I really, really, really wanted to love this book. Because I love Elizabeth Strout - I mean did you read Olive Kitteridge? I ended up picking up all o...moreI really, really, really wanted to love this book. Because I love Elizabeth Strout - I mean did you read Olive Kitteridge? I ended up picking up all of her other books and really loving those.
This one is just off a little - I don't know, maybe the characters (or the main ones) are so off-putting, so unlikeable that I found it hard to cheer for any of them. The two brothers, and their (ex)spouses were my least favorites - I found it hard to care about their "inner demons" and the mystery behind their father's death.
What saved the book for me is Strout's depiction of all the secondary characters: Zach, the pig-head-thrower, Abdikarim, one of the Somali newcomers, and Mrs. Drinkwater, Susan's elderly boarder especially. I wish there were more from these characters.(less)
Still a good read, but didn't wow me as previous Homes' books have (Music for Torching, anyone??). The ending was disappointing and expected. Parts of...moreStill a good read, but didn't wow me as previous Homes' books have (Music for Torching, anyone??). The ending was disappointing and expected. Parts of it though are just as amazing and bizarrely hilarious and disturbing as Homes' best books.(less)
A truly astounding book for how well David Wroblewski portrays the non-human characters (the Sawtelle dogs), making them fully real and often more com...moreA truly astounding book for how well David Wroblewski portrays the non-human characters (the Sawtelle dogs), making them fully real and often more compelling than his human characters. How he breaks down grief and its power to wound and fracture a family are also incredibly moving. The human characters, the son Edgar, mother Trudy, father Gar and uncle Claude, are interesting and engaging in their own right, though I wanted to shake Trudy for much of the book - wake up, woman! - but none of them hold a candle to the thoughtfulness and imagination that go into Almondine, Essay and the other Sawtelle dogs.
Here is Almondine on the death of Gar, the father:
"And so she searched. She'd watched his casket lowered into the ground, a box, man-made, no more like him that the trees that swayed under the winter wind. To assign him an identity outside the world was not in her thinking. The fence line where he walked and the bed where he slept--that was where he lived, and they remembered him."
An imperfect book - the ending is maddening - but a beautiful one that I will think about (for its thoughts on companionship, love, family and self-reliance) for a long while.(less)
I'll admit it, I had a hard time getting into this book at first. It's such an odd voice and format - more fable than story - but this works in the en...moreI'll admit it, I had a hard time getting into this book at first. It's such an odd voice and format - more fable than story - but this works in the end and contributes to the greater power of this novel, which itself is an exploration of the power of words to create and destroy.
Told mostly through the point of view of Lena/Natalya/Lena, a young girl whose village attempts to block out the horrors of World War II by denying the outside world, the novel overlays this new world created by the villagers' shared desire for a "safe" world on the unspeakable destruction happening in the "old" world. Of course, the villagers, especially Lena, quickly realize that pain and loss are unavoidable, even in their new life.
Here's Lena trying to go back to her "old" parents after she's been given to her childless aunt and uncle in the "new" world:
"But when I turned it, my hand only slipped. The door was locked. I repeated it to myself in disbelief. "The door is locked." Had one of my parents always slid that latch, keeping me and the others safe inside? Now I was one of the people being kept out. I put my ear against the wood but I could not hear my family inside. I did not knock. I had wanted to appear there, to slip back in unnoticed. Not to be asked inside like a guest. I lay down on the stoop and listened to the breeze flip a dead leaf over and over across the ground. It was a treeless leaf, an orphan, caught on an instant breeze. Something invisible carried it. I kissed the brass doorknob on the big blue door, and I stood up to go."(less)
Better than Wolf Hall, this second in a planned trilogy based on Thomas Cromwell and his place in and influence over Henry VIII's court is un-put-down...moreBetter than Wolf Hall, this second in a planned trilogy based on Thomas Cromwell and his place in and influence over Henry VIII's court is un-put-down-able, once you get about 50 pages in. I was a terrible history student, incapable of remembering most dates and facts, but Mantel gets you so deep into the story of Henry and his calculating and doomed, new wife Anne Boleyn, that you forget to be bored or confused by the many, many characters and their complicated stories. Cromwell as narrator offers a fascinating viewpoint into all the madness of court, as the ultimate outsider made insider. I can't wait for the third volume - I might just have to pull a "Harry Potter" and reread the first two before it comes out.(less)
At times mind-numbingly crazed and frantic, other times spare and moving, Ben Fountain's new book drops you into the bizarre world of Specialist Billy...moreAt times mind-numbingly crazed and frantic, other times spare and moving, Ben Fountain's new book drops you into the bizarre world of Specialist Billy Lynn as he moves through the last day of his squad's "Victory Tour" of the US following a fortuitously televised and much-lauded battle against insurgents in Iraq.
I found the manic nature of the narrative to be almost overwhelming, but I think that's the point in Fountain's critique of our lemming society, where barely grown, mostly poor men are sacrificed at the altar of American freedom and greed. Who else is writing like this about the war? Read it. (less)
I've never gotten the New York City obsession. Hey, I live here now and it's great a lot of the times, but it sucks a whole lot of other times. What's...moreI've never gotten the New York City obsession. Hey, I live here now and it's great a lot of the times, but it sucks a whole lot of other times. What's amazing about Colson Whitehead's new book, Zone One, is that he gets the obsession (hell, his main character is that wanna-be New Yorker even as he fight zombies and post-apocalyptic depression) and is able to parse out what makes this city so beguiling and so soul-destroying in the same breath. It's a joy to read someone so thoroughly unpack that striving, I-can-make-it-here-even-if-I-have-to-gut-everyone-else-in-this-place attitude that is so New York.
It's also a story about zombies, one guy called Mark Spitz (a well-earned nickname) fighting the good zombie-destroying fight, and the other survivors trying their best to make it through another day in this sad sack of a world. It's not clear how the infection starts (unlike Resident Evil and almost every other zombie narrative out there, there isn't a evil corporation or government entity specifically to blame for this mess) but it's easy to blame the shadowy government scientists at Headquarters, here hilariously located in Buffalo NY. And the optimistically renamed settlements that the survivors have managed to eke out of a zombie overrun world are just so spot-on: Happy Acres, Bubbling Brooks, Victory's Sword.
There's gore and swarming zombies and great imaginative details about how you would go about trying to reconstruct civilization from all this mayhem. What binds people together and keeps them throwing each other off roofs to save themselves.
It's a fantastic book, one that keeps you enthralled, page after page. And for all you through-and-through New Yorkers out there, it is a haunting homage to your city. Because: "It wasn't anyplace else. It was New York City."(less)
I don't want to say too much because part of the pleasure of this book (and it is a pleasure though the premise - the story opens with a little boy wh...moreI don't want to say too much because part of the pleasure of this book (and it is a pleasure though the premise - the story opens with a little boy who doesn't know he and his young mother have been held captive for years by a kidnapper - is horrifying) is letting Donoghue's amazing voice carry you. The ingenuity of Donoghue's mother - the games, world and life she invents for her son - is staggering. I couldn't put it down. Another very good read.(less)
Little gem of a book. Beautifully written and "un-put-down-able." I actually teared up on the subway, that's how affecting the story is. I read a libr...moreLittle gem of a book. Beautifully written and "un-put-down-able." I actually teared up on the subway, that's how affecting the story is. I read a library copy, so I need to get my own copy so I can dissect how she does it.(less)
A challenging, but worthwhile read that offers some insight into what it means to be a young Filipino intellectual, struggling against his country's,...moreA challenging, but worthwhile read that offers some insight into what it means to be a young Filipino intellectual, struggling against his country's, and his own, fraught past and its, and his, attempts to break from this legacy of colonization, patronage, deception and youthful optimism. A good read for those of us Filipino-Americans who have mostly broken with our heritage in order to embrace becoming "American" - especially eye-opening in Syjuco's depiction of life in the Philippines today, and the People-Power one minute, throwing-punches-in-Congress the next minute world of politics.
Again, I'm not sure it all comes together (that seems to be a common refrain for me these days) and the Epilogue, though a twist, is perhaps a little to twist-y to make me happy at the end. Syjuco cuts between first person narrative, excepts from a character's body of writing, interviews, third person narrative, etc, which, for me, creates too disjointed a narrative to fully appreciate. Perhaps that's part of the method to his madness, so to speak, but to me, it just became less and less fun to read.
One thing, and this is a big one, that I can credit Syjuco with, is making me want to learn more about Filipino, and Filipino-American, history.(less)
Borrowed from the library and liked it so much, I'm adding it to my wishlist. Hilarious and spot-on about its portrayal of marriage and parenting, and...moreBorrowed from the library and liked it so much, I'm adding it to my wishlist. Hilarious and spot-on about its portrayal of marriage and parenting, and so convincingly voiced. One of the few books I've read with an autistic character that seemed "right." A pleasure to read.(less)
Dinh offers a smorgasbord of information about pre- and post-war Vietnam in his debut novel, with parts of the book reading almost like a travel guide...moreDinh offers a smorgasbord of information about pre- and post-war Vietnam in his debut novel, with parts of the book reading almost like a travel guide or history book. I liked that about it, since I'm pretty sure I've never read anything about Vietnam, but these big chunks of exposition may be off-putting to other readers. Love Like Hate reminds me of those popular late '90s British movies about drug dealers and hitmen - it's a little wild and out of control but it's also got great energy and hilarious lines, especially when Dinh's commenting on the Vietnamese fixation with emulating the "great" cultures of the world (France and the USA, namely). It's hard to remember that third-worlders once looked up to the now falling and failing US, but I could see a lot of my family members thinking and wishing for the things that these characters do.(less)
A deeply disturbing portrait of how marriage changes, and doesn't change, us. How we're never really the people we think we are. How fractured and inc...moreA deeply disturbing portrait of how marriage changes, and doesn't change, us. How we're never really the people we think we are. How fractured and incomplete other people's perceptions of us are. How we fundamentally fumble to self-knowledge, and how brutal and shocking and painful that fumbling is.
The story itself, with its "story within a story" framework and "did he or didn't he?" ending, are ultimately less interesting than how Ross picks apart these characters' lives and (unconscious) motivations, their most intimate interactions with the people they love and desire. It's eye-opening how much of myself I saw in these characters, especially in their worst moments.
Here's Dr. Sam Sheppard on the colleague with whom he's having an affair: "After months he'd still never seen her completely naked and secretly didn't want to. Half-exposed, she was more beautiful; like the armless Venus de Milo or the headless Winged Victory of Samothrace, it was what was missing that conferred on her a kind of perfection."
Mr. Peanut isn't a perfect novel, but the jolts and canny observations that Ross delivers more than make up for it.(less)
Kwok really excels at capturing this young Chinese girl's attempt to adjust to American life, after moving to the slums of Brooklyn from Hong Kong wit...moreKwok really excels at capturing this young Chinese girl's attempt to adjust to American life, after moving to the slums of Brooklyn from Hong Kong with her mother to forge a better life for the two.
Through Kimberly Chang's misheard English, her struggle to recapture the academic excellence she'd enjoyed in Hong Kong here in New York, and her ensuing parallel lives (as an successful scholarship student at a prestigious prep school and a dutiful daughter helping her mother eke out a livelihood from working piecemeal at a sweatshop), Kwok mines the contrariness of a immigrant child's experience: to be parent and child, to be insider and outsider, to follow tradition and forge a new path.
The book doesn't quite live up to the promise of its great first-half, becoming, to me, too much summary and too much romance. I loved seeing (and especially hearing) Kimberly on her own, facing the world, to see the novel depend so much on the men she did and didn't love. (less)
A joy to read, not only for its multiple references to rain (so welcome in hot and humid NYC, where I read this) but for the charming and lovable char...moreA joy to read, not only for its multiple references to rain (so welcome in hot and humid NYC, where I read this) but for the charming and lovable characters of retired Major Pettigrew and his shopkeeper-turned-possible-love-interest, Mrs. Ali. A great portrait of December love, set amidst English village high jinks, disapproving family and friends, and two flashy Americans. Reminiscent of Austen, which is always a good thing in my book.(less)
I think I read this in a day and a half. Tinti really knows how to construct an amazingly rich and vibrant world, and it was a pleasure to lose myself...moreI think I read this in a day and a half. Tinti really knows how to construct an amazingly rich and vibrant world, and it was a pleasure to lose myself in The Good Thief. This was a library copy, so I don't have great specifics (my brain is mostly mush) but I loved the character of Ren (aka "the good thief"), an orphan boy who's adopted by a charming con-man and adventurer. It's a wild ride.(less)
I really wanted to like this book. I am a huge fan of the Time Traveler's Wife, even if it's unpopular to say that now, but this one is just too worke...moreI really wanted to like this book. I am a huge fan of the Time Traveler's Wife, even if it's unpopular to say that now, but this one is just too worked, too twee, too self-consciously weird and spooky and all secret-y. You can see the final build-up of the book from a mile away and it's not particularly shocking or revolutionary - about what I expected once a certain ghost became a major character in the book. Disappointing.(less)
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