Tana French's THE KEEPER-Murder Mystery Amidst Small Irish Community

Tana French's new novel, "The Keeper" is the third and final book in her Cal Hooper mystery trilogy. Not having read the previous two, I don't think it's something you need to do. But, reading or listening (as I did) to her unhurried storytelling of a small rural town in the Irish countryside is highly recommended. The town that hasn't changed much in generations.  Everyone's family lore is intertwine in the fabric of its hardworking farmers and small business owners.  Cal is the only outsider to ingratiate himself into the long established ties and tribulations of its townsfolk.  Having been born and raised in Chicago, Cal became one of Chicago's finest; a cop turned detective working the arduous and complicated beats of the Windy City. Having retired, the idea of moving to Ireland, the country of his forefathers with its expansive green countryside's appeal to Cal for the simpler, less demanding lifestyle it offers.  Cal was correct in  assuming Ireland would provide the fresh air and solitude not afforded him in the states. What Cal didn't foresee was the deep attachment he would feel for many of the locals. Nor did he expect to find himself immersed in unraveling the events surrounding an apparent suicide of Rachel, a local young woman. Rachel's fiancee is the son of the town's unofficial magistrate and has the local authorities at his beck and call. French is a gifted writer, known for creating mysteries. I find her craft most captivating with her vivid characterizations and natural descriptions of the majestic oftentimes dank surroundings and cozy, fire lit homesteads. Cal is engaged to the level headed Lena, a lifelong resident, longtime widow. Both Lena and Cal prefer to keep to themselves but this proves impossible in a town where everyone is related to someone else in some way or other.  Lena is the last person to have seen Rachel, Eugene's beautiful girlfriend before her body is found in the local river.  Listening to the languid story unfold, told in thick Irish accents along side Cal's clear American intonation made the investigative journey especially enjoyable and engaging. The local pub and general store are the watering holes and meeting places where everyone knows your name, your family, your business and and your connections to everyone else. The varied colors and charms of the town's locals will warm your heart and the nefarious wrangling of the town's wealthy bully will keep you captive and looking to Cal to outwit the villain. Cal has rightfully found himself in a community where friendship holds value and loyalty has meaning.  THE KEEPER is an assured pleasure; an intriguing mystery mired within the well intentioned keepings of its Irish kinfolk.  Enhance your reading pleasure with a pot of tea, a scone with jam by the warmth of a fire.  

David Sedaris' THE BEST oF ME-Might be His Best Collection Yet

Writer, raconteur and rakish vivant, David Sedaris, possesses a never ending gift for gab. His recent collection of fiction and memoir in "The Best of Me" culled from his proliferate body of work maybe his most blistering, bodacious and introspective yet. These compiled sporadic stories seem at first to be at odds with one another till you find they all share profundities and a sense for the bizarre.  Sedaris' self-irony is rampant throughout his reflections and self-perception. In the somewhat grotesque story "Leviathan" Sedaris went in search of an ideal gift and heads to a taxidermist. The taxidermist identifies in seders a kinship for a macabre fascination and shares some body parts stored. At home, Sedaris goes on line to devour more torrid findings. "It's a kind of pornography, and after sitting for 20 minutes, watching one poor animal after another being eviscerated, I erase my internet user history, not wanting to be identified as the person who would find this sort of thing entertaining-yet clearly being that person." There's an ongoing obsession with other people's perception of him and his family. The family may consider themselves declasse' but that's not for anyone outside the family to say.  Sedaris' piquant curiosity and perpetual need to be perceived as worthy are delightfully funny and incredibly relatable. In "Standing By" Sedaris' observations on the trials and tribulations of traveling amongst the masses speaks to acting like asses in transit. "We're forever blaming the airline industry for turning us into monsters: it's the fault of the ticket agents, the baggage handlers, the slowpokes at the newsstands...But what if this is who we truly are, and the airport's just a forum that allows us to be our real selves, not just hateful but gloriously so? Sedaris has hubris but also a lot of humor, candor and self-deprecation that make his work a cause for celebration. This collection was picked by the author himself. I can't but feel the stories are among his most heart-wrenching and disturbing.  He writes about his mother's alcoholism which the family contended and defended. He writes of the fallout from their youngest sister's suicide. Despite the family's problems and squabbles, there's an enduring love that is enviable.  In the story "Now We Are Five" he  reflects on the painful loss of his sister and the family's dynamic as a whole. "Though I've often lost faith in myself, I've never lost faith in my family, in my certainty that we are fundamentally better than everyone else. It's an archaic belief, one I haven't seriously reconsidered since my late teens, but still I hold it. Ours is the only club I'd ever wanted to be a member."  The tender humor, keen writing style and perpetually surprising material, "The Best of Me" will be a favorite read for fans and new ones alike.    

Emma Staub's AMERICAN FANTASY-Is a Fiasco from the Get Go

Emma Staub is an American author in her mid 40s who is touted as a voice for middle aged women. In her latest novel, AMERICAN FANTASY has garnered a lot of good buzz as being a beacon for older women's fantastical fantasies of rejuvenation on a mini-vacation featuring the heartthrob rock band of their youths.  This benign if not jovial premise quickly sinks off-shore.  Annie agreed to go with her younger sister on this short cruise following her recent divorce as an opportunity to recharge.  The cruise features the favorite rock group from their youth and the chance for their fans known as "The Talkers" to co-mingle with the band members who are also in their 40s and 50s.  "Human connection-the hole weekend was supposed to provide. It was to give the middle-aged women the vacation they always dreamed of, with the boys they'd always dreamed of." Sadly, Annie's sister broke her leg leaving Annie adrift; to sail solo.  Not a huge fan of either the rock group Boy Talk or cruises, Annie is game anyway for a getaway that's already  paid for. Annie's roommate, Maira is an old pro on board. Knowing all the ropes, Maira steers Annie affably around the ship. The story's setup seemed benign if not lighthearted. But, truth be told, the 50 somethings with extra skin folds and flabby limbs, dressed in prom outfits or peignoirs for pajama party night were pathetic. Annie, along with the other women on board were seeking a break from their bored, mundane lives and and an escape back to a time in their prime.  So too are the aging boy band members whose heyday has passed and are looking for more pay days using their glory days.  The combustible combination of tensions amidst the bandmates and calculating competition among the women to grab the attention of the bandmates becomes grating. Annie's unassuming demeanor wins her notice from Keith in the band who is struggling with his brother also in the band  Keith was dealing with strains in his marriage and finding meaning in his life. Annie/Keith's happenstance heart-to-heart and lingering farewell kiss on are enough to make everyone on board seasick. Sarah, the managing director on board has numerous knots to secure and plenty of problems to unravel to keep things running smoothly. However none of these tales of behind the scenes or aging in a youth conscious society sustain wind.  Instead, everyone and everything feels shallow. The intended depth falls fathoms short of any profundity. And, its anchoring message didn't proffer an insight of any heft.  "Annie didn't know what was going to come next, and neither did The Talkers, for all their theories and message boards.  There were no guarantees in life. Annie knew that now.  She hadn't when she was younger."  The cruise was mired in a morass of whining and yearning for years since passed.  Don't bother signing up for this tedious journey that is neither titillating, entertaining or clever.  You'll just be stuck in the doldrums.     

Christina Applegates Reads Her AutoBio which was Arduous Listening

There is nothing fun, funny or for that matter, enjoyable from listening to Christina Applegate read her own unflinching account of abuse and self-loathing.  Granted, Applegate's own redemptive purging is purported for sharing and belaboring years of sexual abuse starting at age 5, through her controlling and brutal boyfriend and her painful struggles with multiple sclerosis (MS).  Christina was diagnosed with MS in 2021 while working on the third season of "Dead to Me".   Ironically, working on "Dead to Me" was the happiest and most rewarding work experience of Applegate's five decade acting career.  "You with the Sad Eyes" is the understatement title of Applegate's just released autobiography.  A subtitle should read: You who dares read this will be devastated to learn all of the suffering the pert blonde who become a household name as the bumptious teen Kelly Bundy on the groundbreaking show "Married with Children."  The unquantifiable love Christina has for he daughter Sadie and the single mom who raised her are boundless.  The love she has for her current husband, father of Sadie, doesn't garner the gushing or final acknowledgements paid Sadie - but hey, "you're doing it" you're way Christina.  And, you took the blows and still you did it your way and shared in ways that are not only disturbing and upsetting, it's TMI. And, too much intended for whose benefit?  I finished listening (although I bore it out over two weeks) out of a sense of respect once I commenced to listened.  Congrats Christina on the longevity of your career which have earned you an Emmy and additional Emmy, Golden Globes and Tony nominations.  I'm sorry for your MS diagnosis and the ravages to your physique.  I'm especially sad for the loss of your ability to love life through dance.  I sense you've unburdened a heavy heart.  But, your troubled life  story is not one I recommend for gaining life lessons.  It serves to lessen one's sense of a life having been well-lived but sadly. merely survived.

The WITCH On Shortlist for Booker Is Embedded with Magic but Enigmatic all Told

French author Marie Ndiaye's bewitching but ultimately befuddling novel, "The Witch" was on this year's shortlist for the Int'l Booker Prize.  All the women in our heroine Lucie's family tree inherit the gene for witchery.  The gift was inherited by Lucie from her mother whose power outshone Lucie's but whose powers fell short of her granddaughters; Lucie's pre-teen, twin girls.  The telltale sign for when magic has been utilized is the blood tinged, telltale tears that befall after its use.  For Lucie, this power was limited  to an ability to see the past/future or present of an individual she chooses to focus on; a talent to be coveted by covens to be sure.  However, the tween-twins' prowess is potent.  It manifest in flight quite literally.  The girls use their powers to transform into crows and fly far from home, bonding their doting  mother's nest. This follows soon after Lucie's husband flees the family abode with a sizable inheritance that was owed to Lucie.  Lucie uses her tracking skill to find the feckless fiend who found himself a new wife and family.  The men in this bewitching novel are all shady, lazy or secondary at best.  Ndiaye's writing is beguiling, depicting characters with warts and all and her descriptive prose sets the scenes for  the frenetic pace of Paris and for doldrums outside Paris in torpid small towns.  Magic is manifested as an  aside to the ambiguous plot.  There are no predictable paths and the plot meanders with a melancholy atmosphere with dreamlike frustrations.  Lucie's nosey, domineering neighbor is a side character that plays a major unexpected role in her life.  "The Witch" is for readers looking for something out of the ordinary even though the story itself is less than extraordinary.  I was whisked away in a nebulous cloud while looking for meaning in this surrealistic novel that I found unique and utterly mystifying. 

THINGS in NATURE MERELY GROW-Pulitzer Prize Memoir Gardening Sorrow

Yiyun Li's moving autobiography, "Things in Nature Merely Grow" deservedly received this year's Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.  Do not envy Li of her honor wherein she unfurls the unimaginable pain of both her teenage sons' suicides.  For those who've read Joan Didion's haunting memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking" and found it unforgettable as did I, Li's lyrical prose will resonate with you.  For those who've read Joyce Carol Oates' "A Widow's Story" and were put off by the "TMI"and cool depiction of her husband's corpse as did I, Li's sensitive and thoughtful reflections will have substance.  Both her sons lives, their personae, her life before their untimely deaths and the forever forward life without them is bared.  Li's candor and sensitive relinquishing of her grief are borne bearable and made compelling in her layered telling of her own battle with depression and earlier suicide attempt.  Amid the years the brothers shared and the years when younger brother James lived on without the friendship of his beloved older brother Vincent.  The mundane quotidian of life's essential requirements and Li's chosen distractions: piano practice or lap swimming to mitigate her consuming unease provided her sustenance and succor.  There is snide humor in the cynicism Li finds in platitudes and fatuous fortitudes offered by intended,  benevolent well-wishers.  The unusual and poetic title "Things in Nature Merely Grow" is itself fodder for curiosity and understanding.  "...weeding, weeding, weeding and then one day giving up because weeds are part of nature, too, and things in nature merely grow."  The juxtaposition of merely grow - the burden to comprehend one's loved one's will no longer grow older, experience more or surpass the abyss of misery bears gravitas. "Things in nature merely grow.  There is no suicdeal or angry rose, there is no depressed or rebellious lily.  Plants have but one goal: to live, in order to live they grow when they can."  Li's sobering and contemplative book took me outside my self-contained orbit.  "Sometimes a mother and a child are like two hands placed next to each other: only just touching or else with fingers intertwined.  Then the world turns, and one hand is left, holding on to everything and nothing that is called now and now and now and now."  Li does not sugarcoat or succumb to her moroseness. "Death, particularly suicide, cannot be softened or sugarcoated."   "I don't want an end point to my sorrow.  Thinking about my children is like air, like time.  Thinking about them will end when I reach the end of my life,"  I will carry Miyun's "Things in Nature..." in my psyche for as long as I am sentient.  "No matter how long we get to parent our children, there are only limited numbers of 'I love you' we can say to them.  That too is a fact."  

YESTERYEAR-Prescient Novel with Lots to Say About Today and the Tradwife Way

Caro Claire Burke's debut book, YESTERYEAR is an incredible work of fiction with the depiction of life in the early 19th C as currently interpreted in the 21st C as it's perceived by "tradwives".  Tradwife is the term used to describe today's married women who live under the guise of of a roles wherein women are subservient to men and household roles are clearly designated and subjugated.   Women are to assume   all household and child raising duties.  The view I see of tradwives is skewed to extol only virtues of domesticity and simplicity in lifestyle.  In other words, back to basic cooking/baking by scratch, gardening, homeschooling and home births eschewing medical attention or intervention.  Why this way of life has taken an upsurge in public interest and submission by numerous women to this antiquated, outdated, zealot ideation is worth questioning.  The fanaticism in which our hero Natalie succumbs to romanticized notions of living off the land with a "cowboy" husband makes for a page turning novel with surprising tangents.  We get to understand our heroine Natalie as a young woman in her freshman year at college.  Natalie lived a very sheltered, "religious" upbringing with her single mother and younger sister.  The rather naive Natalie is put off by the drinking and sexual escapades of her roommate and peers.  The classmates at her school are equally put off by Natalie's squeamish behavior. "Amish" style clothing and unshorn hair.  A social pariah, Natalie meets Caleb her sophomore year attending a Quaker like sect of students and the two are smitten with their mutual infatuation.  Both Natalie and Caleb are unbearably vacuous and desirous of admiration.  Burke parodies the abounding absurdities within our self-absorbed society's quest for fame via the internet, fortune derived from being an influencer and the ultimate drive for notoriety; running for top political office. YESTERYEAR's incisive writing brilliantly bends the genres of satire, sci-fi and psychological warfare, creating a cunning world which drives the story full-throttle ahead in search of what's in store.  To read YESTERYEAR again would likely yield additional lambasting of our litigious society, religious fanaticism, feminism and more.  Three cheers for YESTERYEAR which may be the best novel of the year so far and soon to be made into a movie starring Anne Hathaway from Amazon MGM Studios.