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.