Downtown Owl

My wild crush on Chuck Klosterman has crashed on the iceberg of this book. Sure, his recreation pot use was troubling. And, ok, so we are both already married to other people. But if Chuck Klosterman had shown up on my doorstep while I was reading Eating the Dinosaur or Killing Yourself to Live running away with him would have been a serious possibility. Now he'll be lucky to get to drink a beer in my kitchen while I lecture him on not writing a novel unless you have an idea about how it should end. Which he clearly did not.

Downtown Owl is set in rural North Dakota in the early 1980's. The book is told in alternating chapters by various townfolk, including new teacher and town "it" girl, Julia. The characters are interesting, but rather than bringing the characters together in some meaningful way, Klosterman essentially develops the characters and then just ends the book. Boom.

Sorry Chuck, I think it's time to start seeing other writers.

The Intuitionist

I can honestly say, this is the best book about elevator inspectors I've ever read. This debut novel by Colson Whitehead follows Lila Mae Watson, the first African American female elevator inspector, in an unnamed time and place (probably 1950's or 1960's New York). Elevator inspection is very prestigious and Lila Mae takes her job seriously. She comes from the Intuitionist school of thought--she can "feel" what's wrong with the elevator. She's very good at it, too, until an elevator she recently inspected crashes in a total freefall. Lila Mae suspects sabotage and must figure out who did it. Along the way, she uncovers new information about her mentor and founder of the Intuitionists, Fulton. The whole novel is an allegory about race--the cover blurbs compare it to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. I liked the novel a lot, even if it tried to do too much in a couple of places. There's some dark humor and I really enjoyed Whitehead's writing style.

Bridge of Sighs

Loyal Dailybookbuddy readers may remember the ridiculous level of anticipation I had for this book. While I did enjoy and highly recommend it, I'm afraid it didn't quite live up to my impossibly high expectations for a Richard Russo book. After winning the Pulitzer for Empire Falls, it appears that Russo felt the need to write a Very Important Book. Bridge of Sighs tackles lots of issues of class, race, what it means to be an American, how much choice we have over our life's direction. I wouldn't characterize Russo as a subtle writer anyway, but his characters are constantly asking themselves series of rhetorical questions about the Big Issues. To Russo's credit, he never supplies the reader with easy answers. The story basically revolves around two boys--Lucy Lynch, the likable optimist who is content to live in Thomaston all his life and his counterpart, Bobby Noonan, who leaves Thomaston and never looks back, eventually settling in as a famous painter in Venice. Lucy's wife, Sarah, loved them both but chooses Lucy in the end. The three lives threaten to converge once more when the Lynches plan a trip to Venice thirty years later. The story is primarily told in Lucy's memoir of his childhood and adolescence, and this conceit is sometimes a bit awkward. If you're new to Russo, I wouldn't start with this book (I'd go with The Risk Pool or Straight Man). But it's still filled with great writing and vivid characters (this book probably has his best-written female characters). It may not be quite as funny or seamless as some of his previous work, but I still don't think I've read a better book this year.

The Book Of Illusions

This book was a public library book club choice. The protagonist David Zimmer is a college professor whose wife and two sons die in a plane crash. Struggling to find something to help him reconnect to the world the living, he spots a silent film clip on late night tv. Surprised to find himself actually laughing he seeks out information on the clip's actor and learns he is Hector Mann a silent film star who disappeared completely just as sound entered movies. Zimmer seeks out prints of his movies which have been appearing anonymously in the mail in various film archives and writes a book about Mann's art. Zimmer is shocked by first letters and then a late night visitor who claim Mann is still alive. He travels to New Mexico and learns the story of Mann's disappearance. The book takes a turn for the strange at several points but serves as an interesting study of how survivor's guilt can manifest itself.

All the Pretty Horses

This is definitely not a book I would have picked up my own, and I may have given up on it before 100 pages if I wasn’t reading it for a class. As Shuttsie knows, the western is not my favorite genre, thus my reluctance to read Lonesome Dove despite her best efforts for the past ten years or so, although you could argue that ATPH is not really a western. The story follows John Grady Cole, sixteen, and his friend Rawlins as they travel to Mexico to work on a ranch. The beginning of the book is filled with long stretches of the weather and the landscape and endless searches for water. It picks up once the boys meet another boy, Jimmy Blevins, who ends up getting them in trouble later on in the story. The boys find work on a ranch in Mexico where John Grady falls in love with the rancher’s daughter, never a good sign. There are some beautiful passages in McCarthy’s writing once you get past the lack of punctuation.

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England

I'd like to think I picked this book up because of a great review I read, but really, it was the title that made me take it home. I read a lot of good reviews but a good title or a good book cover will push that book to the top every time. Arbitrary, I know. The arsonist in question is Sam Pulsifer, a self-described bumbler, who accidentally sets fire to the Emily Dickinson house, burning it to the ground and killing two people inside. He is sent to prison and released after ten years. He marries a nice woman and moves to the suburbs, but neglects to tell her about his past. When the son of the couple killed in the Dickinson fire shows up on his doorstep to confront him, Pulsifer's bumbling past catches up with him. Then, more famous writers' homes are set on fire and Sam must find out who is behind the fires before he is blamed. I found the book to be very funny and I enjoyed all the commentary on stories and literature and their importance in our lives.

Studs Lonigan

Hello kids,
As way of introduction my name is Mike. I've been a reader of this fine blog from its inception and Shuttsie was kind enough to ask me for a humble weekly contribution. So here we go.

We'll start with one of my all-time favorites, the Studs Lonigan trilogy. James Farrell (1904-1979) is one of many Chicago authors who is now all but forgotten from the modern consciousness. If this town was true to its history and its artists Farrell would be taught in every high school in the city. But his stuff can be a little tough to swallow so to not be controversial the kids get John Knowles instead.

Anyway the Lonigan books are the signature works of Farrell's career. They describe the childhood of the character Studs Lonigan, an Irish-American youth on the south side of Chicago over a 14 year period ending during the Great Depression. Studs is such a sympathetic character to me probably because he reminds me of many kids I knew growing up. Sadly he reminds me of myself as a teenager as well. Farrell has the inner monologue of messed up teenager down pat. Its also a look at a city in a much different point in its history. I agree wholeheartedly with the review posted on Amazon regarding some of books' disturbing content. However its this content that gives the books and its characters such sad authenticity. So anyway give it a look if you have any interest in Chicago social history. It is fiction, but it is set in Farrell's neighborhood and populated by characters drawn from his own childhood. If you really like it you can move on to Farrell's five "Danny O'Neil" novels, set in the same time and place but based on his own life.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

It's been six years since the 9/11 attacks and many writers have attempted to use art to make sense of both 9/11 and its aftermath. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the story of Oskar, a young boy whose father died in the World Trade Center and a parallel story about his grandfather surviving the bombing of Dresden. If I hadn't look at the Amazon review, the story about the grandfather would not have come back to me, because Oskar is far more memorable.
A highly intelligent but extremely weird kid, he travels all over New York trying to piece together the meaning behind the key his father left behind in and envelope marked "black" and to come to terms with the loss of his father. Brilliant and a little post-modern, this is a fine beginning toward an understand of the effects of 9/11 on our country and our culture.

Replay

Jeff Winston is 43 when he suffers a fatal heart attack while on the phone with his wife. He wakes up in his college dorm, a freshman at Emory again, in an 18 year old body, with all of the knowledge of the last 25 years intact. So begins a series of "replays" in which he lives his life in any way he chooses, usually getting rich off of sports betting and the stock market due to his knowledge of the future. Each life ends in the same heart attack, no matter what steps he takes to prevent it. Jeff experiments with all kinds of lifestyles, from the ultra straight laced to complete hedonism. His "replays" grow progressively less meaningful until he meets a woman in the same predicament and they try to discover the meaning behind what is happening to them. I was a bit horrified at his blowing off class upon his return to college and found it interesting he never seemed interested in friendships, only romantic relationships. A fast read with some interesting thoughts on what gives life meaning.

Primary Colors

This book was originally published anonymously but Joe Klein has since admitted authorship. The story of a Southern governor and his steely wife’s ride through the campaign system not so subtly parallels that of the Clintons. The book (and movie of the same name) were hyped by this fact, especially since the presidential candidate is accused of fathering the baby of a black teenage girl. For me, however, the book works better as a look inside the day to day operations of a campaign on the road, the machinations and mercenary nature of the staff, and the truly strange ways we go about picking our nation’s leaders. The book was entertaining, though I wish some of the characters, especially Susan, the wife of the candidate, were more fleshed out.

Spook Country

I did enjoy this book, but not quite as much as much as the only other William Gibson novel I've read, Pattern Recognition. Spook Country follows three different threads that you just know will all come together at the end. Hollis Henry, former lead singer of The Curfew, takes a job for a new magazine created by the mysterious Hubertus Bigend. She thinks she is writing an article on locative art but finds herself caught up in much more. Tito delivers ipods loaded with who-knows-what to a mysterious old man. Milgrim has been kidnapped by a seemingly rogue government agent in order to help him translate messages. The threads do converge but I was still somewhat confused as to how some of the characters were related. On the whole, it was a quick read with some interesting political commentary thrown in as well.

The Center of Everything

Evelyn Bucknow is a Kansas girl who thinks she lives with her single mother, Tina. The book traces Evelyn from around age 10 to 18. Evelyn has many influences in her Kansas existence--her mother, Tina, who makes a series of disastrous mistakes, mostly involving men; her religious grandmother; her next-door neighbor and best friend, Travis; and teachers who recognize her potential. The author, Laura Moriarty, also has a new book out, The Rest of Her Life.

A Book of Common Prayer

I still haven't made up my mind whether I like Joan Didion's writing. I've loved a couple of essays she wrote. I read The Year of Magical Thinking and it suffered in comparison to Calvin Trillin's About Alice which I read in close proximity to it and was a much more personal, affecting book. I just read A Book of Common Prayer, the story of two women in the fictitious South American country of Boca Grande. Grace, the narrator, is a widow in one of the controlling families of the country. Charlotte travels there after her daughter commits a terrorist act in the United States. Grace tries to piece together Charlotte's story. I admired a lot of the writing and Didion has a very distinctive voice. However, I feel some of the power of the writing was undermined by the excessive use of some of the techniques I first admired. It's all a little too much for me. I found the story to be interesting and found myself wanting to figure Charlotte out along with Grace.

The Sweetest Dream

This is a qualified recommendation. My book club read this book and my mother and I weren't crazy about it, but everyone else loved it. Doris Lessing wrote this novel instead of a third volume of her memoirs because she felt that would hurt too many vulnerable people, to paraphrase the introduction. The first half is the story of Frances, an actress who made a young marriage to the Britain's most self absorbed Communist, Comrade Johnny. After he leaves her and their two boys she is forced to become a journalist rather than taking acting jobs, move in with Johnny's German born mother, who vaguely disapproves of her, and become a den mother to seemingly dozens of young people (her sons' friends) who are drifting through the 60s. The second half concerns Sylvia, the daughter of Johnny's second wife with her previously husband (got that?) Sylvia morphs from a miserable child to a doctor in AIDS ravaged Africa. Our book group felt comparing that the attitudes towards family were interesting conversation starter.

Niagara Falls All Over Again

Mose Sharp, the narrator of this book, dreamed of a vaudeville career with his young sister, Hattie. After her death, he goes on to pursue that dream with minimal success until he teams with Rocky Carter. The two men end up becoming the central figures in each others' lives. Mose chronicles their partnership from their early struggles to their ascent to the top of the vaudeville ladder to the early stages of movies. The depiction of the dying out of vaudeville and the fledgling movie industry were very interesting. Mostly, though, this is Mose and Rocky's tale, their lifetime partnership, friendship, and separation. Their relationship is every bit as important as a marriage and McCracken explores all aspects of it. Any conversation of my favorite books or authors has to mention Elizabeth McCracken. She writes like I can only wish to--beautiful, wise, and funny. This is not quite up to my favorite, The Giant's House, but is still a gem.

The Short History of a Prince

Oprah gave the seal of approval to The Book of Ruth and The Map of the World, but this is the Jane Hamilton book I love. I first listened to an abridged audio version of this and was captivated by it and then went to the book which was much more fleshed out. The main character is Walter McCloud and the story concerns his present life where he has recently returned to the midwest as a teacher. The most engaging parts, however, are the parts that take place in the past, during the summer where Walter comes to terms with his sexuality, his brother's illness (and death), and his aspirations as a dancer. Hamilton weaves together Walter's love of dance and his love for his friend, Mitch. The slow realization that he will never be able to have either, is achingly beautiful. Walter's reflections on this period as a much older man reveal both his innocence at the time and the lasting effect of that summer and it is all wrapped up in Hamilton's beautiful prose.

The Night Listener

Gabriel Noone is the host of a NPR program called "Noone at Night", sort of a "Prairie Home Companion" crossed with "This American Life" crossed with "Queer as Folk". His life is in a tailspin because his much younger partner, Jess, who is finally responding to new HIV meds has moved out. His writing is blocked and nothing in his life seems meaningful. Then a publisher sends him a memoir writing by Pete, a 13 year old boy, who has been sexually abused by his parents and has AIDS. Gabriel begins a series of phone calls with Pete and his adoptive mom Donna that begin to restore Gabriel's sense of self. Until questions begin to rise to the surface about whether Pete is really what he seems. Maupin is a great writer and the story is a fast read with some excellent moments of suspense.

Lamb

Lamb is a retelling of the story Jesus, through the eyes of his friend Biff (real name Levi). The story starts in Joshua's (Jesus's true name, Biff explains as Jesus is a translation) childhood, where he struggles to understand his powers and resign himself to the idea that he is the Messiah (and deciding God doesn't mind if you eat bacon). They meet Mary of Magdalene (Maggie) who they both love. Maggie loves Joshua, but knows he can never be hers. In years of Jesus's life not described in the Bible, Biff and Joshua are traveling the east, learning the tenets of Buddhism, meditation, and Kung Fu. They return home, Joshua gets down to performing miracles and preaching in earnest, and the apostles join their group. The story is funny and Moore has some interesting observations of both modern and ancient Christianity. (sorry this wasn't up yesterday, we lost our electricity)

Suite Francaise

The story behind this book is nearly as interesting as the book itself. The author, Irene Nemirosky, was a Frenchwoman of Jewish ancestry, who had converted to Catholicism before World War Two began. She had completed the first two books of a five book cycle about the War, when she was sent to Auschwitz, and was killed. Her daughters found her notebooks, but only sixty years later did they realize what the notebooks contained. The first book tells of the flight or attempted flight of various Frenchmen, both Jewish and Gentile, likable and not on the eve of the German invasion. The second book, tells of everyday life in a rural French community under German occupation. Some of the characters overlap and the end of the book contains her notes hinting where the work would have gone had she lived to complete it. A memorable book, both for what it is and and for its unfulfilled promise.

Dedication

This is another recommendation from a co-worker. She really enjoyed this book by the co-writers of The Nanny Diaries. I admit that I am really intrigued by the premise. Kate and Jake were high school sweethearts. After he abandons her the night of the prom, he goes on to be a famous rock singer. It's hard for Kate to get over him considering she keeps hearing songs about their relationship on the radio. When he returns to their hometown, Kate is anxious for some closure. My co-worker thought this was funny and recommends it to anyone looking for closure or sweet revenge.