TEN SHORT REVIEWS

More short reviews of books read for the second or third time.


THE TIGER'S WIFE by TEA OBREHT (2011)
Second reading
Set in an unnamed war-torn Balkan country, combining the story of a young doctor's relationship to her grandfather with the tales he told her about the deathless man and a deaf-mute girl's relationship with a tiger which had escaped from a zoo. Including both magical realism taken from folk tales and a realistic portrait of a country haunted by war, Obreht manages to create a haunting novel which is well worth reading. It won Britain's Orange Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award.


THE LAST HARRAH by EDWIN O'CONNER (1956)
Second reading
An interesting novel in a historical sense; it's the story of a mayoral campaign in a large Eastern city by the last of the old-style "machine" politicians, one who garners votes by awarding favors, before the era of television ushered in the cult of personality. It is also interesting from the aspect of the current political climate, when the favors awarded are to major campaign donors. Though a student of politics would undoubtedly find this a rewarding read, it feels very dated as to style and is actually somewhat boring as to plot. I give it a C+.


HOWARDS END by E.M. FORSTER (1910)
Third reading
First, Howards End is the name of a house, not referring to a man named Howard. This is a very English novel, concerning three social classes -- rich capitalists, middle class cultured intellectuals, and the struggling uneducated poor. Forster highlights their prejudices and follies through a surprisingly dramatic story, which was risque' for its time, as it includes violent death and an out-of-wedlock child. Extremely well done, except that I felt the heroine was too tolerant and forgiving to seem real.


MISTER PIP by LLOYD JONES (2006)
Second reading
I love this novel about the power of literature to help a reader survive through strife and anguish. It revolves around the experience of a young girl during a time of war. With their whole world in disarray, the children are helped to retain some sense of normality by their teacher, who reads Great Expectations by Charles Dickens to them. The character Pip becomes the young girl's shelter from her otherwise harsh reality. The story is harsh, often brutal, and lovely at the same time. This was short-listed for England's Booker Prize.


THIRTEEN MOONS by CHARLES FRAZIER (2007)
Second reading
This is a novel by the author of Cold Mountain. an excellent book which won awards. Unhappily, this is much less impressive. It is a historic novel about a white man who fought in the Civil War, became a member of the Cherokee tribe, and was involved in an unsuccessful fight to keep the tribal lands. It's also a love story of sorts. All in all, Thirteen Moons was a disappointment.


THE FOURTEEN SISTERS OF EMELIO MONTEZ O'BRIEN by OSCAR HUELOS (1995)
Second reading
Huelos won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 with his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, about Cuban immigrant brothers and their adventures in music and in love. That was an excellent book. This one -- not so much. Actually, it is too much to be effective. It covers fifteen siblings, children of an Irish father and a Cuban mother, from the era of the Great Depression through the present (1990s). Huelos has no real focus, and some of the stories seem highly unlikely. I consider this a C effort.

GAP CREEK by ROBERT MORGAN (1999)
Second reading
I did not care for this book, although it was generally well regarded at the time of its publication. (It was one of Ohrah's Book Club picks). It tells the story of a strong young woman in the early 20th century who withstands the deaths of her father and brother, the immaturity of her young husband, and all sorts of disasters. And she endures. It is meant to be inspirational, I suppose. I find it to be hackneyed and forgettable.

THE BOSTONIANS by HENRY JAMES(1886)
Second reading
In contrast to many of James's later novels, this is actually very readable. However, it is difficult for me (and according to my research, problematic for professional critics) to quite discern his intent and message. On the surface, this seems to be about a young charismatic girl who is torn between becoming a leading speaker in the woman's movement or a traditional subservient wife. Underneath the surface, the conflict is between the girl's old-maid mentor, who hates all men, and the Southern man who is physically appealing to her. In other words, the whole novel appears to be about a conflict between lesbianism and heterosexual attraction. Interesting, considering the time when this was written. It seems to me that James did not perceive either alternative to be indicative of lasting happiness.


BARNABY RUDGE by CHARLES DICKENS (1841)
Second reading
The titular character, Barnaby, is actually peripheral to the plot of this early Dickens novel, which centers on the Gordon Riots of 1870 against those of Catholic faith. It actually tries to do too much, as it encompasses a mystery (easily guessed very early), two love affairs, and the effects of the riots on the characters. It does, however, contain several very memorable characters, as is typical of Dickens. Later Dickens novels are more focused. This is for hard-core Dickens fans.


THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY by EDITH WHARTON (1913)
Second reading
A drama about the lust for money and power. The protagonist, Undine Spragg, is one of the easiest to hate in literature, as she destroys man after man in her quest for social status and a lavish lifestyle. It becomes infuriating to the reader that she succeeds just because she is beautiful and knows how to flirt. Edith Wharton is a wonderful writer, with a great talent for revealing character motivations. Her Age of Innocence is one of my favorite novels.

BECOMING by MICHELLE OBAMA (2018)

Several years ago, just after Barack Obama was elected president, a good friend of mine remarked to me, "Don't talk to me about Michelle Obama. I despise her." I was quite taken aback, both by the vehemence in her voice and the use of the word "despise." I don't believe many people feel that strongly about a First-Lady. Coward that I am (or peace keeper, to give it a more favorable slant) I backed away from the subject. I didn't ask her why she felt that way. I suspected we had voted for different candidates, and I didn't want politics to interfere in our friendship. I wish now I had asked, because our friendship died anyway.

At the time I knew little about Michelle Obama, certainly not enough to know if I liked or disliked her. I knew that she was a lawyer, that she was attractive, and that she had a certain air of dignity which seemed appropriate for a FLOTUS. As the years of the Obama administrations passed, I was aware of her efforts to promote good nutrition and to fight childhood obesity. I was aware that she was criticized by some because school children didn't like their newly revised meals. Well, kids don't like to study history or English as much as they like to play video games. It's logical that they wouldn't like carrot sticks as well as they like tater tots. It seemed to me that people were looking for reasons to criticize.

This autobiography informed me of the multitude of things I did not previously know about Michelle Obama. For example:
*She grew up on the South Side of Chicago, which is not an affluent neighborhood;
*Her parents were working-class, not professionals;
*She graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School;
*She held a prestigious position at a major law firm before resigning to accept more rewarding work for non-profit agencies;
*She apparently always put her children first when considering any career decision;
*She is 5'11" tall. (I am always fascinated by tall people.)

After reading this book, I would consider Michelle Obama as entirely admirable. Of course, an autobiography invariably presents a favorable impression. I would also consider this to be well written. Of course, famous people sometimes employ ghost writers, but her education would lead one to believe that she actually did the writing herself.

I have long believed that most of the criticism of the Obamas stemmed from closet racism. I may be wrong. I hope so.

AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by TAYARI JONES (2018)

This is the story of a marriage in trouble. It is not solely because of some of the more commonplace stressors that face young couples, such as a lack of honesty or a difference in life goals. This couple's seemingly upwardly mobile lives are interrupted by events beyond their control.

Roy and Celeste, a young black couple, have journeyed to Louisiana to visit his family when he briefly interacts with a fellow guest at the motel where the couple is staying. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, they are awakened by police who tell them that the guest has accused Roy of rape. When he is subsequently convicted, Roy and Celeste must each face life alone while struggling to maintain their marriage tie despite the obvious obstacles.

The novel in narrated mostly by Roy and Celeste in turn, allowing the reader to understand the background and state of mind of both. A friend to both of them, Andre, narrates briefly about his involvement in their lives.

The questions to be answered, by Celeste and, by extension, by the reader: what is the right thing to do when familial and societal expectations contrast with hopes and desires; is self-sacrifice a product of pity or love; what do you do when you love two people, in different ways?

An American Marriage is written in sparse and straight-forward prose which flows well. The situations are emotionally charged and the plot is suspenseful. However, it had minimal impact, for me, at least. For someone who reads many books a year, it was not a waste of time, but for anyone who reads a limited number of books a year, I believe many other 2018 books would be more enjoyable and/or worthwhile.

WARLIGHT by MICHAEL ONDAATJE (2018)

This is yet another novel I bought because of the writer, not because I had read glowing reviews. Michael Ondaatje is the author of The English Patient, recipient of England's Booker Prize in 1992, an extraordinary novel of the aftermath of battle in World War II. Warlight returns to that time period to examine the effects of war on one family, effects which linger long after "peace" has been declared.

Nathaniel, as an adult, remembers the time in 1945 when his mother and father left him and his sister, ostensibly to go overseas for the father's work, in the care of the enigmatic man they called The Moth, As a teenager, he experiences a strange coming-of-age through the odd acquaintances of The Moth, who seemingly take him under their protection. When their mother returns following an episode when Nathaniel and his sister are kidnapped and then rescued, she offers no explanations for the absence of the father or for where she has been.

Nathaniel is recruited by the Foreign Office when he is in his 20s, and begins to research records to gain some sense of what his mother had been involved in during and after the war. Through actual records and his recollections, filled in by his imagination, he arrives at a semblance of the truth of his mother's double life.

This is a very low-key novel. Despite being beautifully written, its emotional impact is negligible. It is definitely a "head" novel, to be appreciated intellectually.

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by DELIA OWENS (2018)

If I were going to vacation at the beach or on a cruise this summer, this would be a great book to take. It reads smoothly and does not take much concentration, and its plot is interesting and somewhat suspenseful. It has a who-done-it mystery toward the end, but it is essentially a romance novel, albeit of a more literary cast than most. The descriptions of the Outer Banks of North Carolina are extremely well done. What a reader must needs overlook is that the plot is highly unlikely, almost unbelievable.

The protagonist, Kya, is abandoned by both parents and all her siblings at the age of nine in an isolated area on the edge of the marshes. And she survives. Grown to young adulthood, she is, of course, breathtakingly beautiful, and attracts the attention of not one, but two, of the "town boys." When one of them is found dead, possibly murdered, she is the first suspect.

In the midst of all this Kya has turned herself into a best-selling author and illustrator of books about the flora and fauna of North Carolina's Outer Banks. Who would have thought it?

I don't want to be too critical of a book that is quite entertaining as it is being read (though quite forgettable afterwards). It is a pick of Reese Witherspoon's Book Club. That may or may not be a recommendation for potential readers, depending on how one views Reese Witherspoon's literary judgment.

MACHINES LIKE ME by IAN McEWAN (2019)

It's surprising how often I serendipitously happen to read something and watch something on television simultaneously which correspond as to theme and/or subject matter. For example, I just finished re-watching all five seasons of the science fiction series Battlestar Galactica. The premise of the show is that human-created machines (robots) evolved and rebelled against their creators. Some, which were subsequently created by the machines themselves, were even indistinguishable from humans. As it turns out, these artificial intelligences were superior in some ways to the humans who originated them. Some Cylons (as the machines became known) and humans even fell in love. Just as I was finishing this binge-watch, I read the newest novel by one of my favorite contemporary authors, Ian McEwan. I chose to read it because of the author, having no clue as to the subject matter, although the title should have given me a hint. McEwan is ordinarily a writer of literary fiction rather than anything even vaguely resembling science fiction, so it is not surprising that this novel is much more thoughtful than one would anticipate, considering the subject matter.

The narrator, Charlie, is drifting through life when he unexpectedly receives an inheritance. Rather than spend his new wealth wisely, he impulsively buys one of the newly manufactured "synthetic humans," which are visually indistinguishable from actual humans. Since it is up to the owners to program the personalities of their purchase, Charlie enlists the help of his lover Miranda in creating what they perceive to be the perfect "human." As it turns out, Adam, the name they give him, is perhaps more perfect than they actually wanted him to be, exhibiting values and actions which his programmers might aspire to and consider ideal, but which they themselves fail to adhere to. And then Adam falls in love with Miranda.

Both the television series and this novel examine what it means to be human and whether we are, in fact, capable of ever reaching the perfection we would aspire to. As a secondary theme would be the question of what exactly distinguishes human from machine. Is there a soul, and if so, who or what has one?

Ian McEwan has won England's Booker Prize for Amsterdam and has been short-listed for six other novels. This is not his best book, by far. That would be Atonement, in my opinion. But this one is very interesting and a better novel than most current offerings.

THE OVERSTORY by RICHARD POWERS (2018)

This novel changed the way I look at the world.

That's a big deal. A very few of the many, many books I have read have opened my eyes to something completely new to me, or have changed my way of interacting with my environment. This one did. I hope that it has a similar effect on other readers, because it is important to our survival as a species that we change our ways of dealing with the other life forms on our planet.

This is a story about trees, and in extension about all of the non-human world. Because the human readers naturally react more strongly to stories about people, Powers introduces a cast of characters who interact with trees in various ways, but their plots are secondary to the introduction of a wealth of scientific information (previously unknown to me and, I would assume, to most non-scientists) about how trees interact with each other, send messages to each other, protect themselves, protect their young, and in a myriad of other ways perform all the same tasks as human beings. Who knew? Certainly not me.

I have long been fascinated with trees, having grown up in the Panhandle of Texas, where a tree of over ten feet is an anomaly and no such thing as a woods or a forest exists. I immediately loved Central Texas when I moved here, because of the trees. I am immediately calmed when I now sit on my deck surrounded by oaks and cedars. Thus, I was probably predisposed to appreciate The Overstory perhaps more than some. I have never experienced an actual forest or seen a redwood or other giant of the species. I can only imagine what my reaction might be to their magnificence.

Strictly viewed as a novel, The Overstory is somewhat lacking. The human stories are sketchy and sometimes illogical. The first 150 pages or so read like summaries of the early lives of the nine central characters, having in common only their tangential relationship with trees or a tree. The characters all come together in the end, but they never seem quite real. I would compare this novel to 1984. Like this one, 1984 is not the most well written, and the specific characters are not actually that important. The important thing is the message, the warning. Somebody, somewhere references 1984 daily about the current world, I hope that this book also enters the general consciousness.

The message here is LEAVE THEM ALONE. Don't cut the trees down. Don't curate the forest. Let nature take care of itself, and it will take care of us.

How did this book influence my actual life? I decided it was wrong to try to make my surroundings in the woods look like a lawn in the city. I decided to leave the native grass and weeds and wild flowers. I will vote for political candidates who vow to protect the environment. If I were younger or richer, I would do more. I have come to believe that environmental issues should be the focus of political thought. All other issues will have no relevance if the earth is not habitable.

Richard Powers won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year for this novel. I don't believe it to be the most well written book of the year, but I do believe it to be the most important.

THE FRIEND by SIGRID NUNEZ

The cover of the paperback copy of The Friend features a photo of a Great Dane. The back cover implies that the novel tells the story of a woman and her relationship with a dog. I presumed that this would be a "dog story," not exactly my cup of tea, since I have never viewed dogs as other than animals, not ascribing to them human characteristics, as some do. (How many times on Facebook do I see references to "fur babies.") But this novel did win the 2018 National Book Award, so I bought it.

As it turns out, this is really only peripherally about a dog. It is more about grief and how a highly educated writer/teacher deals with the loss of her mentor, who has long been her best friend, and perhaps even the love of her life. Her reaction to the dog, which is left to her by the mentor when he commits suicide, is the focus. The dog itself does nothing noteworthy, except perhaps suffer its own sense of bewilderment and bereavement (who knows with a dog?).

I would hardly characterize The Friend as a novel, in fact. Not much happens, plot-wise. It seems more a meditation on death, grief, the artistic life, writing, and love. It is filled with quotes by a myriad of famous authors, so much so that it begins to seem like name-dropping and a proclamation of how well-read the author is.

This is a thoughtful, well-written book, but I felt all along that it was strangely emotionless, considering the subject matter. I would not have voted for it to receive a major literary award, but I most surely look for different attributes than the judges of such things do. I think the primary audience for this might be academic-types and perhaps those who have suffered the grief of the loss of a loved one. As for dog lovers, I don't know. It is certainly not the kind of "dog story" that I expected.

THE SIMULATION HYPOTHESIS by RIZWAN VIRK (2019)

My son, nerd-in-chief Kevin Igo, sent me this book, saying it was "fascinating." And it was, although I understood less than half of it. The hypothesis, as I understand it, is that we are not living in an actual world but in a simulated world, a simulation controlled by some unknown outside source. As proof, the author offers evidence from quantum physics (none of which I understood), comparisons with advances in video game creation (some of which I understood), and the literature and beliefs of Eastern and Western religions. As to the accuracy of the author's evidence, I have not a clue, except that in his discussion of Western religious teachings, he misquoted the Bible. This made me suspect all his so-called evidence.

This book reminded me of a book popular in the 1960s, Chariot of the Gods. The author of that book made a very convincing case for pre-history visits to earth of alien astronauts, citing archeological findings, as well as various ancient writings, including the book of Ezekiel in the Bible. However, he quite obviously started with his conclusion and then looked for evidence to support it, however tenuous or doubtful the connection. That seems to me to be what Virk has done in this book.

Virk frequently references the science fiction author Philip K. Dick (one of my favorites), who frequently wrote about simulated lives and multiple universes. However, Virk discusses the movie adaptations rather than the novels themselves, which I thought was strange. He also frequently mentions the movie The Matrix.

This is an interesting read, but I am not convinced. If I am living in a simulation, I wish my controller had made some better decisions for me.

THE MARCH by E.L. DOCTOROW (2005)

Second reading


In 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman led Union troops across the deep South in his March to the Sea. He waged a new kind of war -- a "scorched earth" policy that dispensed with supply lines and demanded that the soldiers live off the land, using what they needed and destroying the rest. This prize-winning novel tells the story of that march, through the experiences and thoughts of some of those who were aggressors and some of those of the South who were affected, for good or ill.

Among those Southerners whose experiences are followed are both the formerly privileged aristocrats and the freed slaves: Pearl, the half-white daughter of her former master, who must decide whether or not to pass for white; Wilma and Cashhouse, former slaves who must decide whether to stay in the South or migrate to big Northern cities; Emily, a judge's daughter who finds herself aiding and enamored of a Union surgeon; Arly and Will, deserters from the Rebels who masquerade as events dictate to save their skins.

Doctorow also follows General Sherman's actions and thoughts. I know not if his depiction is at all historically credible, but it is entirely believable within the framework of the novel.

This is an entirely engrossing novel, which won numerous awards when it was published, including the Pen/Faulkner Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. It is one of those books that make novel-reading worthwhile. I highly recommend it.

EIGHT SHORT REVIEWS

My reading outpaced my reviewing. These are short reviews of some of the books I read in the last 4 months or so.



MADAME BOVARY by GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (1856)
Third reading

Although Madame Bovary was written in the 19th Century, it seems remarkably modern because of Flaubert's psychological insights into the mind and character of his protagonist. Emma Bovary is a woman who has read too many romantic novels and so believes that she can somehow leave her middle class life with a mundane husband and find a life of luxury and romance with a dashing hero. As she betrays her husband and ruins him with her debts in an attempt to achieve her goals, she is repeatedly disappointed by the disparity between her dreams and real life.

Haven't we all known someone similar, someone never satisfied with life as it is, someone who wishes for the kind of life only present in fiction and in the imagination? Isn't it sometimes a struggle not to fall into the same mind trap?

It is perhaps surprising to modern readers that this novel caused such a sensation and so much criticism when it was written, but this was a new kind of novel at the time -- one that realistically portrayed life without the gloss of romanticism. Highly recommended.


A GOOD AND HAPPY CHILD by JUSTIN EVANS (2007)
Second reading

What a creepy book this is. It's a psychological thriller, wherein the reader never knows if the events are actual or only in the narrator's mind. It could portray a case of demonic possession or it could portray a psychotic break resulting from grief and abandonment issues. The narrator, a new father, visits a psychiatrist because he finds himself reluctant to even touch his baby. Through a journal given to him by the doctor, he recounts a series of startling events from his childhood.

The author is particularly adept at the pacing of the narrative to provide maximum impact. This is a short book, easily and quickly read, and it will make you believe that demonic possession can occur.


GABRIELA, CLOVE AND CINNAMON by JORGE AMADO (1962)
Second reading

This most entertaining novel by the Brazilian author Jorge Amado tells the story of Nacib, the owner of a popular cafe, and of the free-spirited migrant girl he hires in desperation as a cook. She proves to be not only inspired in the kitchen but also an enticing beauty, once she is cleaned up. Needless to say, Nacib falls in love with her, but once they are married and he begins to expect her to behave like a traditional wife, their romance takes a bad turn.

The novel is richly comedic, very funny, in fact, so the reader knows that somehow everything will turn out for the good. The question becomes how. Recommended when you feel in need of a well-done romantic comedy.


FIVE QUARTERS OF AN ORANGE by JOANNE HARRIS (2001)
Second reading

This novel has two time lines -- World War II's Nazi occupation of France and modern-day France. The protagonist, Framboise, is a 9-year-old girl in the earlier time line, who comes under the sway of a Nazi soldier. Emotionally estranged from her harsh mother, she unwittingly brings about a tragedy which results in her family being cast out of their small village. When she returns to the village many years later, she bears a new name and is unrecognized (she thinks), opening a restaurant, using her mother's recipes. When the restaurant becomes well known throughout the country, she runs the risk of being recognized and of the shame of her past being revealed.

Five Quarters of an Orange provides both a picture of occupied France, with the conflicts of conscience which occurred, and a tale of redemption and forgiveness. It is very pleasantly written and emotionally affecting. It is not a novel to be long remembered, but it makes for interesting reading.


THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by EDITH WHARTON (1905)
Third reading

I re-read this book not too many years ago, but I chose to read it again because I so enjoy Edith Wharton's elegant prose style and the mastery of her story telling. The House of Mirth is not a feel-good book at all. In fact it is a tragedy, in the classical sense. The heroine's downward spiral is of her own making. Her tragic flaw is her inability to bring herself to marry for money while being incapable of living without it. This is a tale of the highest society in late 1800s New York City, the society of which Wharton was a member, so the details are not imagined so much as they are remembered.

Wharton is a peerless novelist, and is thus able to make a story so foreign to the life experience of most readers fascinating. Perhaps all can relate to the obstacles social expectations and upbringing can place in our lives.

This is a must-read, as is Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Innocence. Ethan Frome is also impressive, involving a different class of society.


MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by ARTHUR GOLDEN (1997)
Second reading

This fictional memoir is fully believable as a true, first person account by a former geisha, covering the years just before, during, and just after World War I. The author is said to have based his novel on actual interviews he conducted with a retired geisha. However, she later sued him because he revealed her identity and was not accurate in his account of geisha life.

However true-to-life this book actually is, it makes for fascinating reading, not only offering a glimpse of a life-style unfamiliar to us of the Western Hemisphere, but also providing a darn-good story, complete with romance and suspense. It dispels the preconception that most Westerners might have that "geisha" is an Eastern term for "prostitute." A better synonym would be "entertainer" or "hostess," although one path to financial security for the geisha was to become the kept mistress of a wealthy patron. They were not otherwise available for sexual favors.

EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS by DAVID GUTERSON (1999)
Second reading

While being short on plot, this novel compensates by being beautifully written in its description of the landscape of Washington state. A retired doctor has been diagnosed with incurable colon cancer, and determines to stage his suicide to look like a shooting accident. He takes off with his two dogs on an ostensible hunting trip. However, several events conspire to upset his plans: he is involved in a car accident, one of his dogs is killed and the other injured by another hunter's wolfhounds, he rescues a gravely ill illegal migrant worker, he is called upon for an emergency baby delivery. Actually, that sounds like a lot of plot, but all the incidents are merely backdrops for the doctor's attempt to accept his coming death.

East of the Mountains is an exceptionally low-key book. It is the opposite of being a page-turner. The author also has the annoying habit of describing in detail the appearance and clothing of every single character, including even the random store clerks who make a two paragraph appearance. I would not recommend it, except that the descriptive writing is exceptional.


THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by ARUNDHATI ROY (1997)
Third reading

This 21-year-old novel is still as fresh and unique as the year it was published. What makes it especially memorable is the narrative voice, which for most of the novel is third person through the perspective of seven-year-old twins in the late 1960s in India. The author has mastered the magical ability to portray the world through their innocent eyes in an entirely believable way, making the doom which looms for them doubly tragic. This is not a happily-ever-after book. In my reading experience, novels by Indian authors never are. A deep streak of fatalism seems to inform their world view, so that they portray a country where tragedy and loss become inevitable.

The twins, Raahel and Esthappen, live with their beautiful mother, their blind grandmother, their Rhodes-scholar uncle, and their enemy, grandaunt Baby Kochamma. When their English cousin, the uncle's daughter, arrives for a visit, events are set in motion that will affect their lives forever.

The negative effects of India's caste system loom large here. In a sense, this is a Romeo and Juliet story, but one wherein the children suffer along with the illicit lovers. The God of Small Things won England's Booker Award. I recommend it most highly.

PARADE'S END by FORD MADOX FORD (4 novels: Some Do Not..., No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up-, The Last Post) (1924-1928)

Second reading



This 4-part series, known collectively as Parade's End, is highly regarded among literary critics, especially those who are British. It is set in England and on the Western Front, before, during, and immediately after World War I. It is told through the interior monologues of its various characters, particularly through the consciousness of Christopher Tietjens, a member of England's upper class.

As the first novel begins, Christopher's wife Sylvia has decided to return to him after having run away with another man. He does not believe that a real gentleman should divorce a wife and bring public scandal upon the family, so he takes her back, although not resuming sexual relations. While she has been gone, however, he has met a young lady from a well-born but impoverished family to whom he is powerfully attracted. As war looms, Sylvia spitefully tries to harm her husband's reputation, because, we are led to believe, she actually loves him and just wants to get his attention or some sort of reaction. The title of the novel, Some Do Not..., gives the reader the clue that Christopher and the girl he loves will refrain from acting on their feelings.

The subsequent novels take place during and immediately after the war. Sylvia continues to torment Christopher, even while he is stationed in France. His stint in the trenches later on is reported only through his thoughts, so it is not a very specific account of events. The last novel takes place after the war, and strangely enough, does not include his thoughts but those of others about him.

This is a very, very English story, with the "hero" being so "stiff-upper-lip" as to seem almost emotionless. Christopher tries to cling to the code of the ideal gentleman, but gradually finds that the old ways are no longer practicable. At one point he muses, "Gentlemen don't earn money. They exist." By the end of the series, however, he makes a living by selling antique furniture to rich Americans. The "parade" has ended. The old England has disappeared.

Perhaps the upper-class English do behave in the way these characters do, or perhaps they did back in the 1920s, but I have never known anyone who acted even remotely as these act. The major characters, in their stream-of-consciousness monologues, all seem deranged. Although the scholarly introduction to my edition assures me that Ford was highly influential and celebrated for his introduction of modernism, I found this novel series to be unrealistic (to my experience, at least) and even boring. I would not have devoted myself to these 900 pages if I had anything better to do.

ASYMMETRY by LISA HALLIDAY (2018)

When I finished this book, I slammed it down and said, "What the hell?" It seemed to me to be senseless, pointless, meaningless. It is by far my least favorite of the nine 2018 books I have read, taking the advice of "Best of...." lists and already-given awards. If you think you might want to read this novel, don't read the rest of the review, as it contains major spoilers. Just know that you would be reading it against my advice.

The novel is divided into three sections. The first, taking up 123 pages, or almost half the book, chronicles the romance between Mary Alice, a young woman in her early 20s, and a much-older award-winning author. Much of it is dialogue, tending to show that the young woman is allowing herself to be subservient to her older lover, following his directions as to when to come and when to go, reading the books he recommends, fetching and carrying for him, sitting by his bedside when he is ill, and so forth. It ends abruptly, seemingly in mid-story.

The second section is the story of the American-raised Amar who is on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan. Detained in the Heathrow airport, he remembers past visits to his birth country and reflects on the different paths he and his brother have followed. A goodly bit of this section is also dialogue, primarily between Amar and customs agents.

So how do these two low-key and borderline-boring sections relate to each other? I trusted that the final section would provide an epiphany. Section three is couched as a transcript of the BBC Radio show "Desert Island Disks," wherein a famous person (the author from the first section) talks about the music he would bring with him if stranded on a desert island. He indicates through hints that the story of Amar is a novel written by a lover who left him (obviously Mary Alice). At the end of the interview, the author endeavors to entice the married female interviewer to go out with him. He is obviously a narcissistic jerk.

But why should a reader even care about any part of this disconnected mess? Why was it named one of the best novels of 2018 by numerous sites, including the New York Times? What did I miss? I resorted to researching various reviews and articles on the internet, and learned that the author, in her younger days, had been the lover of author Philip Roth (who is now deceased). Roth, one of the most honored authors of his generation, is well known for basing his novels on autobiographical material, so the first section of Lisa Halliday's novel is universally presumed to be an autobiographical account of her love affair with Roth, especially since Roth's divorced second wife had previously written a memoir which portrayed Roth in an unflattering light.

The second section of Halliday's novel is apparently her reaction to her lover's advice to write what she knows and has experienced, as he did. I can't figure out if the lackluster quality of that section means that Halliday realizes that she does better when she follows her controlling lover's advice, or if she thinks she is proving that she can disregard his advice.

The third section serves to let reader's into the secret connection of the first two sections.

I still wonder why I should be impressed by this book. I guess it's a bit clever. I could see Halliday was aiming to be clever after reading only the first five or six pages. I'm wondering if critics praised it because they were all a bit jealous of Roth and, of course, human nature dictates that we all are secretly a little pleased to hear that a lauded person is in reality a son of a bitch.

THE HOUSE OF BROKEN ANGELS by LUIS ALBERTO URREA (2018)

Out of all the books published in 2018 that I have read, this is my favorite. It is not the one most well written, or the one most topical, but it is the most enjoyable to read and the one that left me with the most hope for the future of mankind. This is a love story -- the love and support provided by an extended family. The fact that it also highlights some of the problems of today's Mexican-Americans, legal and illegal, is secondary.

The plot set-up would seem to presage that The House of Broken Angels would be a sad story -- a large Mexican-American family gathers for the funeral of the grandmother of the clan, followed immediately by the birthday celebration of the oldest surviving member, who is himself dying of cancer. The descendants and relatives of the ailing patriarch, Miguel Angel de la Cruz (affectionately called Big Angel) include those who came to the U.S. as immigrants and became citizens, those who crept across the border and stayed, those who were brought here as children and are still here illegally, and those who are birth citizens. Some never knew they were not citizens until they were almost adults. Some speak only Spanish, some speak only English, but most speak both. Some are dark of complexion and some are light. Big Angel's half-brother, known to the family as Little Angel, is one of the light-skinned ones, having had an Anglo mother.

Over the course of the weekend's events, Urrea tells their stories, particularly those of the two Angels. This is a novel which brings forth both tears and laughter. It is eminently satisfying on an emotional level, and the ending is perfect.

I wrote in the first paragraph that this was not the most topical novel of 2018 that I had read, but perhaps it is, in the best way. It does not attempt to gain the reader's sympathy for the plight of Mexican-Americans in today's divisive society nor does it accentuate their difficulties in dealing with bigotry and racism. Instead, it celebrates family and love and (this sounds corny) the circle of life. Despite what some would like us to believe, these people are not rapists, or murderers, or sex traffickers, or M-13 members. This is a typical Mexican-American family, patterned after the author's own family.

This novel is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was on many Best of 2018 lists. I love it. Highly recommended.

THE LARGESSE OF THE SEA MAIDEN by DENIS JOHNSON (2018)

A lifetime of voracious reading has taught me that examples of mediocrity far outnumber examples of high excellence, even among popular and/or critically celebrated books. Those few books which seem to me to be of lasting value generally come in two categories -- those which tell great stories and those which are superbly written. A very, very few fit both categories. Those are the classics, or are destined to be so.

Denis Johnson is not the best of storytellers. In fact, the five selections in this volume are not exactly stories at all, but more like reminiscences, with overriding themes. I doubt that his will ever be a name remembered by everyone, but he is an extraordinary writer, and these "stories" are all a joy to read. His prose is not flashy or florid, but sentences after sentence and phrase after phrase are so spot-on that you are filled with wonder. His characters are often broken and sometimes desperate: some are drug addicts, some are convicts, some are dying or caring for those dying. Johnson often interjects gallows humor. Yet each short story offers a glimpse of daylight at the end of the tunnel. The title of one of the stories would seem to carry the theme of the collection. Johnson himself was dying of cancer as he completed this volume, and at the end of "Triumph Over the Grave" he writes, "The world keeps turning. It's plain to you that at the time I write this, I'm not dead. But maybe by the time you read it." The last story in the collection, "Doppelganger, Poltergeist," hints that consciousness after death or even reincarnation are possibilities. Taken all together, the stories seem to reflect Johnson's attempts to come to terms with his impending death.

I am not generally fond of the short story format, much preferring the character development and more intricate plotting of the novel form. These, however, are so well done and so evocative that I soon found myself in Johnson's worlds. I highly recommend this book. It was named one of the best of 2018 by multiple sources, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Kirkus Reviews.

CIRCE by MADELINE MILLER (2018)

Perhaps you remember the name Circe from back when you read parts or all of Homer's The Odyssey in high school or college. She's the one who turned Odysseus's men into swine. Madeline Miller has re-imagined Circe's story and given it a decided feminist twist. Although Circe begins her life almost literally grovelling at the feet of Helios, her sun-god father, and of the other Titan gods, she ends this story in control of her own destiny. Her ages-long journey includes humiliation at the hands of a lover, loneliness, the development of a skill for magic, aiding in the birth of the Minotaur, life as a single mother with a cranky baby, a face-off with the most vengeful of the Olympians, and a final choice to be made based on her hard-won maturity.

Miller includes many of the high points of Greek myth and legend, even bits not connected directly to Circe and what we know of her. We meet Daedalus and his high-flying son Icarus, the murderous Medea, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer, the monster Scylla, and, of course, crafty Odysseus. It seems to me that a reader would need to be somewhat familiar with Greek myth to find much of this detail interesting. For someone such as myself, familiar with the subject from having taught six-week units on the subject, it was a fascinating to see how Miller slipped it all in, along with her base story.

I will have to say that this fictional memoir has a distinctly Young Adult flavor, especially in the beginning, but the book improves as it goes along and becomes more a character study than an adventure story.

Circe was named one of the best books of 2018 by many publications, including The Washington Post and Kirkus Reviews. I recommend it especially to those who remember their Greek mythology.

THE MARS ROOM by RACHEL KUSHNER (2018)

One of the proven benefits of reading novels is that you get to experience different worlds, to better understand different times, different places, and people unlike yourself. So far, in my binge reading of 2018 novels, I have learned what it's like to be young, beautiful, rich, and depressed (My Year of Rest and Relaxation); what its like to be an eighteen-year-old girl with a stalker in strife-torn Ireland in the 1970s (Milkman); what it's like to be an urban Native American in the 21st Century (There There); and what it's like to be a gay man in 1985 when having AIDS meant a death sentence (The Great Believers). The Mars Room allowed me to learn what it's like to have a tumble-down upbringing and end up in a woman's prison. What a wealth of experiences for me, an old lady in a recliner, often in pajamas!

Romy, the narrator of most of the novel, begins her account as she is transported to Stanville Women's Correctional Facility. As the novel progresses she chronicles prison life, profiles her fellow inmates, and thinks of the past that led her to two life sentences. Beginning life with an absent father and an addicted mother, she lived a childhood of poverty and life on the streets -- raped at age eleven, drifting into the sex trade, becoming a lap dancer at The Mars Room, and surviving despite the odds. The crime of which she has been convicted is only gradually revealed and seems to be almost inevitable.

The day-to-day life in the prison proves to be the most engrossing aspect of the novel: the casual brutality, the tricks and dodges of getting by, the loneliness in the midst of thousands, the almost-laughable absurdities of the rules and regulations. According to the author, this aspect was heavily researched, and it does ring true and is fascinating even in its grimness.

Kushner inserts something of a jarring note, however, with two third-person stories. One concerns Doc, a crooked cop who is incarcerated in a men's prison. The other concerns Hauser, a civilian teacher hired to help inmates pass the GED. Both stories seem just tacked on to flesh out the book, particularly Hauser's story, which is abruptly dropped when he leaves prison employment for reasons untold. This novel has many pluses, but these intrusions are minuses, in my opinion, as is the book's ending, which is a bit too ambiguous for my tastes.

This is a much praised novel, which was a finalist for both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It is definitely a contender for the Pulitzer. I recommend it with reservations.

THE GREAT BELIEVERS by REBECCA MAKKAI (2018)

Another of 2018's hottest novels, The Great Believers won the Andrew Carnegie Medal and was a finalist for the National Book Award. It is also being talked about as a potential winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

This is the story of the height of the AIDS epidemic, before any treatment had been found, and of the effect on the subsequent lives of those who lost loved ones. The two revolving story lines center on Yale, a young gay professional in 1985, and on Fiona, sister of one of the victims of the disease and friend to many others, in 2015. In 1985, Yale is all too aware of risk he runs and does his best to keep himself safe, as he watches death take his friends and lovers, one by one. Fiona, who has become a friend to the gay community in support of her brother, stands by Yale throughout. In 2015, Fiona searches Paris for her estranged daughter, who has disappeared into a cult. These many years later, she is still haunted by the losses she suffered as a young adult, which seem to be continuing with the loss of her own child.

These two intertwining stories seemed at times to be only tenuously connected. Since the 1985 story line is much the most interesting, I found myself being annoyed when the switch to 2015 came. A sub-plot about an art exhibit appeared to have little to do with the main plot. Yet, everything fell into place at the end to create the theme of love and loss. This is one of those novels which should not be judged until the entirety is read.

I highly recommend this novel. Perhaps I should qualify that by saying that those who consider homosexuality a choice and a sin would probably find it objectionable. But then they probably don't read anyway. (Snide comment.)

THERE THERE by TOMMY ORANGE (2018)

I seldom read currently published books because I cannot afford them, but each year at Christmas I receive gift certificates from thoughtful relatives and purchase books widely adjudged to be the best of the previous year. To make my selection, I spend much time in reading book reviews and book blogs, and I pay special attention to all the end-of-year "Best of" lists from prominent publications. This debut novel by a Native American writer was featured on more of those lists, I believe, than any other for 2018. Thus I was quite eager to read it.

There There is good, even very good, but it is not as good as I had expected it to be.

Tommy Orange tells the stories of twelve characters, all of whom end up at the Big Oakland Pow-wow, where a scene of violence erupts. These are urban Native Americans, who often have only a tenuous relationship with their heritage. Many are victims or recovering victims of addictions. Often their family relationships have been shattered. And yet they still persist in striving to recover their identities and make peace with their environment. The stories are all shadowed with sadness and loss. In the end, some characters are redeemed and some are sacrificed. All will never be the same.

The stories are all mesmerizing; this is a real page turner. When the end comes, however, it seems overly contrived and unlikely. Also, one wonders that all characters are broken in one way or another. Surely some urban Native Americans exist who are not plagued with addiction, who have intact families, and who are actually fulfilled and as happy as can be normally expected. They are certainly absent here, so one suspects that Orange's portrayal of urban Native Americans may be more than a bit slanted.

I would not classify this as an A+ book (more like an A-), but it may very well win the Pulitzer, for its political relevance as much as for its literary excellence.

MILKMAN by ANNA BURNS (2018)

Eighteen-year-old middle sister has a problem -- she is being stalked by a man more than twice her age who is rumored to be a member of a violent paramilitary group. To add to her troubles, everyone in her tight-knit community is gossiping about her, assuming she is having an affair with the man, and she is ambivalent about her relationship with her maybe-boyfriend, an auto mechanic near her own age. Not even her own mother believes her when she tries to tell her the truth about the situation.

All of this takes place in the 1970s in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, during a time when car bombings and disappearances were commonplace, when "the only time you's call the police in my area would be if you were going to shoot them, and naturally, they would know this and so wouldn't come," when the people most likely to be killed were the civilians, not members of the army, the police, or either side's paramilitary organizations. It's a hard time to be growing up.

Middle sister is the narrator of this astonishingly fascinating novel, which won the 2018 Man Booker Prize. The story is told in a breathless avalanche of almost, but not quite, stream-of-consciousness prose, with a mesmerizing Irish lilt and rhythm. Although its circumstances are specific as to the unique difficulties of the time and place, the difficulties of the narrator would be universal in many situations: when a woman is being stalked by a man who hasn't really done anything unlawful --yet; when a small community's gossip and expectations limit people's lives; when the police are feared rather than looked to for help.

Despite what might be expected, Milkman is often very funny. Among the humorous bits, middle sister's attempt to separate herself from the random violence around her leads her to "walking while reading," a habit deemed as suspicious and undesirable by her neighbors. I can relate to that.

I highly recommend this novel.

MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION by OTTESSA MOSHFEGH (2018)

Early in this story, the narrator says that the artwork in the avant-garde gallery where she works is "supposed to be subversive, irreverent, shocking, but was all just canned counterculture crap." That also describes pretty much how I feel about this novel. It is edgy; it is ironic and outrageous; it would seem to have some deep meaning, discernible to the hip and cool, but in the end it seems to me to be just an extremely well-put-together mound of meaningless garbage. If there is a point to this novel, it passed me by. I think it is a literary con job.

The narrator is a recent college graduate, tall, slim, beautiful, and rich, with an inherited income. yet she is devastatingly dissatisfied, alienated, adrift in a drowning sea of existential despair. Her only escape seems to be sleep, so with the help of the world's most irresponsible psychiatrist who is willing to prescribe all the escapist pills available, she spends most of a year in a drugged sleep.

Otessa Moshfegh seems to specialize in stories of people who are beyond the norm. Her previous novel, Eileen, concerned a homely daughter of alcoholics who teetered on the brink of madness. It highly impressed me, particularly in the artistry of its prose and the ability of the author to portray an unsympathetic character in a sympathetic light. I also felt that the novel had a point -- the damage that can be inflicted by alcoholism and just the bad luck to be born poor and ugly. The protagonist of My Year of Rest and Relaxation is seemingly the opposite -- rich and beautiful instead of poor and ugly. Perhaps the author is trying to say that even those from fortunate circumstances can be psychologically damaged. I don't know. I do know that this unsympathetic narrator does not arouse even a drop of my sympathy for her unhappy plight.

I am also skeptical of the propriety of a novel which portrays the uninhibited ingestion of random drugs as a solution to problems, particularly in the midst of a drug epidemic with roots in the misuse of prescription medication. An actual person taking the various combinations and amounts of drugs ingested by this protagonist would undoubtedly not survive.

So while this novel is extremely well written and often darkly humorous, I did not like it very much at all. It reminds me of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I disliked that one, too.

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE by GEORGE R.R. MARTIN -- Five volumes (so far)

While beginning to watch the television series Game of Thrones, based on these books, I decided to read the source material. Five lengthy novels have been published so far, totaling 4,598 pages, and the story is not finished yet.

The first book, Game of Thrones, establishes the pattern for the series. Short, third-person limited chapters acquaint the reader with the central characters and the story line. The book begins as Eddard Stark, Warden of the North in the kingdom of Westeros, welcomes his king, Robert Baratheon, to his castle. Every member of both families will become major players in the unfolding drama. Meanwhile, in the far north, behind the Wall which protects the kingdom, strange creatures haunt the land, and across the seas, the heir of the defeated former king of Westeros plots a return to the throne. Martin provides one startling event after another -- incest, attempted murder, regicide, beheading, a wedding orgy, and the birth of dragons.

The structure of the novel is ideal for introducing a large cast of characters, and the action is generally fast moving and suspenseful. However, Martin has the annoying habit of describing the appearance and apparel of every character at every event and the even more intrusive habit of naming every course of every meal (and they eat very frequently). All this adds to the over-long page count and takes away from the momentum of the action. Some of the grammar and syntax is questionable, but that can mostly be overlooked when the story is moving along.

The second book, A Clash of Kings, is taken up by the efforts of would-be kings for the crown of Westeros, following the death of King Robert Baratheon. Sitting on the throne is Joffrey Baratheon, but his claim is disputed because he is suspected of being the product of incest between his mother and her twin brother, rather than being the son of the former king. Rising against him are both of the former king's brothers, Stannis and Renly; Robb Stark, the son of the beheaded Eddard Stark; Balon Greyjoy, Lord of the Iron Islands; and across the sea, Daenerys Targaryen, who has hatched dragons.

At 728 pages, this is the shortest of the five in the series, in part because fewer court events mean fewer descriptions of clothing and menu items. Martin provides limited description of actual battles, instead concentrating on the behind-the-scenes plotting and machinations, both political and magical. Royal marriages and promises of marriage are made to secure alliances. The sadistic boy king Joffrey emerges as the most despicable villain. Surprisingly, Tyrion Lannister, Joffrey's dwarf uncle, becomes in some respects the most sympathetic character, and certainly one of the most interesting. The pre-teen Arya Stark also proves to be intriguing, as she survives numerous dangers.

I found this to be the least entertaining of the books, although it profits from being more tightly edited than the first volume.

The third book, A Storm of Swords, is filled with betrayals, as factions switch allegiances or go their own way for power and profit. Weddings are particularly perilous. The most shocking event so far occurs, as the bridegroom's entire entourage is slaughtered at the Red Wedding. King Joffrey's wedding to Margaery Tyrell also concludes with a deadly wedding feast. At least the wedding of Sansa Stark, the teenage daughter of the beheaded Eddard Stark, with the dwarf Tyrion Lannister ends with all alive, if not happy. To the previous instances of regicide and fratricide is added the crime of patricide. Meanwhile, across the sea, Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons liberate slave cities, and she delays crossing to Westeros in her quest to regain the crown snatched from her family. Meanwhile, in the north at the Wall, things are getting really creepy. Winter is coming and with it the re-animated dead and the mysterious Others.

These books are written much in the style of soap operas, with switches from one character to the next to portray actions going on at the same time in numerous plot lines. This book adds one of the plot standards of my pet soap opera, Days of Our Lives. People once thought dead prove to be alive and people actually dead are brought back to life. That seems to me to be a bit contrived and almost silly.

This is the longest of the series so far, at 1128 pages, but to me it was the most enjoyable. The chapters are from the viewpoints of only ten characters and I found it easy to remember what was going on and where as the story hopped around from person to person and location to location.

With the fourth book, A Feast of Crows and the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, Martin's created world begins to get out of hand, with too many characters and too many plots and subplots. The two books cover the same time frame with different characters in each, but the result was too long for one volume, so it was split into these two. Even so, the story has become confusing. A Feast of Crows follows twelve central characters, which might be manageable, but it also follows numerous minor characters, who all tend to blur in the mind with one another.

These are the primary plot points of book four: Stannis Baratheon, the dead king's brother, is in the north to aid in the fight against the Wildings beyond the Wall. Jon Snow, Eddard Stark's bastard son, has been named Commander of the Night Watch, who guard at the Wall. Tommen, the 8-year-old brother of Joffrey, sits on the throne of Westeros, with his mother Cersei as Regent. Religious extremism has arisen on several fronts. The teenager Sansa Stark (daughter to the beheaded Eddard Stark) is in hiding, protected by a sly schemer with plots of his own. Those are just the high points. Much more is going on here.

Book five, A Dance with Dragons, follows 18 characters, with additional subplots. It is just too much. Jon Snow (Eddard Stark's bastard son) is in trouble at the Wall. Bran Stark (Eddard Stark's son) is searching for the "Three-Eyed Crow" who will enable him to fly. Tyrion Lannister (uncle to Tommen Baratheon, now king of Westeros) is on the run after escaping from the dungeon where he had awaited beheading, intending to aid Daenerys Targaryen in regaining the crown. Alya Stark (daughter of Eddard Stark) has become an assassin, and she is still not even a teenager. Queen Regent Cersei is imprisoned and humiliated by the very religious group she tried to manipulate. Daenerys Targaryen is having troubles with the slave cities she liberated and with her dragons, which have become wild and unmanageable. And that's not all that is going on here, by a long shot.

George R.R. Martin has said that he intends to include seven books in this series. I think he is about on overload right now with five, but still I want to know who will succeed in gaining the crown, or if the coming Winter and the Others will make it all in vain, because everyone will be frozen or turned into the walking dead.

Martin has been acclaimed the "American Tolkien" by some, and that couldn't be more wrong. Tolkien produced fantasy Literature, with a capital "L". Martin produces fantasy pulp, albeit pulp of a superior sort. While Tolkien's universe engaged in a stark contrast between good and evil, in Martin's world few characters could be classified as "good" and the most blameless seem to die sooner rather than later. Some of the most interesting characters are guilty of crimes. However, much like a soap opera, Martin's story can become addictive, even as its shortcomings are recognized. So far, I have binge-watched four seasons of the television production, and I believe the televised version to be much superior to the written version. What makes for level B literature can be turned into level A visual entertainment under the right direction with enough money behind it.