If it were possible to lock C.S. Lewis, J.D. Salinger, Terry Pratchett, and J.K. Rowling into a room and force them to collaborate on a book, the result might possibly be a lot like Lev Grossman's The Magicians and The Magician King. These are, strictly speaking, fantasy, but they do seem to bridge the gap between that genre and regular fiction.
The Magicians introduces the reader to the character of Quentin Coldwater, who is a familiar figure -- a teen with no clear direction. Through an odd sequence of events, he lands at Brakebills, a Hogwarts-like institution of magic. However, the similarity to Hogwarts is quite superficial -- Grossman's books, while lighthearted (and really funny) at times, lack the fairy tale/happy ending/hope for the world moods that underlie the Harry Potter series. The sequel, The Magician King, builds on the foundation of the story told in the first book, and has its share of surprises. These books are about people who seem real in their characters and have a greater share of flaws and faults, and while their choices do have a great impact, there are situations in which the characters cannot win, and simply have to deal with in their own ways.
I don't really give a blanket recommendation for these books, even though I have reread the first one several times and intend to do so with the sequel. If you really don't like fantasy, these books aren't for you. These books can be graphic at times, disturbingly so for some readers. This is not crossover kids' fantasy; these are real grownup books. But if you enjoyed any of the writers listed in the first paragraph of this post (with the possible exception of Rowling) you will probably enjoy these books as well.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Call For Guest Posters
It's been a pretty dry summer for me -- I've been plowing through lots of books, but I haven't found many that are worth posting for my discriminating audience. It occurred to me that not everyone is necessarily having that experience, so I am calling for submissions for guest posts. Sadly, I am not in a position to reward winning posts, but if you live in my vicinity, I'll be more than happy to make you dinner one night or watch your children for a few hours.
Interested? Leave your contact info and a brief summary of what you'd like to post in the comments form below, and I'll get back to you post haste.
Interested? Leave your contact info and a brief summary of what you'd like to post in the comments form below, and I'll get back to you post haste.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Little Women, Revisited
If you've never read Little Women, or if you've read it (or watched it) and loathed it, go play some Angry Birds, because this post is definitely not for you.
The Little Women Letters, by Gabrielle Donnelly, is a fluffy treat of a book. It's nearly chick lit, but not quite, because there isn't anyone nasty in the book (and if they are, you soon see their redeeming features). It's a feel-good book that will make you laugh out loud; in my case, I did so several times.
The book is based on the premise that the story of Alcott's Little Women is actually true, and that the March family did exist. It focuses on three contemporary sisters, Emma/Josephine, Lulu, and Sophie, and their lovable but slightly odd parents. There are truly no evil characters in this story -- everybody is really so nice! Even the characters who initially seem standoffish or rude quickly are dealt with and their inner niceness is revealed.
Lulu, the middle sister, is going through a bit of a career crisis when she discovers the letters of her great-grandmother, Josephine March. (Just a note of explanation -- the book takes place in England; her father is English and her mother is a transplanted American). Through the letters, Lulu finds a lot of comfort, and of course the storyline cooperates.
The relationships in this book are ridiculously too good to be true, and the conversations almost sitcom-like, but who cares? It makes its reader so so happy. This is definitely a book to pick up if you're blue.
The Little Women Letters, by Gabrielle Donnelly, is a fluffy treat of a book. It's nearly chick lit, but not quite, because there isn't anyone nasty in the book (and if they are, you soon see their redeeming features). It's a feel-good book that will make you laugh out loud; in my case, I did so several times.
The book is based on the premise that the story of Alcott's Little Women is actually true, and that the March family did exist. It focuses on three contemporary sisters, Emma/Josephine, Lulu, and Sophie, and their lovable but slightly odd parents. There are truly no evil characters in this story -- everybody is really so nice! Even the characters who initially seem standoffish or rude quickly are dealt with and their inner niceness is revealed.
Lulu, the middle sister, is going through a bit of a career crisis when she discovers the letters of her great-grandmother, Josephine March. (Just a note of explanation -- the book takes place in England; her father is English and her mother is a transplanted American). Through the letters, Lulu finds a lot of comfort, and of course the storyline cooperates.
The relationships in this book are ridiculously too good to be true, and the conversations almost sitcom-like, but who cares? It makes its reader so so happy. This is definitely a book to pick up if you're blue.
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Persistence of Memory
I just finished a new book called What Alice Forgot, which I haven't been able to stop thinking about. By Liane Moriarty, an Australian author who I have never heard of until now, this is chick lit with a twist.
Alice takes a hard fall during her weekly spin class, hits her head, and when she comes to, it's 1998 and she's pregnant with her first child (she calls it the sultana; I think this is Australian for raisin). Except it's not 1998 -- it's 2008, and Alice has lost the memories of ten years, has no recollection of her three children, and is evidently about to divorce her husband and can't remember why.
The ensuing action is fascinating. The 2008 Alice, as depicted through the eyes of the other characters, is a hardened woman with uber-mommy features and doesn't seem at all like the sweet, loving, idealistic 1998 Alice. My favorite part deals with an episode involving her teenager (the former sultana) who is suspended from school for some infraction. It's clear that the 2008 Alice, full of resentment towards the child who's evidently been giving her a hard time, would have dealt with this in a very different way than the new/old Alice who has just met her. 1998 Alice thinks Madison is a lovely girl, and with none of the backstory to affect her behavior, deals with the problem easily in a loving and proper manner.
I won't give away any more of this delightful story, but I would definitely categorize this as a must-read.
This reminded me a little of another book that I've mentioned before, which shares the theme of memory and the effect it (and the lack of it) can have on one's life. Welcome To The World, Baby Girl, by Fannie Flagg, kept coming to mind as I read this book, even though in many ways they are not alike. However, in this book memories that are buried and forgotten set off a sequence of events that culminate in a real comfort of a novel.
Alice takes a hard fall during her weekly spin class, hits her head, and when she comes to, it's 1998 and she's pregnant with her first child (she calls it the sultana; I think this is Australian for raisin). Except it's not 1998 -- it's 2008, and Alice has lost the memories of ten years, has no recollection of her three children, and is evidently about to divorce her husband and can't remember why.
The ensuing action is fascinating. The 2008 Alice, as depicted through the eyes of the other characters, is a hardened woman with uber-mommy features and doesn't seem at all like the sweet, loving, idealistic 1998 Alice. My favorite part deals with an episode involving her teenager (the former sultana) who is suspended from school for some infraction. It's clear that the 2008 Alice, full of resentment towards the child who's evidently been giving her a hard time, would have dealt with this in a very different way than the new/old Alice who has just met her. 1998 Alice thinks Madison is a lovely girl, and with none of the backstory to affect her behavior, deals with the problem easily in a loving and proper manner.
I won't give away any more of this delightful story, but I would definitely categorize this as a must-read.
This reminded me a little of another book that I've mentioned before, which shares the theme of memory and the effect it (and the lack of it) can have on one's life. Welcome To The World, Baby Girl, by Fannie Flagg, kept coming to mind as I read this book, even though in many ways they are not alike. However, in this book memories that are buried and forgotten set off a sequence of events that culminate in a real comfort of a novel.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
China In American Fiction
This weekend I read a recently-released book by Lisa See called Dreams of Joy; she's also the author of several other China-themed books which I read but haven't really retained well. The protagonist, Joy, flees her native Los Angeles in the 1950's after a series of events uncovers a family secret. Joy, a naive-to-the-point-of-stupidity college student, decides to go to Communist China to find her father, believing that she can be part of the glorious revolution that is making China so wonderful. Boy, is she in for a surprise. Her mother, Pearl, fully recognizing the danger Joy faces, returns to China to find her and bring her home, but of course it's not that simple.
See's descriptions of life during the Great Leap Forward remind me of the books of Betty Bao Lord; I loved her The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson as a child and enjoyed Eighth Moon and Spring Moon as an adult. The way life is portrayed during this time is almost too horrible to be believed, but if one reads the latest biography of Mao Zedong by Jung Chang it seems natural that such a man would create these terrible circumstances.
Amy Tan is another writer who seems to have defined the genre of the Chinese in America -- her Joy Luck Club is an excellent book, as well as The Kitchen God's Wife and others. My favorite, and an exception to her usual genre, is Saving Fish from Drowning, which is set in Burma and features a group of tourists who get lost.
See's descriptions of life during the Great Leap Forward remind me of the books of Betty Bao Lord; I loved her The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson as a child and enjoyed Eighth Moon and Spring Moon as an adult. The way life is portrayed during this time is almost too horrible to be believed, but if one reads the latest biography of Mao Zedong by Jung Chang it seems natural that such a man would create these terrible circumstances.
Amy Tan is another writer who seems to have defined the genre of the Chinese in America -- her Joy Luck Club is an excellent book, as well as The Kitchen God's Wife and others. My favorite, and an exception to her usual genre, is Saving Fish from Drowning, which is set in Burma and features a group of tourists who get lost.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Fiction That Reads Like Nonfiction, and Vice-Versa
This week I got through several books that seemed to be one thing but were in fact another. Every so often I'm fortunate enough to find a nonfiction book that is so well-written and interesting that it reads like fiction. Chasing Aphrodite is one such book. This book focuses on the Getty Museum's acquisitions of art and antiquities looted and sold by back-door methods all over Europe, and it reads like a thriller. Forgery, vendettas, packing ancient statues in car trunks in the dead of night -- this book has it all.
On the other hand, I also came across a couple of novels that, sadly, read like nonfiction. That's not to say that they were boring -- on the contrary, they were both interesting. But when one is expecting a novel, it's disconcerting to read through what is essentially a memoir/history with a few made-up characters.
Farishta, by Patricia McArdle, is the story of Angela Morgan, a diplomat who finds herself in Afghanistan. The plot is pretty bare bones; most of the story paints a compelling picture of a service life in a war zone and the particulars of life in Afghanistan. By the time one is done reading, what happens to Angela seems parenthetical and the reader is left with a sense of wonder at the mysterious country that is the graveyard of empires.
The Girl in the Blue Beret is a complete waste of time as a novel -- it's the story of a retired pilot who returns to France to retrace his steps in World War II. A downed aviator, he was aided by the French Resistance all the way over the Pyrenees to Spain, and he is returning to find the brave men and women who saved him and his crew. Most of the book consists of narratives from each resistant as he meets them along his journey. While these narratives are fascinating, the book's plot is barely necessary and is almost nonexistent. It's worth reading simply to get an idea of the courage and determination of those French who would not stand by and tolerate the German Occupation.
On the other hand, I also came across a couple of novels that, sadly, read like nonfiction. That's not to say that they were boring -- on the contrary, they were both interesting. But when one is expecting a novel, it's disconcerting to read through what is essentially a memoir/history with a few made-up characters.
Farishta, by Patricia McArdle, is the story of Angela Morgan, a diplomat who finds herself in Afghanistan. The plot is pretty bare bones; most of the story paints a compelling picture of a service life in a war zone and the particulars of life in Afghanistan. By the time one is done reading, what happens to Angela seems parenthetical and the reader is left with a sense of wonder at the mysterious country that is the graveyard of empires.
The Girl in the Blue Beret is a complete waste of time as a novel -- it's the story of a retired pilot who returns to France to retrace his steps in World War II. A downed aviator, he was aided by the French Resistance all the way over the Pyrenees to Spain, and he is returning to find the brave men and women who saved him and his crew. Most of the book consists of narratives from each resistant as he meets them along his journey. While these narratives are fascinating, the book's plot is barely necessary and is almost nonexistent. It's worth reading simply to get an idea of the courage and determination of those French who would not stand by and tolerate the German Occupation.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Wild Ride, Indeed
It's not unusual to find overlap between different genres; a case in point would be historical fiction and mystery. There are many good examples of books which represent the best of both types of writing. More rare, however, is a book that is a fusion of, say, chick-lit and fantasy. Wild Ride, by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, is just that type of book.
Crusie has published several entertaining chick-lit type books; I've never read anything by Mayer, but I'm assuming he brings the fantasy to the table. Essentially, Wild Ride is a book about an amusement park that is inhabited by demons. Called the Untouchables, these demons are enclosed in chalices to keep them from wreaking havoc; the longtime park employees make up a group called the Guardia and must endeavor to keep the world safe from the demons and their minions. Add several young women, a few young men, family secrets, and a love interest, and, Ta-Da! chick-lit and fantasy meld quite entertainingly.
Another book I read this weekend got a song stuck in my head, playing in an endless loop. Remember that Herman's Hermits song, Henry the eighth I am? About the fellow who married the widow who'd been married seven times before? Well, The Ninth Wife doesn't quite play out like that, but at its center is Rory, a man who narrates the stories of his eight marriages, interspersed with the story of Bess, who meets Rory and seems destined to be wife number nine. The characters in this book are very likable and don't necessarily develop the way the reader would expect. All in all, this is an engrossing and diverting book.
Crusie has published several entertaining chick-lit type books; I've never read anything by Mayer, but I'm assuming he brings the fantasy to the table. Essentially, Wild Ride is a book about an amusement park that is inhabited by demons. Called the Untouchables, these demons are enclosed in chalices to keep them from wreaking havoc; the longtime park employees make up a group called the Guardia and must endeavor to keep the world safe from the demons and their minions. Add several young women, a few young men, family secrets, and a love interest, and, Ta-Da! chick-lit and fantasy meld quite entertainingly.
Another book I read this weekend got a song stuck in my head, playing in an endless loop. Remember that Herman's Hermits song, Henry the eighth I am? About the fellow who married the widow who'd been married seven times before? Well, The Ninth Wife doesn't quite play out like that, but at its center is Rory, a man who narrates the stories of his eight marriages, interspersed with the story of Bess, who meets Rory and seems destined to be wife number nine. The characters in this book are very likable and don't necessarily develop the way the reader would expect. All in all, this is an engrossing and diverting book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)