Review: JAMRACH'S MENAGERIE, by Carol Birch

Jamrach's Menagerie, by Carol Birch. Published 2011 by Canongate Books. Literary Fiction.

So, I read Jamrach's Menagerie for my book club, which focuses on books that were nominated for or won the Man Booker Prize. Jamrach's Menagerie was nominated for the prize in 2011 when it was also longlisted for the Orange Prize. The story is about the coming of age of Jaffy Brown, a London boy who gets a job with a zookeeper and is sent on a mission on a whaling vessel, to help bring back a dragon.

The story starts as a lively and entertaining vision of 19th century London life. Jaffy knows the city inside and out, and London is almost a character in the book, so vividly does Carol Birch bring it to life. Jaffy takes right to working with animals and befriends Tim and his sister Ishbel, a beautiful and precocious girl. Charles Jamrach is a larger than life figure and Jaffy loves his work. Life on the boat is hard but Jaffy does his best to adjust. He gets to know the ship, gets to know about whales and whaling, and he meets Dan Rymer, who will have a lasting impact on him in ways he can't imagine right now. Finally they arrive in the south Pacific, and face the dragon.

What happens from here I won't tell you, but it's unforgettable. It's also grisly and grim, and we only have hope because we know Jaffy survives. Carol Birch spares us no detail of the horrors that await these men. I skimmed parts of it, because it was a little too gruesome for me.

It takes about an hour to get from my apartment to the meeting location of my book club, and unfortunately I fell asleep and missed my departure window that Sunday. Just as well. The moderator said she chose this book as a lighter selection after Richard Flanagan's graphic The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The first 3/4 of the book qualify as light but the final quarter eclipses it completely and it's just about dark as dark gets. After the trip Jaffy tries to return to some semblance of normal life, but nothing will ever be the same. I don't feel quite the same either after finishing this deeply disturbing book.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: THE ALL OF IT, by Jeannette Haien

The All of It, by Jeannette Haien. Published by Harper Perennial 2011.

So a week ago legendary author/bookstore owner Ann Patchett made a last-minute appearance at the bookstore where I work. The event was packed and she was terrific- funny, charismatic and polished. As part of the event she recommended a couple of her favorite books, including this little gem, The All of It, which she was influential in getting republished and for which she wrote the introduction. Naturally everyone scooped it up, myself included.

The All of It is a short novel, really a novella, about a priest named Father Declan and his relationship with a couple, Enda and Kevin, in midcentury Ireland. Kevin is dying as the book opens, and he has a last secret to share, but he passes before he can let it out. So Enda tells him "the all of it," the secret behind her and Kevin's longstanding relationship. She spills the secret quickly so that some readers might look at the 125-odd pages that remain and say, "well, I know the big thing, why should I finish?" The reason to finish is Jeannette Haien's luminous prose and the meditations that follow on the nature of love, life and empathy.

The All of It is a novel to read by the fireplace in an afternoon, with a cup of cocoa and a blanket. It will shake you up emotionally but it will comfort you, too; pondering Enda's revelation and its implications, watching Father Declan sort out his complicated feelings towards this enigmatic woman and enjoying the last few pages of suspense are what make this novel great even after the twist has come and gone. It's deceptive in its simplicity, a novel that isn't even really about what you think it's about when you first open its pages. It's a book I'd recommend to just about any reader, too.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: ROLE MODELS, by John Waters

Role Models, by John Waters. Published 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Nonfiction. Essays.

I've never seen a John Waters film so I guess you'd say I'm a fan of the idea of John Waters' films rather than of his work itself.  That's okay. I don't plan to see his films. But he is a cultural icon, not only a notorious purveyor of filth but an advocate for the marginalized, the outcast, the people who don't quite fit in. And that's what I find so appealing.

His book Role Models is an appreciation of the people he admires for all kinds of reasons. He starts off with Johnny Mathis, the reclusive legend who keeps a low Hollywood profile and a very private personal life. From there he moves on to some figures famous, notorious and obscure, from a Manson family killer still in prison to fashion designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons to high society artist Cy Twombly and marginalized pornographers who captured Waters' imagination with their depictions of gay male sexuality at a formative time in Waters' life.

Overall I enjoyed the book a lot, mostly owing to Waters' charming and engaging voice. Reading the book is like listening to him talk, enthusiastically and at length, about the people and things he loves and appreciates. He shows the same love and respect for the everyday people he talks about as for the celebrities, and while I don't always share his admiration for some of his subjects, he comes across like a genuinely nice and caring person. He's also funny, raw, obscene and everything else you'd think, so if you do read this don't go in expecting him to be someone else. There were some parts of the book that I found I could not really read, either because they crossed a line with me in terms of being very explicit or because they were just over my head. I love his appreciation, for example, of artist Twombly but knowing nothing about modern art, much less graffiti painting, I'm not in much of a position to share it. But I do love his sense of humor.

On the subject of celebrity perfumes:

Or better yet, maybe you could be the first on your block to sell a perfume I'm planning on marketing with my attached...Whenever I say my name in Paris, the French laugh because to them it means "toilet waters." So my perfume would have to smell like, what? The humorous absence of God mixed with the odor of a piece of 16 mm film getting caught in the projector gate and burning?

 Elsewhere, on the subject of moral dilemmas:

If someone was racist and really cute, could you still have sex with him? I had to admit the answer is yes. I have. You just change the subject or shout, "La la la la la la la," covering your ears when he speaks his nonsense. If all else fails, stick something in his mouth to shut him up.

As someone with a number of friends who, though I love them dearly, have political views that make me want to duck and run for cover, I can say the "la la la" approach works well. And these are but two examples of his philosophy of life. In one chapter he discusses a number of books that he loves or that influenced him; several are books that I've either wanted to read or tried to read, but I was sad to find that we had no favorites in common. The chapter "Baltimore Heroes" talks about the ordinary people in his life whom he admires and the final chapter, "Cult Leader" is about his own legacy.

But who's this book for? Film buffs, Waters fans, and anyone who's ever felt like mainstream American life passes them by. Ultimately what I got from this book was his love and loyalty to people who don't live at the center of celebrity, wealth or fame but who live honestly, try to be kind and to create some kind of meaning with their lives. And that's a pretty good standard to live by, I think.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: Comedy in a Minor Key, by Hans Keilson

Comedy in a Minor Key, by Hans Keilson. Published 2011 by FSG. Literary Fiction. Translated from the French.

Comedy in a Minor Key is a slender novella about a Dutch couple, Wim and Marie, who hide a Jewish man they know as Nico in their home during World War 2. He's dead. This fact is revealed almost immediately, that he has died while in their protection. The story travels back to his arrival and his stay, then catches up with the present and the consequences for Wim and Marie of Nico's death.

While he's with them, Nico isn't some pale shadow lurking in a closet or a basement. He's part of their day to day lives, and some of their family even know he's there. No blank slate upon which is reflected the goodness of his gentile helpers, Nico is a fully-drawn character with complex feelings towards this couple who are risking their own lives to hide him. He's grateful of course, but he's also miserable, resentful and frustrated. Keilson explores the psychological impact of being hidden on both the hiders and the person hiding, and this exploration takes on an extra dimension when Wim and Marie are forced into hiding themselves.

This novella, a spare and haunting little thing, is a quick read but will still manage to take up a lot of space in your thoughts. The three characters are little more than pencil sketches but Keilson still makes us understand and care for these people. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the Holocaust but also in human nature, in what lengths people can and cannot stretch themselves for their own and others' survival. It's a memorable, thought-provoking gem.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: Tyrant Memory, by Horacio Castellanos Moya

Tyrant Memory, by Horacio Castellanos Moya. Published 2011 by New Directions.

Tyrant Memory is a very worthwhile novel about political repression and revolution by Salvadoran writer Horacio Castellanos Moya, about a brief period of time in 1944 between the ascension of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez- also known as "the Warlock"- who took power after a coup, and his downfall at the hands of a general strike. The story unfolds in the month between the coup and the strike, as Salvadoran society went into upheaval. Castellanos Moya alternates the narrative between Haydée Aragon, a wealthy woman whose husband has wound up as a political prisoner, and her son Clemen, on the run from the new regime with Jimmy, a military man thrown together with him by chance. The two men have nothing but contempt for each other, but their adventures take the form of absurdist comedy and provide a stark contrast to Haydée's growing anxiety.

Haydée's chapters are written in diary form, so we get a very immediate sense of her emotions. At the beginning she's not too worried; she's sure her husband will be home any minute and she takes every opportunity to see him, to keep him apprised of the minutiae of her life. Slowly the situation disintegrates and she finds herself in the middle of a rebellion, her hairdresser and catering appointments interspersed with secret meetings and public protests. At the same time, things go from crazy to funny and back again with Clemen and Jimmy as their adventures take them from a priest's attic to a perilous train trip and a long ordeal in a raft. Finally, things settle out and an epilogue set years later put events into a new light entirely.

Tyrant Memory is not a book that's going to leap off the shelves at most readers but if you like black comedy and political machinations, it's pretty good stuff. I like the way Castellanos Moya gets into Haydée's head, how he makes her relatively and somewhat frivolous concerns feel pressing and real, how he makes her more than a stereotype of a society wife. The chapters with Clemen and Jimmy bristle with comedy and life; I looked forward to their continuing (mis) adventures and flipped the pages eagerly to learn their fate. I'd definitely recommend the book for readers looking for something off the beaten path.

Edit: I don't think you need any background in Salvadoran history to read the book. It's quite accessible and the blurb gives you all the information you need- how one family is affected by a vicious government coup. Political repression is nothing new in the annals of history.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: Witches on the Road Tonight, by Sheri Holman

Witches on the Road Tonight, by Sheri Holman. Published 2011 by Grove Atlantic. Literary fiction.

Winner of the 2011 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, Witches on the Road Tonight is a great Halloweeny read. The book follows the fortunes of three members of an Appalachian family- matriarch Cora Alley, her son Eddie, and his daughter Wallis. The narrative bounces back and forth through time and shifts perspectives as well, but the story is clear and easy to follow nonetheless.  The book opens in 1940., Photographer Sonia and mapmaker Tucker are documenting an area known as Panther Gap, for the WPA. Sonia is a documentarian who has traveled the world and Tucker is about to be drafted into World War 2. They hit young Eddie with their car and take him back to his house, remote in the woods. They are alone, but not for long; Cora comes home and invites them to stay the night. Neither traveler is ever heard from again.

In the present-day, Eddie, now older and retired from a career hosting the horror movie of the week, is sick with cancer and about to commit suicide. His sections are long, rambling letters to his daughter, a successful but very troubled television star herself. For her part, Wallis recounts the story of her family and particularly the story of Jasper, her foster brother, an orphan who idolized Eddie. His death is another mystery, another enigma that may or may not be solved.

My favorite parts of the book were those taking place in the past, in the thick woods of Panther Gap, dense and rich with atmosphere and the supernatural. Gruesome, strange rumors abound in the backwoods town after Tucker and Sonia disappear, and their disappearance continues to haunt Eddie and his wife, the patrician Ann. As Jasper comes into their lives, Wallis grows in resentment and jealousy, and begins to feel her grandmother's influence on her grow stronger.

Holman has crafted an engrossing novel of love, death and suspense; she's able to convey a lot of information through inference and suggestion, leaving lots of room for her vivid descriptions to stretch their lovely legs. I really enjoyed her writing above all else in this thicket of a novel. She creates as much out of a grimy New York backlot on a cold night as she does with the woods of Appalachia, and she colors her characters' emotional lives just as richly. I would recommend Witches on the Road Tonight for people who are not habitual horror readers but who would nonetheless like something enjoyable, suspenseful and just a little bit creepy.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: Death and the Penguin, by Andrey Kurkov

Death and the Penguin, by Andrey Kurkov. Published 2011 by Melville House. Fiction. Crime Fiction. Translated from the Russian.

The last in my little mini-series of reviews of Melville House's International Crime line is the first book in Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov's Penguin series, Death and the Penguin. This book is laced throughout with both black humor and tenderness, but it's still a crime novel about murder and death.

We start off with Viktor Zolotaryov, a poor writer living in Kiyv whose best friend- only friend- is a penguin named Misha, whom Viktor has rescued from a closed-down zoo. Soon, though, Viktor gets a job writing "living obituaries" of people who have not yet died- though they do die, and not long after Viktor pens their obits. At the same time, Viktor takes in little Sonya, the young daughter of a friend, and Nina, a young woman he initially hires to look after Sonya. Tentatively, the four form a family that becomes threatened by the mafiosi behind the obituaries.

Of the three crime novels I've reviewed this week, Death and the Penguin is definitely the lightest and silliest, but there is an undercurrent of tragedy in Kurkov's depiction of the chaos of post-Soviet Ukraine, where people are adrift and almost everyone is a criminal or threatened by criminals. At the same time, the serious stuff never overwhelms the surreal and comic side, or the tender, bittersweet side. You'll have to read to find out how exactly Viktor comes to own Misha, how Misha becomes a pawn and how he eventually saves the day for Viktor and his new found family. Kurkov is the author of 13 novels and definitely knows how to tell a story, and he knows how to tell one unlike anything you've read before at that.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Melville House.

REVIEW: Happy Birthday, Turk! by Jakob Arjouni

Happy Birthday, Turk! by Jakob Arjouni. Published 2011 by Melville House.
Crime Fiction. Translation.

So I guess this is unofficially Melville House International Crime week; I'm trying to catch up on my crime fiction reviews and it just so happens a bunch of them are from the terrific publishing house and its fun International Crime line, which includes books from all over the world including crime writers that are very successful worldwide and little-known inside the U.S. Melville hopes this will change and so do I!

Today I want to tell you about the fab Jakob Arjouni and the first book in his Inspector Kemal Kayankaya series, Happy Birthday, Turk! Set in Frankfurt, Germany, the book covers the investigation into the murder of a Turkish immigrant in a seedy part of town. Kemal Kayankaya, a private investigator and himself an ethnic Turk raised by a German family, takes the case after the deceased's wife comes to him. Kayankaya, culturally German but marked out as different in a society valuing conformity and order, is in a difficult position both with the Turkish family he's trying to help and the German authorities he needs to both utilize and avoid to solve the case.

The case brings him into contact with drug users and dealers, prostitutes and pimps, as well as a thoroughly conventional retired German cop who helps him with information. What I loved about this book, and what distinguishes it from other crime novels and procedurals I've read lately, is Arjouni's hysterical sense of humor. I must have laughed once on every page- at least. A favorite passage, about dinner at the cop's house as Kayankaya tries to play nice:

The Löffs' dining room looks like the showroom of a plastics factory, a space designed for messy little kids. The pale yellow walls are adorned with recipes encased in plastic. The chairs and the dining table are bright orange, and he floor is covered with dark green linoleum. Our place mats were washable plastic. All it needed was an open drain, and the place could have been cleaned with the garden hose.

Mrs. Löff shoveled sausages, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut onto my plate. I twisted the tops off two bottles of beer.

There were a great many half-raw chunks in the homemade mashed potatoes. But they were homemade.

"You can really tell this isn't that instant stuff."

Mrs. Löff thanked me for the compliment.

And so on. After several beatings, a gas attack and  uncovering some corruption, he solves the case, but not in the way I expected. That's another thing I liked about the book- the bittersweet twist ending. I have three more books in this series on deck and I would definitely recommend it to noir/crime readers looking for something off the beaten path. It takes place in the same kind of seedy underworld as many noirs but the specific geographic and cultural location, not to mention the humor, make it different too. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Arjouni's world and hope to return soon!

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: He Died With His Eyes Open, by Derek Raymond

He Died With His Eyes Open, by Derek Raymond. Published 2011 by Melville House. Literary Fiction. Crime Fiction.

I first heard of Derek Raymond's frankly fantastic He Died With His Eyes Open at last year's Boston Book Festival, when I stopped by Melville House's booth and their marketing rep pressed it into my hands, saying it was one of the darkest- and one of the best- things he'd ever read. I've been on a bit of crime (fiction) spree this summer and read it in a couple of days while on vacation back in July. Wow.

The book is great, gripping and poetic crime fiction. The book starts with the brutal murder of a middle aged alcoholic in a seedy part of London; the police almost can't be bothered to investigate, thinking what's the point, it's probably just a case of one lowlife killing another. The book is set in Thatcher-era Britain, and the poor are garbage to anyone above their particular station. So, who cares. But the head Detective Sergeant of the Department of Unexplained Deaths cares, because this man, Charles Staniland, was a human being whose life had value and dignity, and he sets himself to the task of finding his killer. As he investigates, he finds that the victim was a talented man though failed in life and love, who had unfortunately hooked up with wrong femme fatale. But then, is there ever a right one?

He finds Staniland's voluminous taped diaries and learns that Staniland was an educated man with an artist's eye and an aesthete's soul:

Nobody who mattered like his sculpture [Staniland says of an artist he admires]; when I went over to his council studio I understood why. His figures reminded me of Ingres crossed with early Henry Moore; they were extraordinarily graceful, and far too honest to mean anything whatever to current trendy taste. There was  quality in them that no artist nowadays can seize anymore; they expressed virtues--toughness, idealism, determination-- that went out of style with a vanished Britain that I barely remembered. I asked him why, with his talent, he didn't progress to a more modern attitude, but he said it was no use; he was still struggling to represent the essence of what he had experienced in the thirties. 'What I am always trying to capture,' he explained, 'is the light, the vision inside a man, and the conviction which that light lends his action, his whole body...'"

Sounds like what Raymond is trying to do here, too. He Died With His Eyes Open is the first of five crime novels set in the "Factory," the Department of Unexplained Deaths, and for all its bleakness, violence and death, there is something touching and optimistic about the unnamed detective's utter belief in the worth of every human being, no matter how marginalized or alienated from society. And the book is totally addictive reading. More than that though, it's a beautifully written literary novel that just happens to be about a cruel murder. It's violent and dark, for sure, but Raymond writes with heart and from a place of real kindness. I loved this combination of disturbing subject matter and generous point of view.  I can't wait to read more from Derek Raymond!

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Melville House.

REVIEW: The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This edition published 2011 by Penguin.

What can I possibly say about a book like The Secret Garden? It's a classic. Just, a classic.

As some of you may know I'm absolutely bonkers about the Penguin Threads series, a collection of six classics published with incredible embroidered covers; this edition of The Secret Garden was included in the first batch, which came out last year and features illustrations by fiber artist Jillian Tamaki. And what's fun too is when you open the book the back of the cover shows the back of the stitching! As a stitcher myself I just love these books and while I wanted to collect them all, I settled on The Secret Garden because it's one of those books I've always meant to read.

Now, I've seen film adaptations so I knew the story, but what I didn't know was just how marvelous the book is. If you're not familiar with it, it's the story of little Mary Lennox, a spoiled rich girl living in India with her parents. Her parents die, and she is brought to England to live with her gloomy uncle, Archibald Craven, in his rambling and gloomy estate in Yorkshire. But Mary soon finds that Yorkshire agrees with her, and she discovers a secret garden, locked and abandoned since the death ten years ago of Archibald Craven's wife. She left something else behind when she died too, which Mary hears crying in the house's long hallways.

This book was just wonderful from start to finish. Burnett's narration is compassionate and knowing, loving and clear-eyed at the same time. She doesn't romanticize the children or childhood but presents the children with respect and realism. At the same time though, she draws us into the incredible world that they discover and then create for themselves. Her lush and vivid descriptions of the house, the Yorkshire moors and of course the garden itself make the setting come alive for the reader just as they do for Mary and Colin and Dickon (Archibald's forgotten son and his servant's son respectively). The adults in the story are also complicated and interesting people, though Burnett saves the richest interior lives for the children.

Everyone should read The Secret Garden. Everyone!

"And delight reigned."

Rating: BUY!

Buy it online from Powell's.com:

The Secret Garden: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions)
by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I'm a Powell's partner and receive a small commission on sales.


FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: The Secret in Their Eyes, by Eduardo Sacheri

The Secret in Their Eyes, by Eduardo Sacheri. Published 2011 by Other Press. ISBN 9781590514504.

The Secret in Their Eyes got my attention because it promised a riveting crime thriller combined with a moving love story and it delivers on both counts.

Set in Argentina in the 1970s, Eduardo Sacheri's book tells the story of a gruesome rape and murder and its lingering aftermath in the lives of an investigator, a judge, the victim's husband and the killer. Benjamin Chapparo is retiring from a long career as a court clerk; he decides to write a book about the killing of a beautiful young woman and at the same time renews a friendship with Irene Hornos, a judge he has been in love with for years. The story alternates the past with the present, the story of the crime with the story of writing about it.

Benjamin is hit hard by the horrific crime, and by the toll it takes on her devoted, loving husband, and, unsatisfied with the lack of interest in solving it shown by his office, he undertakes his own investigation, assisted by his best friend and coworker. The two of them make a colorful, unlikely detective pair but they find the killer and get him convicted. However, Benjamin has made some enemies along the way and the country's political corruption and along with a personal vendetta get in the way of justice. At least, that's the way it seems to Benjamin, until he learns the shocking truth years later, leaving him with even more disturbing questions to ask of those he thought he knew.

It's a terrific book. I will admit the present-day side of the story had a little less urgency for me but I never got bored. The cast of characters coupled with the challenges they face make for really compelling and emotionally involving reading. I'd recommend The Secret in Their Eyes to readers who like a good dark crime novel mixed with politics, love, and an ending I guarantee you will not see coming.

Click here and I'll tell you about the Oscar-winning 2009 film which might even be better than the book.

Rating: BUY

Buy it from Powell's online:

The Secret in Their Eyes
by Eduardo Sacheri

I'm a Powell's partner and receive a small commission on sales.

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: The Nun, by Simonetta Agnello Hornby

The Nun, by Simonetta Agnello Hornby. Published 2011 by Europa Editions. Literary Fiction. Translated from the Italian.

The Nun is a book that I really hope historical-fiction readers will flock to buy. Set in nineteenth century Italy during the unification period, it's the story of teenage Agata, the bookish daughter of a noble family fallen on hard times. She's the second-to-last daughter; her family is out of money but she is in love with Giacomo, a neighbor who loves her back but whose family wants him to marry a wealthy girl with a dowry. Agata's mother is desperate to marry her off but when no agreement can be made with Giacomo's family and Agata resists an arranged marriage with a much-older man, the only option left is to put an unwilling Agata into a convent.

And this it seems was not an unusual fate for Italian girls of her station for several centuries. Two years ago I read a solid, if lighter, novel called Sacred Hearts, by Sarah Dunant, also about a young girl secreted to a nunnery against her will while she harbored a passion for a man her family didn't want her to be with. The Nun covers a lot of the same ground but with more of a literary bent. Dunant's heroine is wholly opposed to the cloistered life; Agata is conflicted. She tries to make a life for herself "on the inside," learning baking and apothecary skills, trying to make friends and allies among the many relatives she finds in the convent world. But far from being bastions of piety, the convents are rife with luxury, gossip, bullying and secrets, and when she finds herself on the other side of powerful priests, her hope of escape wastes away. Agata has her own secret: a longstanding friendship with an English man who sends her books and who may even offer more- love, salvation, and escape.

I thought The Nun was a really terrific read and deserves to make its way into the hands of historical fiction fans as well as readers interested in Italy. The research that must have gone into the book is very impressive. I loved all the colorful detail Hornby includes about convent life, Italian religious celebrations and the politics of the time. But most of all I love the complexity of the characters, especially Agata, who has so much to work out while all customs, politics and social changes stream around her. I love that she's not simplistic or single-minded; I love that she really struggles with herself. Sometimes she finds contentment in ritual, routine and a preordained life; sometimes she rebels and works hard to find a way out. You'll have to read the book to find out her ultimate fate, but I really hope you do!

This counts towards The Europa Challenge. I've now read 3 books this year towards my goal of 12.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Europa Editions.

REVIEW: Silver Sparrow, by Tayari Jones

Silver Sparrow, by Tayari Jones. Published 2011 by Algonquin Books. Literary Fiction.

Have you ever kept a secret? Have you ever been someone else's secret?

Secret families are not an uncommon theme in fiction; cheating and illegitimacy are motifs that crop up often as devices to engender conflict and rip open the seams of a happy-seeming family.  François Mitterand, former president of France, famously had a mistress and a child with her who would openly identify herself as the daughter of the president. I think in real life such things are maybe less common, and when they do happen, those involved probably keep the secret better.

I can't recall any novels on this theme in particular but it seems to me that when I've seen this situation explored in movies of television, it's usually from the perspective of the wife or child who finds out about the second family. Author Tayari Jones takes the other tack in her beautiful and bittersweet Silver Sparrow, telling the story from both sides, and starting with the story of the secret child.

Jones sets the novel in 1980s Atlanta; Gwen Yarboro met James Witherspoon, married man, in a shop. The two have an affair and Gwen has a baby, Dana. Around the same time that Dana is born, James's wife gives birth to his other, "legitimate" daughter Chaurisse, but he maintains a relationship with Gwen, who tries to make sure he does right by both of his children. Dana knows about James's other family but at first, doesn't quite understand it.

"What happens in my life, in my world, doesn't have anything to do with you. You can't tell your teacher that your daddy has another wife. You can't tell your teacher that my name is James Witherspoon. Atlanta ain't nothing but a country town, and everyone knows everybody," [Dana's father tells her one day.]
"Your other wife and your other girl is a secret?" I asked him.
He put me down from his lap, so we could look each other in the face. "No. You've got it the wrong way around. Dana, you are the one that's a secret."

And with that her world changes. From now on she'll learn that her place in the world is, to an extent, to sit behind her half-sister, who will always come first in her father's heart. Dana can only have what Chaurisse doesn't want; they can't attend the same camp or school or activities. As she grows up, Dana becomes fascinated with Chaurisse and wants to get to know her, something both her parents forbid. When Dana learns that Chaurisse may have her heart set on attending Dana's dream college, things come to a head.

The second half of the novel is from Chaurisse's point of view and tells what happens when the families collide. Seeing Dana through Chaurisse's eyes is jarring and poignant; the girls form a weird friendship colored with dramatic irony as long as Chaurisse doesn't know who Dana is. I turned the pages quickly, anticipating the clash and the fall-out I knew was coming. When Chaurisse, sheltered and ignorant, does find out the truth about her father and her friend, I hoped for a better ending for the girls but Jones gives us the one we'd probably get in real life instead, and I'm glad.

Silver Sparrow is a really terrific, moving, sad and wonderful novel. I didn't read it until I saw Jones read from it mostly because I didn't know what it was about. I found the plot and the presentation to be really fresh and engaging; she really gets to the heart of Dana and the resentment and anger that drives her to disrupt the very unfair position in which she's forced to live. It would be a great choice for book clubs for its emotional complexity and shattering ending. I really loved this book and I'm so glad I got a chance to read it!

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt

The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt. Published 2011 by HarperCollins.

I picked up The Sisters Brothers because I had time to kill at the airport one day and because my friend Ann Kingman of Books on the Nightstand said it was great. Well, it is. It is great.

Set in the Gold Rush days of California and Oregon, The Sisters Brothers tells the story of a pair of hired killers and their last big job. Eli and Charlie Sisters are sent to kill Hermann Kermit Warm; Warm has invented a formula for finding gold and their boss wants the formula. Eli narrates the story, and he is a wonderful fictional creation. I don't know how to describe Eli except to say he's a nerd who ended up in the wrong profession. Overweight and bumbling, with a horse as desperate as himself for love and affection, he grows in self-confidence as events go slowly and tragically awry. When the story opens, Charlie is the "lead man," the one who fancies himself in charge. But little by little, slowpoke Eli takes the reins. Eli has a quiet charm and likability that almost make me forget he's a serial killer on a mission.

I have to say, I really loved this book. The story follows their adventures as they chase, and eventually find, Warm and his companion. Along the way they stay in flophouse hotels, shop for clothes, try to seduce women and even learn to brush their teeth. It's a picaresque that never gets dull and never ever loses its way. I can see why it was shortlisted for 2011's Man Booker Prize, although as a Western it seems at first glance an unlikely choice for a prestigious European literary award. But it really is that good.

And it's funny. Like, not exactly laugh-out-loud funny but chuckle-enough-to-get-attention funny. Eli has a terrific sense of humor and the situations the brothers find themselves in are frequently absurd to hilarious. Reading The Sisters Brothers makes me want to pick up my Charles Portis stash, or try something else outside my comfort zone. It's just as great a time as I've had reading all year. I'd strongly recommend it to just about any reader. There is some violence but nothing too graphic- although that one scene where the horse's eye- well, you'll see what I mean, no pun intended, if you take my advice and pick up this wonderful novel.

And it counts towards the Complete Booker Challenge!

Rating: BUY

The Sisters Brothers
by Patrick deWitt

I'm a Powell's partner and receive a small commission on sales.


FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: Parisian Chic: A Style Guide, by Inès de la Fressange with Sophie Gachet

Parisian Chic: A Style Guide, by Inès de la Fressange with Sophie Gachet. Published 2011 by Flammarion. Nonfiction.

If you know me, you know my style mantra is basically "If it doesn't come from Eddie Bauer, I'm not interested." Don't get me wrong- I like clothes and I enjoy shopping, but I have no idea how to put an outfit together, only the vaguest sense of what looks good on me and little sense of fashion. And I'm lazy. Even when I know what the trends are, I can't really be bothered to follow them. I would love to put some of my meager clothing budget towards something besides hoodies and jeans, but I wouldn't even know where to start.

I picked up Parisian Chic not because I think a wealthy French model from an aristocratic family is the final word on fashion but because I thought it would be fun and maybe give me a pointer or two on how to take my characteristically relaxed style (there's a euphemism for you) and polish it up a little. And that's about what you can expect from this frothy volume.

Fressange is a former Chanel model who was also chosen to model for as Marianne, the national emblem of French values and culture. She continues to work in fashion, on the runway and consulting for high fashion houses like Gaultier and Vivier. So, she knows a lot about clothes.

And appropriately enough the book is stylishly attired in a red cover and accessorized with Fressange's own cute illustrations. The fashion advice takes up about one half of the book, where readers will learn her formula for building a wardrobe around a collection of basic pieces. These pieces can be expensive or not, and Fressange offers advice about how to style them and integrate them into your wardrobe. She includes a chapter on fashion "don'ts," most of which I was relieved to find I don't do anyway. I was glad, for example, to hear that I am not the only one who thinks leggings are tacky. I also liked her advice on dressing as it relates to aging. But the one "don't" that I do, I'm not giving up. Nobody messes with my Hello Kitty pajamas, not even Inès.

The latter half of the book contains notes on her favorite places and things to do in and around Paris, as well as advice on home decorating which I found less helpful. American home style is quite different from tiny-European-city-apartment living! It's still fun to look at, but I'm not likely to put much of this advice into practice the way I am with the clothing tips. And since I'm not going to Paris anytime soon, the travel stuff isn't useful at all.

Overall I thought her advice was simple and easy to put into practice. Style, I think, is more about building a mindset than building a collection of pieces. It's about flair and fun and enjoying yourself through what you wear, but you still have to know where to start. The book communicates a sense of fun while also laying down some guidelines. She's not going to dress you head to toe, or even offer suggestions for different body types. She's looking at universal items for every woman and pieces that are classic and classy rather than trendy. So her advice is sometimes vague but still usable. Each section also includes specific brands and stores that she likes, though some of those are more affordable than others. I think it's OK to get your cute trench at Target if you're not a Burberry girl like she is. But if you can afford a $600 raincoat, good for you.

The parts of this book most useful for me could have been summed up in a magazine article, but nonetheless I'm glad I bought it. It's fun to page through and have on hand, and I will take some of the advice.  I think the book would have worked better (1) without the travel and home sections and (2) accompanied by some blank workbook pages where the reader could list things she has, would like to buy, places to shop, etc. I'm getting a vision of Moleskine-like journal for the fashionista, with Fressange's tips and illustrations alongside. Now that would help this fashion-impaired nerd get it together!

Update: doing some further research I learned that there is a 2013 planner coming based on the book! I'll add that to my wish list!

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. Published 2011 by Crown Archetype. Audiobook narrated by the author. Nonfiction. Memoir.

After Tina Fey's Bossypants was such a success last year (and continues to sell well, at least where I work), Mindy Kaling's memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns) became the "it" celeb memoir of the 2011 holiday season and on. And I can see why. It's funny, cute and entertaining- like Kaling herself.

I listened to the audiobook version of Kaling's book, narrated by herself and a couple of other "character" voices. Kaling, a writer for and star of the TV show "The Office" recounts her high school and college years in New England (she grew up in the Boston area and attended Dartmouth College), post-college years making a go of comedy in New York City and her Broadway success with "Matt and Ben," a play she co-wrote and starred in with her best friend Brenda Withers. After the play, she moved to Hollywood and hit the big time with "The Office," a hit show based on the British TV show of the same name originally created by British comedian Ricky Gervais.

I don't watch "The Office" and while I know Kaling has legions of fans (one tweet from her was enough to sell out her Harvard Book Store appearance within hours), I guess I kind of don't get it. Based on the book alone, Kaling seems like a perfectly nice, perfectly ordinary young woman with a great job in Hollywood but not much else to distinguish her from all the other nice, ordinary, funny people out there. She's funny, and makes some insights about life and love but she also struck me as sheltered and princessy. Her lifetime of struggle with body image issues is a major theme but I have to admit a certain lack of sympathy for a woman who describes herself as "chubby" and then reveals she's a whopping size 8. That may count as fat inside a Hollywood bubble but that's not where most of us live. Or the standard by which we should evaluate our health and physical fitness.

So on balance I liked her book, and I enjoyed listening to her tell her own story; I just didn't think that story was anything special. She's fun in a Tina-Fey-lite kind of way, but if you enjoyed Bossypants I would think about why you enjoyed Bossypants before deciding to pick up Everyone. If you liked Fey's comedy and career highlights, you'll enjoy Kaling's; if you liked Fey's book for her maturity and smarts as well as her laughs, you might be more like me and find that Kaling's book has a little less to offer but is amusing enough nonetheless.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress, by Beryl Bainbridge

The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress, by Beryl Bainbridge. Published 2011 by Europa Editions. Literary Fiction.

Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later- I read a Europa I didn't like.

At first I thought I was just going to DNF The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress, celebrated British author Beryl Bainbridge's posthumously published novel about two strangers on a road trip to California just before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. The first time I tried to read it, I found it dull and confusing. Bainbridge tells the story with less than the minimum exposition; heavy on dialogue and internal monologue, we don't know much about why an American widower Washington Harold and an English girl named Rose are looking for one Mr. Wheeler. Little by little, we find out some, but I was still left with more questions than answers.

So I put it down for a while and picked it up again, determined not to be defeated. And I wasn't, at least in the sense that I finished it. I still don't understand much about what happened.  I wonder if this minimalist style is typical of Bainbridge's writing; this is the first novel of hers I've read. Whatever else you can say though, it's definitely not for me.

I did enjoy some things about the book. I liked the gentle accumulation of detail and her strange relationship with Harold. I liked the contradictions that often occurred between what one of the characters says and what he or she is thinking. And their rambling adventures and the people they meet along the way have a darkly comic picaresque quality that is kind of fun. On the whole though, not really one for me. Maybe you'll have better luck!

This is my second Europa for 2012's Challenge. I'll probably read The Nun next.

Rating: BORROW

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Europa Editions.

REVIEW: Leaving the Atocha Station, by Ben Lerner

Leaving the Atocha Station, by Ben Lerner. Published 2011 by Coffee House Press. Literary Fiction.

Leaving the Atocha Station is a good book but its audience is going to be pretty small. It's a moody,  style-driven novel about a student living on a fellowship in Spain, writing poetry, doing drugs and negotiating relationships with women. It's told in the first person by Adam, the student, and covers his adventures and his thoughts about literature, politics and life. The 2004 Madrid bombings occur during his stay; he's a witness, though the events don't seem to shake him up very much. Mostly the narrative follows his adventures in an out of bed with a couple of girlfriends, around clubs, restaurants and galleries and through the thick tangle of his own thoughts.

I enjoyed the book as the self-consciously literary prose poem it is but it's short on plot and is more a series of reflections and moods and less a narrative, although the character does narrate a certain period in his life. Lerner does a nice job capturing the experience of being an American living abroad, the sense of alienation, the sense of detachment and foreign-ness that comes with living on the periphery of a place and a group of people. Adam tries to ingratiate himself into the local literary scene, something that only happens by chance as he attaches himself to a group of strangers at a bar who turn out to be artists, writers and gallery people. Through it all he never loses his sense of separateness and it's this that's communicated so beautifully to the reader.

So who's the right reader for this idiosyncratic book? The right reader is the kind who likes stylized, literary language primarily and doesn't need a lot of story to carry him- or herself along. The right reader probably also loved Tinkers, another literary prose-poem, although this book isn't quite in the same league as that Pulitzer winner. College students or recent graduates would probably like the book as it describes that very particular place and time of life with precision. It's a book about a state of mind, a sense of otherness and a lack of certainty about the future. I enjoyed the book to a point but I didn't love it; but I'm probably not the right reader.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. Published 2011 by Random House.

Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize and latest novel by acclaimed British writer Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending is a must-read for any reader of literary fiction. The book tells the story, in his own words, of middle-aged Tony Webster and his lifetime of regret around his relationship with two people- Veronica, an ex-girlfriend, and Adrian, a close friend from school. Lifetime of regret isn't quite right; he doesn't find out until very late in his story that he has any reason to regret but when he does, it's as though the weight of all of his decisions crashes upon him and he's left to sort through the rubble alone.

The theme of the novel is laid out early, as a high-school-aged Adrian is talking to a teacher about how to write history fairly: "That's one of the central problems of history, isn't it, sir? The question of subjective versus objective interpretation, the fact that we need to know the history of the historian in order to understand the version that's being put in front of us." And herein lies the central challenge of this book. Tony is telling this story from the future, after the events have taken place; in the opening pages, as we're getting to know the characters, their futures, and Tony's, is hidden from us but not from the man telling the story. He knows things we don't yet, and these things color the way he tells the story. We can't understand anything he's saying until we know everything and we don't know everything until the very end.

Therefore, re-reading The Sense of an Ending is mandatory!

However the book is short enough, and more than wonderful enough, to make a reread easy and worthwhile. Soon after this point in the story, Tony meets Veronica, and their relationship forms the basis of the rest of the book. Even after their romance ends, they continue to interact in meaningful ways; one could say that Tony's relationship with Veronica is the central and defining one of his life, even as he tries to argue that other women were more important. That lie is one of many, maybe not lies exactly but self-deceptions Tony tries to sell the reader. The final secret is revealed obliquely, which tells us something about Tony's ability to process what he's learned and face it.

The Sense of an Ending is a wonderfully, intricately crafted unreliable-narrator story starring a perfectly ordinary man who, through one act of cruelty by whose impact he himself seems baffled, upends four lives for years to come. It's also the story of his reckoning and acceptance of what he's done as well as his ultimate irrelevance. And it is a book that deserves an immediate re-read. But you'll want to- you really will. It's just that good!

This counts towards the Complete Booker Perpetual Challenge.

Rating: BUY

The Sense of an Ending
by Julian Barnes

I'm a Powell's partner and receive a small commission on sales.


FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, by Caroline Preston

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, by Caroline Preston. Published 2011 by Ecco.

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt is a delightful little trifle, a novel told in vintage ephemera- fashion plates, ads, photos, postcards and more. It tells the story of Miss Frances Pratt, a young lady of lesser means from New Hampshire. She meets a dashing gentleman, absconds to Vassar and then to Paris. She has a scrapbook and an old typewriter when she leaves high school in 1920 which she uses to record her adventures and make her way in the world.

Caroline Preston tells Frankie's story with concise, witty first-person narration, so that we feel that we are reading Frankie's own diary. We see her insecurities and mishaps, and her tentative steps towards adulthood. We share in her friendship with the glamorous Allegra Wolf, her Vassar roommate, and her near-romance with Allegra's brother. We see her time in Paris and what happens when she comes back, and her ultimate happy ending as well.

The book is charming and unusual. The pictures illustrate rather than tell the story, so while it's tempting to describe it as a graphic novel for adults, it really isn't. Preston has written this sparse tale with skill such that neither the characterizations nor the story feel thin. Nonetheless, The Scrapbook is a quick read, maybe two cups of tea long with enough left over for a scone if one were in the mood. It's a fun, funny and sweet book with a winning heroine at its helm. Pick it up for a light, enjoyable and visually engaging read.

The American Library Association agrees and awarded the book a 2012 Alex Award for Best Adult Book for Teens!

Rating: BEACH

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures
by Caroline Preston

I'm a Powell's partner and receive a small commission on sales. 

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.