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: What You See in the Dark, by Manuel Munoz

What You See in the Dark, by Manuel Muñoz. Published 2011 by Algonquin. Literary Fiction.

What You See in the Dark, Manuel Muñoz's new novel, is one of those moody California books about lost souls finding their way in an inhospitable landscape. The narrative revolves around two women: Teresa and Arlene, and how their lives are turned inside out by the same man. Teresa is a pretty girl who works at the shoe store until she catches the eye of Dan Watson, the town catch of Bakersfield, California, but the affair, which becomes the talk of the town, goes bad. As his mother Arlene slides into late middle age, the tragedy Dan, her son, sets in motion triggers something dark in her, too, leaving her unable to cope with the changes and decisions she faces. Meanwhile, a famous actress comes to town to film a movie about a gruesome murder.

The book is absolutely steeped in atmosphere. Everyone is striving for something, hungry for love, for respect, for something better than what they have. Teresa wants Dan and the trappings of middle class life he represents; Arlene, the book's most moving figure, seems to feel herself slipping into obsolescence and wants to be relevant- important- to someone. Muñoz contrasts their lives with that of the actress, trying to carve out her own place in the film. She struggles to flesh out the character she's playing, a woman at the end of bad love affair, only to find out that she may not really be that important to the important Hollywood movie she's filming.

I really enjoyed reading What You See in the Dark. I love the way Muñoz gets into the head of these women. I loved the scene in the shoe store when we learn that Teresa is required to enter through the back door whereas her pretty coworker Candy can come in through the front, and have her boyfriend wait outside, too. When Teresa responds to this humiliation, and others, by stealing a beautiful pair of boots, we can understand her anger even if we don't quite agree with her response. Later, when Arlene misses out on a chance for love, we can feel the sting of her regret as easily as we can understand how she makes her decisions. Teresa's story is sad but I think the real tragedy lies with poor Arlene, who's left to deal with the aftermath alone. What You See is a moving, engaging and well-written read perfect for a hot summer's day- preferably a muggy one, with a dense rolling fog coming in off the ocean. Read it for the atmosphere, the characters and the heartbreak.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Algonquin.

REVIEW: The Frozen Rabbi, by Steve Stern

The Frozen Rabbi, by Steve Stern. Published 2010 by Algonquin. Literary Fiction.

I'm at a little bit of a loss as to how to begin my review of Steve Stern's latest novel, The Frozen Rabbi. A novel that combines a fantastical story about an old-world tzaddik who, thanks to long-term cooling technology, winds up the head of a mega-cult in suburban Memphis, with a colorful and entertaining multi-generational immigration story, it's a lot of different things at different points.

It all begins when fifteen year old Bernie Karp, a Memphis teenager from an assimilated Jewish family, finds the crystallized sage in his basement freezer. From here the narrative alternates between the newly-thawed holy man's adventures and the story of how he came to that Memphis basement in the first place.

The reader meets Bernie's great-grandparents Shmerl and Jocheved, shares their unlikely but incredibly sweet love story and the sad adventures of their wayward son Ruby. As the Karp family and its icebound companion winds its way through Europe, America, Israel and back, we also follow the rabbi and Bernie's adventures in the present day. The rabbi adjusts quickly to contemporary Tennessee and prospers, starting a strip-mall new-age counseling center that balloons to a stadium-sized congregation. Not some straight-laced, modest philosophe, this ancient rabbi is an opportunist, a capitalist, and a ladies' man. Bernie, meanwhile, negotiates his relationship with kvetchy teen Lou Ella and becomes absorbed with kaballah, his own out-of-body experiences and his adolescent sexuality.

The Frozen Rabbi is as much fun to read as it sounds. Peppered with Yiddishisms and lively, colorful prose, even as strange as it gets sometimes it's quite delightful. And it does get strange, especially towards the end. I'd recommend it to readers with an interest in Jewish culture and literary readers looking for a walk on the magical-realism side. I really enjoyed following this family's wild adventure, right through one of the most bizarre endings I've ever come across. Stern has written a ribald, earthy and explicit tale about the search for meaning and the ultimate destiny of one family, which seems to be to return to the source from whence it came, but in a way I never expected.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.

REVIEW: Peep Show, by Joshua Braff

Peep Show, by Joshua Braff. Published 2010 by Algonquin. Fiction.

Peep Show is the story of the Arbus family. Divorced parents Martin and Mickey/Miriam have gone very separate ways; dad is a burlesque owner and mom is a ba'alat teshuvah, a recent convert to Orthodox Judaism. He's trying to keep his head above water in a business that's changing too fast for him, and she's trying to fit in in a rigidly conservative religious world. Their children get stuck in the middle. Debra/Dena is a teenager still living with her mother, and David is a young adult trying to navigate a way between his parents while maintaining a relationship with his sister who's being swept along in her mother's religious current.

Peep Show isn't a bad novel. The narrative focuses on David's choice between his mother's and father's respective lifestyle, and unfortunately both seem so inappropriate for him as an individual that it was difficult for me to know whose side to be on. Characters don't have to be nice people for a book to be enjoyable but it helps if there's at least something likable about them, and I suppose Braff comes down on the father's side, but only slightly, by making it clear that if nothing else, he cares about the unity of his family. Mickey is cartoonishly inflexible to the point that, while I can sympathize with her wish for a wholesome family life, one feels alienated from a concept of wholesomeness that seems to include cutting off one's own son. On the other hand, Martin's threats to her new life seem cruel and heartless.

The real problem with Peep Show for me isn't that it's bad, but that it's bland. Its criticism of Orthodox Judaism is simplistic, and the theme of what-happens-when-secular-and-Orthodox collide has been done in ways more compassionate and balanced in novels like Diana Spechler's Who By Fire and Allegra Goodman's wonderful Kaaterskill Falls. This book strikes me as a paler, less interesting version of those novels. Peep Show will acquaint the reader with isolated "fun facts" about Orthodoxy but without any context or appreciation for how they fit into the whole, so I wouldn't recommend this book for those wanting to learn about Orthodox Judaism. I'm not really sure to whom I'd recommend it, really; it just validates negative stereotypes about both secular and religious people without having much else to offer.

And yes, author Braff is the brother of the actor Zach.

Rating: BORROW

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

REVIEW: Going Away Shoes, stories by Jill McCorkle

Going Away Shoes, stories by Jill McCorkle. Published 2009 by Algonquin.

Going Away Shoes is an elegant and moving collection of short stories by writer Jill McCorkle. The stories all focus on women in middle age, trapped or stuck in some kind of relationship- with a dying mother or ex-lover, a misbehaving granddaughter or even an ex-therapist who still has an emotional hold over his patient.

Personally, I found the book to be a little bland. No doubt well-crafted and absorbing, it would appeal to readers of popular fiction and light literary fiction with a taste for books about women and I like the way McCorkle elevates everyday lives through her excellent writing and respect for her characters. Even the funniest story, "PS," which consists of a letter by an ex-wife to her ex-therapist, just pokes gentle fun at therapy and even divorce.

I think though that for me, stories about everyday people just often lack the snap I look for in literature. When I read, I want to read about something outside my life, something that takes me away- to a different time, culture or setting. There are a number of really excellent writers who write very movingly about ordinary life (Roland Merullo, Stewart O'Nan, and McCorkle, among others) but although I admire their craft the work itself just doesn't get me going. Such is the case with Going Away Shoes. I do think a lot of readers would enjoy it and that it might even make a great book club pick, the stories being primarily character- and relationship-driven. There's certainly a lot to talk about- thorny dilemmas, difficult families and complicated lives. It's a thoughful and thought-provoking collection- if, for me, just not very exciting.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.

REVIEW: The Puzzle King, by Betsy Carter

The Puzzle King, by Betsy Carter. Published 2009 by Algonquin. Fiction.

Betsy Carter's latest novel, The Puzzle King, is based in part on her own family's story of a late ancestor who came to America from Germany in the early 1900s and then returned in the mid-1930s to save hundreds of German Jews from the growing anti-Semitism that would lead to the Holocaust. Most of the book is the fictionalized story of Simon and Flora Phelps, who come to America as children, grow up, assimilate, marry, and make a life, and it's pleasant and interesting enough.

Simon is a gifted artist who soon finds work in the burgeoning advertising industry; he falls in love with Flora, who comes to America with her beautiful sister Seema. While Flora is traditional- marrying a nice Jewish boy, joining the sisterhood at the local synagogue- Seema is a wild child who changes her name to something "less Jewish" and becomes the mistress of a Waspy charmer. Over time Simon becomes a very successful inventor of puzzles and games, giving him and Flora the means to travel and enjoy life. But in the mean time, all of them worry about their families back in Germany. Simon hasn't heard from his since he left years ago, and while Flora and Seema stay in touch with their sister, mother and niece, trouble is brewing in Europe as the 1930s wear on and decisions must be made.

This novel is the second of Carter's that I've read; her 2007 novel Swim to Me was one that I liked but didn't admire. I'm actually a little cooler to The Puzzle King, believe it or not, despite thinking that the writing was a little better in this one. I like how Carter portrays the different paths the sisters take and the tensions between them; I think she has a real gift for portraying troubled family relationships- that's what I liked best about Swim to Me. But I feel like she spends too much time on ordinary and unremarkable elements of the story and rushes the most interesting part- the story of how Flora saves all of those people- and doesn't do it justice. I was also surprised by the way the question of Seema's fate is dropped. And I wish that Simon's family was given a larger role; since it's fiction, Carter could have invented something more for him.

The strength of the book lies in its characters and relationships, although there was enough plot to keep me going, especially towards the end. I think of Carter as a writer of light fiction and I think her audience here is going to be readers of light fiction, Jewish fiction and immigrant stories. If that sounds like you, dive in.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.

REVIEW: Secret Son, by Laila Lalami

Secret Son, by Laila Lalami. Published 2009 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Click here to buy Secret Son from your favorite indie bookstore.

Secret Son is the new novel by Moroccan writer Laila Lalami, author of the lauded short-story collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. It's the story of Youssef, a young man from the wrong side of the tracks in present-day Morocco, and follows him as he comes to terms with a family secret- the identity of his father, Nabil, a wealthy businessman- and what it means for his identity and his future.

I was drawn into Youssef's life right away; Lalami creates vivid characters, a beautiful setting and a page-turning plot. Youssef is a ordinary kid trying to figure it all out- university, friends, his goals in life- when Nabil explodes Youssef's expectations. Youssef and Nabil form a tentative relationship based on a form of exchange- Nabil will give Youssef money and a foot in the door of his business, and in exchange Youssef will give Nabil the son he never had. Except Youssef wants more than money- he wants his father's love and acceptance. He wants to be a part of his father's family. But Nabil already has a family, and that may not be so easy.

And Lalami isn't content to leave it at that. While trying to sort out this new development, Youssef and his disaffected friends are drawn into an almost cult-like conservative Muslim religious organization called the Party, which has taken over property that used to be a movie theater. His friend Maati gets a job as a security guard there, and it becomes the friends' new hangout. But someone there has plans for Youssef.

A major theme running through the novel is social class and economic stratification in Morocco, and how one's social class influences one's prospects in life. When Youssef meets Nabil, Youssef quickly comes to expect big changes; whether or not these changes materialize is a driving force behind Youssef's decisions, and, eventually, his fate. I would call the ending pessimistic but perhaps inevitable. On balance, though, I really enjoyed Secret Son. The world Lalami creates for her characters is rich, detailed and accessible, including characters from different strata of Moroccan society who behave convincingly. I think Secret Son would be great for book clubs and for anyone looking for a compelling read; I certainly enjoyed this little look into another culture and another part of the world.

Rating: BACKLIST
Come back tomorrow for my interview with Laila Lalami!


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.

REVIEW: Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan. Published 2009 by Algonquin. Literary Fiction.

I've been dreading writing my review of Mudbound, Hillary Jordan's debut novel, about a family who moves to a farm in rural Mississippi in the 1940s, ever since I finished it. I wanted to like it- I really did. Mudbound has been selling well and is getting a lot of good buzz, and I was excited to receive it unexpectedly from the publisher. The author and I are alumnae of the same college (Wellesley)- and it's always nice to see a Wellesley woman doing well for herself. But alas, sisterhood only gets you so far, and like it I did not.

First of all, let me say that it's not without its good points. Jordan is a skilled writer and has crafted a strong, character-driven narrative about a family surviving in difficult circumstances, with lots of tension just under the surface. Her characters are solid and well-defined, each with a distinctive voice and point of view. Laura McAllan is an urban, educated woman and a spinster who is charmed into marriage with Henry, who seems to want the same things she does. But as it turns out, Henry has hoodwinked her, believing (more or less correctly) that she is desperate enough to marry the first good-smelling man to ask her, and sweeps her away to his muddy homestead to be a farm wife. Here Laura endures all manner of deprivations- no running water, no electricity, dirt, pestilence, and various unseemly rural neighbors, the unseemliest being her own father-in-law Pappy, a cartoonishly evil racist with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. She also gets to know Jamie, Henry's formerly charming cad of a brother, now a washed up alcoholic veteran of World War 2. Laura has dealings with the Jackson family, poor blacks who live on the land, including salt of the earth wise-woman Florence and her son Ronsel, another WW2 veteran.

The drama is slow to build but centers around the racist whites and Ronsel; the denouement, almost seven-eighths of the way through, is harrowing and violent. The novel opens with the Pappy's death but takes all that time to get back around to filling in the details. In the mean time, we are treated to day to day life on the farm, Jamie and Ronsel's war experiences and post-war friendship and many other plots and turns of character. The narrative alternates between several characters- too many, in my opinion, and this cacophony of voices made it hard for me to connect with any one character. Having said that, I enjoyed Jordan's passages about farm life, about its economics and about its privations. I can tell that Jordan did a lot of research on these topics.

But on balance, I didn't enjoy Mudbound. Why? Several reasons. First, the characters. When I was in high school English class, a teacher once explained that the way to tell what a book is about, or who the main character is, is to see who changes over the course of the story. The thing about Mudbound is, nobody changes. Nobody learns anything, nobody grows- it's like there's no point at all to what the characters go through. As Lisa Simpson once said, it's just a bunch of stuff that happens. In the end everyone moves on in their own way, clinging to their same old beliefs, and nothing is different.

So what's the book about? Racism, maybe. But if so, Mudbound is a book about racism that condemns it (itself an easy, audience-pandering point to score- who's going to write the pro-racism book, after all?) while at the same time allowing the reader to indulge it, between Jordan's absolutely excessive overuse of the N-word (it appears on nearly every other page) and that every single character is a racist to one degree or another. Even Laura, the most obviously likeable character, is condescending at best in her attitudes. I also think that Jordan's portrayal of Ronsel as a martyred saint is condescending in and of itself. And don't tell me, well, Jordan's just reflecting the attitudes of the time and place. That excuse is just not good enough.

Reading Mudbound, I just spent lots of time being disturbed and upset and uncomfortable for lots of reasons, with very little payoff. I know I'm pretty much the only person who didn't like Mudbound, but that's okay with me.

Rating: BORROW

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.

REVIEW: My Father's Paradise, by Ariel Sabar

My Father's Paradise, by Ariel Sabar. Published 2008 by Algonquin Books. Nonfiction.

It's hard to know how to begin a review of a book like My Father's Paradise, because a book like this doesn't come around very often. It's very special.

My Father's Paradise is the story of two men, Yona and Ariel Sabar, father and son. It's the story of Yona's family, among the last generation of Jews to live in the mountains of Kurdistan and speak Aramaic as a native language. It's the story of Yona's life in Iraq, and his journey to and life in Israel and the United States. It's also the story of his son's journey to bridge and close the generational and cultural divides separating him from his father, and ultimately from his own heritage.

Ariel Sabar is frank about how, growing up, he wanted to be the consummate California guy and was embarrassed by his nerdy, misfit dad, who drove a cheap car and dressed funny, not like the other dads. Like many kids, he needed a little maturity to appreciate his family, and in order to develop the curiosity leading him to take time away from his career as a journalist and immerse himself in his family's story. He does so beautifully.

The first few chapters of My Father's Paradise, in which he speculates on the story of his grandmother Miryam's girlhood and married life, read like accomplished historical fiction, rich in detail and human feeling. Later chapters are less speculative but retain all the charm of the early chapters. As he goes along, Sabar mixes in social and political history to help situate the reader and explain why Yona Sabar and his family had to leave everything behind in Iraq and start again in Israel, where being a Middle Eastern Jew with funny clothes and a language no one else spoke were hurdles to overcome. Eventually Yona moves to the United States, enrolls at Yale and his life takes off- he gets married and begins a wildly successful career teaching, researching and writing about the language, folk tales and culture of Kurdistani Jews. His diverse accomplishments include writing a Neo-Aramaic dictionary and providing Aramaic dialogue for "The X-Files."

Sabar's writing is wonderful throughout. Fluid and rich, his writing is sometimes serious and dense with facts, sometimes deeply emotional, and sometimes even humorous, but it's always punchy and full of verve. He's refreshingly honest about his behavior and the unflattering light in which he saw his father for many years, and the ways in which maturity has mellowed him and changed his perspective. He divides the book into quick little chapters, which I always believe is very helpful in a history book for laypeople. This structure allows the reader to stop and start and take the book in bite-size portions- no long, interminable chapters to wade through, no unscalable mountains of names and dates. He creates vivid characters- real, complicated people the reader can feel for and understand.

As much a biography and a story of a family as a history, My Father's Paradise is also a story about change- changing communities, changing cultures and changing relationships. It's a story about taking something you believe is a liability- in this case, belonging to an isolated ethnic group speaking a near-dead language- and turning into the very thing that saves you and helps you make a life. It's a book about nostalgia and the surprises that await when you try to go home again. It's about a father and a son, and how the two may be more alike than different, more alike than either might think at first.

Everybody should read My Father's Paradise even if you think you have no interest in Kurdistani Jews. It's a book about a very specific culture that's filled with universal themes that anyone can appreciate. And it's so well-crafted that it's an absolute pleasure to read- a really beautiful, special book. I hope everyone reads it.

Rating: BUY

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

REVIEW: Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo

Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo. Published 2007 by Algonquin. Literary Fiction.

Breakfast with Buddha is the new novel from Massachusetts-based writer Roland Merullo, which takes as its subject the angst of the upper-middle-class American man, specifically one who must take a road trip with his sister's Russian New-Age guru. Otto Ringling is a well-off publishing executive from suburban New York whose parents have recently died, leaving him and his hippy-ish sister a valuable homestead in North Dakota. In order to settle the estate he must go out there and transact some business; his sister is afraid to fly and insists that he undertake the trip in the company of one Volya Rinpoche, a monk of unclear religious leanings. Otto is not pleased, but he's a good guy and agrees, and the trip is not what he expects.

I have been a fan of Roland Merullo's for several years, ever since I read Revere Beach Boulevard, one of three books in his Revere Beach Trilogy. Revere Beach Boulevard is a compassionate novel about a blue-collar Italian-American family in transition and in trouble and compassionate is the key word because it characterizes much of Merullo's writing. Revere is a working-class town in northeastern Massachusetts near where I grew up, and I know how easy a target its denizens make for snobbery and derision but Merullo really treats his characters with care and respect, and the same is true with Breakfast with Buddha. Otto and Rinpoche could both have easily been caricatures- a clueless yuppie and a Froot Loop off on a road trip. Instead they are both believable and likable, flawed but kind and sensitive to the world around them.

You can probably tell, but I liked this book a lot. Merullo is a very skilled writer and as I said, draws his characters with compassion and sensitivity. One thing I like to do when I'm done reading first-person stories of personal transformation is to re-read the first chapter or two, to see the way the narrator introduces the story. In this kind of book the beginning is also the end- the character has already lived the story and the transformation has already taken place when it opens, so it is worthwhile, after having experienced the story, to see how the narrator talks about what for him has already happened. In this case I saw on this second reading something like embarrassment on Otto's part, a very modest self-effacement that I found endearing. The only flaw I found was the sense I had about 7/8 of the way through that Otto's transformation came on a little quickly, but re-reading the beginning dispelled this impression a little or at least softened it with the sense that okay, yes, it's a believably ongoing process. Anyway it's a charming, sweet, beautifully written book. Go read it.

Rating: BUY

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

REVIEW: Swim to Me, by Betsy Carter

Swim to Me, by Betsy Carter. Published 2007. Click on the cover to buy. I'm an IndieBound affiliate and receive a small commission on sales.

Swim to Me is a light-as-air story about a troubled family whose members have to find their way as the family unit dissolves. Fifteen year old Delores Walker's father walks out one night, and two years later she leaves home to become a mermaid at a tourist trap in Weekee Wachee, Florida; the book follows her adventures and those of her bitter mother Gail, her withdrawn, taciturn father Roy and her bouncy baby brother Westie. The story is colorful and dramatic at times and Carter does a good job of showing the delicate family dynamic that Delores has to navigate once her family has disintegrated. She is particularly effective at illustrating a very tense mother-daughter relationship fraught with resentment and a stifling sense of claustrophobia. I've seen mother-daughter relationships like theirs play out in real life and it's not pretty- and Carter captures that push and pull pretty well, within the limits of her writing ability. I thought that while Delores was likeable enough and someone I wanted to root for, her parents came off poorly. They're portrayed as ignorant oafs and Carter's writing doesn't do much to help. Gail was all insecurity and envy and Roy barely registered a personality at all. Toddler Westie was just a cute cypher- he seemed to function more as a symbol of the family or of Dolores's own innocence and idealism, and a heavy-handed one at that. To Carter's credit there is no sugary reunion to be had for the Walker clan but they do all learn to carve out space for themselves and each other.

If the writing had been better and the characters a little more fleshed out the book would have been a much better experience for me. For me the writing was characterized by the sort of aggressive mediocrity you find in certain kinds of light-reading magazines and I can't say I was surprised to learn from the back cover that Carter is a contributor to O : The Oprah Magazine. So I guess if you like Oprah you will probably like this book. Neither is exactly awful but if you're looking for a solid, literary good read, Swim to Me isn't it.

Rating: BEACH


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