Monthly Archives: May 2012

Farther Away: Essays

By Jonathan Franzen

(FSG, $26, 336 pages)

Who is this author?

Jonathan Franzen, who has homes in New York and California, is one of today’s most admired American writers. He has written novels – “The Corrections” and “Freedom” –  that simultaneously hit two very different bullseyes: fine literary fiction and blockbuster best-seller. Known for his prickliness – he famously declined to be chosen by Oprah’s Book Club, an honor that most authors would kill for -  he is nonetheless a superb writer.

Several years ago, Franzen spoke at the West Hartford Library and his unease before the largely adoring audience was palpable. He and his listeners were equally relieved when he moved from speaking extemporaneously to reading from his work. It’s no surprise that he titled a book about his personal history “The Discomfort Zone.” Not all authors are comfortable interacting with readers, nor should they be. Franzen is far more at home on the page, and that is where his talent can best be appreciated.

What is this book about?

“Farther Away” is a collection of recent essays, reviews and speeches, and in it, Franzen explores literary themes and contemporary life. He is an avid bird-watcher, is fascinated and also frightened by the power of technology, such as cellphones, is impressed by the emerging and often troubling ascendance of China among the world’s great nations and still mourns the death of his fellow author and good friend David Foster Wallace, and those subjects are among those treated in the book. Also included are reviews of work by such authors as Paula Fox, Christina Snead, Donald Antrim, Alice Munro and Dostoevsky.

Why you’ll like it:

This book is worth reading just for the essay on David Foster Wallace, Franzen’s peer among contemporary American writers and very close friend. Wallace struggled for years with deep clinical depression and eventually took his own life. Franzen tells that story and the story of his own reactions to Wallace’s illness and suicide in brilliant, disturbing and very moving ways. This essay is not mere obituary or appreciation of a major talent. It is about love, hurt, sorrow and anger, a bitterly powerful brew. It demands to be read.

Many of the other pieces are compelling, too. Here, from a commencement address he gave a Kenyon College last year, are some of his thoughts on cellphones, which lead to a brilliant examination of what he calls “the commodification of love:”

“…A couple of weeks ago, I replaced my three-year-old BlackBerry Pearl with a much more powerful BlackBerry Bold, with a five-megapixel camera and 3G capability. Needless to say, I was impressed with how far the technology had advanced in three years. Even when I didn’t have anybody to call or text or e-mail, I wanted to keep fondling my new Bold and experiencing the marvelous clarity of its screen, the silky action of its tiny track pad, the shocking speed of its responses, the beguiling elegance of its graphics. I was, in short, infatuated with my new device. I’d been similarly infatuated with my old device, of course; but over the years the bloom had faded from our relationship. I’d developed trust issues with my Pearl, accountability issues, compatibility issues, and even, toward the end, some doubts about my Pearl’s very sanity, until I’d finally had to admit to myself that I’d outgrown the relationship. …”

Don’t you want to read more?

What others are saying:

“Further dispatches from one of contemporary literature’s most dependable talents . . . Anyone with an interest in the continued relevance of literature and in engaging with the world in a considered way will find much here to savor. An unfailingly elegant and thoughtful collection of essays from the formidable mind of Franzen, written with passion and haunted by loss,” says a starred Kirkus review.

“Whether he is writing about technologies’ assault on sincerity or analyzing Alice Munro’s short stories, what emerges are works of literary theory and cultural critique that are ambitious, brooding and charmingly funny . . . The essays in “Farther Away” are rigorous, artful devotions navigating morally complex topics. At the heart of this collection are the ways ‘engagement with something you love compels you to face up to who you really are.’ Collectively, they are a source of authenticity and refuge — a way out of loneliness,” says Kathryn Savage in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“Franzen . . . follows up his 2010 blockbuster novel, “Freedom,” with a collection of recent essays, speeches, and reviews, in which he lays out a view of literature in which storytelling and character development trump lyrical acrobatics, and unearths a few forgotten classics . . . in his native realm — books that revel in the frustrations, despairs, and near-blisses of human relationships — he is an undeniably perceptive reader . . . This intimate read is packed with provocative questions about technology, love, and the state of the contemporary novel,” says Publisher’s Weekly.

“[Franzen’s] new collection takes the reader on a closely guided tour of his private concerns . . . the miscorrelation between merit and fame, the breakdown of a marriage, birds, the waning relevance of the novel in popular culture . . . Franzen rewards the reader with extended meditations on common phenomena we might otherwise consider unremarkable . . . the observations [he] makes regarding subjects like cell phone etiquette, the ever-evolving face of modern love and technology are trenchant . . . With “Farther Away,” Mr. Franzen demonstrates his ability to dissect the kinds of quotidian concerns that so often evade scrutiny . . . It may be eight years before he releases his next shimmering novel; in the meantime Mr. Franzen seems intent on keeping the conversation going. “Farther Away” at least achieves that,” says Alex Fankuchen in The New York Observer.

When is it available?

“Farther Away” is as near as 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!

“This Will Be Difficult to Explain: And Other Stories”

By Joanna Skibsrud

(Norton, $23.95, 176 pages)

Who is this author?

She lives in Arizona now, but Joanna Skibsrud was born in Nova Scotia and is making a name for herself as one of Canada’s most promising young authors. She was already a published poet when her first novel, “The Sentimentalists,” won a major Canadian literary award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize of $50,000 in 2010. At 30, she was the youngest writer ever to win that honor, and the book is being published in paperback this year in the United States. That book also is one of three by Canadian authors to make the short list for the prestigious Commonwealth Book Prize. Her latest book, “This Will Be Difficult to Explain: And Other Stories,” is just out in the U.S.

What is this book about?

Stories, some linked and some that stand alone, make up Skibsrud’s debut collection. Set in such locales as the American Midwest, Canada and France, they offer shifting points of view and characters whose misunderstandings lead to profound consequences. In one, a chambermaid agrees to be the model for a painting, but the artist is not at all who she thinks he is. In another, a divorced father currying favor with his 13-year-old, lets her drive – a bad decision. A wartime attack on a family’s home is told and retold in differing versions, reflecting a family in crisis. Several stories focus on an American woman who moves to France and begins a life there.

Here is what Skibsrud told Open Book Toronto online:

“The nine stories in the collection are various, both in terms of content and location — the settings range from a farm in South Dakota to museums in Paris, from small-town Nova Scotia to Hiroshima, Japan. There is a story of a twelve-year-old boy on a hunting trip with his father; of two siblings forced to deal with the troubling — and possibly false — recollections of their Croatian-born father; of a young journalist faced with his first major assignment — and its surprising results. Although some of the stories are explicitly linked by shared characters and settings (four of the stories concern a network of middle-aged women friends, all American ex-patriots living in Paris), most are not. All nine stories share an impulse to question — and ultimately push past — the ordinary limits of perspective, communication and understanding. The characters are forced to confront what is, for them (for various reasons and to varying degrees), most “difficult to explain.” 

Why you’ll like it:

This is a book that will appeal to the discerning reader who appreciates clean and unadorned prose and stories that at first appear simple but gradually disclose intriguing depth. Through the artful use of misunderstandings, Skibsrud, who writes prose with a poet’s skill, infuses her stories with the kind of misapprehensions that reveal character.

Here is what she told Open Book Toronto about writing in the short story form:

“The mistake that so often gets made, though, is to think of short fiction as a very short novel or (this more rarely) very a long poem. A good short story is neither of these things, but both at once. It is entirely its own genre, has a different set of concerns and requires a different set of skills to write. The short-story writer has to maximize imagistic and narrative power within a deliberately limited time/space constraint. A good story plays with those limits — it knows what to include and what to leave out. It has the ability to say “everything” with just a single scene, sometimes just a single well-placed word.”

What others are saying:

“[Johanna Skibsrud’s] prose is as taut as Alice Munro’s, her plots as spare as Mavis Gallant’s. Her characters have startlingly vivid inner lives…Skibsrud’s new book is just as assured [as her novel], and it has the same emotional punch,” says Toronto Life.

Says Library Journal: “As the title suggests, the stories in this debut collection resist easy summary. …The larger subject of these intricate stories is the tension between the parts and the whole, perception and creation, art and artfulness. Skibsrud, a poet and author of the Giller Prize-winning first novel “The Sentimentalists,” brings to these stories a poet’s eye and the subtle shadings of some of our best practitioners, including Marilynne Robinson and Alice Munro.

“Connection and enlightenment are sought and occasionally experienced in a first collection from Canadian poet and Giller Prize–winning novelist Skibsrud…Relationships remain unexpressed or rest in not-quite-connected small family knots in Skibsrud’s dreamy yet searching fictions…Skibsrud’s economical, poetically aware stories reveal a writer comfortable with the form, and one who requires her readers to think,” says Kirkus Reviews.

When is it available?

It can be found now on the New Books shelves 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!

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

By Anna Quindlen

(Random House, $26, 208 pages)

Who is this author?

I’m guessing you already know who Anna Quindlen is, but if not, here are the high points of her career: Having begun her work in journalism as a copy girl when she was 18, Quindlen joined The New York Times in 1977 as a general assignment reporter and became deputy metropolitan editor in 1983. She wrote the “About New York” column from 1981 to 1983 and created the column, “Life in the 30’s” in 1985. In 1990 Quindlen was the third woman to be given a regular column on its Op-Ed page, called “Public and Private.” A best-selling collection of those columns, “Thinking Out Loud,” was published in 1993, and in 1992 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in newspapers.

She’s also had great success as a novelist, writing six. Four were bestsellers: “Object Lessons” (1991), “One True Thing” (1994), “Black and Blue” (1998) and “Blessings” (2002), several of which were adapted for TV or feature films.

What is this book about?

All of Quindlen’s novels are about women and their relationships. This book is, too, but’s it’s not fiction. It is a memoir in which she offers her thoughts on the seasons of a woman’s life, told from the perspective of a wise and thoughtful writer who has had a privileged career but seems as though she’d fit right in at your next  book club meeting or  night out with the girls.

Here she is on marriage:  “A safety net of small white lies can be the bedrock of a successful marriage. You wouldn’t believe how cheaply I can do a kitchen renovation.”

And on raising kids: “Being a parent is not transactional. We do not get what we give. It is the ultimate pay-it-forward endeavor: We are good parents not so they will be loving enough to stay with us but so they will be strong enough to leave us.”

Why you’ll like it:

While not as flat-out funny as Nora Ephron lamenting the state of her aging neck, Quindlen, who is 60 now, can be amusing as well as down-to-earth about life, drawing on her own experiences to present insights that will ring true to her readers. Those in the Baby Boom demographic, as well as many who are older or younger than that vast group, will find much to relate to in Quindlen’s views. Reading her at her best is like having a warm conversation with a long-time friend.

What others are saying:

Says Kirkus Reviews: A humorous, sage memoir from the Pulitzer winner and acclaimed novelist. Like having an older, wiser sister or favorite aunt over for a cup of tea, Quindlen’s …latest book is full of the counsel and ruminations many of us wish we could learn young. The death of her mother from cancer when she was 19 had a profound effect on the author, instilling in her the certainty that “life was short, and therefore it made [her] both driven and joyful” and happy to have “the privilege of aging.” In her sincere and amusing style, the author reflects on feminism, raising her children, marriage and menopause. She muses on the perception of youth and her own changing body image–one of the “greatest gifts [for women] of growing older is trusting your own sense of yourself. …A graceful look at growing older from a wise and accomplished writer–sure to appeal to her many fans, women over 50 and readers of Nora Ephron and similar authors.”

“[Quindlen is] America’s resident sane person,” says The New York Times.

“A reporter by training, a storyteller at heart, [Quindlen’s] writing is personal, humorous, and thought-provoking,” says The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

When is it available?

You can have your “Cake” and read it too 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!

Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity

By Joel Stein

(Grand Central, $26.99, 304 pages)

Who is this author?

Joel Stein occupies the almost-back page of Time magazine each week, where he writes a very funny, very snarky, very self-absorbed column that manages to put Joel Stein in the midst of contemporary trends, political and cultural controversies, marriage and parenthood issues and many other topics about which Joel Stein has plenty to say, a lot of it about Joel Stein. Some may find this kind of hyper-personal journalism annoying, but I find him hilarious, and underneath his self-involvement, you can easily find  a very smart and perceptive journalist who is going to provoke you into doing some actual thinking while you are being entertained.

I had lots more to say about him…and he got a few words in edgewise…. in an interview piece that ran in the May 20 Sunday Arts Section in the Hartford Courant, available online at www.courant.com .

Stein is visiting Hartford this week to give one of the Mark Twain House & Museum’s fine “A Pen Warmed Up in Hell” lectures, on Thursday, May 24, at 7:30 p.m. at 351 Farmington Ave., Hartford.  He’ll talk about Twain and also about his own new book, just out this month. Tickets are $30: 860-280-3130.

What is this book about?

“Man Made” got its genesis when Stein learned that the baby he and his wife, Cassandra Barry, were expecting would be a boy. Panicked, he realized that he had neither the personality nor the life experience to train a little boy in the ways of manhood….after all, he spent most of his own boyhood playing with an Easy-Bake oven and collecting a menagerie of glass animals…and so he decided to put himself through a series of manly experiences to remedy the situation. He hung out with Boy Scouts and professional athletes, rode to calls with firefighters and tried his hand at driving a Lamborghini and day-trading $100,000 worth of stocks (not his own money, of course). He did some basic training with Marines and Army recruits, helped his father-in-law re-roof a house and got into the ring with Ultimate Fighting Champ Randy Couture…and lived to tell us all about it.

Why you’ll like it:

As abrasive as his column can be, in this book, Stein drops that persona and reveals something much closer to the truth: He’s a thoughtful guy who quickly learns that the manliest men he encounters, as big, bold and brassy as they may seem, are themselves really nice, thoughtful guys who lead by being self-confident, understanding and very, very good at what they do. Lucky little Lazslo – yes, they named their son Lazslo, in a fit of yuppified individuality – will eventually read this book and realize just how much his dad loves him.

What others are saying:

Says Publishers Weekly:

 “…Stein (Time humor columnist) felt he needed to upgrade his manliness in order to become a role model for his son: “If I can just make it through some man stuff—go camping, play a sport, hunt an animal, fix stuff around the house—I’ll gain some credibility.” With that goal, he embarked on his quest to transform himself into a manly man, even though his wife, Cassandra, regarded it as “an incredibly stupid idea… Stein proves himself to be a champion humorist by probing the serious side of his subject while peppering the paragraphs with numerous fresh and funny notions.”

“…The author wanted to be the type of dad who plays catch with his boy, teaches him how to build campfires and tie square knots. Unfortunately for him, Stein didn’t actually know how to do any of these things; hair product and home-baked goods were more in his wheelhouse. Unabashedly urbane, the author forged ahead with what proves to be a consistently hilarious and surprisingly profound crash course in manliness. … Almost every delightfully descriptive paragraph seems to be punctuated with a wry turnaround or self-deprecating knock aimed squarely at the author’s supposedly unmanly nature. Venturing so far out of his comfort zone definitely demonstrates a father’s love for his son, but it also does much to reconfirm the value of masculine identity. Although Stein acknowledges the absurdity of subjecting himself to choke holds designed to render opponents unconscious, he can’t help but embrace undeniable manly virtues like physical strength, camaraderie and courage–and seek to pass them on to his son. Charming, funny and life affirming,” says Kirkus Reviews

“…It’s a very funny book, but it’s not really a comedy; it’s more like a cockeyed autobiography, an embarrassingly honest story of one man’s last-ditch effort to Become a Man. Most readers—and their female counterparts—will relate to the book in some way,” says Booklist.

“This entertaining and irreverent memoir will make you laugh out loud, teach you a surprising amount about various bastions of American masculinity, and leave you feeling glad that you’re not married to Joel Stein,”  says author Curtis Sittenfeld. 

When is it available?

Men (and women) can find this one in the New Books area of 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 Song of Achilles

By Madeline Miller

(HarperCollins, $25.99, 384 pages)

Who is this author?

Making her debut as a novelist with a fine retelling of a classic story is Madeline Miller, who earned degrees in Latin and Ancient Greek from Brown University and studied adapting classical tales for the contemporary stage at the Yale School of Drama. She teaches Latin and Greek and lives in Cambridge, Mass.

What is this book about?

The story of the handsome demigod Achilles, a warrior hero of the Trojan War whose divine heritage could not prevent his doom, has been with us in various forms since Homer’s “Iliad.” Made nearly immortal by his mother, the nymph Thetis – save for his heel, which gave rise to the phrase “Achilles’ heel” as a metaphor for vulnerability – Achilles is a fighter but also a lover. That aspect, not always frankly dealt with in other re-tellings, is beautifully portrayed in Miller’s novelized version of the ancient legend.

Many versions of the story created some 3,000 years ago by the poet, Homer, have been created. This one presents it from the viewpoint of Achilles’ all-too-human best friend, fellow fighter and lover, Patroclus. Along with the battles between gods and mortals and Greeks vs. Trojans, it is the intense friendship of Achilles and Patroclus, and the consequences for Greece and Troy following the death of one partner that animates this book.

Why you’ll like it:

Reviewers are ecstatic about the poetic prose and moving romanticism of Miller’s book. Though the story is familiar, her refreshing version makes it feel new again, which is no mean feat. Time magazine calls it “Homer Erotic,” a pun that works well.

Miller’s retelling also brings to life many of the women in the story, such as Thetis, Briseis and Iphegenia, usually treated as minor characters.

In an interview by novelist Gregory Maguire, who wrote “Wicked,” Miller explains why she made this as much a love story as a war story:

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and in my case it was just dangerous enough to get me started. If I had stopped to ponder, I think I might have been too intimidated. But it helped that Patroclus is such an underdog—giving him voice felt like standing up for him. I had been intensely frustrated by a number of articles that kept side-stepping the love between him and Achilles, which to me felt so obviously at the story’s heart. So I wanted to set the record straight, as I saw it.”

What others are saying:

“Madeline Miller’s brilliant first novel…is a story of great, passionate love between Achilles and Patroclus….[R]ewriting the Western world’s first and greatest war novel is an awesome task to undertake. That she did it with such grace, style and suspense is astonishing,” says the Dallas Morning News.

Publishers Weekly says: “Following in Mary Renault’s footsteps and adding some surefooted steps of her own, Miller debuts with a novel that combines the poetic drama of “The Iliad” with a 21st-century understanding of war, sex, sexual politics, and Trojan War heroism. … [Miller]probes relationships Homer only hinted at. With language both evocative of her predecessors and fresh, and through familiar scenes that explore new territory, this first-time novelist masterfully brings to life an imaginative yet informed vision of ancient Greece featuring divinely human gods and larger-than-life mortals.”

 “Miller’s degrees in Latin and Greek as well as her passion for the theater and the history of the ancient world have given her the tools to create a masterly vision of the drama, valor, and tragedy of the Trojan War. Readers who loved Mary Renault’s epic novels will be thrilled with Miller’s portrayal of ancient Greece,” says Library Journal.

 “Wildly romantic [and] surprisingly suspenseful….[B]ringing those dark figures back to life, making them men again, and while she’s at it, us[ing] her passionate companion piece to “The Iliad” as a subtle swipe at today’s ongoing debate over gay marriage. Talk about updating the classics,” says Time.

When is it available?

The Downtown Hartford Public Library has it on its New Books shelf.

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!

Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter

By Frank Deford

(Atlantic Monthly Press, $25, 288)

Who is this author?

Raised in Baltimore and educated at Princeton, Benjamin “Frank” Deford III went straight to Sports Illustrated from college in 1962. He did stints at Vanity Fair and Newsweek, but is best known as a sports journalist in print and on the air.

Deford, who lives in Connecticut, is a paragon among sports scribes. His credits include being named National Sportswriter of the Year not once or twice but six times, being a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, a commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition, a correspondent for HBO’s RealSports with Bryant Gumbel and publishing many sports books, as well as novels and a touching memoir about his daughter, Alex. He is in the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters and has won an Emmy and a Peabody award for his on-air journalism.

A heads-up to fans: Deford will speak and sign books tonight, May 15, at 7 at R.J. Julia Booksellers, 768 Boston Post Road, Madison. Information: 203-245-3959.

What is this book about?

It’s about 50 years of sports as observed by one of the game’s – any game’s – best chroniclers. There’s hardly a major sports figure that Deford did not write about, and this book is packed with anecdotes and recollections about the whole roster. Deford also writes with reverence about sportswriters who preceded him, such as Ring Lardner and Grantland Rice. And he tells personal stories, too, about his wife, Carol, his son Christian, his adopted daughter Scarlet and the daughter the Defords lost at age 8 to cystic fibrosis, as told in his touching memoir, “Alex: The Life of a Child.”

Why you’ll like it:

Deford is a graceful writer and life has given him wonderful material. Here he gives an insider’s perspective on the good (and bad) sports superstars, as well as some oddball characters. His book also provides a smart assessment of how sports journalism has changed over the years. While it is a book aimed at sports fans, you do not have to be one to appreciate his writing and in fact, the book can be seen as a crash course in recent sports history. And don’t forget that Deford is a successful novelist, too. He knows how to tell a story.

What others are saying:

Publishers Weekly says:  “ Sportswriter (Sports Illustrated) and author … Deford tells the story of his rise from the comfortable and modest streets of Baltimore to the top of the sports journalism world. He discovered that he “had some facility for writing” when he was nine, even though he had not “suffered a miserable upbringing,” which helps “if you are to become a writer.” He was hired by Sports Illustrated in 1962, despite the personnel department classifying him as “not very bright…The mixture of homage to sportswriters who came before him, such as Grantland Rice; sometimes wistful vignettes of sports figures like Arthur Ashe; and his own personal reflections on the evolution of sports journalism combine to offer a cultural perspective that transcends a mere job.”

“Some life. Joining Sports Illustrated in 1962, Deford quickly discovered fellow Princetonian Bill Bradley and Canadian Bobby Orr; he eventually won both a Peabody and an Emmy, wrote ten novels, and continues to star on NPR. Here, he revisits his personal and professional lives while interweaving the story of American sportswriting. Interesting stuff from a proven commodity,” says Library Journal.

“His accomplishments are many, but in this wildly entertaining and informative memoir, he refers to himself only as the scrivener. His subjects are what matters, and he gives them their due, as in a poignant chapter on the late Wilt Chamberlain, which offers more insight into that enigmatic basketball icon than any half-dozen books. Fortunately, despite the self-deprecating tone, Deford does portray the highlights of his remarkable career, including his early stint covering the NBA at a time when players flew commercial, played doubleheaders to boost the gate, and hung out with sportswriters because they could expense the bar tab. He was also ahead of the pack in covering women’s sports, especially tennis, and he offers some insight into why women’s team sports have never moved beyond a niche level of popularity in the U.S. A lifetime sportswriter, he’s very aware of the history of his craft, and, along the way, he shares his thoughts on “then-and-now,” including pointed anecdotes on some sportswriting legends from the past,” says Booklist in a starred review.

 “Frank Deford is the best sportswriter I’ve ever read. His profiles at Sports illustrated were magic. I wanted to write like him, and the sad part for me was that I knew he was playing in a higher league. If there’s a Mount Rushmore of sportswriting, Deford is up there, purple ties and all,” says sports columnist Tony Kornheiser.

When is it available?

It’s waiting for you 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 Right-Hand Shore: A Novel

By Christopher Tilghman

(FSG, $27, 368 pages)

Who is this author?

Christopher Tilghman, a graduate of Yale University, writes about the American South from an insider’s point of view. He lives in Charlottesville, Va., and directs the Creative Writing Program at the University of Virginia. Tilghman has published two collections of stories: “In a Father’s Place” and “The Way People Run,” as well as two novels, “Mason’s Retreat” and “Roads of the Heart.” “The Right-Hand Shore” is a prequel to the story of “Mason’s Retreat,” which was published in 1996.

What is this book about?

Set on Chesapeake Bay, on the Eastern shore of Maryland, the novel unfolds over the course of one long day in 1922. Edward Mason has come to visit his cousin, Mary Bayly, the dying doyenne of Mason’s Retreat, the family estate that will soon be Edward’s. But first he must be schooled about the generations of the family that lived and grew peaches on the plantation, and those stories contain dark passages involving slavery, interracial relationships and a haunting history that is, to paraphrase Faulkner, “a past that’s not even past” for the current residents of the property, both black and white.

Why you’ll like it:

The book is earning kudos for Tilghman’s ability to create a layered plot, beautiful prose and complex characters. It’s a love story fraught with unrealized dangers as well as a compelling exploration of the evils of slavery and their echoes over many generations. There is plenty of history in this novel, told through characters that bring it alive.

What others are saying:

“Tilghman’s exquisite third novel returns to the eastern shore of Maryland to prefigure the events of his first, “Mason’s Retreat.” …, Edward sits with the longtime property manager, Oral French, and his wife, who recount the Retreat’s secrets, from miscegenation to slavery to murder. Listening to the pain caused by pride, selfishness, and the desire for love, Edward feels ‘mauled by the pull of the past, still so fresh for these people.’ The tale’s descent into tragedy is nevertheless beautiful; ‘creamy yellow’ sunlight and the perfume of peach blossoms pervade Mason’s Retreat alongside its ghosts and horrors. Tilghman maneuvers through the misery of three generations, following each elegant plot turn inevitably back to its source: this living, breathing land on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay,” says Publishers Weekly in a starred review.

Library Journal says:

“After more than 15 years, Tilghman returns to the story of the Mason family of Maryland’s Eastern Shore first introduced in “Mason’s Retreat,” to which this new work serves as prequel. …The stories of the Retreat and those who live and work there are relayed to Edward, and the reader, over the course of one long day. A haunting tale, richly detailed and thoughtfully planned and written; not a light read, but an enjoyable one.”

“Christopher Tilghman is a novelist’s novelist in that he can hold the years in his head and then deal them out in a layered story so achingly gracious and incisive that it becomes for a week in a reader’s house the very reason for the chair, the lamp. Offered in Tilghman’s astonishing prose, the story of this place—focusing on two families, two races, the history of a peach orchard, and a love that is both natural and forbidden—is a reader’s deep pleasure, “ says author Ron Carlson.

When is it available?

It is waiting for you on the New Books shelves of 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!

A Natural Woman: A Memoir

By Carole King

(Grand Central, $27.99, 496 pages)

Who is this author?

If you love rock ‘n’ roll, I don’t really have to answer that question. You already know that Carole King, a singer, songwriter and pianist, wrote, collaborated on or performed many of rock’s greatest all-time hits. The list is fabulous: “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (her first No. 1 hit, when she was18), “One Fine Day”, “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “The Loco-Motion”, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “(You Me Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman,” all of which she co-wrote with her first husband, Gerry Goffin, and many, many more. And she was no flash in the Tin Pan Alley: “Tapestry,” her 1971 solo album, won four Grammy awards and was on the Billboard charts for six years, a record for an album by a female artist, and was No. 1 for 15 consecutive weeks. She’s written more than 100 top-selling songs and recorded 25 solo albums.

The good news is that she can write a good memoir, too.

What is this book about?

It’s about her life and career, which started early. Now 70, King looks back at growing up in Brooklyn as Carol Joan Klein, scoring her first record contract at 15, marrying for the first time at 17 and going on to become a rock legend and to work with James Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Neil Sedaka and many other stars. (Sedaka was her boyfriend for a time, and his hit song “Oh! Carol” was inspired by her.)

That may all sound familiar, but there are other, less-well-known aspects to King’s life: after divorcing Gerry Goffin, she married three more times and suffered abuse at the hands of husband No. 3.

Having lived in New York and California, she later developed a deep interest in environmental issues that were inspired by living with her family in Idaho’s mountain country.

Why you’ll like it:

King came from an ordinary background and she writes in a straight-forward, regular-person way. It’s fascinating to read how she evolved from being a kid who liked to scribble down lyrics to the creator of so many heartfelt songs that spoke eloquently to an entire generation and beyond, and how she managed this in an industry long-dominated by men. The book is enhanced with childhood and family photos and shots taken during and behind the scenes at her performances.

What others are saying:

Says Kirkus Reviews: “a down-to-earth, optimistic and liberated worldview of a woman with some timely stories to tell….when her marriage deteriorated, she set off for Los Angeles to seek her own voice. That voice comes through strongly on every page of this memoir, an engaging assortment of recollections comprising a journey that started in her working-class Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, took her to Manhattan and Laurel Canyon and saw her escape what Joni Mitchell called “the star maker machinery” to settle in rural Idaho. She is also refreshingly candid about her four marriages. A warm, winning read that showcases baby-boomer culture at its best.”

Publishers Weekly says: “Weaving a tapestry of rich and royal hue, King’s affecting memoir eases readers through her life, from the girlhood in Brooklyn where she was already jotting down lyrics.”

 “…There’s a big audience for this memoir by the four-time Grammy Award winner, who says, sweetly, that “the journey probably started with my grandparents,” says Library Journal.

When is it available?

You can find it now on the new book shelves of 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!

One Hundred and One Nights

By Benjamin Buccholz

(Back Bay Books, $13.99, 368 pages)

Who is this author?

Benjamin Buccholz is an author who writes about the war in Iraq with authority: he was deployed there as a Civil Affairs Officer from 2005 to 2006. From that tour of duty came his first book, a nonfiction account about his Wisconsin National Guard unit, called “Private Soldiers.” He and his family lived in Oman from 2010 to 2011, and Buccholz now lives in Princeton, N.J., where he is working on a graduate degree in Middle East Security Studies.

In an essay for the Huffington Post, Buccholz had this to say about witnessing the death of a 6-year-old Iraqi girl:

“While I had studied Arabic for two semesters at West Point, visited Egypt as part of an exchange program and hosted several visiting officers from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Jordan during American officer training programs, nothing in my experience prepared me for the chaos of that scene: women wailing and pulling their hair, the father of the girl haggling over the price of his daughter’s life, the local police unwilling to intervene, and the town council members in their western suits providing a constant stream of contradictory commentary and advice.”

His debut novel, “One Hundred and One Nights,” has an Iraqi girl as a main character.

“The experience of this girl’s death haunted me, both because of the sudden shock of the situation and because the girl had been roughly the same age as my own sons,” Buccholz wrote.

“Her image, seared onto the film of my mind’s eye, stayed with me not only as a soldier but also, more importantly, as a father. I wrote about her, at first, as catharsis. And from that kindred father-feeling I birthed the idea of Abu Saheeh’s situation in “One Hundred and One Nights.” I appropriated my own feelings about the death of the six-year-old girl and I projected them onto Abu Saheeh as the young girl Layla latched onto him in the market place, infecting his loose grip on the world and threatening to unravel all the work he had done to overcome his sense of dislocation and his hidden, insurmountable grief.”

What is this book about?

Abu Saheeh, an Iraqi trained to be doctor in the United States, returns after 13 years to his home country, where the American presence during the war has changed everything. He has a past he wishes to forget, and when he chances to meet a wise-beyond-her-years 14-year-old named Layla, who is obsessed with American culture, she  enchants him, Scheherazade-like, with her whimsical stories. He begins to build a new life, but his connection to a powerful merchant and to a volatile young man he hires to assist him soon bring back memories that threaten to destroy Abu Saheeh and those closest to him.

Why you’ll like it:

The Iraqi War divided America – and Iraq — while it was going on, and still does. One way to get a realistic grasp on the war and the people it directly affected is to read about it, and “One Hundred and One Nights” written by an American who was on the scene, offers that opportunity. Although Buccholz’s book is fiction, or should we say because it is fiction, it explores the emotional costs of that war and the way it damaged soldiers and civilians alike.

What others are saying:

Says Masha Hamilton in The Washington Post: “Iraq war veteran Benjamin Buchholz has written a seductive, compelling first novel that depicts war as intimate and subtle. He captures the distant rumbling of a Humvee, the dappled shadow left by a passing soldier and the ordinary dramas of sibling rivalry and unrequited love. War is no more or less meaningful than those details, but it increases the stakes, Buchholz proposes. And in war, us-against-them is a vast oversimplification. The insurgent is likely to be motivated by concerns more complex and murky than mere jihad. ….In considering Safwan from the viewpoint of the Iraqis, Buchholz’s novel draws readers deeply into the suffering that has colored the country’s recent history.”

“An eye-level view of war-ravaged Iraq with a story that centers around lost relationships, longing and regret….[Buchholz] clearly has an eye for detail; the book boils with observations on the culture and daily life of the residents of Safwan and Baghdad. The author is an astute observer, turning sights, sounds and smells into eloquent snips of the lives of a people who have sustained great loss and devastation. Buchholz’s prose is vivid,” says Kirkus Reviews.

“[“One Hundred and One Nights”] is an intimate view of the war in Iraq as seen through the eyes of one deeply troubled man. Beautifully written, it is a complex yet simple tale of friendship and love, betrayal and sacrifice, and hatred and evil. An important glimpse into a world few of us know or understand,” says Booklist.

When is it available?

It’s in the new books section 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!

When I Was a Child I Read Books

By Marilynne Robinson

(FSG, $24, 224 pages)

Who is this author?

Greatly admired for her luminous prose and sharp intellect, Marilynne Robinson has earned many prestigious awards. Her debut novel, “Housekeeping” (1980), won the PEN/Hemingway Award for best first novel and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 2004, her second novel, “Gilead” won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Ambassador Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.  She has also published several nonfiction essay collections, has written for such prestigious literary journals as Harper’s, Paris Review and The New York Times Book Review and teaches at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

What is this book about?

Her new book is a collection of 10 essays in which she defends that which you may feel needs no defense: the God of the Old Testament. She also laments the coarsening of contemporary culture and the misuses of religion in regards to politics and public discourse. In addition to her pieces about religion, education, politics and the pitting of faith vs. science, she muses about the craft of writing and her own life.

Why you’ll like it:

Robinson is a consummate stylist who manages to take on dense and difficult subjects in a conversational, often humorous tone that makes following her arguments smooth and easy. That is no easy feat. Her ideas can be controversial, but she backs up her opinions with deep research and her own considerable intelligence.

She has said that writing can be like prayer because “it’s exploratory and you engage in it in the hope of having another perspective or seeing beyond what is initially obvious or apparent to you.”

What others are saying:

“Brilliant . . . As the credo of a liberal Christian, Robinson’s new book of essays stands on its own. But it is also an illuminating commentary on her novels . . . This collection is a rewarding reminder that the author’s faith infuses every word she writes . . . Like every good preacher, Marilynne Robinson judges others while including herself—in theory at least—in the judgment,’ says Andrew Delbanco in a New York Times Book Review piece.

“There is more food for thought in one of Robinson’s well-turned paragraphs than in entire books. Esteemed for her award-winning novels Gilead (2004) and Home (2008), Robinson is a consummate and clarion essayist. In her third and most resounding collection, she addresses our toxic culture of diminishment, arguing that as our view of society shrinks, public discourse coarsens, corruption spreads, education is undermined, science denigrated, spirituality and loving kindness are siphoned from religion, and democracy itself is imperiled . . . Intellectually sophisticated, beautifully reasoned with gravitas and grace, Robinson’s call to reclaim humaneness beams like the sun breaking through smothering clouds . . .” says Booklist in a starred review.

Robinson weighs in with a series of tightly developed essays, some personal but mostly more general, on the Big Themes: social fragmentation in modern America, human frailty, faith. Her project is a hard-edged liberalism, sustained by a Calvinist ethic of generosity. … In these times of the ever-ascending religious right, in the aftermath of what she sees as the ideologically secularist-driven cold war, Robinson bravely explores the corrosive potion of “Christian anti-Judaism” and what it really ought to mean to be “a Christian nation,” says Publishers Weekly.

“The Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist returns with a collection of essays that are variously literary, political and religious . . . Robinson is a splendid writer, no question—erudite, often wise and slyly humorous (there is a clever allusion to the birther nonsense in a passage about Noah Webster). Articulate and learned descriptions and defenses of the author’s Christian faith,” says Kirkus Reviews.

“….Robinson, though some of her views are well known, is never predictable, for her discipline is to look at every question as though she were considering it for the first time. It is impossible not to be fortified and enlarged by a few hundred pages in her company,” says Stefan Beck in a Barnes & Noble review.

When is it available?

It is 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!