Melinda's Top Ten Literary Picks A Mix of Fiction/Non-Fiction/Short Stories and Poetry for 2024

                     The Top 10 Are Listed in Alphabetical Order by Author's Name: 

1.    Taffy Brodesser-Akner's LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE - Patriarch's kidnapping takes collateral damage on all family members.

2.    Nonfiction Sloane Crowley GRIEF IS for PEOPLE - Beautiful reflection on the life of a friend who took his own life unexpectedly.

3.    Louise Erdrich - THE SENTENCE continues to prove her prowess as a literary writer of multi-genres in this novel: Native American Renaissance, social reform and philosophy.

4.    Percival Everett JAMES - revisionist take on Twain's Huckleberry Finn. 

5.    Nonfiction Matt Haig shares his history of depression and offers practical suggestions. 

6.    Henry Hoke's OPEN THROAT - The narrator is a savvy mountain lion living under the HOLLYWOOD sign

7.    Miranda July's ALL FOURS - Mid-40s female's road trip takes a detour and explores her sexual drive.

8.    Alice Monroe - RUNAWAY The runway queen of short stories struts her stuff in this collection.

9.    Paul Murray's The BEE STING - Irish family drama that cuts deep with a touch of magic and blarney.

10.   George Saunders - PASTORALIA  Short story collection that will resonate long after being read.

BONUS

11.   Jesse Nathan Poetry - EGG TOOTH - Try a sampling of poetry that has some bite.

    

M July's ALL FOURS-Outside the Box Marital Perimeters

Miranda July's audacious novel ALL FOURS is a liberating manuscript meant for peri-menopausal women on the precipice of losing their libido. It can also be described as a solo female road trip that takes a salacious journey into sexual yearnings. This innovative novel covers a lot of territory spanning sexual obsessions, marital strictures, friendships, celebrity, conformity and feeling free to yourself. It's driven forward by its 45 female, unnamed narrator married to Harris, with a young child, Sam. Our narrator is a semi-famous artist whose artistry remains a mystery as does the gender of Sam whom they both take great pains to not gender label. She tells one woman who refers to her child as her son. "How dare you sex label our child." Our semi-famous heroine was en route to NYC when just outside of LA she waylaid her lust for Davy, the handsome young man who cleaned her car's windshield. No one would guess that instead of going to New York for two and a half weeks I had hidden out 30 minutes away with a boy who worked at Hertz. That would be an absurd conclusion to jump to." That isn't the only preposterous thing she does. She spends $20K on redecorating the motel room she's staying in with the wife of her boy toy obsession. And, when alone, "I just luxuriated in my beautiful room, sleeping late and anointing myself and having orgasms and listening to music and eating only the foods that appealed to me: hot dogs and puddings and orange Popsicles.. "I didn't feel guilty. I didn't tiptoe or walk on eggshells...I was happy." But, then sometimes she thought to herself, "What are you doing? You're betraying your husband. You miss your child." Part farce, part fantasy and part a stirring rumination about commitments and fulfilling one's desire. While lying in Davy's arms she tells herself, " I saw us lying like this for the rest of our lives, profoundly married to other people but always knowing we could return to our shared world. This was what I had always wanted; he was real enough to love and love me back but not so real that I couldn't desire him." ALL FOURS opens news doors, explores new marital structures and encourages self-discovery and heralds solipsism. ALL FOURS is a ferocious and manic work of fiction that embraces aging women and encourages them to be uninhibited, unencumbered and fearless. Yes, I'm being judgmental and sexist in calling ALL FOURS a tour-de-force read especially geared towards women's book groups.  

I HEARD HER CALL MY NAME-Lucy Sante's Transition Memoir

Lucy Sante was an established and highly regarded author of nonfiction books and essays when she chose to  transition in her 60's. The journey to gender transitioning or body dysphoria is difficult to understand. It's best understood when explained by someone who has transitioned what it feels to be born into a body that doesn't conform with one's self-perception. Sante's writing is powerful when describing her mindset of hesitation and determination to transition. "Gender dysphoria had permeated my life...there seemed to be no domain unaffected by it...There was not a second of my life when I wasn't pinned under the klieg lights of self-consciousness. Even when I was alone I was being watched." Sante felt too ladened with unnecessary information from decades past, overburdening and underwhelming the reader.  She is most eloquent and poignant when emoting. "Once my egg finally cracked" and "the dam has burst. The weight of my secret could not be underestimated. I could fully measure its effects as they left me. I no longer felt timid; I didn't give a hoot about being judged. I felt like I owned my body, maybe for the first time." Unfortunately, she belabors the impact of her turmoil and detracts from empathizing with her emotional welfare before and after. As a critic, an award winning writer of nonfiction, contributing writer to "NY Review of Books" and editor, Sante's should have realized her writing required critical editing. Too much dwelling in her doldrums and detailing her either errant or non-existent social life makes the memoir excruciatingly arid. Her self-described Bohemian years spent among a few artistic celebrities felt forced and tedious. The memoir breakthroughs when she is expressing her heartfelt longing. "I wanted with every particle of my being to be a woman, and thought it was pasted to my windshield, and yet, I looked through it, having trained myself to do so." Sante has stated in recent interviews her concern for having come out now, it may be perceived as a ploy for publicity or as weakness on her part for waiting until public opinion to be more accepting. Her lifelong, obsessive worry of how she felt perceived overshadows her six decades, quelling her resolve. The photos depicting how she would have appeared had she transitioned over the decades were intriguing. Though I felt surprised, but relieved, her regret for years lost did not outweigh her current happiness ."It was what I should have been able to do long before, and at every point in between, but couldn't. Now that the world had shifted slightly, I was on the moving sidewalk at last. All the objections and hesitations-I was on the moving sidewalk at last; that I was too old; that I was dooming myself to loneliness;...that perhaps I didn't deserve to be a woman-faded away in the light of my resolve." I suggest reading Lucy's current interviews as they are more concise and enlightening than her over indulgent memoir. 

The SONG of ACHILLES-Old Drawn Out Greek Heroic Tale

Madeline Miller's novel The SONG of ACHILLES (SAC), deals with similar territory as in her follow-up best selling novel, CIRCE. Both are about an assorted cast of Greek Goddesses, Gods, demigods and their boy toy mortals.  Credit ACHILLES and CIRCE for appealing to readers who aspire to learn the circuitous connections and classifications mired in myths and Ancient Greek history. Both are a lot more interesting than the dry classics that many a teen has battled with such as the Iliad, Odyssey or tales of the Trojan War. Furthermore, Miller spins ACHILLES' saga from the narration of Patroclus, an-exiled prince who became Achilles' lifelong love into infinity and beyond. Still, Miller's epic tale suffers from insufficient editing and wagers on too long trolling through numerous infamous names and relationships. So too, the Ancient Greek War, assured to be a quick victory, morphs into a decade long running battle. Patroclus, a reserved loner in a new kingdom, is favored by the King's son Achilles. Achilles is a young adonis, and revered by all the other boys. The two form a bond from a young age that continues throughout their lives. Achilles chooses Patroclus to receive training for battle alongside him under the guidance of a benevolent centaur Chiron. The years spent in a secluded forest under Chiron's tutelage were the most interesting as they learn to adapt in nature's habitat and flourish into adulthood.  Here the two first consummate their blossoming attraction. At its core, this is a love story between Achilles and Patroclus despite its many epic challenges. Achilles' mother, the sea-nymph Thetis loathes Patroclus as he threatens to diminish Achilles' legacy of greatness. She poses various obstacles to their relationship. There's also the war against Troy which calls both Achilles and Patroclus to fight in the war with the Greeks against the Trojans. The war broke out after the abduction of Helen who was married to the King of Sparta and considered the most beautiful woman in the world. The sieges are bloody. Achilles proves his prowess  on the battlefields although the prophecy of his death looms overhead. Patroclus' skills tending the wounded are revered. Amidst the anguish of war, treachery and the wrath of various Gods against mortals, the devotion  between Achilles and Patroclus endures and makes the mounting miseries and myriad of players palpable. Patroclus' voice from beyond the grave bestowed a poignancy towards the ends that otherwise was missing. Reading SAC is more rewarding than reading cliff notes on the Trojan War and more of a lark than memorizing surmountable mythical and historical names. But, not nearly as tantalizing as consuming nectar or ambrosia.  

Alice Munro RUNAWAY-Munroe is By Far and Away Masters the Short Story Form

Alice Munro (b. Canada  1931-2024) is one of the most honored and revered writers of our time. Among her many accolades ar the Nobel Prize in Literature (2013) and the Man Booker International Prize (2009). She is considered one of the finest writer of short stories and her collection RUNAWAY received the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize (2004).  The stories in RUNAWAY all share her skill for investing the reader into her characters and their world. Her clear, descriptive prose create female heroines that feel real and self-reliant, although in the lead story "Runaway" a wife's brief sojourn to leave an unhappy marriage ends abruptly with a change of heart. It is the elder woman who is the central character and retains a steely resolve when confronted with the brutish husband. The experiences in both women's lives are felt by the reader which is one of Munroe's writing gifts. Another pleasure from her reading is the surprising whimsy that propels many of her female characters. There's a sense of adventure and thrill to what will happen next and a calming sense that everything will turn out as intended. You can argue that men are delegated to the women in her stories but they too are fully drawn characters whom we get to know and understand. The setting of the stories in RUNAWAY stretches from the present to earlier in the 20th C and she navigates the landscapes of the eras in her stories which can traverses decades within a story. The final story "Powers" differs from her other stories in what may be her swan song. The narrator  is disjointed and interrupted by a "decisive person" who may be a caretaker or spouse. It may also indicate her backing away from her writing which has brought so much pleasure to this reader. Monro did stop writing after RUNAWAY was published.  As with all her elegant stories and novels, Munro has runaway with my imagination and awe for everything she has ever written. 

SHRED SISTERS Beautiful Troubled Sis Takes and Little Sis is Left Amiss

Betsy Lerner's debut novel, SHRED SISTERS is about a Jewish middle-class family set in the 1970s-80s with two daughters: Ollie the captivating bi-polar older sis whose mental instability and antics dominate the household and Amy, the younger, petite, daughter whose diligent behavior is overlooked. Amy serves as our observant and level headed narrator. She's aware of being delegated to the back burner in the household in lieu of Ollie's charisma and increasingly troubling mental illness. We're drawn to Amy's stoicism and root for her to enjoy a rich and rewarding life. This is not always the case for Amy whose overachieving academics and work in a science lab shuts her off from others at school and at work. Amy's first sexual relations are emotionless and detached. But, Amy is unflappable in her love for her sister and her parents despite continually being consistently being shafted by both. SHRED SISTERS is both a novel about mental illness' exhausting impact on a family and about a young woman, Amy. who navigates her way in the world  as someone who is used to selflessly, if not unwisely, giving more of herself to others. Amy realizes, "No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister." When Amy's life seems to be on track with a promising career in editing and a good marriage, she sabotages her happiness with an old lover who struggles with drug addiction. We are driven through the lens of Amy's eyes which are neither  rose colored or despondent. Amy contains a sense of hope for the future with an enduirng patience for the present and the understanding her sister was not the cause of all her troubles. "For a long time, I was convinced that Ollie was responsible for everything that went wrong in our family."  At its core, this is a story of the relationship between two sisters. Ollie's whose erratic life weaves in and out of Amy's and their steadfast love for each other. Amy felt that "The emotional current was overpowering, and for a moment all the joy and sadness in life pooled inside and I longed for everyone I'd ever loved." I was captivated following Amy and her family's tribulations coping with the added havoc of having a loved one with mental illness while sustaining unwavering support for one another.  

LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE-I Promise You Can't Put it Down

From the moment you start Taffy Brodesser-Akner's novel, LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE (LIC), you won't put it down until you find out how the Fletcher family members fare with their neuroses and with each other. The patriarch of the family is Carl Fletcher, a wealthy Long Island business owner. The apex of the plot's trajectories unfurl following Carl's kidnapping in 1980 from his driveway that lasted several days. The repercussions of this frightening ordeal that ended with Carl's safe return, left a damaging impact on his entire family.  Though physically unharmed, Carl is now a hollow husk of human being leaving his wife and mother to manage the family and their affairs. Brodesser-Akner gained notoriety with her previous novel, FLEISCHMAN IS IN TROUBLE. While both deal with Jewish neuroses and tropes of Jewish assimilation, LIC is a much darker and troubling novel that resonates closely with Jonathan Franzen's depictions of Jewish family dysfunction. If you're a fan of either skillful author, grab on to your hat and hold on for the rollercoaster ride of affluent, self-destructive individuals inherent in third generation Jewish families. The narration is told mainly through a triptych of characters; the three Fletcher children, Nathan, "Beamer" and Jenny. This stinging parody preys on the adage "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves".  As with the Fletchers, the third generation often finds itself at odds with the initial wealth creation and the values of their ancestry. The family's Rabbi said, "The Fletchers were a great Jewish American family" The author explains this to mean, "They'd survived and proliferated, that they'd come to this country, observed the landscape, and deftly assimilated into it. They did such a good job of this that, ultimately, they disappeared undetected into a completely different diaspora." Nathan, Ben and Jen prove to be the stereotyped squander generation; the downfall of wealthy families. The flagrant ways the three siblings run through their family fortune and steer away from their lineage creates havoc for themselves and their loved ones. They are express train wrecks we can't turn away from. These over indulgent, insufferable people comprise the real Long Island Compromise."That you can be successful on your own steam or you can be a basket case, and whichever you are is determined by the circumstances into which you were born." The concession that the fault lies not in their own capacities but rather it lies in the stars, is as repugnant to swallow as these individuals. For those who like a seething satire and carnage, this is a novel to be consumed ferociously. Some will detest the non-stop calamities. For me, I loved to loathe these vivid characters who never had a chance to be normal. "In order to be a normal person, you had to at least see normal people."This is absurdist comedy spawned and twisted from reality. 

Matthew Perry's "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir"

What's terrible and tragic about Matthew Perry's tell all about his addiction to drugs and alcohol is that his clarion call for help didn't prevent his death. It was released in 2022 less than a year before he died from a drug overdose that caused him to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub. It is part bio, part celebrity anecdotes and a tribute to his relationships and experiences with FRIENDS. However, this reads as a devastating tale of the torment and self-destruction from addiction. Still, Perry's unflappable humor permeates his autobiography which makes the pain and suffering palatable. He writes as if speaking directly to you in confidence while outing his self-destructive behaviors and insatiable cravings for opioids, alcohol and nicotine. Reading his words knowing he has succumbed to his struggles with addiction shrouds his words with anguish. Addiction is difficult to understand. Many who have never suffered from addiction will ever fathom the challenges and nature of addiction. Perry's frank accounts of his twisted logic were eye-opening. "I never actually wanted to die. In fact, in the back of my mind I always had some semblance of hope. But, if dying was a consequence of getting to take the quantity of drugs I needed, then death was something I was going to have to accept. That's how skewed my thinking had become."  The onset of Perry's addiction was attributed to painkillers prescribed for him after an accident on the set of a movie. He describes his reaction while driving a sports car along the Pacific Ocean as "complete and utter euphoria. If this doesn't kill me, I'm doing this again." At age 14 when drinking wine with his pals who were puking up what they drank, he felt happy and at ease. These initial reactions elicited an insatiable desire to regain the initial sensation. Perry explains, "As the pill kicked in, something clicked in me. And it's been that click I've been chasing the rest of my life." The big terrible thing is this disease for people who "have a brain that wants them dead." writes Perry.  Furthermore, "This disease...the big horrible thing, Addiction, has ruined relationships. It's ruined the day-to-day process of being me." What gave Perry the most happiness was helping others achieve sobriety. Perry told us at the beginning of his memoir why he wrote it. If was meant for others who..."have all the information, and they understand the consequences-but they still can't stop drinking. You are not alone." Perry ends his memoir with a positive outlook for his future. But, in hindsight it feels more of an acknowledgement and apology to family, friends and lovers who were there for him.

I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL-What If You Received All Private Office Emails? Well?

Natalie Sue's comic novel about a shunned secretary in an office that is being downsized who is inadvertently receiving everyone's interoffice emails is the intoxicating premise to I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL (IHTFYW).  Our funny and ingratiating protagonist, Jolene, a single 30 something admin. assistant has a caustic wit that casts her an outlier and into her solitary cubicle amid a motley mix of characters. Jolene deals with her co-worker's slights by complaining in cutting postscript on emails/DMs never intended for her to  send. Of course, this doesn't end well for her. Jolene is assigned probation and tolerance training with the new personnel director, Cliff. The new IT guy makes a magical mistake which unknowingly directs everyone's emails/DM's to her computer. With this information Jolene is given insider information of an unexpected, upcoming layoff plan. With little else going on in her life except bingeing on booze and nature shows, Jolene becomes determined to turn her life around and use her knowledge to make herself invaluable. While she's at it, she plans havoc against those who've snubbed her. Jolene profits in the first quarter from her information. She also gained insight into problems plaguing other people at work. The info Jolene gleans about her work mates leads to some warm-hearted symbiotic relationships and reparations.  Outside the office Cliff and Jolene cross paths.  They decide to carpool which causes some romantic sparks and friction at the workplace. Other stories branch off outside the office and create some hilarious stumbling blocks. Jolene helps stage a faux engagement which her mother, to the overbearing mother's utter delight, learns about leading causing comical chaos.  There's a precocious pre-teen, Molly, that hovers outside Jolene's complex that everyone tries to ignore.  Molly adds a touching figure in the plot. Some plot lines not successful included the mother who blatantly lies to cover for a troubled son. Another involves an abusive relationship and there's an employee firing that goes distastefully awry.  However, (IHTFYW) hits its target goal. It does an excellent job of parodying a toxic work environment with humor. This proves to be a discernible office comedy where you're happy to see the leading lady get ahead. I recommend promoting this novel to your bedside reading table. 

Kay Jamison's Memoir AN UNQUIET MIND Living with BiPolar Disorder

AN UNQUIET MIND is Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, is a clinical writer and psychologist. Her work has centered around the study of bipolar disorder; a disorder she knows first hand. The writings and studies she has published have been fundamental to understanding and treating the illness which plagues nearly 3% of the population in the US and 46 million people worldwide. AN UNQUIET MIND is an honest and eloquent memoir that gives a valuable perspective on how Jamison has managed her life, thus a keen and empathetic view on how millions with the disorder cope and can best be treated, medically as well as socially, to live a full and  productive life.  Having already been proliferate with her published studies and books on the subject, her exacting memoir offers valuable insights that delve into the deep, dark crevices of suffering and the whirlwind euphoria that people experience while in the debilitating throes of mental In fact, my own curiosity and skepticism as to whether anyone not having this illness can truly comprehend what it's like drew me to reading this book. I was enlightened by Dr. Jamison sharing her  profound account of her trailblazing life. Even so, Dr. Jamison shares that she has faced professional doubts from peers and about her ability to treat patients with mental illness and her conundrums whether her studies would be tainted or biased. I concluded that building a better insight into this often maligned mental illness deemed by many as willful destructive behavior was always an ultimate objective for Dr. Jamison. She's maintained throughout that with monitored medical and psychological treatment, the disorder is manageable. Dr. Jamison's life of accomplishments, relationships and struggles is unremitting, unforgettable and invaluable to serving as a remarkable template for those navigating with a bipolar disorder and for those providing support to people living with this treatable but lifelong affliction. She credits individuals whose unwavering support enabled her to continue. Dr. Jamison also left me with her  intrinsic knowledge of her own illness. "I honestly believe that a a result of it I have felt more things, more deeply; had more experiences, more intensely; loved more, and been more loved; laughed more often having cried more often...And I think much of this is related to my illness-the intensity it gives to things and the perspective it forces on me." Those suffering with bipolar disease need to know that they're not alone in this. There is help and understanding the disorder is essential to providing help. 

Prose's THE MAID-Maid On the Spectrum Makes an Entertaing Mystery

Molly Gray is a stellar maid at a ritzy, cosmopolitan hotel. She's most at home when cleaning hotel rooms or tidying up the tiny apartment she shares with her beloved Granny. Molly is on the autism spectrum making it difficult for her to decipher social cues and or expressions not meant to be interpreted literally. Otherwise, Molly is very content with her cleaning trolly making hotel guest rooms immaculate. Sadly, after her grandmother dies Molly finds herself alone and in financial constraints. Her beau proved to be a "bad egg" and cleaned out their savings. Unfortunately, there are evil people who take advantage of people like Molly who are trusting and susceptible other's with malicious or disingenuous intent. Working at the hotel, she again falls for another bad egg and becomes an unwitting pawn in a drug ring where Molly gets  marked a prime suspect. The reader is aware of Molly's foibles and follies which render her endearing and incapable of committing a crime; least of all murder. Mayhem ensues after Molly is befriended by the glamorous, trophy wife of the filthy rich Mr. Black. Black is found dead in bed in a hotel room by Molly, now in over her head. Her precarious involvement lands her in jail accused of his murder.  Fortunately, for Molly her kindhearted demeanor and diligence at work have earned her friendships she didn't realize she could rely on for help. But, time is running out to prove Molly's innocence and find the real killer.  It's not the mystery that makes "The Maid" sparkle and delight. It's our distinctive heroine with peculiar traits that made THE MAID first rate. Even so, the novel is able to pull the wool over your eyes and surprise. It's gratifying to see goodness triumphant.  And, watch Molly develop a better sense of how the world really operates. Molly surmised, "We are all the same in different ways." She also concluded, "The longer you live, the more you learn. People are a mystery that can never be solved. Life has a way of sorting itself out. Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." This is a novel you can savor with a spot of tea. "A good cup of tea cures all ills. And if it doesn't, have another." 

  

Matt Haig's Novel "The Life Impossible"" Mirrors His Life with Depression

Matt Haig's latest novel, "The Life Impossible" is a sci-fi, environmental messaging story that is a guise for the author to exorcize his demons battling with depression. His non-fiction, "Reasons to Stay Alive," is a forthright, honest account of his dark days and pro-active steps he uses and suggests for others. In his charming novel, "Being Human," Haig uses an alien inhabiting a human. The alien's new experiences as a human delights him in simple pleasures to cherish which are overlooked and taken for granted. The use of an extra terrestrial is revisited by Haig in "Life" as an underwater energy source that bestows extra-sensory powers to someone deemed worthy of using its abilities for the benefit of mankind and who will  appreciate the boost to one's senses. This person is Grace, a retired teacher and widow. She and her husband suffered the loss of their adolescent son fatally struck while riding his bike. Grace harbors immense guilt blaming herself for permitting him to ride in the rain that day. Out-of-the-blue, Grace is bequeathed a home in Ibiza from a former acquaintance whom she hardly knew. With nothing tying her in the states, she views this unexpected inheritance as an adventure. but not a permanent move. Upon arriving, Grace is warned to avoid the local eccentric, Mauricio, the town's scuba instructor.  Despite the warnings she seeks him out and ventures on her first scuba-diving lesson. The last thing Grace recalls before waking in a hospital is a glowing light unfurling towards her. Mauricio is bedside and explains she aroused the alien who endowed her with supernatural abilities. He tells her, "The only thing I ask is that you leave a door open in your mind to possibility." However, sticking with the plot asks a lot. It becomes  water-logged in a far-fetched mystery and saturated in an addled, sappy mission to align locals in pushing  back against an evil developer to protect their natural habitats and indigenous animals. Grace's newfound heightened senses brings the world into a technicolor Neverland where she visits with her deceased son and husband and absolved of her guilt and remorse. Dispairingly, too much of the story gets shrouded in Grace's sorrows making the reader gasp for air. "I owed it to the world to feel awful, that had been my logic. And if I didn't owe it to the world, at the very least I owed it to my dead husband my dead child. I have believed that I was simply not meant to be happy."  Haig's mission in "The Life" veered from instilling an uplifting message. The novel is fathoms deep in depression. Grace realizes late in her wayward journey, "Life sings and blazes. Even when we are numb to it, when we hide from it, when it is too loud and painful to experience, when we aren't equipped to feel it-it is there waiting to be cherished," making this novel a struggle and impossible to appreciate.

Lisa Marie Presley/Riley Keough FROM HERE TO THE GREAT UNKNOWN-Memorable Melancholy Memoir

FROM HERE TO THE GREAT UNKNOWN consists of transcripts from Marie Presley (LM) tapes of her recollections that was co written by her daughter Riley Keough and published posthumously. Riley submits her reflections mirroring her mom's accounts which gives credence and gravitas to both their perspectives.. This melancholy memoir is a riveting and sobering look at the turbulence and loneliness of LM's childhood and her struggles as an adult. LM passed away in January of 2023 at the age of 54 preceded in death by the suicide of her son Ben at age 27. There are revelatory shocking descriptions of LM being sexually abused by one of Priscilla's boyfriends, her mother's downplaying of her accounts and reluctance to terminate their relationship. After LM's son killed himself, she kept his body on ice in her home for two months. She left her marriage to the father of Riley and Ben for Michael Jackson. And, although she doesn't delve into her marriage with Jackson she did say, "I was actually so happy. I've never been that happy again...I feel really, really lucky that he let me in. I fell in Leo with him because he was normal, just fucking normal." It was not possible for LM's life to be "normal" with such a famous father. A major take-away throughout is the strong bond and love between LM and her dad. Riley attests to her mom's love for Jackson. "She told me that no one ever came close to being like her dad apart from Michael." Her other 3 marriages, including a brief one to Nicholas Cage, did not receive much in the way of positive or negative feelings except for her first marriage to Danny Keough. "He's always, always been there for me. ...We shared every single family vacation together. We made it really great for them." LM's childhood is interwoven with happy times at Graceland with her cousins and friends. But, she felt torn away from her dad by her mom who she felt never wanted her. "My mom made me live with her again-but again I was miserable, so I was a terror. It was clear she didn't want me there." LM never focused in school and never graduated high school. For a time, LM lived in the Scientology's Celebrity Centre as a teen but gives little insight into this period.  After leaving the Centre LM began getting addicted to pills. LM speaks often of her deep love for her 4 children.  She shared, "I really had no prototype to follow growing up. I had no family life, no home life to be an example, ever. No stability." Kiley differed by saying, "From my point of view, we were a close, normal family." There were a solid two decades where our family felt very normal to me." The following lament by LM sums up the majority of her downcast life. "I don't know who I am-I never really got the chance to uncover my own identity. I didn't have a family. I didn't have a childhood." Though overwhelmingly LM had a despairing life filled with woe, it also shows adversity, grace and empathy to be gleaned from both mother and daughter. 

G McAllister's WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME-Right Idea Slight, Misdirected Ending

Gillian McAllister's time travel, crime mystery has a lot of clever twists to steer the reader through a back-in-time travel for an enjoyable page turner. Jan has been happily married to Kelly for 20 years.  Jen is an attorney, Kelly a freelance contractor and together they have an 18 year old son, Todd. Although legally an adult but still a  teenager, Jen waits up for Todd to return home. Just past curfew she spots her son outside and sees him walking towards a stranger. The unthinkable happens. Todd pulls out a knife and stabs the man. Jen races outside in horror. She can't fathom how or why her son would kill someone. She can't understand a lot more when she wakes the following morning to the day before the crime occurred. The sci-fi scenario of traveling back in time is convincing as is the way Jen responds to her time travels. She seeks help from a researcher in this hard to believe field of study who assures her. "It seems to me that you do, actually already understand the rules of the universe you are unwillingly in. It's theoretically possible for you to have somehow created such a force that you are stuck in a closed time-like curve."  Jen wonders about "time loops, about the butterfly effect, changing one tiny thing. I wonder if I-alone-know something that can stop the murder." This premise turns Jen into a time traveling sleuth who will do anything to prevent her son from committing murder. Each regressive day adds an insight into what led up to the calamitous event. This makes an enticing way to gather insights into what unfolds in the future.  But Jen's assessment of her parenting skills which believes must have contributed to her son's actions were wrong as they were tiresome and detracted from solving the crime. "All the ways she ineffectually mothered Todd crowd into her mind. Feeding him too much so he slept more, upending the bottle while watching daytime television, bored, no eye contact." The mystery deviates with more interest into Jen and Kelly's romance and early marriage as Jen's foreknowledge plays a fun role. Typical yet poignant do overs are the visits between Kelly and her beloved father who has passed. And, the do-over theme got driven home often as Jen muses, "the things in my life that I would just stand and truly, fully witness."  The time I spent with WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME was a rewarding read until the very end which was only slightly surprising and felt too easily realized. I believe some sources needed to be questioned even though I readily accepted the magical premise of revisiting the past.   

Michael Caine's Autobiographical-BLOWING THE BLOODY DOORS OFF-His Advice on Life and Acting

At 94, Sir Michael Caine is a retired actor who's been around the block and come a long way from being just a regular Cockney bloke. Amazed with his own luck in life and his illustrious career, he happily shares his past, work ethics, regrets and what he values most in life.  He'll be the first to tell you it comes from working your rear end off. "Be like a duck; calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath." "Confidence comes from experience plus preparation," is another similar note he cheerily  offers in his latest memorable memoirs that's as debonair and disarming as he appears to be on screen. While Caine is generous in his tips he's first to admit what advice he's received from others. He attributes his duck analogy to his mother and his other tried and true acting tidbit is attributed to John Wayne, "Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much." Caine recounts his first time meeting Wayne on his first time to Hollywood (and the States). Caine was staying in the Beverly Hills Hotel to promote the movie "Alfie". The film "Alfie" first garnered Caine international attention. While in the lobby of the hotel, John Wayne landed on the front lawn of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a helicopter before making a grand entrance into the lobby. Caine was starstruck and gobsmacked by Wayne who recognized him from "Alfie" and predicted he would become a big star. " Perhaps, Caine's own simple advice is the best. "Prepare yourself well and turn up on time are my first rules in life." This lively blend of advice, movie memorabilia and self-reflections all add up to a delightful and resourceful read. In part, it's an amazing rags to riches tale but in a more meaningful way his candor and marvel at how his life unfolded is what makes this book so bloody good. Caine is the first to share what's great in becoming a celebrity. "Getting to meet my heroes, and in many cases becoming friends with them, was for me, one of the best parts of becoming a star." Although Caine also warns against becoming too self-consumed. "Take your work seriously, yes, but don't whatever you do get all pompous and start taking yourself too seriously." Caine speaks openly about his love and devotion for his wife and daughters and bemoans the demise of his first marriage. One of the many glimpses into Caine's persona came from what he overheard his wife say in an interview when asked what first attracted her to her husband. She reportedly said, "I liked the way he treated his mother." There are plenty of sound guidances to glean in "Blowing the Bloody Doors Off." Observing Caine through his work on film and having read this book made me wish to have known him personally.  When queried, "Do I believe in God? Yes, I do. When you've had a life like mine, you have to." 

The BANGALORE DETECTIVE CLUB-Overlook the Mystery Clue into Social Norms

Harini Nagendra is an author of a series of mystery novels and a prolific writer on issues of nature and sustainability. In addition she is a prof. of ecology and speaker advocating for the environment. With her crime novels, Nagendra draws the reader into the epoch of India in the early 20th C under British rule. In "The Bangalore Detective Club," our heroine, Kaveri, is a modern woman living with her new husband. Ironically, Kaveri was accepting of her arranged marriage despite being a maverick for her time. She intends to work outside the home, pursue her education and abolish abhorrent caste restrictions. Her radical approach is far outside societal paradigms. "Her mother would have been furious at the thought of allowing a milk boy to eat off a banana leaf in the veranda of their house, and apoplectic at the idea of allowing him to touch the pail of water that went into the well, claims that this amounted to defiling the purity of the well itself.  Such nonsense, thought Kaveri." Kaveri's husband, Ramu, is a doctor in a British hospital reporting to British physicians. Fortunately for the newlyweds, they have more in common than they surmised. Ramu proves supportive of his wife's interests in her studies and sleuthing like her favorite fictitious detective, Sherlock Holmes. The case Kaveri is determined to solve begins with the murder of the local gangster/pimp, Ponnuswamy. Kaveri is an astute observer of people, places and incidents with a clever analytical mind. Luckily Ramu doesn't mind her investigative work and proves helpful in her pursuit of leads. The lead investigator, Ismail, is open-minded to Kaveri assisting the investigation which expands into additional murder attempts. The beautiful Mala becomes the prime suspect and charged with the crimes. Mala was one of Ponnuswamy prized prostitutes. Mala is befriended by Kaveri who believes her innocent of killing her pimp and the attempted murder of the wife whose husband was her client. The crime is more of a cozy mystery. It is being solved with the aid of women companions who have gravitated to the unabashed, unapologetic Kaveri for disregarding societal constraints. The solution for why this "detective" novel works are in the underlying clues identifying India's women's way of life in this era under British rule and prevalent caste system in place. Kaveri's logical mind and obdurate mentality are characteristics that are admirable as well as her refusal to adhere to societal pressures to regard anyone as less than or more than someone else. "Bangalore was a strange city, Large, bustling, seemingly full of opportunity, but caste, job and family status kept people from advancement on merits alone." "The Bangalore Detective Club" is worth reading to garner the historic footprints of life in India during a time which laid evidence to a major upheaval to accepting British rule and suppression of its own citizens. "Bangalore was a strange city, Large, bustling, seemingly full of opportunity, but caste, job and family status kept people from progressing on merits alone." 

George Saunders' Short Stories PASTORALIA Do NOT Pass on Reading

George Saunders is an American writer and Booker Prize winning novelist for "Lincoln at the Bardot " (2017).  His short stories, "Tenth of December" earned the Folio Prize (2013). He's also a journalist and a prof. of creative writing at Syracuse Univ.  In Saunders' latest short story collection, PASTORALIA, his imaginative skills capture the inner workings of the psyche delve. He takes us into the not too distant future where people perform as early cavemen for amusement and into the home where a woman returns from the graver to claim her share of living. In a more subdued tale, a middle-aged bachelor living at home with his overbearing mother wants to find happiness.  If there's any unifying theme, it may be the desire for wanting a better lot than the hand that's been dealt.  The heavy-set, balding man who caters to his complaining mother and her demanding friends wishes to meet a nice lady to date. His ego and insecurities are both battling incessantly inside his head at full throttle. Sadly, his opportunities for meeting women between being at home or at his barber shop are nil until he goes to traffic school where he's smitten by a woman in the class, or at least so it seems at first glance. But, he'd probably mess things up given the chance. "Other people were simpler and looked at the world with clearer eyes, but he was self-absorbed and insincere and mucked everything up." The title story "Pastorali" depicts an unnamed man and woman who must enact being in a life-size diorama as early cave dwellers scrounging for food, making fires and taking fleas off each other. The man has been protecting his co-worker, cave-dweller by not reporting her flagrant dereliction of duties as he's required to by the corporate conglomeration that employs them.  The satirical communications via faxes are darkly humorous depicting the cover your own ass strategies that serve to protect one's livelihood. The most macabre and morose story is about an extended family who live under one roof and are mainly supported by the tedious hourly cashiering job of the matriarchal aunt. The aunt dies unexpectedly leaving the family at loose ends which only becomes worse when the aunt returns from the grave with loosely attached body parts to inform the family how things are going to run going forward. She tells them what they need to support each other and more importantly, her.  Because now that she's back from the dead she has plans to make up for her lost time. Reading anything by Saunders is assuredly going to be original, satirical and unpredictable.  Predictably, PASTORALIA by George Saunders is writing at its wittiest as reading anything by him will be worthwhile.  

BLACK CAKE by C Wilkerson, The Ingredients Fall Flat

Charmaine Wilkerson's novel BLACK CAKE aspires to be a lofty read about heritage, identity and familial ties. Set in an unnamed Caribbean Island, the story revolves around Covey. Covey's childhood on the island was idyllic. She spent her days swimming and surfing in the ocean with her beau Gibbs and best friend Bunny. Her mother, an island native and her father, an Asian immigrant, fell in love and had their beloved daughter Covey. As Covey grew into her teens, her father's drinking and gambling became problematic. Covey's mother fled from the island leaving Covey behind with her alcoholic father. The island was ruled by a powerful mob boss to whom Covey's dad owed a great deal of money. Covey was betrothed to this gangster by her father as payment for his debt. At her wedding reception Covey's husband was poisoned. She fled during the commotion. Only her friend Bunny knew where she was hiding and helped her to flee to London where Gibbs had gone a year prior to study. The story becomes a saga of Covey's arduous journey to survive and conceal her identity for fear of being implicated. She was also searching to find Gibbs. Covey's bi-racial ethnicity was folded into this preposterous plot making it dense and senseless.  Intended as a lofty novel which addresses racism, bigotry and cultural identity there is too much air whisked in turning it stiff. Covey finds Gibbs in London and they're reunited. They decide to emigrate to the states settling on the shores of Orange County, CA.  Here they take the names Eleanore and Ben Bennett. The happy couple raise a son, Byron and daughter, Benny all the while keeping their true identities secret from everyone. The burning secret Eleanore kept from everyone, including her husband and children was the birth of her first daughter whom she's spent a lifetime regretting having put up for adoption. Byron and Benny learn of their parents true family history and older half-sister when Eleanore's will is read following her funeral; having predeceased her husband. The novel blends in racial discrimination experienced by Eleanore, Ben and Byron during the pursuit of their careers. Benny share's her homosexuality with her parents causing a major rift in the family which doesn't coalesce with her parent's difficult history. The icing on the cake is the overly indulgent significance of indigenous recipes as with the omnipresent BLACK CAKE. Wilkerson tells us "It was my personal familiarity with a particular Caribbean food, black cake, that led obliquely to this book. It started me thinking about the emotional weight carried by recipes and other familial makers that are handed down from one generation to the next. Then it had me writing about characters who must hold fast to their sense of self when they learn that their lives have been built on a dubious narrative."  There were too many cooky twists and neatly resolved endings that spoiled the book. What should have been a thoughtful novel rising out of a mixing of traditions, fates and migration of cultures was overcooked. It was not in the least credible. The end result was tedious and I'm advising it be sent back to a test kitchen for revising.

The LOVE of MY AFTERLIFE-Lite Feel Good Fare as a Tribute to Romance Tropes

Kirsty Greenwood's homage to romance tropes pulls out a few unique twists and turns, but never fully rises above a frothy romance and symbiotic relationships story. Before slotting this as a beach read or flight fanfare, there are a few surprises aside from, no surprise that the antagonistic neighbor downstairs and Delphie are destined to tango. Right off the bat our antisocial hermetic heroine, Delphie. dies after biting a burger chunk too big to chew. When Delphie  "comes to" she's greeted by Merritt, her guide in the afterlife. Yes, the startling realization that she died sets in, and the reel of her life plays out on the screen much like the scene in Mel Brooks' film "Defending Your Life" with Meryl Streep.  Delphie doesn't take it sitting down and somehow convinces Merritt there's been a mistake. Merritt offers a proposition to Delphie, should she find her soulmate within ten days and he kisses her, then heaven can wait and life will be great.  Wait, you've heard this theme before as in Warren Beatty's rom/com with Julie Christie? Greenwood has fun with the proverb what she's looking for was in her own backyard. Oh, wait that's a take of a different color from another genre altogether. Greenwood generates lots of winks with her nods to the memes romance novels share. Delphie googles romance novel tropes and finds "the most popular romance trope is something called 'enemies to lovers.'" In addition to Valentine's Day, Greenwood favors Easter and plants lots of Easter eggs for the eager reader. Nora Ephron, the queen of modern romance was quoted saying, "I'd tell my younger self to put on a bikini and wear it night and day." Delphie wears a dress she's been saving for a special day and tells herself, "The way the dress made me feel has solidified the notion that I should have been wearing lovely dresses every single day while I had the chance." Besides romance, life affirming epiphanies beam throughout.  "{Delphie} Marvels at the beauty of being alive." What I was living ten days ago wasn't a life at all. While I never thought my life was particularly special, these past few days have turned everything I knew on its head...somehow, I've felt more alive than I ever thought possible."  After Delphie's departure from the afterlife, her escapades on earth in pursuit of her soulmate's kiss turn into a high spirited high jinx and social interactions that cause a symbiotic chain reaction. After rethinking "The Love of My Afterlife" I've reconsidered the predictable plot with its amusing magical twists to be a delightful summer after all.  I found myself LOL. "There's something about laughing-it makes any awkwardness disappear."

Griffin Dunne's Memoir The FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB is Overdone

Griffin Dunne was born into a family of distinguished writers. He's the son of writer/reporter Dominick Dunne, nephew to Joan and Jon Dunne and brother of Dominique Dunne. Dominique was brutally strangled by her estranged boyfriend. Tragically, Dominick was only 22 and beginning to establish a career as an actress after appearing in Speilberg's film POLTERGEIST. The admitted killer received only a slap on the wrist sentence. The trial and its aftermath were reported on by her father, Dominick in "Vanity Fair". Griffin's memoir pays tribute to his sister, his family 's pain and horror with the trial and its outcome. The judge who overwhelmingly overruled the DA's objections made an about face after criticizing the jury after having steered them towards vindication. "He {the judge} called the punishment for the crime 'anemic and pathetically inadequate.' Having got the verdict we felt he had guided the jurors into giving, he was now blasting them for giving it." Griffin shared personal insights during the trial and proved himself, without any doubt, a gifted writer. His elite,  Hollywood upbringing and celebrity hobnobbing are compelling and his introspective candor compelling. Ironically, Dunne shared his own dismay with his father's coverage of events. "I must admit that when the article was published, I wasn't thrilled it felt like an invasion of our family's memory of a terrible time, and I thought his sharing our sorrow with the world distasteful. I was both happy for him and troubled that our tragedy made him a celebrity." The name dropping tidbits dispersed throughout were delectable. "During one of my parents' extravagant parties I got up to pee and caught Judy Garland rifling through the medicine cabinet in my bathroom. Warren Beatty once played the piano in our living room in lieu of joining a drunken game of charades captained by a smashed Ida Lupino. Sean Connery saved me from drowning." However, Dunne seemed disingenuous when dismissing his privileged Beverly Hills upbringing. "When I moved to New York, I never told my new friends any of this and found my privilege embarrassing and inexplicably shameful. I envied kids who grew up in Kansas and went to a real high school that had proms and who built bonfires before a big football game." He shares his lifelong friendship with Carrie Fisher and all the A list stars she brought into their shared NYC loft. Griffin expounds upon his careers in acting, producing and writing. What I found unnecessary and in distasteful were his shared memories of masturbation and sexual infatuations as an adolescent. The corporeal licking he received at boarding school sounded straight out of Dickens. Overall I recommend "The FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB" for book clubs interested in an insider's view growing up within a talented family with foibles amidst the creme da la creme of showbiz and writers. The FRIDAY AFTERNOON read is a breezy summer read; insightful and entertaining. If only the editor had redacted gratuitous details that diminished the gravitas and delight of an otherwise memorable memoir. 

A LETTER to MY TRANSGENDER DAUGHTER-Intended to Educate It Self-Congratulates

Carolyn Hays intimate and tender "open" letter to her transgender daughter speaks to the unqualified love a mother has for her child. Specifically, Hays is addressing her letter and gushing love to her transgender daughter who informed her parents at age three he was a she. In the US, it is estimated that only .5% of the population identified as transgender, a.k.a. gender dysphoria. This is a small known portion of the population. The distress of an individual who identifies other than the sex assigned at birth seems to me all consuming. I'm not without sympathy. On the contrary, I have great empathy and wish to understand more how these individuals feel, how their family feels and the impacts on the family's dynamics. I hoped to gain a first hand account of how a parent responds to their child within their home and out in the world. Of course, Hays' eloquent and exceedingly long essay is only one parent's perspective, and her myopic lens of her daughter's situation in the world. I applaud Hays candor, loving support and ongoing concerns for her daughter. The epic "epistolary" format is insightful, particularly during the daughter's preschool years. But, it morphs into an anthem for self-congratulations for the open-mindedness and altruistic DEVOTION penned ad nauseam. The family were forced to deal with social services who received notice that the child may be subject to some form of abuse requiring intervention and possibly removal from the home. It's sobering that any anonymous call can lead to mandatory investigation.The basis for looking into what mandates interventions may bear investigation. It led the family to relocate from the south where they feared another possible court order could lead to their child being taken away. The fallout felt less drastic than Hays contended. Still, it may be difficult to empathize with experiences foreign to one's own. My focus here was to learn more about how and when a child expresses their differing gender identity.  However, this was not a first person transgender account which needs to be taken into account. Hays elaborated early on about her child's personality, perceptions and emotions. Hays "asked" in her letter, "How do I parent you to brace yourself and yet not live with your bracing?" An excellent question often asked by parents. Any forthcoming answers were nebulous at best. And, aside from other families with a transgender member or transgender individuals, the correspondence tends to drone on and lose significance. My main takeaway from "LETTER," was an exercise in self-indulgence, and self-admiration. Hays began by saying "My desire [was] to be a family of tanks." She signs off by writing, "I am joyful. You are joy. You are living, breathing joy. I am so driven by my steam of pride for you. I'm a ship. Maybe a battleship." I thought perhaps a battle-axe with an axe to grind but a parent nonetheless. A parent doing their utmost to construct a loving carapace of protection combined with plenty of self-adulation. 

OPEN THROAT-Quips that Don't Quit from a Mountain Lion's Mouth Makes Quite a Tale

The short and satisfying tale whipped up from inside the mind of an LA mountain lion's dishes up quite a stir. This cougar, puma or mountain lion, our anthropomorphic hero has heard all these names for him, lives beneath the Hollywood sign. Hibernating during the daytime, he haunts hikers, vagrants and other colorful pedestrians, he's a particularly savvy survivor and connoisseur of people. He's cunning, curious and exceedingly ingenious. Henry Hoke's inventive fabrication of a precocious feline delivers a clever perspective from an overlooked creature living outside of society.  Parodies for the piranhas of society are fierce and biting.  Living hidden from the public's view in order to survive, the mountain lion delivers his lines with a wry, razor sharp edge. "There are so many hikers who go by and talk loud, '...this is not a big deal but right now I need you to listen to me...they say yeah of course the project is gay everything is gay now...they call everything a disaster..' I want to devour their sound. I have so much language in my brain and nowhere to put it." Hoke creates a sympathetic character by bestowing him human traits only to yoke us back to a startling reality as to the true nature of the beast. The reader slinks alongside the animal's hide as it makes itself invisible or when it hides out in the open. The happiest place on earth is parodied in a hilarious scenario where the mountain lion is paraded freely out in the open. Our lion is puzzled why here, he's not feared.  "...inside the gates there are other animals, big animals with soft fur and faces and they stand upright and hug and blend in with the people, all the people...and no one thinks I'm strange at all and some of the kids come over and pet me." The animal's realizations become even more human-like and disconcerting when he experiences feelings of guilt and self-loathing as he considers how well off his living conditions have become while his companions suffer in poor, confined spaces. "I feel more like a person than ever because I'm starting to hate myself. I look around at all the space I have and I think of all the other spaces in this house...and I think how the people of my town could be here too. " OPEN THROAT reads like a roller-coaster ride;  exhausting and exhilarating. Just when you're settled in,  prepare for a big drop or an unexpected twist. Don't let our friendly foe fool you. Lest you forgot, a leopard never changes his spots.  "I can smell his blood on the pavement and I'm not at all hungry, this is not about need - no this is want - it's a terrible choice but I'm making it just like a person." Make the wise choice to read OPEN THROAT. This sharp-witted social commentary is outrageously fulfilling.  

HONOR by Umrigar Honor Killing in India is Still Happening

Arranged marriages are still prevalent in many cultures, particularly in India. In fact, there's a lot to be said for this custom which is viewed by modern society as outdated and obsolete. However, "honor killing," a family's condoned murder of their daughter/sister who marries outside her culture, caste or without approval. As modern, liberated Americans who've only recently abandoned abolished eugenics, we tend to judge others freely and dismiss forced marriages, mutilation of female genitalia, and honor killings as far from our shores and as becoming remote. Thrity Umrigar's novel HONOR is a contemporary story taken from recent news article on the barbaric torture and murder of a newlywed couple, a Hindu woman and a Muslim man. Umrigar (b. India 1961) is an Indian-American journalist, critic and novelist. HONOR is written from the point of view of a journalist, Smita. Smita was born in India where she was raised until she moved with her family to the US at 13. Smita, now in her mid 30s, accepts an assignment inIndia to cover the verdict in a murder trial. Meena, a Hindu, accused her brothers of setting fire to her home, killing her husband and leaving her to die. Meena was pregnant at the time. Her daughter, Abru, was delivered by C-section. Meena was left maimed and horrribly disfigured. Meanwhile, Smita begrudgingly accepted the help of Mohan to drive and protect. As a single woman she would face harassment and  be barred access to interviews. The significance of Umrigar's novel doesn't arrive until midway when Smita finally meets and speaks with Meena, her brothers and the village's corrupt shaman. Still, she experiences harsh misogynistic treatment and caste discrimination. The poignant full-story of Meena's life, love and convictions are revealed only in Meena's mind; not in interviews. Smita becomes swept up in Meena's turbulent life, India's corruption and its caste system as she confronts her own suppressed ties with India.  Smita's journalistic integrity and drive are measured against her unsurprising attachments to Mohan and Abru. The novel's integrity is diminished given within Smita's story.  The construct of using Smita's modern lifestyle was needed to place events in the present and shine a light on abhorrent practices, societal constraints and cultural traditions in India. Unfortunately, Umrigar journalistic skills would serve these factual cases better reported as news rather than mitigate the horrors within a melodramatic romance story that is uninspiring and unworthy of the serious issues being considered. These so-called "cultural norms and traditions need current attention in order to be abolished immediately; chief among them are horrific and unlawful "honor killings."  

Alderton's GOOD MATERIAL-Comedian Coping Badly from Breakup-Not Funny Not Clever Not Ever Not Even...

GOOD MATERIAL is a novel that will help pass the time on a long airplane ride. It's an innocuous diversion of a breakup and heartache.The breakup is between a successful career woman; the type who'd usually have an aversion to a narcissistic, mid 30s, struggling comedian. Voiced by Andy's for the most part, his whininess wears thin along with his hairline. Perhaps, author Dolly Alderton considers her hero somewhat likable and appealing. He's not an awful person, but his lack of ambition and self-centeredness made me question why Jen spent four years in a relationship before his inertia got her to get out. Andy was an affable guy in college, fun to hang out with. He still clings to his old school chums. But his chums have moved on to careers and families. Getting together takes more planning, is less appealing and less likely to last into the wee hours cause of wee ones at home. Andy has kept his best pal from school but he is now  happily married with 2 kids and one on the way. Which by the way, is how Andy met Jen. Jen is best friends with Andy's best friend's wife. It felt comfortable for both Jen and Andy to slip into their  relationship and convenient for all four. However, this is not reason enough for Jen to stay with Andy. So, Jen said adios amigo and Andy said hello heartbreak. Sticking with this lugubrious and laborious read was made easier with some relatable observations. The resolve to see if there would be a makeup to the breakup was also a driving force. Andy drags us through his drinking, drudgery, career fiasco, poor decisions, odd jobs and obsessions. As someone who'd  like a do over on time wasted on a loser, too much time was lost on this sad saga of a 35 year old male who considers himself an artist and hard working adults as sellouts. Andy went to extremes to glean why Jen would end things. He set up an alias to meet with Jen's psychiatrist hoping to gain insight. Andy would use a kick in the rear, get himself in gear and  grow-up. His self-realization towards the end fails to ignite him to make any changes. "I know that I have power in the world just being a man, I know that, but I also don't really have any-I'm a balding failed comedian with no savings who lodges with a seventy-eight year old."  GOOD MATERIAL lacks humor or wisdom and is never more than slightly amusing. "It's all so random and unfair-the people we want to be with don't want to be with us and the people who want to be with us are not the people we want to be with." You can do better than spending your time with Dolly Alderton's droll novel about a Peter Pan Man hashing over his heartache. 

M Bertino's novel BEAUTYLAND Alien Assigned to Report on Earth Unoriginal but Disarming

"NahNew NahNew BEAUTYLAND doesn't uncover new ground but there is charm to be found from an alien's point of view in the guise of a baby girl. She's assigned to observe and report back on earth's habitat and inhabitants. Robin Williams' hilarious antics on the 70s TV sitcom, "Mork and Mindy" had Mork reporting to his leaders his rye commentaries on human behaviors. On the TV sitcom, "3rd Rock from the Sun" the zaniness of aliens inhabiting human forms and cohabitating with earthlings highlighted the inherent absurdity of life. Marie-Helene Bertino's comical and morose philosophical sci-fi novel uses a tried and true formula but adds a unique spin in the form of a nascent foreign being who matures aligned with earthly revolutions. Adina's raised by her single working mother outside Philly. Her mom makes ends meet by stretching a dollar by serving cheap boiled chicken, diluting her Jean Nate spray, scavenging dumpsters and praying her VW will make it uphill. Adina instinctively knows she's from another galaxy. She corresponds by faxing her superiors reports of life as she sees it. Her reports are wise and humorous with her questions and observations. She asks, "What would these people say instead of I love you? I'm scared. I worry I will never recover. I love you is a can of soda that comes free with every meal. Yet every day humans suffer from lack of hearing it." Pop culture references are plentiful, mentioning Carl Sagan, ET, "Lost in Space" and adding sparkle. Adolescent female angst is a major bright spot and right of passage as in wanting to belong to the alpha girl group. Combining an alien and coming of age story provides enough poignancy to fill a blackhole. Feelings of grief and loneliness are the predominate emotions Adina experiences with regards to her lifelong friend Toni and her beloved dog. "Loneliness is a composite feeling: ironically unable to exist alone. It can contain anger, hunger, fear, jealousy. Adina had misidentified it for homsickness but it also meant restlessness when one is not in the place they long for. The most content she ever felt was with Toni and her little dog." BEAUTYLAND is smart, lyrical and tender; a delightful journey into being alive. The references to Wilder's "Our Town" transcend the wake up and smell the roses trope as if under a microscope. Above all, Adina's outside perspectives resonate throughout. "When they are in pain, human beings sing 'Amazing Grace'. It has transcended religious, cultural and racial context and is about the bases of human cultures, which is suffering." 

E Shafak's THE ISLAND of MISSING TREES Ambitious but Misses the Mark

Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British novelist and activist whose writings and outspoken activism have led her to emigrate from Turkey to the UK to avoid prosecution. Her writing style is eloquent and extraordinary in the narrative voices she creates. In "The Island" the heroine is voiced by a fig tree. The tree was at the center of a pub in Cyprus that was the social center for the village in the 1970's and oversaw the social divide between the Turkish and Greeks.   Also set in the UK in the 2000's, a sapling of the fig tree is transplanted by Kostas whose story is rooted in his love for Defne which began as a secretive tryst between young lovers circumventing their families' forbiddance to meet due to their cultural hatred. Separated by Kostas' "temporary" move to the UK and then civil unrest in Cyprus, the two become reconnected many years later, marry and have their daughter Ada.  At first, I was charmed by the patient and omnipresent tree whose wisdom and melancholy discourse lay the foundation of what transpires over the years. However, the sedentary oration grew stiff and tedious.  Her (the tree is definitely a she) commune with animals and nefarious insects became officious as if leafing through the non-fiction work, "The Hidden Lives of Trees". Kostas and his teenage daughter Ada, with whom the novel begins are likable characters but the divergent timelines, numerous characters and the fig's anthropomorphism bear such sharp schisms as to dice the plot in different stories that felt coerced together and disjointed.  Kostas and Defne's love story was touching but Defne's struggles once they married and living safely abroad felt ambiguous. Ada was drawn as an intelligent, fierce young woman coping with the loss of her mother and estrangement from her father. However, her life in the 21st C in which she gains enlightenment from her mom's sister whom she hadn't met til a year after her mother's death, was undercooked.  And, the turbulent years in Cyprus seemed unclear and insignificant.  While I admire Shafak's ambitious novel, every time I came back to it, I felt tangled in a different story. I didn't enjoy this novel as much as her other works. Still, I appreciate her pleasing writing style with its unique voices.  But in the stump, the fig was given too much say and too many other branches did not bear sufficient fruit.  

Paul Murray's The Bee Sting Buzzes Incessantly with Sorrow

Paul Murray's novel "The Bee Sting" hones in on the Barnes family in rural Ireland. Dad, Dickie runs the family's floundering car dealership, daughter Cass is finishing her senior year of high school in a downward drunken spiral, precocious younger brother PJ spouts trivial scientific facts, and mom is the queen bee and town beauty Imelda. These facts are only a mere foundation of this disturbing and comical fictitious family. The family flits around each other while being more drawn outside their own hive. Each character is given a full blown examination. All four are intoxicating in their own way, wrought with their own poor decisions making and obsessions. Murray's skillful depictions give the reader a keen sense of their afflictions. While engrossing, the reader becomes ensnared and beholden to all the drama brewing towards its tempest, payback karma. Along for the ride, we learn Dickie's and Imelda's back stories which raise their tormented heads. "The past hung in the present like smoke in the air, like vapor trails, fading out slowly." Dickie grew up in a wealthy family with a much beloved younger brother Frank.  Dickie's days at Trinity come back to haunt him. His malleability makes you want to shake your head (or his) in frustration. He spends his time and resources with his handyman, a survivalist at war with the world building a bunker. Imelda grew up in poverty, the only girl in a household of brutish men. Imelda was rescued from her hellish household by an elderly spinster with mystical powers. She was betrothed to Frank before her marriage to Dickie. Cass' consuming fixation on her frenemy Eileen is pathetic and self-destructive. Lastly, innocent PJ is left untended to fend for himself. He misguidedly thinks he's found salvation in a friend online.  As distressing and convoluted as this portends, there's plenty to cheer in the darkly humorous observations that illuminate the insanity of life in all its mutations. Dickie realized "You couldn't protect the people you loved - that was the lesson of history, and it struck him therefore that to love someone meant to be opened up to a radically heightened level of suffering." Overall I found the novel a trial of endurance. The buzzing plot is festooned in a malaise of lugubriousness that deviates into a myriad of mazes that churn incessantly.  Reading Murray's encumbered novel was a "a kind of Purgatory, a weird, interstitial space between one world and the next, filled with peripheral figures from the past, the kind of marginal acquaintances that turn up in dreams."

SOLITO-A Memoir Javier Zamora's Harrowing Migration at Age 9

Javier Zamora's memoir SOLITO is an especially disturbing and affecting account of his illegal migration from his native El Salvador to the US to join his parents. His father fled when Javier was one and his mother when he was five. Javier remained in El Salvador with his grandparents and aunts until his parents had managed to save up money to send for him. Javier's story is a child's migrant story. Narrated by Javier in the voice of his 9 year old self, the terrifying ordeal lasting three weeks when his whereabouts were unknown is illuminated in a patina of trust and innocence that belies the perils encountered. The honest recollections illicit stark details and his intent to remain steadfast. However, this memoir is deeply troubling knowing Javier was an unaccompanied minor; a child unable to tie his own shoes. The desire for a better life by reaching the US is incessant which fosters a system which leaves juveniles at the mercy of adults. And, a system that preys on people taking gross advantage of millions.  Miraculously, Javier received caring parental protection from two strangers who refused to abandon him, comforted him and saw his needs were met as they made their dangerous migration under the vicarious lead of "coyotes."  Javier's beloved grandfather entrusted him to a man from their village who ended up leaving the group after a week along with the belongings of someone else. Still, Javier hoped and prayed for his safe arrival in laUSA. The  ever-changing group traveled by bus, trucks, boats and mostly by foot over scorching desert terrain. Javier describes his fear of running and hiding to avoid capture.  Though twice captured and detained, Javier's self-appointed guardians made sure they remained "together as a family".  The trip by boat was terrifying and nauseating. Yet, Javier was delighted by the sight of jumping fish and the moon's reflection on the waves. Much of the time was spent shut inside, waiting for instruction and there was little to note but boredom, cramped quarters and little to do.  But throughout, Javier's young voice and budding poetic soul radiates with beauty. "I love looking for the big white moon. Seeing it change. The moon has been up there watching me since the dawn I saw good-bye to my family. It reminds me of all of them. They said there wouldn't be a moon, but they're wrong. Like a slice of watermelon bitten to the rind, it showed up over the mountains to our right. I like its gray light before the sun paints the dawn, our clothing changing from black to gray to blue like we're chameleons." 

MONSTERS-A Fan's Dilemma-Remains Unclear after Reading

Claire Dederer poses an interesting conundrum, how to separate the art from the artist when the artist is known to have been hideous and committed serious offenses. This is a compelling question as one may seek dispensation to appreciate works done by an artist known for committing sexual or physical assault, child endangerment. Or someone who is a womanizer and treats others with cruelty and utter disregard. This prescient topic weighs heavily on us in today's woke world with a continuous list of talented celebrities being outed for their bad behaviors.  Dederer narrows her monstrous subjects to males which is one sided but necessary to conform to her thesis.  And, further restricts judgements for the rare few where  true genius is applicable. Her thesis asks if genius merits accommodations or hall passes for the individual's actions.  Dederer seems to waffle rather than commit to a conclusion.  She does imply quashing the artist's freedom to act without consequences would inflate artistic freedom and the artist's psyche. The term genius is not a term dispensed without gravitas. The adjective is reserved for an iconoclastic group for whom unequivocal esteem is owed. (Of course, this too can be debated.) Taking examples from the various art forms of music, film, literature and visual arts Dederer honed in on Michael Jackson, Woody Allen, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso.  She further asserts, "We are excited by their ass-hole-ness...We want the asshole to cross the line, to break the rules. We reward that rule-breaking, and then we go a step further, and see it as endemic to art-making itself." This assumption is where I part ways with Dederer's dissertation. But, it's imperative to note there are degrees to which bad-ass behavior is tolerated. In no way is criminal behavior to be exonerated for the sake of great art, rather legal actions would be merited. And, the paradigms for Hemingway and Picasso's womanizing do not do justice to disavowing their contributions. Having read MONSTERS, the issue is not resolved as to how to appreciate great art created by geniuses who nonetheless are mere mortals. Although, it doesn't require an Einstein to solve this enigma. I argue great art stands on its own merits and should be viewed as its own entity. Not, to be diminished. But, the dispensation of negating illicit and degrading behaviors must not be disregarded.  Society is too quick to hand out accolades and too quick with its condemnations. For the film that doesn't receive an Acad. Award, does it change the work in any way? Of course not. Music, literature, art doesn't change like Dorian Gray's portrait in the attic but the stains on human nature are notable nonetheless.  

Comedian Daniel Tosh-Pulls No Punches

Last night before a sold out house at Santa Rosa's Luther Burbank Theater, Daniel Tosh was in top form as he wielded the crowd with his wit to laugh at the absurdity from both sides of an issue. Known for his sardonic take on current political and social issues, Tosh took aim at hot topics including abortion, vaccines, political parties, black athletes, police brutality with a no holds barred, brash approach. Tosh's topical material was well crafted and cutting-edge. It felt totally organic and original. Tosh started out gently and built-up to a comical crescendo. He said he planned to switch his career from comedy to magic. He gave a sealed envelope to one person and asked another to name a number from 1-100.  The number chosen, 99, was not the 54 in the sealed envelope. Tosh poked fun at the ridiculous choice of 99, then came down on "54" for not choosing 99 to save the joke. He often made himself the butt of the joke, "This all proves that magic is stupid." His modus operandi through his non-stop, spell-binding routine that pushed back at the absurdity of opposing views. His routine flowed effortlessly for well over an hour with precise timing and circuitous material which was sardonic, sensible, irreverent and redemptive.  His overriding attitude of disdain was never off-putting. He steered the audience to ironic and hilarious observations that still allowed the audience to feel safe and sane regardless how inane or contentious the joke. Tosh told the audience it was his job to go there...and go there he did. He claimed, "I'm willing to lose half my audience," and I for one, took him at his word.  His wife's pregnancy with 3 fetuses was cause for high-fiving after learning 2 of the 3 fetuses had become non-viable. A seriously funny discourse ensued that crossed pedophilia with life beginning at fertilization. His poignant goodnight kiss on his daughter's birthmark led to a cringeworthy punchline that struck you in the gut and the funny bone. Tosh was for abortion just not pro, pro-choice for women. He appreciated how cop's get trigger happy, "I was a lifeguard and I admit to blowing the whistle when not necessary." The litany of people he's okay with getting shot include fans who try to enlist their sections in cheers and people who drive around speed bumps.  His candid take  mocked his own wealth and the virtues of having money as far outweighing being poor. Tosh's contemptuous outlooks delivered without rancor were altogether clever, thought provoking and hilarious. Tosh contemporary outtakes showcase him at the top of his game and destined for fame.  Daniel Tosh tells it like he sees it and pulls no punches. My hunch is he's a formidable funny man for the ages. Catch him whenever, wherever you can. 

sardonic sarcastic sensible irreverent redemptive 

Kelly Link's The BOOK of LOVE-Something to Love for Everyone Thus for No One

The author of The BOOK of LOVE, Kelly Link, is a Pulitzer Prize nominated short story writer. In her debut novel, she spun a multi-genre novel into a cornucopia of characters and plots. The book begins bewitchingly then morphs into a bewildering mess and far less transfixing. The pastiche of genres and themes include young adult fiction, fantasy, romance, magic, coming-of-age, family dysfunction, racism and racial stereotyping, good versus evil and plenty of sex.  Not to say a mixed concoction can't be intoxicating, but, here too many ingredients did spoil the brew. The genesis of the plot has a lot to convince you to imbibe this elixir of intrigue.  Three teens somehow arrive in their high school at midnight with a dawning dread. There's a unifying realization they somehow were dead. But, somehow are back from the dead to talk about it. Their unease and puzzlement as to what happened and their sense of second chances offers up a lot of an enticing spell.  Mo, Daniel and Laura are the teens from a small, coastal town called Lovesend.  The convoluted plot entails the three who knew each other as classmates, neighbors and band mates. It continues to revolve around a myriad of tasks they must complete to compete for the prize of remaining alive.  All three are learning to tame magic powers they've obtained while releasing their liscivious libidos. Cursed mortals that had been granted immortality are complicating matters and creating terrifying problems for the teens.  Meanwhile, Laura and her sister Susanna are constantly at each other's throats. Daniel and Susanna spend as much time as possible having sex.  Mo finds his lover who unfortunately is hexed and not as he appears. There's more drama on the home fronts;  the sisters' father return after a long abandonment. Mo mourns the death of his grandmother who died while he was dead. And, Daniel's younger half-siblings offer chaos and charm.  Link tries to utilize her short story writing skills to combine all the different characters and twists but there's too much to contain and feel sane.  I wished for a change of pace in my reading but this was too dizzy to decipher and too far-fetched to sustain. Link failed to pull a rabbit out of her hat.  Don't read that!  Read in lieu of The BOOK of LOVE, GET IN TROUBLE instead.

GRIEF is for PEOPLE- Sloane Crosley Mires the Loss of Her Friend and Her Trinkets

Sloane Crosley is a renowned writer of humorist essays that have garnered literary awards, and fans for her wry, observational sense of humor. "GRIEF is for PEOPLE" is deeply personal and introspective as she mourns the loss of her friend, Russel Perrault who killed himself.  Perrault hired her at Random House. From there, the relationship evolved into much more. Crosley describes Perrault as "my favorite person, the one who somehow sees me both as I want to be seen and as I actually am, the one whose belief in me over the years has been the most earned (he is not my parent), the most pure (he is not my boyfriend), and the most forgiving (he is my friend)'. Crosley navigates her grief away from painting Perrault as a saint as she quickly counters. "There are, of course, days when he is not my favorite person, days when I would pay him to be a little less like himself."  Crosley's memoir is more clever than maudlin, more delightful than depressing, yet it is all of that and more.  Perrault's unexpected suicide coincides with a burglary of her jewelry and treasured trinkets stolen from her apartment from the spice case purchased during a flea market trip (one of Perrault's favorite pastimes) enjoyed together where he cajoled her into purchasing the item "meant for her." The exhuming of relevance between a robbery and the death of a loved would seem to bear inconsequential significance. Crosley's deft skills as a writer and sleuth expose the crossroads and the disjunction between the two events.  "In the case of the burglary, there is a bad guy, there is a potential for restitution and there is a potential for fairness. Not so for a suicide." Joan Didion's memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking" is often referred to as Crosley convinces herself her obsession with regaining her possessions is sound. "If the necklace can come home, then everything will be just as it used to be." Nonetheless, Crosley pursues the villain who robbed her of mementos and looks back for an understanding why her beloved friend would chose to end his life which are both responsible for extracting her happiness and security.  Crosely doesn't gloss over her depression but neither does she let us wallow in morbidity. She illustrates Perrault as complex, convivial with an infectious dash of  exuberance. As the layers of Perrault's character are removed and Crosley contends with life going forward, we're uplifted peering through the sharp lens of her inconsolable loss and unflappable spirit. Looking back with somber acceptance of Perrault's heartbreaking decision, Crosley asks him, "How come you didn't see the great wheel of the world and find a different spoke? Were you so jaded and impatient? Weren't you curious about what would happen tomorrow and the days after that?"

Percival Everett JAMES-Jim Narrates His Harrowing Escape with Huck

Twain's novel The ADVENTURES of HUCKLEBERRY FINN is one of the most iconic books of the 20th C. Having read the novel as a young teen, I was swept away by the odyssey of Huck and Jim on the MI river and taken with the friendship between Huck, a young white boy and Jim, a Blackman living as a slave. As much as I admired Huck for befriending Jim and abetting him as a runaway despite being raised to view blacks as subhuman, unworthy of compassion, the gravitas of Huck's rejection of these vile norms and his courageous rejections of them didn't strike me with as much pain as being witness to Jim's agony through his eyes, mind and conversations with Huck. Jim's humanity bellows in anguish and resounds with dignity as he attempts a harrowing escape north looking out for himself and Huck who's fleeing an abusive father.  This book deals a with Jim's abilities to read, write and speak in a dialect that aligns with the grammar and elocution of whites. The burden of illiteracy and speech denoted inferior, is a form of subjection that perpetuates enslavement. The inner strength and moral certitude of Jim comes through his selfless acts and conversations with Huck who looked to him for comfort and guidance. Hucks asks Jim, "How I s'posed to know what good is. Way I sees it is dis. If'n ya gots to hat a rule to tells ya what's good, if'n ya gots to hat good 'sprained to ya, den ya cain't be good. If'n ya need sum kinda God to tells ya right from wrong, den you won't never know." Attention is focused on literacy as it signifies freedom. Jim realizes, "The power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control what I got from them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive."  Jim was met with bafflement from those, including Huck and fellow slaves in regards to his non-slave talk and his literacy skills. One of the many poignant and deeply disturbing experiences involves another slave George who aided Jim in risking his life to swipe a pencil stub he asked for. George beseeches Jim to write his own life story, understanding how oppression is maintained by keeping slaves illiterate. The sovereignty embedded in writing is also the power to record history and dispense knowledge. Everett's novel works as a daring odyssey of survival against all barriers. The most egregious obstacle is systemic racial hatred and the barbaric of human slaves. Huck's dawning realizations and Jim's convictions provide simple truths without preaching by reaching deep into one's soul. "How kin one person own another person? Dat be a good question, Huck." Jim considers "A man who refused to own slaves but was not opposed to others owning slaves was still a slaver, to my thinking." And, Jim's assessment of evil did not apply to whites only. "Bad as whites were, they had no monopoly on duplicity, dishonesty or perfidy." Twain's "HUCK FINN" stands as a classic tale and testament to the horrors of slavery woven into an adventure experienced within a coming of age novel. JAMES expounds on this tale in a broader and more honest manner.  I strongly urge reading both great literary works as testaments to the scope of humankind's attributes, from the most divine to the most sinister.  

Anthony Veasna So's AFTERPARTIES-Published Posthumously-CA/Cambodian Families Who Fled Communist Killings

Anthony Veasna So's parents escaped Cambodia's the communist regime to northern CA along with a community that provided their children a safe haven in which to thrive. So's combined short stories in AFTERPARTIES is a wry exposure of the malaise of inertia that permeates the first generation of American Cambodians blessed with opportunities that seem to go awry. Living with the omnipresent lament of their parents and elders it was often heard, "We escaped the Communists. So what are boys like you doing?" The next generation never achieve expectations. Pressure to produce proves overbearing as the majority of young people, more so for young gay Cambodians, and most  succumb to the status quo, "Guys who never left our hometown, who stayed committed to a dusty CA free of ambition or beaches." embedded in these stories are quirky, likable characters whose self-awareness and acknowledgements of their families' antiquated customs, create endearing stories of generational and social divides. The Cambodian genocide shrouds all 11 stories. In the first story, "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts" a single mother of two girls brings them with her to her flailing donut shop. She's plagued by the menacing presence of a Cambodian patron she fears will harm her and her daughters  having located her. The young girls use their imagination to construct their own stories about the man that are far more innocuous and entertaining. In "Superking Son Scores Again," a young Cambodian who was hailed as a badminton star is now the proprietor of a languishing grocery store where the younger Cambodian boys gather. The former star is exposed as a gambler who drives his family business into debt but not before the younger boys enlist him as coach in their triumphant badminton competitions. There is a jocular warmth to all the stories along with the love and respect deeply enshrined in their culture. Many a similar amusing refrain is heard in all households, "Ba, you gotta stop using the genocide to win arguments." The only story in darker, more somber mode is the last in the one, "Generational Differences," It's a clever social commentary on the mass shooting based on the 1989 mass shooting in an elementary school with a major Cambodian student body. In the tragic aftermath, Michael Jackson came to the school to provide support while receiving a major public relations promotion. Throughout, So's deft writing provides a keen perspective from within the lives of first generation Cambodians in CA looking outside their communities while deeply entrenched in their's. The Cambodian mother and teacher who worked at the school during the massacre explains her feelings, "Through my frustration, my clenched teeth, I didn't have the words to say those years were never the sole explanation of anything; that I've always considered the genocide to be the source of all our problems and none of them."  

Daniel Mason's Magical Historic Traverse in NORTH WOODS

NORTH WOODS is an enchanting traverse through the woods in western MA that spans centuries from  early colonial days to near present day. What transpires is unhurried and unexpected stories of inhabitants of the same home and the surrounding woodlands. Each succession reads independently of the preceding story. All are enchanting and delightful in unique fashion.  Starting with a lusty young couple having abandoned their confining lives in Puritan New England to start anew on their own. Their emancipation and ardor are met with a violent demise at the hands of the "Natives". Daniel Mason is a masterful writer who depicts the land as artfully alive as his various characters. Each varying tale stands independently, yet much is gained noting the passage of time and the discoveries of relics that reveal more of what befell those who claimed the same, yellow house in the woods as home. The stories all share a profound connection with their surrounding woods. Many characters encounter a macabre demise that if not surprising, is deeply mournful. The Osgood twins is a delightful tale of sisters who resourcefully manage their father's apple orchard alone after their father enlists to fight in the Revolution.  We delight in their daily lives and devotion to one another until it becomes something more sinister. A later tale is of a painter and his illicit love for a famous writer related in an epistolary fashion through letters he composed to his male lover. The eloquence of these letters begs an answer to how they came to be found within the painter's home. The reader delights in the treasure of findings. Answers appear at later, unexpected dates becoming  all the more rewarding in their discovery.  The last story, and the most intricate is a widowed mother dealing with the anguish of a son diagnosed with schizophrenia. As in each story, the moral norms and behaviors of the time period are presented along with the ever changing landscape. Mason writes with a flourish filled with crisp descriptions that elicit tactile responses along with what the characters are experiencing. Minor characters play major roles and transient beings become more prominent. All the unexpected journeys are to be celebrated.  Solid roots are planted from which multifaceted branches expand into new realms organically. This is a sumptuous novel of ephemeral  beauty. "The young saplings she remembered from her childhood had matured into a forest of their own. Nothing like the old woods that lay beyond the stone wall, but still remarkable, this sense of reclamation." I wholeheartedly encourage journeying into NORTH WORDS.

The SIX-NonF First Six Women Astronauts-Should be Interesting but for Naught

Loren Grush is a reporter for Bloomberg News covering space travel and a host for the online show "Space Craft". Her parents were both NASA engineers and she grew up around Space Shuttles and Nasa astronauts. "The Six" focuses on the first women to be selected as astronauts and given the opportunities to travel into space. The subjects promised an exciting foray into a new frontier. Unfortunately, Grush's book is a grueling read as it delves overridingly into the minutiae of details about the women's personal lives outside the space program.  The repetitive meme is on the glass ceiling broken by these women. This trope feels trivial in today's world and the missed opportunities for what the experiences were like would've been far more compelling but were buried under copious anecdotes of little note. Grush's concluding comment resonates along with the style of her reporting which was shamefully fawning and wearisome. "They didn't have any women {astronaut} role models. They were doing it for the first time. For those of us who followed, we had the role models. So that made us more comfortable, more confident, and more welcome." Even the chapter on the Challenger explosion in '86 which carried an educator for the first time into space was centered askew. There was nothing revelatory. Furthermore, this catastrophic disaster was presented with little emotional impact. There is nothing exciting to stimulate or encourage young people to venture into careers as engineers or astronauts. Whereas there were many topics Grush might've examined. For instance, I'd wanted to know more about the training required, and first-hand interviews from these women were flagrantly missing.  What did it feel like in space for these women and what did they think they contributed, gained and found most difficult. Moreover, Grush unfairly spoke for the astronauts in the program following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in Jan. '86, which made them sound petty. "Grief gripped their hearts and uncertainty hung heavy in the air. Underlying the sorrow, each astronaut thought the same thing, but they didn't dare say their fears out loud: Could this be the end of the Space Shuttle program?" As a reporter in the aeronautics field, Grush was grounded in inconsequential details. She failed to gather interviews from any of the surviving women or people with first hand accounts to make a soaring account about trailblazing women in space travel and exploration. 

NonF Matt Haig's "Reasons to Stay Alive"

Matt Haig is a journalist, writer of Y/A novels and novels. His novels are magical, whimsical and profoundly life affirming, In Haig's autobiographical book REASONS to STAY ALIVE, he candidly talks about the debilitating depression he's suffered. Furthermore, he offers pragmatic suggestions that helped him cope through his dark abyss of despair, how he staves depression's downward gravitational pull and reasons to be grateful he's found in simple and astonishing moments. Haig muses, "I think life always provides reasons to not die, if we listen hard enough. Those reasons can stem from the past-the people who raised us, maybe, or friends or lovers-or from the future possibilities we would be switching off." Perhaps, the single most sagacious contemplation for not committing suicide "is this option isn't flexible." Everyone's experiences are unique, yet knowing there are others stricken with the malady of malaise and "knowing that other things work for other people" combats the pain and provides rays of comfort.  Honest, heartwarming and hopeful best describes "Reasons to Stay Alive." It's never tricky and never strikes the tone of a self-help book. It reads like an intimate conversation that is redeeming without being self-righteous or off-putting.  Rather, it's sobering. He confides an omnipresent crevice that one has to be leary, lest you fall. Haig is most helpful when noting tools he's called upon. Furthermore, he shares his joys and wonder with what he would've missed out on had he given into his desire, not to stop living per se but to end an overbearing anguish and withdraw from misery. Haig's description of his depression is enlightening.  "You don't feel fully inside yourself. You feel like you are controlling your body from somewhere else. It is like the distance between a writer and their fictional, semi-autobiographical narrator. The center that is you has gone. It is a feeling between the mind and the body, once again proving to the sufferer that to separate the two as crudely as we do is wrong, and simplistic. And, maybe even part of the problem." Haig reasons those in the throes of depression "clam up and don't speak about it, which is a shame, as speaking about it helps. Words spoken or written are what connects us to the world, and so speaking about to people, and writing about this stuff, helps connect us to each other, and to our true selves."  Here are a few sage pieces of advice he's listed. "Shower before noon. Be kind. Look at trees. If someone loves you, let them. Don't worry about the time you lose to despair. The time you will have afterward has just doubled its value. If the sun is shining and you can be outside, be outside."  My advice is to read Matt Haig novels and his memoir, "Reasons to Stay Alive". 

Poet Jesse Nathan Recites Poetry at 222 for a Fortunate Few

Jesse Nathan's poems have appeared in The Paris Review, the Yale Review and The Nation. He was named winner of the 2024 New Writers Award in Poetry. Nathan's a prof. of literature at UC Berkeley. Luckily for me, I heard him recite from his debut poetry collection, "Eggtooth" with an intimate few at The 222 on Saturday.  Saturday night in the town of Healdsburg had a lot going on, including a free concert by the Healdsburg Symphony in a tribute to the music of John Williams. I sneaked in late to hear the last few selections from the all brass and percussion orchestra conducted by Ken Collins. I was already jubilant from Nathan's poetry reading. Nathan shared his split childhood, having been born and raised in Berkeley and then moving at 11 with his parents and brother to rural Kansas.  His mother's Mennonite family has lived on farmlands in Kansas for several generations. The culture shock made Jesse a bit of an oddball outsider with his long hair and city garb. Thankfully, life was filled with unsupervised exploration with his brother and cousins as they roamed freely along the creeks and rural fields. The wide open spaces were a welcome if not daunting adjustment to his new life in farm country. Nathan's mother and her family are all Mennonite and his father Jewish. Nathan said, "This gave me another duality in addition to splitting my time between Berkeley and my family in Kansas" to grapple with which "made art out of not, not being able to create art." Nathan read with his rich, soothing voice, from his poems elaborating upon his immersion in nature and an affinity for the sparse array of trees. I found his lyrical poetry resplendent with wonder.  I've captured several phrases from the various poems that resonated with me which I have spliced together to create a whole from fractured fragments. 

As if a shadow had a shadow - Her breasts went flying and froth became her hair - To eat one's fortunes raw - Words pay not all, speak so I can see your arguing voices - light appears cuspid - His noiseless blooming, mouth open to the murk - Where sleep doesn't house sleep beyond the trees - The grass is hissing don't breath that sigh - Dinosaur bones got planted by God to amuse us - Always bit parts he asks, Always - there's an accuracy but no precision - Use me like an egg tooth, use me sustained to sing and fly - each message returned to the ether, our alcove of meanwhile.