Review: THEFT BY FINDING, by David Sedaris

Theft by Finding, by David Sedaris. Published 2017 by Little, Brown. Nonfiction. Memoir. Humor. Audiobook.

Oh how I love David Sedaris's memoirs. Way back when I remember splurging on a hardcover edition of Holidays on Ice, because I just had a feeling it would speak to me. And it did.

Anyway after reading his books steadily for the past 18-odd years I've decided the best way to enjoy him is on audio- he is a great narrator of his own work and really adds a whole new dimension with his expressions and voice. Thus even though I did run out and buy a hardcover of Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 as soon as it came out, I also jumped on a free audio version that Libro.fm offered to booksellers. What a treat.

At the very beginning Sedaris informs, or warns, us that this book is a very selective and incomplete edition of his diaries, which are far more voluminous than even this weighty tome would suggest. But what remains is vastly entertaining, bittersweet at times, at times obscene, crazy, or just plain silly and weird. It's also mundane, tender, jumpy, and intimate, and all these contradictory things at once. The narrative feels disconnected at times, since there is no real narrative, just a selection of events over time that give the reader some insight into Sedaris's priorities when it comes to observation, as well as his creative process and eye for detail. Some characters stand out; his relationship with his siblings always sits front and center, as well as his parents and his partner Hugh, who comes on to the scene about midway through this volume. Sedaris is cagey and economical about what he includes about the relationship; they meet, meet again, and the next we hear they are moving in together. It's not a lot but the particulars he chooses are enough to give a sense. I don't know why I'm particularly fascinated with this aspect of his life, but there you go.

Sedaris's voice joined me for a couple of weeks of bus rides and walks and he is a great companion. He says in the introduction that he doesn't expect readers to listen all at once, but "dip in and out" and this is just about what I did, listening for a few minutes here and there as I did errands, traveled around the city or relaxed at home or worked on crafts. I listened to quite a bit of it in the car, as my husband and I drove to and from Washington, D.C., two weekends ago. But for the most part I consumed the book in stolen moments.

And this approach worked well for a diary, written as it is in fits and spurts and crystallizing individual moments in time. Readers will travel with Sedaris all over the United States, to England, France and elsewhere, and from his early days of housecleaning and fruit picking through to his success as a writer. You'll get to know his family, especially his sisters and parents, and of course Hugh. You'll listen to experience his first successes and occasional struggles, like learning French or losing his cat Neil. Poor Neil.

Theft by Finding isn't laugh-out-loud funny like his polished memoir writing but it's so very enjoyable in a more low-key way. I could listen to him all day.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary audio copy from Libro.fm.

Review: LESS, by Andrew Sean Greer

Less, by Andrew Sean Greer. Published 2017 by Little, Brown. Literary Fiction.

Arthur Less is a mess. About to turn fifty, struggling with growing older and just found out that his younger ex Freddy is about to get married, Less decides to travel his feelings away. A successful B-list writer of literary novels, Less has been invited to teach here, attend a conference there, go to a party in another place and take a writer's retreat in yet another locale. So he packs his suitcase with clothes appropriate for Mexico, Morocco, India and Italy, and off he goes.

Along the way we learn about Less's history- his first love, a Pulitzer-Prize-winner who mentored him the ways of love and life, his friend Carlos, who's seen him through a lot, and Freddy, the aforementioned younger ex, whose relationship with Less is a little like a reversal of Less's first relationship. Less is insecure, he's anxious and he's careful. But he can't hide from himself, from the onset of the years or from his destiny.

This is the first novel of Andrew Sean Greer's I've read, though now I want to read more. Less is charming and sweet, and yet all is not quite as it seems. Greer's narrator is playing some gentle tricks on us; he's not unreliable, exactly, but he is a personage of note in the book and he has an agenda, peeled back and revealed slowly until the tears of happiness come at the end of this light yet moving and emotional book. Bring a pack of tissues when you take this book to the garden or the hammock or the beach this summer. You will need them.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review.

Review: THE GOLDFINCH, by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. Published 2013 by Little, Brown.

So, where to begin? If you were a fan of Donna Tartt's debut hit, The Secret History, you've probably at least heard of her new blockbuster, her first novel in almost twenty years, The Goldfinch. Her second novel didn't so as well as the cult-hit Secret History, so this new book was greeted with both excitement and trepidation. I remember loving The Secret History but it was so long ago that she hasn't exactly stayed at the top of my authors to watch, so when the new book came out I wasn't sure I was going to read it but my friends were so enthusiastic that I decided to give it a try.

Whoa. So The Goldfinch is about a boy whose life changes forever when the museum he is visiting with his mother is bombed. She dies, and he steals a painting, a backpack-sized (fictional) old masterpiece called "The Goldfinch." That day he also meets two people whose lives will continue to intersect with his even though one of them dies, and collides with a wealthy family which will contribute to this altered course of destiny.

Theo Decker is just thirteen on this day, a New Yorker living with his beautiful mother after his father abandons the family. He doesn't expect his life to change that much. But the future will take him to the heights of New York society, its back-room antiques shops and workrooms, the wilds of Las Vegas and the underworld of Europe. When the book opens he is an adult recounting his story from an Amsterdam hotel room under shady circumstances. After a brief orientation he takes us back to that day that changed everything and from there the book is a straight-up, nonstop forward-moving bullet train. Eventually we catch up with, then surpass, Theo in the hotel room, to a time when his life begins to resemble that of a normal person.

It's a while getting there, though. Along the way we meet Pippa, a girl Theo meets at the museum that day, her uncle's partner James Hobart, who takes Theo under his wing and teaches him the antiques business, the high-society Barbour family (son Andy is Theo's childhood best friend) with troubles of its own, Theo's reckless father and his new wife in Las Vegas, and Boris, a Ukrainian kid who becomes unofficial family. Events have a relentless momentum; you'll be gasping for air turning the pages. The characters more than the plot kept me going. A friend put it best- nothing happens for a long time, then everything happens at once.

But while nothing is happening you're getting to know Theo and the others, beginning to understand the machinery that's making it all move and enjoying Tartt's steam-engine writing. The story feels picaresque and I always say I don't like picaresques but then I keep reading picaresques I like a lot., like The Goldfinch. Theo's life is bleak, dark and often hopeless but by the time things got bad I had grown to care about him enough to hope for him, and the story ends on a note of hope and redemption even though he clearly will not get everything he wants. Some suspension of disbelief is warranted towards the end of his adventures, but overall The Goldfinch is a strong, very suspenseful and very hard to put down literary coming of age story. I think readers on the popular and literary ends of the spectrum will enjoy it and I think it would make a great book club selection and holiday gift.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy from Little, Brown.

REVIEW: The Yellow Birds, by Kevin Powers

The Yellow Birds, by Kevin Powers. Published 2012 by Little, Brown.

First of all I have to apologize for the absurdly long time it's taken me to write this review. I thought I had reviewed it already but turns out no.

A war novel set in Iraq and elsewhere, The Yellow Birds is a haunting, poetic and elegiac prose poem about the unknowabilities of war, life and death. John Bartle tells the story of his friendship with Daniel Murphy, a fellow private stationed at Al Tafar, Iraq. Chapters move around in time, from the war to their training in New Jersey, a stint in Germany and Bartle's life after discharge in the Blue Ridge Mountains with his mother, where his disaffectedness and alienation will remind some readers of the furloughed servicemen of Ben Fountain's brilliant Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. But mostly, this book won't remind you of any other book you've ever read.

I think what stands out for me most is Powers' direct tone. He's chosen every word with care, every nuance of phrase with intention. You can open it up to any page and find quiet, simple sentences that get under your skin with their fluid movement, an almost liquid quality to his writing. I don't even know what paragraph to pick out to show you the best, since just about the entire book has this suppleness to it. I feel like Powers worked this material over for a long time, with a poet's eye for detail.

And the story itself is of course profound and profoundly sad, disturbing and real. The difficulty of the material combined with the silkiness of the writing produce a dissonance, maybe like the mental disconnect felt by Bartle as he tries to come to terms with all that's happened, and with the future, too. It's a relatively short book that still takes a long time to read, because of this detail and the slow pace at which Powers rolls out the story of Bartle and Murphy and whatever became of the promise he made to Murphy's mother to bring back her son. Once you pick it up, you'll want to stay to find out, and when you do, you'll be changed in some way too.

Rating: BUY

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

REVIEW: Bossypants, by Tina Fey

Bossypants, by Tina Fey. Published 2011 by Reagan Arthur Books. Nonfiction. Memoir. Humor.

I'm a little late to the party with this one- it seemed like a lot of my friends were reading or listening to Bossypants as soon as it came out earlier this year- but I'm glad I finally got around to it. Like many of my friends, I chose to listen to the audio version, narrated delightfully by author Tina Fey. For the most part, I'm not a fan of author-narrated audiobooks- I think writers should write and leave the acting to actors- but Fey is an accomplished actress and comedian as well as a skilled writer, and she does a really wonderful job.

Bossypants is the story of Fey's life till now, concentrating on her early years in show business, improv comedy and television, culminating in her critically acclaimed series 30 Rock. She also talks about her colorful family, her crazy honeymoon cruise and her struggles balancing career and motherhood. It's also the story of an ordinary woman with a very public career who is trying to work out the same issues we all face in a rapidly changing world.

I listened to Bossypants on my commutes to work and found myself nodding and smiling along as she talked about her adventures and misadventures in life, career and family; I also appreciated her more serious thoughts about feminism, the growing power of women in the entertainment industry and the issues she faces around what to teach her daughter about all these things. I enjoyed listening to the background behind her appearance as Sarah Palin and what happened when the real Sarah Palin appeared on Saturday Night Live. When Fey isn't being serious, and even when she is, she's seriously delightful, thoughtful and insightful, and anyone who enjoys the occasional celebrity biography will enjoy this rather brainy entry into that genre.

Rating: BUY

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

REVIEW: The Elected Member, by Bernice Rubens

The Elected Member, by Bernice Rubens. This edition published 2001, Little, Brown Book Group. Literary Fiction. Winner of the Booker Prize.

The Elected Member, by Bernice Rubens, won the second Booker Prize in 1970, and it's a good book but kind of a downer. It's the story of a Jewish family in roughly contemporary London, struggling as Norman, the son and prize of the family, falls deeper and deeper into chronic drug abuse.

When the book opens, Norman is relapsing once again, after the family has tried again to get him to quit. He hallucinates; he's paranoid; he manipulates his father and sister through guilt and love. His father, Rabbi Zweck, is an old man in his declining years still mourning the loss of his wife Sarah and his daughter Esther, although Esther is not dead. His other daughter, Bella, lives with him and Norman and helps take care of them both. She is deeply dysfunctional herself, a kind of overgrown child in ankle socks. As the story progresses and Norman is institutionalized, we learn what lays behind Norman's drug use, Bella's stunted growth and Esther's exile.

Much of the book takes place in the mental hospital where Norman is sent to try once again at recovery, and these scenes have about them the air of a bitter black comedy. Rather than recover here, Norman finds fellow patients to enable him and continues to manipulate Bella as well. Rabbi Zweck and his daughter visit him while Esther comes out from the shadows to try to help, too. It takes a family tragedy to bring the siblings around but even then the future is uncertain, with Norman taking comfort in a most unlikely quarter.

The Elected Member is a beautifully written novel about a deeply troubled family on the brink; it's not a feel-good novel and the ending isn't particularly happy but I found it nonetheless to be a very satisfying read. The characters were very well-drawn and convincing, and I like the way the secret at the core of the book unwinds itself slowly. The issues it raises haven't aged; it's just as relevant as ever and might make an interesting and off-beat book club pick for brave readers. But I think any reader of literary fiction should seriously consider adding it to his or her reading list.

Rating: BUY

I read this book for the 2011 Complete Booker Challenge.

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

REVIEW: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, by David Sedaris

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, by David Sedaris. Published 2010 by Little, Brown.

I first experienced David Sedaris's new collection of short stories, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, via audiobook, which is somewhat unusual for me. I listen to very few audiobooks but I was offered this one by a friend and figured, why not. Later I read the print version and while I enjoyed both, I think this is one book that was practically made to be read aloud.

If you know Sedaris's work, you know the subtitle, A Modest Bestiary, is ironic at best. Sedaris writes both fiction and nonfiction but this collection is purely fictional, animal tales of his own creation about cats, dogs, birds, insects and other creatures great and small, but for the most part, not really wise or wonderful. Sedaris's animal world, like the world he portrays in his other fiction, is cruel, heartless and often undignified. A hippo has a problem with his rectal residents; a crow works to hoodwink a lamb out of something precious; a narcissistic bear learns what it really means to be pitied, and so forth.

I enjoyed this book very much but I think you either have to be a die-hard Sedaris fan or have a really twisted sense of humor to enjoy it, too. It's definitely not going to be for everybody; there's not a lot of lightness or sweetness to Sedaris's animal tales- they're raunchy, ribald and heartless, just like his other fiction. In the past I've always preferred his memoir to his fiction for this very reason; his fiction has always struck me as formulaic and filled with cruel characters lacking self-awareness who behave with utter selfishness towards their fellow human beings. And this book is no different but when these behaviors are placed among animals they lose much of their sting. Nature is cruel; animals are heartless; they do lack empathy in a way that would be psychotic if we were talking about humans. So it doesn't bother me that that's the way Sedaris portrays them.

And like I said, this was made to be an audiobook. Narrators like Elaine Stritch and Sedaris himself make the biting dialogue and occasionally shocking plot twists come to dark, sinister, hilarious life. Reading these stories on the page paled to hearing them read aloud. If you're not an audiobook person but you're interested in this collection I would really urge you to at least check the audio version out of the library and give it a try alongside the print version, which I would urge you to buy in any case. (The audio version also has a bonus story unavailable in the print version and downloads of Ian Falconer's equally twisted illustrations.) At least, that is, if you have that aforementioned twisted sense of humor.

Rating: BUY


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FTC Disclosure: I did not receive either the print or audio version of this book from anyone for review.

REVIEW: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Published 2007 by Little, Brown and Company. Fiction. Young Adult.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, was one of my favorite reads of 2009.

Alexie's book is the story of a young boy known as Junior who's growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation. He's got some medical problems and he gets bullied a lot; his parents are unhappy; his older sister runs away. But he's got some things going for him, too- he's determined to get a good education and manages to get himself transferred to an all-white school off the reservation, where he excels at basketball and learns to believe in himself.

I loved this book. I loved it. I laughed and cried with his struggles, his victories and his defeats. Junior's dysfunctional family is every dysfunctional family, and his problems are the problems of every kid who ever felt like he didn't fit in or that nobody understood him (or her). He pushes his way through the pain of racism, defeatism and adolescence with a tenacity that was so affecting for being so real. Alexie tackles some tough issues- racism, poverty, addiction, discouragement and the deep pessimism that comes when you feel like the whole world is against you. Things don't always go well for Junior and he doesn't always win but he does his best and he does well.

The Absolutely True Diary is a book I wish I could give to every kid I know and everyone who ever was a kid. It's brilliant and beautiful and wonderful. I loved Alexie's writing, which, although clearly enough for a teen audience, doesn't condescend or talk down and shows craft and skill enough for any adult to appreciate. Ellen Forney's comic-like illustrations, which pepper the story, are cute and sweet and darkly funny. I burned through it in about three days over the summer when I was home sick and can't think of a better way to spend time than reading this lovely gem of a book.

Rating: BUY

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

REVIEW: The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent

The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent. Published 2008 by Little, Brown. Literary Fiction.

The Heretic's Daughter is the debut novel by Kathleen Kent, a Texas writer and descendant of Martha Carrier, one of 19 people hanged to death as a witch during the infamous Salem Witch Trials 0f 1692. The novel recounts Martha's story through the eyes of her daughter, Sarah, who was around 10 years old and imprisoned as a witch herself.

First of all, full disclosure. I was born in Salem, Mass., and grew up in the next town over; the stories of the Salem witch trials are stories I've heard many times, stories deeply embedded in the region and its history. I've been to the gallows area, heard the stories of the slave Tituba, the preacher Cotton Mather and the innocents who were tortured and died for nothing- Rebecca Nurse, Giles and Martha Corey, and the rest. Salem has made a name (and a lucrative tourist industry) for itself on the back of the witch trials, and is also home to rich scholarly resources for those with serious interest. As a casual student of local history, I've heard all kinds of speculation on the origins of the hysteria, on why it blossomed and consumed so many lives- some people blame a bacterial infection the accusers may have had that caused the tics and fits, others blame gender politics and an atmosphere of resentment against wealthy, outspoken women and a wish to put them in their place, among other theories.

The Heretic's Daughter takes the latter theory as its theme, and brings it to life in the story of tough, no-nonsense Martha Carrier who, while not wealthy, is an assertive woman embroiled in a bitter land dispute with her cousin Allen. Allen and a vengeful indentured servant named Mercy Lewis accuse the Carriers of witchcraft, and Kent implies clearly that the family's persecution is a direct consequence of the bad blood between Martha and these people.

It's young Sarah who tells the story, and I have mixed feelings about the way she tells it. The story starts off slow- I found the first two or three chapters tedious, and nearly stopped reading. Sarah is a precocious, if unreliable, narrator who engages in far too much clumsy, heavy-handed foreshadowing. I can't count the number of times she says something along the lines of "And that would be the last time we were happy for a long time." Yeah. The ending is abrupt and I wish Kent had spent a little more time on Sarah's life after the trials, as well as those tantalizing family secrets that never really amount to much.

I'm glad I didn't give up because once The Heretic's Daughter picks up steam it doesn't let go. Kent's depiction of the absurdity of the trials and the cruel, squalid and humiliating conditions of Salem prison were harrowing, gritty and detailed- I could almost smell the dank and darkness of the cells and see the women's desperation in Kent's vivid prose. What got to me the most was the inhumanity of it, and the callousness of a community that would destroy peoples' lives over that kind of irrational fearmongering.

(But then, it's not like things just like that haven't happened over and over throughout history. Who are the witches of today?)

Just as important to The Heretic's Daughter are the kindnesses people do- a little extra food when it counts, the women who care for Sarah as she lies dazed and feverish in the dirty prison, and the doctor whose attentions save her, body and soul. In the end I'm glad I read The Heretic's Daughter and I think it will stay with me for a long time. Reading it makes me want to take another drive up to Salem, maybe visit the Witch Museum and hear those stories all over again. It's Kent's story, and her family's story, and it's a story that belongs to all of us.

Rating: BUY

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

REVIEW: Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips

Published December 10, 2007 by Little, Brown. Click on the photo to check availability with your local Booksense-affiliated bookseller.

Think of Gods Behaving Badly as Bulfinch's Mythology meets Frenemies. Gods is a playful, and at times suspenseful and moving, story about Greek gods and goddesses, faded and forgotten but alive and sharing a flat in London. And getting into all kinds of trouble with the mortals.

By all accounts, the deities are managing to get by all right in 21st century Britain. Aphrodite works as a phone sex operator. Athena is a pie-chart-toting, Powerpoint-presenting brainiac. Dionysus runs a hip nightclub. We get our first hint that world is in trouble when Demeter, goddess of plants, can't make her garden grow. Then vain, domineering Apollo falls hopelessly in love with mousy, sweet Alice, a mortal cleaning woman. Trouble is, Alice loves Neil, a nerdy engineer devoted to her. But Apollo, god of the sun, is used to getting his way.

The plot takes us from a TV studio to a dirty, falling-down townhouse to the underworld and Hades' palace, and then back again for a very satisfying finale. I loved all the details from mythology, and the way that the myths are reimagined and incorporated into a contemporary setting. My favorite detail was the way the dead get to the underworld- via a special Tube station behind a false wall. The underworld itself is a fascinating place- in Phillips' version, the dead have their own society with its own rules and conventions. It's almost just as interesting to be dead as to be alive.

I enjoyed Gods Behaving Badly a lot. It's a romp- funny and sweet, it features a full pantheon of gods and Phillips puts them to appropriate, amusing and plot-enhancing use. It's a fun read, and there's not much more to say. It's well-written, well-plotted, and has engaging characters and a sweet romance at its core. I'm glad I got to read it.

Rating: BEACH

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

REVIEW: Signed, Mata Hari, by Yannick Murphy

Published: November 2007 by Little, Brown. Click on the cover to buy from your local Booksense-affliliated independent bookseller.

Signed, Mata Hari is a fictionalized account of the life of Margaretha Zelle, better known as the dancer, courtesan and convicted spy Mata Hari. The book follows her entire lifespan, from her childhood to her execution, but focuses on her marriage to Dutch naval officer Rudolph MacLeod and its aftermath. The book alternates her first-person memories and reminiscences with third-person narration as she undergoes questioning in the Saint-Lazare prison in France, trying to convince the prison official that she is innocent of spying for the Germans in World War I.

It was unclear to me whether she was telling her stories to the official or if they were simply memories she recites to herself and the reader. She talks about her difficult childhood, her marriage to the cold and abusive MacLeod, their life in Holland and Indonesia and their two children, Norman and Non. Her story continues with their return to Europe, the dissolution of their marriage and then, very briefly, her career as a dancer and courtesan. Of course this last period of her life is the most crucial to the espionage charges and I found it curious that it was here that the author chose to spend the least time.

The story is fictional but Murphy hems close to the real facts of Mata Hari's life, at least in the broad strokes, as far as I could tell with a cursory Internet search. The problem I find with fictionalized biography is how difficult it can be for the reader to tell the difference between fact and fiction- in cases like this (and also like Loving Frank, which I reviewed earlier on) I find it best to reject the real person entirely and focus on the characters as fictional characters, so it doesn't matter if the real Mata Hari did or said this or that. What matters is the character on the page.

One of the problems I have is that Murphy has Mata Hari focus on what others did to her and answers few questions about what she did, either as a spy or as a woman. She portrays her heroine as something of a self-involved, narcissistic professional victim. I can't decide if I liked her or not. Certainly she suffered a lot and was treated cruelly at times. But then the abuse she endured at the hands of her husband and his sister seemed a little heavy-handed and over the top, and Murphy does little to make Mata Hari likable apart from the pity one might feel. Her husband and sister in law were almost cartoonish in their cruelty and I couldn't help but wonder if she was exaggerating for sympathy- she is pleading for her life after all, and arguing that everything she did as a dancer/courtesan was to regain her family and respectability. But the question remains- was she or was she not a spy? The book bumps along to its inevitable conclusion- like I said, it's true to the real Mata Hari's life in many respects- but we never get a good answer. Of course she claims she's not. But like everything she says, you have to take that with a grain of salt.

Overall I liked the book. I didn't love it, but I liked it. I feel like such a scrooge this year- like I'm not really enjoying much of anything I've read! I found Signed, Mata Hari a little dry and slow-going in places but I did enjoy reading it. Murphy has an unfortunate tendency to too many run-on sentences that were sometimes hard to follow, but also created atmosphere and mood. She evokes Java beautifully and documents the nightmare of Mata Hari's marriage with precision. Many passages are rich with detail and sensuality, and I thought the relationship between Mata Hari and her maid Anna was touching- Anna Lintjens may be the closest thing she ever has to a friend. Her last love affair, with the Russian Vadime, struck me as very naive for a woman of her experience and this episode as much as anything had me questioning the book. I don't know if Mata Hari was deceiving us or if Murphy was trying to portray her as a whore-with-a-heart-of-gold, but it didn't work.

You don't need to know anything about the real Mata Hari to enjoy the book but it probably helps. I know that the time I spent reading a bit about her real life helped me flesh out the book a little, and that's a problem. You should never need additional information to understand a character in a novel- everything should be there on the page. Again, I was confused about the author's motivation. Is it a biography? Is it fiction? Is it what the author imagined this enigmatic woman thought and did? I don't know; either way it's a good story, but I'll bet the real story is better.

Rating: BACKLIST


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