All Consuming : ggchickapee

A review of "Incidents in the Rue Laugier"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:15:51 GMT

by Anita Brookner

The story of Maud Gonthier’s marriage to Edward Harrison is not a happy one. Looking back on their years together, their daughter – the self-described “unreliable narrator” of the book – creates a story to explain the sighs, attitudes, and distance she perceived between her parents.

Incidents in the Rue Laugier involves family conflicts and class differences, a doomed love affair, and a marriage that ultimately was, in its own crabbed way, successful. But Anita Brookner presents more than an interesting story – she examines the nature of marriage and the struggle to build a joint life using limited individual resources. As Maud described her marriage:

There was a slight additional loneliness in her increasing isolation from everyone but her husband, but her own calm good sense was there to remind her that she was not at home, that she had never expected to be at home, and that those who did not rely on their inner resources, as she had been obliged to do, were forever condemned to weep in other women’s drawing rooms . . . .

Like Maud’s life, this is a quiet book worthy of reflection.

Also posted on Rose City Reader.

Consumed "Good for the Jews (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:56:20 GMT

Good for the Jews (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards)

by Debra Spark

WORTH IT!

A review of "Good for the Jews (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:56:20 GMT

Good for the Jews (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards)

by Debra Spark

Good for the Jews is a spirited, engaging novel set in the high school academic world of Madison, Wisconsin. When the charming – sometimes floundering – heroine, Ellen Hirschorn, becomes romantically involved with a much older man, she uses her new connections to help her guardian figure out whether he is the target of anti-Semitism.

Spark presents an alluring cast of characters, each complete with enough quirks and foibles to make them absolutely realistic, if not entirely lovable. Spark does not shy away from showing the mixed-up muddle of people—their thinking, their actions, or their politics.

Lines such as “The anti-Semitism of the left. If you’re going to see it anywhere, I guess it would be here in Madison” demonstrate Spark’s sharp eye for ironic contradictions. Nothing is black and white and none of her characters are totally sympathetic or unsympathetic.

The ending is a little rushed, which is all the more disappointing because the rest of the book is so enjoyable. But Good for the Jews is still a great story with a lot more going on than in a typical novel of modern day manners.

Also posted on Rose City Reader.

Consumed "The Fire: A Novel"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:53:29 GMT

The Fire: A Novel

by Katherine Neville

NOT WORTH IT!

The Fire (rated 2 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:53:29 GMT

The Fire: A Novel

by Katherine Neville

The Fire is a complicated adventure novel involving a centuries-long search for a famous chess set and the solution to its mysteries. Parallel stories set in present day and in the 1820s track the efforts of the Black Team and the White Team to find the missing game pieces, discover the meaning of The Game, and figure out just who is on which team—and if it matters.

This is definitely an adventure story rather than a thriller. It is full of symbolism and riddle-solving, all interwoven with history, but it is more Mists of Avalon than Da Vinci Code. The story unfolds but never heats up.

The story drags as the characters dither and, while the plot is moderately interesting, it is not a particularly exciting book. There is a lot of talk about the heroine being in danger, but there is never any actual danger. The only deaths occurred in the past and usually involved historic figures. There are no chase scenes, sneak attacks, near misses – no immediate risks or sense of suspense at all.

The big conclusion when the heroine solves the mystery of The Game once and for all is a big snooze. At least the solution of The Da Vinci Code was profound – blasphemous, but profound. The solution of The Game is no more profound than a brochure for a New Age spa.

Also posted on Rose City Reader.

Consumed "The Tricking of Freya"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:50:50 GMT

The Tricking of Freya

by Christina Sunley

WORTH IT!

A review of "The Tricking of Freya"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:50:50 GMT

The Tricking of Freya

by Christina Sunley

The first couple of pages of Christina Sunley’s debut novel, The Tricking of Freya, seem a little awkward. But once it becomes clear that the narrator is writing a letter to an unknown cousin, her Aunt Birdie’s child. When things fall into place, the book takes off and powers along right up to the last page.

In her never-finished letter to the cousin she hopes to find, the troubled heroine examines her family’s tribulations as well as her own, following family history from Iceland, to Canada, and back. Sunley does not flinch when writing about mental illness and how people react to it, which makes her book sometimes difficult, but more rewarding that the typical coming-of-age novel.

This is a complex story, well told and thoroughly entertaining.

Also posted on Rose City Reader.

Consuming "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:42:55 GMT

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

by Jon Meacham

Consuming "How to Save Your Own Life"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:42:16 GMT

How to Save Your Own Life

by Erica Jong

Consumed "The Italian Lover"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:41:20 GMT

The Italian Lover

by Robert Hellenga

Consumed "The Fire"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:40:27 GMT

The Fire

by Katherine Neville

NOT WORTH IT!

Consumed "A Century of November : A Novel (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:24:43 GMT

A Century of November : A Novel (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards)

by W. D. Wetherell

WORTH IT!

A Century of November

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:24:11 GMT

A Century of November : A Novel (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards)

by W. D. Wetherell

In A Century of November, W. D. Wetherell tells the heartbreaking story of Charles Marden’s quest to understand his son’s death. Marden travels from British Columbia to the scarred, still smoldering battlefield in Belgium where his son died shortly before the November 11, 1918 Armistice that ended World War I.

This is a beautiful book, poetically written. Wetherell creates images with words – snowy train tracks through the mountains, street celebrations that verge on riots, misty moonscapes of battlefields laced with barbed wire – that linger even after the emotional impact of the story begins to fade.

They are making A Century of November into a movie, which could be very good because Wetherell’s images should translate to the screen easily.

Longer version posted on Rose City Reader.

Consumed "Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:22:31 GMT

Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon

by R. Gregory Nokes

WORTH IT!

Consumed "Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure [title page only]"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:21:35 GMT

Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure [title page only]

by Michael Chabon

WORTH IT!

Consumed "The Seven Storey Mountain"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:18:09 GMT

The Seven Storey Mountain

by Thomas Merton

WORTH IT!

A review of "The Tenderness of Wolves"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:17:35 GMT

The Tenderness of Wolves

by Stef Penney

In the late 1800s, the semi-frozen Canadian territory north of Sault Ste. Marie is no place to go wandering around with winter coming on. Lakes and bogs are half frozen traps, snow storms obliterate trails and disorient travelers, and wolves are on the prowl. But after a Scottish pioneer woman finds her trapper neighbor murdered in his cabin and her teen age son goes missing, she and a hodgepodge of others set of in various groups to solve – or cover up – the mystery.

There are several possible motives for the murder, everyone is a suspect, and side stories interweave themselves into the main tale. But there are deeper levels to the book than simply solving a mystery. As the characters track each other through the cold, bleak landscape, they ultimately find their own life paths.

Stef Penney won the 2006 Costa Book of the Year Award for The Tenderness of Wolves. Part mystery, part adventure this is a smoothly written, complicated story that is sure to please readers looking for lots of plot but who want meat on the bones.

Also posted on Rose City Reader.

Consumed "The Tenderness of Wolves"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:17:35 GMT

The Tenderness of Wolves

by Stef Penney

WORTH IT!

Consuming "The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:40:31 GMT

The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel

by Stef Penney

A story about "The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway : The Finca Vigia Edition"

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:35:35 GMT

The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway : The Finca Vigia Edition

by Ernest Hemingway

How can I review a book that took me 30 years to read? This is not just a book, it is part of my life. I have been working on The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway longer than all my formal education, two marriages, and my law practice.

But I can’t review Hemingway, especially when my attitudes about his writing have changed over the decades. I was unquestionably awed as a teenager, snide as a college English major, a genuine fan as an adult, and now just a little weary.

His writing is masterful. He was a genius with spare dialog and creating reality with only a few brush strokes. (Of course, because he taught Americans a new way of writing, reading the original does not pack the wallop it must have before everyone copied him.) What wore me out was the subject matter – the bull fights and the Spanish Civil War in particular. It just got to be a chore for me to get to the end.

Longer version posted on Rose City Reader.

Alice Adams (rated 3 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (ggchickapee) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:28:16 GMT

Alice Adams

by Booth Tarkington

Grounded in outmoded attitudes about class and distractingly highlighted by outmoded attitudes about race, Alice Adams has not aged well. In his 1922 Pulitzer winner, Booth Tarkington presents a heroine striving to climb the short social ladder of her Midwestern city using only her charms and well-rehearsed mannerisms.

Watching Alice struggle is painful. She has self-awareness sufficient to know she is doing things wrong, but lacks the tools to do them right. And it never seems that the game is worth the candle.

Finally, after watching Alice dither for most of the book, circumstances force her to face reality and make some difficult but intelligent decisions. The book ends on a gloriously hopeful note, which is the most redeeming feature of the story.

Also posted on Rose City Reader.