenting of Amar that cost his son's love.  Layla too has regrets regarding her son.  How were they to know the moments that would define them? Hadia & Hudu don't abandon their Muslim heritage nor do they embrace it with the unwavering fervor of their parents.  Neither sister will submit to obsolete restrictions.  Amar & his sisters discover life on their own terms.  For Amar it struck him like a blow that his sisters never experienced doubts in their certainty of being Muslim or of a heaven or hell. "Maybe they had all gotten it right in their own way, which meant that no way was superior to any other."  Rafiq observes each generation losing touch bit by bit.  He wonders if for his children's children, would there even be a point for adhering to their ancestral heritage.   Yet Rafiq perceives "how miraculous it is that we receive in this world the very things we need from it."  

FAR FROM the TREE Nat'l Book Winner ('17) for Young Adult Lit. by Robin Benway

FAR FROM the TREE is an intelligent & affecting novel that connects three high school students. Joaquin, Grace & Maya.  All 3 knew they were put up for adoption at birth.  Grace was adopted by  loving parents with no other siblings.  When Grace becomes pregnant by her boyfriend she makes the courageous decision with the support of her parents to place her baby girl with a couple for adoption.  Grace's pregnancy makes her a social outcast at school which is nothing compared to the grief she bears for not keeping "Peach" with her.  Grace's parents maintained they'd provide her with with any information they had on Grace's biological family.  Grace is given an email for her 1/2 sister Maya and reaches out to her.  Maya has been adopted into a family with a younger biological daughter to her their parents.  Grace & Maya discover they share an older 1/2 brother Joaquin.  The 2 nearly acquainted sisters agree to try to connect with Joaquin who is amenable to meeting them.  While all 3 share the same birth mother, they're lives have taken very different tangents.  Joaquin has been living with a couple for the past 3 years who provide a very loving & supporting home & want very much to formally adopt him.  Grace & Maya have been with their adoptive families since.  The path towards a secure & caring family for Joaquin was harsh.  He changed foster homes so many time he felt rudderless & adrift.  He's built up a wall as a safety net that holds him back from becoming attached to protect him from being shattered.  Joaquin is not alone in coping with anguish.  The strained & awkward initial meetings with each other gives way to a bond of support & understanding as they grow to lean on one another.  FAR FROM the TREE offers awareness into the failings, anguish, compassion & love from foster care & adoptive families from the varied individuals impacted in addition to the child.  We empathize with Joaquin's experiences moving from family to family and not feeling permanency, always fearing he'd be traded in, swapped out, sent away.  Grace represents the sacrifice & grief she felt giving a child up for adoption.  Myah's family has its share of hardships to bear.  Together the 3 siblings form roots that entwine and thrive.  The power of having a family to fall back on is at the foundation of FAR from the TREE.  "Maya had never realized how much power there was in loving someone."   I firmly recommend this poignant and eye opening novel of what it means to be a family.  

Ned Vizzini's BE MORE CHILL a Coming of Age Novel in the Age of Sci-fi Technology

Ned Vizzin's young adult novel BE MORE CHILL ('04)is a coming of age novel dealing with the social hierarchies of high school while living in an age of omnipotent technology.  Vizzini (b Amer 1981-2013) was an accomplished screenwriter & author of young adult novels.  Sadly, he committed suicide at 32 having suffered from clinical depression.  His novel "It's Kind of a Funny Story" ('07) is about a 15 year old placed in an adult psychiatric ward.  Vizzini has said the story's main character Craig was based on his own experiences.  The novel received the Best Book Award for Y/A Fiction in '07.  In his earlier novel BE MORE CHILL, Jeremy is a high school student who keeps a running tab on all the indignities & snubs he receives daily.  Jeremy's only friend is Michael, another outsider from the inner realm of cool kids who rule at school.  Jeremy pines for beautiful Christine whose barely aware of his existence until he becomes bumptious & off-putting.  Jeremy would make a deal with Faust if only he could win Christine's affections.  Faust comes in the form of Rich, an alpha male at school.  Rich convinces Jeremy the answers to connecting with girls and for being cool comes in the form of a "SQUIP;" a pill you ingest.  Besides costing $600 & purchasing the SQUIP in the backroom of a Payless store, it would seem a bogus con job.  However, once Jeremy obtains the money in his own hilarious heist and ingests the SQUIP, his dreams start to come true by listening to the voice now speaking inside his brain instructing him how to behave.  The SQUIP is also capable of doing Jeremy's trig homework in minutes.  The amusing awkward angst of navigating teen pressures takes a disturbing leap into sci-fi satire with eerie credibility.  Jeremy is not hallucinating, he's overrun by the SQUIP embedded in his brain.  The advice seems to steer Jeremy on a fitness regime, a speed course for gaining cool status and for getting the girl of his dreams.  The dream becomes a nightmare for Jeremy & classmates alike.  Vizzini's present & futuristic apprehension that young people in general are so turned in to social media,  technology and celebrity lifestyles that their actual lives are become phantoms or feel too pressurized to seek perfection. BE MORE CHILL is comedic and chilling.  It captures the susceptibility to succumb to external pressures to where common sense is shed and the individual loses their own self-identity.

British Author Anthony Horowitz's "Magpie Murders" Is Two Who Done It Murder Mysteries in One

Anthony Horowitz (b UK 1955) is a very prestigious novelist and screenwriter.  His main genre is mystery and murder but he is also a writer of young adult novels.  The Ian Fleming Estate has authorized him to write two James Bond novels and he's penned two Sherlock Holmes mysteries.  The marvelous PBS mystery series FOYLE's WAR was created & written by Horowitz.  MAGPIES MURDERS is soon to be a major BBC1 TV series.  The MAGPIE MURDERS starts out with a novel approach.  Susan Ryeland, an  editor for a small publishing firm is settling in for a cozy read with wine, chips & fags while the rain hammers away against her window panes.  What an enticing intro to an old fashioned British mystery set in the 40s post WWII.  The quaint countryside town is replete with its ancient church, the vicar & his wife, local pubs, haughty aristocracy residing in a manor that lords over the rural landscape.  There's an eclectic cast of eccentric locals.  This is a small town where all the locals know each other, look out for each other and keep their noses in everyone's business.  The death of the longtime housekeeper for the Lord Pye of the manor may or may not be accidental. But the gruesome beheading days later of Lord Pye by the sword from the suit of armor in his hallway brings Inspector Atticus Pund to add his inimitable skills to aid the local ineffectual Inspector Chubb.  A surprising twist comes with the suicide of the Magpie author, Alan Conway just as Susan & the publisher discover the final chapters are missing.  Conway death by leaping to his death is ruled a suicide.  Something clues Susan into believing Alan was murdered.  She becomes an obsessed sleuth determined to get to the bottom of things.  The bookend contemporary tale of Susan's life & her immersion into a Sherlock crime solver is a clever devise.  The reader can hone their own skills at surmising suspects & their motives.  However, the murder mystery wrapped around an old fashioned murder muddled the MAGPIE MURDERS and made an initially intriguing who done flop into a crashing bore.

Sally Field's Auto-biography "In Pieces" Reveals Childhood Sexual Abuse and Soaring Acting Career

Sally Field's candid revelation of years of sexual abuse by her step-father take front stage in her revealing auto-biography.  The roles of the cherubic all-American teen "Gidget" & the angelic (albeit moronic) "Flying Nun" mark the initial roles in her illustrious career.  They belie a tormented childhood of sexual abuse & self-loathing.  Sally professes a steadfast attachment to her mother "Baa."  Baa  divorced Sally's father when she & her older brother were toddlers.  Baa's 2nd husband entailed years of abuse marring Field's well-being.  These harsh pieces in her life are painful to read.  A climatic but restrained mother/daughter confrontation of the abuse comes towards the very end of Baa's life.  Field's auto "In Pieces" nay be cut into 3 factions; an abusive childhood & its pervasive aftermath, her young marriage and early motherhood of 2 sons,  and the passionate & circuitous path to honing her highly regarded acting craft.  She maintains acting sustained her lifeline.  The shame & rage from early childhood of abuse may be partially responsible for her submission to other men in positions of power.  Although Sally assesses at 28 she can't claim herself solely a victim.  The path of Sally's acting career is a testament to the commitment to her craft along with the support of other skilled actors and mentors. The "inside the actor studio" section is the central & most compelling portion in her auto-biography.  It offers insightful glimpses of what is required of aspiring & accomplished actors to achieve nobility in the demanding & elusive craft of acting.  "It was all of the those mindless, repetitive tasks I was forced to endure day after day, the getting up & doing every scene the best I could, over & over."  Sally's career was grounded for a long-time after 3 years floundering in a repetitive & unimaginative role.  It was here that a fellow actor steered her to acting classes where she worked arduously to develop her skills.  Delving into her major breakthrough roles as in "Sybil" and "Norma Rae" show an actress unleashing all the nuances of being human and possessing inner strength.   "The pressure of what people thought of me or didn't' think of me, who they wanted to be or didn't want me to be completely stopped."  Fields' remarkable career is a cornerstone to her life.  "In Pieces" is the culmination of Fields' life mired in the shame of abuse, the drudgery of coping as a young worn out mother and the mystifying qualities that make her an iconic actress.  This is not a kiss & tell auto-bio but her relationship to Burt Reynolds does feature in her story.  To fully appreciate Sally's awe-inspiring accomplishments & rousing life, there are grueling inseparable realities that comprise the pinnacle of a remarkable artist.    

Anna Quindlen's "Alternate Side" Show's Life in the Big Apple for the Spoiled and the Toiled

Anna Quindlen's sharp & critical eye for life in New York City for the elite and those who serve them is one of many oppositional social stratums & points of view captured in her well crafted novel "Alternative Side."  Nora & her husband Charles appear financially secure.  Their twins Rachel & Oliver are ensconced in their sr. year of college.  They've raised their family on a rare cul-de-sac on the UWS composed of individual brownstone homes filled with affluent white families creating a closed knit community upon itself.  Keeping the households churning & children cared for are the working class New Yorkers comprised of immigrants & those with far less economic advantages.  Quindlen's satirical highlighting of the haves and have nots in NYC is fiercely funny and acerbic.  Nora is the director for a jewelry museum exhibiting extravagant collections founded by wealthy NY socialite Bebe who likes to encase her own exorbitant jewels.  The ruckus raised by the discovery of imitation jewelry belonging to Bebe is priceless.  Nora notifies Bebe of the presumed robbery which doesn't phase her.  Bebe switched the authentic pieces with copies. "Who cares?  If nobody can tell the difference between real and fake, who cares if fake is what you're showing."  Phoniness is rampant amongst New Yorkers including the "homeless" mendicant outside the museum with whom Nora maintains cordial passing conversation.  And, diametrical vantages are omnipresent.  Ricky, the handyman has ingratiated himself by becoming indispensable to the sanctum of Nora & her neighbors.  He has a completely different personage when Nora seeks him out in his own neighborhood.  Ricky's wife is a real piece of work.  She has no problem laying it on the line what she thinks of Nora's self-righteousness & notorious neighborhood.  Much ado is made over the highly coveted parking lot adjacent to the cluster of brownstones.  When Ricky's van supposedly blocks access by one of the entitled parkers, a horrific incident ensues. Ricky is savagely struck by an aggrieved tenant with his golf club intentionally or not.  The gloves come off and sides are drawn.  The shifting scenarios are astute observations on white privilege, presumptions and pretensions.  "Alternate Side" offers an insider's view of life for Manhattanites.  However, marriage and relationships are at the apex of this clever & engrossing read.  Nora's marriage is dissected from within & by a cackle of caddy women who lunch.  "Marriages were like balloons; a few went suddenly pop, but more often than not the air slowly leaked out until it was a sad, wrinkled little thing with no lift to it anymore."  There's plenty of spark to make "Alternate Side" a page turner.

"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead Wins Pulitzer Prize & Nat'l Book Award for Fiction

"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead (b Amer 1969) received the Pulitzer Price for Fiction ('17), the Nat'l Book Award ('16) and was Oprah's book selection in '16.  I mention Oprah's selection because it may serve to draw more readers to the accountabilities of the barbarities the white population incurred upon African Americans and Native Americans to build our nation.  "The whites truly believes - believes with all its heart that it is their right to the land.  To kill Indians.  Make war. Enslave their brothers."  Put another war "Slavery is a sin when whites were put to the yoke, but not the African.  All men are created equal, unless we decide you are not a man."  Cora is the heroine of this oftentimes graphically apprehensible historic narrative.  Cora is a 3rd generation slave on a tyrannical plantation in GA.  Cora's grandmother Ajarry was captured in Africa and sold into slavery, her mother Mabel fled the plantation seeking her freedom leaving Cora to fend for herself as a young girl.  Mabel's fate is never known to Cora but revealed to the reader at the end of the novel.  Cora is approached by a fellow slave Caesar to make their escape.  The epic sojourn follows Cora as she makes her terrifying & grueling journey north.  Along the way she is helped by whites opposed to slavery & courageous blacks.  There are horrors and treacheries everywhere.  The underground railroad is literal in this novel adding a mystic quality.  It questions how it was at all possible to escape and to gain rightful freedom.  Our nation's birth of European tribes, "Conquer and build & civilize. And destroy that what needs to be destroyed."  Cora & Caesar harrowing journeys lands them in several states.  In SC where they feel secure until it's discovered sterilization being forced on black women & syphilis testing on black males.  Whitehead's novel is ambitious in its scope. Cora's escapes to other locations entail the bravery & humanity of other blacks and selfless whites.  This deeply stirring novel serves as a shockingly brutal understanding of the inhumane treatment of slaves and the abhorrent justifications for its practices.   Whitehead sweeping account holds many moments of great dignity amongst the atrocities.  "A free black walks differently than a slave.  White people recognize it immediately."  Mabel considers her daughter's future as a runaway. "The world may be mean, but people don't have to be, not if they refuse."      

Newberry Medal Winner for Sci-fi by Rebecca Stead "When You Reach Me" is a Y/A Time Travel Mystery

Rebecca Stead received the Newberry Medal and Best of the Year Awards for her young adult, time travel novel that is an homage to "A Wrinkle in Time."  It is also the coming of age story of a pre-teen Miranda obsessed not only with the novel "A Wrinkle in Time" she's convinced of the likelihood of time travel.  Miranda's likable character, unique reasoning & resourcefulness makes this a very appealing story.  Miranda contends "Common sense is just a name for the way we're used to thinking.  Time travel is possible."  She lives with her single mother on the UWS of NYC in the late 70s.  There are days when everything changes.  Miranda's world expands to encompass new friendships and new ideas particularly in relation to time sequences.  "Time isn't a line stretching out in front of us, going in one direction, it's well, time is just a construct."  Stead's sci-fi storyline is propelled forward by the unraveling of a mystery that Miranda manages to solve with contemplation & burgeoning new  friendships.  "When You Reach Me" has a heartwarming village mentality,  neighbors, friends, families & eccentric neighborhood locals look out for one another.  This is a young adult novel is brimming with sophisticated thinking & literary prose.  In addition to working full-time as a legal assistant, Miranda's mom spends time volunteering in a women's prison.  The subject of time travel juxtaposes the stoppage of change for many who are incarcerated.  Miranda learns meaningful lessons from her incomparable mom.  She tells her "Jail is a hard place, and that it can make people hard, too.  It changes them.  Jail stops them from becoming who they might grow to be.  Being in jail can make them feel like a mistake is all they are."  Stead also captures the fun, mischief & spirit of adolescents growing up in NYC who inherently have more liberties than most peers their age.  The adults in the novel are all thoughtful and kind and regard Miranda & her friends as mature & interesting individuals.  The time travel premise poses a confusing quandary.  But, the magic of this intriguing young adult novel are the ways it opens our eyes to viewing the world.  Miranda ponders  her mother's mentoring.  She tells Miranda we all live behind a veil keeping the world in a blurry focus. "We see all the beauty, & cruelty, & sadness, and love.  But, mostly we are happy not to. Some people learn to lift the veil themselves."  Miranda interprets this to mean people get distracted by little stuff & ignore the big stuff.

Garrard Conley's Memoir BOY ERASED - Gay Conversion Therapy is Consecrated Torture

Garrard Conley's memoir BOY ERASED published 2016 is Conley's confessions of religious torment fearing hell and brimstone was his fate.  His fear & self-loathing stemmed from his Baptist upbringing where homosexuality was proselytized as an abomination & mortal sin.   Raised by a devout Baptist minister, Conley was confused by his sexual attraction to the same sex.  His father was without any doubt homosexuality is a sin and threatened Conley to change or forever be banned from his home, his family & any financial support.  Conley for his part believed at the time he needed to change and was willing to seek "help" to purify himself so as not to be turned away by God.  Conley's memoir talks about his 2 weeks in conversion therapy in a program called "Love in Action" (LIA).  Conley's mother jokes that it was the year they were abducted by aliens.  Conley views this time as a year when his life went missing, where everything he cared about was erased.  The humiliation and coercion with which LIA operated their misguided & damaging conversion therapy was odious.  Conley submitted to LIA hoping it would be a savior from remaining a hell-bound sinner knowing he would remain as he was born.  The idea of a sin having a biological basis would have shocked most people in Conley's congregation but many were beginning to suspect the truth; this is factual. And, the perverse idea that conversion therapy is healing or possible should be erased for all eternity.    Conley acceptance of his so called affliction was not something he desired to change has become acceptable to both of his parents.  Conley's rebuff from his father has healed.  The blasphemy of intolerance, particularly based on religious grounds is what's not tolerable.  Fortunately, this abhorrent conviction of conversion therapy has floundered.  Unfortunately,  prejudice against the LGBT community persists.  Conley's memoir delves deeply into the psyche of religious zealots who maintain gays are disgusting abominations.  It sheds light on what many liberals find incredulous.   Fourteen years after Conley's immersion into LIA he's found himself lucky to be alive, and happy with his life & with his family despite how he was treated and still "handled as they would an unwanted piece of family china."  He contends we "...still share the same warm blood that pausing through my veins."  BOY ERASED is a bittersweet memoir written with candor & compassion.

British Author Rose Walsh's Novel GHOSTED - A Crossed Stars Lovers Story to Cross off Your List

GHOSTED is Rose Walsh's US debut novel and one that should be shrouded & forgotten by all of us.  It's a story of 2 middle-aged star crossed lovers, Sarah & Eddie.  The two meet on a quaint country road while Eddie is herding sheep & enlists Sarah's help.  Job well done, the two are off to the local pub and a pint turns into a week of unmitigated bliss in Eddie's work studio home.  Between jumping in the sheets the two unwind their life stories while not revealing entire naked truths about their past & present lives.  Walsh, a documentary filmmaker says the novel mirrors events from her own life.  Outside of falling in lust quickly and then just as quickly ghosted from the subject of one's infatuation, nothing rings true in this sappy overwrought melodrama.  Sarah is currently living in LA although they both grew up in the same area.  Their lives had crashingly merged unbeknownst from what they've shared.   Eddie was set to take a weeks vacation at the end of their week of love and Sarah selflessly encourages him to go ahead with his plans.  She tells him she will be waiting for him when he returns.  Here's the burn, she no longer hears from Eddie and all his social media is erased & she's unceremoniously unfriended.   How is it possible that this one week together has Sarah so insanely in love and willing to pursue any leads to contacting him.  The story is more than "he's just not into you."  However, the added mystery, friends and angst further bury this unbridled lah lah love story with its cliched text "Love has no edges, I do believe when you know you know, Don't let love slip through your fingers, try everything."  The one thing Walsh got right is "A silent phone brings out the worst in us."  Don't waste time decoding this intentionally misleading maudlin mess.  And, yes, if you don't hear back - believe it, he's just not into you.  It's not worth pursuing your misguided & misread signs of devotion.  And, it's just not worth going through the motion of reading this apparition.

"The History of Wolves" by Emily Fridlund is Short Listed for Man Booker, A Howling Unforgettable Tale

 "The History of Wolves" ('17) is a daring & haunting novel by Emily Fridlund (b Amer. 1979) was shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Award.  The story is set in the northern outreaches of MN, where the harsh winters are relentless & unforgiving.  Madeline, also known as "Linda" or more commonly as "freak" or "commie" by her high school peers.  But mainly, Madeline is disregarded & left by herself.  Linda lives with her father & mother & several hounds on an abandoned failed commune on an isolated lake.  Fridlund's remarkable writing deviates from any formulaic coming of age tale. Linda was reared apart from childhood playmates leaving her feeling lonely & unanchored.   Linda found "No help from the boredom. No changing from loneliness." Linda's sole companionship is with the dogs she cares for at home.  She's adrift and at a loss for attachment.  Linda is first drawn to the new teacher whom she makes a weak attempt to seduce.  Then a young family moves into a cabin across the lake.  The mother Patra enlists Linda to help sit for her 4 year old son Paul.  Linda finds a moor in Patra's attention & Paul's neediness.  Linda's formed familial bonds are shattered by the arrival of Patra's husband Leo and stalactites of pending horror bear down.  Fridlund's brittle handling theological questions on the origins of good & evil, christianity and the nuclear family are haunting and pristine.  Linda is coerced to conceive of "Heaven and hell are ways of thinking.  Death is the false belief that anything could ever end."  And, "It's not what you do but what you think that matters."  Linda finds herself in an untenable situation but realizes "You can't just do whatever you want to someone and get away with it."  We see Linda as a young adult years after her previous encounters.  She is somewhat frozen between self-reliance and commitment.  Wolves hunt out the weak, the sick, the injured and  mostly avoid people.  Fridlund's harrowing & lyrical writing unfurls  a character of inner strength set against a frozen tundra.  The reader is left to slowly thaw from the author's majestic writing.  "The woods just kept unfurling and blooming and drying up and its constant flux of implied meanings 1/2 revealed, 1/2 withheld - mysteries."  I highly recommend this impressive, enigmatic & thought provoking work.

Grant Grinder's "The People We Hate at the Wedding" for People Clinging to Beach Reads and Grudges

"The People We Hate at the Wedding" by Grant Grinder (b Amer 1983) is a humorous look at family dysfunction, sibling quibbling and relationship fiascos.  Ginder's funny & irritating novel can't help us have a love/hate relationship with the crazy family with matriarch Donna, eldest daughter Eloise and Eloise's 1/2 siblings Alice and Paul.  Eloise is the daughter of Donna's first whirlwind romance & marriage.  Donna was a young 20+ who fell hard & fast for a Frenchman who provided an exotic & luxurious lifestyle nonpareil with her midwestern modest origins and back again with 2nd husband Bill father to Alice & Paul.  Life with Henrique was too good to be true.  Henrique c'est tres Francais.   Whose to say mistresses on the side are not okay?  Peut etre the American the wife, Donna who would not go for that and that may be her biggest regret.  The 2nd biggest regret maybe her 2nd marriage to Bill the salt of earth kind of guy except for his homophobic hatred which extended to his son, Paul.  Eloise was endowed with a trust fund that entrusted her life would be free from financial worry and filled with privilege.  That sounds like grounds to resent one's older sibling feeling she's always gotten the better deal.  There's more to explore in terms of neurosis, relationship disasters and self-combustion fueled with booze & drugs.   Alice & Paul don't seem to have it together at all.  While Eloise is the one whose always trying to please.  There's only so much disappointment one family can be expected to take.  "The People We Hate...." is a family fiasco extraordinaire.  We really do care for the characters regardless of their irritating shenanigans or maybe because their escapades are so outlandish.  Eloise is getting married in London which entails a family reunion.  This promises to be a wedding bash that is bound to crash.   Grinder was a political speech writer before turning humorous novelist.  Perhaps, his political speech writing background was grounds for finding absurdity in grandstanding.  "The People We Hate at the Wedding" is a beach book, guilty pleasure that you shouldn't hate yourself for savoring.  C'est la vie!

Putlizer Prize Novelist Annie Prouix's BARKSKINS - An Epic Saga that is Devastating & Everlasting

Annie Prouix (b Amer 1935) is one of the finest living novelists.  "The Shipping News" won both the Pulitzer & Nat'l Book Award (1993).   Her short story "Brokeback Mountain" was made into an Acad. Award winning film.  Her brilliant writing style & subject matters vary enormously in her body of work making her creative genius paramount.  However, there is a unifying theme that concerns protection/destruction of the environment and persecuted populations.  "Barkskins" (2018) is an epic novel that spans the globe and generations beginning at the end of the 17th C spanning up to the 19th C.  The cast of characters become so convoluted and churning that it becomes arduous to keep lineage and logistics in line.  The 2 male characters from whom the family tree and future logging legacy in North America stem are 2 Frenchmen who land in French Canada as indentured slaves yet cunningly and relentlessly build their vast fortunes from the land.  They build their empires by razing the trees and decimating the Native Indian population who lived in harmony with their environment before being overrun by entitled, heartless white settlers.  The men who at the forefront of conquering the land and financial rewards are multinational, polyglot individuals.  These men are resourceful but not remorseful.  The history of the shipping trade industry, lumbering industry and financings is fascinating until halfway through this factual & shameful odyssey.  This reader went overboard midway despite knowing not to change horses midstream.  Still, I applaud Prouix's masterful writing and moreover her historical rhetoric that needs retelling.  The destruction of the seemingly plentiful national forests is ruthless and the treatment of the indigenous population, heinous.  The lacking morality & inhumane disregard for the land and its indigenous population bears retelling.  One of the few surviving Mi'kmaw Indians (living in Canada) tells his offspring.  "I learned that Indian people must take whatever is useful from the whitemen.  It is just because they have taken everything from us.  Many of our people died with secrets locked in their heads.  Now it is good for us to learn how to read and write so we may know how we make useful things, how our grandfathers lived.  That is why we learn to read-so we can remember."  The 800+ book (which should be purchased via kindle to conserve the use of paper) is monumental in scope and shaming of ruthless justifications that permitted the dehumanizing of races and demolishing of forest lands & natural resources.

Canadian Writer Louise Penny's "Still Life" 1st in Her Mystery Series with Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

Louise Penny (b Canada 1958) is a successful and prolific writer of mysteries. Her returning main character is Chief Inspector Armand Gamache who consistently solves murder mystery cases.  "Still Life" (2005) is the first in her "Gamache" series.  Her most recent novel "Glass Houses" was published this year.  Still, while Penny has received numerous awards for mystery writing and the distinguished honor of being initiated as a Member of the Order of Canada, I was not swept into the storytelling web in "Still Life."  The setting is in an idyllic, small rural Canadian town.  It seems as if   everyone knows one another and everyone soon realizes that victim is amongst them.  The murder victim is the beloved Jane, a former local school teacher. The town has its share of eccentric citizens and cozy cafes but there's little spark to solving for Jane's murder.  Myrna, a longtime friend of Jane's does have her views as to why people would commit murder.  "Money, power. Gain or bring to protect something you're afraid of losing."  Clara is married to Peter.  She & Jane were extremely close despite the huge gap in their age difference.  Clara is deeply shaken by the untimely death of her friend.  Though the novel didn't pique my intrigue for solving the case, there's plenty of insights by its cast of characters, especially Inspector Gamache.  Enough perspicacity to possibly recommend pursuing Penny's plethora of fictitious crime capers.   Jane's grief for her friend leads to a fracture in her marriage.  "A silence between them, something else unsaid.  Is this how it starts?  Those chasms between couples, filled not with comfort and familiarity, but with too much unsaid."  The Chief's observations are the most astute.  Gamache understood it was his job to get people to reveal themselves.  He learned by watching the choices people make.  Gamache's tries gallantly & patiently to impart his wisdom to the new trainee, Nichol, assigned to work with him.  Nichol is sharp but too cocky to accept any helpful criticism or instructions.  Gamache's sage & cogent advice to Nichol is to listen and he encourages to utilize the phrases:  I'm sorry, I don't know and I need help.   Matthew 10:36 is referred to often in "Still Life."  "And a man's foes shall be of his own household."  Betrayal being the startling revelation in this ho hum whodunnit.  But, I'm not one to throw stones and I'm curious enough to read Penny's latest, "Glass Houses."  

Meg Wolitzer's Novel "The Wife" is Soon to be Seen on the Screen with Glenn Close and Jonathan Price

Meg Politzer (b US 1959) is a prolific novelist and gifted writer of short stories.  Her novel "The Wife" published in 2003 is being made into a film opening soon starring Glenn Close star of screen, stage & TV as the overshadowed wife and the British actor of screen, stage & TV ("Game of Thrones") Jonathan Pryce as her overbearing, self-absorbed husband. The two are a long time married couple who've grown apart yet remained together.  They first met when was Joan (Close) was a co-ed in his writing seminar at Smith and immediately she was smitten.  Joe (Pryce) enters the all female classroom setting hearts a flutter despite (or incensed) by his announcement that his wife just had their first child.  The part of the young Joan will be portrayed in the upcoming film by Close's own daughter, Annie Maude Starke.  The story begins in the 1950s with Joan somewhat aloof from her classmates and convinced there's more to her sheltered, wealthy upbringing.  In the novel, Joan's mother is appalled not so much by the adulterous affair but that it is with a Jew. The anti-Semitic undercurrent is relative to the times.  Joe's student/teacher conferences flatter Joan's writing & boosts her confidence.  When the conferences become carnal knowledge & common knowledge, both Joe & Joan flee the Univ. taking refuge in NYC in a squalid apartment.  The two become a team where it would seem Joan is the one behind the scene doing the lion's share of household wifely/motherly chores and the heavy lifting when it comes to writing.  Joe's "writing" brings him notoriety, literary prizes and the much coveted Finlandia Literary Prize.  Joan is the narrator which is recounted mostly in flashbacks.  Perhaps piqued by years of Joe's infidelity, faltering parenting and mostly due to the unrewarding years of yielding herself to benefitting Joe.  She has the opportunity to tell all to Joe's unofficial biographer.  Joe & Joan have a heated (literally) altercation in the sauna of their lush hotel on the night Joe received his literary prize with mounds of alcohol & accolades.  Joe concedes "Every marriage is just two people striking a bargain.  I traded, you traded, so maybe it wasn't even."  Joan mulls over her role as the wife.  "I liked the role at first, assessed the power it contained which for some reason many people don't see, but it's there."  Joan having raised 2 daughters and a son is cognizant of the changes in lifestyles over the decades for women since the 50s.  These women were always confronting boundaries & negotiations.  Today, women have more opportunities and choices to be the type of wife, mother and career person of their own volition.  Wolitzer's writing is cunning & poetic.  "Wives are meant to be sources of comfort, showering it like wedding rice."  Wolitzer's works make great picks for women's book clubs but it doesn't broach the level of Pulitzer Prize worthy - yet.

Joan Silber's Novel IMPROVEMENT Wins the Nat'l Book Award ('17) and PEN/Faulkner Award ('18)

Joan Silber (b. Amer 1945) has previously been nominated for the Nat'l Book Award (IDEAS of HEAVEN" '04).  This year, Silber received the honor for her novel IMPROVEMENT which also earned the PEN/FAULKNER Award.  The crafty writing and interwoven & thinly connected characters makes for an intriguing and unexpected work.  The main character Kiki, is somewhat reminiscent of an "Auntie Mame" heroine; bohemian, unorthodox, world traveler and beloved great aunt to Oliver.  Oliver's single mother Reyna is also unpredictable and apt to follow her heart rather than rationale.  The plot's twists & travels takes Kiki to Turkey where she marries Osman.  They live in Istanbul until his rug business goes bust and they move out to barren & uneventful rural farmland consumed with endless chores.  A vagabond group of young German antiquities thieves pass through and stir Kiki's inner passions for adventure & excitement.  She leaves Osman who leaves her with several Turkish rugs that are metaphorical magic carpets that transport Kiki & Reyna's lives with the financial windfalls they provide.  "Say what you will money has the power to improve circumstances."  There are shifty New Yorkers who also have get rich quick illicit plans that prove profitable but then fatal and love connections that derail.  One shifty small time gifter, aptly named Wiley, is the unlikely member of the novel's motley characters to find a lasting love and turn his life around.  But, "Maybe love was raising him up, turning him around, starting him over."  Silber's expansive storytelling weaves in themes of love and improvement and perhaps, love being at the heart for changing betterment.   There's the power of regret, the perpetual pondering of what could be fixed and what might provide redemption.  I was stirred by various thoughts on motivations for change "the tooth of regret tore at her heart" and the capacity of love's omnipotence.  "People thought love was everything, but it could do so much and no more."   IMPROVEMENT is a spellbinding read.  It has a nomadic & unconventional style that is puzzling and poignant.  I admired Silber's writing and enjoyed IMPROVEMENT but I've read other books this year I believe were better candidates for this year's Nat'l Book Award.  "The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement."  (H. Schmidt)

The Novel GINNY MOON a New Insight into the Mind of a Teen with Autism also Tossed in Foster Care

Benjamin Ludwig's debut novel GINNY MOON's main character is a teen with many difficulties in young life.  She's resourceful, resilient, dedicated to caring for her baby sister and she has autism.  Ginny's voice narrates her story.  She informs us "I go for part of language arts with all the other special kids because I have autism and developmental disabilities." As the reader, we understand Ginny's reasonings & struggles whereas people in her life cannot.   Patrice, her psychiatrist offers the most patience & is the most perceptive.  "Patrice understands mostly everything that I tell her.  She even understands something that I don't say."  Ginny suffered terrible abuse while living with her drug addicted birth mother Gloria.  Gloria was at times a loving parent but mostly neglectful.  She failed to provide adequate food, protection and was oftentimes volatile.  The men who came to visit her mom sexually abused Ginny.  When the police finally intervened Ginny was 9 and was placed into social services. They placed her with foster families.  Ginny developed a severe aversion to men, police and become further withdrawn.  The first foster placements were disastrous.  At 15, Ginny is placed with what she calls her forever Mom & Dad.  Ginny understands much more than given credit.  She tries desperately to convey that she fears for her "Baby Doll," her infant sister when Ginny was removed from Gloria.  "Baby Doll will suffer serious abuse and neglect which is what happened to me."  Ginny is relentless in trying to contact Gloria because no seems to understand the dire situation of the hidden infant left in Gloria's care.  Patrice finally breaks through, "I'm sorry for 5 years now you've been telling us that your real Baby Doll was a real baby and you were right."  There are parallels between GINNY MOON and THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG both novels have teenage main characters with autism.   Both are incredibly tenacious & self-reliant but unfortunately Ginny's circumstances are much more harrowing & heart breaking.  The novels are paradigms for humanity and the expanse of both compassion & cruelty.  GINNY MOON takes the reader along the painful journey of an incredibly good but misunderstood young woman.  Ginny knows "I need to belong somewhere and where I am isn't anywhere at all.  I'm just a cave girl who doesn't belong.  I can't do anything right.  I can't take care of anything so I just don't belong."  Ludwig received the Clay Reynolds Prize for his novella SOURDOUGH.  In his first novel Ludwig created a fully developed character with Ginny.  We cringe with sorrow & fear and desperately want to protect her.  Ludwig & his wife have an adopted child with autism.  The writing is compelling and the story unforgettable.  GINNY MOON explores regions of the mind that are unattainable.    

Rachel Kushner's The MARS ROOM - Brilliant Writing But a Devastating Book of a Woman Incarcerated

The MARS ROOM by writer/journalist Rachel Kushner (b. Amer. 1968) is twice a finalist for the Nat'l Book Award; "Telex from Cuba" and "The Flamethrower."  As a journalist Kushner is a frequent contributor to "Artforum" magazine.   Kushner's literary fiction writing is deeply stirring; both devastatingly heartbreaking and profoundly creative.  The MARS ROOM refers to the seedy strip joint Romy works to support her drug habit & her young son Jackson.  Romy's life is drawn out as a young teen growing up in San Francisco; the grungy, Mission district.  Her misguided, mostly unsupervised adolescence is padded with deviant juvenile misadventures.  Nothing indicative of criminal actively leading to a life sentence for murder.  Kushner's insights are socially relevant & her writing exquisite. Romy's regular customer at the Mars Room is a creep but he keeps her with a steady flow of cash which helps to care for her son.  Romy is street smart and she knows her steady customer turns into a dangerous stalker.  Constantly harassed by calls & surveillance she manages to relocate with her son.  Her sense of safety & freedom is short lived.  When he unexpectedly shows up on her porch she uses a pipe to pound the life out of him.  Taken into custody & Jackson into the care of her semi-reliable mother, Romy is left without means for legal counsel.  Her public defender does nothing to defend her.  Had she had financial means for a personal attorney, they likely would've gotten her released or charged with a lesser crime.  Romy is found guilty and incarcerated for life. Kushner accesses the Hellish lives of Romy & other inmates.   Romy constantly for information on Jackson.  Imprisoned, Romy ruminates on her past life.  She realizes you first learn of evil in the world as a youngster but it's not easy to absorb.  Her job as a stripper sucked the life out of her.  "The problem was not moral.  It was nothing to do with morality.  These men dimmed my glow.  Made me numb to touch, and angry."  Romy understands how her cellmates were able to commit murder. They killed because did not see their victims as human.  The guards tell Romy who inquires about Jackson,  "Your situation is due 100% to choices you made and action you took. If you'd wanted to be a responsible parent, you would have made different choices."  Gordon, a teacher who works with Romy & other inmates views things differently.  "Maybe guilt and innocence were not even a real axis. Things went wrong in peoples lives."  Both Romy & Gordon see the celestial expanse with similar vantages.  "The sky is junked with stars and if you live in a city, you don't know.  If you live in a prison you do not see a single star on account of the lights. (Romy) "In city life you tend to be turned inward...you get conditioned to block most sights & sounds out of your conscience mind." (Gordon) The MARS ROOM is a literary marvel of storytelling that is at war with grief and compassion, and battles with splendor and repulsiveness.

One of the Best Beach Book Novelists, Elin Hilderbrand Masters Her 1st Mystery THE PERFECT COUPLE

Elin Hilderbrand (b Amer 1950) has a long, successful career cranking out summer romance reads, a.k.a. beach books for their guilty pleasure without a lot of strain on the brain.  Perhaps, The PERFECT COUPLE stands out from the pack because it's her 1st mystery novel and the plot twists more complex.  The other ingredients that pour into her cocktail of summer thirst quenchers are mired in the sands of Nantucket, NYC hottest spots and lots of love connections that come unraveled like a flimsy stopper knot not moored solidly to the dock.  The romance in this novel heats up but not necessarily from the start except for dalliances you know will not go the distance.  Celeste is the blonde ingenue new to the NYC "it" scene but is taken under the wing by Merritt (like the freeway) an "influencer" on the internet.  Merritt's posts earn her a lot of followers and with that, lots of posh perks.  Celeste is an only child of parents who were high school sweethearts.  Lovin' may give a thrill, but lovin' don't pay the bills.  Celeste's humble background renders her like a doe in the headlights in the bright city lights.  Her guileless wiles pave the way to win Ben Winbury's heart.  The Winbury family originally from London are wealthy aristocrats with homes in London, NYC and Nantucket.  Ben's parents are Greer, a successful mystery writer and Tag, a financial wiz and womanizer.  Ben has a brother Thomas married to Abby.  They're expecting their first child.  Ben's best friend is the handsome adonis who adores Ben but lusts for Celeste.  Lest you get notions whose won Celeste's heart despite her being engaged and hours away from marrying Ben, SPOILER ALERT - it's Shooter.  Shoot!  Don't worry that's not the tantalizing twists.  Merritt, the maid of honor to Celeste is found floating face down along the shore by her on the morning of Celeste's & Ben's wedding.  How will this mystery become uncovered?  For whom will true love be discovered?  Hilderbrand's shrewd writing and topsy turvy timelines keep the novel clipping at a swift pace.  Here's a clueless insight - the novel reads like a screenplay for a chick flick.  Here's my check list for casting:  Celeste, Emma Stone, Ben (real life ex-boyfriend, Andrew Garfield), Greer, Robin Wright, Tag, Armie Hammer, Merritt, Kiley Jenner (it's a mystery if she can act) and Schooner, Ansel Elgort.  Hilderbrand even winks at the notion of making this into a film. "The film montage starts once more:  Here are Celeste and Shooter riding the current down the beach again and again whooping like rodeo cowboys."  Hilderbrand's far from subtle  hyperbole are not encrypted.  But she's scripted a swift mystery romance that's like to prove more than satisfactory.  After all, "Anyone would be able to plot a murder."  But, "Nothing as it turns out can take the place of love."  The PERFECT COUPLE is a guilty pleasure to treasure on the beach.

British Author Veronica Henry's HOW to FIND LOVE in a BOOK STORE is a Mawkish Bore

Veronica Henry (b UK 1963) is queen of the Harlequin romance genre which is a class beneath court jester.  I do not jest, HOW to FIND LOVE in a BOOK STORE will be thought the best or the worst read.  For those in the dunce division, this book will be right up your cozy nook corner.  For those who can't stomach  saccharine, simpleton mawkish storytelling - STOP!  Don't waste a moment on this pithy, pathetic waste of paper.  Julius, the owner of a quaint bookstore in a charming rural town outside London is quite beloved by all who've come to browse & banter in his Nightingale Book Store.  Rebecca, an American college student with flaming red hair is the impetuous temptress who chances to stop in Julius' store the day before returning to the States.  The two fall instantly & instinctively head over heals in love.  Rebecca refuses to return home with her wealthy indignant parents and before long Rebecca  becomes pregnant.  Much like a Disney plot, the mother dies in child birth and Julius raises their daughter Emilia as a single parent.  The novel quickly shifts forward to Emilia as a young woman returning home to bury her saintly father.  A complex, well written story this ain't!  This romance novel is trite and predictable, filled with silly sentiments meant for bibliophiles.  "There's a book for everyone, even if they don't think there is.  A book that reaches in and grabs your soul." "Books are more precious than jewels.  A diamond scintillates for a second; a boy could scintillate forever."  There's no mystery or intrigue whether true love will prevail.  Be assured all those meant for each other will find true happiness together.  There is sappiness soaking up each page.  To ad insult to preciousness ad nauseam, this is the pick for the local book store's book group.  Books after all are an escape, except when you feel trapped in a cloying concoction.  Culinary arts play a huge part of this puckish pastiche.  Emilia inherits the book store which is bordering on bankruptcy and literally falling apart.  But wait, Jackson, the assistant to the dastardly town villain has a sudden change of heart thanks to Emilia's suggestions on books to read to his son.  This leads Jackson to a major epiphany of life's priorities.  When Emilia admits defeat to Jackson (unbeknownst to his ploy to force her to sell) and submits to selling to his boss, Jackson is aghast and has an about face.  "But, what you do here changes people's lives for the better."  Emilia surprisingly responds, "Oh, don't romanticize." Anyone with common sense will not waste their time on this nonsense.

From the Titan of Family Dysfunction Anne Tyler's CLOCK DANCE is Fleeting Sappy Storytelling

Anne Tyler is one of America's most highly honored novelist (b MN 1941).  Her novels have earned the Pulitzer Prize (BREATHING LESSONS)  in addition to several nominations for the Pulitzer, a Nat'l Book Award (The ACCIDENTAL TOURIST) the PEN/FAULKNER AWARD (DINNER at the HOMESICK RESTAURANT) and numerous Mann Booker Prize nominations (A SPOOL of BLUE THREAD). However, Tyler has not been without her critics for being overly sentimental and cloying.  I had taken issue with these critiques in the past. I found her writing fierce & disturbing.  I considered her the master of family dysfunction - until now.  CLOCK DANCE is precocious & sparse.  It reads  like an outline for which she never bothered to fill in with complexities and unexpected behaviors.  Willa is the heroine of this novel written in 3 parts; 20 year time span from her childhood home to her first marriage and finally, in her 2nd marriage in her early 60s.  Growing up, Willa & her younger sister lived with a narcissistic, bi-polar mother and a saintly but meek father.  Meek is the trait Willa  emulates in life.  She avoids all confrontations & subjugates herself to two demanding, self-centered husbands.  The 3rd part part of the novel exemplifies Willa as a willing participant to others as she has never figured out what to live for.  Willa gave birth 2 two sons Sean & Ian with her first husband Derek.  Derek was a short tempered, cocky bully.  He dies in a road rage incident with Willa in the passenger seat, an accident he initiated.  Now, in her 60s and at a loss as to how to fill her days with her sons gone and married to Peter, a much older man similar in disposition (irascible and captious) to Derek who spends his days on the golf course.  Willa receives a perplexing call from a woman telling her to come take care of her presumed granddaughter Cheryl as she can no longer be responsible.  Cheryl's mom, Denise is in the hospital recovering from a gunshot.  Denise was at one time Sean's live in boyfriend but not Cheryl's father.  Instead of correcting the woman who called she concurs and flies from AZ to MD to care for both the mother & daughter whom she's never even met.  The adjectives flung at Willa by Denise after Willa has gone to great lengths to help (which is asinine altogether) are pathetic and superficial.  Although Denise does call Willa out on her wishy washy ways.  Willa was hoping her son Sean would come get her for their one planned dinner while in town but she didn't come out and ask Sean.  Instead, Denise asks Willa, "Why just hope? Why pussyfoot around?  Why do you go slantwise?"  CLOCK DANCE is cloying and sentimental.  It's not on step with her previous prize winning novels and not worth the time reading.

THE ENSEMBLE a Debut Novel by Aja Gabel that Strings Along a Chamber Music Quartet for Too Long

THE ENSEMBLE is debut novel about the members of a string quartet.  Unfortunately, the musical metaphors over play the libretto with repetitious refrains.   Some movements soar but it's too often a diminuendo that slackens.  Aga Gabel has strung together a novel with 4 narratives; 2 women & 2 men who form a finely tuned chamber music group.  The two that set the pace are Jana, the leader of the quartet on 1st violin and Daniel, on cello.  The other two are Brit on 2nd violin who underscores the melody & underplays her needs and Henry, the youngest in the group.  Henry is acclaimed prodigy for whom everything seems to come easily.  How the 4 form a into a group is enigmatic and irrelevant.  What's key is how they form a family & how their lives ebb and flow while strumming their bows to create art & harmony.  Together, their tymphony becomes tiresome; an overly rehearsed piece devoid of enchantment.  The group span decades together but the tone becomes one long adagio  lacking nuance.  Their solo acts apart from the group exhibit more virtuosity than the ensemble combined.  Their reliance on one another goes through varying modules & tonal alignments.  They all arrive at the same resounding epiphany crescendo.  The quartet garnered from each other what most people get from their life partners; "consistency, obligation, non-verbal understanding and misunderstanding - a deformed ugly-pretty kind of love and knowledge that what was there wouldn't change, for better or worse."  Gabel has composed an impressive debut but one that would have benefitted with more rests and space between the notes.  Daniel, the oldest, most tempestuous and arguably driven of the group, scored the most reverberating note.  He didn't think it was terrible to get everything you wanted.  He thought it was terrible to not know what you want.

You Go First - Y/A novel: 2 Outsiders Connect on the Internet Playing Scrabble - I Gobbled it Up

YOU GO FIRST by Erin Estrada Kelly is a first rate coming of age novel.  It's timely, universal &  delivers a welcomed message for those who feel they don't fit in.  The inspirational tale is when you feel lonely or despondent, try being observant and open & you'll be more than likely to find someone to befriend.  Many pre-teen & high school stories deal with feelings of awkwardness, alienation and the cruelty systemic within the pains of growing up.  YOU GO FIRST is a delightful read for young and old alike.  The story is told by 12 year old Charlotte and 12 year old Ben.  The two have found each other on the internet in an ongoing game of Scrabble.  Charlotte thinks of herself as the girl from the puzzle who doesn't fit in anywhere.  Her one friend Bridgette whom she thought she'd be best friends forever has harshly abandoned her to join a popular clique.  Charlotte is a prodigy with an insatiable interest in science & information.  Her consuming pursuit of knowledge has a down side - sending her down a rabbit hole; internalizing information & dissociating her from the present.  Ben also possesses a brilliant & precocious mind but his preoccupation on the internet & with his studies pushes him into an unpopular social stratosphere.  Charlotte is internalizing the pain of her father's recent heart attack.  Ben's world is upheavaled by the shocking announcement of his parents divorce.  He never saw that one coming.  Neither Charlotte or Ben have siblings or a friend in which to seek solace.  Charlotte feels the hurt of being an outcast.  She tells herself, life is difficult for lone wolves but their self-reliance often makes them stronger than average.  Ben is constantly being humiliated at school but "he would not be defeated.  He would not relinquish control over his own emotional well-being."  These two characters are irresistible & indefatigable.  You can't help rooting for them.   Ben realizes "our language has devolved in recent years because we rely too much on digital devices to communicate, like social media and phones."  Ben yearns to connect.  When the two decide to speak via telephone they still withhold their inner turmoils.  "He only knew that he wanted to say something to somebody about something."  It's not giving anything away to say these two who felt friendless and that their worlds were crumbling find themselves coming up from their devolving dark holes into the warm sunshine.  Kelly is a skillful award winning author.  Her novel HELLO UNIVERSE received the Newberry Medal & her short stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.  YOU GO FIRST is a rewarding read.  "Scrabble is both strategy and luck.  If you know how to use what you're dealt, you can triumph."

Rage Against the Night: High Honors for Horror Story Collection by Several Writers including Stephen King

RAGE AGAINST the NIGHT might not appeal to the squeamish.  But the breadth of scary stories span the genres of sci-fi, fantasy, apocalyptic futures, good v. evil, demons, monsters, magic and have the mystifying power to get under one's skiing & spark one's imagination.  This varied collection covers the gambit of ghouls, and spine chilling, hair raising visceral responses.  There is so much to be said for stories make the reader feel terrified, unanchored with heart a fluttered.  Writers able to create a world with supernatural occurrences, instill magic in the air that dances like static electricity are writers with phenomenal creative prowess.   Having attested to my high regard for the supernatural, bizarre, metaphysical and yes, horror genre, I submit not all stories in RAGE AGAINST the NIGHT are sublime.  My favorite niche within tales of evil & doom are those that rail against the dark night.  The combined stories here attest to courage, sacrifice and the majesty of life which many consider mundane; perhaps until it's too late.  Skillful "horror" writers possess a magical craft that causes us to pay attention to the things that may have gone unnoticed but now imprint a haunting impact.  My favorite pick within this inventive & unnerving collection is "Constitution" by Scott Nicholson.  Randall has a loving wife, Demora (a play on the word morte?)  Randall has recently passed away but somehow has remained tethered to life (much as in the film GHOST) and his beloved, Demora.  Unlike GHOST, Randall's body is decomposing and rigor mortis setting in although Demora seems oblivious.  Regardless, Randall is all to aware of what bounties he will miss.  "He never before noticed the breadth and depth of reality.  So much detail, every bit of mica in the sidewalk glistening in the sun…People flush with health, cheeks blushed with blood, all hearts racing, pounding, pouring, pumping life.  So alive.  Such a treasure it was to breath.  The living knew not their wealth."  Perhaps some people are unaware that what constitutes a horror story is the fear of death our frail mortality.  RAGE AGAINST the NIGHT should be bring a wider audience in  to appreciate - before it's too late - oops, you've made a fatal mistake!  Do not slight tales from the dark side.  Good horror stories make us feel alive!  "We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."  (T Wilder "Our Town")

Melinda's Mindful Reads - Top 10 Picks of Literary Finds; Fiction, Non-F, Short Stories, Poetry

The following books are my top ten favorite reads since the new year.  The books, arranged in alphabetical order by author are by nat'l & int'l authors.  The list consists of fiction, non-fiction, memoir, short story collections and poetry.

Top 10 Picks:

1.   Paul Auster's 4,3, 2,1 - Book Prize nominated Four trajectories for the same young man's life.

2.   Nathan Englander's short story collection WHAT WE TALK about when WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

3.   T S Eliot's phenomenal poetry collection THE FOUR QUARTETs

4.   Jason Felch & Ralph Framolino's CHASING APHRODITE Non-Fiction account of outrageous alchemy in the art world.

5.   Lisa Hadley's ASYMMETRY - an amazing debut novel reminiscent of Philip Roth.

6.   Moshni Hamid's "Exist West" nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

7.   Tayari Jones' AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE

8.   George Saunders' Nat'l Book Award winning LINCOLN at the BARDO

9.   David Sedaris' humorous & bittersweet memoirs CALYPSO.

10.  Madeleine Thien's  Booker Prize nominated DO not SAY WE HAVE NOTHING - historic fiction of Chinese Cultural Revolution.

S. Africa's Apartheid 1970s Told from a White 10 Year Old Heroine HUM IF YOU DON't KNOW the WORDS

The Soweto Uprising in S. Africa (1976) during its fractious & poisonous apartheid regime is the setting for the novel HUM if YOU DON'T KNOW the WORDS by Bianca Marais (b S Africa).   The unwary, childlike title is unwittingly deceptive.  The somber hateful matters of apartheid, racism, bigotry and persecution ring loudly.  It's a coming of age story of a 10 yr. old heroine, Robin, confronted with the horrors of her parents murders & S African tyranny.  Robin is white & cared for by a black housekeeper, Mabel during apartheid.  The night her parents have left for the evening she & Mabel are awoken to the brash pounding on the door by police ordering them to the station.  Robin is separated from Mabel who is taken & tortured.  An officer informs her of her parents murders by black men as she shivers in her pajamas and wets herself while confined to a bench & neglected for hours.  Her distraught & disheveled Aunt Edith arrives to rescue Robin and confirms the inconceivable truth of her parents' deaths.  Robin refuses to leave the station without Mabel.  Mabel has been badly beaten while in custody.  She disentangles herself from Robin's clinging arms. Mable has no intention of remaining in town.  With no other family Edith, a single flight attendant is given custody of her niece.  It's not long before Robin realizes she's a burden to her unstable, alcoholic aunt.  Robin's jejune narrative is divergent from that of the mature & worldly wise Beauty.  Beauty as a black woman knows first hand the oppressive system of white supremacy.  Their trajectories interject with the aid of a white couple subversively seeking to dismantle apartheid and provide safe havens.  Beauty has sons in her village. She has come to the city with the sole purpose of rescuing her daughter Nomsa.  Nomsa is actively fighting the iron-fisted subjugation & persecution of the black population.  Her position of leadership has put her in grave peril.  Beauty is placed as Robin's caregiver.  Robin possesses inner strength, imagination & resolve.  These attributes help her contend with grief & alienation.  Among Beauty's attributes are her dignity, tenacity, courage & compassion.  Through Robin's guileless eyes we discover the cruel & unjust legal system of apartheid and the hateful bigotry against Jews & homosexuals comes into focus. This sensitive and stirring novel is constructed as a young adult detective story.  Robin is an unbridled sleuth who magnifies the evidence of pervasive hatred and assembles a solid case for justice & empathy through traces of care & compassion.   Robin & Beauty's voices harmoniously combine to refute cruelty & violence and hums with words of love.  Beauty's sagacious observations mentor Robin's dawning ephiphanies.  "Evil needs something to hate, it's easier to treat people terribly if you tell yourself they're nothing like you." In caring for Robin, Beauty's grasp of love flourishes.  "I am learning how love wells up and causes great pain when it has nowhere to go.  Like breast milk, it has to have an outlet; it can only be nourishing if it is directed away from the source."  I recommend this bold & gracious novel for its significant historic accounting of S. African apartheid and for its relevance our cruel world.  The world is often a cruel place.  It's our job to record its ugliness and render peaceful change for justice.  

Richard Russo's TRAJECTORY - 4 Short Stories on a Course Driven by Academia, Aging and Reflections

The four short stories in Richard Russo's "Trajectory" or loosely connected by middle aged characters who are reflecting back on their lives acknowledging where they took a definitive turn driving the trajectory to where they are now.  Russo (b Amer 1949) is a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist ("Empire Falls") who began his literary profession as a Univ. Prof. of creative writing.  He went on to a lucrative career as a novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.   The first 2 stories "Horseman" and "Voice" are imbedded within a university and the main characters are both Professors of Literature.  In "Horseman" Prof. Janet Moore (a tribute to novelist Laurie Moore) has just confronted a cocky male student with proof of his plagiarism.  "Horseman" would likely earn a gifted student a B not an A for its heavy handed metaphors of opaqueness, transparencies and hinderances to connecting.  "…When she got out she could see her husband and son through the dining room window…So this, she thought, was heartbreak…Even now her inclination was to remain right where she was with a pane of glass between herself and her husband and child, safe from them and they from her…Robbie was now bent over the dining room window, trying to peer out.  He'd no doubt heard her car pull in and was wondering what she could be doing out there in the dark and wet."  Russo uses this story to project his syllabus of conundrums.  His 2nd story "Voice" is an inventive & sensitive portrait of a middle aged man accepting his failures & fallouts while retaining hope of a fortuitous future.  Nate is a former college prof. whose had traumas with his students & now reluctantly retired.  This leaves Nate the opportunity to join his estranged brother Julian on a Venice Biennale trip.  Siblings are also subjects in "Intervention".  Siblings share a strong history and then sprout off in different paths.  Julian is derisive of Nate & his career causing him to question his choices.  "Nate's own self-doubt, his secret fear that he's led a life other than the one he was intended for, following the wrong trajectory entirely."  Although Nate feels assured Julian took the right fork.  "Say this for Julian, a career salesman:  he's lived the life he was meant to live and followed the only trajectory that truly suits him, from start to finish."  "Intervention" is a humorous, bitter-sweet coming to grip story of aging.  Ray is a realtor recently diagnosed with cancer.  "He was about to become yet another bare-assed, middle-aged man, the kind who didn't get to make decisions."  The hallmark of Russo's clever writing style is his incorporation of eccentric & likable characters whom we'd share a beer with but perhaps only one before departing.  "Milton and Marcus" is Russo's parodied jab at Hollywood's unscripted rules of script writing.  TRAJECTORY is another hallmark of a masterful writer who captures life's wry observations with equal measures of wit, wisdom and delight.   His writing is also lofty with poetic prose.  "Is it better to be known whole or to conceal what makes us unworthy of love."  

David Sedaris' CALYPSO Is Just so Funny it Masks Just How Sad It Is

David Sedaris is a memoirist humorist whose material is taken from his upbringing, family & his life; past & present.  Sedaris' writing is a gift to viewing life with a curious impish eye and an outlook for finding absurdity in humanity.  Born in America (1956) with 5 siblings (including comedian Amy Sedaris) David's mass appeal is his candid & comical observations within the nucleus of his eccentric family and his unabashed questioning & commentary on people he encounters in his multitudinous travels domestically & internationally.  The numerous book tours & readings demand a lot of time traveling and take their toll, to alleviate the monotony, David will turn the tides on his fans.  "I'm constantly surprised and delighted by some of the things I hear while traveling across the US."  Sometimes he likes to feign psychic abilities and guess an Astrological sign.  If that proves correct he will try to shock further by saying the person has a sister.  "I can't help it.  I told her her. 'I know things.  I see them.'  I don't of course.  Those were just guesses pulled out of my ass in order to get a rise out of someone."  Another favorite pastime is to inquire of foreigners what the most offensive thing one can say to someone else.  The responses are almost as shocking as David's silent evaluation of their impact.  The wry humor is omnipresent and mitigates the tragedies from his life; a beloved alcoholic mother who died, a cantankerous, obdurate father in his 90s and an estranged sister who recently committed suicide.  David tells his siblings the reason for their father's longevity.  "The secret to dad's longevity isn't diet or exercise or even his genes.  He's just late for death the way he's been late for everything else all his life."  The explanation for his mother's drinking, "It's almost laughable this insistence on a reason.  I think my mother was lonely without her children, her fan club. But I think she drank because she was an alcoholic."  As for his sister's suicide David is somber "When you're in the state that my sister was in, and that most people are in when they take their own lives, you're not thinking of anything beyond your own pain."  David peripatetic ponderings are melancholy mixed with warmth & wit that make his memoirs endearingly memorable.  "Maybe ours wasn't the house I'd have chosen had I been in charge of things.  It wasn't as clean as I'd have liked.  From the outside, it wasn't remarkable. We had no view, but still it was the place I held in mind, and proudly when I thought, Home."  Reading CALYPSO is akin to the best to be said of one's own family gatherings.  They may not seem as amusing as Sedaris finds his reunions.  Nonetheless, it's always reassuring to have family to fall back on.  "I've often lost faith in myself, I've never lost faith in my family.