Monthly Archives: February 2013

Between Heaven and Here

By Susan Straight

(McSweeney’s, $24, 208 pages)

Who is this author?

Susan Straight is a native Californian, a member of an extended family that numbers more than 200 relatives, and a prolific author. Her seven novels, all published since 1990, include the wonderfully titled “I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots” (1992), “Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights” (1994) and “Take One Candle Light A Room” (2010). She also writes short stories, which have been published in Zoetrope All-Story, McSweeneys, O Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories and other periodicals. “The Golden Gopher,” published in Los Angeles Noir, won the Edgar Award in 2007. She also has written essays for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, The Believer, Reader’s Digest, Family Circle and other magazines. She is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UCRiverside.

What is this book about?

It has a murder, and some mysterious elements, but “Between Heaven and Here” is not a standard murder mystery. Instead, it is the story of the life and death of beautiful Glorette Picard of Rio Seco, Calif., whose life story is linked to the history of the town, a place so hard and dry in summer that the ground must be soaked before a grave can be dug. Gloria was gorgeous and loved by many, but she was a drug addict who worked as a prostitute. When one of her longtime admirers finds her body in a shopping cart, he arranges for her burial without involving the police – not a wise move. An uncle seeks vengeance for her murder, her brilliant son seeks to free himself from family history and the town finds itself entangled in Gloria’s heartbreaking story. This book is the third in Straight’s Rio Seco trilogy, following  “A Million Nightingales” and “Take One Candle Light a Room.”

Why you’ll like it:

Straight is a gifted storyteller, and while she is white, she has the ability to write believably and without condescension about black people caught up in unfortunate circumstances. This book is winning praise for its ability to address thorny issues of race and class while transcending them to offer a realistic yet touching story. Straight also gets kudos for her gift for descriptive writing and a deep understanding of human hearts.

What others are saying:

“Who is Glorette Picard? …Her murder serves as the plot’s catalyst, but the beguilement comes from learning about Glorette’s family—her son, who struggles to break the bonds of his mother’s life, and the uncle willing to kill again to avenge her death—and the family’ friends who suffer from their own demons. Straight creates multidimensional characters who are neither villain nor hero,” says Library Journal.

“…the third installment of her trilogy concerns the reactions and memories that a prostitute’s death stirs up in the tightknit black community in Rio Seco, Calif. Glorette has become a streetwalker and a drug addict who has dangerously neglected her brilliant son, Victor. …Sidney has remained in love with Glorette, although it has been 20 years since she was an innocent, preternaturally beautiful girl growing up in orange groves that belonged to her “uncle,” Enrique Antoine, and her father, Gustave–the men’s binding relationship, their establishment of Rio Seco as a refuge for young women escaping a brutal white rapist in Louisiana, and the method by which Enrique gained ownership of the land are haunting subplots … In less than 250 pages, Straight develops a lot of characters in surprising depth…Straight (who is white but eschews the self-congratulating, cliché-laden condescension of books like “The Help”) employs glorious language and a riveting eye for detail to create a fully realized, totally believable world,” says Kirkus Reviews.

Says Publishers Weekly in a starred review:  “The mysterious murder of a hooker kicks off this exquisitely wrought final installment of Straight’s trilogy….Straight plunges readers into a whirlwind of dialects, drugs, derelict homes, and delinquent locals as she weaves together the story of Glorette’s life and death, while addressing weighty and timely issues like race, language, and the socioeconomically disenfranchised. Straight deftly avoids clichés and easy outs, and her refusal to vilify or sanctify the numerous members of her cast allows the experiences of each to resonate powerfully.”

“Susan Straight has remarkable range as a writer. Her voice can be elegant in the rhythms and vocabulary of her narrative, yet also blunt and raw in dialogue… Her work is so intensely alive in its movement, action, and in the speech of her characters that reading it is almost like being caught in the center of a storm: exhausting but exhilarating at the same time,” says The Rumpus.

When is it available?

It’s on the new book shelf 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!

Living with Guns: A Liberal’s Case for the Second Amendment

By Craig R.Whitney

(Public Affairs, $28.99, 304 pages)

Who is this author?

Craig R. Whitney, who lives in New York City, is now retired from The New York Times, where he was a reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and most recently assistant managing editor in charge of standards and ethics. He is a political liberal, but his new book, on the currently hottest of all hot-button issues, gun control, is winning praise for its even-handedness.

If you are interested in hearing him speak, he will give a free talk at the Mark Twain House & Museum Visitors’ Center on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. The program will be moderated by Bob Margolis of The Alliance for Nonprofit Growth & Opportunity (TANGO), who is a politically conservative pistol permit instructor and member of the Metacon Gun Club in Simsbury. Information: 860-247-0998 or www.marktwainhouse.org.

What is this book about?

The recent horrific slaughter by gunshots of children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown has exacerbated the already wide breach between those who want unfettered access to guns and those who want them and their users to be regulated in hopes of reducing gun violence. Whitney’s book, which offers a balanced look at the history of guns in America, the ongoing debate over the intent of the Second Amendment to the Constitution and the arguments advanced by gun control advocates on one side and the NRA on the other, could not be more timely. Is there a way to square the right to own and use guns with the fervent desire to protect against their misuse? Or is America so deeply polarized by this political and cultural issue that attempts to resolve it are futile? Whitney says guns are here to stay, and the way forward to controlling gun violence begins with understanding why it happens.

“Instead of fighting chimerical battles,” he writes, “American gun-rights and gun-control enthusiasts should be talking to each other about what can be done…to reduce gun violence, particularly by addressing the criminal and psychopathological behavior patterns that cause it.”

Why you’ll like it:

It’s hard to have a reasoned discussion about controlling gun violence in America without understanding how we got to this perilous place in our history. Whitney’s book goes a long way to explain how and why we find ourselves in this dilemma. He’s not preaching, but rather making sensible recommendations that take into consideration the beliefs, no matter how inflamed, on both sides of the issue. By marshaling history, statistics and research, he offers facts that can be the basis for a rational discussion of a  national problem that seems to be growing worse and has infected our public discourse. If you find yourself getting tangled in heated discussions of this issue, here is a book that will, at the very least, give you a better understanding of its complexities.

What others are saying:

Publisher’s Weekly says: “….[Whitney] writes as a concerned citizen. His primer on gun law history sometimes gets bogged down in minutiae, but also produces fascinating tidbits like the decidedly nonprogressive bent of some early gun control legislation, namely toward African Americans. Less scholarly but still valuable are his memories of when firearms did not divide right and left, and when the NRA was mostly associated with safety training. The book’s subtitle does its argument a disservice by implying that Whitney’s concern is with defending the Second Amendment, when instead he is against liberals’ common resort to the “well-regulated militia” language to claim a constitutional lack of protection for individual gun use. Opposed to arbitrary restrictions, reckless loopholes, NRA fear-mongering, and liberal intolerance of gun culture’s law-abiding side, Whitney’s presentation of firearm ownership as a protected area of U.S. common, if not Constitutional, law, strikes a conciliatory note that sadly stands
little chance of being heeded.”

Library Journal says: “Whitney … argues that neither side’s positions are completely correct. The Left seems to want to tighten gun-control laws including for law-abiding citizens, which he argues becomes burdensome and in some locations highly arbitrary. The Right has the powerful NRA lobby, which objects to the slightest mention of new laws with dire warnings of government disarming citizens. The book is filled with much detail, which can occasionally bog down the reader. … Nonetheless, it provides a moderate viewpoint that is often missing in this discussion. VERDICT: This book will be attractive to readers who fall in the middle of this issue and may give pause to others. It is not a scholarly work, but provides some solutions worthy of consideration.”

“Even for doubters of Mr. Whitney’s hopeful message [“Living with Guns”] has much to offer. Of particular interest is his brief and readable history of the role of guns (and their regulation) in the colonial era. This history provides the context for understanding what was on the minds of the founding fathers in drafting the Second Amendment, and for deciphering its rather abstruse wording,” says The New York Times.

When is it available?

“Living With Guns” is now at the Downtown Hartford Public Library and its Albany 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!

Habits of the House

By Fay Weldon

(St. Martin’s Press, $25.99, 320 pages)

Who is this author?

An author who has perfected the art of writing with a pen dipped in a very witty brand of acid, Fay Weldon has produced many books that are solidly feminist in content while being wickedly funny: no mean feat. I had the pleasure of being a guest of Weldon’s during a trip to England in the mid-‘90s: I and some friends had lunch at her home, a meeting arranged by our mutual acquaintance Gina Barecca, and we shared opinions with the author on men, marriage, class, America, England and more: a gabfest made in heaven. Several of her novels (there are dozens) are among those I have most enjoyed reviewing.

She is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter with shelves full of honors, including a Writers’ Guild Award for the pilot of “Upstairs Downstairs.” Weldon also is a Commander of the British Empire and among her many books, “Praxis” was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction; “The Heart of the Country” won a  Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize and “Wicked Women” won a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award.

What is this book about?

Fans of “Downton Abbey” and “Upstairs Downstairs,” rejoice. Here, from the writer of the pilot for “Upstairs Downstairs,” is the first of a projected trilogy that begins 10 years earlier than the events at Downton and mines that apparently endlessly rich territory.

It’s 1899, and the world is changing. The Earl of Dilberne is having money troubles due to reckless gambling and foolish investments. His son has a mistress; his daughter has a parrot in her room. His wife, Isobel, runs the household; her maid runs Isobel’s life. They need an infusion of new money—might an heiress from Chicago with a sketchy reputation fill the bill?

As Weldon herself says: “I was a girl from Downstairs. When I was 16, my bedroom was in the basement of a posh house in London, where my mother was the housekeeper. . . . Odd, this class business. Here’s “Upstairs Downstairs” back again, “Downton Abbey” so popular.”

Why you’ll like it:

Weldon, now in her 80s, has a deep and deep and delicious understanding of what we do for love, what men in a patriarchal system do to women, what women often do to themselves and the absurdity of it all.  She can spin literary gold out of the raw materials of class, gender, greed and jealousy, and she does it with high humor and penetrating insight. Lovers of her work and fans of British costume drama alike should be delighted to know that after this one, two more books exploring that lost world are on the way.

What others are saying:

Booklist says: “Before there was “Downton Abbey,” there was “Upstairs, Downstairs,” and, having written the first episode of that iconic television series, it is only fitting that Weldon now returns to the scene of the crime to further explore the disparate worlds of “them that has and those what serve ’em.” On the brink of the twentieth century, all is not well in the House of Dilberne. The earl has gambled away most of his patrimony and lost the remainder in an ill-timed investment. …Luckily, there’s a mansion’s worth of dubiously loyal maids, butlers, and cooks to conduct vital backroom negotiations. Always a ripe target for mockery and disdain, the British aristocracy comes in for a thorough drubbing in Weldon’s snarky send-up. “

Publishers Weekly says: “This first installment of Weldon’s late-Victorian trilogy centers on the Dilberne family, a titled albeit impoverished British house. The earl makes poor business decisions and continually runs up debts gambling with the Prince of Wales. Resolving to restore the family fortunes, he decides the clearest way to do this is to marry off his children. He sets upon son Arthur and, with the help of the household servants, locates a wealthy Chicago heiress, Minnie O’Brien. However, as the young couple start learning about each other, they realize that they both carry secrets that could ruin the engagement and their prospects. Weldon introduces several characters, both upper class and lower class, and in many ways the whole book feels expository because it lacks high-stakes drama. However, it succeeds as an opening to a new series and should entice enough to make it worth checking out the subsequent installments.”

“Good fun from start to finish, thanks to breezy storytelling and witty social observations,” says The Washington Post.

“My favorite part of the original series is the first episode because it was written by a great English novelist, Fay Weldon. Everybody was introduced so cleverly . . . so beautifully established,” says Jean Marsh, co-creator of “Upstairs, Downstairs.”

When is it available?

It’s not upstairs or downstairs. It’s on the new books shelf at the Downtown (not Downton) 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 End of Your Life Book Club

By Will Schwalbe

(Knopf Doubleday, $25, 352 pages)

Who is this author?

What qualifies an author to write about books? It helps to have a knowledge of publishing, and Will Schwalbe certainly does. A fomer editor in chief of Hyperion Books, he’s also a journalist who has contributed to such varied newspapers as The New York Times and the South China Morning Post. He founded and was CEO of Cookstr.com and is a member of the board of Yale University Press. He also co-authored “Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better” with David Shipley. But what really qualified him to write this particular book was to have grown up as the loving son of a remarkable woman.

What is this book about?

When Schwalbe’s mother, Mary Anne, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told she had just months to live, he was there for her during chemo sessions. And being lovers of books, they passed the difficult time by discussing them, as they regularly did before she became ill. They soon realized that by reading the same books at the same time, they’d become a kind of two-person book club and that the books they chose and the insights they gathered would enrich the time they had left to share.

As Schwalbe told an interviewer:

“For as long as I can remember, I talked about books with my mother.  …”What are you reading?” is a question we constantly asked each other. We were especially prone to talk about books when we were anxious or stressed – or when there was a difficult subject we wanted to tackle obliquely…. I’ve come to feel that whenever you share a book with someone, and talk about it, you’re creating a little book club. And these little book clubs can sustain us over the course of a short period of time – or a lifetime.”

Why you’ll like it:

While the sweet sadness of this book might make you tear up at times, Schwalbe is never maudlin in describing how books brought him and his mother, already close, even closer together as her life drew to its end. Besides offering a very engaging portrait of his mother, the book also serves to introduce (or remind readers about) some terrific books that they also might like.  As Schwalbe puts it:“…we were engaging with the world – learning, growing, travelling. We went to Khaled Hosseini’s Afghanistan, and Michael Thomas’s Brooklyn, and Alexander McCall Smith’s Botswana. We met Jhumpa Lahiri’s new immigrants and Alan Bennett’s Queen of England. We learned about Irene Nemirovsky’s refugees and Ishmael Beah’s child soldiers. And when we did all this, we not only felt — but were – totally alive.”

What others are saying:

Publishers Weekly says: “Sharing books he loved with his savvy New Yorker mom had always been a great pleasure for both mother and son…. Mary Ann Schwalbe, had been an indomitable crusader for human rights, once the director of admissions at Harvard, and a person of enormous energy and management skills. …“Books showed us that we didn’t need to retreat or cocoon,” he writes; they provided “much-needed ballast” during an emotionally tumultuous time when fear and uncertainty gripped them both as the dreaded disease (“not curable but treatable”) progressed rapidly. From Ian McEwan’s “On Chesil Beach” to Khaled Hosseini’s “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” William Trevor’s “Felicia’s Journey” to Josephine Tey’s “Brat Farrar,” Geraldine Brooks’s “People of the Book” to John Updike’s”My Father’s Tears,” the books they shared allowed them to speak honestly and thoughtfully, to get to know each other, ask big questions, and especially talk about death. With a refreshing forthrightness, and an excellent list of books included, this is an astonishing, pertinent, and wonderfully welcome work.”

Library Journal says: “…Throughout this memoir, Schwalbe and his mother discuss characters and themes from the books they read, and Schwalbe considers these same characters and themes in relation to his mother, who, as an administrator at Harvard and the Dalton School in New York City and a widely admired humanitarian, tirelessly strove to help others. …VERDICT This book will bring tears to readers’ eyes—it is an essential title for lovers of memoir. Recommended for anyone who enjoys books about mothers and sons, books about the love of books, and books about the strength of families.

“….While they waited together through interminable doctor visits, hospital stays and chemotherapy sessions, they discussed what they had been reading. This became the beginning of the “End of Your Life Book Club.” As Schwalbe points out, the name was appropriate not just because his mother was dying, but because any book could be your last. Books provided an avenue for the author and his mother to explore important topics that made them uneasy. As his mother told him, “That’s one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we all can talk about when we don’t want to talk about ourselves.” They discussed books ….as “a mother and a son entering new worlds together.”…Schwalbe… introduces each of the authors with the insight of a veteran editor, highlighting their styles and strengths. Each chapter holds a subtle message fleshed out through their readings and discussions, and themes include gratitude, loneliness, feminism, faith, communication, trust and grief. In a heartfelt tribute to his mother, Schwalbe illustrates the power of the written word to expand our knowledge of ourselves and others,” says Kirkus Reviews.

“Tissues at the ready, I braced myself for “The End of Your Life Book Club,” Will Schwalbe’s memoir of his mother’s death from  pancreatic cancer. But Mary Anne Schwalbe is such a fierce, unsentimental heroine–and her son such a frank and funny storyteller–that what could have been an emotional roller coaster turns out to be a beautifully paced ride. …When her health starts to fail, Will joins her for hospital appointments. They wait, they talk, and they read together–everything they’ve ever wanted to discuss. As much an homage to literature as to the mother who shared it with him, Will’s chronicle of this heartrending time opens up his captivating family to the rest of us. We should all be so lucky as to read along with the Schwalbes,” says Mia Lipman forAmazon Best Books of the Month, October 2012.

When is it available?

Schwalbe’s book is on the new books shelf 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!

Friendkeeping: A Field Guide to the People You Love, Hate, and Can’t Live Without

By Julie Klam

(Penguin, $25.95, 240 pages)

Who is this author?

An Empire Stater who grew up in Bedford and now lives in New York City, Julie Klam is best known for her earlier books, “You Had Me at Woof” and “Love at First Bark,” about the deep relationships between humans and dogs. Having explored our affection for man’s best friends, she now takes on best friends themselves. Klam’s writerly bio includes contributions to O: The Oprah Magazine, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, and The New York Times Magazine. She also wrote for the VH1 TV show, “Pop-Up Video,” which earned her an Emmy nomination.

What is this book about?

Yes, today is Valentine’s Day, but this is not a book about romantic love – there certainly are enough of those out there. Instead, it’s about the platonic relationships that sustain us, sometimes pain us and serve to explain us to ourselves and others. Klam digs deep into what makes BFFs, and the weird problems that arise in situations where, for example, you love your pal but can’t stand his or her spouse, or when jealousy of a friend’s achievements sours your relationship. She also explores the relatively new but increasingly common world of online friendships. (Perhaps Manti Teo should have read this book.) Using anecdotes from her own life, she offers new twists on the inner workings of connections so familiar that we often fail to appreciate how complex and important they are to our journey through life, from childhood to old age.

Why you’ll like it:

Klam is writing about the basics of life, but she does it with a fresh eyes, verve and often laugh-out-loud humor. Anyone who has had a long friendship that seems able to survive despite long periods of inattention, or who looks back at how friendships during early life helped shape their personalities or pointed them down certain paths, will appreciate Klam’s assessments of this powerful kind of togetherness that  often lasts longer than marriages do. Friendship, she makes clear, can be a tremendous source of happiness, so long as each partner gets as much as he or she gives. This book will make you think deeply about a part of life too often taken for granted.

What others are saying:

Library Journal says: “Klam calls friends the “comfort food” of life. With her characteristic self-deprecating wit, she shares stories of her own attempts at befriending, from the insecurity-driven missteps of childhood to the competition-based conflicts in early adulthood and the satisfying long-distance relationships of midlife. Klam has an admitted affinity for eccentric types, and her anecdotes are as amusing as they are insightful. In recounting her own experiences, she demonstrates the importance of overcoming such common friendship hurdles as time constraints, envy, illness and “unfortunate” partners. She explains how and when to let go with grace. Klam … sends a poignant and powerful message to women: don’t take your friends for granted, and nurture and preserve the friendships you treasure. VERDICT Friendship is a universally appealing theme for women, and this
entertaining book will strike responsive chords with women of all ages

“The book you will want to give all your best friends, not as a nudge-nudge, hint-hint reminder of what it takes to be a good friend, but rather as a celebration of just how great friends can be. And if they (or you) pick up a few hints on how to be a good friend, so much the better for everyone. We all need reminding once in a while that connection takes more than just showing up for drinks or a walk — and Klam offers the reminders with her usual big heart, goofy humor, and open admissions,” says The Huffington Post.

“[Klam is] taking seriously something, namely adult friendships, that often turns into the wallpaper of cultural life: something that’s there, and that’s lovely, and that ideally you don’t have to think about, but not something that you would delve into deeply,” says NPR.org.

“Klam is funny. Not cute or amusing, but laugh-out-loud, borderline too-much-information funny… With “Friendkeeping,” Klam proves that she is no one-trick pony,” says BookPage.

Kirkus Reviews says: “Zealous, funny and rambling accounts of a New York writer’s many friendships. Klam …. describes herself on the first page as “a middle-aged person who uses the term ‘BFF’ without irony.” Her meandering text goes on to describe the multiple varieties of her friendships, starting in childhood. … Klam’s voice is often flat-out hilarious. She retains the dry, self-deprecating tone of fellow conversational memoirist Jen Lancaster, and no matter how stale or hackneyed the subject, Klam never fails to come up with terrific comic vignettes and sharp one-liners….”

When is it available?

Klam’s book is waiting to befriend you at the Downtown Hartford Public Library and its Barbour 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!

A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Parts

by Sebastian Faulks

(Holt, $25, 304 pages)

Who is this author?

A British author, Sebastian Faulks has published 10 novels, including “A Week in December,” which was a No. 1 bestseller in the  United Kingdom; “On Green Dolphin Street;”  “Charlotte Gray,” adapted as a film starring Cate Blanchett; and the ‘Birdsong,” adapted for TV after selling more than three million copies. In 2008, he wrote a James Bond novel, “Devil May Care,” to mark the centenary of Ian Fleming. He also wrote and hosted BBC TV series “Faulks on Fiction.”

What is this book about?

Faulks calls it a novel in five parts; others see it as a collection of five novellas. Not that it really matters: there are subtle links  between the five stories, but each can stand alone. The book may remind some readers of David Mitchell’s “Cloud Atlas,” which linked and re-linked disparate stories in a brilliant but confusing way, but they are likely to find Faulks’ book is more accessible. The five stories span a little more than 200 years, beginning in 19th century France and ending in the near-future in  Italy, with stops in England and the United States as well. Each story ponders how luck, good and bad, or perhaps fate, ineluctable or malleable, shapes a character. You will meet a teacher who goes undercover in a Holocaust concentration camp; an orphaned French girl who is wiser than she’s given credit for; a English lad who survives a Victorian workhouse; an American folksinger who writes a masterpiece and a female Italian scientist who stumbles into knowledge of the human psyche.

Why you’ll like it:

Critics are unanimous in praising Faulks’ prose, commending its precision of expression and mesmerizing storytelling. In the guise of one novel, he gives readers five distinct characters who each are worthy of being the focus of an entire book, and while their widely spaced lives never intertwine, Faulks’ craft and fascination with the good and bad of human nature knit these separate parts into one powerful whole.

What others are saying:

Publishers Weekly says: “In this masterful book, Faulks links the stories of five disparate lives into a long meditation on the intersection of fate and free will. Five discrete novellas range from 1800s France to Italy in 2029, examining how choices, impulses, and luck (both good and bad) shape lives. … Though there are subtle connections, characters’ lives never cross; they are alive in their own worlds. Faulks resists assembling his parts into a thumping moral; his book is both bigger and less ambitious than that, a contemplation of human existence on the individual level. Highly recommended.”

“International best seller Faulks is noted for his sensitive handling of historical material, and, indeed, four of the five linked stories here tread historical ground. Among Faulks’ protagonists are a young prisoner of war in World War II Poland who imagines going to bat on a cricket field, a man in Victorian times desolate because he has given away his son, a servant in 19th-century France suddenly grasping the meaning of a Bible story, and a girl in the 1970s Catskills whose music mesmerizes. Then there’s the futurist story about a scientist in Italy drawing parallels between time and the human brain. All juicily readable stuff,” says Library Journal.

“Faulks goes further by presenting stand-alone biographies of five characters from different walks of life — even different eras — and only tenuously connecting them. It is a gamble, but one he pulls off superbly….As with the best of Faulks’ fiction, “A Possible  Life” blends profound ideas with compelling prose, and however we choose to categorize it, the result is far more than the sum of its parts,” says the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

“A Possible Life” is an examination of human souls and the impact the decisions we make have on our lives and futures. Had any of these characters chosen a different road, the outcome of their lives may have been forever altered. Faulks’ novel — or collection of novellas —- succeeds because it does not overtly go out of its way to tie the five tales together,” says Bookreporter.com.

When is it available?

It is possible to find this book at the Downtown Hartford Public Library and its Dwight 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!

Centerville

By Karen Osborn

(Vandalia Press, $16.99, 151 pages)

Who is this author?

Karen Osborn has written four novels: “Patchwork” (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), “Between Earth and Sky,”  “The River Road” and her latest, “Centerville.”  Osborn teaches fiction writing at Mt. Holyoke College and Fairfield University and lives in Amherst, Mass. When she was growing up in a Midwestern small town, a bombing and fire took place, which she witnessed.

Here is what Osborn says about her writing:

“I grew up on Grand Island, surrounded by woods along the banks of the Niagara River. Places filled with the raw power of nature are one of the main inspirations in my writing. Later, I lived in the Midwest and then the Northeast. I graduated from Hollins College in the Blue Ridge Mountains and attended graduate school in the Ozarks of Arkansas. I seek out places of beauty that are untouched, but I’m drawn in my novels to understand towns, families, marriages, and lovers.”

What is this book about?

It’s about a small town in the days of Vietnam War and Civil Rights protests that has its tranquility ended when an emotionally disturbed man bent on personal revenge sets off a bomb that kills innocent people, leaving the town shocked and horrified. No, it’s not exactly the story of Sandy Hook, but you can see the parallels. When George Fowler bombs the drugstore on Main Street in a twisted plan to get even with his estranged wife, who works there, she and bystanders are killed. The tragedy strongly impacts four citizens: the pastor who married the warring couple; his daughter, who barely escaped the blast; the widowed wife of a victim; and a cop who was on the scene. It is through them that Osborn tells this story of what happens when disaster strikes out of nowhere and people must struggle to make sense of it and go on.

Why you’ll like it:

This is a straightforwardly told tale that gets deeply into what makes people tick and how they relate to unforeseen calamity. In our times, when mass murders are becoming almost – and achingly – routine, this book offers insights into how people behave when called upon to deal with incomprehensible evil. Reviewers are praising Osborn for her vividly descriptive writing and her deep understanding of why people do such awful things, and how the survivors pick up the pieces. This book may find a special  audience among those trying to deal with their emotions following the Sandy Hook massacre.

What others are saying:

“As with “In Cold Blood” or “The Sweet Heareafter,” Karen Osborn’s beautifully written “Centerville” uses a single, horrific,  small-town act of violence to dissect the values and morals of an entire culture—a culture that is at once violent and brutal, materialistic and superficial, yet capable of moments of heroism, compassion, and redemption. When a novel seems as if its subject isn’t past at all but rather pulled right from America’s latest cycle of mass murder and senseless carnage, and when that  novel does it with Osborn’s brilliant prose and deep insight into the dark alleys of our twisted nature, then we can rejoice that perhaps there’s still a chance, albeit a small one, for the human race,” says Connecticut author Michael White.

Publishers Weekly says: “Osborn’s powerful novel, set during the dog days of summer in a small Midwestern town in 1967, begins with a bang when a man bombs the drugstore employing his estranged wife. The tragedy devastates a community just beginning to feel the repercussions of the escalating Vietnam War and the growing civil rights movement, and Osborn focuses on four individuals to map the intersections of local drama and a world in upheaval…. Osborn … employing a restrained ruthlessness, maintains the tension throughout, and appropriately refuses easy outs for a satisfying conclusion.”

Says Library Journal: “Osborn … opens her novel in a small, quaint, Jan Karon-style town in 1967, then has a vengeful ex-husband set off a bomb in the drugstore where his former wife works. Centerville is quickly transformed into a devastated community of residents trying to understand how this could have happened and figure out how to put their lives back together. …VERDICT:  Lovers of realistic fiction will be pulled into this tiny town to experience its loss and confusion along with its residents. Osborn portrays the emotions surrounding this destructive event in a heartfelt and vivid style, while leaving room for the hope of regrowth and recovery.”

Booklist

“It’s the summer of 1967; the news is awash with race riots and the escalating war in Vietnam. In the aftermath of a brutal and premeditated act of violence, the residents of a somnolent American town find themselves in a new world full of menace and fear. Karen Osborn’s deeply affecting novel “Centerville” keeps the incomprehensibility of evil always in focus, as her characters – young, old, brave, cowardly, driven by doubt, and committed to faith – struggle to find a way back to the innocence they once took for granted. In this subtle, beautifully written novel, the reader can almost hear the gates of paradise slamming closed on the American dream,” says author Valerie Martin.

When is it available?

“Centerville” is in the new books section of the Downtown Hartford Public Library and its Dwight 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!

Umbrella

By Will Self

(Grove Press, $25, 448 pages)

Who
is this author?

He’s British, tall (6 feet, 5 inches), likes to tinker with old typewriters, smokes a pipe, writes columns for British papers, often
appears on TV and once got caught taking heroin on British Prime Minister John Major’s campaign plane in 1997. But Will Self is best known for his six short-story collections, a book of novellas, nine novels published since 1992 and six collections of journalism. Those novels include “Cock and Bull” (1992), “How the Dead Live” (2000), “The Book of Dave” (2006), “Walking to Hollywood” (2010) and his latest, “Umbrella” (2012), which is on the short list for the latest Man Booker Prize, England’s top literary award.

What is this book about?

Zachary Busner, a psychiatrist who doesn’t like playing by the rules and is a newcomer to the staff at a British mental hospital, sees
that many patients there display an odd, repetitive behavior that results from encephalitis lethargica—a brain-damaging sleeping sickness. One patient in particular, an old woman named Audrey Dearth, contracted it in 1918. The doctor becomes fascinated by her case and begins treating her and others similarly afflicted with an anti-Parkinson’s drug. Audrey then briefly recalls her difficult childhood in Edwardian England, her job in a WWI munitions factory and her affair with a married man, and there also are flashbacks involving her brothers Stan, a soldier, and Bert, a civil servant.  Added to these three streams of consciousness are the doctor’s own recollections of his past romances and career.

Why you’ll like it:

The book begins with a quote from James Joyce’s magnificent and often impenetrable “Ulysses” — “A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella.” And that should tip you off that this “Umbrella” will not be easy to open. Be warned that this book offers a  challenge even to the discerning reader. It has plenty of Joycean stream-of-consciousness, a plot and setting that toggles between the present, a mental hospital in the 1970s and Edwardian London and huge helpings of lyrical, feverish, sensory-overloaded prose that often reads more like poetry. Self’s satiric, rhapsodic prose is a mirror of the chaotic swirling of the human mind. This is the kind of book that demands the reader’s full attention. It’s not for everyone, but those who succumb to its charms will find it enchanting.

What others are saying:

“A work of throwback modernism . . . an erudite yet barking mad novel about barking madness. . . . You give yourself over to “Umbrella” in flashes, as if it were a radio station you’re unable to tune in that you suspect is playing the most beautiful song you will ever hear. . . this novel locks into moments of ungodly beauty and radiant moral sympathy. . . . a bitter critique of how society has viewed (and cared for) those with mental illnesses. It’s about myriad other things too: class, the changing nature of British
society, trench warfare in World War I, how technology can be counted on to upend everything. At heart it’s a novel about seeing. . . . Mr. Self often enough writes with such vividness it’s as if he is the first person to see anything at all,” says The New York Times.

“A savage and deeply humane novel. . . . . “Umbrella” is an old-fashioned modernist tale with retrofitted ambitions to boot. . . . Self
has always been a fabulous writer. . . . The result is page after page of gorgeously musical prose. Self’s sentences bounce and weave, and like poetry, they refract. The result is mesmerizing. . . . In its best moments, “Umbrella” compels a reader to the heights of vertigo Woolf excelled at creating.. . . . a triumph of form. With this magnificent novel Will Self reminds that he is Britain’s
reigning poet of the night,” says the Boston Globe.

“A virtuosic performance . . . narrated in the allusive, sensory-overloaded style associated with Joyce’s “Ulysses”. . . . A heady
mixture of closely observed (and deeply researched) period details, colorful imagery, surrealistic juxtapositions, and italicized interjections . . . Self’s wildly nonlinear narrative offers other delights: richly detailed settings that bring the Edwardian era and mental hospitals sensuously alive, kaleidoscopic patterns of symbolism (umbrellas assume all sorts of forms and functions), and
loads of mordant satire,” says The Washington Post.

“If the realist novel welcomes you in, takes your coat, hat (and umbrella), shows you to a comfortable seat and gets you a gin and tonic, this book leaves you to let yourself in, sit yourself down (if you can find room) and get your own bloody drink if you insist on having one,” says The Sunday Times.

When is it available?

“Umbrella” can be opened in the new books stacks 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!