BEST REVIEW CONTEST (Spring 2011)

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

This is thread where you can submit reviews for the Best Review contest. The thread opened for submissions and will close at Midnight EST on MAY 21, 2011. Voting will start the next day and run until the end of the day on MAY 31st. The person whose review gets the most votes will get to design a 20 point task for the SUMMER Challenge.

Just a reminder that each person can only submit one review - but you can make edits to your review up until the end. The review does not have to be any particular length and doesn't have to be a positive one (i.e. you can choose to review a book you didn't like).

PLEASE DO NOT comment on people's reviews in this thread - this is for submissions only - you will be able to comment when voting begins.

SPOILER ALERT!- These reviews may include spoilers.

[Nick]

Nick

Readername: NICKBOY

Review of Dark Places by Kate Grenville -- Four stars

For 300 Pages of "Dark Places" the reader takes a comic journey through the bourgeois grotesque of middle class 20th century Australia. It reminded me of the Southern American grotesques of Eudora Welty, misshapen characters with a comic flair, only transplanted to the land down under. The lead character, Albion Gidley Singer, is the epitome of corrupt patriarchy in a bourgeois society, and seems to be completely indifferent to it, even innocent -- a big, overblown beach ball of a man drifting (or lazily bouncing) through life.

But as the last pages turn dark, we see that Albion is anything but innocent. And, in reality, we've read that about him that all along. He gropes through one sexual escapade after another with seeming indifference, only rising to genuine feeling in the two episodes in which he relates to other men.

That should be telling enough for how he mistreats the women in his life. It's as if he falls into situations with them, a complete innocent, and then completely abandons any sense of morals for a devil-may-care attitude. Or maybe it's just a complacency -- "Now-I-have-to-get-through-this." At any rate, it's an attitude which turns bad, monstrously bad, in all cases.

I gave it four stars because it's not perfect. The author paints her story as a gothic portrayal of how a monstrous man turns monstrous while maintaining an unknowing innocence. But the comic nature of most of the book masks Albion Singer's horrible side and that, though wonderfully ambiguous, makes the storytelling a little uneven. But it's a story that definitely makes a reader think about how 20th century society could create, and even applaud, a monster such as Kate Grenville has created here.

[Sera]

by Emma Donaghue

4 stars


MAJOR SPOILERS THROUGHOUT




I really enjoyed this interesting tale about a boy who lives in a garden shed, AKA "Room", with his mother. The most amazing part of the story for me was the mother's creativity in raising a child in a small space to ensure his continued intellectual and physical development. I found the mother to be an incredible woman, and who can't love, Jack? His innocence and purity ring clear throughout, and what makes the book interesting, is that the entire story is told from his perspective. Unfortunately, for me, that also became a weakness of the book, because the reader is never able to get a full picture of what's going on with the other characters in the book. One example is when the mother tries to commit suicide after she and Jack escape from the Room. Why? I really wanted to know how she was feeling and what was going on inside her head. Sure, I was able to get some glimpses from side conversations and Jack's point of view, but I felt a bit let down in regard to this part of the storytelling.

Also, what's Nick's story? I have read much in this genre, and one facet that makes today's books in this area so compelling to read, is the insight that the authors give into what's going on in the psycho's head. I wanted to understand Nick a bit more, not only during the captivity part of the book but after he was caught and sent to jail, as well. The stand-off when Nick was arrested sounded like it was intense, but that's all we learn. I found it unfair to be teased in that manner.

Further, Jack's inability to fully understand and to see what's going on around him makes the characters who surround him seem a bit underdeveloped to me. I think that the author took a big risk in telling the story from a child's perspective, and in many ways, she succeeded, but in others, she failed. I would have really loved this book if there was more thought put into the storytelling about the people who were around Jack.

All in all, I'm very happy that I read this book. It was gripping at times, unique and proceeded at a nice pace. I just thought that it fell short in some areas, which is why I can't put it in the same category as Fragile, The Last Child, or Still Missing, among others.

[Joanna]

Readerboard Name: Joanna T

Review of Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos



First, a confession. I actually listened to this overlong book in unabridged audio format. All twenty hours of it. The reader, Tavia Gilbert, did an excellent job and even managed to sing and recite passages in Welsh without seeming the least bit hesitant.

As much a character as a setting, the town of Emlyn Springs, Nebraska plays a leading role. The story dips into the lives of the three Jones siblings. Everyone in town knows their story: their father was the town doctor; their mother, suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS), is mysteriously carried away by a tornado. The same tornado carries away the youngest sibling as well, but she miraculously survives and is found on top of a tree. Years later, their father is struck by lightening and instantly killed. Thus, the adult siblings have to come together to arrange funeral rites (including a lovely description of Welsh traditions) and take care of his mistress/new wife/their stepmother.

Despite all the quirky characters, the book never really worked for me. The author tried to have a magical realism aspect where the "dead mothers" and "dead fathers" of the small town were given voice. Those passages never felt complete or integrated with the rest of the book. What could have been a wacky take on the afterlife where a community of town elders continues to think about and occasionally even intervene in local affairs was instead just strange interludes that never fit into the rest of the story. Cutting these passages would have tightened the plot and grounded the book in the family story.

Meanwhile, the three main characters -- the now-adult children -- were interesting, but somehow also flat. First, there was overweight, unloved Larkin - now an art history professor passed over for the chairmanship of the department. She sees auras or colors or something about the feelings of others. This aspect of her character was never developed, so I can't tell you much more about it. Then, there was Gaelan, a TV weatherman who has lots of tawdry and brief affairs. Finally, Bonnie, the somewhat crazy "baby" of the family. Bonnie obsessively collected trash and bits of "history" from the side of the road, perhaps to try to construct what really happened to their mother, but maybe just because she's crazy.

Sadly, I never cared what happened to these siblings and by the end of the book, found their quirks more irritating than endearing. The book then tried to end with one of those "Where Are They Now" Epilogues where everything works out in the end. Ugh.

The best parts of the book were the musings on small town life and what it means to come from a tiny town in the middle of Nebraska. The book also had some nice passages from the diary of the disappeared mother and her story came through in dribs and drabs to artfully fill in the history. But these good moments weren't enough to carry a 500+ page book (16 CDs/20 hours on audio). This one can easily be missed.

[Riona]

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

4 stars


Genly Ai, Terran Envoy, is on a mission to the isolated planet of Gethen in hopes of forming an alliance for trade and diplomatic relations. But Gethen is unlike any other planet in the solar system - not only is the climate harsh and unforgiving (previous explorers nicknamed it "Winter"), the people of Gethen are different too - rather than having males and females, there is only one sex with the potential for both. The genderlessness of society is more powerful than you would imagine, and Mr. Ai must overcome his culture shock and learn to understand the Gethenians before he can fulfill his mission.

This is a bit of a tough read. Le Guin writes clearly and beautifully, but the vast differences between our society and Gethen are mindblowing. She has thought of everything in creating this world - language, culture, naming conventions, table manners, the calendar system - and manages to incorporate them into the story to make it seem so real, as if this were actually field notes from an interstellar diplomat rather than fiction. However, it is a double-edged sword, because there is a lot of information to keep track of and all those cultural tidbits and customs inform the story. To add to the confusion, the perspective alternates between characters, and the chapters are also interspersed with Gethenian legends and historical notes.

It pays off though, and The Left Hand of Darkness is worth a read. It is a fascinating speculation of a genderless society and will definitely make you think. Not only is it a classic piece of science fiction, it should also be required reading for anyone interested in women's or gender studies.