SONG OF SOLOMON by TONI MORRISON (1977)

A few authors have become the gold standards for their genres of writing. High fantasy novels are advertised as "in the tradition of Tolkien." Books featuring magical realism are compared to those of Garcia Marquez. Authors of Southern Gothic novels aspire to be compared to Faulkner. Toni Morrison has joined that select group of touchstone writers. Her particular style of writing about the African American experience, including as she does elements that can either be considered as literally supernatural or as symbolic, has profoundly influenced subsequent writers. Two recent bestselling novels come to mind -- The Underground Railroad and Sing, Unburied, Sing.

The plot of Song of Solomon follows Macon (Milkman) Dead from birth through his young adulthood, growing up in Michigan. As he matures he feels himself increasingly alienated, emotionally separated from his family and the females he uses to satisfy his lust. He even betrays his eccentric aunt, who has made him feel more at home than anyone else, when he steals what he supposes to be a bag of gold from her. Still in search of the fabled gold, he follows his aunt's tracks back to the South, where the Dead family originated. As he uncovers the past and the secrets of his forebears, he achieves a measure of self realization and an understanding of his place in the world.

Woven into this coming-of-age story are magical elements, such as a woman who has no naval and a man who can fly. Also prominent are the various reactions to being black in a white America.

I am certain that this novel speaks more directly to black Americans who would have a better knowledge of the situations and attitudes. To this white American reader, it provides a better understanding of black culture. And it is a darn good book besides. It received the National Book Critics Circle Award and Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003.

SHORT REVIEWS OF 4 PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS

More short review of books I read this summer while deprived of television and the internet.




THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by JUNOT DIAZ (2007) Second reading
A seriously overweight man of Dominican heritage, who is obsessed with fantasy and science fiction, continuously looks for love. This novel does not end happily-ever-after, but the plot is so intriguing and the language -- a mixture of Spanish and American slang -- so unique that I could overlook my emotional need for happy endings. This won the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as the Pulitzer. Recommended.


THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE by OSCAR HIJUELOS (1989) Third reading
The life stories of a family of Cuban-heritage musicians who once gained a measure of fame when they appeared on the I Love Lucy television show with Desi Arnez. That doesn't sound very interesting, but it is, especially as enlivened by a large dose of sex. Recommended.


BELOVED by TONI MORRISON (1987) Third reading
An African-American woman who escaped from slavery to the North later kills her own daughter rather than see her returned to their former master. Later, she and her other children are "haunted" by the ghost of the dead child. Whether one believes the ghost to be literal or a psychological result of trauma matters little, because the impact of the novel is overwhelming, no matter the interpretation. This has rightfully come to be considered a classic. Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 for her body of work.


MIDDLESEX by JEFFREY EUGENIDES (2002) Second reading
The character at the center of the plot has a mutated gene which results in his/her being intersex, having characteristics of both male and female. Raised as a girl, he nevertheless feels male. A large portion of the book concerns the grandparents and parents of the character, and, for me, this diffuses the focus of the novel. Much is also included about the difficulties of immigrants (these are Greek) and the turmoil in Detroit during the 1960s. I feel that the novel takes too much of a scatter shot at too many issues to be as effective as it could have been if it had stuck to gender identification issues.

THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN by JOHN FOWLES (1969)

Third reading


I remember being very impressed with this novel when I first read it, and also when I read it a second time. Somehow, however, I seem to have lost my taste for postmodern literature. I now find that it seems pretentious and annoys me in its self-conscious cleverness.

The French Lieutenant's Woman starts out appearing to follow the conventions of a Victorian novel of the realist school, written much in the style of Thomas Hardy. A wealthy English man who is in line for a title is engaged to a very young and beautiful (but shallow) girl, even more wealthy than he, though from the merchant class. As the two are out walking, they observe a striking woman staring out to sea. The girl tells her fiance' that it is a French Lieutenant's Woman (a polite word for whore) who is hoping in vain for the return of her absent lover. Despite himself, the man becomes fascinated with the woman's tragic demeanor, and manages to "accidentally" come into contact with her in out-of-the-way places.

Clearly, complications are looming, but then Fowles intrudes himself, speaking as the author, letting readers know that this is a made-up story written in the 1960s. Any drama from the love triangle plot is then sucked away, at least for me. I am pulled away from the characters and can no longer live inside their story. The final insult to my enjoyment comes when Fowles provides three endings: one where the man marries the young girl anyway, despite his desire for the woman; one where he breaks his engagement and runs away with the woman; and one where he ends up without either, continuing as a bachelor.

The plot of this reminds me very much of The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, with the three central characters also having many similarities and the time frame being approximately the same, although in different countries. But whereas The Age of Innocence is one of my favorite books, because of its poignancy and conflict between love and duty, this novel, because of its metafiction gimmicks, almost seems pointless.

I don't know whether to recommend this book or not. I liked it when I was much younger. Now not so much.

HOTEL DU LAC by ANITA BROOKNER (1984)

This low-key novel won England's Booker Prize, which is somewhat surprising to me. While it is stylish, pleasantly written, and entertaining to read, it lacks any outstanding aspects or lasting relevance. It reads almost as "chick-lit," suitable for reading during summer vacation at the beach.

In fact, the heroine is a writer of popular romance novels, who has made a misstep at romance herself, calling off her wedding to a very nice (and dull) man at the last minute. It seems she cannot escape thoughts of her secret love affair with a married man. Advised by her friends to take some time away, she flees to a quiet hotel in Switzerland, where she encounters a small group of fellow exiles, all slightly eccentric.

Brookner has fun with her characters, so the books turns into something of a comedy, although a sad one. All are casualties of love, in one way or another. The heroine even receives a second marriage proposal, from a man who is anything but dull.

To Brookner's credit, what starts out following the conventions of a romance novel does provide some surprises, but in the end it just seems like chick-lit for moderate feminists.

THE GOLDFINCH by DONNA TARTT (2013)

Second reading
First read in December of 2013


Even though I read this just a few years ago, I decided to read it again since I just re-read Donna Tartt's other two novels. Here is the review I wrote in 2013.




Tuesday, December 31, 2013
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Nothing is more satisfying to a reader than a big, thick book with a suspenseful plot and a multitude of interesting characters, all of whom come alive on the page. It's an added plus when the dialogue is natural and sounds distinctive for each character, and when the setting is so clearly described that a reader can visualize and feel the surroundings. Dickens could come up with such novels, and so, it turns out, can Donna Tartt.

The story begins in Amsterdam, with 27-year-old Theo Decker, terrified and ill, hiding out in a hotel room after an unnamed violent event. Through his narration, we are taken back to the thirteen-year-old Theo, who survives the terrorist bombing of an art museum which takes the life of his mother. Clearly suffering from survivor's guilt and PTSD, young Theo is taken in by the wealthy family of a friend, his alcoholic father having recently departed for parts unknown. We follow Theo from his life in New York as a private school student to the desolate outskirts of Las Vegas when his father reappears. Then it's back to New York as a partner in an antique business, before Amsterdam and a reluctant involvement with the criminal underworld. Binding the plot together from start to finish is a small painting, The Goldfinch, the reason Theo and his mother visited the museum.

Tartt is particularly successful in the depictions of the many characters, through both indirect personal descriptions and accounts of their actions and an abundance of distinctive dialogue. The alcohol and gambling addicted father, the antique restorer Hobie who becomes a father figure, the amoral Russian boy Boris who befriends Theo in Las Vegas--all seem so real I can see and hear them in my mind.

I have never been to New York. I have never been to Las Vegas. I have never been to Amsterdam. But I feel that I know them, through Donna Tartt, just as I know Victorian England, through Charles Dickens.

This seems like an old-fashioned novel in many respects, in that it tells an extended story in detail. That seems to be rather out of fashion these days. But it is a modern novel in other respects, in that it addresses both current and universal human predicaments. The realistic ending is not "happily ever after," but then whose life ever is?

Onward through the fog.

Highly recommended.

LONESOME DOVE by LARRY McMURTRY (1985)

Second reading


Almost all Americans of a certain age are familiar with the plot of Lonesome Dove, if not from the book then from the the award-winning and extremely popular television series from the '80s. It has everything a Western should have -- former Texas Rangers, a whore with a heart, a cattle drive, cowboys, Indians, outlaws, hangings, stampeding cattle, battles with the elements, a sheriff chasing a killer, and so forth. It differs from the plots of traditional Westerns only in that it doesn't always deliver the expected. It also contains remarkable dialogue and a depth of characterization not usually found in the genre.

For those few not familiar with the story, it recounts the events of a cattle drive from South Texas to Montana, led by two aging Texas Rangers. It takes McMurtry more than 150 pages to introduce the major characters and actually get them started on the drive, and I found myself getting weary and bored. But once the author gets the story (and the herd) rolling, it moves at breakneck pace, with one cliff-hanging incident after another. McMurtry is quite a yarn spinner, so the rest of the 800+ page book held my attention to the end and didn't seem long at all.

I have never seen the television adaptation of Lonesome Dove, but surely McMurtry must have anticipated that his novel would someday be the basis of a screen treatment, because it seems to me to employ a very cinematic approach to novel writing. I believe one could write the screenplay using the author's dialogue exactly as written in the book. I intend to search for the video of the production to find out if that is so.

I would not classify this as Literary Fiction (high-brow, meaningful, etc.), but it is very good at what it does, which is tell a mesmerizing story. It is somewhat surprising to me that it won the Pulitzer Prize, but I recommend it as an example of how to take stock story elements and make them interesting again just through the vividness of the telling.

THE SECRET HISTORY by DONNA TARTT (1992)

Third reading



The Secret History begins with the revelation that the narrator and his friends have killed someone, before flashing back to the narrator's earlier life and events leading up to the murder. This is a whydunit instead of a whodunit.

The narrator, Richard, feeling out of place as the son of working-class parents in the blandness of California, escapes through financial aid to a small, prestigious New England college. He doesn't initially seem to fit in there, either, until he lands in a Greek class under the tutelage of a charismatic classics professor. His five fellow students are all eccentric children of privilege and wealth, and so Richard re-invents himself, lying about his family and past. As he desperately tries to be one of the group, he is drawn into keeping their secrets, leading him inexorably into complicity in murder.

This is the first Donna Tartt novel I read (also, the first she wrote), and I immediately knew her to be extraordinarily talented. The narrator helps commit a murder, and yet I felt sympathy for him because I felt that I understood him. It's a rare thing for an author to be able to make a reader hope for the best for a character who does terrible things, but Donna Tartt does it. In meticulous prose.

Tartt has written only three novels: this one, The Little Friend, and The Goldfinch, which won the Pulitzer Prize. I highly recommend them all.

SONGS IN ORDINARY TIME by MARY McGREGOR MORRIS (1995)

Second reading


Songs in Ordinary Time has a huge cast of characters, so one would think that at least some of them would be sympathetic. But no. One family, neighbors to the central characters, comes closest, but one comes to suspect that they, too, might have nasty secrets.

At the center of the plot is the divorcee Marie Fermoyle and her daughter and two sons. Her ex-husband and the father of the children is a raging alcoholic who lives with his vengeful sister and her henpecked husband, who secretly makes stalking phone calls to women of the town. Marie is so lonely and down-trodden that she is ripe pickings for romantic overtures from the conman (and secret murderer) Omar Duvall. The children also have their problems. The daughter becomes sexually involved with the local priest, the oldest son is defensive and a hothead who constantly gets in fights, and the youngest son saw Omar commit murder but keeps quiet because he wants his Mom to be happy. (????Does that make sense?) All the other residents of the town whose stories are told are guilty of one vice or another.

Reading this rather long novel (700+ pages) is like watching some of the less appetizing reality shows, Marriage Boot Camp, for instance. You can't find anyone to cheer for.

The author does bring some suspense as the reader wonders how far Omar will go to protect himself from discovery and if Marie will finally realize the truth about her criminal lover. The ending is rushed and rather melodramatic.

This novel received generally favorable reviews and was a pick for Oprah's Book Club. (I don't know if that would be considered a recommendation or not.) I would give it a B- at best.

THE LITTLE FRIEND by DONNA TARTT (2002)

Second reading



Author Donna Tartt has published only three novels in 21 years: The Secret History in 1992, about intellectually arrogant students at a prestigious New England college; The Little Friend in 2002, about the repercussions following the murder of a child; and The Goldfinch in 2013, (which won the Pulitzer Prize) about the life of a man who as a boy was present at a terrorist bombing. All three open with the mention of a murder. All three could, on the surface, be classified as "coming-of-age" stories. All three veer into dark territory. And all three are beyond excellent.

The central character in The Little Friend. is a 12-year-old girl named Harriet, whose brother Robin was murdered, apparently in front of her eyes, when she was an infant. Even after twelve years the murder has not been solved, and her family has fallen apart: her sister has withdrawn into herself, her father is living with his mistress in another town, and her mother has sunk into a chemically tranquilized haze. In a quest to make some sense of her life, Harriet determines to find Robin's killer.

Anyone familiar with the children's book Harriet the Spy will immediately recognize the initial resemblance between the two girls, surely not coincidental. Both are brighter than most, inventive, and often charge ahead without giving sufficient thought to their actions. Both fancy themselves to be detectives. But the seeming resemblance soon crumbles as this novel veers in a darker direction. Harriet's hearsay evidence leads her to believe that the murderer is one of the Ratliff's, a family of petty criminals and meth cookers, but when she decides to investigate them events soon tumble out of control in unexpected ways.

One of the most attractive aspects of this book, for me, is that it is totally surprising; I never anticipated the events as they unfolded. From about midway, an atmosphere of dread intrudes, but of what? The prose is old-fashioned, almost 19th century in flavor. Even minor characters are so clearly delineated that they take on a reality, much like Dickens' characters. Tartt has a particularly keen ear for dialogue. Her ear-perfect renditions of the conversations of fallen Southern aristocrats, Southern white trash, and Southern black servants are most impressive. The whole novel is so well executed that the addition of its extremely suspenseful plot is almost unnecessary.

I highly recommend this to folks who appreciate extraordinarily good writing and who welcome the unexpected.

THE INFINITE PLAN by ISABEL ALLENDE (1991)

Second reading


I believe I will send this book on to Half-Price Books. When I took it down from my bookshelf I couldn't remember anything about it, and as I read it I still couldn't recall ever having read it before. Before you (or I) chalk this forgetfulness up to old age, consider that I well remember The House of the Spirits, also written by Allende. That novel was written in the Latin American tradition of magic realism, a style I much appreciate. The Infinite Plan has no trace of that, being entirely realistic.....and forgettable.

The primary shortcoming of the novel is that it tells, tells, tells, rather than showing and letting the reader come to conclusions for himself. We are never dropped inside the story or the characters' lives. It's like when somebody tells you, in excruciating detail, the plot of a movie, which becomes entirely unimpressive when summarized in that way, even though the movie itself may have been wonderful. If I had been the publisher to whom this manuscript was submitted, I would have turned it down.

The plot chronicles five decades in the life of Greg Reeves, from his youth as he traveled the country with his father, who preached of the "infinite plan" for each man's life, until his middle age, when he concludes "...there is no infinite plan, just the strife of living." Along the way he makes so many self-destructive choices that he becomes a totally unsympathetic character. By the end, I did not care one whit whether he ever found himself or not.

I do not recommend this book at all. It is not well done enough to be literary fiction and not cheerful or suspenseful enough to be popular fiction.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ (1967)

Third reading


This story of the rise and fall of the Buendia family through seven generations differs from most family sagas in that it is written in the style of magic realism, of which Columbian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the acknowledged master. Thus we have supernatural events such as flying carpets, levitating priests, and ghosts mixed in with realistic political events such as civil wars, rigged elections, and a massacre of strikers by government troops (all based on the history of Columbia). Along with these seemingly disparate elements, Marquez tells a page-turning story about the loves, hates, and follies of the family which presided over the founding and the demise of an isolated village. The seamless blend of the magical and the mundane makes this an unforgettable reading experience.

The plot is too complicated and encompasses too much to summarize in any understandable way. It begins when Jose Arcadio Bundia founds the village after receiving a vision and ends when the last Bundia is eaten alive by ants.

The only ways I could have appreciated this novel more is if I knew more about Columbian history and if I were capable of reading it in the original Spanish. Otherwise it is perfection, at least for those with the kind of mind which can embrace this style of writing. I know some people only want to read super-realistic novels, and this is not for them.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. I enjoyed his novel Love in the Time of Cholera even more than this one.

THE SHIPPING NEWS by E. ANNIE PROULX (1993)

Third reading



The Shipping News won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In contrast with more than a few of such prize winners that I have read, I judge it to be entirely worthy of those honors. It not only tells a page-turning story, but also evokes a place more vividly than most novels. And it is supremely well-written, though unconventional in style.

Quoyle is an obese and awkward cuckolded husband whose run-away wife has come to a bad end. Filled with sorrow and a continuing obsession with his dead wife, he retreats with his two daughters to the home of his forefathers on the coast of Newfoundland. Accompanied also by his aunt (who is a closeted lesbian), he attempts to reclaim his life. His new job as a less-than-accomplished newspaper journalist brings him in contact with a large cast of colorful characters who help him make a new beginning. One feels from the start that this will be a story that ends well, and that hope is fulfilled. The plot thus holds no major surprises, but that becomes comforting. Don't we all wish that life will ultimately award us with happily ever after?

I highly recommend this novel. Its word pictures of Newfoundland will make you want to visit there. As a plus, it is often sardonically funny.

THE SECRET SCRIPTURE by SEBASTIAN BARRY (2008)

Third Reading


For good or ill, I am the kind of reader who so immerses in a book that it affects my mood for days, and sometimes I even dream about it. Thus, when I finished Cormac McCarthy's Suttree, I felt discouraged and depressed. So I decided to re-read a novel by my favorite living writer that would improve my mood. This is a beautiful book, both its content and the manner in which it is written. It tells of an undaunted spirit in the face of hardship and persecution. I highly recommend it, especially for times when your own spirit needs a boost.

Roseanne McNulty, as she nears 100 years, decides to write her life story in a secret journal. She is a resident of a mental institution which is about to close. Dr. Grene, one of the psychiatrists, is tasked with determining who can be placed back in society and who must be rehoused elsewhere. The narrative alternates between her journal and his case notes. As he delves into her past and the reason she was initially admitted, secrets are uncovered which have been long buried, affecting his life as well as hers.

Along with the core story, Barry pictures the troubles in Ireland's tumultuous history and the great influence of the Catholic Church, which was not always for the good of the people.

The language in which the book is written is as mesmerizing as the suspenseful story. Barry writes with an Irish lilt -- rhythmic and poetic prose that is a joy to read. I would cite only one misstep in the entire novel: the ending seems a bit contrived. Otherwise, The Secret Scripture is perfect. I would recommend all his novels, especially A Long, Long Way.

The Secret Scripture was short-listed for England's Booker Prize.

SUTTREE by CORMAC McCARTHY (1979)

I'm glad I am not Cormac McCarthy. Never mind that he is a supremely talented writer. I couldn't live with the kind of thoughts he evidently has running through his mind.

Suttree is one of the most unpleasant books I have ever read. It is filled with vivid imagery, all of it picturing a grimy, putrid world. Cornelius Suttree, the protagonist, is a drunk from a rich family who has left his own wife and child, for reasons unrevealed, to live a life of debauchery among thieves, whores, and other derelicts of society. The plot consists of several incidents involving his fellow drunks and other acquaintances, most of whom come to a bad end. Readers who expect or desire some sense of redemption for Suttree (or any of the characters) will be disappointed. I can't perceive at all what the point of the novel might be, except to showcase McCarthy's extraordinary talent.

The narrative alternates between straightforward, detailed actions and conversations and sections of surrealistic, stream-of-consciousness prose, wherein McCarthy unleashes his inner Faulkner. These make for a strange and uneasy combination. Mind you, the surrealistic bits are impressively written and very evocative, even if they don't always make logical sense.

Anyone deciding to read this should also be aware that McCarthy is prone to using an esoteric vocabulary filled with $20 words where a $1 word would serve quite well. This habit comes to seem pretentious. I often felt that he was trying too hard to be deep and different.

This is, of course, not among McCarthy's best known works. Those would be All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian and The Road, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. None of his novels are pleasant to read, with only The Road ending on a somewhat hopeful note. But he does have a way with words, even though the reality they picture is indeed grim.

DUNE MESSIAH (1969) CHILDREN OF DUNE (1976) GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE by FRANK HERBERT (1981)

Third reading

I have read Dune, the first in this six-volume series, perhaps five times. These three are the second, third, and fourth books, and much inferior to the first, in my opinion. In Dune, Herbert created an entire universe, complete with the customs, the religion, the unique sound of the language, the people, and, importantly to this saga, the ecology of the planet. In these subsequent books, Herbert concentrates on the events, which are centered on political intrigue. He also provides a large dose of philosophical musings about power and how it can be manipulated. Much of this discussion reads like gobbledigook, frankly.

Dune (reviewed in June, 2011) ended as Paul Atriedes and the native Fremen defeated the Harkonnen troops who had subjugated the planet. As Dune Messiah begins, Paul has been deified and Fremen in his name have engaged in a jihad which has conquered most of the known universe. Gifted with the ability to see into the future, Paul knows of only one path that will lead to lasting peace but has not the courage to take it. Various factions join forces to hatch an elaborate plot against him. When he is blinded and his beloved concubine Chani dies in childbirth, he takes an alternate path which he hopes will lead to peace.

Children of Dune centers itself around the twin children of Paul and Chani, who are also prescient, Leto in particular. He sees what he calls the Golden Path to a peaceful future, the path that his father feared to take. Among plots and counterplots, Leto prevails by covering his body with sand trout, the precursors of the giant Worms of Dune, knowing that he will evolve and lose his humanity.

These two books serve as the inverse of the first book. While Dune ended on a grand note of triumph for Paul, these picture a tragic result of his actions. The plots are convoluted and dark.

The fourth volume of the series, God Emperor of Dune, takes place 3,000 years later. Leto is changing into what may become one of the Worms of Dune. Despite the fact that his reign as Emperor of the universe has brought eons of peace, plots abound against him. One plot involves the creation of the perfect woman to snare him into love, although physical expression of love is no longer possible for him. Much of this book is taken up by philosophical meanderings. Not much really happens until the end, which is quick and melodramatic. This is the weakest of the four novels.

I have the last two volumes of the series, but I will not read them now, perhaps never again. I believe Frank Herbert's legacy would have been enhanced if he had stopped after his first effort. I would recommend these only to hard-core Dune fans

THE GREAT FIRE by SHIRLEY HAZZARD (2003)

Second reading

I hardly know what to make of this rather melancholy novel about the aftermath of World War II. The central character, Andrew Leith, an acclaimed war hero, is engaged in a project to map the world-transforming changes in China. One of his wartime companions, Peter Exley, is busy in Japan prosecuting war crimes. Both are searching to discover a way to return to normal humanity. Both feel a paralyzing loneliness. This set-up led me to expect a more explicit examination of the effects of combat on the participants, yet, as it turns out, the background and the resulting personality of each of these men seem to be the cause of their sense of isolation.

Andrew Leith seeks for deliverance with an improbable love affair, while Peter Exley flounders in his search. This is the story of their quest.

I was put off by Shirley Hazzard's writing style, which seems extremely choppy to me, and by her tone, which is gloomy, even while depicting a budding love. Her habit of switching of point of view from one paragraph to the next without any indicator or division was often confusing and disconcerting, at least to me. Peter Exley's story is only sketched, so that I wonder why he is even included. I really did not enjoy reading The Great Fire, even though it is highly regarded. It received the National Book Award in 2003.

A LESSON BEFORE DYING by ERNEST J. GAINES (1993)

In 1940's Louisiana, Jefferson is a young black man who is sentenced to die for taking part in a robbery and shootout, never mind that he is innocent. During the summation to the jury at the trial, his court-appointed attorney portrays him as less than a man, too weak-minded to have planned the crime, saying, "...this skull here holds no plans....I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this."

With this dramatic beginning, Gaines tells the story of the efforts of Grant Wiggins, the local teacher at the school for black children, to teach Jefferson how to die like a man. It's not a task he wants, but his aunt and Jefferson's godmother persuade (browbeat, actually) him to try. This is his story as much as it is Jefferson's. He has problems of his own, feeling the futility of his efforts to improve the life of his people or even to exist as a man in a South which continues to consider people of color as less than human. In the end, he learns as much from Jefferson as Jefferson learns from him.

This is a very moving novel, as pertinent now as when it was written. The attitudes portrayed in the 1940's setting are perhaps more camouflaged now, but they still exist, as evidenced by numerous current events. I recommend this novel. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1993.

SHORT REVIEWS OF 6 CLASSIC NOVELS

This is a further installment of some of the books I read while without the internet. I often enjoy reading in bunches -- a bunch of science fiction and fantasy, a bunch of classics, a bunch of prize winners, etc. These are the classics I read.




SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. LAWRENCE (1913) Second reading
D.H. Lawrence is familiar to most people as the author of the once-banned Lady Chatterley's Lover, which is famous (or infamous) for its sexual frankness. The title of this novel would seem to point to like content, but that is not the case. This is more about a mother's obsessive love for her sons and the effect this has on their own emotional life. It's a very good book, although I do not care for the writing style.

OLIVER TWIST by CHARLES DICKENS (1838) Third reading
Most everyone is already familiar with the basics of this tale of a gang of thieves who try to lead an innocent boy into a life of crime. This is actually one of my least favorite Dickens novels. It is more than usual dependent upon coincidences and improbable happenings, but the characters are certainly memorable. Who does not know who Fagin is?

STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by JAMES T. FARRELL (1932, 34, 35) Second reading
This would be considered a second-tier classic, I think. It's the story of the life of an Irish-American boy in Depression-era Chicago, from his tough-talking but good-hearted youth until his untimely death from alcoholism. It is very depressing. Much of the novel is composed of long trivial conversations in which the participants try to show how tough they are, so it is not much fun to read from that aspect. I would not recommend this, even though the Modern Library list of America's Top 100 novels includes this as No. 29.

DAVID COPPERFIELD by CHARLES DICKENS (1850) Third reading
This is one of my favorite Dickens novels. It is widely considered to be partially autobiographical. It's a coming-of-age story, with the title character making many wrong turns in judgment and in his love life. It is a thoroughly satisfying read.

A FAREWELL TO ARMS by ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1929) Second reading
I don't like Hemingway. I read this again to see if I might not like it better, as I have advanced in age and experience. I still don't like it. Hemingway's prose is often described as lean and muscular. I think it sounds more like my first-grade reader -- "See Dick run. Dick runs fast. Run, Dick, run." This novel also contains some of the most insipid pillow-talk I have ever read.

NOSTROMO by JOSEPH CONRAD (1904) Second reading, Reviewed in June, 2011
This is one of the best novels I have ever read. On the surface, it is the story of the events in an unnamed South American country leading to the stealing of a whole boatload of silver bars, but it has many additional layers, which make it one of those books which can be read time after time, with new insights at each reading. It is perfectly put together, and the language is wonderful. I consider it the best of Conrad, which is saying a lot, considering the excellence of The Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim.

THE SECRET RIVER by KATE GRENVILLE (2005)

This outstanding novel is much more than just a graphic and detailed account of one family's experience as early settlers in Australia. It is also an allegory of the conflict, anywhere and always, when "civilized" groups of people come against a more primitive culture. The Secret River could have just as well taken place when pioneers arrived in early America or when Europeans discovered the islands of the Pacific, or, indeed, when Homo Sapiens met Neanderthals. The outcome appears to be inevitable.

In 1806 London, William Thornhill attempts to steal a load of wood and is sentenced to hanging. He is reprieved at the last minute and instead sentenced to be transported to Australia, his wife and children being allowed to go with him. What at first appears to him as a sentence as tragic as death instead offers him an opportunity to become what he never could have been in England -- a land owner. His small farm, tamed by back-breaking work, prospers, until he is confronted with those who had always considered the land their own, though they neither plowed nor planted, instead living on what the land freely offered. He considers himself a good man, but he realizes that in order for his family to prosper, he must use force to claim the land for himself.

This novel is unusual in that it is sympathetic to both sides of the conflict between settlers and indigenous people. The situation in Australia was different from other instances of similar conflict because these settlers did not choose to be there, and just had to do the best they could to survive. That adds a special poignancy to their story.

The writing here is most impressive, unobtrusively poetic. The descriptions of 19th century London rival Dickens' descriptions of the same era. Grenville's descriptions of this part of Australia (the fertile, river-fed area) are breath-taking. This might appear to be a success story, in some lights, but it is also very sad, because the winners also lost something irrecoverable of themselves.

I recommend this novel most highly. It was a finalist for the 2006 Booker Prize.

SHORT REVIEWS OF 16 FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS

For 3 1/2 months this spring/summer I was without internet or television. I had not realized previously that I spent (wasted?) so much time on electronic diversions. I suddenly found I had several hours more each day to amuse myself. I have always read every day, but without an alternative I read EVEN MORE. At the end of May, I finally got my books out of storage, where they had been for almost 4 years, so I began selecting from my own collection and re-reading. (Why keep a book if not to read it again?) I kept a list of the books I read (46) these three summer months and now I intend to write several groups of short reviews, mainly for my own benefit.

This first group I read right after I moved in and unpacked. Moving is a tense and busy time, so I was prompted to read escapist literature.

THE LITTLE COUNTRY by CHARLES de LINT (1991) Second reading
A mysterious book with magical powers is at the center of the conflict between a young female folk musician and a rich psychic. She has it and he wants it. Meanwhile, a witch shrinks a young girl into the size of a mouse. Adventure ensues. This is all rather predictable and the book reads at a Young Adult level. This is one I will put in a box to take to sell at Half-Price.


LITTLE, BIG by JOHN CROWLEY (1981) Fourth reading
This is one of my favorite escapist reads. It's about the strange Drinkwater family, who believe that they have a Destiny which involves the world of Faerie, and when I read about it, I absolutely believe it, too. This is a must-read for anyone who is at all capable of suspension of disbelief.


THE FOLK OF THE AIR by PETER S. BEAGLE (1977) Second reading
Another book about Faerie. I looked on my bookshelves for Beagle's best book, The Last Unicorn, but I must have lent it to someone. This one is a bit less immersive, but it is better than most of a similar vein. You are asked to believe that some of the people who participate in Live Role Play re-enactments actually have the magical powers they pretend to display. I almost believed, but not quite.


MYTHAGO WOOD by ROBERT HOLDSTOCK (1984) Third reading
LAVANDYSS by ROBERT HOLDSTOCK (1988) Third reading
Two brothers enter a magical wood where the mythical creatures of our collective unconscious come to life. I really liked these the first time I read them, less the second time, and this time I found many faults. The books do have a fairly original premise, so they are interesting as a one-off read for fans of fantasy.


THE PRYDAIN CHRONICLES by LLOYD ALEXANDER (5 short novels)(1964-66) Second reading
These are actually children's book (about middle school level). I think I intended them for my grandchildren and failed to pass them on. They follow Taran, an assistant pig keeper, from youth through maturity. He lives in a magical land and joins in the fight against the evil wizard Arawn, joined by a princess, a dwarf, a bard, and a man/beast helper (similar to Gollum of Lord of the Rings fame). The story is loosely adapted from Welsh mythology. I would highly recommend these for ages 10-14.


TITUS GROAN by MERVIN PEAKE(1946) Second reading
GORMENGHAST by MERVIN PEAKE(1950) Second reading
I love words and the way they can be put together to create an atmosphere and mood; Mervin Peake offers a veritable feast. He writes with a painter's eye, and his created world of Gormenghast Castle is visual to the mind's eye to the extent that I have even dreamed of it. His characters do Dickens one better; they are exaggerated and sometimes grotesque, but they are real. The story is suspenseful. The villain is deliciously evil. The hero is flawed, but learns from his experiences. The third volume of the Gormenghast series, Titus Alone, was written while Peake was suffering from diminished mental facility due to Parkenson's. I have not yet had the courage to read it, because I don't think I could bear the anguish of the dimming of his powers.


ROCANNON'S WORLD by URSULA LeGUIN(1966) Second reading
PLANET OF EXILE by URSULA LeGUIN(1966) Second reading
CITY OF ILLUSIONS by URSULA LeGUIN(1967) Second reading
These three shortish novels are bound together in a volume called Three Hainish Novels. They are not, however, three parts of one story, but three distinct plots all taking place in the imagined Hainish universe. The first one, Rocannon's World, takes place when the planet is first being studied by the League of All Worlds. Rocannon is an ethnologist who goes on a quest across the planet to alert the League of All Worlds to a threat from an invading species. In Planet of Exile, on another Hainish planet, indigenous humanoid natives and settlers from Earth live an uneasy separate existence until drawn together by looming danger. As in Game of Thrones, Winter Is Coming! The third volume, City of Illusions, takes place several centuries later, back on Earth, where a descendant of a character in Planet of Exile arrives with no memory of his past. His quest to learn his identity and then to overcome the Earth's new masters, the Shing, form the plot. These are LeGuin's first novels and are not as accomplished as her later efforts, but they are better-than-average science fiction/fantasy.


THE CHILD GARDEN by GEOFF RYMAN (1989) Second reading
In a world of the future, life-spans have been halved, global warming threatens, people are genetically engineered for their jobs, and children are instantly educated through the introduction of viruses. Milena, the central character, is immune to the viruses and has to learn everything the old-fashioned way. She falls in love with a genetically engineered female who looks like a polar bear. And so it goes. This book contains too much and thus loses any focus. This one will go to Half-Price.

THE ENGLISH PATIENT by MICHAEL ONDAATJE (1992)

A few weeks ago I reread Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, which took place in wartime in Italy and tells of the love affair between an American volunteer ambulance driver and an English nurse. The English Patient is also set in wartime in Italy and includes a loves affair between an Indian bomb demolition expert and a Canadian nurse. There the similarity ends. This book is so much more than Hemingway's effort, in so many ways. It is so much better that they shouldn't even be included in the same category. I would consider The English Patient as a modern classic. (I am obviously not a Hemingway fan. I believe he is greatly overrated, and I have never understood why he is highly regarded.)

Gathered in a half-ruined convent as World War II is ending are a young Canadian nurse and her patient who is too burned to be moved. He is thought to be English, even though he insists he cannot remember who he is or where he came from. Then an Italian thief who had once been a friend of her father's hears of her plight and joins them. As the armies retreat, bomb and landmine disposal crews arrive, and an Indian Sikh attached to the British army comes to stay at the convent, as well. There each of their stories unfold. As they try to deal with the burdens war has left, they come to an erasure of national and partisan interests and relate to each other as individuals....until events intrude to remind them of their differences.

This author is a poet as well as a novelist, and this reads like a blending of the two. (In contrast, Hemingway's prose, sometimes described as "lean and muscular," sounds like a first-grade reader.) Ondaatje paints pictures with his words, and the entire novel has a dream-like tone, reflecting the surrealism of the time and place. It is a brief pause outside of a harsh reality.

This novel is an adventure, a mystery, a romance, and a philosophical novel all in one. It won England's Booker Prize in 1992, and in 2018 was awarded the Golden Booker Prize as the best winner of the award in 50 years. It is one of the best novels you will ever read.

(If you saw the movie, you got only a small piece of the story, and not the thrust of the book at all. It was a good movie, but it was not reflective of the book's contents.)

TYPEE by HERMAN MELVILLE (1846)

Although this was on my bookshelf, I don't recall ever reading it before. It is Melville's first book, and was the most popular during his lifetime (to his dismay). It is supposedly a true account of the author's captivity for about a month by the Typee natives on one of the Marquesas Islands, although there is some indication that he took parts of his material from accounts of other early mariners.

As an adventure story in an exotic locale, this account was popular particularly with a younger audience. I wonder what they made of the thinly veiled sexual content. I imagine they were titillated. I found Melville's criticisms of the "civilizing" efforts of Christian missionaries to be particularly interesting. In a scenario that has been repeated many times before and since, the efforts of governments and missionaries to turn native populations into mirrors of their own ideas and customs resulted in the degradation of the supposed beneficiaries. According to Melville, the Typee were happier and more harmonious than those in more "civilized" situations, even though they happened to be cannibals on occasion.

Though this account is well written and displays Melville's budding talent, it in no way prepares the reader for his great masterpiece, Moby Dick, or for his last book, Billy Budd. I believe it to be beneficial reading for admirers of Melville, but as general reading to be of little interest for most people.

THE ASSOCIATION OF SMALL BOMBS by KARAN MAHAJAN (2016)

Yet another depressing novel set in India, this one is unique in that it humanizes both the victims of violence and its perpetrator. Beginning with the detonation of a small car bomb, the author tells the stories of the Kashmiri man who built and planted the bomb, of the family of two brothers who were among the victims, and of a boy who narrowly escaped the blast which killed his two friends. The repercussions of this rather insignificant event (in comparison with acts of greater violence with more victims) extend forward for years. Mahajan seems to be indicating that the turmoil in India is daily escalated by even small events and that it is perhaps unsolvable.

To tell the truth, I read this just before I moved in mid-May, and when I set out to write this review, I had forgotten much of the plot and had to look back in the book to refresh my memory. I don't think my senior-memory is entirely responsible. I think this is just a very forgettable novel. This was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award, so it impressed many people.

THE NINTH HOUR by ALICE McDERMOTT (2017)

The Ninth Hour begins with a suicide and ends with a murder. In between is a story of survival against the odds, of the kindness and harshness of nuns of the Catholic church, of the questioning of religious belief, of the inheritance of the sins of our fathers, of sex and sensuality, and of love.

When a soon-to-be Irish father, who has recently become unemployed, commits suicide, his pregnant wife and soon-to-be daughter are rescued from destitution by the charity of Catholic nuns. The newly born baby, Sally, is reared in the basement of the convent, where her mother has been employed. The novel, narrated by the Sally's children, traces the family history, particularly in its involvement and interactions with their Catholic upbringing.

McDermott writes with grace and assurance, and thus this is a very readable story. The characters never becomes stereotypes and seem totally human. Both the compassion and the restrictiveness of the Catholic religion, particularly among the devout Irish, is portrayed with sensitivity.

The Ninth Hour was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award. It is not one I will ever read again, but it was pleasurable the first time.

DARK AT THE CROSSING by ELLIOT ACKERMAN (2017)

This timely novel centers itself on the border between Turkey and Syria. Haris Abadi, the protagonist, is an Iraqi-born American citizen whose idealism has prompted him to try to cross into Syria in order to join the fight for freedom against the regime of Bashar al-Asad. As he encounters barriers and betrayals, he begins to question his own motivations, feeling as he does that he is a citizen of nowhere. He is eventually joined in his quest to cross by a Syrian women who has fled her country but wishes to return to seek her lost daughter.

Dark at the Crossing is valuable in that it provided an insight into the plight of the Syrian people in a war that seems endless. Abadi's story, however, is more problematic. His motivations come across as muddled and he never seems to take on a real presence in the story. Perhaps the author intended that to be so to underscore his themes. Nevertheless, the result is that the book provides little emotional involvement.

Dark at the Crossing was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award. It is interesting on an informational level, but it was not a pleasurable read for me.

LESS by ANDREW SEAN GREER (2017)

It surprised most when Less was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Literature. It most assuredly surprised Amazon and Barnes and Noble, because neither had the book available at the time. It was not until more than a month afterward that the book became available for shipment. In our era of so many social and political problems, most praised novels are dead serious. This one is lively, marvelously funny, warm-hearted, and even has a happy ending. I don't see it as an IMPORTANT book, but it is very rewarding to read.

Arthur Less is a second or third-tier writer whose boyfriend of some years is about to be married to someone else. He is nearing 50 and is feeling suddenly old and alone and a failure at life and love. In order to avoid being around for the upcoming wedding, he accepts some of the numerous invitations which come to writers of his less-than-elevated status, which will take him literally around the world. He has never felt more sorry for himself.

So begins Less's picaresque misadventures in Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, and Japan. A dog eats his favorite suit; he is locked out of his room and ends up hanging from the sill of a window; he mistakenly thinks he is fluent in German; and so on. Some of this verges on farce, but it is always funny, and the author's compassion for his character always shines through, so that the reader becomes quite fond of Less and wishes him well.

Underlying the comedy is a serious current concerning such matters as the fear of commitment to love, the fear of growing old, and the fear of professional failure. Arthur Less's journey takes him not only around the world, but also to a new outlook on life.

I highly recommend this novel.

IN THE DISTANCE by HERNAN DIAZ (2017)

In the Distance was named one of the two finalists for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Literature. Unlike the other finalist, The Idiot, this novel is original in concept and execution and is highly memorable. I have never read a more evocative account of loneliness.

Haken Soderstrom arrives alone in California from Sweden around the time of the Gold Rush, having become separated from his beloved brother when he mistakenly took the wrong boat. He knows no English, and when he gives his name it sounds to English-speaking ears like "Hawk can," so he becomes known as Hawk. He knows he must head east, because he was supposed to be on a ship to New York and he will find his brother there. His first encounters include an obsessed gold prospector, a naturalist, a wagon train of settlers, and an unusual ally, but the loss of these only intensifies his aloneness when he retreats to the desert to avoid capture for a crime he didn't commit.

Hawk is separated from his fellow men by his language, by the fear his great height inspires, and, finally, by his undeserved fierce reputation. His life becomes a circle, with day after day repeating itself. The featureless landscape echoes his isolation.

I tremendously admire the writing skill of Hernan Diaz. The most impressive parts of the book are the times when nothing happens -- that's not easy to accomplish. Most novels depend on events to propel attention, but Diaz immerses the reader in primal emotions. The ending brings to mind the final pages of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Thank you to the Pulitzer Committee for drawing attention to this most excellent novel.

FOUR SHORT REVIEWS

THE LIAR'S GOSPEL by NAOMI ALDERMAN (2012)
This novel is composed of four accounts of events from the life of Jesus: from the viewpoints of Mary, the mother of Jesus; of Judas, who betrayed him; of Caiaphas, the High Priest of Jerusalem; and of Barabbas, the rebel/thief who was chosen by the mob to live instead of Jesus. All are written from a very Jewish viewpoint, so Christian believers will most likely find the book offensive, as it does not present Jesus as the Son of God, but as one of many preachers stirring the passions of the Jewish people against the domination of the Romans. He is even portrayed as perhaps mentally deranged.

I have always felt it to be extremely impolite and in poor taste to write insultingly of someone's religion, whatever that religion may be. I would find equal fault with Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which denigrated the Muslim faith. Thus, I did not like this book at all, however well written it may be.


THE BRONTE MYTH by LUCASTA MILLER (2001)
This non-fiction book would be of interest only to those who already know something of the lives of the Bronte sisters. The author attempts to show how early biographers and literary critics, and then writers through the years following, portrayed the women, not as they were, but as prejudices and current literary preoccupations dictated.

This was particularly of interest to me, as I have long been fascinated with Wuthering Heights and Emily Bronte. I had not previously realized how scandalous and course the Bronte books were perceived to be by society at the time of their publications, and how doubly shocking it was to find out that women wrote them. Thus the literary writers of the time who recognized their worth tried to soften the criticism by portraying the maligned authors in a more flattering light, giving birth to the Bronte Myth.


THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS by ARUNDHATI ROY (2017)
I have read several novels set in India, written by Indian authors, and I can only come to the conclusion that India is a very unpleasant place to live for anyone not of the elite few. This one is no exception.

What is unusual about this novel is that the central character, around whom all the other characters revolve, is a transgender person, born a male and living as a female. Through a narrative that covers many years, a group of misfits and lost souls form a family in an abandoned graveyard. Along the way, I learned about the war with seemingly no end in Kashmir, which was entirely new information for me.

As with all the novels by Indian authors that I have read, this one tells a fascinating story filled with despair and heartbreak -- and love. This is a most satisfying and informative read. I recommend it.


THE BEGGAR MAID by ALICE MUNRO (1977)
Alice Munro is celebrated for her short stories. In fact, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013. This volume is composed of interconnected stories about Flo and Rose, a step-mother and step-daughter. Taken together, the stories form a loosely connected narrative, which could almost be considered a novel, but not quite.

I much prefer the novel format over the differing structure of the short story; thus, I was frustrated somewhat when connections and motivations were omitted, which would have been present in a novel. That being said, these are outstanding short stories, revealing much more than is usual in the shorter form. For someone who enjoys the short story format, this will be a treat. For those addicted to novels, like me, it is nevertheless rewarding reading.

THE IDIOT by ELIF BATUMAN (2017)

The Idiot was one of the two finalists for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. I don't understand that, at all. I would have thought that a book deserving of such serious consideration would be one that had something important to say and that stayed in the mind long after it was finished. This novel is clever and dryly humorous, but it has nothing new to offer and is immediately forgettable. It is a coming-of-age story, but the protagonist is one few will relate to.

Selin is a first-generation Turkish American who is an intellectually gifted freshman at Harvard in the 1990s. The story follows her through her first year of college as she makes new friends and adjusts to new surroundings, and particularly as she becomes obsessed with a fellow student through an e-mail correspondence. When she finally begins to talk in person to her e-mail "love," she finds that he has a girl friend and is about to graduate and leave for California. Nevertheless, she takes a summer job teaching English in a Hungarian village, because he is a Hungarian who is returning home and she may be able to see him there. They do meet. He leaves. She goes to Turkey to visit her aunts. The End.

I have obviously somewhat spoiled this novel for anyone who might want to read it, because I would recommend passing it by. It is narrated by the protagonist at an unnamed time after the action, in a semi-diary form. Much of it consists of mundane and boring actions and conversations which do nothing to advance the story. The tone, which is ironical and supercilious, is extremely off-putting, at least to me. The author does nothing to encourage sympathy or empathy for the protagonist. The author herself is a Turkish American who attended Harvard in the 1900s, so one aspect of the novel I found puzzling: all the students the protagonist encounters are first-generation Americans from other countries, mainly Eastern Europe, or international students. Did the author not attend college with any American citizens from Western Europe who had been here for generations?

Some of the action involves satires of the pretentiousness of Harvard professors, which are humorous. The author also has a felicity for apt and original metaphors. Still, these do make up for all the defects I perceive.

Despite the glowing reviews and honors awarded to The Idiot, I did not like it. Oh, well.

YEAR EIGHT OF READING

It's that time again. Another year of my life has passed. From my birthday in 2017 (April 22) to my birthday this year, I read 111 books. These were my favorites. Included are the date of first publication and the date of my review. I recommend all these without reservation.

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by AMOR TOWLES
A deliciously charming book about a Russian aristocrat under house arrest in a hotel in Moscow from 1922 through 1954, as he befriends people from all walks of life, including a child whom he comes to love. It is not very believable, but the telling of it is elegant and gently humorous and life affirming. A welcome departure from most current "problem" novels. (2016, reviewed May, 2017)

THE WAY WEST by A.B. GUTHRIE, JR.
The story of the Western Migration, following one family and their wagon train from Missouri to Oregon. Guthrie writes so believably that one can suppose that he took the trip with them. He is a wonderful writer, realistic and poetic simultaneously. A Pulitzer winner.(1949, reviewed June, 2017)

THE LONG GOODBYE by RAYMOND CHANDLER
I love everything Raymond Chandler ever wrote. He is so stylish, so good at dialogue. He is proof that genre stories can be Literature, with a capital L. This is typical Chandler, with private detective Philip Marlowe involved in the twists and turns of a mystery which includes betrayals and sexy women and, of course, dead bodies. (1953, reviewed June, 2017)

A PERFECT SPY by JOHN LE CARRE'
More than a spy thriller, this is a psychological examination of a man who became a master spy, capable of self-justification for his betrayal of those who trust him. Another example of genre fiction which has achieved Literature status because of the writing skill of its author. (1986, reviewed August, 2017)

THE NORTH WATER by IAN McGUIRE
A harsh and brutal tale of the sailors on a whaling ship in the hunting waters of the Arctic Circle. Despite its violent subject matter, this is a beautiful book, almost mythic in its portrayal of human corruption. Not for everybody, maybe, but it really impressed me. Short-listed for the Booker Prize. (2016, reviewed August, 2017)

NEWS OF THE WORLD by PAULETTE JILES
The story of an old man's journey to return a girl rescued from capture by Kiowa Indians to her white family, taking place in Reconstruction-era Texas. Although the plot is somewhat derivative, the writing is poetic, and Jiles's portrayal of the landscape and the vernacular of Texas are spot-on. It is also pleasurably heart-warming without being too syrupy. A finalist for the National Book Award. (2016, reviewed Sept. 2017)

HISTORY OF WOLVES by EMILY FRIDLUND
A coming-of-age story in which a girl does not grow up to be a wiser and happier adult, in contrast with reader expectations. There is a mystery, but it is secondary to the character development and the use of the harsh landscape of Minnesota as an integral part. Disturbingly fascinating. Short-listed for the Booker Prize. (2017, reviewed November, 2017)

EXIT WEST by MOHSIN HAMID
What begins as the realistic story of a young couple caught up in the chaos of a civil war in their unnamed country suddenly switches to magical realism, as they embark on a quest to find a safe home where they will be welcomed. The result is a fable of the emigrant experience, particularly relevant today in light of the plight of the Syrian people. Short listed for the Booker Prize and winner of the LA Times Book Prize. (2017, reviewed November, 2017)

SING, UNBURIED, SING by JESMYN WARD
A 13-year-old black boy and his little sister take a surrealistic road trip with their mother to bring his white father home from prison. They are accompanied home by ghosts from the past, both figuratively and literally. I believe this book is destined to become a classic. Winner of the National Book Award and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. (2017, reviewed January, 2018)

PACHINKO by MIN JIN LEE
A highly entertaining multi-generational family saga following a Korean family who are immigrants in Japan. While telling a fascinating story it also points to the experience of any immigrant who finds himself devalued because of ethnicity. Finalist for the National Book Award. (2017, reviewed January, 2018)

THE POWER by NAOMI ALDERMAN
Imagine a world of the future when women have become dominant over men, because they have developed the power to deliver electric shock unaided by any device. If you imagine a kinder, gentler world, you would be wrong. As it turns out, power corrupts. What a surprise! This slyly humorous satire has much to say about power and gender and stereotypes. (2017, reviewed January, 2018)

THE MEMORY OF RUNNING by RON McLARTY
A 40-something overweight, beer drinking, chain smoking loser impulsively embarks on a cross-country bicycle trip, and finds himself along the way. I developed a great fondness for this character because the author presents him with such compassion. (2004, reviewed March, 2018)

THE GRIP OF IT by JAC JEMC
First rate psychological horror about a couple who buy a house that is (or might be) haunted. The title accurately describes the hold the book took of my mind. I have seldom read a creepier story. (2017, reviewed March 2018)

Contrary to my usual reading habits, I read several non-fiction books this year, primarily histories and presidential biographies. The best were APRIL, 1865 by JAY WINIK (history, reviewed October, 2017) and WASHINGTON, A LIFE by RON CHENOW (biography, reviewed February, 2018)

I read only one book this year that I would not recommend to anyone: AMERICAN PSYCHO by BRET EASTON ELLIS (1991, reviewed September, 2017).

So I'm off for another year of reading adventures. Onward through the fog.

ROMOLA by GEORGE ELIOT (1863)

To say that this book is not very accessible would be an understatement, at least for me. I started reading it at least four times before I finally stuck with it. It takes 50 pages for Romola, the heroine, to enter the picture and for the actual plot to get started. Those first 50 pages were non-starters, filled with details about Florence in the late 1400s, Latin phrases and quotations, and mentions of famous (at the time) personages, all unfamiliar to me. A 50-page Notes section at the end of the book clarified things somewhat, but it took a great deal of time to page back and forth from the text to the notes to understand what was being conveyed.

Once the actual story gets started, however, the book begins to be very engrossing, although still filled with unfamiliar events, phrases, and people. (About this time, I decided to dispense with the Notes and just charge ahead.) When Tito, a beautiful stranger to the city, becomes secretary to her scholar father, Romola's whole life changes. She is charmed by his good looks, delightful personality, and obvious intelligence, and they soon become engaged. There's just one problem: unbeknownst to Romola, Tito is a real snake in the grass. His only love is himself, and he is ready to betray anyone and everyone to obtain his desires, precisely as he begins to do soon after he and Romola are married.

Will Romola discover what a mistake she has made? How will she react if she finds out? Can she bear to go on when her world crumbles? These were the questions in my mind that kept me reading to the end of this long, rather difficult book. That George Eliot so fully and believably delineated Romola's character and that the situation of a woman betrayed by love blindness is so universal and timeless were added incentives.

Before reading this, I knew next to nothing about the time and place. I had heard of the religious reformer and mystic Savonarola, who has a major role in the narrative, but I knew nothing of his involvement in Florentine politics. Now, thanks to this novel and Wikipedia, I know a good deal more than I did before. It's always good to learn new things.

This would have been a more enjoyable novel for me if its setting had been more familiar. The base story and the writing are impressive, but the background details and political maneuvering sometimes made it a chore.

4 3 2 1 by PAUL AUSTER (2017)

If I had not first read the cover flaps on my copy of 4 3 2 1, I would have become totally confused as I progressed through the book. The first section, titled "1.0" tells the background story of the protagonist's grandparents and parents, from the arrival of the family in America from Minsk in 1900 until Ferguson's birth in 1947. The second section, titled "1.1" recounts Ferguson's childhood up to age 9. His father owns an appliance store, employing two uncles, and his mother has her own photography business. Their life is uneventful until Albert, one of the uncles, betrays the father by spearheading a robbery of the warehouse, and he must close the store.

That's when the confusion begins. The third section, titled "1.2" seems to be telling further details of Ferguson's youth, except suddenly some of the facts don't match up. For example, Albert does not rob the store, but the other uncle burns it to the ground for the insurance money. Then in section "1.3" the store also burns, but this time Ferguson's father dies in the fire. In section "1.4" Ferguson's father has opened several stores and the family is wealthy.

And so it goes, for 868 pages, up through section "7.4" and Ferguson's young manhood, telling the story of the four paths Ferguson might have taken or may have taken. It is all very disorienting, and I had to resort to taking notes about the major events to keep the four stories straight in my mind. It's like reading four books at once, all about the same person, with none of them telling the same story.

Paul Auster is an excellent writer, and thus this novel is very readable (except for the confusing part). But I really dislike books built on gimmicks. That Auster winds up with a metafiction climax is the ultimate gimmick. In addition, the constant name-dropping of high-browed writers and artists and composers to emphasize how intelligent Ferguson is (and by extension, how intelligent Auster is) becomes very irritating.

This novel has received good reviews, but it is not my idea of a good read.

IMPROVEMENT by JOAN SILBER (2017)

Improvement is billed as a novel, but it is actually more a series of short stories featuring characters who are tangentially connected. The first story, narrated by Rayna, a young single mother, concerns her involvement with a boyfriend and his pals to smuggle cigarettes across state lines. Her decision to sever herself from the enterprise leads to unforeseen and tragic consequences, including the death of Claude, a member of the theft ring. Then we move to the third-person story of Darisse, Claude's girlfriend, following his death. Then to Teddy, the truck driver who accidentally killed Claude in a traffic accident. And so on. The stories end with a return to Reyna, as she attempts to atone for her part in Claude's death.

These are very quiet stories, with a minimum of drama, written in an unadorned yet graceful style. The author exhibits great compassion for her characters, who become understandable and real in just a few pages. Each story could have become a novel all by itself, and I found myself disappointed each time one ended that it was not expanded further.

All that being said, I found this to be a very forgettable book. I finished it about a week ago, and I had to look back over it to write this review. I am surprised that it won this year's National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award, especially because another of the finalists for the award was Sing, Unburied, Sing, which is a much better book.

JOHN ADAMS by DAVID McCULLOUGH (2001)

I feel sorry for John Adams. I think he is the most undervalued of our Founding Fathers. Here was a man who was one of the leaders in the push for independence and who worked tirelessly for the cause. He was the one who negotiated the final peace treaty with England, and who negotiated loans from Dutch banks when they were needed most. As president, he held the nation to a steady course, building a strong naval defense while ensuring a peace, all while war with France would have been the politically popular move. He was intellectually brilliant. He was a faithful husband and friend. He was man of incorruptible integrity who never spoke ill of an adversary for political gain, while being subjected to some of the most malicious attacks ever endured by a president.

So why doesn't he get the popular recognition today received by some of his contemporaries? In modern eyes, the Alien and Sedition Act, particularly the limitations on the press, is the primary blot on his record. Although he didn't sponsor the act, he didn't veto it when it passed in Congress.

Mainly, I have come to believe, he is undervalued because he was not a politician. Along with Washington, he believed that political parties were harmful to the emerging democracy. Thus he was caught between the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, both of whom did all they could to undermine him. He knew from the beginning that Hamilton was not his friend, but he believed that Jefferson was, until he finally realized that he, too, was secretly plotting against him.

And yet later in life, when both he and Jefferson were retired, Adams forgave him and began an extensive correspondence. That's more than most would have done, but Adams was a strong adherent of Christian precepts, including forgiveness.

More than any of the Founding Fathers, Adams' life is an open book, because he preserved his letters and writings, including his letters to his wife. In contrast, Jefferson destroyed much of his private correspondence. (He had many things to hide, as it turns out.)

These were the opinions I gained from reading this highly recommended biography of our second president. Privately, I also believe that Adams was undervalued because he did not look the part. He was relatively short and fat and not impressive in appearance, in contrast to the tall and patrician-appearing Washington and Jefferson.

This is an extremely well-written biography which reads much like a novel, seamlessly including massive research. I highly recommend it as a way to re-evaluate our second president.

THE COMMITMENTS by RODDY DOYLE (1989)

This short novel by the Irish writer Roddy Doyle reminds me very much of the mock-documentary movie This Is Spinal Tap. I know a movie has also been adapted from this book, but I have not seen it. This is the story of a group of Dublin working-class youths who style themselves as a soul band. It chronicles their small triumphs and petty tribulations, as greed, egotism, and women tarnish their dream. It is hilarious.

Warning: All of this is written in the vernacular of a specific time and place, and thus many terms and phrases are unfamiliar to the American reader of the here and now. However, this does not distract from enjoyment.

This novel provided me with a day's pleasant distraction and enjoyment. It is highly entertaining.

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Doyle's 1993 novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha won England's Booker Prize.

THOMAS JEFFERSON THE ART OF POWER by JON MEACHAM (2012)

This is the second Jefferson biography I have read (American Sphinx, reviewed 9/17), along with several other accounts of the fathers of our nation. Contrary to the other authors, Jon Meacham paints a largely favorable portrait of our third president. For instance, he calls it "pragmatic" that Jefferson accused his predecessors of aspiring to be monarchs, yet behaved more like a monarch himself, wielding unprecedented executive power while president, in addition to indulging himself in a lavish lifestyle. He includes the smallest details of Jefferson's daily life, yet leaves out the instances when Jefferson secretly used others to defame his opponents and then lied about it if he got found out, or when he expressed conflicting opinions to different people at the same time. He does comment on Jefferson's lifetime avoidance of conflict with others, but presents it as an admirable trait rather than mentioning that it often meant that Jefferson shook someone's hand while stabbing him in the back.

Meacham also admits that Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves and fathered at least one child with his slave Sally Hemmings. (How could he not, with the current DNA evidence as proof.) However, he somewhat excuses this as being typical of the times in Virginia. He does not comment on the ironic fact that this same man proclaimed that "all men are created equal."

The sub-title of this book accurately reflects Jefferson's greatest talent -- he knew how to gain power. While Washington and Adams were our first leaders, Jefferson was our first politician, not above lying to achieve his desired ends. Meacham skirts around this issue, but even his favorable account reveals that Jefferson's public words did not always match his actions.

I am even more confirmed in my opinion that Jefferson is undeserving of the adulation accorded to him today. I believe that he was a champion of states rights mainly because he wanted his elitist, slave-holding lifestyle to continue, and that his first allegiance was always to Virginia rather than to the United States.

THE GRIP OF IT by JAC JEMC (2017)

It takes great deal of talent to turn a stock plot into a first-rate story; Jac Jemc is up to the task. This horror novel centers on the familiar haunted house theme, but it is a cut above most of the rest. It is a novel of the first tier -- literary, psychological horror rather then gore and mayhem and bumps in the night. It can be favorably compared to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, which is high praise indeed.

A young couple moves from the city to the outskirts of a small town, hoping to help the husband break the gambling addiction which has almost destroyed the marriage. They buy an old, many-roomed house at a ridiculously low price, and, predictably, strange things start happening. Large dark spots appear on the walls and are mirrored in unexplained bruises on the wife's body; the house constantly groans or hums in a low register; they discover secret rooms and passageways; even the dense woods behind the house seem to be moving closer.

Narrated in revolving chapters by the husband and wife, the story as well as its language reflect the growing anxiety of the couple, along with the crumbling of the trust they have in each other and even in themselves. The wife says, "We can lose ourselves behind a trapdoor, whether in our minds or in the house."

The title of the book could well describe the hold of the story on my mind. I have seldom read a creepier or more disorienting book. I give it an A+.

MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE'S SORRY by FREDRIK BACKMAN (2013; US translation 2015)

I didn't like this novel at all at first. Its central character is a 7-year-old girl who is unbelievably precocious and clever, too cutesy for words. The narration is third person, yet the entire book is written in the same tone as that used for the dialog of the girl.

But then I was sucked in and became invested in the characters and the plot, as unlikely as they are. Since the story is laced with fantastical tales told to the girl by her grandmother, the fantastical plot elements become more acceptable. As it turns out, fiction and fact are often closer than one would think.

The plot: On her deathbed, a wildly eccentric grandmother charges her granddaughter to find and deliver letters of apology to those the grandmother has wronged. As the quest proceeds, the girl learns to understand familiar people whom she only thought she knew.

This novel is heart-warming and often tear-worthy. It is, in fact, obviously and extremely manipulative. I equate it in my mind to watching the movie Beaches. I laughed, I cried, I was riveted. And afterwards I felt silly for letting my emotions overwhelm my brain.

I believe the main goal of fiction should be to help readers understand the world and the people in it. This type of feel-good book presents a less-than-realistic view of the world, yet it has its place. When life feels overwhelming, read this book to escape to a world where happily-ever-after can happen.

SIX SHORT REVIEWS

FATHERS AND SONS by IVAN TURGENEV (1862)

I had never read this Russian classic before. I expected it to be depressing and filled with characters behaving in bizarre ways, similar to the writings of Dostoevsky, Turgenev's contemporary. Surprisingly, this is instead a penetrating examination of the generation gap in two families, filled with realistic conversations and interactions. True, the novel does feature an untimely death, but it is not depressing as a whole, only sad for the potential lost.

One of the main characters is a young man who considers himself a nihilist, one who finds nothing to approve of in established society. The interesting thing about this is that the revolutionaries of the time saw the book as a criticism of their movement, and the right of the time saw the book as a glorification of nihilism. Turgenev reportedly had not intended the book to be political at all. Perhaps the lesson we can learn here is not to read too much into a book, but to take it at face value.

Recommended for its insights into family dynamics.


THE ALIENIST by CALEB CARR (1994)

I chose this book because I am currently watching the series on television. Contrary to the usual with an adaptation of a novel, in this case the filmed version is actually more intriguing.

The plot follows a psychiatrist in 1896 New York City who is pioneering in the art of criminal profiling. Along with a group of subordinates, he attempts to find the vicious killer who is targeting young boy cross-dressing prostitutes. It is similar to a plot of the television show Criminal Minds, except that it moves m-u-c-h slower and without the drama. In fact, it becomes tedious at times, filled with lengthy conversations about the investigations conducted and the conclusions reached. Despite the adventurous-sounding premise, it is not very exciting at all.

The author does provide an interesting look at the grimy underworld and glittering society world of that time and place.

I give this "thriller" a B-.


THE ORPHAN'S TALE by PAM JENOFF (2017)

This popular novel has an interesting premise: In the middle of World War II, a Jewish aerialist finds refuge by performing under an assumed name, harbored by a non-Jewish circus owner; meanwhile, a teenage girl is cast out of her Dutch family because of her affair with a German officer and is also sheltered at the circus. To further complicate matters, the Dutch girl brings with her a Jewish baby which she rescued from extermination. When the circus travels to Nazi-occupied France, they all face the danger of detection.

Unfortunately, the plot is filled with so many implausibilities and so lacking in coherent character development that it becomes unbelievable.

I give this a B+, for its core plot, but a C for its execution.


THE TOWER OF DAWN by SARAH J. MAAS (2017)

This Young Adult fantasy novel reads like a blend of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and a PG-rated romance novel. The plot includes a malevolent force awakening in the land (LOTR), a ruling family scheming for power (GoT), and two sexy (but non-explicit) love stories (countless YA romance novels). And magic. And giant fighting birds. And fierce horseback fighters. Sorry, no dragons.

This was completely unsuitable for my 12-year-old grandson, for whom I bought it. My teenage granddaughters would not like it either, I don't think, because they are not fantasy fans. It is #6 of the best selling Throne of Glass series, which I did not realize when I bought it. The author does do a good job of catching the reader up on the story without using long background exposition.

This novel is well done for what it is -- a copy of more successful efforts. Recommended for 14 and above.


ISAAC'S STORM by ERIK LARSON (2000)

In 1900, a "storm of the century" hurricane almost wiped Galveston, Texas, from the map. The U.S. Weather Service meteorologist stationed in Galveston at the time was Isaac Cline. This is the non-fiction account of Isaac and the storm.

Author Erik Larson is well known for his novelistic approach to non-fiction, particularly for his award-winning The Devil in the White City. Isaac's Storm lacks the suspense and drama of that effort; nevertheless, it is particularly relevant in this year of multiple monster storms. When man confronts nature, nature almost always wins, despite the sophistication of scientific knowledge.

Of course, Texans will find this particularly interesting.


LAST ORDERS by GRAHAM SWIFT (1996)

Four men go on a road trip to scatter the ashes of their dead friend, each one with differing memories of his life and their experiences together. Narrating in revolving chapters, the main characters reveal secrets and old grievances.

This is novel about ordinary people with everyday drama in their lives. Its plot would not seem to be enough to carry a whole novel, but it does because it is so well written.

Last Orders is extraordinary. It was awarded England's Booker Prize in 1996.

THE MEMORY OF RUNNING by RON McLARTY (2004)

I could cite many reasons not to like this novel, and yet I liked it anyway -- very much.

The "hero" is a 40-something, overweight, alcohol guzzling, chain smoking looser who spends his days at a low level assembly line job and his nights in a bar drinking and watching TV. He doesn't have a girl friend; in fact, he has no friends at all. Then his parents are both killed in an automobile accident and in the very same week he learns that his long-lost sister has also died. Talk about a falling-down life. It's hard to imagine this man as the central character in a novel.

Then he impulsively jumps on his childhood bicycle and embarks on a cross-country ride from Rhode Island to California to claim his sister's body. Along the way, he meets many unusual people -- some who help him and some who try to kill him. Some of these encounters, but not all, are humorous. All are a bit unbelievable.

But most unbelievable of all is the fact that a grossly overweight man could manage to ride even ten miles, especially on a decades-old one-speed bike. Or that a junk-food glutton, drunkard, and heavy smoker could give up all his addictions cold turkey with no problem. The reader must suspend disbelief and go with the flow or perceive the journey as metaphorical.

Along the way our hero also finds himself, or rather, the person he used to be before the stresses of a dysfunctional family and a schizophrenic sister changed him.

So I was able to ignore all the lapses in logic in the plot and the annoying habits of the hero, and feel the warmth and sympathy that the author has for his character. Life is hard, for some harder than for others, and sometimes it defeats us, but not always.

WASHINGTON, A LIFE by RON CHENOW (2010)

George Washington often gave credit to Providence for the success of the American Revolution and for the survival of the fledgling United States. Whether by "providence" he meant good fortune or God is sometimes unclear, but it is clear that it was indeed providential that America had George Washington as its first leader. His honesty, dignity, fair-mindedness, apparent lack of personal ambition for aggrandizement, and unfailing dedication to the concept of a democratic union kept the American Revolution from devolving into the chaos following the French Revolution or the elevation of a despot following the Russian Revolution. This very fine biography of our first president presents Washington as a man not without faults but as the perfect man for that crucial time and place.

Washington was not the greatest of generals; he made mistakes and miscalculations and the victory at Yorktown could not have occurred without the help of the French, but he accomplished something nobody else could have -- he held a ragtag army together through harsh winters and insufficient provisions to keep the cause alive. He was not the supreme intellect of the Founding Fathers, but he was apparently the supreme in terms of character.

Here are a few things I learned from reading this biography (which all well-educated people probably already know):

*Relatively few actual battles took place, with relatively few casualties, especially in contrast to the Civil War.
*Rather than enriching himself through his position of power, Washington almost bankrupted himself by accepting the presidency.
*Although he was a slave holder (as were most of the Founding Fathers), Washington always realized the injustice and freed his slaves in his will.
*I already knew that Thomas Jefferson was a two-faced snake of the first order, but I did not previously know that James Madison was almost as bad.

Author Ron Chenow writes in a very readable and graceful style, but I must warn that this biography is very long -- 800+ pages. It took me two weeks to finish this, reading three or four hours a day. It is well researched, and does not make too much use of assumptions by the author as to the intentions and thoughts of the subject, as I have found that some biographers do.

Washington, A Life was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2011.

THE LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON by ROBERT V. REMINI (1988)

I chose to read about Andrew Jackson because he appears to be President Trump's most admired predecessor. Now I can see why. Jackson, like Trump, represented himself as a populist. He championed the common man rather than the aristocracy. However, he seems to have been sincere in his belief that he represented the will of the people, while Trump's actions in office do not appear to be compatible with his campaign promise to "drain the swamp." I suspect that Trump also shares Jackson's opinion that the President (because he is elected by the people as leader) should have more power than the Supreme Court and even Congress.

Jackson was a war hero (as an Indian fighter and at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812), which accounted for his popularity. During his presidency, he prevented South Carolina from seceding from the Union, dismantled the Second Bank of the U.S., and paid off the national debt. Those were the most positive actions. On the negative side, he favored the extension of slavery to new states and sponsored the Indian Removal Act, which led to the infamous Trail of Tears.

He was no stranger to scandal, primarily because he and his wife Rachel were "married" before her divorce from her first husband was finalized. He was a man of violent temper, and fought duels, in one of which he killed his adversary.

From searching the internet, I found this biography of Jackson to be the most universally acclaimed. It seems to me to be slanted to a more favorable viewpoint. For example, Remini indicates that Jackson actually believed that he was "saving" the Native Americans by forcing them to remove from their lands, because they would thus be removed from the conflict with new settlers, and that he did not foresee that the removal would cause hardship. I don't buy it. I think he just didn't care, because he favored the fortunes of Anglo Americans.

I have found it highly instructive to learn more American history by reading presidential biographies. However, I believe I made a mistake by not starting with Washington and reading about the presidents in order. That would give me a more coherent picture of how we came to be the country we are today. So I will start over. Maybe I will live long enough to complete the list, ending with the Democratic president elected after Donald Trump.

READY PLAYER ONE by ERNEST CLINE (2011)

After reading eleven acclaimed 2017 novels, all of which involved current political/social issues, it was a relief to read a book purely for its entertainment value. This is by no means a masterpiece or destined to become a classic (except perhaps a cult classic for geeks), but it is great fun to read, especially for someone who is or has been involved in video gaming (not me) or who experienced '80's pop culture first-hand (me). It is fast moving, suspenseful, and hard to put down.

Wade is an eighteen-year-old living in a trailer park who spends most of his waking hours on-line in the virtual world Oasis. When the video game designer responsible for creating Oasis dies and stipulates in his will that his vast fortune will be inherited by the first to find the "Easter egg" hidden in the Oasis universe, Wade becomes one of the millions who try to solve the three riddles leading to the prize. Since the Oasis creator was well-known as having a love for all things from the 1980s, Wade has long immersed himself in the pinball and video games, music, movies, and television of the era, which is the key to his becoming the first to solve the beginning riddle.

Soon Wade, operating as his avatar Parzival, and his on-line friends (whom he has never seen in person) are in a dangerous race with IOI, a global communications conglomerate, to solve the remaining riddles and win the fortune and gain control of Oasis. IOI is a formidable foe because it has means and manpower to track down the real-life people hiding behind on-screen avatars. The quest becomes more than a computer game.

All of this is set in a dystopian world only slightly in the future, but all of the many problems are only mentioned in passing, mainly used as the reason why so many people, especially the youth, spend most of their time in the virtual world of Oasis. The focus is on the quest adventure and on an endless stream of '80s pop-culture references. Cline even throws in a little teen romance.

I am a bit puzzled as to the intended audience for this novel. Its tone and reading level would place it in the Young Adult category, but its concentration on '80s trivia would be of most interest to those 40+ who experienced those years. I enjoyed it immensely. I bought it, at her request, for my 14-year-old granddaughter. I will be interested to see how she likes it.

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A movie, which from the trailer seems geared to teenagers, is coming soon.

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by CELESTE NG (2017)

This novel would have been so much better if it had not been built on stereotypes and filled with implausibility, not to mention impossibility. In addition, large sections were devoted to expository material explaining the motivations and actions of the characters, which became awkward in the extreme. All that being said, it is an entertaining take on the precarious relationship of mothers to their teenage daughters and a thought-provoking examination of the cultural divide between those with differing philosophies of life. The side story of a custody fight for a Chinese baby adopted into an Anglo family seemed to be tacked on for its current political relevance and could have been left out of the story entirely.

The Richardson family lives a privileged lifestyle in a perfectly ordered community where everyone (almost everyone) follows the rules. The father is a successful lawyer; the mother reports local news for a second-tier newspaper. Their four children are all in high school and could have come straight out of The Breakfast Club: a handsome jock, a beautiful prom queen, an introverted nerd, and a rebel who rejects their "perfect" life. When they rent out an apartment to free-spirited Mia Warren and her teenage daughter Pearl, their well-ordered existence begins to crumble.

Here's where all the unlikely plot developments enter in. Even though Pearl lacks self confidence and wears thrift-store clothing, she becomes the best of friends with the wealthy Richardson teens. To detail all the improbabilities would be to reveal much of the rest of the story, so I will refrain. Suffice it to say that a reader must necessarily suspend disbelief to enjoy reading the novel.

Nevertheless, I am sure most would find Little Fires Everywhere interesting. I believe it might be a book club natural. It was named a Best Book of the Year by several publications.

WHITE TEARS by HARI KUNZRU (2017)

Yet another 2017 novel about racial tensions. This one centers on white appropriation and exploitation of black culture. Two white college students -- Seth. an introverted poor kid, and Carter, an extroverted member of the 1% -- become friends through their shared love of black music. When Seth records a black blues singer on the streets of New York, Carter backs it with music and posts it on the internet as a 1920's long-lost recording by a fictitious blues singer named Charlie Shaw. What starts out as a realistic account of an unlikely friendship between men from two different worlds turns surreal when an old record collector shows up who claims Charlie Shaw was a real person. The story is told through the viewpoint of Seth, and for the rest of the story it becomes unclear whether events actually occur or if Seth has come unstuck in time or if he is just losing his mind.

This novel seems to me to be a mish-mash of themes, without focus. It's an exploration of racial injustice in America, a picture of the privilege of wealth, a tribute to blues music, the solving of a semi-mystery, a criticism of white exploitation, perhaps a ghost story, and even a love story of sorts, all experienced through the eyes of a mentally unstable and unreliable character.

In addition, I am somewhat offended at an indictment against America by a writer of Indian descent who is a British citizen. Is he not exploiting American culture in order to write a best seller?

White Tears has been critically acclaimed. I found it only mildly interesting.

HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES by CARMEN MARIA MACHADO (2017)

I am probably just a cynic, but I feel that some books are beloved by critics just because they treat with subjects that are currently at the forefront politically, not because they are actually superior. I think that might be the case with this book of short stories. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and was listed on many Best of 2017 book lists, yet I found it to be dogmatic and whiny on the whole, with the longest of the stories (60 pages) becoming boring after the first 20 pages.

The focus of all these stories is lesbian feminism, hot topics in today's culture. Machado's writing is often arresting, but she is a member of the MFA school of over-writing and being clever for cleverness' sake. (Iowa Writers Workshop, to be exact.) I just wonder if she would have been so well received had she chosen to write about people in general, and not this sub-group.

Running through all the stories are elements of the fantastical, with frequent reference to folk tales and urban legends, reminiscent of the writings of Angela Carter. But while Carter's works celebrate womanhood, these seem to me to be tinged with a thread of victimhood and complaint. In three of the eight stories, women experience mental problems, always unpleasant for me to read. In another, a woman lists her sexual experiences, pointlessly as far as I was concerned. The long centerpiece story capsules twelve seasons of a fictional Law and Order, episode by episode. Parts of that were actually funny, particularly for someone (that would be me) who has watched the program, but the premise got old pretty fast. Most of the stories included graphic descriptions of sexual acts, but none were in the least erotic.

Perhaps this collection left me disappointed because I am not enough of a feminist. Or because I am not a lesbian. Or because I am too old and don't consider one's sexuality to be the centerpiece of existence. Whatever.

I would not recommend this book to most people, although I will grant that it is competently written.