Under the Covers

Adult Onset

by Ann-Marie MacDonald

(Tin House, $25.95, 400 pages)

Who is this author?

Just like her protagonist, Mary Rose MacKinnon, Canadian author Ann-Marie MacDonald is a best-selling novelist with a wife and two children. She also is a playwright, an actor and a broadcaster. Her previous books include Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), Belle Moral: A Natural History, Fall on Your Knees and The Way the Crow Flies.

What is this book about?

Mary Rose is caught in a bind. Trying hard to take care of her two young kids while her partner, a theater director, is out of town for a very long week, and also dealing with her aging and increasingly difficult parents, she is suffering a massive case of writer’s block and cannot seem to finish the third book in her YA trilogy. Worse, she is full of general anxiety and suffering a return of a painful arm condition that marred her childhood, physical pain that brings up sad memories of being the surviving child of a mother prone to miscarriages and stillbirths. And though her parents have come to accept her lesbian life and partner, some tensions remain. Motherhood can be wonderful, but Mary Rose, at 48, is learning that its realities are far from idyllic and that family ties can be tangled and constraining as well as sustaining.

Why you’ll like it:

Anyone who has spent time as a solo parent or has had a difficult childhood will understand and sympathize with what Mary Rose is going through in this tautly written novel. And even if that has not been the reader’s personal experience, MacDonald writes with the kind of power that makes Mary Rose believable and calls forth empathy. This book delineates the pleasures and pitfalls of mothering in a compelling and provocative way.

What others are saying:

Publishers Weekly says:  “MacDonald’s riveting drama features 48-year-old Mary Rose MacKinnon as she dutifully cares for her two young children in Toronto, outwardly making all the right choices with organic foods and extreme toddler proofing. Inwardly, however, she frets over potential disaster scenarios while struggling to retain a sense of self. Although Mary Rose writes young adult fiction and has a loyal fan base, she can’t make headway on the third novel in her trilogy. “She never imagined she would be a ‘morning person’ or drive a station wagon or be capable of following printed instructions for an array of domestic contraptions that come with some assembly required; until now, the only thing she had ever been able to assemble was a story.” During a week when her partner, Hilary, is out of town, Mary Rose reflects on her tumultuous childhood, which forced her to shoulder survivor’s guilt after the loss of would-be siblings, while coping with her lifelong painful bone condition. Glimmers of escalating anger—a family trait—begin to creep through her constructed veneer in Hilary’s absence. MacDonald’s strong narrative is a compelling examination of the loneliness and the often-absurd helplessness of being a parent of young children.”

Says Library Journal: “As winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize and a finalist for many more, Canadian author MacDonald comes with sterling credentials reflected in the engrossing flow of this book. YA fiction author Mary Rose MacKinnon has put her career on hold to tend to the two young children she has with her partner, Hil, who’s spreading her wings as a theater director. The frazzled insanity of parenthood is well rendered here, but Mary Rose is also dealing with physical and psychic pain from her past. Her military father and unbalanced mother, Dolly, of Lebanese descent, lost two babies, including one who would have been named Mary Rose, and as a youngster Mary Rose suffered pain in her arm that led to multiple bone surgeries. The pain is returning, as is a sense that there’s more to her difficulties than her parents admit. In addition, their resistance when she came out has melted but still troubles Mary Rose, who’s worrying Hil by drifting closer to the edge. VERDICT Though the book seems somewhat drawn out, the fine, clearly detailed writing makes for an accomplished read blending the familiar parental/spousal angst with the specifics of Mary Rose’s struggle.”

Kirkus Review says: “Assaulted by mysterious pains and bracketed by painful childhood memories, Mary Rose MacKinnon engages in power struggles with her willful toddler and endures the stresses of stay-at-home parenting while her partner, Hilary, is out of town. An acclaimed young-adult novelist, Mary Rose is suffering from severe writer’s block, unable to complete the third volume in her popular series. Despite the surface comforts of life in her liberal, upper-middle-class Toronto enclave, she feels an inexplicable sense of alienation from her environment; she distances herself from the other mothers at her child’s preschool and avoids communication with her own parents, despite their belated acceptance of her homosexuality and loving acceptance of Hilary and their grandchildren. When Mary Rose’s charming Lebanese mother, Dolly, was younger, she had numerous miscarriages, stillbirths and babies who died shortly after birth, and she seems to be fixating on this tragic period many decades later. The effect of this sad legacy on family dynamics has never been fully explored, and Mary Rose has many vague, unspoken questions about her own childhood, the answers to which might help explain her emotional paralysis and phantom arm pains, as well as the mysterious bone cysts she suffered as a young girl. MacDonald  integrates three narratives into this novel—Mary Rose’s mundane day-to-day existence, Dolly’s experience of severe depression as a young mother lamenting her lost babies, and Mary Rose’s novels, which parallel elements of her own family story distorted through the lens of teen fantasy fiction. While clever, the novel within the novel seems a bit forced. There is a recurring theme of impostors and doppelgängers and a shrewd twinning motif, but the reader is always conscious of the writer’s craft. Of the three, Dolly’s story is the most naturalistically and sensitively portrayed. Despite the too-neat Freudian implications of Mary Rose’s story, this is an affecting, multilayered account of domestic ennui and the painful effects of long-held secrets on three generations.”

“[Adult Onset is] the most accurate description of solo parenting I’ve ever read . . . [MacDonald’s] writing is dizzying and brilliant, and often disorienting, which beautifully supports the novel’s themes, perfectly capturing how it feels to be unmoored and seemingly alone,” says the Associated Press.

“If you’re of [an anxious] disposition, reading Ann-Marie MacDonald’s latest novel, Adult Onset, is both a blessing and a curse. It’s certainly an accurate depiction, and best described as exposure therapy—an exercise in committing yourself to multiple hours of low-grade anxiety, like walking into a crowded, sweltering room if you’re claustrophobic, wandering a fluorescent-lit hospital if you’re a hypochondriac, or travelling a long distance via air if you have a fear of flying. There’s an inexplicable sense of doom to overcome if you’re going to get through it, a looming spectre of disaster, even if all seems well on the surface as you turn each page. Adult Onset is MacDonald’s long-awaited third novel, following her highly successful blockbuster 1996 debut, Fall on Your Knees, and her 2003 Giller Prize shortlisted The Way The Crow Flies. . . . At its core, Adult Onset is about what happens when we are unable to face the physical and emotional pain of our past head on, and how the chronic illness of trauma will haunt even the most insignificant moments of our days. . . . It is a high achievement for a writer to portray the persistent worry of avoidance in a way than rings true, and MacDonald has beyond succeeded. It is in this sense that Adult Onset is both a book that is difficult to endure, and one worthy of our praise and attention. . . . Many of us will see ourselves in the profound discomfort MacDonald has conjured, and though the narrative lends itself to frustration as a result, the book is an absolute triumph of terrifying authenticity,” says the National Post.

When is it available?

You can borrow this novel from the Downtown Hartford Public Library.

Do you have something to say about this book, this author or books in general? Please post your comments here and I will respond. Let’s get a good books conversation going!

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

By Stephen King

(Scribner, $30, 512 pages)

Who is this author?

He’s ba-a-a-a-ck! Stephen King, our premier master of literary horror fiction (and plenty more) has a new collection this year, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. King has published more than 50 international bestsellers, including novels, story collections, memoir, mysteries, a guide to writing well and more, not to mention the movies and TV series based on his books. This year, his recent novel, Mr. Mercedes, won the prestigious Edgar Award for mysteries. His awards are too numerous to detail here, but one stands out: the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, an honor that packed a double punch: it confirmed his talent and influence and also annoyed the stuffier members of the literary world. Now 68 and living in Maine with his wife, novelist Tabitha King, he is still productive and still winning awards and plaudits.

What is this book about?

Here are 20 stories and poems, about half of which are new or never before published. His themes are familiar: mortality, morality, life after death, guilt after bad acts, scary supernatural abilities that foretell future sorrows or perhaps actually cause them. In “Obits,” the very act of preparing a death notice for a celebrity for a gossipy website before he or she dies opens the door to the Grim Reaper, as do names written in the sand in “The Dune.” “Afterlife” is a “Groundhog Day” kind of tale, about a guy who keeps getting do-overs but can’t do them right. These stories may make readers uneasy, but they also will make them think.

Why you’ll like it:

King published his first story collection 35 years ago. He knew how to craft a story then and his talent is ever more powerful now. One of the best things about this new book is that each story is adorned with the author’s explanation of why and how it came to be written, which gives the reader some insider’s insights into Kings creative process and prodigious imagination. Here is his chatty but just a touch chilling introduction:

“I’ve made some things for you, Constant Reader; you see them laid out before you in the moonlight. But before you look at the little handcrafted treasures I have for sale, let’s talk about them for a bit, shall we? It won’t take long. Here, sit down beside me. And do come a little closer. I don’t bite.

Except . . . we’ve known each other for a very long time, and I suspect you know that’s not entirely true.

Is it?”

What others are saying:

Publishers Weekly gives this book a starred review:  “Renowned author King’s impressive latest collection wraps 20 stories and poems in fascinating commentary. Each work’s preface explains what inspired it and gives readers insight into King’s writing methods, with occasional tidbits of his daily life. The stories themselves are meditations on mortality, destiny, and regret, all of which showcase King’s talent for exploring the human condition. Realistic and supernatural elements sit side by side. The tragic “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive” contrasts the charmed lives of two world-famous poets enjoying a roadside picnic with the grim existence of two single mothers who are taking one last road trip. “Under the Weather” tells of a man’s fierce love for his wife and the terrifying power of denial. “Summer Thunder,” a story about a man and his dog at the end of the world, is a heart-wrenching study of inevitability and the enduring power of love. Other standouts include “Ur,” about a Kindle that links to other worlds, and “Bad Little Kid,” about a terrifying murderous child (complete with propeller hat). This introspective collection, like many of King’s most powerful works, draws on the deepest emotions: love, grief, fear, and hope.”

The Tampa Bay Times says: “[King]has always had a wicked (in more ways than one) sense of humor, too, and it’s often on display along with the scary stuff in his new short story collection, The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams…One of the bonuses of Bazaar is that each story is preceded by a note from the author about its genesis… If you’re looking for King’s paranormal horror side, though, Bazaar has plenty to satisfy you…And if you want King in full funny tall-tale mode, head for Drunken Fireworks. It’s the hilarious story of how its narrator, a Maine native named Alden who lives with his mother in a modest cabin on the ‘town side’ of Abenaki Lake, gets into an ever-escalating Fourth of July arms race with a rich guy on the other shore who’s rumored to be ‘connected,’ if you know what I mean. One lesson: Never buy a firework called Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind.”

Says The Miami Herald : “The best stories in The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams are the ones that read like they meant something to King… A Death, which bears the easy, plaintive prose of Kent Haruf, follows a sheriff preparing to go through with the hanging of a man who may have been falsely convicted of murder. Obits channels the snark and cynicism of contemporary culture as its hero, a writer of celebrity death notices for a Gawker-like website, discovers he can kill people by writing their obituaries while they’re still alive. Summer Thunder, the touching post-apocalyptic story that concludes the book, ends on a note of lovely melancholy. Death may be inevitable, King says. But to fret about it or dwell on it is a waste of time when life, even at its most difficult, can bear so many rewards.”

Library Journal’s starred review says: “This collection begins with an introduction by King on why he writes short stories. To the reader’s delight, he also provides a backstory for each tale, enticing the reader with a memory or scenario that prompted that particular selection’s birth. Some of the pieces have been previously published. Some have been polished and revised—”Ur” was originally written as a “Kindle Single” for Amazon. Veering from the short story format, King published “Tommy” as a poem in Playboy in 2010. For baseball fans, watch out for the unexpected ending in “Blockade Billy.” With “The Little Green God of Agony,” King hints at how his life experience shapes his works. VERDICT The stories collected here are riveting and sometimes haunting, as is the author’s style. Surprise endings abound. King is in a class all by himself. Be prepared to read voraciously.”

Kirkus Reviews says: “A gathering of short stories by an ascended master of the form. Best known for mega-bestselling horror yarns, King  has been writing short stories for a very long time, moving among genres and honing his craft. This gathering of 20 stories, about half previously published and half new, speaks to King’s considerable abilities as a writer of genre fiction who manages to expand and improve the genre as he works; certainly no one has invested ordinary reality and ordinary objects with as much creepiness as King, mostly things that move (cars, kid’s scooters, Ferris wheels). Some stories would not have been out of place in the pulp magazines of the 1940s and ’50s, with allowances for modern references (“Somewhere far off, a helicopter beats at the sky over the Gulf. The DEA looking for drug runners, the Judge supposes”). Pulpy though some stories are, the published pieces have noble pedigrees, having appeared in places such as Granta and The New Yorker. Many inhabit the same literary universe as Raymond Carver, whom King even name-checks in an extraordinarily clever tale of the multiple realities hidden in a simple Kindle device: “What else is there by Raymond Carver in the worlds of Ur? Is there one—or a dozen, or a thousand—where he quit smoking, lived to be 70, and wrote another half a dozen books?” Like Carver, King often populates his stories with blue-collar people who drink too much, worry about money, and mistrust everything and everyone: “Every time you see bright stuff, somebody turns on the rain machine. The bright stuff is never colorfast.” Best of all, lifting the curtain, King prefaces the stories with notes about how they came about (“This one had to be told, because I knew exactly what kind of language I wanted to use”). Those notes alone make this a must for aspiring writers. Readers seeking a tale well told will take pleasure in King’s sometimes-scary, sometimes merely gloomy pages.”

 

When is it available?

It’s not a dream: copies are waiting at the Albany, Barbour, Blue Hills, Goodwin, Mark Twain and Park branches of the Hartford Public Library.

Do you have something to say about this book, this author or books in general? Please post your comments here and I will respond. Let’s get a good books conversation going!

A Moment of Silence: Midnight III (The Midnight Series)

By Sister Souljah

(Atria/Emily Bestler Books, $27.99, 544 pages)

Who is this author?

Sister Souljah, whose real name is Lisa Williamson, was born in 1964 in the Bronx. She graduated from Rutgers University with a dual major in American History and African Studies and achieved fame and notoriety as a political activist and teacher for disadvantaged urban youth, as a rapper and author, and during the 1992 presidential campaign, as someone Bill Clinton repudiated for her inflammatory statements about race relations – a risky move for a Democrat that became known as a “Sister Souljah moment.” Her debut book, in 1995, was the autobiography No Disrespect, and she went on to write bestselling novels beginning in 1999, including The Coldest Winter Ever, Midnight: A Gangster Love Story (an instant bestseller), Midnight and the Meaning of Love and  A Deeper Love Inside: the Porsche Santiaga Story. A Moment of Silence is the third in her Midnight series. She also has contributed to Essence and The New Yorker.

What is this book about?

He is a young, compelling Muslim man, but Midnight has challenges, among them being the husband of two wives who live with him, his mother Umma and sister Naja in New York. That seems difficult enough, but Midnight also must contend with living among people who do not follow his faith or understand it and adults who resent his intelligence and ability to make money. Although his trademark cool personality and Ninja training serve him well, he succumbs to an outburst of rage while defending his sister that upends his life and throws him into dangerous contact with the drug trade, bad cops and worse gangs and a crooked money laundering ring that offers him desperately needed shelter. The story asks if Midnight can keep his faith, defend his manhood and overcome envy, hate and the pull of the streets to survive, thrive and receive justice.

Why you’ll like it:

As an author, Sister Souljah has a raw and powerful voice, radical and outspoken beliefs and a very passionate fan base. A spokesman for the Hartford Public Library says that her books are among the most frequently checked out in their entire collection. She will visit the downtown library, 500 Main St., Hartford, on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 1 p.m. to give a free talk about her life and books. For more information, go to www.hplct.org.

What others are saying:

www.blackpageturners.com says: “In her next heart-pounding novel of passion, danger, temptation, and adventure, New York Times bestselling author Sister Souljah returns to the story of Midnight, a young man searching for love and fulfillment across the globe. Having returned from a worldwide journey to reclaim his wife, Akemi, Midnight returns to Queens, where he hopes to create a new, less tumultuous life with his love. But things fall apart when violence targets his younger sister Naja. Forsaking his usual control, the ninja warrior kills his sister’s attacker in cold blood, forcing him on the run and into the only shelter he can find: a seedy money laundering ring whose members are in league with the police. Though Midnight is promised temporary refuge, he’s soon recognized for the murder of Naja’s attacker, and lands in jail. Separated from his love, his city, and his family, Midnight must cling to his Muslim beliefs to stay strong. But soon enough, he meets Ricky Santiaga, the man who will become his leader and father figure…and perhaps, his only hope. From Japan to New York City, Midnight is back in action on the mean city streets and ready to fight for love. Here is a powerful new novel that packs more passion, plot, and emotional punch . . . Sister Souljah’s most masterful story yet.”

Library Journal says:  Sister continues her in-depth character examination of Midnight, the mysterious enforcer for drug kingpin Ricky Santiaga and the unrequited love of Ricky’s wild daughter, Winter. In this lengthy tale set in 1986 and before Midnight crosses paths with Winter, there are sudden shifts in time and place designed to reveal Midnight’s emotional core. Midnight prefers to remain silent in all situations but is an honorable and devout Muslim. Although only 17, he has married two women and is a loving husband to both of them. Readers may be taken back by Midnight’s precocious maturity especially when he’s speaking about his life philosophy. “How each man responds to evil options and suggestions is the only way for you to determine if he is a good man. He may be good. But no man is innocent.” VERDICT Undoubtedly Midnight is one of the more intriguing characters found in urban fiction. Yet too often the author sacrifices her plot by digressions into extensive messages/editorials about Muslim beliefs, how women should always be respected, and the ignorance of police. The slow-developing story finally accelerates when Midnight meets Ricky Santiaga and then is sent to Rikers prison. Sister Souljah’s many fans will want this.”

When is it available?

A Moment of Silence is expected to be on the shelves of the Downtown Hartford Public Library and all its branches by Nov. 12 or shortly thereafter.

Do you have something to say about this book, this author or books in general? Please post your comments here and I will respond. Let’s get a good books conversation going!

Mycroft Holmes

By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with Anna Waterhouse

(Titan, $25.99, 336 pages)

Who is this author?

I’m betting that ALL of you, sports fans or not, know who Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is. The basketball all-star who played for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers is the all-time leading NBA scorer and a literal giant – he’s 7’ 2” – of the game. But did you know that he has written several well-regarded books? They include the children’s book, What Color is My World, the military history  Brothers in Arms and the black history book On the Shoulders of Giants. Abdul-Jabbar also is a a U.S. cultural ambassador and, more to the point here, a major fan of the Sherlock Holmes books.

Anna Waterhouse is a screenwriter and script consultant. They teamed up to produce a TV documentary version of On the Shoulders of Giants that won NAACP and Telly awards.

What is this book about?

In Abdul-Jabbar’s tale, savvy Sherlock has an even smarter older brother, Mycroft. A Victorian-era graduate of prestigious Cambridge University, he begins a successful career in the British government, assisting its Secretary of State for War. Mycroft also has connections with Trinidad, where his best friend Cyrus Douglas, an African by heritage, was born and where his beloved wife-to-be, Georgiana Sutton, grew up. Then comes word of strange and menacing doings on the island: people disappear and mysterious footprints appear. They may be the traces of evil spirits called douen, who lead children to even more evil spirits called lougarou who kill them and drink their blood. Georgiana heads to Trinidad and Mycroft and Cyrus follow her into the dangerous web of disappearances and death. This frightening adventure sets Mycroft on the path to founding the Diogenes Club and becoming a secret player in the British government.

Why you’ll like it:

There’s great fun in reading fiction that takes a familiar character and expands his or her world, and it’s also enjoyable to read a story written by someone who has made a legendary career in one field and then branches out successfully into a totally new and unrelated endeavor. In Mycroft Holmes, you get both, and both are done very well. Lame puns about towering intellect and slam dunks aside, this book would be worthy of your time even if its authors were heretofore unknown.

What others are saying:

“Basketball legend Abdul-Jabbar makes his triumphant adult fiction debut with an action yarn that fills in the backstory of Sherlock Holmes’s older and smarter brother, Mycroft. In 1870, the 23-year-old Mycroft, who has a reputation as a daredevil, is serving as a secretary at the War Office when word reaches London of a series of unusual deaths in Trinidad. Someone, or some thing, has been killing children and draining their blood. The locals believe the culprits are supernatural beings known as lougarou, who drain children of their blood, and douen, who leave highly unusual footprints near their victims. The tragic news stuns Mycroft’s fiancée, Georgiana Sutton, who immediately sails home to Trinidad. Disobeying her request to stay behind, Mycroft follows Georgiana to Trinidad, where he must exercise his intellect and his innate diplomatic skills to solve the crimes and remain alive. Sherlockians who relish the screen adventures of Cumberbatch and Downey will be particularly entertained,” says Publishers Weekly’s  starred review.

In its starred review, Booklist says: “Abdul-Jabbar, a Holmesian since his college days, joins forces with Waterhouse to offer a rousing mystery starring Sherlock’s older (and smarter) brother, Mycroft, a rising star in the British government. The action begins in 1870 London but quickly moves to Trinidad, where Mycroft’s closest friend, Cyrus Douglas, a native of the island, must travel to investigate what some believe is an infestation of douen—tiny supernatural characters who lead children into the clutches of werewolf-like lougarou. Mycroft joins his friend for the trip, and what the two find on arrival—after a near-fatal ocean crossing—isn’t supernatural but far more harrowing… The authors hit all the right notes here, combining fascinating historical detail with rousing adventure, including some cleverly choreographed fight scenes and a pair of protagonists whose rich biracial friendship, while presented realistically, given the era (Douglas must sometimes pose as a butler), is the highlight of the book. Yes, Douglas is a sort-of Watson, but a much brighter, more physical, more bantering version, an equal not a foil. Mystery fans will be eager to hear more from this terrific duo, who may well develop into a gaslit version of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser and Hawk.”

“Clear space on your new fiction shelf for this slam-dunk of a debut novel. Cowritten by NBA all-star and author Abdul-Jabbar and screenwriter and producer ­Waterhouse, the team behind the NAACP and Telly Award–winning documentary On the Shoulders of Giants, this latest collaboration brings a fresh voice and broadened scope to the Holmes canon. Historical fiction and mystery fans will be the first to demand this title, but its mass appeal is undeniable,” says Library Journal in its starred review.

Says Esquire: “The erudite Jabbar has managed to weave elements of his far flung interests into a fascinating mystery narrative. The briskly written book has a delicate woven plot that brings together such diverse elements as Trinidadian culture and folklore, the tobacco importation business in London,  and the usual Holmesian array of brightly obtuse knowledge and libertine philosophy that Sherlock fans enjoy— not to mention a plot that involves an elaborate scheme to bring slavery back to the Caribbean. By far the star of the novel is Holmes’ able accomplice Douglas—as compared to Watson, Douglas is portrayed as an equal instead of a foil. The careful dance of the friendship between the two men of different races, complicated by the laws and conventions of the era, is fascinating.”

“That’s right: nonpareil basketball player Abdul-Jabbar, who’s already written memoirs, nonfiction titles, and children’s books, partners with screenwriter Waterhouse to introduce a prequel to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ smarter brother.

Says Kirkus Reviews:  “Back in 1870, when Sherlock is still an indifferent student at the Royal College of St. Peter, his older brother, a little wet behind the ears at 23, serves as secretary to Edward Cardwell, the Secretary of State for War, and looks forward to his marriage to Georgiana Sutton, a perfect English rose born in Port of Spain. His plans are knocked sideways by the hushed news from his Trinidadian friend and associate Cyrus Douglas that a lougarou, as the islanders call werewolves, has been draining the blood of young children and causing mass disappearances of their elders. Booking passage aboard the Sultana for Trinidad, the two men swiftly find themselves immersed in an unholy scheme by a ring of freelance entrepreneurs to revive a horror recently and traumatically abolished in the Americas. Even more disturbingly, every new development in the adventure, which eventually leads the visitors to the Sacred Order of the Harmonious Fists, seems to point unerringly to well-placed government functionaries and protectors and implicate someone close to Mycroft himself as a conspirator.

The central conceit is audacious; Mycroft’s sense of moral outrage is nicely reflective of the era; the historical detail is solid; and the period decorum is well-maintained throughout. Only the characters and their cumbersome individual interactions are muffled by all the grade-A trappings.”

When is it available?

Finding this book is no mystery: it’s at the Downtown Hartford Public Library and its Ropkins branch.

Do you have something to say about this book, this author or books in general? Please post your comments here and I will respond. Let’s get a good books conversation going!

The Green Road

By Anne Enright

(Norton, $26.95, 304 pages)

Who is this author?

An Irish author, based in Dublin, Anne Enright has published five novels, three story collections and one nonfiction book. In 2015, she was named the first Laureate for Irish Fiction. Her novel The Gathering won the prestigious Man Booker Prize, and her last novel, The Forgotten Waltz, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

What is this book about?

Meet the Madigans, a family from the west of Ireland that has scattered to destinations as disparate as New York and Mali in West Africa, and now must come together for a last Christmas gathering in their old home on Green Road in County Clare, which their mother, the mercurial and theatrical Rosaleen, is determined to sell and then to divide up the proceeds among them. The grown children fear their childhood  (or at least their memories of it) are on the block as well. Dan is finding himself in New York, Emmet is battling poverty and starvation in Mali, Hanna is an alcolholic actress with an unplanned child on the way and Constance, on whom Rosaleen relies, is facing a serious health problem. Will they find a way to come together, or this their last Christmas as a family?

Why you’ll like it:

Enright, like so many gifted Irish authors, knows how to spin a tale and create compelling characters. And she deftly employs a lilting Irish tone when those characters talk, adding to the authenticity of this tale. Above all, this is a family drama about a dramatic family, people who love and annoy each other in the way that only a family can. If you believe, with Tolstoy, that “each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” you will appreciate the uniqueness of Enright’s accomplishment here.

What others are saying:

In The New York Times Book Review, author David Leavitt writes: “. . . an impressive novel that bounces its readers through some fairly rocky terrain, not the least of it the green road of the title, as [Enright] charts the fortunes and misfortunes (mostly the latter) of the Madigan family over a period of roughly a quarter of a century…Enright writes with authority and confidence not just about her native Ireland…but about the AIDS-stricken New York in which Dan is making his way and the poverty-stricken Mali where Emmet, the novel’s unsparing voice of conscience, is going about the practical business of saving lives…The Green Road is, in the best sense of the word, a strange novel. Or perhaps I should say it’s a novel that gets stranger and stranger as it goes along.”

Publishers Weekly’s starred review says: “The eponymous road of Enright’s flawless novel is in County Clare in Ireland, running from the impoverished farm of handsome Pat Madigan in Boolavaun, to a house called Ardeevin, where he wooed Rosaleen Considine, daughter of the town’s leading family. Pat and Rosaleen marry and have four children. A volatile drama queen, Rosaleen is the fulcrum about which her children warily move. Even as they mature and flee from her embrace, she exists in their heads, where they continue to blame her for their bad fortunes. In 1980, Rosaleen takes to her bed when Dan, the eldest and her favorite, announces his intention to become a priest. She is even more aggrieved when he abandons the priesthood for the art community in New York in the 1990s and eventually allows his true sexual nature to emerge in a series of ardent gay trysts. Enright (winner of the Man Booker Prize for The Gathering) writes of this time and place with crystalline clarity. The tone is much different in the chapters set in Ardeevin, where the lilt of Irish vernacular permeates the dialogue. Meanwhile Emmet, the second son, is engaged in relief work in Mali, trying to retain his sanity as the death toll from famine mounts and his girlfriend lavishes her love on a mangy dog. Hanna, his sister, is an aspiring actress and a drunk who confronts reality at 37, bitterly ambivalent about being the mother of an unplanned baby. The fourth sibling, Constance, who has married well and lives with her happy family in Limerick, is her mother’s dogsbody and the unappreciated provider. This novel is a vibrant family portrait, both pitiless and compassionate, witty and stark, of simple people living quiet lives of anguish, sometimes redeemed by moments of grace.”

Says Library Journal: “. . . . Rosaleen’s adult children, for the first time in years, are gathering for Christmas in west Clare, Ireland. Rosaleen can’t be made happy, and her children are far from trying anymore, if they ever did. Their own lives, which vary so much they seem to inhabit different eras as well as different countries, need tending. Dan is fearfully navigating early 1990s New York’s AIDS-devastated gay scene and has found a love he can’t even admit to himself is real; Hanna’s acting career, which never really took off, is floundering; Constance’s health scare underlines the isolation she feels in her marriage; and Emmet, the most distant of them all in every way, is exhausted by Ireland’s excesses when he leaves his aid work in Mali. The family’s stuttering reunion is capped by a surprise move by Rosaleen that breaks the tension and forces the children to see their mother and her choices in a new light. VERDICT Booker Prize winner Enright (The Gathering) lays bare the hopes, desperations, and all too brief moments of understanding in family and modern life. Her unsparing look at the difficulties of being in the world will appeal to lovers of literary fiction.

Kirkus’s starred review says: “When the four adult Madigan children come home for Christmas to visit their widowed mother for the last time before the family house is sold, a familiar landscape of tensions is renewed and reordered. Newly chosen as Ireland’s first fiction laureate, Enright showcases the unostentatious skill that underpins her success and popularity in this latest story of place and connection, set in an unnamed community in County Clare. Rosaleen Considine married beneath her when she took the hand of Pat Madigan decades ago. Their four children are now middle-aged, and only one of them, Constance, stayed local, marrying into the McGrath family, which has benefited comfortably from the nation’s financial boom. Returning to the fold are Dan, originally destined for the priesthood, now . . . gay and “a raging blank of a human being”; Emmet, the international charity worker struggling with attachment; and Hanna, the disappointed actress with a drinking problem. This is prime Enright territory, the fertile soil of home and history, cash and clan; or, in the case of the Madigan reunion, “all the things that were unsayable: failure, money, sex and drink.” Long introductions to the principal characters precede the theatrical format of the reunion, allowing Enright plenty of space to convey her brilliant ear for dialogue, her soft wit, and piercing, poetic sense of life’s larger abstractions. Like Enright’s Man Booker Prize-winning The Gathering (2007), this novel traces experience across generations although, despite a brief crisis, this is a less dramatic story, while abidingly generous and humane. A subtle, mature reflection on the loop of life from a unique writer of deserved international stature.

When is it available?

The Green Road beckons readers at the Downtown Hartford Public Library.

Do you have something to say about this book, this author or books in general? Please post your comments here and I will respond. Let’s get a good books conversation going!

The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong

by David Orr

(Penguin, $25.95, 192 pages)

Who is this author?

David Orr, whose debut book of literary criticism, “Beautiful & Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry,” made the Chicago Tribune’s list of the 20 best books of 2011, is the poetry columnist for the New York Times Book Review and  teaches at Cornell University. He won a Nona Balakian Prize from the National Book Critics Circle, and he has contributed to The New Yorker, Poetry, Slate and The Yale Review. A Princeton graduate from South Carolina who holds a law degree from Yale, Orr now lives in Ithaca, N.Y.

What is this book about?

“The Road Not Taken,” the Robert Frost poem that nearly everyone has committed to memory, celebrated its 100^th anniversary this August, and while it may be the most popular poem Frost wrote and is certainly well-loved, literary critic David Orr says we just don’t get it.

In this “biography” of a classic piece of literature, Orr makes the case that superficial interpretations of “The Road” miss the point of what its author was trying to do, and  he suspects that the poet was actually spoofing the indecision and romanticism of a close friend. He makes his case by citing the poem’s influence on culture; its subtle artistic structure, which is far more complex than its short length and simple vocabulary suggest; and its historical background and appearances in inspirational books, titles for TV show episodes and even TV commercials for cars in New Zealand. Orr plumbs its true meaning – or meanings. Is it sincere or sardonic?  Is the poem a hymn to individualism and nonconformity, albeit at an unquantified price, or a sly dig at the human desire to find deep significance in random decisions?  Orr’s book has four main sections that explore Frost the man and poet; the poem itself; the American predilection for choice; and the self that does the choosing. Without being pedantic or academic (no small feat for a college professor), Orr explicates it all for you.

Why you’ll like it:

You probably know this poem by heart, but haven’t pondered its meaning since that long-ago English class in which you studied it. With Orr’s help, you can plunge into it once again and refresh your appreciation of this American classic. His wide-ranging analysis is provocative, insightful and just plain fun. He may be going down a road less traveled in his interpretation of what Frost intended to convey, but you will enjoy making that literary journey with his astute guidance.

What others are saying:

Publishers Weekly says: “”New York Times poetry critic Orr, in his engaging follow-up to Beautiful and Pointless: A Guide to American Poetry, narrows his scope to focus on one of America’s most beloved and most misunderstood poems. Even with poetry‘s diminished hold on the popular consciousness, many Americans can still recite the final lines of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” from memory (though most would probably misidentify it as “The Road Less Traveled”). Orr looks at how one poem could become so well-known among a generally poetry-allergic populace that it’s been used to launch a self-help revolution, provide titles for episodes of TV shows, and, further afield, sell cars in New Zealand. The book is divided into four sections, beginning with “The Poet,” a biographical sketch of Robert Frost the man and “Robert Frost” the myth. “The Poem” offers a close reading that disputes both popular readings of the poem as “a paean to triumphant self-assertion” and more critically accepted interpretations of it as a “joke (or trick).” “The Choice” probes American conceptions of choice from the days of the Founding Fathers to contemporary neuroscience. Finally, “The Chooser” synthesizes previously presented ideas into a nuanced discussion of modern selfhood. Orr blends theory, biography, psychology, science, and a healthy dose of pop culture into a frothy mix so fun, readers may forget they’re learning something.”

Says The New York Times Book Review: “David Orr has written the best popular explanation to date of the most popular poem in American history…he’s persuasive enough to give us good reason to hope that his interpretation will lodge a toehold in conventional wisdom. This holds for the poet as well as the poem. If Frost’s most famous poem is representative, and if Orr is right about it, we should see Frost not as the earnest Yankee sage beloved by junior high school teachers or the dark jokester expounded by college professors, but as an artist able to evoke and clarify the conflicts that follow from the ways we think we understand ourselves…In Orr’s lucid reading, the poem brings to life and dances on the grave of the plucky, nonconformist, self-determined and self-realized person at the heart of the American myth of individualism.”

The Boston Globe says: “The most satisfying part of Orr’s fresh appraisal of “The Road Not Taken” is the reappraisal it can inspire in longtime Frost readers whose readings have frozen solid. The crossroads between the poet and the man is where Frost leaves his poems for us to discover, turning what seems like a fork in the road into a site of limitless potential, ‘in which all decisions are equally likely.’ “

 

Says Library Journal: “Orr, poetry columnist for the New York Times Book Review, provides a literary and cultural examination of human desires and the United States through this book-length study of Robert Frost’s famous 1915 poem “The Road Not Taken.” Orr finds that Frost’s poem, which is an exploration of choice symbolized by reaching a crossroads, is more complicated than it appears and the overall meaning of it may be quite different from what most admirers and readers of the poem believe. Although the poem is revered worldwide and is arguably a universal creation, Orr sees it as decidedly American, owing to its central theme of free choice and self-determination. In his examination, the author first writes on Frost’s life and then discusses the origins of the verse. The final chapters provide a critique of the poem, often through a cultural lens. VERDICT This entertaining book, published on the centennial of Frost’s poem, will appeal to poetry and American literature lovers, as well as to readers interested in the interweaving of art and culture.”

Kirkus Reviews says: “Unraveling the mystery of a famous poem. New York Times Book Review poetry columnist Orr brings his finely honed skills as a literary critic to a meticulous investigation of Robert Frost’s beloved poem, “The Road Not Taken,” which Orr believes has been consistently misread. The poem, he argues, is not “a salute to can-do individualism” or an exhortation to choose an uncommon path in life. Orr presents a fresh, perceptive reading of the verse; places it in the context of Frost’s life, other works, and public persona; and considers the meaning of choice in American culture. Anyone writing about Frost confronts an early biographer’s portrayal of him as a monster: unfeeling, arrogant, and cruel. “Frost is always being rescued, always being reclaimed,” Orr notes. “He’s like a disputed frontier, constantly contested, and this book is yet another stone thrown in that conflict.” Orr sees Frost as neither monster nor angel, nor the modest, “witty, rural sage” that became his public image. “The Road” was inspired by Frost’s dear friend Edward Thomas, who tried Frost’s patience with his “romantic sensibility,” indecisiveness, and “self-dramatizing regret.” Frost meant the poem as a joke, but Thomas—and future generations of readers—failed to understand the humor. Instead, many readers took the poem as underscoring Americans’ “belief in human perfectibility, a concept that assumes the humans in question can make choices that will lead to improvement.” As the poem seems to imply, taking one road rather than another can make “all the difference.” Orr, though, concludes that the poem is a “critique” of the choosing self. “What matters most, the poem suggests, is the dilemma of the crossroads,” a troubling, unsettling intersection; a space, Orr suggests, “for performance and metaphor.” An illuminating voyage into the heart of Frost’s poem and the American spirit.”

Says the Observer: “. . . Orr, who lives in Ithaca with his wife and daughter, is a poet and a professor of literary criticism at Cornell University. (He is also a lawyer, but doesn’t practice full-time anymore.) He decided to write about one poem so he could do a kind of extended close reading. He divided his latest book into four parts. The first two look at the poem and the poet while the second two are a bit more abstract, containing, for example, meditations on free will and examinations of the nature of the self, forms of which are slyly embedded in Frost’s poem.

“Perhaps the greatest testament to the poem’s enduring strength is the fact that, for Mr. Orr, “The Road Not Taken” had not lost its mystery by the time he finished writing his book. “The more you look at it,” Mr. Orr observed, “the stranger it seems.”

When is it available?

Take the road to the Downtown Hartford Public Library to borrow a copy of this book.

Do you have something to say about this book, this author or books in general? Please post your comments here and I will respond. Let’s get a good books conversation going!

Letters to Lovecraft

Edited by Jesse Bullington

(Stone Skin Press, $13.99, 280 pages)

Who is this author?

Happy Halloween! Bullington and the other contributors are all writers who have received numerous awards and honors, too numerous to name individually here. All write in the horror or speculative fiction genres and were specially chosen to create stories that respond to H.P. Lovecraft,  the master of horror fiction whose Victorian era stories still resonate – and also still repel – readers today.

What is this book about?

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown,’” wrote Lovecraft in his famous essay, “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” which though written almost 100 years ago, remains a brilliant analysis. (You can also make the case that it holds true for current politics worldwide, but that is another story.) This anthology contains works inspired by quotes from the essay, written by 18 contemporary writers of what is now called weird fiction. Interest in this genre has never flagged, and Cthulhu and the monstrous ancient alien gods conjured up by the Providence, R.I., author still bring a chill even to the most blasé readers.

Why you’ll like it:

Lovecraft, a difficult and not entirely admirable man, is nevertheless considered to be a genius at writing terrifying and horrifying tales, and some 100 years later, still has many aficionados.  Tales of terror scare readers; tales of horror evoke disgust, and Lovecraft’s weird stories, many set in the fictional town of Arkham, Mass., do both. His Cthulhu mythology, featuring blind, idiot gods and all manner of human evil, have inspired many other writers of fantasy. If you have a taste for stories that will disturb your sleep for weeks after reading them, this book is a good introduction to Lovecraft, and if you already know and like his work, it will add to your enjoyment of his very peculiar genius.

What others are saying:

Publishers Weekly’s starred review  says: “Author and first-time editor Bullington explores macabre maestro H.P. Lovecraft’s enduring legacy in this deeply satisfying anthology. Inspired by “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” Lovecraft’s well-known exposition on the genre, Bullington asked his “favorite storytellers” to take a fresh look at Lovecraft’s essay and craft original stories under its influence. The result is a wonderfully disparate collection of works spanning time and place, from writers both established and unfamiliar. Brian Evenson’s terrifying standout, “Past Reno,” describes a young man’s rising anxiety at the desolate landscape framing the journey back to his childhood home. The turn-of-the-last-century human monsters walking through Chesya Burke’s “The Horror at Castle of the Cumberland” are an abomination far worse than the shadows that trail them. A familiar trope gets a chilling twist in David Yale Ardanuy’s “One Last Meal, Before the End.” The stories in this essential compilation are as diverse as the contributors, and together they form a wonderful confluence of criticism and creativity.”

Ipgbook.com says: “. . . while hordes of writers have created works based on Lovecraft’s fiction, never before has an anthology taken its inspiration directly from the literary manifesto behind his entire mythos…until now. Like cultists poring over a forbidden tome, eighteen modern masters of horror have gathered here to engage with Lovecraft’s treatise. Rather than responding with articles of their own, these authors have written new short stories inspired by intriguing quotes from the essay, offering their own whispers to the darkness. They tell of monsters and madmen, of our strange past and our weirder future, of terrors stalking the winter woods, the broiling desert, and eeriest of all, our bustling cities, our family homes. . . .”

Says Sffworld.com: “Jesse’s Introduction [points out] for the uninitiated what the attraction of Lovecraft’s writing was, even whilst acknowledging that some aspects of the man’s personality were not what we would like. It manages that tricky job of being both erudite and yet accessible, of being reasoned and balanced when others might descend into outrage or obsequious fawning.”

Says Koboldpress.com: H.P. Lovecraft wrote horror stories, and he developed a mythos that has oozed its way into literary and now popular culture. . . . Some of these stories are directly influenced by Lovecraft’s quotes, some are written contrary to Lovecraft’s words, and some of the stories use Lovecraft’s words as the entrance to a labyrinth into madness. . . Rather than just writing a Lovecraftian story, these authors had to dig much deeper: they had to embrace Lovecraft’s essay and the observations held within it, then create something magical. And they did.”

Says Arkhamdigest.com: “. . . In his hefty intro, Bullington puts it all on the table. The good, the bad, and the ugly of Lovecraft is laid bare without bias. . . . By looking beyond the superficialities of the Cthulhu Mythos, and bypassing common Lovecraftian themes to look instead at the essay that outlines Lovecraft’s philosophies behind weird horror, Jesse Bullington and his 18 authors have done something truly special. Letters to Lovecraft is easily one of 2014′s best anthologies, and a must read for weird horror fans.”

When is it available?

This unsettling book is lurking on the shelves of the Downtown Hartford Public Library, waiting for you.

Do you have something to say about this book, this author or books in general? Please post your comments here and I will respond. Let’s get a good books conversation going!

The Palace of Illusions

By Kim Addonizio

(Soft Skull, $15.95, 225 pages)

Who is this author?

A poet, a short story writer, a novelist and an author of several books on writing poetry, Kim Addonizio, who divides her time between New York City and Oakland, Calif., has won many honors for her work. But her literary career is not her only interest: Addonizio also plays harmonica with the music group Nonstop Beautiful Ladies and volunteers for The Hunger Project, which fights hunger and poverty worldwide. Her latest, The Palace of Illusions, is a 14-story collection.

What is this book about?

Kim Addonizio has here collected 14 of her stories, which have previously appeared in various literary journals. All of them share the idea that mystery and misunderstanding often overlay what is taken for reality. Among the stories you will find tales of a girl with a sick grandfather and an overwhelmed mother who finds solace in the family’s many pets, but in a shocking and appalling way; a young woman who is half college student and half-vampire  who falls in love; a woman with cancer who gains help and hope through a poetry workshop; a photographer who  recalls his past as a carnival illusionist and lover of the owner’s wife.

Why you’ll like it:

A group of dwarfs live not in a tiny house in the forest but a city apartment as they wait for a woman with an apple to save them. Sound familiar? In her story, Ever After, Addonizio plays with an old fairy tale in new and startling ways, a technique she brings to all the stories in her second collection. Imagination is built on, but trumps reality in these stories that display Addonzio’s dark humor, graceful prose (she is a poet, after all) and witty invention. But keep in mind that when she goes into that darkness, she goes deep.

What others are saying:                                

Says Publishers Weekly:  “Once there was a hag who was really a princess, who lived in a storage unit that was really a castle.” In Addonizio’s second collection of short stories, she explores the various ways people interpret the world in order to find peace. In “Beautiful Lady of the Snow,” a little girl punishes and subsequently kills her pets in order to find solace from the stress of living with her depressed mother in a motel. “Night Owls” follows a frustrated teenage vampire who loves a boy but also wants to suck his blood. The title story traces the decline of a young man who trades in his promising future for a love affair with an alcoholic carnie. “Ever After” is a pseudo-fairy tale about dwarves living in an apartment and waiting for a woman to redeem them from their terrible lives with an apple. Though Addonizio’s characters find themselves in unusual predicaments, she nonetheless convincingly renders their psyches. The stories are weighty but unassuming, and readers can identify with the characters whether they’re vampires, carnies, or pet killers. This book is for those who enjoy sardonic humor, forceful narration, and a variety of genres.”

Library Journal says: “The short stories here are so tight and polished that it’s hard to believe that this is only Addonizio’s second collection; she is mainly known as a poet. . . . The characters, from the woman with terminal cancer who takes a poetry workshop to the second grader who hates dancing on her grandpa’s lap to the college student who happens to be half vampire, all exhibit “true grit.” The stories are all strikingly honest depictions of characters trying their best at something, even if that something is not particularly good for them. The latter is true in the case of the title story, in which a man looks back on his youth working as a magician in a traveling carnival and lusting after the carnival owner’s wife. There are also shorter pieces that give us more of a keyhole glimpse into a situation or character, such as “The Other Woman,” “Blown,” and new takes on classic fairy tales, such as “The Hag’s Journey.” VERDICT A highly enjoyable collection with something for everyone; recommended for readers of Lydia Davis or fans of modern fairy tales.”

Kirkus Reviews says: “Poet Addonizio brings her hip, dark sensibility to a second collection of short fiction .In the first story, a second-grade girl kills her goldfish and pet bird in reaction to being sexually exploited by her obese grandfather. In the second, two sleazy young women get drunk and rip off the guy in whose hotel room they’ve spent the night. In the third, a girl takes time during a meditation class to reflect on her dead sister. Abusive relationships, breakups and terminal illness fill out the other 10 stories, but in the most appealing of them, Addonizio doses her basic mix of hopelessness and alienation with cleverness and whimsy. A story about a girl who’s half vampire has several laughs, the title story has fun with its circus setting, and two of the others, “The Hag’s Journey” and “Ever After,” reinvent fairy-tale tropes in ways that would be delightful if they didn’t end so badly. In the latter, the Seven Dwarfs are a ragtag bunch of fellows living in a fifth-floor walk-up: a junkie named Dopey, a teen runaway named Sneezy, a recovering alcoholic named Doc, etc., most employed as faux munchkins at a restaurant called Oz. They’re awaiting the fulfillment of a prophecy they read about in a book found in a Dumpster, one involving a beautiful girl and an apple. Unsurprisingly, things go south. “[M]y name isn’t Grumpy,” said Grumpy. “It’s Carlos….I’m sick of all of you with your fake names and voodoo loser fantasies about some chick who ain’t coming. She ain’t coming, man. Get it through your fat heads.” The worldview of this book is so bleak it might need a warning label.”

“The 14 stories in this new collections range from realist, contemporary narratives to darkly comic fairy tales that subtly complicate the binary oppositions of good versus evil and contentment versus despair.…Addonizio is adept at humanizing monsters or characters that resemble them…The Palace of Illusions is a collection of many delights, its mirrors reflecting and magnifying the contradictions and conflicts inherent in human experience,” says the San Francisco Chronicle.

When is it available?

It’s available now at the Downtown Hartford Public Library.

Do you have something to say about this book, this author or books in general? Please post your comments here and I will respond. Let’s get a good books conversation going!

Once in a Great City

By David Maraniss

(Simon & Schuster, $32.50, 464 pages)

Who is this author?

The last time I wrote about David Maraniss for Under the Covers, in 2012, I said:

“David Maraniss is a journalist’s journalist. By that I mean he is a much respected, diligent researcher, graceful writer and astute interpreter of current events and past occurrences, making it clear how they have affected the lives of the famous people who have been the subjects of his acclaimed biographies. An associate editor at The Washington Post, Maraniss has written bestsellers about Bill Clinton, coach Vince Lombardi, Vietnam and the ‘60s, baseball star Roberto Clemente and the 1960 Rome Olympics. How good is he? Well, Maraniss won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Clinton, was part of a Post team that won the 2007 Pulitzer for coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy and has been a Pulitzer finalist three other times. He’s based in Washington, D.C., and Madison, Wisconsin.”

All of that is still true, and now, in Once in a Great City, Maraniss applies his biographical skills not to an individual but to a whole city, Detroit, showing how it has fallen on hard socio-economic times.

What is this book about?

Fifty or so years ago, Detroit was booming: the auto industry was turning out and selling more cars than ever before and the Motown sound had captured the music industry. Its famous names were illustrious at home and across the country: auto magnates Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca, labor leader Walter Reuther; Motown founder Berry Gordy; the Rev. C.L. Franklin and his daughter, Aretha; Gov. George Romney, and for a time, Martin Luther King Jr., who previewed his iconic I Have A Dream speech there before he gave it in Washington. But the seeds of trouble already had been sown, before the rioting and corruption and neglect and departure of many white citizens and bad weather and labor costs conspired to kick Detroit off its lofty perch. Maraniss reminds us of what the city had, what it lost (and what it kept) and what the Detroit story may portend for other American cities.

Why you’ll like it:

Maraniss, who was born in Detroit, uses his considerable storytelling skills to delineate the rise and fall of what was once a great city, presenting the tale through portraits of its people. That method brings the social and historical facts alive and holds the reader’s interest. And for residents of the Hartford area, another city that once was on top of the world and now is struggling to survive, it offers insights and a cautionary tale about what happens when industries shrink or vanish, corruption infects government and the social fabric is shredded. This is a powerful, attention-demanding book.

What others are saying:

DeadlineDETROIT.com says: “Maraniss . . . who lived on the west side before his family moved to Madison, Wisconsin, when he was 6, is a skillful storyteller, and his interpretation of events in Detroit a half century ago is well founded. . . . Maraniss will only add to his reputation with Once in a Great City. It’s a good read if your interest is only to visit Detroit’s remarkable recent past. It’s even a better read if you are interested in the city’s extraordinary devolution. In either case, it’s a story that is haunting, thought-provoking and, in the end, sad.”

Says Kirkus Reviews: “Hot times in a raucous city. Biographer and Washington Post associate editor Maraniss spent only his first six and a half years in Detroit, so he was surprised when he “choked up” after seeing a car commercial extolling the Motor City. That affection inspired this fast-paced, sprawling, copiously detailed look at 18 months—from 1962 to 1964—in the city’s past. During that time, big things happened in Detroit. Motown burst onto the music scene after the Motortown Revue left the city on a nationwide tour. Ford developed a new car, kept secret except from the prestigious J. Walter Thompson advertising agency; unveiled at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, the Mustang became an instant, bestselling hit. Detroit fought fiercely for the 1968 Olympics, but despite support from native son Avery Brundage, president of the International Olympic Committee, Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, and Governor George Romney, Detroit lost to Mexico City. Detroit was embroiled in the civil rights movement, as well, with Cavanagh and union head Walter Reuther among many leaders taking a strong stand for racial equality. Reuther even rounded up money to bail out demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama, and he never wavered in his commitment to freedom and justice. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an early version of his “I have a dream” speech at the city’s much-publicized Walk to Freedom, in which Reuther, Cavanagh, and 100,000 others marched; it was, said one participant, “a model of peaceful protest and racial cooperation” during a time of national unrest. Although overstuffed with facts . . . and sometimes breaching the city’s boundaries to become a history of the whole country, Maraniss’ brawny narrative evokes a city still “vibrantly alive” and striving for a renaissance. An illuminating history of a golden era in a city desperately seeking to reclaim the glory.”

“Elegiac and richly detailed . . . Maraniss . . . conjures those boom years of his former hometown with novelistic ardor. Using overlapping portraits of Detroiters (from politicians to musicians to auto execs), he creates a mosaiclike picture of the city that has the sort of intimacy and tactile emotion that Larry McMurtry brought to his depictions of the Old West, and the gritty sweep of David Simon’s HBO series “The Wire.” . . . People’s experiences intersect or collide or resonate with one another, and Mr. Maraniss uses them as windows on the larger cultural and political changes convulsing the nation in the ‘60s . . . [Maraniss] succeeds with authoritative, adrenaline-laced flair. . . The result is a buoyant Frederick Lewis Allen-like social history that’s animated by an infectious soundtrack and lots of tactile details, and injected with a keen understanding of larger historical forces at work – both in Detroit and America at large. . . . Maraniss’s evocative book provides a wistful look back at an era when those cracks were only just beginning to show, and the city still seemed a place of “uncommon possibility” and was creating “wondrous and lasting things,” writes Michiko Kakutani for The New York Times.

Publishers Weekly says: “Using a combination of historical eyewitness reports and sketches of larger-than-life figures, Pulitzer-winning reporter Maraniss (Barack Obama: The Story) draws a sprawling portrait of Detroit at a pivotal moment when it was “dying and thriving at the same time.” Given its current turmoil, it is easy to forget the Detroit that once was. . . . But even in this golden age, all was not well in Detroit. Discriminatory housing practices, intended to prevent minorities from entering the toniest neighborhoods, were exacerbating existing racial tensions, and the city’s organized crime could not be cleaned up despite the police commissioner’s best efforts. But for all his exhaustive research and evocative scene-setting, Maraniss never seems to find the zeitgeist of the historical moment he covers, the essential spirit that lifted up but ultimately ruined the Motor City.”

Says The Washington Post:  “Captivating . . . Maraniss hears the joyous sound of a city suddenly, improbably filled with hope. . . . Maraniss asks himself what in the city has lasted, a question that often haunts former Detroiters. The songs, he decides. Not the reforms, not the dream of racial justice, not the promise of a Great Society, but the wonderfully exuberant songs that came pouring out of Berry Gordy’s studio. That’s the tragedy at the core of this gracious, generous book. All that remains of the hopeful moment Maraniss so effectively describes is a soundtrack. And that isn’t nearly enough.”

When is it available?                       

It’s available in our city at the Downtown Hartford Public Library and its Park branch.

Do you have something to say about this book, this author or books in general? Please post your comments here and I will respond. Let’s get a good books conversation going!

A God In Ruins

By Kate Atkinson

(Little, Brown and Company, $28, 480 pages)

Who is this author?

Kate Atkinson, who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, won the Whitbread (now called the Costa) Book of the Year Award for her first novel, “Behind the Scenes at the Museum,” and became a bestselling author who has more than one million copies of her books in print in the United States alone. Even the titles of her novels are intriguing, such as “Human Croquet,” “Emotionally Weird,” “When Will There Be Good News?”  and “Started Early, Took My Dog.” Her novel “Case Histories,” which featured private investigator Jackson Brodie, became a TV series. She also has written a story collection, “Not the End of the World.”

What is this book about?

A follow-up  — no, that’s not quite right, it’s a companion  novel —  to Atkinson’s #1 bestseller Life After Life, told through the younger brother of its heroine, Ursula, who gets to live her life over and over as she witnesses the events of the 20^th century.  A God In Ruins is the story of a young man who, instead of living over and over until he gets it right, like Ursula, must face having a future when he never expected to see one.

Teddy Todd lives through epic air battles of World War II, always believing his death is imminent, but survives. A hero as an RAF pilot, an amateur as a poet, Teddy must cope with a rapidly changing world as a husband, father and grandfather. His wife dies too young, his unpleasant daughter blames him — very late in the story we learn why — and life limps along. The book deals with four generations of the Todd family and oscillates back and forth in time, presenting an ordinary man in an ordinary British family, yet celebrating the extraordinariness of an individual life. And then, in the final pages, it smacks the reader with a (most likely) unexpected twist.

Why you’ll like it:                 

Atkinson has a brilliant imagination and gift for storytelling, here solidly undergirded by her research into the British v. German air war in World War II. The switches in time in this book can be dizzying, but they enliven the story. And then there is the surprise ending, sure to create very lively arguments as book clubs discuss this unusual novel from one of Scotland’s finest authors.

What others are saying:

Amazon.com’s  Best Book of May 2015 review says: “Talk about being your own tough act to follow! Having accomplished a near miracle with Life After Life, in which she used a literary-do-over trope to tell the story of a British woman living between and after the two World Wars, Kate Atkinson now dares to write a companion novel that focuses on Life’s heroine Ursula Todd’s brother Teddy. Never mind that careful readers of the first book came away with the impression that Teddy most often turned up dead, in this one he’s an old man trying to come to grips with his post-War life and with a modern world and family. Switching back and forth in time (Atkinson can’t seem to help it…) between memories of his childhood and his present, Teddy emerges as a befuddled and somewhat stodgy old-man version of himself, a startlingly oblivious husband to stalwart Nancy and a wittily rueful father to a grown up daughter (“Viola was the solitary arrow they had shot blindly into the future, not knowing where she would land,” Teddy thinks. “They should have aimed better.”) Teddy never quite got over the War and he suspects that the “fact” of his being alive is as arbitrary as Ursula’s demise(s). (“He had been reconciled to death during the war and then suddenly the war was over and there was a next day and a next day. Part of him never adjusted to having a future.”) Scenes from his past bring back Ursula and other characters from the earlier book so that readers who’ve come this far with Atkinson will feel a tiny thrill of recognition; but new readers needn’t fear they’re missing the joke. There’s way less gimmick here than in the earlier book, and sometimes I almost longed for more; it was so provocative. But whether read alone or as a follow up, A God in Ruins is a novel to savor, another beautiful, tender and sly Atkinsonian glimpse into the world of a so-called ordinary mid-century British family.”

“This follow up [to Life After Life] tracks Ursula’s brother, Teddy, a favorite son who flies an RAF bomber during the Second World War and remains kind, thoughtful, and patient through a life of quiet sadness…Teddy, unlike his sister, lives only one life, but Atkinson’s deft handling of time, as she jumps from boyhood to old age and back, is impressive,” says The New Yorker.

Says The New York Times Book Review: “…you read a novel like Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins, a sprawling, unapologetically ambitious saga that tells the story of postwar Britain through the microcosm of a single family, and you remember what a big, old-school novel can do. Atkinson’s book covers almost a century, tracks four generations, and is almost inexhaustibly rich in scenes and characters and incidents. It deploys the whole realist bag of tricks, and none of it feels fake or embarrassing. In fact, it’s a masterly and frequently exhilarating performance by a novelist who seems utterly undaunted by the imposing challenges she’s set for herself…Atkinson’s a sly and witty observer, with a gift for finding the perfect detail…”

In The New York Times, Janet Maslin writes: “. . . In this one, the main attraction is Teddy, and the way his glorious, hard-won decency withstands so many tests of time. Everything about his boyhood innocence is reshaped by his wartime ordeals, which are rendered with terrifying authenticity thanks to the author’s research into real bombers’ recollections…Ms. Atkinson has one huge trick up her sleeve, but she saves it for the book’s final moments to make it that much more devastating. She gets you to that final moment on faith and through writerly seduction. Just know that every salient detail in A God in Ruins, from the silver hare adorning Teddy’s pram to the queen’s Diamond Jubilee, is here for a fateful reason.”

Publishers Weekly’s starred review says: “The life expectancy of RAF pilots in World War II was notoriously short, with fewer than half surviving the war. But Teddy Todd—the beloved younger brother of Ursula Todd, whose life in all its variations was the subject of Atkinson’s Life After Life—beats the odds. Inner peace means resuming a life he never expected to have in a now-diminished England. He has nightmares; a wife he loves, although not necessarily enough or in the right way; and, eventually, a daughter who blames him for her mother’s early death and never misses a chance to mention the blood on his hands. As much postwar story as war story, the book is also a depiction of the way past and present mix. Atkinson fans know that she can bend time to her will, and here she effortlessly shifts between Teddy’s flying days and his middle and old age, between his grandchildren and their awful mother, and back again. And, as in Life After Life, Atkinson isn’t just telling a story: she’s deconstructing, taking apart the notion of how we believe stories are told. Using narrative tricks that range from the subtlest sleight of hand to direct address, she makes us feel the power of storytelling not as an intellectual conceit, but as a punch in the gut.”

In its starred review, Kirkus says: “Fresh from the excellent Life After Life (2013), Atkinson takes another sidelong look at the natures of time and reality in this imaginative novel, her ninth. Transpose Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” to the skies over Europe in World War II, and you’ll have some idea of the territory in which Atkinson is working. Ursula Todd, the protagonist of Life After Life, returns, appearing from time to time at just the right moments, in the manner of a chorus. The lead in this story, though, is her brother Teddy, who, having survived both childhood and the air war, is now disillusioned—”The whole edifice of civilization turned out to be constructed from an unstable mix of quicksand and imagination”—and suffering from more than a little guilt that he lives while so many others do not. If Bierce might be a silent presence in the proceedings, so too might be The Best Years of Our Lives, which treats just that issue—save that we know how things turned out for the players in William Wyler’s 1946 film, whereas Atkinson constantly keeps us guessing, the story looping over itself in time (“This was when people still believed in the dependable nature of time—a past, a present, a future—the tenses that Western civilization was constructed on”) and presenting numerous possibilities for how Teddy’s life might unfold depending on the choices he makes, to say nothing of things well beyond his control. Atkinson’s narrative is without some of the showy pyrotechnics of its predecessor. Instead, it quietly, sometimes dolefully looks in on the players as, shell-shocked by a war that has dislocated whole generations and nations, they go about trying to refashion their lives and, of course, regretting things done, not done, and undone as they do. But do we really have just one life, as Ursula insists? It’s a point worth pondering. A grown-up, elegant fairy tale, at least of a kind, with a humane vision of people in all their complicated splendor.”

The Telegraph says: “. . . the bad news about reviewing A God in Ruins is that it ends with one of the most devastating twists in recent fiction – one I definitely can’t reveal but which is, as Atkinson’s afterword acknowledges, “the whole raison d’être of the novel”. In the circumstances, about all I can say (apart from urging you not to try to guess it) is that it adds a further level of overwhelming poignancy to an already extraordinarily affecting book.”

When is it available?

This novel is at the Downtown Hartford Public Library and its Dwight branch.

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