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• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Haven Kimmel

Description: This book is Kimmel's attempt at the standard coming-of-age-in-a-dysfunctional-family trope,This book is Kimmel's attempt at the standard coming-of-age-in-a-dysfunctional-family trope, but even here she twists it almost unrecognizably. It begins fairly typically but strays further & further from the mold as it goes along. Like The Solace of Leaving Early, which I admired, this book is set in rural central Indiana, but whereas that one focused on an intellectual elite, this one is about more stereotypical rural Hoosiers who live apparently meaningless lives in a trailer. (But, of course, Kimmel again gives this a twist as we gradually learn that the main character's--a teenaged pool shark--mother writes poetry & her sister studies classical mythology. I didn't connect with this one as much as her other one....

2006-08-23

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Louise Erdrich

Description: Erdrich tells 3 related stories related to the discovery of an Ojibwe ritual drum in the NewErdrich tells 3 related stories related to the discovery of an Ojibwe ritual drum in the New England estate of a descendant of an Indian agent & its repratriation to the reservation where it was, before its sale, and becomes, after its return, intimately involved in the lives of the extended families that Erdrich has focused on in several of her novels going back to Love Medicine. Erdrich is, as always, a master storyteller but, as in several others in the set of novels, some stories within the novel are more engaging than others....

2006-07-09

  & 3 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Geraldine Brooks

Description: The author imagines the year in the life of Mr. March, father of Louisa May Alcott's LittleThe author imagines the year in the life of Mr. March, father of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, while he was a chaplain during the first year of the Civil War. Written effectively in the style of the period, narrated mostly by Mr. March, with a couple of chapters by the strong-willed Mrs. March, it illuminates the devastating effects of the war, the partially ameliorating impact of strong family relationships--and the way those relationships are tested. A fine, affecting book....

2006-07-09

  & 4 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Nick Hornby

Description: It's the story told in the alternating voices of four characters who meet on top of a It's the story told in the alternating voices of four characters who meet on top of a London building on New Years Eve where they all come to commit suicide. They agree to come down & to meet there 90 days later to see how they're doing. In the meantime, they get together frequently & form a perverse sort of mutually supportive community. There's no particularly redemptive moment or process, and all of the characters are deeply flawed (except maybe Maureen, whose circumstances are deeply depressing), but somehow this engaging book is more life-affirming (a term that actually appears near the end) than many a contemporary novel. Still, I didn't find it as provocative as Hornby's previous book, How To Be Good....

2006-06-04

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Thomas Keneally

Description: Like Keneally's earlier book, Schindler's List, this is another account of a heroicLike Keneally's earlier book, Schindler's List, this is another account of a heroic but flawed character (an Australian priest during WWII) who faces a series of difficult moral choices, with strong support from his faith but lack of support from the church. It reminded me strongly of Graham Greene's best novels....

2006-05-19

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: David Maine

Description: A delightful retelling of the biblical story of Noah & the Flood. Unlike, say, The RedA delightful retelling of the biblical story of Noah & the Flood. Unlike, say, The Red Tent, which appears to stick pretty close to the biblical account but makes subtle (& not so subtle) changes to impose a New Age, feminist, spirituality on the biblical story, this one goes off in some wildly imaginative ways--fleshing out the characters of Noah's daughters-in-law, for example--but somehow seems to me to be more faithful to the primary themes of the original text. It's also pretty funny....

2006-05-19

  & 7 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Description: An amazing love story set in a unique, brilliantly structured framework. Usually, stories ofAn amazing love story set in a unique, brilliantly structured framework. Usually, stories of time travel begin at a fixed point in the present, make a trip to the past or the future, where the main plot development takes place, then return to the present to wrap up the story. There's no such fixed point in this book. The narration alternates between the time traveler (Henry) & his wife (Clare), with the development very roughly following her through real chronological time. In the first third of the book, Henry comes from their shared, married future to visit Clare from the time she's 6 until she's 18. I was so confused by the concept & development in this section that I nearly gave up. Happily I didn't, though. When they meet in real time, it gets easier to grasp as the complexity of the relationship becomes clearer. Up until that time, Henry bears a knowledge of their shared future of which Clare is wholly ignorant & of which he is not willing to share much. After they meet, the situation is sort of reversed; Clare carries a memory of Henry's many visits to her over 12 years of which he has no knowledge & only gradually comes to know. It's a moving love story & a fascinating meditation on how we are shaped by shared experiences & the memory of those experiences. It was good to read it over the holidays because the most powerful scenes (which literally made me weep--a rarity) occurred on Christmas Eve & New Years Eve....

2006-05-19

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Christopher Moore

Description: Like Lamb, this is offbeat, this time as a sort of science fiction story about a whale researcherLike Lamb, this is offbeat, this time as a sort of science fiction story about a whale researcher who falls into a whale that turns out to be much more than it seems. There are flashes her of the brilliance and virtuosity of Tom Robbins, but it's not as sustained or as virtuosic....

2006-05-19

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Alan Brennert

Description: A touching story of a woman who spent nearly her whole life (except for her first six yearsA touching story of a woman who spent nearly her whole life (except for her first six years & her last few) in the leper colony on the Hawaiian Island of Moloka'i. The author portrays the Hawaiian landscape & traditional culture lovingly & makes obvious attempts to be faithful to the actual history of the leper colony. (He also treats the Catholic missionaries who worked there with respect.) The writing was not strong--in places even sounded amateurish.) It was, oddly, jarring to read a work of contemporary literary fiction told entirely from one perspective (an omnipotent third-person voice) and in precise chronological order....

2006-05-19

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Norman Lebrecht

Description: A very good book with flashes of brilliance in observations about music & musicians &A very good book with flashes of brilliance in observations about music & musicians & Jewish traditions & faith in the wake of the Holocaust. (Lebrecht is a lifelong music critic who here tries his hand--very successfully--at fiction.) There are two main characters: the son of a musicians' manager who takes over his father's business; and the young vioilin prodigy that the former's family harbors as his family perishes in the concentration camps of WWII Poland. Here, the Holocaust plays a critical role in the story without making this a Holocaust novel. It's a rich, intelligent story friendship & betrayal, music & tradition....

2006-05-19