The Goldfinch

Well if you Google this book and the related reviews prior to reading it you will find that it is a highly contested topic among literary critics and readers. I did not know this prior to reading it. It's the book club selection for September so I just started reading it only knowing that it won the Pulitzer. One of my co-workers said her sister absolutely loved the book and another co-worker cosigned on that opinion.

So just based on that and the fact that I want to fully participate in this month's book discussion, I just dove right in. After I finished it, I went online to see what others said. That was when I found out that there seems to be a hot debate that I missed about the worthiness of this book. Since I read it 'blind', I can see why both sides think they have a valid point. It's nice to be objective sometimes.

The book covers the more formative years of Theo Decker. When he is thirteen years old his mother dies in an odd terrorist attack at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He survives the explosion and manages to escape the museum with his mother's favorite painting in his backpack. After stealing this major work of art the rest of the book is spent with him developing PTSD, a bad drug addiction, anxiety, depression, and several other mental and physical maladies. He's also bounced around from house to house which allows for an interesting array of characters to be introduced. In the background of all this chaos is the stolen painting which enjoys its own special journey from place to place as well. It's a book about art and life and the interconnectedness between the two. It's also about the ugly beauty of life.

Yes, the book is way too long (750+ pages) and occasionally it feels like that. However, there are other sections where the pace is fast and you can easily get through 50-100 pages because the story is moving along. If I were an editor, though, I would have definitely had the author tighten up some of the story line. There were some plot points that I found bland. There were some aspects to the story that were heavily researched, like furniture renovation/refurbishing, but it seems like the author didn't know it was unnecessary to include, seemingly, every single piece of research she unearthed. There's a way you can convey credibility on a subject without overdoing it. I'm going to be honest, I fell asleep on at least two occasions during those lengthy descriptions of antique furniture. Then there were nights when I couldn't put the book down. I would try and close it up for the night, get ready for bed and then just lay there thinking about what could be happening next. So I would flip a light on and finish another few pages.

Overall, that is how the book goes. It's up and down. I wouldn't gush over it, but I definitely wouldn't pan it like some reviewers have. It's a good story. It just needs to be tightened up and some of the more repetitive aspects could be omitted. Also, there is a natural point where you will feel like the story should be over but then it continues for about 10-15 more pages with a ton of philosophical and existential questions and observations by the main character. It felt like that was tacked on as an afterthought. Almost as though the author had to justify the entire book with a think piece at the end. After seeing some of the vitriol that people have spewed regarding this book I realize there are some strong opinions on it. I, personally, think it's worth the read, but I also understand how folks could put it down and give up on it too. It's not for everyone. I trust that readers will know within the first 50-100 pages whether they want to devote the time to the full work. I leave it up to you.

State of Wonder

Ann Patchett is becoming one of my favorite authors. This is the second book I've read by her and while Bel Canto is still my favorite, she does not disappoint with State of Wonder either. I enjoyed this book from the moment Dr. Singh starts her journey into the Amazon. One of her colleagues has died out there while helping Dr. Singh's former professor conduct research. Dr. Singh is assigned the task of finding out what exactly happens. This becomes a journey of self-discovery, self-reflection, and ethical dilemmas.

I would say more, but I want people to read it so I'm not going to give anything away. There are some significant plot twists and unanswered questions in the book as well that will keep you thinking for a little while after you finish reading. Ms Patchett has left me, once again, wanting more (in a good way). I will be taking a look at her other books now to see what else I can get my hands on.

Shibumi

This book had some promise and started out strong, but in the end I just wanted to poke my eyes out.  It starts out very interesting because the main character is this mysterious man who becomes an assassin. He's orphaned at a young age, lives on the mean streets of China, speaks about six languages, and then ends up living with a type of Sensei in Japan who teaches him about life and so on. That part was interesting and was the focus of the first half of the book. The American government is trying to figure out who may be helping a terrorist group and this lead them to the assassin.

Then the story just falls apart.  The next part of the book is about the assassin and his friend going spelunking. SPELUNKING! I'm dead serious. I am not a huge spy/assassin novel reader, but is this a normal part of this genre? I was bored out of my mind during this portion of the book and fell asleep many times. Finally I just decided to skim that part because it was like watching paint dry. Every crevice of the cave and every piece of equipment was described. I had zero interest in that. Then the story just goes on with this cat and mouse game, but I was no longer interested. The cave expedition ruined the book for me. I skimmed portions of it towards the end and then just gave up. If you try to tackle this book you can probably stop about halfway through and be satisfied with it.

Every Day is for the Thief

I have been on a roll when it comes to selecting works by African authors. Well, of course that's just my opinion. I've really enjoyed the last few books I read by African authors (Half of a Yellow Sun, Ghana Must Go, and Americanah). Every Day is for the Thief is another one I can add to the list. The prose is beautiful and it really does take you to Nigeria. When I read works by Adichie, I do feel a sense of how Nigeria experiences herself. While I can't quite put my finger on it, Cole writes in a way that makes Nigeria feel more naked and bare bones. I think this is because, for this particular book, Nigeria is a character. Whereas for the other books, the African countries were merely places where the action occurred. That's not a bad thing. I was just more cognizant of Nigeria while reading this book. Another reason that happens is that the main character is unnamed. It's as if the author wants Nigeria to take center stage. The narrator has been in the United States for fifteen years and now decides to take a trip back to Nigeria. Each short chapter talks about what he senses when back in his home country. It's an examination on how we outgrow our childhood.  We can never quite fully escape it, but it doesn't fit us anymore as we become adults. Can you ever find a place that does fit if you feel you belong nowhere? I thought it was a lovely, beautiful work full of honesty and poetry.

A Tale for the Time Being

I loved this book for various reasons. I plan on re-reading it and I hardly ever re-read books. It's a story about a young bullied girl in Japan who starts writing a journal. This story is interwoven with the story about the woman who finds the journal as it washes ashore on the coast of an island near British Columbia. Even within these two stories are stories about a WWII kamikaze pilot and a Buddhist nun. I found the stories well written and intriguing enough that I never really lost interest. The novel does take a turn towards magical realism towards the end. I anticipate that some readers will lose interest at that point if that's not your "thing", but that portion of the story is precisely why I want to re-read it. It's a meditative, yet entertaining, story. It's hard to explain why I loved it so much, but I highly recommend it! 

Allegiant

Well it's been just about one year since I raved about Divergent and gave a so-so rating to Insurgent. My original plan was to read Allegiant as soon as it came out. A year later, I finally got to it.

I tried. I really, really tried to finish this book. After I fell asleep a few times while reading it, I still tried. Even when I was thinking "Where is this story going?" I forged ahead. As I rolled my eyes at the downright stupid plot, I pressed on. Then about three quarters of the way through, I was over it. I was tired of forcing myself. So I just stopped.  I went online and Googled the ending and then I felt justified in not finishing it. It seems this trilogy has fallen victim to whatever bad luck happens to these young adult series when the authors have run out of ideas or have dragged the story on entirely too long (see: Twilight and Hunger Games). Why must they write three (or four) increasingly bad books when one really good one (usually the first one) would have sufficed? Divergent started off so strongly that for it to end in this travesty is certainly a shame. Maybe it's because I let so much time pass between reading books one and two? Maybe so much time passed that I just didn't care as much anymore? Whatever it is, I'm not going to spend another minute trying to figure it out because this book already took enough of my precious time.

Read Divergent, but take a pass on finishing the series. If you make your own ending up and everyone dies in some freak accident, you still will be more satisfied with that ending than what actually exists.

Please Look After Mom

The one word that kept coming to mind as I was reading this book was ephemeral. This book is about all those tiny moments in life that may seem mundane and banal to us if taken individually.  However, when those seemingly mundane moments collectively make a life, they suddenly take on a different meaning. We don't often look at those many brief, temporary moments as a whole. We let them evaporate into thin air and move forward.

Here, we're plopped into the middle of a family tragedy. The mother has gone missing from a busy subway station. The story is more about how four particular family members (the husband, the two daughters and her eldest son) deal with her absence. The husband, the two daughters and her eldest son. There is also a chapter where we finally hear what the mother is thinking as well. I won't give much away except to say that in order to appreciate this book, you have to have an appreciation for the beauty in routine life. The smaller details of the story come together to create the life of this woman. Her life, in turn, is a major presence in her children's lives as well. The realization of this, though, comes after her disappearance. The question then becomes: Will they all find mom in time to let her know how much they love her?  Even the husband has 20/20 hindsight and wants to right some wrongs.  I won't give away anything, although there are no huge twists or turns in the story.  I enjoyed it for a simple story about family and the attention to the details of daily life.

The book won't be for everyone. It's not earth shattering and the pace is steady but meandering. I found the writing to be beautiful and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Love in the Time of Cholera

This is the first book by Marquez that I have ever read. I fully intended to read One Hundred Years of Solitude first because I've heard more about that one, but life intervened. I was looking for books to read while in Costa Rica and thought about getting this book. I ended up reading other books, but I pushed Love in the Time of Cholera up on my list to read early this year.

Finally got a hold of it at the library (of course) and started reading it about a month ago. I know recently I've been lamenting about how long it takes me to read non-fiction, but it took me a little over a month to read this and it's fiction. The big difference here is that I purposely read this slowly. It's a story that is so deserving of your time. The story takes place over almost sixty years and it's about love, life, commitment, human nature, deferred dreams, and patience. The oversimplification of the plot is this: boy falls in love with girl, girl seemingly falls in love with boy, girl's father rejects boy, girl then rejects boy, boy waits patiently for fifty-plus years to once again express his undying love for girl.

The book spans the lives of these two individuals as they live them separately, but always with the notion of the other person coloring their thoughts directly or indirectly. The longer chapters and the span of the story practically implore you to take your time reading and absorbing the details. There are so many layers to the story, I can't even begin to dissect it or it would turn into a PhD dissertation. Marquez writes beautifully, lyrically. Even when a character does things that may seem deplorable, you can't help but feel empathy and sadness for the pitiful state of affairs. Sometimes when I was reading the book, I thought about Lolita. That was another book in which the writing is so beautiful that regardless of what happens in the story, you have to continue reading. In the end, the book makes you seriously think about love, life, death and what defines each of those ideas.

The Best of Times

If you have diabetes, skip this book because the syrupy sweetness will surely put you into a diabetic coma.  This book is the Game of Thrones of chick-lit.  I say that because there are easily twenty characters. Their stories are all intertwined because of a fateful car crash on a highway in England.  At times I felt like I was reading an extended version of the movie Love Actually.  I can't even get into the multitude of characters and their back stories.  Just know there are a lot relationships started, broken, patched up, broken again, and then finally ending in either marriage or some other suitable resolution, like engagement or co-habitation.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it for what it was, but it was just entirely too long.  I think it was fine for the crash to be the catalyst for the story.  It was a good way to introduce the characters. Once they were established, and the cause of the crash was resolved, we are still subjected to the entire inquest as well as the planning for a charity fundraiser for the hospital where victims were treated. Those bits were not too interesting to me. This would have been a perfect book for summer reading on vacation.  It's also a good choice for a snowstorm weekend. Please just know what you're getting into when you pick it up.

Bel Canto

This is one of the most beautifully written books I've read this year.

Even though the author was inspired by real events, I completely read it as a work of fiction and enjoyed everything about the book, except the epilogue.  I wish I didn't read the epilogue, because it seemed so incongruous to everything that preceded it.  Until the epilogue, I was all in.  The story is about a group of international individuals who are attending the birthday party of a Japanese CEO at the home of a South American vice-president.  Just as a world famous opera singer (who was invited specifically by the birthday boy) is completing her final aria, a group of terrorists invade the home and take the guests hostage.  You would think because terrorists and hostages are involved that this is going to be a story about violence, anger, torture and murder.  It is the exact opposite.  It is a story about finding yourself, friendship, love and forgiveness. Violence against women is so prevalent in today's world that it was a breath of fresh air to read a story where no women were raped or beaten!

The story covers the duration of the hostage crisis from the perspective of both the hostages and the terrorists keeping them. Some unlikely friendships and romances develop even in the midst of everyone not speaking the same language.  There is conveniently a polyglot translator among the hostages and he is a key character.

The writing is lovely and this is a story that cannot be devoured quickly. Opera is a main character in the book and the book is reminiscent of a tragic opera. Sometimes you can see a book becoming a movie as you read it, but this one you could see becoming an opera. A very beautiful, tragic opera.

Lexicon

I don't post about every book I read.  Occasionally I read one that is so bad, it's not even worth taking the time to make a post about it.  So I was on the fence about posting this book.  It commits the cardinal sin of staring out interesting and then falling flat in a terrible way.  It wasn't horrible, but because it started out so promising and became so disappointing I was unreasonably angry towards the end. It is a good airport book, which is where I started reading it. I was in three airports within a 24-hour period and this book allows for easy reading and frequent interruptions. So as an airport book, it's fine because you are paying light attention and the story works for light attention.  However, once I got to my destination and finished the book, I was keenly aware of all the plot holes and it made me mad.  I also realized that none of the characters were fully developed and I didn't care about any of them.

The book follows Emily Ruff who is a teenage runaway. She gets vetted by a 'special school' that teaches mind control with the use of words.  She becomes impatient and rebellious and instead of learning things as they are taught to her, she seeks out advanced knowledge.  Of course she gets all this advanced knowledge but has no clue what to do with it because she didn't take the time to learn the basics. She ends up killing another student through misuse of 'the words' and gets kicked out of the academy and banished to some dust town in Australia called Broken Hill for several years.  Throughout these years, she somehow becomes this promiscuous young woman.  A group of other women jump her one night and beat her senseless. She then falls in love with the paramedic who takes her to the hospital.  Literally this all happens in the span of about 5-10 pages.  This is around the time when I started really rolling my eyes and cursing every male author who ever tried to write a three-dimensional female character and failed.  Anyway, to make a long story short, it turns out this paramedic guy is immune to the mind control, and when the whole town is destroyed by words he is the only one who doesn't die.  He somehow gets to the United States and lives free of any memory of Australia because Emily wipes his memory.  Because of this special ability to be resistant to mind control, the academy wants him for research, but Emily wants him for love. So the academy is trying to find both Emily and her little paramedic guy. Blah blah blah....yawn.

The book is not told in a chronological order and there are several stories going on at one time. In between the chapters there are also fictionalized examples of how the media uses words to control the minds of the masses.  I found the fictionalized examples of media mind control a more fascinating story than Emily Ruff trying to seek out and save the guy she somehow developed a lifelong passion for in the span of a few pages.  The story just wasn't cohesive enough. You will find weak, poorly developed characters. The only thing the book does develop is apathy in the reader.  I will just say read at your own discretion.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

This book was interesting because it's told from the point of view of a 15-year-old autistic boy.  Having worked with autistic children in my "day job" I think the author presents an accurate portrayal of how the autistic mind sometimes works. The story was decent and you could probably finish the book in one day.

Christopher, our protagonist, initially starts off trying to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbor's dog.  That mystery is solved fairly early in the book and a larger problem is revealed.  The latter half of the book deals with this larger problem and left me feeling bland.  While it was interesting to see how this young man attempts to function in the "real world", it becomes wearisome after a while and you just feel kind of sad for him because he just does not function well socially and you fear he never will.  He's brilliant with math and science and tends to describe a lot of math and science in the book, but my eyes glazed over during those parts.

The silver lining is that he does test his limits and challenge himself when push comes to shove. Best of all, he rises to his challenges in the "real world", albeit quite messily.  So I guess if the point of the book was to open people's eyes to the world of autism, it does a very solid job.  I think this is a good introductory way of being exposed to autism in an accessible way. However, don't let the title fool you into thinking the entire book will be about solving a dog's murder. It has very little to do with dogs at all. The dog's murder is a red herring (if you read the book, you'll get my reference).

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I really love the fact that it's a novel for adults but it reaches back to childhood and the reason why so many of us love to read stories.  We like to escape and imagine worlds that are full of adventure, excitement, and danger.  At approximately 180pages, this book is a quick read that will take you on a fantastic ride.  The boy in the story, who remains unnamed, is a shy bookworm with no friends.  One day a boarder at his family's home steals the father's car and kills himself at the end of the lane. When the boy and his father go to the end of the lane, they meet the Hempstock women.  They boy is seven years old and he meets Lettie Hempstock who is eleven years old. The two become quick friends and end up having an adventure that could mean life or death for one or both of them. I'm just going to leave it at that because this is a book that has to be enjoyed, not explained.

When we sometimes think of magical books or fantasy books, we think of Harry Potter or something similar.  This is a different kind of magic.  It's the kind that doesn't have answers and is closely intertwined with the real world in plain sight. That was one of the reasons I enjoyed it. You may never look at a full moon or the night sky in the same way after reading this book.  Is what we see on a daily basis real? Is your reality a mirage? Memory is a tricky thing.  When you remember something from your childhood, how sure are you of its veracity?

You can easily read this book in one day.  I suggest a nice quiet spot with your preferred warm beverage (coffee, tea, cider, cocoa) and a baked good.  If you can, get the physical book. Stay off social media, turn your phone/laptop/tablet off and enjoy!

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow

This is one of the most beautiful books I've read this year.  Since this year is almost at a close, I think I can also say that it it's one of the most memorable books I've read this year.  It's set in 1950s Louisiana and the author uses such magical language in her descriptions of settings, thoughts, and emotions that you almost feel like you are right there cloaked in magical realism.

The protagonist of the book is Bonaventure Arrow who was born mute. He doesn't speak, but he has extra-sensitive hearing. He can hear the stars being born and the spices in the kitchen tell their stories about being used for gumbo.  He lives with his mother and paternal grandmother.  They are both shrouded in a deep, grieving sadness stemming from the death of Bonaventure's father. Ultimately, it is up to the spirit of the deceased father, Bonaventure, and Trinidad Prefontaine (a Creole woman with the power of healing and prophecy), to bring healing to all the characters. This story has layers that go beyond healing, though. It's also about our actions and how they affect others immediately and indefinitely.  It's also about taking the time to listen to others and to the world around you.

There are many layers to the plot, but I won't go into much detail because I really want you to read it. It's so beautifully and vividly written that I think you will get drawn in as quickly and easily as I did.

Five Star Billionaire

This is the November selection for the book club I attend. I was feeling rather lukewarm about it during the voting process.  We vote on the book for the month and while I didn't select this one, I wasn't upset when it won the vote either. I felt lukewarm and ambivalent.

Then I started reading it and I was actually pretty interested in the story.  The writing is very well done and in the beginning when the characters are being introduced and described, I was intrigued.

Then.............nothing major really happens for the rest of the 370+ pages.

Basically the story follows 5 characters who are all currently living in Shanghai, but were born in Malaysia. I didn't realize Shanghai had a lot of Malaysian immigrants.  However, if nothing else, this book does give you good geography lessons.  Anyway, one character is a pop star who gets TMZ'd after a fight in a nightclub and falls into a depression that ultimately leads him to a more "true to self" music career. The second character is a simple village girl who is obsessed with appearances and goes to great lengths to appear more successful than she is.  All she really wants is true love, but she goes about it the wrong way.  The third character is a successful businesswoman who is haunted by her past.  Her father was involved in a political corruption scandal and she carries the shame of that. The fourth character is the son of a real estate magnate. He is on the verge of closing a huge deal on a property when he is blindsided and loses the property, thereby sending his family into financial ruin. He, too, goes into a depression and isolates himself.

Which brings me to the fifth character, the five star billionaire.  He is connected to each of the characters in some kind of way.  He tries to date the simple village girl. He swindles the successful businesswoman.  He's the one who steals the property deal from the real estate guru.  He hires the pop singer to perform at a charity concert. Throughout the story, other connections are revealed as well. The businesswoman used to date the real estate guy's brother. The simple village girl is hired by the businesswoman to work in one of her spas. The pop star is chat-room friends with the simple village girl. And so on.  You get the picture. We're all connected.

The big reveal towards the end of the book is *why* the billionaire has intervened in all these lives, more specifically two of the lives. Then you see elements of a revenge novel. Even with all the interconnectedness, nothing really happens. At its core, it's just another story about everyone trying to make it in a big city.  Some people make it, some don't.  Some people stumble and stay down. Some people stumble and get back up.  It wasn't horrible, but I wasn't terribly interested in the characters. I wouldn't go out into the streets and tell the world they need to read it, but I also wouldn't tell the world they shouldn't read it. After all is said and done, my ambivalent lukewarm feeling remains.

Inferno

When I read The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons years ago, I remember not being able to put them down. The chapters were short and always ended with a mild cliffhanger so you just had to keep reading, and you wanted to keep reading.  Everything was a clue to something big.  I remember being absorbed by those books.  They kept me up at night turning the page.

Now comes Inferno.  I was going to the bookstore to read it with the hopes that eventually I would move up on the library waiting list.  I think I was around number 300 or so. I know, call me an optimist.  Anyway, since the list was moving at a snail's pace, and I wanted to kick my feet up on my couch to read it, I finally broke down and downloaded it to my eReader.  What can I say now that I've finished it?  Well, I kind of wished I'd waited for the library.

The book is definitely engaging. It's the same Dan Brown style we've known all along. Short, quick chapters. The protagonist racing through the streets of a European city trying to save the world one Art History clue at a time.  This time around he is mostly in Florence, Italy following clues related to Dante's Inferno.  He's trying to stop a virus from being released into the general population.  The creator of the virus has a problem with the rapid population growth on Earth and has a mind to do something about it.  Well not if Robert Langdon and the World Health Organization have anything to say about it. The whole book you think that if the virus is released people will die, but there is a little twist to that.  If you know for a fact that you won't read the book, highlight my spoiler starting here ---> The virus actually will make one-third of the population STERILE so they won't produce any more kids, therefore putting the population in check without actually killing anyone. <---

My first degree is in Art History so I love the idea of Robert Langdon.  This is why I loved The DaVinci Code. However, I just wasn't into this book as much as I thought I would be and I know exactly why.  The writing is not good.  I was reading it and that same thought kept coming to my mind. It took away from the story for me.  There were chunks of the story that were repetitive. There were also a lot of catch phrases and clichés.  I kept thinking about Stephen King's book about writing and shaking my head because I think Dan Brown might not have read it.  If he did, he certainly didn't heed any of the advice in it. 

Overall, it's a perfectly good book for vacation and a lazy weekend.  It's a quick read and might give you some food for thought regarding population control, but don't fool yourself into thinking it's a classic.  

**Edit:  A friend of mine just reminded me that I also read The Lost Symbol a few years ago.  I forgot I ever read that book. I guess that speaks volumes.**

  

Franny and Zooey

Like most Americans, I had to read The Catcher in the Rye during my high school years. It was quite forgettable to me as a teen, so I re-read it as an adult and I still could not tell you what was so great about it.  It just wasn't a memorable book or one that I could relate to personally. That was the only Salinger I ever read until now.  Franny and Zooey was originally published as two separate stories in The New Yorker back in the mid-late 1950s. The two characters are the youngest children in the Glass family.

Franny (Frances - age 20) experiences the beginning of an existential nervous breakdown in her story.  She's with her boyfriend at a restaurant and starts to tear down everything he says. She basically tells him that he's an idiot and all the people in her world are idiots as well.  She's chain-smoking while doing this and refusing to eat her food. Then she passes out while walking to the bathroom. When she comes too, her boyfriend says he'll get a cab for her.  Presumably, he gets her back to her NYC family home because then Zooey's story begins shortly after this fainting incident.

Zooey (Zachary - age 25) is in the bathroom taking a bath and reading an old letter from one of his brothers who encourages him to follow his dream of acting regardless of what their mother thinks he should do.  He finishes reading the letter and proceeds to start looking at a script for a project. Then his portion of the story really takes off. The mom comes into the bathroom and has this long, drawn-out conversation with Zooey.  The conversation is borderline abusive with Zooey calling his mother stupid and fat and things like that.  The mom just chain-smokes and berates Zooey too, telling him to go talk to Franny, who we learn is malingering on the couch in the living room chanting The Jesus Prayer to herself. Zooey says he has a million things to do that day and can't be bothered since he talked to her the previous night.

To make a long story short, Zooey does go and talk to Franny in the living room (another long conversation) and eventually walks out of the room because he's driven her to tears. Then he calls her later from a phone line within the same apartment to speak more kindly to her and she fares much better with the kinder conversation. She seems to have an epiphany or a moment of enlightenment at the end of the nicer conversation, and so the story ends.

I know I usually don't type so much detail about a plot. Even with this one, I've left out a great deal about the oldest children in the family and their role in the current situation. Since they were originally two stories, though, I wanted to give each story a little description. The book has a lot of religious references and meditations. It actually reads more like a play than a book. The dialogue is so dense that it's hard to remember you're reading two interconnected stories. If you are interested in religion or spirituality, it could be an interesting read for you.  If not, I'm afraid you may be unable to finish it.  The characters do come off as pompous, entitled brats at times, especially in the way they speak to one another.  However, by the end you get the sense that they do care about each other in some odd, abstract, philosophical, academic way.  Even with characters like that, I enjoyed this one much more than The Catcher in the Rye because it was more thought provoking for me and also more memorable.

The Interestings

This book is the October book selection for the small book club I attend.  I'm already thinking about how I'll explain my ambivalence.  I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. It was actually kind of sad and depressing if I think too much about it.  Yet, I think maybe that was the whole point.  With a title like this you would think the book would be interesting, right?  Well if I oversimplify it, I would say it's actually about how uninteresting life can be, and that's pretty sad.

The book starts in the 1970s when six teens (three girls and three boys) meet at a New England summer camp and become friends. The main character, Jules, is a shy girl with low self-esteem who is dealing with the recent death of her father.  She begins to feel like this new group of friends provides something she thinks she is missing from life. She glamorizes their lives because they all live in Manhattan while she lives in a suburb of NYC.  After camp is over and they all return to their respective homes, she takes the commuter train into the city to visit them often and idolize them.  She starts thinking her suburban life isn't good enough and never really ever lets go of this desire to lead a more interesting life. One New Year's Eve, one of the boys gets into a situation where he is accused of raping one of the girls.  This causes a split among them although the majority of them remain friends. Years go on and life goes on. Jules ends up in a regular marriage with a regular guy while two of the other friends from the group become a millionaire power couple.  The majority of the book is Jules wishing her life were different or that life could always be like summer camp when she was happy.  That was the sad and depressing part for me.  If you keep wishing for a different life, you inevitably miss the one you're actually living.

Spanning from the 1970s to today we follow the trajectory of each of the six teens as they become young adults, spouses, parents, and older adults. They are in their mid-fifties by the end of the book. While I didn't mind reading the book, the characters were shallow and it really was just about life.  People get jobs, they struggle with depression, they fight with their spouses, they lie, they reconcile, they move on from tragedy, they avoid sticky situations, they drink, they smoke, they are successful, they are mediocre, they are unsuccessful, they are frustrated, they quit jobs, they have kids, they defer dreams, they eat, they sleep, they worry, they stress, they desire, they love, they hate, they make good decisions, they make bad decisions, and it goes on and on. That's life.  That's pretty much what goes on in this book. The author tries to make the alleged rape the turning point of the friendships but it only comes up sporadically as the book continues hurtling the characters through life.  In the end, that's what I think the book is really about: the banality of life and the fact that we are all hurtling through it.  These particular characters weren't developed well enough for me to really care how they got through life, though.

If you read books to escape reality, this won't work for you because I suspect that most people will recognize something of the banality of their own lives in this work. The plus is that the writing flows very well so even though it's 450+ pages, you can move through it smoothly. Also, it does have good closure at the end so you won't feel it was all for naught.

Half of a Yellow Sun

It was time for me to revisit one of my favorite authors, Chimamanda Adichie. I'm waiting for the library to deliver my next book for the little web class I'm taking so in the interim I picked up an older Adichie book. I read her most recent book in July, and if you read my post about it then you already know I have a mild obsession. I actually thought I read Half of a Yellow Sun before, but I didn't.  I think I bought it in the past, but I may have loaned it out prior to reading or lost it in a move or donated it. Either way, I read it now and yes I enjoyed it immensely.

When I was reading this book, I was so vividly transported to Nigeria that the reading environment around me (coffee shop, my apartment, the park) would dissipate. I would look up and blink a few times and remind myself I was not currently in Nigeria or Biafra. The book also permeated my non-reading life in odd ways. For example, I made a stew the other day. While I was making it, I cut the meat for it into very small bits because I wanted to make sure there was meat in every bite.  In the book there is a lot of discussion about whether or not people have meat in their soups because there is a war going on and subsequent food rationing. Here I was cutting up meat for a stew thinking "I am glad I have meat in my soup".  That is a testament to the power of good writing. Adichie does this for me in all her writing.  She has a way of pulling you into the story and the story into your life.

The book is beautifully written. The story follows five main characters, Olanna and Kainene (sisters), Odenigbo and Richard (their significant others), and Ugwu (the houseboy) as they start off in a united Nigeria and are thrown into the Biafran war in the late 1960s.  It has all the expected drama of war; bombs, deaths, evacuations, displaced family, famine, starvation, and so on.  However, the personal experiences of each character and how they respond to their rapidly changing environment is the real story. I admit my knowledge of African civil/ethnic wars is abysmal. After reading this story, I did more research into Nigerian history and the Biafran war.  It made me appreciate the story so much more.  I am truly a fan of Adichie's work and I expect I will be a lifelong one.  If I taught a literature class I would make this required reading.  I highly recommend it.

Of note: I get very uneasy with the subject of rape and sexual exploitation and there are several descriptions of it in the book as a weapon of war. This was not unexpected, but I always like to give people a heads-up about it if you have uneasiness like me.  However, there are tender love scenes between the couples as well so the contrasting effect is helpful. 

Lolita

I've avoided this book like the plague because of its content.  I vaguely knew it was about a pedophile and I was not interested in the least. Well, of course it showed up on the syllabus for the literature class.  I could have skipped it because I'm not officially taking the class on-site for any kind of academic credit.  This self-study is only for my own edification.  I decided not to skip it. I figured if I looked at it critically I could probably digest it a little better.

I was surprised how much I actually liked the book.  You can't deny the writing is superb and for me that was the major reason I enjoyed it. The protagonist, Humbert, is a horrible person, but his articulation is divine.  His way of describing scenes and situations pulls you into the story even if you are disgusted by him as a person.  You can tell he views himself as part of the upper echelon of society, however through his prose you can also see how weak and pathetic he is.  His prey, Lolita, is probably one of the most tragic figures in literature.  We only see things from her perspective, very briefly, through Humbert's eyes.  Only towards the end does he come to the conclusions any sane person would have known from the beginning and by then it's too late for everyone involved.

I'm glad I read it now and not earlier.  Breaking it down as literature helped me enjoy it more than I would have reading it on my own with no guide.  Honestly if I read it independently, I may have put it down because the subject matter is uncomfortable.  Amazingly, though, I highly recommend it.  Read it for the writing.