Scott Semegran
Saint Sebastian's Abyss by Mark Haber is a dark comedic novel of literary fiction. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Former best friends who built their careers writing about a single work of art meet after a decades-long falling-out. One of them, called to the other's deathbed for unknown reasons by a “relatively short” nine-page email, spends his flight to Berlin reflecting on Dutch Renaissance painter Count Hugo Beckenbauer and his masterpiece, Saint Sebastian's Abyss, the work that established both men as important art critics and also destroyed their relationship. A darkly comic meditation on art, obsession, and the enigmatic power of friendship, Saint Sebastian's Abyss stalks the museum halls of Europe, feverishly seeking salvation, annihilation, and the meaning of belief.”
The unnamed narrator and his former best friend / frenemy Schmidt were college friends who simultaneously “rediscovered” the titular painting by Beckenbauer, Saint Sebastian's Abyss, which launched both of their careers as art critics. But their careers are singularly and obsessively focused on this one painting even though Beckenbauer painted other lesser works, two of which are referred to as “monkey paintings” by the two critics. Their obsession over this painting consumes their lives and eventually destroys their friendship as well as the narrator's two (!!!) marriages. The results for the readers of this dark comedy are thought-provoking and enlightening.
Haber excels at mining the obsession between these two “friends” and creating a cadence with the narration that is circular yet unique. Many phrases are repeated throughout the novel like the title of the painting “Saint Sebastian's Abyss” as well as “that horrible thing I said,” creating a mantra-like effect. Haber has an astute comedic eye and describes Schmidt as an animated critic with a “flexing moustache,” a hilarious mental visual. His followers or “fans” also sport their owning flexing moustaches as an ode to their favorite art critic. “The Holy Donkey” is another repeated phrase, a character from the painting itself, a moribund animal on the precipice of falling off a cliff in the painting who can absorb the emotions elicited by the two “friends” as the symbol of their devotion to Beckenbauer's masterpiece.
There is a mesmerizing quality to the narration, although pulverizing at times. The narrator's first wife even describes his friendship with Schmidt as “exasperating” and that is an apt description. As the reader descends into the depths of their obsession with the painting, it's a dark, dark place to inhabit, similar to the meme of the dog sitting within the flames of hell while quipping, “This is fine.” Fortunately, Haber's comedic eye pulls the reader from the depths of their toxic relationship and the ending offers a lot to ruminate about the nature of obsession. One hilarious observation by these two prickly critics about the concept of art and the lack of modern artists is this:
“Art is rare, we agreed, because humanity no longer produces artists; we live in a world of monotonous excrement or excremental monotony, we'd say, the difference being immaterial because the point being is the world is awash with monotony while simultaneously overflowing with excrement.”
We live in a world of monotonous excrement. Now, I'd wear that astute observation on a t-shirt.
I really enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.
I enjoyed this novel. It was short, simple, very straightforward but almost too straightforward. I appreciate simple prose but not when it is lazy. There were several lengthy passages that read (I'm paraphrasing here) ‘He sat on the bed. He put on his shoes. He left the hotel. He got in his car. He drove around. He drove some more.' Ugh. He even ends a chapter, one where we find Roy (the main character) entering Moira's (his kind-of girlfriend) room to have sex with her, with “And they had a hell of a time.” Ummm, pretty lame.Then, out of nowhere, Thompson dropped a paragraph dripping in poetic beauty and it startled me, like looking at a pretty face with a black eye. And his characters were three-dimensional; Roy and his mother Lilly's relationship being the most interesting of all character interactions in the novel. Even with some of the lazy narrative prose, the book has a very satisfying ending, one that I didn't see coming from a mile away. I enjoyed the end very much and it gave a sadistic depth to the lows these characters would go to fulfill their needs.I think my reluctance to give this novel a better rating is that I enjoyed “[b:The Killer Inside Me 298663 The Killer Inside Me Jim Thompson http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348084659s/298663.jpg 1724756]” much more, with its first-person, unreliable narrator. I think “The Grifters” would have been MUCH more interesting if it was told from Roy's perspective than the unknown narrator's perspective.
More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez is a suspense novel about a woman caught leading a double life after one husband murders the other. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “The dance becomes an affair, which becomes a marriage, which becomes a murder... In 1985, Lore Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City, even though she is already married to Fabian Rivera in Laredo, Texas, and they share twin sons. Through her career as an international banker, Lore splits her time between two countries and two families–until the truth is revealed and one husband is arrested for murdering the other. In 2017, while trawling the internet for the latest, most news reports, struggling true-crime writer Cassie Bowman encounters an article detailing that tragic final act. Cassie is immediately enticed by what is not explored: Why would a woman–a mother–risk everything for a secret double marriage? Told through alternating timelines, More Than You'll Ever Know is both a gripping mystery and a wrenching family drama. Presenting a window into the hearts of two very different women, it explores the many conflicting demands of marriage and motherhood, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone–especially those we love.”
Gutierrez's debut suspense novel is about a woman leading a double life being married to two men, one of which eventually murders the other, and the investigative reporter who becomes obsessed with her story. Gutierrez masterfully plots this slow burning story, showing the lives of both women in detail—what motivates and tantalizes them—leading to an effective plot twist and story reveal. The novel takes a while to get going, but ultimately gives a satisfying conclusion. Gutierrez does an effective job of showing the gray areas we all live in and that everyone is a combination of the good and bad choices they make. It can be difficult to pigeonhole the protagonists and antagonists in a story when their whole lives are revealed. What would lead a person to live such a deceitful life? As Gutierrez demonstrates, it's complicated. Kudos to Gutierrez for writing in both English and Spanish in such a realistic way, as is the way in Texas. Bonus points for local landmarks and fixtures in Austin, San Antonio, and all the way down to Laredo, Texas.
I enjoyed this book and I recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.
Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby is a novel categorized as a crime thriller. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there's no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast. He thought he'd left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can't-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver's seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear. Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland...or die trying.”
This is the second novel I've read by S. A. Cosby, the first being Razorblade Tears which I absolutely loved. Although for me not as emotionally charged as Razorblade Tears, there's still so much to enjoy about this thrilling, fast-paced, crime novel.
Beauregard “Bug” Montage is trying to be a good man, father, husband, and son, but life keeps throwing him combinations that he has a hard time outmaneuvering. His mother is in a nursing home and needs over $30,000 to keep her bed. His bills are piling up at home and at his floundering auto repair shop. It just seems like he can't keep up. When Ronnie Sessions, a small-time hood, approaches Beauregard about joining a heist, we learn that Beauregard is known around that part of the country as the best getaway driver there ever was, even better than his crooked father was. When Ronnie temps Beauregard with a close to six-figure payout, Beauregard takes the bite even though he knows that Ronnie isn't trustworthy. What ensues is a nail-biting crime thriller that takes many twists and turns, most of which are surprising and gripping.
Cosby is an excellent writer and keeps the pace going strong even after sections of back story or glimpses into Beauregard familial life. Where Cosby truly shines though is the emotional depth he gives his main character: Beauregard. He truly struggles with the pull of a life of crime, one that he seems destined for even though he doesn't want it. His real-world struggles are relatable and the stress that comes from debt or medical bills is crushing. It's easy to see how the allure of a big payout from an “easy” job is tempting to him. But as easy as it appears, Cosby has dark roads for him to drive down and this quick job sucks Beauregard into a black hole of bad decisions, threatening to consume him and his loved ones.
I really enjoyed this book of stories and I highly recommend it. I would give this book four and a half stars.
Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell is a book about the craft of writing novels and editing your manuscript. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “From lauded writer and teacher Matt Bell, Refuse to Be Done is encouraging and intensely practical, focusing always on specific rewriting tasks, techniques, and activities for every stage of the process. You won't find bromides here about the “the writing Muse.” Instead, Bell breaks down the writing process in three sections. In the first, Bell shares a bounty of tactics, all meant to push you through the initial conception and get words on the page. The second focuses on reworking the narrative through outlining, modeling, and rewriting. The third and final section offers a layered approach to polishing through a checklist of operations, breaking the daunting project of final revisions into many small, achievable tasks. Whether you are a first time novelist or a veteran writer, you will find an abundance of strategies here to help motivate you and shake up your revision process, allowing you to approach your work, day after day and month after month, with fresh eyes and sharp new tools.”
Some say writing a novel is equal parts inspiration and perspiration, but Matt Bell has a very compelling argument that great novel writing is mostly perspiration through rewriting, revising, and editing, editing, editing. Having written seven novels already myself (plus my first attempt at a novel that went straight into the garbage) and working on my eighth novel now, I have to say I found Bell's suggestions for writing and editing very intriguing, even downright inspiring. There is definitely an inspirational tone in this book that is above and beyond most writing craft books that I have read, mainly because writing novels is hard. It can be a long, grueling slog at times, so to receive that reminder that what you are doing when writing a novel is hard—and to congratulate yourself after certain milestones—is inspiring. His three stages of novel writing is very practical and I enjoyed thinking how his tips could work in my own process. For my last three novels, I did the work of outlining before I even started the writing process. Bells suggests to outline after the first draft is complete; let the inspiration lead the way, then organize later. Interesting! I'm considering doing this with my current work in progress.
I do have to say that Bell's suggestions only make sense to me since I've written quite a few novels already. I'm not sure they would have made sense to me as a newbie writer. The whole idea of novel writing was murkier to me then. But now, having gone through the process so many times, Bell's suggestions are great as well as very practical. He does do a good job early on of saying just to keep writing when you start, no matter what. Just keep going! Incremental progress is better than no progress at all. Unfortunately, this is the part that all newbies have to just get through, no matter how much cheering they will receive from everyone. That's the hardest part! Having done that, I can honestly say that Bell is a fantastic cheerleader as well as writing instructor. Take his process and apply it to your own. You'll find excellent instructions as well as inspiration here.
I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.
The Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza is a beautiful novel of literary fiction. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Welcome to Galveston, Texas. Population 50,241. A popular tourist destination and major shipping port, Galveston attracts millions of visitors each year. Yet of those who come to drink by the beach, few stray from the boulevards to Fish Village, the neighborhood home to individuals who for generations have powered the island. Carly Castillo has only ever known Fish Village. Her grandmother claims that they descend from the Karankawas, an extinct indigenous Texan tribe, thereby tethering them to Galveston. But as Carly ages, she begins to imagine a life elsewhere, undefined by her family's history. Moving through these characters' lives and those of the extraordinary individuals who circle them, Kimberly Garza's The Last Karankawas weaves together a multitude of voices to present a lyrical, emotionally charged portrait of everyday survival. The result is an unforgettable exploration of familial inheritance, human resilience, and the histories we assign to ourselves, reminding us that the deepest bonds are forged not by blood, but by fire.”
This debut novel examines the ties between the Filipino and Mexican communities of Galveston, Texas as the imminent arrival of Hurricane Ike in 2008 looms large. Carly dreams of a better life far away from the stranglehold of Galveston, the only place she's ever known, even though that stranglehold feels sometimes like a loving embrace. Her grandmother Magdalena proudly claims to be a descendent of the great Karankawa tribe, but her claims are dubious at best even though her influence over Carly is profound. The chorus of Filipino church members who scrutinize Carly casts a large net, one that is difficult for her to break free from. Garza weaves an exquisite tapestry of the communities of Galveston, one made of brightly colored threads of the different cultures, but when examined as a whole is beautifully rendered.
As Magdalena states of her love of Galveston about halfway through the novel, “To love this place is to love its bad parts también. The brown water, the heat, the zancudos. The storms.”
It's clear that Garza loves Galveston too—the good and the bad. An excellent debut novel!
I really enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.
Funny, quirky, and tender–all in the best ways! Such a great book and highly recommended.
Longer book review to come.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel is a book of literary science fiction. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal–an experience that shocks him to his core. Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him. When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe. A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.”
Sea of Tranquility is the latest book of literary science fiction—more literary than scientific—from Emily St. John Mandel about time travel that crosses many centuries from the early twentieth century to five hundred years later. We follow an exiled young socialite on his journey to Canada from England, an author from a moon colony on her book tour down on Earth, and a detective as they each witness a vision of a violinist in an airport terminal, an experience disconcerting to all of them as it's out of context to their life experience. What is this aural glitch? That's the heart of the narrative to this compelling and beautifully written novel.
One thing of note is that although this is a novel of science fiction, there is very little science or explanations of how this phenomena happens. Once revealed that we are in fact experiencing a kind of time travel, the effect is more hallucinatory than practical, more hypnotic than mechanical. Who is this violinist in the airport? Why are these three “seeing” him in different centuries? It's a mystery worth exploring for us readers.
St. John Mandel is an exceptional writer and her prose is elegant and restrained. She does a fantastic job of setting scenes and developing her characters, painting her story across many centuries poetically yet clearly. If there is one thing disappointing about this novel, then it's the explanation of how time travel is possible in this story. As someone who has read comic books and science fiction growing up as well as watching movies like The Matrix trilogy, the explanation of how the violinist time travels is not original; this theory (I won't give it away here) has been posed in so many other mediums. This revelation, though, didn't diminish my enjoyment of the novel. If science fiction without much science is a thing, then sign me up. I enjoyed being in St. John Mandel's universe of hallucinatory possibilities and the longing for human connection across realities and time.
I really enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.
Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby is a book of crime fiction that reads like a thriller with social commentary. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah's white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss. Derek's father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed of his father's criminal record. Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys. Provocative and fast-paced, S. A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears is a story of bloody retribution, heartfelt change - and maybe even redemption.”
Razorblade Tears was released in July 2021 and it had been on my TBR list for quite some time. I'm glad I finally got around to reading this blisteringly emotional crime thriller. As the book description states, Ike and Buddy Lee are fathers whose sons were married to each other, yet Ike and Buddy Lee were estranged from their boys. Ike and Buddy Lee didn't meet each other until their sons' funerals, after being ruthlessly murdered for unknown reasons. The fathers were reluctant to speak to each other at first. But when Buddy Lee spots a tattoo on Ike's arm, he realizes they both have a shared past of incarceration. Buddy Lee finds Ike around town and suggest they look for their sons' killer. Ike hesitates at first, but when the police seemingly do nothing as far as investigating, both fathers come together with the common goal of bringing their sons justice.
Cosby excels at pushing the crime narrative along, the chapters are short and packed with action, bristling with clever metaphors and similes. But where Cosby really shines is his ability to mine the deep emotional trauma and regret from both fathers who realize their shortcomings as parents and husbands and men. Both Ike and Buddy Lee were easily lured into a life of crime when they were young men, both regretting choices they made and the absence in their sons' lives while being incarcerated. They both also regret not taking the time to understand their sons and their sexuality, knowing that it's too late to reconcile this with their deceased sons.
Cosby also weaves in discussions about race and class between Ike and Buddy Lee and as they become closer from their shared mission of justice, they begin to understand each other better, realizing they have a lot more in common than they initially thought. But ultimately, this is a crime thriller and this emotional tapestry that Cosby weaves makes their desire to find justice for their sons all the more palpable and provocative, even justifiable. The conclusion is deeply satisfying. I will definitely be reading more of Cosby's books in the near future.
I really enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this book six stars if I could, but will stick with the usual max of five stars.
For a debut, this novel is stunning. Palahniuk's narrative voice is confident and funny. The story starts strong but loses steam about 2/3 of the way through, mainly because the big “a-ha!” moment comes way too early and in a very predictable way. If the sheer amount of times the narrator says “I know this because Tyler knows this” isn't a spoiler, then I don't know what is. He bashes you over the head with that declaration dozens of times. But that narrative voice... WOW!
I preferred the movie (I hate to say that, book lovers). I felt the screenwriter, director, actors, and crew took Palahniuk's fantastic ideas and expanded upon them, creating a tighter story and a better ending. From what I've read, Palahniuk agreed at the time too.
Porno Valley is the latest novel from award-winning author Philip Elliott, a fast-paced book of hard-boiled, crime fiction. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “It's the year 2000 and 78-year-old Mickey O'Rourke has been a Los Angeles PI for a very long time. He'd thought he'd seen it all until the disappearance of porn star Jeffrey Strokes sends him from the sex-filled studios of the San Fernando Valley to the desperate streets of Compton where Mickey's final case becomes his biggest test.” In addition to O'Rourke, there are several key (mostly bad) players: Jemeka, Ray-Ray, Richie, Alabama, Riccardo, Marcellus, and so many more. There are many sordid decisions, double-crosses, and violent moves which makes for a fast and fun read.
Elliott is a skilled writer with an excellent ability to turn a phrase. His similes are beautiful at times. The dialog is brisk and true. And the exposition is light-weight and very similar to screenplay action. Comparisons to Elmore Leonard are not far from the mark. If there was one detraction, then it is Elliott's admiration for Quentin Tarantino flicks which he unabashedly wears on his sleeves, even naming some of his characters after Tarantino characters (Alabama and Marcellus). Elliott doesn't need to do this as his work is strong enough to stand on its own without the direct reference. His 78-year old protagonist, Mickey O'Rourke, could carry a whole other novel of literary fiction if Elliott ever chose to do so, his deep well of remorse and grief for his recently deceased wife and his cantankerous demeanor towards the others in his orbit would make a worthy character to explore in-depth in a character-driven work. Porno Valley is an exceptional follow-up to his previous novel, Nobody Move. If you're looking for a fun and fast read with fully formed characters scheming in a heart-pounding plot, then you can't do any better than this indie marvel of a crime novel.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this novel 5 stars.
After reading ERASURE and JAMES, I looked forward to this novel, but did not enjoy it as much as these previous two books. Like most police procedurals I've read, there is very little exposition and an abundance of dialogue. Every character ends their scenes with quippy zingers and snarky commentary which becomes a bit tiring after a while. But the principal idea of the plot is interesting and the climax is worth reaching, making this book an enjoyable read even if a lot of the police investigation doesn't add much to the book's conclusion.
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead—the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner—is a novel of literary fiction based in the crime world of 1960s Harlem, New York. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked. To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time... Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.”
Protagonist / anti-hero Ray Carney appears to be a legit furniture store owner to everyone in his life, even his wife, but his crooked cousin Freddie is always enticing Carney to dip his toes in the waters of the crime world. To the hoods of Harlem, Carney isn't a legit businessman. He's a “fence,” someone who appears to be legit but is really allowing petty crimes to filter through his furniture store. When his cousin convinces him to be a part of a heist of one of the fancier hotels in Harlem, Carney officially becomes a part of the crime world. His no-good cousin gets into hot water, threatening to bring Carney's façade to light.
This novel is told in three parts. The first was interesting, zipping along with taut, crackling writing. It's Whitehead; I came to expect it and reveled in his beautiful sentences. But the second part of the novel sagged, bordering on being... boring. I almost put the novel down for good four or five times. Some of this has to do with the nature of Carney's criminal endeavors. Reading about Carney trafficking in stolen TV sets or the quality furniture of deceased Harlem citizens is like getting the lowdown about a crooked accountant adjusting the books or writing bad checks—not very exciting. But once cousin Freddie states in the latter part of the novel, “I was pulling a Ray-ray... Keeping my head down, keeping it boring” I realized that maybe the slowness of Part Two was by design. Carney was attempting to live an undetectable life, and it came through in Part Two to the detriment of my attention. Fortunately, Part Three picks up as Freddie's bad choices pile up and his junkie buddy Linus winds up dead in a bath tub, alerting his wealthy family to find Carney and retrieve what Freddie had taken from them and was unwittingly in Carney's possession.
In spite of the novel's sagging middle, there are some amazing set pieces in 1960s Harlem as described throughout by Whitehead, and the racial injustice of police brutality of the 60s is all the more relevant today. The stakes are raised in Part Three as everything Carney has built is threatened by Freddie's bad choices, as well as his relationship to his cousin that is something more akin to close brotherhood. Whitehead has a gift for wrapping up stories, and the final chapter delivers in spades, a limber denouement packed with concluding details. But after reading Whitehead's previous, stellar novel Nickel Boys, I expected more from Harlem Shuffle. Wishful thinking on my part, but this was still an enjoyable read nonetheless.
I enjoyed this book and I recommend it. I would give this book 4 stars.
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott is a suspenseful literary novel of meta fiction and surrealism, all of which comments on racism towards Black people in America. This novel is the 2021 National Book Award Winner. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “In Jason Mott's Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and urgent: since Mott's novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it's also about the nation's reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America. Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably told, with characters who burn into your mind and an electrifying plot ideal for book club discussion, Hell of a Book is the novel Mott has been writing in his head for the last ten years.”
There's a lot going on in Hell of a Book. One thread is a send-up of the literary establishment with an unnamed, bestselling Black author on a book tour which borders on farcical. We're introduced to him running naked down a hotel hallway, escaping an angry husband who wants to wring the narrator's throat for screwing around with his wife. Another thread is the depiction of an unbearably dark-skinned boy named Soot, called that by a bully from school. Soot's parents love and protect him so much that its untenable, and Soot later witnesses his father killed by a White policeman. Another thread finds the narrator haunted by an apparition he calls the Kid, whose skin is also dark as night, just like Soot's. The narrator and the Kid are connected by the burden of being Black in America. Are the Kid and Soot the same character? Is the Kid or Soot the narrator's younger self?
The narrator suffers from a habit of persistent daydreaming, which reveals itself later to be something closer to psychosis. The narrator's first-person thread follows familiar literary techniques and beats from other great literary novels: the narrator is unnamed and other protagonist Soot attempts to be unseen (The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison) while the narrator's psychosis introduces the reader to characters that may or may not exist (Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk). The Fight Club beats are followed faithfully for a spell in this thread of the book, even introducing a female love interest named Kelly that could be a stand-in for Marla from Fight Club, which was a distraction for this reader. But Mott is too talented a writer to simply sample techniques from other writers, particularly when the narrator reveals that he is aware “why” Kelly shows up at this point in the story. She's supposed to save him, isn't she? Ultimately, this thread in the story is subterfuge.
Soot's thread is told with a tenderness that is heart-wrenching. His parents try to teach him to be unseen so he can be safe. The young boy tries his best to be invisible to please his parents. But when his father is cruelly murdered near their home by a White policeman as Soot and his mother watch from their front porch, the safety of Soot's world is pulled out from under him. And this is when the threads that Mott has sewn begin to come together into a tapestry of pain. The answer to the lingering question comes into view: are the narrator, Soot, and the Kid the same person? Does it matter if they're the same person or not? Their commonality as Black people in America ties them together. Their struggles are the same; their struggles are Black America's struggles. And the psychosis of the narrator is also that of Black America's, when they expect justice after the killing of Black people at the hands of policemen again and again, yet that justice never comes. The names of the deceased go on for miles throughout America's history, Black boys and Black men that look strikingly similar.
The unnamed narrator, who is a successful author on the surface, attempts to heal his internal pain with alcohol and sex, but even appearing on the cover of prestigious magazines won't save him. As all the dead Black people begin to appear to him, watching him from the TV studio audience at a media appearance, or watching him at airports, I was left unnerved by the novel's end. But the narrator finally confesses with sobering clarity—eruditely and poignantly: “Laugh all you want, but I think learning to love yourself in a country where you're told that you're a plague on the economy, that you're nothing but a prisoner in the making, that your life can be taken away from you at any moment and there's nothing you can do about it—learning to love yourself in the middle of all that? Hell, that's a goddamn miracle.” I couldn't agree more.
I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.
Olympus, Texas is the debut novel from author Stacey Swann, a family drama with ties to Greek mythology based in a small Texas town. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “The Briscoe family is once again the talk of their small town when March returns to East Texas two years after he was caught having an affair with his brother's wife. His mother, June, hardly welcomes him back with open arms. Her husband's own past affairs have made her tired of being the long-suffering spouse. Is it, perhaps, time for a change? Within days of March's arrival, someone is dead, marriages are upended, and even the strongest of alliances are shattered. In the end, the ties that hold them together might be exactly what drag them all down.”
Swann is an observant storyteller with a knack for dialog and familial dynamics. The novel is pinned atop the Greek mythological framework: Peter the father as Zeus, June the mother as Hera, the citizens of Olympus, Texas as Olympians, etc. This makes for a fun and sturdy narrative framework for the novel. The large cast provides several threads to follow, but the beating heart of the story is siblings Artie and Arlo's relationship. More friends than siblings, a tragedy tests the close bond between them. Swann's observant eye is a marvel to behold as she parses the tiniest of movements and facial expressions, mining for their true meanings. Here's an example:
“Vera scanned through her memories of Hap for similarly off-kilter remarks: the time he told her she had excellent taste after she bought the bulky Edwardian armoire; the Christmas he told Thea her gift of a sweater showed how well she knew him... Each time said with utter seriousness, and each time followed by that half-cocked smile. A smile she saw now was a shit-eating grin. It made her feel dumb, those comments she had completely misread, the jokes gone over her head. But her panic came from a different memory. “The world is a hard place for a woman as beautiful as you,” he had said. How she had misread that grin.”
A searing observation of just how cruel a loved one can be, and a masterstroke of keen storytelling.
I enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this novel 4 and 1/2 stars.
Streets of Laredo takes place years after the Hat Creek Outfit establishes a cattle ranch in Montana, the collective dream of Call and Gus and the men who work and tag along with the pair of close friends. I enjoyed Lonesome Dove immensely and looked forward to reading Streets of Laredo soon after completing the previous novel. Streets of Laredo is structured in a similar fashion to Lonesome Dove–in three parts–with the addition of an epilogue, and told with the narrative voice of Larry McMurtry–an empathetic, omniscient storyteller. And since Lonesome Dove is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, it's difficult to read Streets of Laredo without looking through the lens of the previous novel.
That being said, a couple of things become glaringly apparent very quickly. 1) Call and Gus were a jovial pair in Lonesome Dove and their banter and friendship was a highlight of that novel. Their pairing was that of an odd-couple: Call the quiet yet strong straight-man and Gus the inquisitive, romantic, and funny one. Without the presence of Gus in Streets of Laredo, we follow Call without his “better half” and his absence is truly felt. We do get a new sidekick in Brookshire, a Yankee, “salaried man” sent to hire and accompany Call to capture the young train robber Jose Garza. But Brookshire is a sorry replacement for Gus and his lack of history with Call hampers their camaraderie. 2) Without the collective dream of Call and Gus and the Hat Creek Outfit, Streets of Laredo narrows its scope to Call pursuing Garza, both of whom lack any apparent desire for their roles and McMurtry doesn't explain any motivation for either character to be where there are in this place and time.
Call's straight-man demeanor is not compelling without his sidekick Gus. Garza's “cold eyes” and hatred for his mother are the only pieces of information we are given about this cruel train robber, who comes off more like an evil caricature than a young man motivated to step out of his poor, adolescent circumstances. Why we are following this good guy / bad guy dynamic is not fully fleshed out, leaving us with the tropes and clichés of the typical Western genre, which is a shame following the greatness of Lonesome Dove.
About a third of the way into the novel, the narrator summarizes Call's feelings in a certain dilemma, which goes, “What mainly amused Call was the contemplation of how amused his old partner, Augustus McCrae, would be if he could see the crew he was riding out with on this manhunt. [Gus] had a well-developed sense of humor, too well developed, Call had often felt. Yet he missed [Gus's] laughter as much as he missed anything else in his life. Gus enjoyed the predicaments of his fellowmen, and would have laughed long and hard at the spectacle of Call, Brookshire, and lanky Ted Plunkert.” I couldn't help but miss Gus, too, and he is a specter over the entire novel. All I could think about while reading Streets of Laredo was, “At least there's Lonesome Dove.” Maybe I'll try reading two of the other novels with Call and Gus in their younger years: Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon.
This lovely novel of historical fiction takes place in Belfast, Ireland during World War Two, where we find our 20-year old protagonist, Hettie, escorting a 3-year old elephant from the shipyard to the zoo. Hettie has landed her dream job as a zookeeper, a position usually filled by men. She desperately wants to have Violet the elephant under her watch, which benevolent zoo director Mr. Wright eventually bestows her. The war looms all around with rumors swirling about whether the Germans will bomb Belfast or not. All the while, Hettie lives under the oppressive regime of her mother's iron grip on their household. She sneers at Hettie's dream of caring for the animals at the zoo. Hettie's desire to care and be cared for lands her in the arms of a few male suitors, most of which are not up to the task of caring for such a strong-willed young woman.
Walsh writes all of this with elegance and grace, and creates a cinematic landscape with a bustling city filled with life, music, and passion. When the horrors of the war finally encroach the city limits, normalcy is flipped on its head and Hettie's life will not be the same afterwards. Hettie's relationship with Violet the elephant is beautiful in its simplicity. Her other relationships with her mother and the men in her orbit are not so simple, most of which will leave emotional scars on Hettie's heart, but not Violet. Their bond is elemental and enjoyable to witness. Readers will be rooting for them to the end.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this novel 5 stars.
Simon Han's debut novel, Nights When Nothing Happened, is a beautifully written and keenly observant literary telling of the Cheng family and their immigration to Plano, Texas from China. They selected Plano because of its reputation for safety, but the constant safety reminders at the school and pretty much everywhere they inhabit infiltrates their lives. Is Plano really safer than China? Plus, father Liang and daughter Annabel both have sleeping disorders which affect mother Patty and brother Jack. When Jack discovers that his sister sleepwalks, finding her down the street from their house late one night, we eventually discover the many secrets of the Cheng family, much of which is unpleasant. Is assimilation in America possible for this family? And did they make the right choice to move to Plano?
The story is told in third person but gives the perspective of all four family members. Brother Jack remembers living in China until he was six and feels he's his little sister's protector. Annabel may be struggling with another girl at school who is bullying her; or is she the tormentor? Mother Patty works very long hours with unsympathetic coworkers and suffers guilt from being absent to her kids and husband. And father Liang still struggles with English and night terrors, a lingering effect from a traumatizing childhood. These things add to the family's trouble with assimilating into the Plano community. When a misunderstanding happens at a Thanksgiving party, the aftermath could tear their family apart.
Han is a very astute observer and skilled literary writer. His observations of the suburban community sear through the fake niceties and accoutrements of suburban life. His sympathetic and ethereal narration of the family's struggles is a marvel to read. Han makes some brave choices in telling this story, too, often skipping over details or scenes that a less skilled writer would dive wholeheartedly into, bogging down the narrative. My only misgiving about the novel is the ending, which could have provided a little more room to breathe as a coda.
I enjoyed this novel and I recommend it. I would give it 4 stars.
Valentine is the debut novel from acclaimed author Elizabeth Wetmore. An instant New York Times Bestseller and a Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club pick, it's a stunning novel of literary fiction that depicts the lives of several women in Odessa, Texas during the 1970s as they wrestle with the aftermath of the rape of Gloria Ramirez early in the morning on Valentine's Day, 1976. Told through the different women's points of view, Wetmore puts on a master class in storytelling.
The novel opens with Gloria Ramirez escaping her assailant, Dale Strickland, who brutally attacked her the night before, as she trudges barefoot three miles through cow pastures to Mary Rose's front porch, a pregnant mother at home with her young daughter. Gloria begs Mary Rose for water and shelter. Strickland eventually shows up for Gloria, but Mary Rose keeps him at bay by pointing her rifle at him until the cops show up. A tense opening to a novel that unspools the lives of these two women and the others that orbit this event: Corrine, young Debra Ann, Ginny, Suzanne, Karla. All of their lives are revealed and the indignities they face from the men in Odessa, as well as judgment and shame they face from the community as a whole when they don't act the way they should: prim, proper, quiet, subservient. When Strickland gets off with only probation and a fine, this injustice sends Mary Rose off the deep end, her rage not easy to quell.
Although this is a debut, Wetmore has published short stories for a while in notable literary journals. Her confidence shines through the various narrative points of view, particularly with the first-person Mary Rose, third-person Corrine, and first-person plural (!!!) Karla chapters. Wetmore has beautifully executed metaphors and similes and her characters are fully-formed and four-dimensional, the entirety of their humanity on display: their despair, their love, their rage, and their dissatisfaction with life in Odessa. Although the story opens with a couple of intense chapters that would inform most readers that a crime thriller will be told, Wetmore downshifts into the lives of all these women who orbit around the horrific event that Gloria Ramirez endured. Then once Dale Strickland's trial commences two-thirds of the way through the novel, the intensity picks back up, only to extinguish any sense of hope or justice for Glory (Gloria changes her name after the rape) as well as the other women invested in her well-being. It's a brutally sad turn of events.
But where the novel shines most brightly are with its characters. I became fully invested in these women. I felt I knew these women. I have met and known many like them here in Texas. Many of their observations about the others in Odessa are brutally honest, searing, and sometimes hilarious. And that is a marvelous thing for readers.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this novel 5 stars.
Winner of the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, The Office of Historical Corrections is a smart yet searing collection of stories about race, grief, and the historical implications about what is right. This collection contains six stories and a novella.
“Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain” is about a photographer who is forced to examine personal losses while attending the wedding of an old friend.
The best of the collection is the titular novella “The Office of Historical Corrections,” a powerful story about an employee who works for a government agency that corrects historical inaccuracies and the delicate friendship she has with a rogue coworker who was also a childhood frenemy.
Great collection of stories.
A National Book Award Finalist, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is an excellent book of short stories by Deesha Philyaw. A glowing starred-review in Kirkus Reviews proclaims, “these stories will sneak inside you and take root,” which I found to be true. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions. With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.”
Most of the stories are well-written, immaculate, self-contained worlds. “Eula” is about two friends who have an on / off lesbian relationship over many years, although the titular Eula continues to date men in hopes of landing a husband; she never does, at odds with her friend Caroletta's enjoyment of what they've had together all along. “Peach Cobbler” is a marvel of story-telling, about young Olivia's observations of her mother's affair with their church's pastor, luring him into their home every week with a delicious peach cobbler that Olivia herself is prohibited from enjoying. Not all stories in the book hit the mark, though. “Instructions for Married Christian Husbands” reads simply as a madame's sexy dating profile, more titillating than emotive. But magnificent “Snowfall” is a masterpiece, evoking nostalgia in an attempt to heal wounds of the soul, while reminding readers that love can be found in the present. I was brought to tears by the end of this story, revealing that sometimes you can't retreat to the past to find love's redemptive powers. Couple LeeLee and Rhonda have made a new life in the snow-covered north, away from the judgmental family members back home in the warm south. This story is astonishing. All readers will find lots to love in this fantastic book of short stories.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.
Memorial is the latest novel from award-winning Texas writer Bryan Washington, a dramedy about two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson's a Black day care teacher. They've been together for a while, but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. When Mike's mother arrives from Japan and tells him his father is dying from cancer, Mike bolts for Japan, leaving reluctant Benson to live in an odd-couple situation with Mike's acerbic mother, Mitsuko. Benson and Mitsuko learn to tolerate each other while Mike learns more about his father than he ever thought he could while helping him run his bar in Osaka.
This entertaining and heartfelt novel is told in three parts: a first-person section told by Benson, another first-person section told by Mike, and a final section told by Benson again. Both characters give funny and insightful takes about their families and their relationship to each other as well as the other partners that come into their lives while they are apart. Mike and Benson both come from damaged families and that damage is what keeps them from communicating to the fullest extent with each other, each still protecting their own hearts even after a few years of being together. Mike's part about going to Japan to be with his dying father was especially affecting, their relationship examined and kneaded into something resembling forgiveness, truths mined from feelings hardened through the loss of time. When Mike and Benson's two stories come back together in the end, there is at least a hopeful possibility that their love for each other will continue while their families attempt to mend their damaged lives.
This being said, this novel is not perfect. There are a couple of stylistic quirks that were annoying. First, this novel incorporates a recent literary trend to abandon quotation marks. Some authors use this better than others and, in this book's case, it's just slightly annoying. But the second quirk is more egregious: carriage returns within spoken dialog. Here's an example:
Then she said, That isn't your home.
Ma said, We're here now. This is your home.
Excellent! Funny, efficient, ruthless, poetic. Great read. The perfect length for a novel.