I dimly suspect I just found my favorite novel of the year, and it's only February—is that a good thing or a bad one?
The scope of the novel is microsI dimly suspect I just found my favorite novel of the year, and it's only February—is that a good thing or a bad one?
The scope of the novel is microscopic: an art dealer in his late thirties takes a business trip to Berlin after having a falling out with his boyfriend. He learns things about himself. The end. But, like THE HUMMINGBIRD and SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU, two other novels I'm stupidly fond of, the characters in this book became alive to me. Berlin, too, appeared in vivid color, seen with the glittering partial clarity of a tourist's eyes. At the center of the book is an art installation that looks at Ostalgie, the nostalgia for life before the Wall came down, and Schnall takes his time discussing the difference between nostalgia and history, drawing parallels between Berlin's difficult past and Samuel's difficult existing relationship. At one point Samuel's mother busts out this line: "Nostalgia is memory with a really good director."
I MAKE ENVY ON YOUR DISCO is wonderfully happy, wonderfully sad, and wonderfully contained. My 2025 reading list suddenly has a lot to live up to....more
It's a memoir, and I've been up to my eye bags in memoirs for my last novel and the current one. And it was about a novelisI did not want to buy this.
It's a memoir, and I've been up to my eye bags in memoirs for my last novel and the current one. And it was about a novelist grieving after her beloved husband suddenly dropped dead—I already had Didion cued up for later this year.
But it was by Geraldine Brooks, one of my favorite novelists, who just has a way of putting story on a page. At once soothing and ecstatic. So I bought it today and I finished it just now and it was just ... it was just so good, guys. It reminded me a bit of how I felt when I finished WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR, a little book that also felt as if it were bigger on the inside than the outside. Highly recommended to those who enjoy her novels, but also to anyone who needs to remember how joy and grief can (and should) coexist....more
Ah, I thought this book was great—it made me feel the way I did after reading SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU by Peter Cameron. I read it in 1Ah, I thought this book was great—it made me feel the way I did after reading SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU by Peter Cameron. I read it in 1.5 sittings, which is the way to do it, I think; I would have been happier with a single sitting, but my plane ride was 25 minutes too short.
Like SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU, this book is largely about nothing. No, let me back up and 'splain. HUMMINGBIRD dives so deeply into the details of a Marco Carrera's life that it forms a naturalistic snapshot rather than a plotty page turner. Letters from a childhood friend/ possible flame offer some delicate structure, but the real propulsive pleasure is in meeting Marco and getting to know him better and better and better, through Veronesi's careful observation. Marco's a kindly, durable soul, and we want the best for him. Unfortunately, he doesn't always get the best. That's pretty much the only point of the novel. For me, that was enough.
I offer this recommendation in much the same way I offer recommendations for THE NEW POPE (another piece of media that is both full of Italians and often about nothing), knowing it's not for everyone, but also knowing it was only a recommendation that made me pick it up in the first place. Don't judge it by book jacket copy; try the first few pages. Nothingness might be just what you're after....more
A meticulous, kind, hyper-realistic portrait of messy, flawed humans—if Elana Ferrante wrote Bridget Jones, if Nick Hornby did a Jane Austen.
I read tA meticulous, kind, hyper-realistic portrait of messy, flawed humans—if Elana Ferrante wrote Bridget Jones, if Nick Hornby did a Jane Austen.
I read this because so many novelists I admired had wonderful things to say about it. I liked it a lot, although it was clearly a product of its era (80s). I think a lot of women will find our stumbling, smart, contradictory heroine relatable, and it has a lot of clever, non-preachy things to say about power imbalances in relationships. ...more
(ETA:Across social media, people are asking me how I got out of high school without reading this book — I didn't go to high Well, that was depressing.
(ETA:Across social media, people are asking me how I got out of high school without reading this book — I didn't go to high school. I left after a partial year.)
(look, don't do as I do, do as I say: STAY IN SCHOOL)
Merged review:
Well, that was depressing.
(ETA:Across social media, people are asking me how I got out of high school without reading this book — I didn't go to high school. I left after a partial year.)
(look, don't do as I do, do as I say: STAY IN SCHOOL)...more
A brief first person account by a Japanese seaman who navigated one of the handful of suicidal two-person microsubmarines during the attack on Pearl HA brief first person account by a Japanese seaman who navigated one of the handful of suicidal two-person microsubmarines during the attack on Pearl Harbor, POW #1. This was written for a Japanese audience, not an American one, to explain—to justify—his transformation in the POW camp, from cog in the military machine to something more complex. The chapter on Japanese POWs and suicide was harrowing; I didn't intentionally read this so soon after seeing Oppenheimer, but it certainly was a potent pairing. ...more
This is the story of how this novel first came to my attention:
I was standing in a bookstore when a young man walked in, straight to the new release sThis is the story of how this novel first came to my attention:
I was standing in a bookstore when a young man walked in, straight to the new release section, and pointed at this book. He hissed at it furiously, "You're a bad book!" and then, without further remark, walked away.
About a year later, I could no longer fight my curiosity. I bought a copy.
What do I think? Is it a bad book? I think it is an ambitious, tangled, heady sort of book that is magnificent when it works and dully impotent when it doesn't. It is the sort of ambitious novel that is difficult to judge, since it only drops so many things because it is trying to carry so much. I expect it to be loved or hated, but most of all remembered. Since I think that's the author's stated purpose for it, five stars....more
Is this the first book that pleased me this year? I think it is. How agreeable it is to discover my reader heart has not become a complete husk! The jIs this the first book that pleased me this year? I think it is. How agreeable it is to discover my reader heart has not become a complete husk! The jacket of this novel says it's about a bookstore haunted by the ghost of a longtime (and annoying) customer, but really, that's just an excuse for pages and pages of a classily written, Gilmore-Girls-esque collection of Native women living complex found-family lives in 2019-2020 Minneapolis. This novel is also full of books, as one would expect in a book about a bookseller, and I like the recommended book lists at the end!
The ghost plot gallops and then tip toes and then eventually shrugs along, which I think will drive some readers batty, but I generally felt the carefully drawn portrait of the main character Tookie was enough to pull me through. Speaking of Tookie, I read a few reviews here before I wrote this one and was surprised to find some people saying they didn't find her realistic or 3D—she reminded me so very uncannily of someone I know, both good and bad, that I felt Erdrich must have had someone like her very much in mind.
It seems appropriate that the first book to break me from my reader slump is a book about readers. A long time ago, I spotted a little girl reading a board book in a bookstore. When she got to the last page, she patted the cover and said "Thank you, book!"
As a thought exercise, a puzzle-in-narrative-form, I liked it very, very much. I see what you did, McEwan, and you did it very well.
As a novel, I didnAs a thought exercise, a puzzle-in-narrative-form, I liked it very, very much. I see what you did, McEwan, and you did it very well.
As a novel, I didn't like it very much at all.
Your mileage may vary.
(I did not see the film, but I assume it's more lush and romantic, as it surely must rely less on the clever trick of the prose-version and more on the narrated events, which are very overwrought and passionate when taken at face value)....more
This book was recommended to me a long time ago and, today, tidying up my shelves, I rediscovered and read it.
This memoir contains a story similar toThis book was recommended to me a long time ago and, today, tidying up my shelves, I rediscovered and read it.
This memoir contains a story similar to mine (and my family's) in many ways. It's also a different way to tell the story I told (heavily nestled in metaphor) in the Dreamer Trilogy.
I think those still in the early stages of the journey would find it very comforting to read....more
I knew very little about this novel (published in 1945, absurdly well known, adapted to miniseries the year I was born) going in, and what I did thinkI knew very little about this novel (published in 1945, absurdly well known, adapted to miniseries the year I was born) going in, and what I did think I knew turned out to be wrong. It's funnier than I expected, which surprised me, and also more truthful than I expected, which pleases me. Mostly, I expected a class-based melodrama; instead, it is an often discomfiting portrait of a family, sometimes zoomed in to the most intimate and squirmy image, sometimes sprawled over a grueling and lengthy battlefield....more
Years ago, I stayed at a brand new Vegas hotel for a conference. Brand. New. This shining black tower of decadence had been decorated only a few monthYears ago, I stayed at a brand new Vegas hotel for a conference. Brand. New. This shining black tower of decadence had been decorated only a few months before I got there. It had all the ambiance of a freshly vacuumed rental car. In time it would wear Vegas, or vice versa, but for now: it was the new, gormless kid on the block.
So imagine my surprise when, on the last day of my stay, I was tormented all night long by something that turned on the jets in my hot tub, stomped heavily to and fro every time I turned the lights out, and, eventually, after I told the room audibly to "cut it out, I've got an early flight," slammed a shaking blow into the headboard directly beside me to remind me who had seniority in this place. In the morning, I confessed to the front desk I'd had a bit of an exciting night, and not in the usual Vegas way. With a glance at the room number, the clerk said he bet that I had.
Later, I found out the brand new hotel had only been a few weeks old when a man had jumped to his death from one of the rooms; the stylish glass balconies I'd enjoyed were an aftermarket part, designed to keep other tortured guests from following suit. Unclear if my room had been the unlucky suite. Unclear if my room was like that because the man had jumped, or if the man had jumped because my room was like that.
So: that's The Shining.
I'm sure I'm the last person in the world to have read the book (I haven't seen the film still, but now I will), but better late than never, right?
Sucks to shine in a hotel hungry for it, I guess....more
This slender 1968 novel surprised me by being funny. Not outrageously funny, not slyly funny, but dead-pan-I'm-not-going-to-spell-it-out-for-you-funnyThis slender 1968 novel surprised me by being funny. Not outrageously funny, not slyly funny, but dead-pan-I'm-not-going-to-spell-it-out-for-you-funny. The subtly smirking dialog-heavy action made short work of an already short book. Mattie is a crotchety and impossible teen narrator, and there are few truly happy endings on the old open range, but I was still left ruefully smiling.
True Grit is nearly three quarters of a century old, with all the caveats that come with that, but if you're a critical and considering reader, it's a fine way to spend an afternoon, loping in the company of the extremely memorable Mattie Ross....more
A claustrophobic nautilus of a novel. The summary touts this as a time travel story but to me, it seemed less interested in time travel and more in a A claustrophobic nautilus of a novel. The summary touts this as a time travel story but to me, it seemed less interested in time travel and more in a novelist's wistful musings on the harrowing transformation from *a writer, quiet observer of the world*, to *a writer, performing being a writer*— on what it means for her identity and time to be consumed as well as her novels.
I understand why the summary lingers on time travel; there is plenty of it in this book. But to me the book really boils down to one scene, one moment: Olive, the writer, has to excuse herself from the hotel restaurant, where she is trying to charge her meal to her room, in order to ask the front desk to remind her what her room number is in this particular hotel, this particular city. She can't remember, all times are one, all times are unreal. That is what this book is about....more
Here are some things you can expect to find in this book, which is solidly in the Mean Mommy Thriller Genre (a subcategory of the Lululemon Murder LadHere are some things you can expect to find in this book, which is solidly in the Mean Mommy Thriller Genre (a subcategory of the Lululemon Murder Ladies genre, which sometimes features Mean Mommies but not always): •trains •alcoholic beverages of all kinds, big ones, small ones, glass bottles, plastic •blunt trauma •sexy real estate agents •sexy nannies •sexy independently employed freelancer IT professionals* •sexy therapists •sexy therapy •babies (both tots and angels)** •unreliable narrators •unreliable therapists •reliable trains •puke
*I'm not entirely clear how this works but I assume it is a Gross Pointe Blank but with laptops situation **according the John Mulaney Child Classification System
A perfectly solid entry in the category and a good way to occupy oneself during a cross country plane ride....more
