Posts filed under 'Literary Fiction'
As a new feature, MADreads is going to post reports of Madison Public Library book group discussions. If you’re like us, you’re always on the lookout for that next great, discussable book. Our inaugural report comes from the Sequoya branch. 
The Sequoya book group just read Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann which won the National Book Award. While it was a good discussion, because of all the different characters and because it was so beautifully written, some people felt it was a bit hard to verbalize their thoughts. The book opens with the tightrope walk across the Twin Towers so we started out the discussion showing just that portion of the video Man on Wire. It was a great way to set the tone for the discussion as it was such an integral part of the story! There was much discussion about the symbolism of the towers and all the hints of 9/11 that were layered in the story. A really good read! Next up for us is Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.
March 9th, 2010
Tracy - Sequoya
Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel in several years, The Lacuna, spans three decades in the life of Harrison Shepard, the son of a United States diplomat and a Mexican mother. Told in the form of diary entries, newspaper articles, letters and a memoir, Harrison’s life unfolds from his teenage years in Mexico to his adulthood in North Carolina.
The novel begins in 1929 when Harrison is thirteen and living in Mexico with his mother who has abandoned America in hopes of finding a better husband. Left on his own, Harrison begins reading adventure novels and books on Mexican history while developing a lifelong habit of journal writing. In Mexico Harrison also discovers a small cave - a lacuna - while living on an island off the coast.
After moving to Mexico City, Harrison is put to work in the kitchen and running errands. His life takes an unexpected turn when he’s hired to make plaster for the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and eventually joins his household. Both Rivera and his wife, artist Frida Kahlo, are committed communists and during Harrison’s years with them open their home to the exiled Russian leader Leon Trotsky. Living in constant fear of assassination by Stalins’ death squads, Trotsky’s time in the household provides a different perspective on the early years of the Russian Revolution.
The second half of the novel shifts to North Carolina where Harrison lives after Trotsky’s death. He finds himself in the surprising position of a heartthrob to million of female readers as the author of historical romances and is later investigated as a possible subversive by the House Un-American Activites Committee. It is during his years back in the United States that the reader learns the identity of the person who’s saved his many journals over the years and makes this story possible.
I especially enjoyed the first part of this book with the descriptions of the Mexican countryside with its many vivid colors as well as the interesting background information on the early years of the Russian Revolution. Harrison’s later years in North Carolina were somewhat disappointing in what was otherwise an entertaining novel from this popular author.
February 24th, 2010
Lesley - Central
This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper hilariously describes a stressful week in the life of a dysfunctional family. The Foxman family normally spends very little time together and it takes a death or illness to change that. The death of their father Mort brings them back to their family home to sit shiva and receive guests, following a Jewish tradition of 7 days of mourning for a close family member. Although they are very surprised that their father requested a shiva, the adult children dutifully return home to fulfill his last wish.
Judd Foxman is the third child of four and his life is currently a mess. His wife has been having an affair with Judd’s radio host boss ( Judd discovers her in bed with him and has a novel response) and he is currently unemployed. And to top things off, his wife informs him that she is pregnant and that he is the father. He is not speaking to either his wife or to the boss, at least until they both show up at the shiva.
While it might usually be considered a respite to return home for a while, it is not the case here. Judd’s brother Paul has always resented him since an animal attack when they were in high school. And Paul’s wife is Judd’s ex-girlfriend, who is desperately trying to get pregnant. Also present are: Judd’s sister Wendy who brings with her 2 small children and a husband whose first priority is his job and his Blackberry, his youngest brother Phillip who brings an older woman along, and his mother, an esteemed expert on parenting, at least when her own children are not involved.
The family dynamics slowly change over the week as the adult Foxman’s and their mother learn a lot more about each other. This is a book full of humor and ultimately love and acceptance. It is easy to imagine this story on the big screen and apparently there is a movie planned with Jonathan Tropper as the scriptwriter. Readers are welcome to try casting it.
February 15th, 2010
Mary K. - Central
The ominous sky behind the title is a perfect representation of what’s inside this book: churning, nuanced gradations of mystery.
Dan Chaon’s new novel Await Your Reply is getting plenty of buzz, and I have to say, it’s worth it. I really love books that are just a bit creepy, that have a subtle undertone of discomfort beneath whatever normal actions the characters are performing. Each of the three storylines in this novel fits the bill in its own way.
Chaon introduces us first to Miles Cheshire, an emotionally stunted young man who is obsessed with finding his schizophrenic twin brother Hayden, who disappeared ten years ago. Hayden is something of a mad genius, and has managed to elude Miles for years as he has held various jobs under aliases around the country. Meanwhile, Lucy Lattimore has just graduated high school and left the dead-end town of Pompey, Ohio in search of the more exciting life her former history teacher and current boyfriend has promised her. In the third storyline, Ryan Schuyler’s father is rushing him to the hospital with Ryan’s severed hand in a cooler on the car seat next to him. While these disparate stories take place in different locations, each meanders towards a similar endpoint, and their connections are slowly revealed as the characters themselves begin to unravel their own identities.
Await Your Reply is definitely a thriller, but it’s also a beautifully written work of literature. No one in the book is exactly who they seem to be, and unfurling the mysteries of each character’s identity is almost as exciting as finding out what will happen to Ryan’s hand. I would love to say more about this book, but frankly, I don’t want to give anything away, because it’s too much fun to find everything out as you read. So, make sure to set aside a good chunk of time if you pick this one up, because you won’t want to put it down.
February 11th, 2010
Kylee
Yay! Another great surprise of a book. I took this one with me on a weekend away, and it was just the thing I needed.
Janet Burroway’s Bridge of Sand starts out with Dana Ullman burying her Pennsylvania state senator husband on 9/11. Though ready to divorce him when they found out he was dying, she stayed with him and nursed him until the end. The coincidence of him dying so close to 9/11 (she could see the flames of United 93 on the way to the funeral) was an emotional punch, and she falls into a serious funk. Adding to her woes she learns her husband left her in debt, so she sells her house and takes what is left to head west.
But she heads to Georgia first. While packing up, she came across a photo of her grandmother who had lived there. Dana had spent 2 years with her as a teenager and worked at the local grocery store. At this point in her life, she needs to connect with something from her past. When she arrives she discovers the house is gone, replaced by a shopping mall. So she looks for people she knew back when, and the only one around is Cassius. He worked at the store, and Dana never even spoke with him; but for some reason, he agrees to meet her at the beach.
And the sparks fly. They spend a passionate few days with each other, falling deeply in love. But Cassius has to go back to work and never returns. And his ex-wife and mother of his daughter (to whom he’s devoted) sends a letter threatening to beat the *** out of Dana’s white ***, and Dana flees to Pelican Bay, Florida, where Cassius had hinted about a cabin where she could stay with his aunt Solly. Will Cassius follow her there?
Dana finds Solly, who turns out to be a white man almost-living with Trudy (the aunt). Dana rents out the cabin behind Solly’s convenience store and stays because she wants to wait for Cassius. Soon she becomes enmeshed in the small fishing community. Pelican Bay is split in two by a ’sink;’ the whites live on one side, the blacks the other. Not much, and everything, happens here. The characters are many and varied. There’s Adena, a single mom real estate agent and a master manipulator, related to Solly by marriage. Bernadette, her daughter, sullen and goth-like, who sort-of works at the store. Herbie, local handyman, in love with Bernadette. And inscrutable Trudy lets it be known that she will not be sharing any of her family’s secrets, let alone her relationship with Solly. Solly has a stroke and it’s left to Dana to run the store while he’s away. But when Solly dies and leaves the store to Dana, it is clear to her that he wanted her to decide who to give it to. Adena, dollar signs in her eyes, wants to sell to investors. Trudy just needs a place to live. Mysteries and machinations are slowly revealed. But, more importantly, does Cassius ever come?
Burroway captures the feel of the Florida panhandle and transported me away from single digit temps to the humid, drippy tropics. We get a different awareness of race as Dana’s ingrained attitudes rub up against the reality of Cassius, who easily points out the subleties us whites don’t get. And Dana is especially appealing; she is someone who is torn many times by life’s cruelties, but she maintains an openness to life and to this new world she happened onto. There is much much more to this book than I was able to include here. Each of Burroway’s words is important; I found myself rereading many sentences to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I loved this well-rendered tale of a unique locale and evolving community, of a loving and compassionate woman and the trials she encounters.
February 1st, 2010
Lisa - Central
The Wisconsin Book Festival always draws a wide variety of authors, and no one can get to every program, but as it is a long time until the next Festival (September 29-Oct 3) comes along, it is always worth taking a look back at the previous schedule for reading suggestions.
One of last year’s featured titles was Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyen, a first novel by the author of the memoir Stealing Buddha’s Dinner. Short Girls is about two sisters, daughters of Vietnamese immigrants, who came to the US after the war ended. As adults, the sisters have taken seemingly very different paths. Van is married and and an immigration lawyer, and Linny has moved through many relationships and jobs. Both are having problems; Van’s marriage has broken up, although she is keeping it quiet and Linny is involved in an affair with a married man, who she met through her job as a cook at a meal preparation site.
Since their mother died several years ago, the only connection between the two is through their father, who has decided to become a U. S. citizen after 30 years. Mr. Luong has worked intermitently; his main interest has been in his inventions, especially the Luong arm, which he designed to help short people retrieve items. The family members are all short, and Nguyen uses height to explore issues related to immigration, and to not fitting into American society. The Nguyen’s were unwilling immigrants, who are forced to adapt to life in the Midwest. For Van and Linny who were both born in the U.S., that means that in some ways they must reject their heritage and their native language.
This is a well-written and thoughtful novel; clearly this is familiar territory for Nguyen. Family life and conflicts are portrayed with humor and understanding. There are lots of other appealing titles on last year’s WBF list. Next up for me - probably Bonnie Jo Campbell and Lynda Barry.
January 25th, 2010
Mary K. - Central
Driftless by David Rhodes is one of those books that should be enjoyed and then enthusiastically passed on to fellow readers. The driftless area of Western Wisconsin is beautifully described and the multitude of characters slowly come alive through the intertwining of their stories. If there is a main character in this novel, it is July Montgomery, who was a stranger when he landed in small Words, Wisconsin twenty years ago and decided to stay. He remains fairly mysterious, but this quiet and reticent farmer is highly respected, and is always willing to help out a neighbor.
Montgomery’s story is only one of many in this small town filled with characters. Included are: two sisters, one disabled and wheelchair bound, who live together and need each other, a woman minister who truly believes what she preaches, a couple trying to survive as small farmers while they fight corporate corruption, and a woman songwriter. Their stories slowly unfold, and are told with compassion and humor. There are so many memorable and well written scenes in the book, it is difficult to highlight one or two, although Rhodes chose a humorous and compelling selection when he read at the Wisconsin Book Festival this fall.
Rhode’s reading at the Book Festival was his first in Madison, and hopefully not the last. During his talk, he said that attending a funeral for a close friend was the inspiration for this book. He thought he knew everything about his friend, but was very surprised at how many of the attendees at the funeral were strangers.
There were passionate fans of the book in the Book Festival crowd, and their questions were part of what made me interested in reading. These people really liked the book. One book group even traveled to western Wisconsin to hold their discussion. Rhodes was disabled in a serious accident many years ago and has recently resumed writing after many years. His last book, Rock Island Line, was written in 1975 and tells the story of July’s early years.
January 12th, 2010
Mary K. - Central
I’ve loved Joanna Trollope since I first read The Men and the Girls way back in the early 90s. And though she’s a descendant of Anthony Trollope - I’ve not read him - yet. Joanna Trollope always writes entertainingly about some complex family problems. She looks at the social mores surrounding the various issues that arise with divorce and blended families, working mothers or even what it’s like to be a rector’s wife. With a British twist, of course.
I just finished reading her newest, Friday Nights. I can’t say it’s her best, but it was still fun to read. It’s set in London and centers around Eleanor, who was a successful hospital administrator all her life. She’s retired now and is finding that she never developed the social side of her life and is lonely. From her ground floor flat she watches as two mothers separately stroll their babies by day after day. On a whim, she invites them to her house for tea, and soon ends up with a Friday night women’s group. They watch over and take care of each other.
Paula is a single mom, the result of an affair with a married man. Lindsay became a widow before the birth of her son. She brings along her sister, Jules, a budding DJ wild child. Neighbor Blaise joins, and invites her business partner, Karen, a mother of many who can barely manage her family with her unemployed artist house-husband. They cruise along merrily as a group. Then Paula meets charming Jackson. He seems the perfect man, but, boy does he mess up this cozy group. In a meddle-y, get up in everyone’s business sort-of way. And when he goes, everyone’s changed for the better.
A quick and fun read.
January 8th, 2010
Lisa - Central
Wolf Hall is not to be taken lightly. This year’s winner of the Man Booker Prize is not the sort of Tudor pageant most fiction treatments make of Henry VIII’s reign, nor does it dwell on the clandestine couplings that Philippa Gregory has built her reputation on. A reader picking up Wolf Hall will be first confronted with several pages of names (an inordinate amount being either Thomas or Anne) and a couple of tangled royal lineages, all preceeding 500 plus pages of dense, detailed prose. But even though some commentators sighed resignedly at the thought of another Tudor tome on the market, be assured that Hilary Mantel has created a suprisingly modern character study, richly deserving the accolades and recognition as one of the best novels of the year.
At the center of Henry’s court is Thomas Cromwell, a man of mysterious and humble origins, whose brilliance comes from years of surviving Europe’s wars and its banking houses. Mantel reimagines Henry’s court from Cromwell’s point of view, and under his Machiavellian gaze the court seethes with intrigue. Beginning as Cardinal Wosley’s right hand man, Cromwell senses the Cardinal’s declining status and slowly maneuvers into the King’s good graces. Before long, he is Henry’s head minister, uncannily capable of gauging the king’s moods and other’s rising (or falling) fortunes. Henry’s desire to wed Anne Boleyn becomes Cromwell’s mission, and his targets, be it Queen Katherine or Thomas More, create a power struggle against the Catholic Chruch that could place everyone connected with Cromwell in danger of burning.
Although Mantel has plenty of plot to work with, her characterization of Cromwell is what really makes Wolf Hall worthy of praise. His powers of observation–a glance at a glove tells him a family’s financial status–pegs each individual and what they might do for the Crown. Growing up in the harsh realities of Renaissance Europe, Cromwell’s shrewd methods masks a need to protect those close to him, even as his rise exposes everyone to greater risk. Still, the promise of a new Europe–one ruled not by old families and the Church, but by those with the largest coffers–relentlessly drives Cromwell and makes him a character who would be as much as ease in modern Washington as in Tudor London.
It’s unlikely that everyone who picks up Wolf Hall will stick with it to the end. In some ways, it reminds me of The Name of the Rose, another book that had me disoriented at first and completely hooked by the end. For those who stick with Mantel, the payoff is worth it. With so much material to work with, Mantel is already at work at a sequel–and as those familiar with Henry’s reign know, it promises to hold as much tension as Wolf Hall.
January 7th, 2010
Katie H.
I don’t usually like historical novels, but I just finished reading one I could NOT put down. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton, a runaway bestseller in England (published there as The Shifting Fog), and a debut novel written by an Australian author, kept me up WAY past my bedtime.
Vaguely reminiscent of Atonement by Ian McEwan, Riverton is set in England between the World Wars and focuses on an aristocratic family. The story is narrated by Grace Bradley, now 98, who was a house servant at the mansion from the age of 14. Prompted by interviews she’s giving to Ursula, an American who is producing a movie about the family, Grace decides to reveal a secret she’s held her entire life. In 1924, Grace was witness to a scandalous suicide that took place during a lavish party at the estate. Though she doesn’t tell Ursula, she tapes her story for her grandson Marcus who is suffering a heartbreak.
Sent to Riverton by her mother who once worked there, Grace soon loves her position as it brings her into close contact with the nephew and nieces of Lord Ashbury, the owner of the mansion. Just about her age, David, Hannah and Emmeline occupy themselves chiefly with The Game, a fantasy amusement they record in books similar to the tiny books the Bronte siblings wrote. An only child of a distant mother, Grace is enchanted by them. But soon WWI changes everything. David, against his father’s wishes, follows his friend Robert to war. In short time David, along with Lord Ashbury and his son, are killed in France. Albert, Grace’s favorite fellow servant, returns shell shocked. The family is devastated.
As a result of Lord Asbury’s death, Hannah’s father Frederick inherits Riverton, and the family moves in. An automobile pioneer, he soon loses his shirt to American bankers as the transition from autos to war planes back to autos ruins him. And Hannah, manipulated into believing that marriage to someone with money would provide her with freedom to adventure, marries the American banker’s son, ripping her family apart. Hannah takes Grace to London with her, promoting her to a personal maid, and soon relying on her for everything.
Robert resurfaces in Hannah’s life after several years of her boring, passion-less marriage. Once she learns he’s an up and coming poet, her curiousity about her brother’s old friend is piqued and soon his artistic, restless soul is just the thing she’s looking for. They begin a torrid affair and fantasize and plot an escape; but an erroneous assumption about Grace on Hannah’s part results in a tragic mistake.
I won’t reveal more about this book. It is so rich in plot details, from Grace’s tender feelings for Albert, the mystery of her parentage, Hannah’s longing for independence, her romantic love affair, Emmeline’s wild ways, Grace’s eventual future career, even Ursula’s background, that it keeps you turning the pages. Grace is one of those characters you can’t help but love. Morton creates a suspenseful, almost gothic atmosphere in her story. Be prepared for a few sleepless nights.
January 4th, 2010
Lisa - Central
Sweeping up Glass by Carolyn Wall is a remarkable first novel, the story of a long suffering woman named Olivia Harker Cross living during the Depression in rural Kentucky. Although her life has been full of hardship and tragedy, Olivia is a survivor. She has suffered through many things: poverty, hunger, the mental illness of her mother, the early death of her father, and widowhood.
The book starts with wolves being killed on Olivia’s Kentucky mountain property. She keeps finding the dead animals with their ears cut off, and is concerned that the entire population will be wiped out. Olivia and her grandson W’llm attempt a rescue and try to keep two cubs alive. Olivia’s search for the reasons behind the killings force her to relive her past and that of her family and community. Long kept secrets come to light, with many consequences.
Olivia’s story is told through flashbacks; we learn the backstory of her childhood with her cruel, and mentally ill mother, who is still living on Olivia’s property. The one constant positive in Olivia’s life is her grandson, whose care was given to her when he was an infant, by her now absent daughter. In a particularily moving scene, her daughter returns to reclaim her child and Olivia refuses to let him go.
Carolyn Wall is a good writer, and is able to draw the reader quickly into the story and to make her characters come alive. That being said and without giving anything away, I have to say that I disliked the ending, which is complicated and not too credible. I’ll still say that Wall is an author to watch and she should have a good future especially if she doesn’t rely on melodramatic endings.
December 31st, 2009
Mary K. - Central
Best-selling author Edward Rutherfurd’s latest historical novel, New York, is a biography of the city from its origins as an Indian fishing village, settled by the Dutch in the 17th Century, to the aftermath of 9/11. Even though it’s an 800+ page book and longer than I usually read, I thought I’d give it a try being a fan of historical fiction as well as American history. This saga held my attention right from the beginning and continued throughout the many centuries and events described by the author in his book.
What made this story especially readable to me was the inclusion of several interesting characters and their descendants from the 17th through the 21st centuries and their involvement in many leading events of the time. Occasionally there were almost too many coincidences among the families to be completely believable but for the most part this tactic worked and made an otherwise long novel into an engrossing tale.
Rutherfurd’s story includes New York’s participation in the American Revolutionary war, the draft riots of the Civil War, the excesses of the Gilded Age, New York’s emergence as a leading financial center, several waves of immigration, and the two world wars. Rutherfurd continues his biography with the city’s recovery from its near financial ruin of the 1970’s to a rebirth in the 1990’s and concludes with the events of 9/11.
Beverly Swerling’s excellent series on the history of New York includes similar material and along with this book provides a fascinating view of a truly American City.
December 28th, 2009
Lesley - Central
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