Tag Archives: fiction

Good Harbor by Anita Diamant

Posted by melydia on October 8, 2010 2 comments

Good Harbor by Anita Diamant: I started this one on the heels of another Diamant novel, The Last Days of Dogtown. It wasn’t intentional: I had a last-minute drive up to New Jersey and I needed something to listen to should Dogtown end before I got home. I picked up The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, figuring I should be familiar with it before the BookCrossing Convention in Washington, DC, next year, but I only got about two discs into it before realizing that it was far too stupid to be enjoyable. Not only has Brown evidently never stepped foot in DC, the so-called “facts” he relies on in his narrative have been so often disproved I couldn’t even suspend my disbelief. Life’s too short to read crappy books.

But anyway, this is not a review of that excreble book. This is a review of a very nice book. So let’s start over.

Good Harbor by Anita Diamant: Joyce is a romance writer who recently purchased a vacation home near Good Harbor, Massachusetts. Kathleen is a children’s librarian living in the area who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The two meet at Synagogue one week (both are Jewish, though Kathleen converted from Catholicism before getting married) and become fast friends. Together they journey through many changes in their marriages, children, and selves. It’s beautifully written, and has instilled in me a desire to see this magical place called Good Harbor. It sounds just lovely. I was also a little spooked by this book, because some of the details hit pretty close to home. Kathleen’s experiences with breast cancer, for example, are almost identical to my mother’s – who also used to work in an elementary school. The details of a child’s death described later in the book is eerily similar to a friend’s child who recently died. But despite some chills that aren’t really related to the story itself, this was a very pleasant little journey through two women’s lives. It’s not exciting or suspenseful, but it would make a good beach read.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Posted by melydia on September 28, 2010 4 comments

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (unabridged audiobook read by George Guidall): Why is this book so long? Seriously. About halfway through I checked out the plot summary on Wikipedia and I was surprised to discover I was following along fairly well. But that doesn’t explain why it takes so much text to tell this story. Basically, this guy kills an unpleasant pawnbroker and her sister, guy’s mother and sister visit because sister is supposed to marry some shady dude, guy’s best friend falls in love with sister, random drunk dude dies, random drunk dude’s daughter befriends guy, and meanwhile an obnoxiously chatty detective is investigating the deaths of the unpleasant pawnbroker and her sister. (I can’t count the number of times I said, “Shut up, Porfiry!”) Oh yeah, and there’s angst. Lots and lots of angst. Don’t worry about the names – I had a terrible time keeping track of who was who because everybody had at least three names and all of them were so complicated they immediately fell out of my head the first fifty or so times I encountered them. I still can’t remember most of them well enough to say them aloud. The story is told mostly in dialogue, almost enough to be a play, so I’m surprised there haven’t been more recent film adaptations. Anyway, this is a decently interesting story – full of intrigue and suspense, with a sweet ending – except that at times I wondered if the author was paid by the word. For example, he described the letter guy got from shady dude, then guy confronts shady dude about the letter and recounts his reaction to said letter, then later guy recounts his confrontation with shady dude about the letter to others. And this is hardly an isolated incident: several scenes are described in their entirety multiple times. I guess it’s good if you weren’t paying enough attention, but dude! Hire an editor!

(Yes, I am well aware that I am going to Literary Hell for telling Dostoevsky to hire an editor. Dickens and Austen could use one too.)

(My toes are getting warm.)

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Posted by melydia on August 31, 2010 None comments

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn: I picked this up because a friend highly recommended it, saying it was one of her favorite books of all time. Basically, the narrator comes across a classified ad in the newspaper advertising a teacher in search of a student with an interest in saving the world. The narrator, who was too young to join the hippie movement but was nonetheless enchanted by their ideals, looks up this teacher out of curiosity. From then on the book is almost entirely their sessions together, learning about the mythology of the “Taker” and “Leaver” cultures, respectively, and how to “save the world”. I alternated between interest in the story and exasperation at the preaching. The ending was too predictable and too convenient, but I’m not sure how else it could have ended. As for the philosophy, well, it certainly wasn’t a life-changing experience for me. I was left with too many questions. Living in harmony with the planet is certainly a worthy endeavor, but never are issues addressed like, for example, travel. Transportation requires a disruption of the natural order: trees and animal habitats must be swept away to lay roads, runways, and rails. Sure, it’s easier to adapt to your surroundings if you never go anywhere, but such isolation also sows xenophobia and superstition. This is not to say we shouldn’t strive to coexist peacefully with the rest of nature, or that it is our right and duty to reshape the world to suit our purposes. Not at all. I just felt that the arguments presented here were incomplete. They also propose that we who have plenty should not aid those suffering from famine and drought. I understand the idea behind it – it will just lead to overpopulation and more famine in the future – but I am not comfortable with the lack of compassion.

All that said, I must give this book high marks for giving me quite a lot to think about. Its insufficient arguments and somewhat ham-fisted narrative style aside, it made me ponder things I’d never even considered in the past. It instilled in me a desire to research the ideas presented in order to form my own opinions on subjects I never knew were up for debate. I certainly recommend it to anyone in search of a thought-provoking read.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Posted by melydia on August 18, 2010 None comments

Looking for Alaska by John Green: Miles is the new kid at Culver Creek boarding school where he meets the alluring, mysterious, and infuriating Alaska Young and instantly falls for her. The story follows his junior year, with each chapter titled “[such-and-such] Days Before.” This is actually a good technique, because it prepares the reader for The Pivotal Event. I actually predicted it during the second chapter, but knowing what was coming did not detract from its impact. And even with the sad bits, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Miles and his friends drink, swear, smoke, have sex, and pull pranks – in other words, they’re real teenagers. I loved them all, but had a bit of a crush on The Colonel. Part of me wishes I’d read this when I was a teenager (though of course it wasn’t written yet), but the rest of me is glad I got to read it at all. I’m so glad a friend of mine recommended Green (read: shoved the book into my hands). I’ll definitely be seeking out his other works. His characters are so funny, likable, and most importantly real that I just don’t want to let them go, and I’m always ready to meet more of them.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight by Gina Ochsner

Posted by melydia on August 2, 2010 2 comments

The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight by Gina Ochsner: Um. Well, this takes place in post-Soviet Russia, and is more or less about three widows – an Eastern Orthodox Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew – who all live in the same condemned apartment building with their children. Christian Lukeria torments her overweight granddaughter Tanya who spends a lot of her time obsessing over clouds and colors; Muslim Azade learns people’s secrets by smelling their excrement and worries over where she went wrong with her son Vitek; Jewish Olga frets over the fate of her idiot son Yuri and his selfish girlfriend Zoya. Also, there’s a gaggle of feral children running around. The book begins with the suicide of Mircha, Azade’s husband, whose ghost shows up soon after to cause mischief. Much of the actual plot revolves around the local museum where Yuri, Zoya, and Tanya all work. None of the exhibits are originals, and in fact most were created by Tanya herself out of candy wrappers and glue. However, when the possibility arises of a grant from some wealthy Americans, the entire apartment building is in a tizzy. The ending is happy – more or less – though it feels forced and borders on deus ex machina. This is the sort of novel where you have to just absorb things as they come and not approach it expecting some sort of coherent storyline. Mostly it’s about a group of characters, and much of the book is spent explaining their personalities, motivations, and histories. And that’s usually fine by me, except that this time around everyone was so exceptionally screwed up that I couldn’t muster the least bit of sympathy for any of them. Perhaps another reader would find it darkly humorous but mostly I was just glad when it was over.

Also posted on BookCrossing.
Read as part of the Books Won Reading Challenge.

A Golfer’s Tail by Roscoe Watkins

Posted by melydia on June 21, 2010 None comments

A Golfer’s Tail by Roscoe Watkins: This is the story of a feline golfer and his quest for the double slam: wins at the all the major golf tournaments, senior and regular, in one year. I’ll say up front that I neither know nor care a lick about golf, but I’ve found that you don’t always have to be a sports fan to enjoy a sports story. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the case here. While the cat-related quips were somewhat entertaining, such as the importance of tail dynamics, the rest of the book consisted play-by-play descriptions of each golf tournament. I found it to be a somewhat exhausting laundry list of birdies, pars, eagles, and bogeys, occasionally punctuated by the crowd going “wild” and/or a “feeling of calm” settling over Roscoe. That said, I’m sure it would be very interesting to an avid golfer. However, between that and the cringe-inducing Japanese stereotype serving as Roscoe’s main adversary, it took me a very long time to finish this slim novel. If you’re a huge fan of both golf and cats, this may well be the book for you. It’s just not the book for me.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Posted by melydia on June 8, 2010 None comments

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton: Ponyboy Curtis is a Greaser, a member of a gang, an enemy of the Socs (short for Socials). I kind of wish I’d read this back in middle school before I’d encountered a hundred other stories just like it. The rival social groups, the brawling that goes too far, and even the killing off of characters rather than having them face the difficult (and potentially interesting) consequences of their actions – nothing came as a surprise. It’s even told from the point of view of the character who is unusually smart and bookish, a stereotype which detracts a bit from the realism for me. I understand why this shortcut is so often taken by authors (who are often smart and bookish) to elicit sympathy from the reader (who is also often smart and bookish), but I would have rather heard from Soda or even Two-Bit, Greasers who were more participants than observers. The teenager narrative voice is realistic, which is kind of to be expected considering how much has been made of the fact that the author was only 16 when she wrote it. I’m not saying this is a bad book – far from it. It’s certainly something I would recommend to young adults. I just felt like I’d read it before, that’s all.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Nanny Diaries by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin

Posted by melydia on June 7, 2010 None comments

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus (abridged audiobook read by Julia Roberts): College senior Nanny takes a job as – you guessed it – a nanny for Grayer, the son of the extremely wealthy Mr. and Mrs. X. The Xes turn out to be every nanny’s worst nightmare: rich, snobbish, and completely self-absorbed. It’s actually strikingly similar to The Devil Wears Prada, except that I actually had sympathy for the narrator here. There’s a child involved, so she really can’t just quit. Nanny is actually quite graceful and professional in the face of such torment. The use of aliases like “X” and “Nanny” is an interesting device, making it sound more like nonfiction, except that everyone else in the book has a regular name. I don’t know that I’d seek out other books by these authors, but this one was decent.

On the audio version: Roberts is an okay narrator, but it took me a while to get into the groove of her slightly too-fast monotone.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

No Greater Sacrifice by John C. Stipa

Posted by melydia on March 8, 2010 4 comments

No Greater Sacrifice by John C. Stipa: Independently wealthy archaeologist Renee and troubled history professor David are summoned to a small village in France to hear the reading of a will. Though ostensibly strangers, it turns out the pair met a couple years before while vacationing (separately) in Rome, and their pasts intertwine even more. Their romance blooms in fits and starts, which didn’t really interest me all that much but luckily was not a huge chunk of the story. Rather, the plot focuses on a strange artifact, broken into pieces and scattered throughout Europe. Finding and reassembling them becomes an obsession for Renee and David. The flavor is distinctly reminiscent of Dan Brown, except with far superior writing and less exasperating characters.

I think my favorite part was how our heroes pursue the secret of their inheritance purely out of personal interest and thirst for adventure. Yes, they’re being chased by bad guys, but that’s external drama and does not drive their quest. They could have simply forgotten about it and gone home, but of course then we wouldn’t have had a story. Luckily, Renee and David let their curiosity get the better of them, and have some grand adventures in the process. Parts were clearly written with a camera lens in mind, but that actually made the action easier to visualize. Though I was still slightly confused as to what the Big Secret ended up being in the end, I had no problem keeping track of the myriad of players. All in all, a good first novel.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Posted by melydia on March 2, 2010 2 comments

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan: The paths of two teenagers, both named Will Grayson, cross one fateful night. Their stories are told in alternating chapters, and their personalities (and writing styles) are different enough that it’s easy to keep track of who’s narrating. But despite the title and narrators, this book is in many ways more about the larger-than-life Tiny Cooper and his struggles with identity, love, and musical theater. I loved and empathized with all the characters. I was at times horrified and delighted at the various twists and turns in the plot, always wanting more more more. And this is one book I wish came with a soundtrack so I can actually hear all the songs in Tiny Dancer/Hold Me Closer. In short, I was completely and utterly sucked in. This was my gym book – that is, the book that lived in my gym bag to be read while on the exercise bike – and I found that I didn’t want to get off the bike when my thirty minutes were up. Now that, my friend, is the mark of an engrossing book. I’ve already added pretty much the entire combined catalogs of Green and Levithan to my wish list, and I hope fervently that they write another book together. Highly recommended.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

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