Monday, August 27, 2012

One Last Thing Before I Go (Jonathan Tropper)


Quick read. And totally quintessential Tropper. You have your male lead surrounded by people/family that he is both loved and hated by. His inner monologue is funny and self-deprecating and completely recognizable as JT. 

So we have Silver, Drew Silver who is a middle aged guy who was once famous for a punk band back in the day. He had it all, kinda. A wife and and daughter and lost them both when his wife divorced him. We start the story almost 8 years after the divorce and we see Silver as he makes a deposit at the sperm bank for cash. We see how pathetic he is as he recounts all his past mistakes and regrets (in a humorous way of course) and we see that he's kind of douche- but one that's likable if you can picture that. 

Silver's ex wife is about to get married. And his 18 year old daughter finds out that she's pregnant and against her better judgment she comes to Silver for guidance. Silver has been out of her life for said 7 years but he says he'll support whatever decision she makes. Before she makes one he ends up collapsing and finds out that has some blood vessel or capillary or something (i forget, please forgive me) that is on the verge of tearing that will kill him but it's fixable via surgery. Get this: the surgeon who tells this him this news is the fiancĂ© of his ex wife. This is a guy that Silver both likes and hates at the same time. 

So we're carried through a week in Silver's life where he's decided to not go through with the operation because his life basically sucks and we see the family come out and the friends come out and tell him why he should do it. 
Does he get the surgery? Does he have a one night-er with his ex wife? Does his daughter end up keeping the baby? 
I have to admit the ending is a little iffy for me. But I enjoyed the book overall. It dealt with one's life as one knows it and what we make it to be. What is life all about? When we think it's not worth it to go on, what keeps up waking up and living another day? Read to find out!! :)
The book doesn't really go into all that but it did make me think a little. But I laughed more (on the inside, not LOL or anything). Tropper has yet to let me down. 

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Shout Her Lovely Name (Natalie Serber)


      
  I wouldn't call myself a Short Story person. I have this thing in my head where if I'm to open a book I want to be enveloped and in the knowledge that I'm going to be taken on a ride. I want a commitment. But like poetry where some speaks to you and you nod your head Yes- I get that, I know what the poet was feeling when she wrote that---You can sometimes read a short story and say wow- that packed a punch.

Shout Her Lovely Name did just that. Each story drew me in and made me feel like it was so much bigger and deeper than the 15 or so pages each story was. I was sad to see it end. How talented Natalie Serber is with her characters and their entire lives put on the page. 

Most of the stories involve Ruby and her daughter, Nora and the glimpses of their lives at various stages from the men they're involved with and the lifestyle choices for the times. There are a sprinkling of stories unrelated, a mother fretting over her teenage daughter's eating disorder to a wife coming to terms with letting her kids (walking in on sexual escapade) go while planning her husbands 50th and him getting matching tattoos with his son, to a woman on an airplane with her somewhat controlling husband dealing with her infant and another passenger who's a butthole. 

The stories are slices of life that burrow deep into a woman's heart. They are about struggles and female bonds and growing up and growing older and moving on with acceptance. I loved every story and it reminds me of the charms and loveliness of story in it's short form. 

Monday, August 20, 2012

The Age of Desire (Jenna Fields)

      
  This should have been something I loved but for some reason a little over half way through I just couldn't go on. It wasn't that the story or writing was bad but I was just bored. And I got to a point where the little battle in my head of Just Finish The Book vs. There Are Too Many More To Read the nagging of other worlds won. 
The book (from what I have gathered thus far) is about Edith Wharton- famous female author of the early 1900's. It's historical fiction researched to where the author used Wharton's diaries to weave a tale based on her life. We find out that she didn't have the marriage of her dreams and also that she had a governess turned secretary that she was quite close to. 
We learn about both women but the bulk of the story belongs to Edith. Edith married young and according to her she made a bad choice. She grows to pretty much despise her husband who she has almost nothing in common with and who suffers from melancholia.  Edith writes her books and does her thing and comes to meet a man named Morton Fullerton to which she falls in love with. He admires her just the same and the 60% of what I read revolves around their affair. And also that the secretary, Anna, disapproves.Anna also has feelings for Edith's husband but keeps her feelings to herself. 
Sounds really good right? It was.. to a fault. For me there were just too many passages where Edith is just meandering in her head. I'm thinking the author is trying to set up a lot of tension because nothing physical happened until half way through but I just got a point where if that's all the story is about- Edith having an affair- then I'm just like, well get on with it already.  To me, the greatest story (so far in my reading career) that is mostly about tension and suspense in a relationship was Gone With The Wind. I sat on the edge of my seat wondering if Rhett and Scarlet would be finally getting together but this one, maybe i'll regret not finishing it but for now I've moved on.  There are just too many stories calling my name that my brain and heart want to chew on. 

Tell the Wolves I'm Home (Carol Rifka Blunt)


      
  A story set in the 80's. A girl, our protagonist, June Elbus, 14 years old reflects on the life of her and her uncle, Finn who died of Aids. Her mother has some issues with her brothers lifestyle and practically forbids June to have anything to do with Finns boyfriend, Toby who in inherited the apartment after his death. June, we find out, has an extreme fondness for her uncle and then for his boyfriend Toby and we witness the whole entanglement that follows.

Finn is an artist and the last painting he created was of June and her older sister Greta. The painting is valuable but June and her sister have each taken to adding their own touches on it. They were given keys to the safety deposit box. 

I'm finding it hard to review this book because it was really good yet there isn't this one way of summarizing it. We see the conflict between the two sisters as Greta seems jealous of June and Finns relationship.  June's mother has a bit of her issue with her brother being an artist as she was also quite talented but chose to settle down with a husband and have kids and become an accountant instead. The author does a great job of the inner world of June and how a 14 year old- who is going through the regular growing pains of being a teenager- but to layer on dealing with the implications of Aids, when it first was introduced and how scary it was then- was done with honesty and talent.  

THere weren't any fireworks in this story. It wasn't suspenseful although it was a little sad at the end but quite predictable. Still, I enjoyed it and look forward to more of her writing. 

It's a coming of age tale set in New York about families and illness and choices and regrets. 

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (Peter Hedges)

      
  How many times have I heard of the movie. I was a kid and remembering hearing the title and thinking that a guy must have gotten some flesh eating disease. I did not know of the phrase, What's eating you?, and of course didn't know that the title meant that there was a guy who was truly bothered by everything.  
   
   I'm the kind of person that believes things happen for a reason so I can't beat myself up for not having read this long ago because I know I would have loved it. So I must have been meant to have read it now. Anyway, I loved the book. I could have done without picturing Johnny Depp or Leonardo Dicaprio the entire time but if i'm right (I haven't seen the movie yet) the casting was perfect. I do enjoy imagining my own characters though.

   So we're in Iowa and the picture Peter Hedges paints is of a small town where everyone knows everyone and oh how do I love that setting. Gilbert Grape, our protagonist and narrator is basically fed up with life. He's a born pessimist and I was hanging on his every thought. He's one of six kids and lives at home at age 24 with his very obese mother, Bonnie, his younger retarded brother Arnie, his younger sister Ellen and his older sister Amy. They all live together in a house that's about to cave in due to his mother's weight bearing down on the floor. She hasn't stopped eating since her husband killed himself when Gilbert was 7. Arnie is about to turn 18 and the story revolves around the event. The other two siblings, both older, are out of the house until the party and we see the entire family in action. Gilbert falls in love with a girl (who turns out to be fifteen) and he seems to not have a problem with beginning (at least in his head) a relationship with her.

His friend, Tucker sounds like a dorky schmuck but is handy so he's asked to fix the ceiling where the mother sits above, that's about the crack open. Gilbert works at the local grocery store- and refused to step inside the new commercialized store featuring electric doors, lobster tanks and a variety of breakfast cereals that the owner of Gilbert's grocery store can't conceive of. 

So it's one of those stories that isn't so much about plot but about relationships and the interaction between the characters. I appreciated the inner thoughts of Gilbert. He's a regular guy who just happens to be extra cynical. But he's a family guy at heart which makes all his honesty likable.  

I really loved this book and am looking forward to another one by him. 

Friday, August 10, 2012

The world without you (Joshua Henkin)

      
  I am on a kick of Family Gathering books with Homecoming of Samuel Lake, Seating Arrangements and now The World Without You.  This is the first time I will comment and review the bookcover, which usually I could care less about but this time I think the cover is not the most suitable. Fireworks? It might seem that since the book takes place over a 4th of July weekend it would be appropriate but I think it's too obvious. Yes the 4th was the first anniversary of Leo Frankel- son/brother/husbands death it was bigger than that. The event has brought the Frankel family together but to me the bulk of the book is about change and grief but also about moving on and introspection. 
Maybe a cover with a country house and tennis court would be better or something Jewish since a lot of story centers around Israel and Jewish stuff (sorry for my ignorance but I will be forever confused about the nationality/religion).
Anyway, the story opens with the parents, David and Marilyn and we learn that they are splitting up.  Marilyn feels that there is nothing to salvage now that their youngest son Leo has been killed. It has been a tough year and she is intending to move out. But right now they're preparing for their kids with husbands and kids in tow (including Leo's wife, Thisbe and their 3 year old Calder). They will have the memorial as planned and then tell their children.
Their children include three girls and Leo. Noelle who was once quite the party/loose girl is now reformed into an Orthodox Jew comes with her 4 children and husband who disappears for the weekend. Clarissa and her husband are attempting to get pregnant but having problems and Lily and her boyfriend who she never intends to marry all come together along with Thisbee who is already contemplating moving in with her new boyfriend even though it has only just been a year since her husband died over on assignment (he's a journalist) in Iraq. 
Basically we are taking through the holiday seeing life through each of the characters eyes how they felt about Leo how they feel about their siblings, mother in law, mother and father and their wealthy grandmother who has them seemingly tethered by the promise of money. 
I loved Henkin's writing and his way he effortless weaves in dialogue and past memories and thoughts and carries us through a lifetime of growing up and changing and dealing with death and how your life can go on or you can change it. Ultimately we are living this life and we can make it what we want. We can be imprisoned by our own minds or we can set out and do what we want to do. So the cover art, in my opinion could have been different the title is perfect as each character seems to be contemplating life without someone dear to them in it, not just Leo but their husband or the possibility of a child or sister.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Seating Arrangements (Maggie Shipstead)

      
  Meet the Van Meters: Biddy, Winn, Daphne and Livia.  They are at their summer place on an island off New England and we get to see how dysfunctional a family is. It's basically a yuppie story about what your priorities are and Wen's isn't really his daughters wedding or his wife but getting into a particular club.  Also maybe sleeping with his daughter's bridesmaid. We also see how Livia, who was broken up with by her boyfriend who is the son of Winn's "rival" tries to drown her hurt with finding her next boyfriend in the form of the future groom, Greyson's brothers. *the names of the other characters-Sterling, Fee etc. are almost too much.

Okay there are a lot of characters that are all rich and it's a satire, really but an entertaining satire on life in a summerhouse with the wedding as a backdrop and lots of booze to keep the questionable behaviors going. I loved it. Didn't know if I would but the writing was great and it was a quick paced lighter read than I tend to be drawn to. I enjoyed it a lot and the only complaint I have was that the ending seemed a little untidy. I was left thinking that there should be a follow up. It wasn't a cliff hanger or anything but it kind of ended abruptly. 

Friday, August 3, 2012

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake (Jenny Wingfield)


      
  This was a hunk of a good book. This was sweet southern story about life and family and maybe a little religion but not too much. Just like in my life, it's just enough. It was sad and humorous and I couldn't read it fast enough, although now I'm paying for it because, damn it that done-with-a-good-book-now-what?-void. 

This is the story of the Moses' and the Lakes.  It's title suggest it's about Samuel Lake but it's really about his wife and her family although his family is at the center of it all and the epicenter lay his three children.  Samuel is a preacher and he usually get's moved around because he's so passionate about his work. Also every year his wife's family has a reunion that he misses because that conflicts with him going to a conference or something to find out where his new church will be. ANyway this particular summer Sam finds that he is to be without a church and so they decide to stay with his wife's family seeing how during the reunion his wife, Willadee's dad (you gotta love all the names in this book) shoots himself. No spoilers it happens in the very beginning. So the family home now houses Willadee Samual and their three kids, Swan, Bienville and Noble. But the star is really Swan (Lake) and her navigating her feelings about being a preachers child and a girl and a girl with  big heart as she noticed that a little kid, Blade (who reminds me of Bobby Hill from King of the Hill) who sneaks into their house at night and is also abused by a mean old nasty man who will make your skin crawl. 
But you'll also see the finer points in the writing of Wingfield. People struggling with morals and nosy neighbors and gossip spreading like wild fire
A lot happens that makes you want to have that man dead and unfortunately something happens with Swan that will break your heart but if you like family fiction and hot Arkansas days you will love this book. I wish there was a follow up as I was not ready to close the book and say goodbye to the Lakes and the Moses'. And it's available at this library!!!