Monthly Archives: September 2012

When It Happens To You: A Novel in Stories

By Molly Ringwald

Itbooks/HarperCollins, $24.99, 256 pages

Who is this author?

There are actors. And there are authors. And there are some who are both. James
Franco, Steve Martin and William Shatner all have written novels or story collections, some that qualify as fun reads and others as genuine literary fiction. To that last category, we can now add actress Molly Ringwald, who enchanted Baby Boomer audiences in such John Hughes-directed blockbusters as “The Breakfast Club, “Sixteen Candles” and “Pretty In Pink” and was a card-carrying member of the group of actors dubbed the Brat Pack. My, but that seems like such a long time ago.

She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children, and she has contributed articles to such publications as The New York Times, Parade, Esquire, and the Hartford Courant. Yes, she once wrote a book review for The Courant, before my time there as Books Editor.

What is this book about?

It’s a collection of linked stories about a family in Los Angeles and their friends and neighbors. They’re ordinary people – but that does not mean they are not complex characters. They suffer with their individual problems – growing older, being infertile, suffering a breakdown, mourning a lost spouse, being estranged from a child, having a kid who wants to cross-dress, being betrayed by a husband – all experiences to which readers can relate. The stories are anchored by the unhappily married Philip and Greta and people with whom they are connected.

Why you’ll like it:

Everybody likes a good soap opera, and reading this collection of stories is like watching episodes of a fascinating daytime drama, in which certain characters appear and re-appear, interacting with one another in constantly shifting constellations. There is plenty of emotion and plenty of compassion by the author for her creations and enough criss-crossing events to keep the reader caught up in their stories. While some reviewers say Ringwald, who has also written the essay collection, “Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family, and Finding the Perfect Lipstick,” is best characterized as an apprentice author, others found the book charming and engrossing. 

What others are saying: 

Publishers Weekly says: “This “novel in stories” is set in the L.A. you see on television, the one where everyone is somehow connected to everyone else. ….In many ways Ringwald knows of what she speaks, having spent many years in the ’80s as a fixture of the Brat Pack, and she has the mechanics of writing down, but you can hear the gears grinding; the stories are often exposition heavy, the characters seem more defined by their situations than their idiosyncratic histories, and things tend to resolve a little too tidily, even when the point is the continuing messiness of relationships. As a result, this debut work of fiction, which reads well, never gets traction in your mind. It’s probably best seen as an example of one of celebrity’s mixed blessings: your name gets you in the door but your apprenticeship takes place in public.

“Everyone hopes that love will last forever, that only other people’s loves will fail. But what if the unthinkable happens to you? Ringwald’s debut novel employs a series of interlaced stories with a constellation of characters at different stages of life facing varied obstacles (many self-created) in the path of love. Ringwald deftly weaves together the threads of these stories, creating a tapestry that captures the emotional landscape of both young and well-worn relationships. Amid the dust of that landscape lies … a letter that exposes the myriad emotions swirling in the aftermath of a betrayed love. This is a beautiful exploration of how the heart’s irrational responses to love and betrayal can stand in the way of forgiveness,” says Kirkus Reviews.

“In her first novel…this queen of 1980s teenage angst…puts betrayal center stage. And she does it in a way that’s as visceral as a girl’s disgust when everyone forgets her 16th birthday…A large part of what makes this novel-in-stories so enjoyable is its structure, the way the connections between characters unfold from piece to piece. Each story could stand on its own, but they fit together to reveal links among these family members, neighbors and friends in Los Angeles…Ringwald weaves an emotional narrative that avoids getting bogged down in melodrama. With an economy of language, she keeps the story moving, taking readers inside characters’ heads without leaving them there too long. Ringwald’s storytelling succeeds as much on the page as her acting has done on screen,” says The Washington Post.

Booklist calls “When It Happens to You” a “graceful and deft debut.”

When is it available?

It happens to be 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 World Without You

By Joshua Henkin

(Pantheon, $25.95, 336 pages)

Who is this author?

Joshua Henkin, who directs the MFA program in Fiction Writing at Brooklyn College, has twice earned the coveted “notable book” designation: from the Los Angeles Times for “Swimming Across the Hudson,” and from The New York Times for “Matrimony.” His short stories have appeared in many publications, including “Best American Short Stories” and have been broadcast on the NPR program “Selected Shorts.”

What is this book about?

Set over the course of one long and drama-filled Fourth of July weekend in the Berkshires, this is the story of a family trying to come to grips – and avoid coming to blows – over the tragic death of the youngest of its four children. That was Leo, a journalist not unlike the murdered Daniel Pearl, killed the year before while on assignment in Iraq. Now his parents and his three very different sisters have gathered at the summer home that is full of good memories to deal with the aftermath of this tragedy, to honor Leo and come to terms with their own problems. The parents, wracked by grief, are on the verge of divorce. One sister is battling infertility, another is full of anger and the third, who has resettled in Israel, feels estranged from her family and American life. Add to the mix a grandmother, along with Leo’s widow, who is a woman with a secret, and their toddler son. It’s a volatile combination that tests their will to survive as a family.

Why you’ll like it:

Henkin does a fine job of portraying emotions, using humor and sharp insights to tell his story through many points of view. He depicts the ways family members can get under one another’s skin, accidently or on purpose, in a fashion that anyone who has experienced such warfare will understand….and that’s just about every reader. Trying to figure out how the allies and enemies in this tightly knit group will shift will keep you turning the pages.

What others are saying:

The Washington Post calls Henkin  “a pleasingly old-fashioned novelist who takes his time in exploring his characters’ emotions and their fraught connections to one another. …What interests [Henkin] is the texture of everyday existence and the constantly shifting human relationships embedded in it: the slip of the tongue over a child’s name that stakes a grandmother’s claim, the collective solving of a crossword puzzle that infuriates a slower-witted in-law, a brutally competitive tennis match that unexpectedly reconfigures the family dynamic. Those who have resorted to such passive-aggressive tactics with their own relatives will laugh and wince in recognition at Henkin’s perfectly calibrated measurements of intramural jockeying.”

 “A family melodrama that encompasses both tragedy and farce, as an upper-middle-class clan gathers to mourn a dead son and perhaps move on. When conventionalists claim, “They don’t write novels like that anymore,” this is the sort of novel they mean. Yet the very familiarity and durability of the setup suggests that the traditional novel remains very much alive and healthy as well, if the narrative momentum and depth of character here are proof of vitality. … Which relationships will endure, which will collapse, and which will change over the course of a long weekend? A novel that satisfies all expectations in some very familiar ways,” says  Kirkus Reviews.

“[I]t’s damn difficult to make the basic unhappy-family novel distinctly one’s own. Henkin does so with a one-two combination of strengths: psychological empathy for his realistic characters, and an expository modesty that draws attention away from the skilled writing itself . . . in order to focus, with great care, on the subtleties and complications of familial love. . . . Tenderness spills from these pages,” says Entertainment Weekly.

When is it available?

You can borrow it now 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!

One Last Thing Before I Go

By Jonathan Tropper

(Penguin/Dutton, $26.95, 336 pages)

Who is this author?

Jonathan Tropper grew up in New Rochelle in New York’s Westchester County, and the angst of suburban living has powered his best-selling novels, which include “Plan B,” “The Book of Joe,” “Everything Changes,” “How To Talk to a Widower” and “This Is Where I Leave You.” His books are known for their cinematic style, which may be because Tropper is also a screenwriter. Next year, on HBO, the show “Banshee,” of which he is co-creator and executive producer, will premiere.

Tropper earned a degree in creative writing at New York University, but then spent eight years running a Manhattan-based company that manufactured displays for jewelry companies while finding time to write. His books explore such topics single life, maturing into married life and living in the suburbs, from a male point of view.

What is this book about?

Drew Silver, a guy in his mid-40s who plays in wedding bands, had his15 seconds of fame years ago, when he was the drummer for a one-hit-wonder rock band that flared brightly but then fizzled. Now he has an ex-wife who is about to marry a decent guy, a Princeton-bound, newly pregnant daughter and, to his shock, a life-threatening heart problem that needs emergency surgery. But Drew resists, thinking his time would be better spent living in the moment and trying to repair his busted relationship with his daughter, as the family looks on, hoping he will decide to save himself. Tropper’s latest asks: can a damaged family find what it takes to fix itself?

Why you’ll like it:

Tropper is especially good at telling stories of family life, more commonly the territory of female writers, from a male perspective. He gets what it is like to come of age in middle age and find yourself suddenly facing death when you have not yet really figured out how to live your life.

A profile of Tropper that ran online in Westchester Magazine describes his work this way:  “His tone is a mixture of Holden Caulfield, Jay McInerney, and Ray Romano, though many critics have compared him to authors Nick Hornby and Tom Perrotta. Because his books all are written in the first person, with an “every guy” tone, his stories feel personal, as if the storyteller could be your neighbor or your favorite barista at the local Starbucks. And when you’re reading his books, you can almost see them as Technicolor movie trailers, thanks to the clever banter, meticulous scene stealers, entertaining adventures, three-dimensional characters, and dramatic fade-ins and –outs.”

What others are saying:

Says Publishers Weekly: In Tropper’s latest comic novel, 44-year-old Drew Silver, the washed-up drummer for one-hit wonders the Bent Daisies, refuses lifesaving surgery to fix a torn aorta—he realizes, after all, “that the lives of everyone close to him seem to improve dramatically once they leave him behind.” Eight years ago, Silver’s band hit it big, he behaved badly, and his wife, Denise, filed for divorce. He has never forgiven himself for losing his family, and since the split, he has languished by the Jersey Turnpike in an efficiency hotel and drummed his life away at weddings and bat mitzvahs. To make his imminent demise even worse, it’s just weeks before Denise remarries (Silver’s doctor), and Silver’s Princeton-bound, 18-year-old daughter, Casey, reveals that she’s pregnant. Silver has decided to let nature run its course, but a mini-stroke leaves him unwittingly voicing his desire to “Be a better man,” sparking a joint effort to reunite their family.”

 “The richly talented Tropper has created an acerbic, middle-aged lost soul who will ultimately illuminate the reasons we stick around on this lopsided planet despite significant temptation to let it go. Readers will love Silver and want to throttle him in equal measure. Eminently quotable, hilariously funny, and emotionally draining, this arresting tour de force will entertain well after the book is done,” says Library Journal.

 “Drew Silver is dying in many ways: his marriage has been over for seven years, his ex-wife is getting remarried, his career as a rock drummer is long past, his 18-year-old daughter is pregnant, and he has a life-threatening heart condition. Tropper finds unexpected humor in all of these incongruous elements. Silver has never been much of a dad or a husband, so when he finds out about his defective heart, he determines he will not have a life-saving operation. After all, what does he have to live for? …To his credit, the awareness of his precarious health causes him to rethink his pathetic life, and he’s able to come up with a to-do list that includes “Be a better father. Be a better man. Fall in love. Die.” By the end of the novel he’s able to cross almost everything off. …In other words, what Silver ultimately achieves is to move beyond the inscription he imagines on his tombstone: his name, the years of his birth and death, and a phrase, the acronym for which is “WTF?” Tropper entertainingly examines the angst of middle-age masculinity as he looks at Silver, a man both growing up and growing old,” says Kirkus Reviews.

“Tropper’s characters are likably zany and fallible, and perhaps more important, funny. One Last Thing Before I Go is a poignant story about facing death and celebrating life, even when things seem well beyond repair,” says Newsweek/The Daily Beast.

“Tropper is a master of the mid-life male coming-of-age story, and his latest is full of the charm and wit his readers cherish,” says Booklist.

When is it available?

You can go get it at the Downtown Hartford Public Library or its Albany, Blue Hills, Camp Field or Mark Twain branches.

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!

Motherland

By Amy Sohn

(Simon & Schuster, $25, 352 pages)

Who is this author?

Author Amy Sohn knows all about Brooklyn, the borough that went from being hopelessly outer to totally in, and as a columnist for various New York City-based publications, including the New York Post and New York Magazine, she’s got the clips to prove it. She’s written four novels and has made herself an expert on the lifestyles of the hip and famous and those who wish they were both, or either, or at least on their way to being one or the other. Her grasp of  popular culture has garnered her gigs on  VH1, MTV, Fox News, CNN, Lifetime, MSNBC and PBS and she has written pilots for ABC, Fox, Lifetime and HBO.

What is this book about?

Sohn grew up in Brooklyn and still lives there, and her fourth novel, “Motherland,” which picks up where her 2009 novel “Prospect Park West” leaves off, involves moms and dads who spend time in its popular Park Slope neighborhood, as well as Manhattan and Wellfleet on Cape Cod. All of them are privileged, but full of anxieties and prone to making very bad life decisions. Rebecca’s husband has grown distant, rendering her vulnerable to an old boyfriend. Marco, a gay dad, must deal with their kids when his husband travels , so he seeks comfort in anonymous trysts. Danny, a rising screenwriter, ditches his wife kids to pitch a movie (and meet new women) in Los Angeles. Karen, once a “sanctimommy,” gets involved with a hot new guy after her husband cheats and flees.  No longer sought-after actress Melora hopes Broadway can re-start her Hollywood career. And oh what tangled webs they weave when they all practice to deceive.

Why you’ll like it:

Sohn is adept at a kind of deadpan sarcasm that skewers the pretensions of these confused characters who care far too much about what others think of them and doggedly pursue the trendiest fashions, foods, recreation and relationships. The book trains a sharp and satirical eye on contemporary marriage and parenthood, and is the kind of tale that, despite some rather unpalatable characters, keeps you reading to find out what finally happens to them.

What others are saying:

Says Library Journal: “Picking up where Prospect Park West leaves off, Sohn takes her readers back to the never-ending intrigue and drama in Park Slope, a section of Brooklyn where wealthy folks take parenting to an entirely new level…. There’s so much cheating and wrongdoing here, it’s like a superfun Brooklyn Desperate Housewives with erudite characters. And at the core, the threads of parenting weave through the story, connecting the characters via their children. This book is impossible to put down and well written—your heart will be in Brooklyn with this flawed but fascinating cast.”

“A satirical swipe at the Park Slope Crowd of parents reveals promiscuity, secrets, despair and, oh yes, child care. In her fourth novel, Sohn …brings a satirical, soapy yet downbeat focus to the Brooklyn suburb where an Upper West Side and East Village group has relocated “with resignation, for the children’s benefit.” … Sohn’s one-liners add wit and her media insider’s perspective contributes a further layer of dry–if not wholly relevant–commentary. Her cast of characters is neither especially attractive nor sympathetic, not even the crazed stroller-thief, an older resident understandably exasperated by the new neighborhood sidewalk traffic. While the plotlines interknit implausibly (in one case, jaw-droppingly so), relationships reconfigure; some failing, some igniting,” says Kirkus Reviews.

“While Sohn’s sharp, hilarious tale satirizes these affluent, artsy Brooklyn archetypes and their fickle yet predictable Hollywood counterparts, it also explores the waning of passion, the angst of being housebound with kids, and the despair of watching your spouse morph from best friend to apathetic, angry, or needy adversary . . . [Motherland] keeps you hooked—and cackling—until its surprisingly resonant final lines,” says author Cathi Hanauer in ELLE.

When is it available?

It has landed on the new books shelves at the Downtown Hartford Public Library and the Albany and Mark Twain branches.

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!

No Easy Choice: A Story of Disability, Parenthood, and Faith in an Age of Advanced Reproduction

by Ellen Painter Dollar

(Westminster John Knox, $15, 200 pages)

Who is this author?

Ellen Painter Dollar lives in West Hartford and has three children. She also has an inherited condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly known as “brittle bone disease,” which causes bones to break easily, a disabling and painful problem. She writes about faith, disability, reproductive ethics, family and being a mother, and how all of these are interwoven in her life. Painter Dollar also blogs about these issues and in addition to her book, has contributed to such publications as Christianity Today, the American Medical Association, the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation, the Hartford Courant,and the Episcopal Cafe. You can read more about her in her blog at Patheos.com and www.ellenpainterdollar.com.

What is this book about?

After her first child inherited brittle bone disease, Painter Dollar and her husband began considering using preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to ensure their next child would not have it as well, a decision that involved squaring their wish to spare a child from suffering with issues of medical ethics and their deep Christian faith. PGD can test for the condition in the embryo, but the author worried that embracing this technology might be like giving consent to bearing perfect “designer babies” and that destroying an afflicted embryo was contrary to their anti-abortion views. The book examines such technologies as in vitro fertilization and PGD, being careful to present the many thorny arguments for and against their use.

Why you’ll like it:

Painter Dollar skillfully interweaves her compelling personal story and spiritual beliefs with easy to comprehend explanations of reproductive technologies, thus illuminating this very complex and often troubling intersection of cutting-edge research and age-old ethical issues. The book is even-handed and never preachy, although her deep faith is always an integral part of her story. Few who have not suffered with inherited diseases or infertility know much about these conditions and the techniques that may resolve them. This book goes a long way to enlightening all readers about these situations and can serve as a guide now, and also as science continues to find more techniques that will impact reproduction and the fight against genetic diseases.

What others are saying:

Says Publishers Weekly: Part memoir, part theological treatise, this book offers a refreshingly candid and nuanced grappling with assisted reproduction that will be valuable to many Christians wishing to engage with the ethical questions raised by this new medical technology. Dollar, who suffers from a genetic disorder better known as “brittle bone disease,” wanted to spare her offspring the suffering she endured by testing her fertilized eggs for the mutation before they were implanted in her uterus. (There was a 50% chance her child would inherit the mutation.) Opposed to abortion, she and her husband reasoned that embryos in a petri dish are not the same as a fetus growing inside a womb. Nevertheless, she wondered if such technological advances might not hasten a world of designer babies selected to minimize the chances of pain, sickness, and disability. With an estimated four million babies conceived through in-vitro fertilization and rapid advances in genetic testing, such questions have never been more urgent, yet they are often left to couples to sort through on their own. This well-written, insightful account should serve as a resource to anyone who ponders the intersection of medicine, ethics, and parenthood.”

“No Easy Choice” is a painfully wise book about the pain of having children whose life will be filled with pain. It is also a book of hope because its author never tries to say more than can be said about why some children are so born. This is a must read, not only for those considering prenatal genetic diagnosis and intervention, but for all concerned with the ethics of PGD. It’s a terrific book,” says Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School, and author of “God, Medicine, and the Problem of Suffering.”

“This book is a welcome antidote to dry academic reflection on the ethics of PGD. The author walks us through her difficult decisions about using reproductive technologies in the face of having her children inherit a painful medical condition, cutting through the certitudes of those who do not have to face these choices themselves. Those pondering the use of reproductive technologies and those concerned with the ethics of these technologies can both benefit from reading this book,” says John H. Evans, Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego, and author of “Contested Reproduction: Genetic Technologies, Religion and Public Debate.”

When is it available?

The book is on the shelves 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!

This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike

By Augusten Burroughs

(St. Martin’s Press, $24.99, 240 pages)

Who is this author?

The former Christopher Robison, who grew up in the Pioneer Valley, changed his name at age 18 to Augusten Burroughs, as a way to sever ties to his difficult (to put it mildly) family: his father, a professor, was an alcoholic; his mother was a manic-depressive poet and his brother had undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome. Burroughs himself was a garden of neuroses, fertilized by being sent by his mom to live with a loopy psychiatrist and his oddball family. All of this was shockingly and deliciously revealed in his second book, the startling memoir “Running With Scissors.” That book led to a lawsuit by members of the family that took him in (in several senses of that phrase), which was settled after a great deal of bad publicity. Burroughs also wrote an earlier satirical novel, “Sellavision,” based on his experiences in the advertising world, five more memoirs, including “Dry” and “A Wolf at the Table” and several essay collections. He contributes to newspapers and magazines and National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.”

What is this book about?

Burroughs has had plenty of experience with life’s difficulties (see above) and managed to achieve sobriety after years of serious drinking. Without losing any of his sharp, sardonic humor, he here tries his hand at being inspirational. Need advice? This book is only too happy to offer some on topics ranging from the mundane to the sublime:  “How to feel like crap, how to feel sorry for yourself, how to get the job, how to end your life, how to finish your drink and how to regret as little as possible…” Surely some of these will pique your interest.

Why you’ll like it:

Burroughs is smart as well as a smart ass; both wise and weird; unabashedly snarky yet unafraid to be sweet and sympathetic – and most of all, he can be very, very funny. Think of this book as the acerbic antidote to slurping up too much Chicken Soup for the Soul. If you, like me, are turned off by saccharine self-help books, you may find refreshment here.

What others are saying:

Amazon’s Best Books of the Month, May 2012: “…After turning his profoundly messed-up early life and its alcoholic aftermath into six harrowing, uplifting memoirs–including “Running with Scissors” and “Dry”–Burroughs lost interest in writing about himself. He kept meeting people who were locked in the same struggles he’d overcome and decided they needed to know they had options for fixing their lives. In “This Is How,” Burroughs delivers prescriptions for handling life’s most pernicious problems. Don’t let the snake-oil-salesmannish title put you off: this is raw, hard-knock-life advice, veering from brutal to hilarious to deeply compassionate. Burroughs doesn’t really believe in “happiness” or “healing.” He’s honest about the limits of recovery, but even those in the depths of despair will be energized by his exhortations to claw their way back to OK, even if it means leaving the life they’ve known in the dust.”

Says Publishers Weekly: “In this hilarious and searingly straightforward memoir, Burroughs turns the self-help genre upside down with his advice on matters ranging broadly from “how to be fat” and “how to lose someone you love” to “how to hold onto your dream or maybe not” and “how to finish your drink.” On “how to find love,” for example, he counsels, “be the person you are, not the person you think you should be… if you want to have a chance at meeting somebody with whom you are genuinely compatible, never put your best foot forward… be exactly the person you would be if you were alone or with somebody it was safe to fart around.” …in “How to End Your Life,” Burroughs, recalling his own teenage experience, distinguishes between suicide and ending life. After his brush with suicide, he realizes that he really didn’t want to kill himself; what he really wanted was to end his life, which he accomplishes simply by changing his name and walking out the door and starting a new life. As always, Burroughs is smart and energetically forthright about living and loving.

 “It is hard to know what to do with anger, pain, and obsession, Burroughs acknowledges, but he offers a kind of remedy: learn to live with it, to transform it, to move forward. This is about how to create a life from the circumstances of the present moment. The book has a soft ending, but readers won’t mind because it’s been a great ride,” says Library Journal.

“…With a cinematic novel and a series of bestselling memoirs under his belt, the author now presents life advice that’s as unconventionally scattered as one would expect. His tongue-in-cheek guidance, predictably couched in personal anecdotes, opens with a chapter on rejecting the “superupbeat umbrella” of positive affirmations, and proceeds to deliver the straight, though clichéd, dope on bad love (“Abusive people never change”), the search for romantic connections (“get out of your own way”)…Most sections straddle the line between supportive empowerment and tough love and are written with the author’s characteristic dark humor, which consistently entertains and, as the pages turn, earnestly educates. …Despite pages of platitudes, Burroughs provides plenty of worthy material on the absurdity of the human condition and the unpredictability of contemporary life,” says Kirkus Reviews.

When is it available?

How to find this book? Look on the new book shelves at the Downtown Hartford Public Library and its Albany, Barbour, Blue Hills, Camp Field, Goodwin and Mark Twain branches.

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 Forever Marriage

By Ann Bauer

(Overlook Press, $25.95, 320 pages)

Who is this author?

Ann Bauer’s first novel was marvelously titled “A Wild Ride up the Cupboards.” She also co-wrote a culinary memoir called “Damn Good Food.’ Based in Minneapolis, she has contributed essays to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Elle and Redbook, and the online magazine, Salon. Visit annBauer.com, where you can learn more about her, such as this excerpt:

“I’m a writer. It’s all I do—all I’ve ever done—because it’s the only thing I’m good at. People assume I’m making a joke when I say that. I’m not. I don’t knit, decorate, garden, draw, run marathons or ski. I have no sense of direction. I can’t even hem my own pants; and I’m 5-foot-3, so they always need hemming. I write because it’s how I think.”

What is this book about?

Tolstoy famously told us that “every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” and Ann Bauer shows us why he was right in this nicely crafted novel about a long and unhappy marriage and its surprising aftermath. In it, passionate and discontented Carmen marries stolid and brilliant Jobe and finds herself spending years longing for freedom, which finally comes at great cost through his death from lymphoma. And then, to her great shock, she finds that she really misses him. And that she herself has breast cancer. This is a “be careful what you wish for” story, but also a penetrating look at the mystery of love and longing.

Why you’ll like it:

Carmen is not your typical women’s novel heroine: she’s an unfaithful wife, unhappy and unsatisfied with being a mother. But she is an honest and compelling character as well, and Bauer makes sure that she tells us frankly what she feels, what she has done wrong and what she still hopes to achieve. She’s prickly and contrary, but Carmen is a creation you will not soon forget.

What others are saying:

Publishers Weekly says: “With quiet power, Bauer explores the isolation, betrayal, duty, and, finally, compassion that constitute an unhappy marriage. When Carmen Garrett’s husband, Jobe, dies, she finally feels the reprieve she’s spent her 21-year marriage waiting for. She and Jobe had been profoundly ill-suited: Jobe, a solemn and awkward math prodigy, had been intimidated by the potency of Carmen’s desires, while Carmen had been bound to Jobe by gratitude and obligation rather than love. Carmen—an unfaithful wife and the loving but resentful mother of three children—is an unlikely sympathetic figure, yet she is unsparingly, at times laceratingly, candid about her own shortcomings, and is disoriented by the loss she feels for a man she has spent her adult life wishing away. …With lovely prose and fine pacing, Bauer …offers a sensitive portrait of a flawed woman coming to terms with a lifetime of regrets.”

“..When Jobe dies of cancer after 21 years of marriage, Carmen thinks she will finally feel free. But widowhood and single parenthood are more complicated than she’d expected. In many ways, Carmen misses Jobe. When her lover, reference librarian Danny, finds a lump in Carmen’s breast, her own battle with cancer begins. A subplot involving Jobe’s lifelong quest to solve a mathematical theorem adds variety to this highly emotional novel… Bauer..deftly draws all the characters. Love or hate Carmen, readers won’t soon forget the hot-blooded woman, and fans of Elizabeth Berg will want to meet her,” says Library Journal.

“Bauer’s second novel offers an introspective study of a woman as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Narcissistic Carmen Garrett is newly widowed. Married to her brilliant husband, Jobe, for more than 20 years, she has been waiting for him to die so that she can begin to live her life. …  But the diagnosis of her own life-threatening illness causes Carmen to closely examine the choices and the emotions that have shaped her marriage and her life. As she faces her own mortality, she must also face her past. At times dispassionate and self-absorbed and at other times emotional and selfless, Carmen follows a path of self-discovery that is often painful, poignant and undeniably real. Bauer crafts an insightful story that is uncomfortable and bleak, but well-written. It’s a journey well worth taking,” says Kirkus Reviews.

When is it available?

It’s on the shelves now at the Downtown Hartford Public Library and the Campfield and Ropkins branches.

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!

Under the Covers blog entry for Tuesday, Sept. 4,  2012

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend

By Matthew Dicks

(St. Martin’s Press, $24.99, 320 pages)

Who is this author?

If you live in West Hartford, you may already know Matthew Dicks. He’s a fifth-grade teacher at Wolcott Elementary School, was named the town’s Teacher of the Year in 2005 and made it to the finals for Connecticut Teacher of the Year. Or maybe you know him from his other job running Jampacked Dance Floor DJs, or his work as a life coach and occasional minister. But even if you don’t, you should get to know Dicks as a writer who has just published his third novel, “Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend.” The Newington resident’s earlier books are “Something Missing” and “Unexpectedly Milo.” He will give a free talk about this novel on Thursday, Sept. 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hartford Public Library.

What is this book about?

Its narrator is out of this world: he’s Budo, the imaginary pal of 8-year-old Max, a boy who is perched somewhere – never quite defined – on the autism spectrum. Max is a little old to have an imaginary friend, something most children abandon a lot earlier, but since Max has trouble relating to the world, having any and every kind of friend is of great help. And Budo proves to be even more important when one of Max’s teachers goes over the line in her efforts to care for him. It’s Budo who sets out to rescue Max, with the help of other children’s imaginary friends. West Hartford readers will be pleased to learn that one of the characters in the story, Mrs. Gosk, is a real-life teacher at Wolcott whom Dicks and students alike admire.

Why you’ll like it:

The book offers a clever and compassionate way into the worlds of little kids in general and of one of those kids who is not like the others. As a teacher, Dicks understands the way kids think and behave, and the insights he has gleaned from his work illuminate this story. His earlier books had very appealing heroes who had thinking disorders, and Dicks proves again here that he is particularly adept at showing how unusual minds work. This story will tug your heartstrings and also make you smile.

What others are saying:

“A novel as creative, brave, and pitch-perfect as its narrator, an imaginary friend named Budo, who reminds us that bravery comes in the most unlikely forms. It has been a long time since I read a book that has captured me so completely, and has wowed me with its unique vision. You’ve never read a book like this before. As Budo himself might say: Believe me,” says best-selling author Jodi Picoult.

“An incredibly captivating novel about the wonder of youth and the importance of friendship, whether real or imagined. Delightfully compelling reading,” says Booklist.

Publishers Weekly says: Elementary school teacher Dicks’s quirky and pleasant newest is narrated by Budo, eight-year-old Max Delaney’s imaginary friend of five years, who also serves as Max’s guardian/confidante and can only “persist” so long as Max doesn’t “forget” about him. Max’s dad, a manager at a Connecticut Burger King, and Max’s mom, a manager at Aetna, argue and fret about the introverted Max, a “late bloomer” and “special needs” student. …A chipper narrative and lively climax make Dicks’s newest a fun read and engaging exploration of the vibrant world of a child’s imagination.”

“An imaginary friend can be the best friend a boy’s got. But how can an imaginary friend help when the boy faces very real danger? …Max is able to cope with the close quarters of public school, the unpredictable people and the surprises of everyday life with the help of not only his parents, but also his teacher, Mrs. Gosk, and his imaginary friend, Budo. Told from Budo’s perspective, Dicks’ latest novel explores the interior life of an imaginary friend, and imaginary friends have one overriding concern: What will happen to them when their imaginer forgets them? …Budo helps Max find words, stops him from running out into traffic, and even helps him survive a terrifying encounter with the fifth-grade bully, Tommy Swinden, in a bathroom stall. But Budo is thwarted when … Max disappears. This time, Budo will have to go out into the world alone, and since he cannot interact with any adults, he will have to rely on the imaginary friends of other children to save Max…” says Kirkus Revews.

When is it available?

I imagine you can find it on the 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!

 

 

Best Friend Forever

Matthew Dicks, who teaches at Wolcott Elementary School in WestHartford,has just published his third novel, “Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend” (St.Martin’s, $24.99). The former West Hartford Teacher of the Year’s latest isabout an imaginary pal who continues to accompany the book’s central characteras he grows older, with humorous and heartbreaking consequences.

Matthew Dicks

 

Author of “Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend”

 

Thursday, September 13, 6:30PM

Join us for an author talk and signing with Matthew Dicks. Narrated by Budo, a character with a unique ability to have a foot in many worlds—imaginary, real, child, and adult—Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend touches on the truths of life, love, and friendship as it races to a heartwarming and heartbreaking conclusion.The perfect read for anyone who has ever had a friend . . . real or otherwise.

Matthew Dicks is a writer and elementary school teacher. His articles have been published in theHartford Courant and he has been a featured author at the Books on the Nightstand retreat. He is the author of two previous novels,Something Missing and Unexpectedly Milo. Dicks lives in Newington, Connecticut, with his wife, Elysha, and their daughter, Clara.