What I Am Reading
Book tours involve long car and plane trips and waits in airports, sometimes on runways, and odd hours in hotel rooms before and after events. These times I savor because I get to read. These are some of the books I've enjoyed recently:
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, a well-wrought novel from the point of view of Hadley Hemingway. The author gets to the quick of that marriage. I found this book, especially the end, very moving.
Every Day by the Sun by Dean Faulkner Wells, a memoir by the niece of William Faulkner. I also found this book touching. I never knew "Bill" was such an intense and loving family man (despite his affairs) or that he was so playful. While Hemingway and Fitzgerald and other majors invented their writing abroad and swam in the glamour of Paris, Faulkner stayed on his own plot and lived through all the layers of that earth. The author tells about the family, their loves and foibles, and does so in an individual voice. I'd like to sit down with a bourbon (if I drank bourbon) with Dean.
Sex and Stravinsky by Barbara Trapido. I love all her novels, especially the coming-of-age Frankie and Stankie. A South African now living in England, she's not well known here but should be.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson. Brilliant structure to this novel of a woman's life beginning at the instant of conception. The family flashbacks seem to explain the character's DNA. The level of imagistic detail is extraordinary and reminded me of a totally different writer, Charles Frazier in Cold Mountain. Atkinson's Ruby is a memorable character and her whole family background delivers her to the page.
Paris, Paris by David Downie. He knows Paris like the palm of his hand. And he offers walking tours: www.parisparistours.com David Downie is a wonderful travel companion.
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. This is a story of friendship and discovery. Two nineteenth-century women discover fossils on the English coast and set off religious controversies, since the skeletons point toward evolution rather than one burst of creation. The fossils are remarkable and so are the women. From their perion, they're waving "hello, Darwin." There's another novel on one of the women, Mary Anning, called Curiosity by Joan Thomas. I'm going to read it this summer.
Fay by Larry Brown. Brown's characters are from the nitty-gritty South and can't win for losing. They do all the bad things and make bad choices. They're riveting and the writing burns with energy.
The Thee Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine. If you know Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, these three sisters and their mother resonate on the page even more. There's a pleasing all's-well-that-ends-well conclusion. I read it right after The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier. Both are about women changing their lives and both books are smart and solidly entertaining.
The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano. This is a sophisticated debut by a very young Italian particle physicist. The characters are rather remote but the subject–how people do or do not mesh–rings many bells.
Enough! I read several forgettable others–grabbed in the airport–and am grateful to all for filling hours of solitude with vivid lives and memories.
