Margaret, are you grieving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leaves, like the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you? Ah! as the heart grows older It will come to such sights colder By & by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie; And yet you will weep & know why. Now no matter, child, the [...]]]>
“to a young child”

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

–Gerard Manley Hopkins

Grief is such an individual, totally consuming, and heart-wrenching experience — especially when the death is by a young person or is totally unexpected.  This book explores the grief process very well.  Margaret and Nico are teenage sisters.  While Nico generally seeks out her parent’s approval, Margaret is a little on the wild side.  However, that is not what gets her killed.  Margaret has a heart problem and ends up drowning in the lake near their home.

The story is told from Nico’s point of view, and about her struggle to get through each day, each month, each year.  She worries about her own health and about how her parents are coping with her sister’s death.  She’s concerned for her sister’s boyfriend and how he’s dealing with it.  She even endures those around her who try to make her into parts of Margaret instead of herself.

Finally, the story ends with an adult Nico writing about how she and her family have recovered from their grief over the years.  Although — as anyone knows who has been through it — you never really get over the death of someone close to you.

2008, 288 pp.

Just like [...]]]> I just love Neil Gaiman (not to mention that his looks remind me of a close friend I had in college).  Well, I love his books, too, and this one was no exception.  It’s my third Gaiman, and although I still think I liked Coraline a tiny bit better, I loved The Graveyard Book.

Just like Coraline, I listened to this on audio with my two teenage sons.  If you haven’t heard Gaiman narrate his own books, you’re definitely missing out.  Most authors should not narrate their own books; Gaiman is one who should never allow someone else to do so.  His voice is perfect for it, and of course, no one would ever know his books better than he does.

The Graveyard Book contains a colorful (though some are long dead) cast of characters, some very creepy scenes, and some genuinely heartwarming ones.  It’s one of those perfect children’s/YA books in which it was definitely written to also appeal to adults.  It was great for the R.I.P. Challenge, and it was great to experience another one of Gaiman’s treasures as a family.

2008, 320 pp.

Neil Gaiman’s website.

Neil Gaiman’s web journal. (I’m a subscriber)

2008 Booker Prize winner 2008, 276 pp.

Hmmm, well, I happened to get this book from the library on the Saturday before the Booker Prize was announced “just in case.”  When The White Tiger was revealed as the winner, I was really surprised. Not only did it have the longest odds [...]]]>
The White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga

2008 Booker Prize winner
2008, 276 pp.

Hmmm, well, I happened to get this book from the library on the Saturday before the Booker Prize was announced “just in case.”  When The White Tiger was revealed as the winner, I was really surprised. Not only did it have the longest odds to win, but I had recently read The Secret Scripture and not-so-secretly hoped it would win.  In fact, the committee admitted these two were the main contenders and that the decision was not unanimous.

To be honest, I kind of groaned when I heard Adiga’s book was the winner.  I don’t have a love affair at all with the Booker prize winners that I’ve read, so I was a little skeptical that I would enjoy this one.  But, being the trooper that I am, I thought I’d give it at least 40 or so pages to see if it could capture my interest.

Surprise, surprise; it did.  Not only is it a scathing indictment against India’s treatment of its poorest citizens, it also manages to be a clever black comedy.  This is exactly what the prize committee chairman revealed as the reason behind its decision.  So which book did I like better, The White Tiger or The Secret Scripture?  It’s really comparing apples to oranges.  They’re just not the same type of book at all.  They both are worthy social commentaries on the authors’ home countries, but just written in a totally different style.  While Sebastian Barry’s prose is lyrical, Adiga’s is biting (and comical).  They both work spectacularly, just in different ways.  I can definitely see why the committee had a difficult decision on its hands, and either one would have been a winner in my book.

How does it fare against the other Booker Prize winners?  Well, I definitely enjoyed it more than some of the other winners I’ve read, including:

2007 – The Gathering by Anne Enright
2006 – The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
2005 – The Sea by John Banville
2000 – The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
1997 – The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
1985 – The Bone People by Keri Hulme
1983 – Life & Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee

And believe me, no one was more surprised than I was.

Starred Reviews: Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus

2008, 240 pp.

It’s rare that a book gets starred reviews from all four major review publications.  Was this book that good; does it really deserve that much attention?  Yes, absolutely.  I really, really loved it; so much, in fact, that I held off [...]]]> Atmospheric Disturbances
by Rivka Galchen

Starred Reviews: Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus

2008, 240 pp.

It’s rare that a book gets starred reviews from all four major review publications.  Was this book that good; does it really deserve that much attention?  Yes, absolutely.  I really, really loved it; so much, in fact, that I held off reading the last 20 pages or so for two days because I didn’t want it to be over.

Psychoanalyst Leo Liebenstein thinks his wife Rema has disappeared.  Not only that, but he believes she has been replaced by a simulcrum, someone who looks and acts (almost) exactly like her.  Meanwhile, Harvey, one of Leo’s mental patients (who believes he has the ability to control the weather) is also missing.  Not buying in to the simulcrum’s Rema-like performance,  Leo goes to the ends of the earth to Buenos Aires and Patagonia to try to uncover the truth of what has happened to his wife.

I’ll be the first to admit that although I enjoyed this book tremendously, it won’t be to everyone’s tastes. It’s very quirky, very eccentric, but also intelligent and extremely funny.  Much of what I found humorous in the novel was due to the fact that I went to Argentina in April, so I was able to get many of the inside jokes about dog poop in the streets, maté tea, Alpha Wh*re Rays, and many other references to Argentinian life. The author had been in South America for a year working on public health issues, so her writing comes from first hand experience in the region. There were, of course, also references to the (not so funny) “Disappeared.”

This is Rivka Galchen’s first novel, and I definitely will be anxiously awaiting whatever she comes up with next.  Oh, and if her literary career doesn’t work out (I have no doubt that it will), she can always fall back on her MD that she received from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

An interview with Rivka Galchen

Ugh.  I thought this was about a teen boy surfing in Australia.  I wanted it to be about a teen boy surfing in Australia.  And it was, for about 150 pages, then it goes off into a weird and extreme area that I will not mention here.  I feel ripped [...]]]> Breath by Tim Winton
2008, 218 pp.

Ugh.  I thought this was about a teen boy surfing in Australia.  I wanted it to be about a teen boy surfing in Australia.  And it was, for about 150 pages, then it goes off into a weird and extreme area that I will not mention here.  I feel ripped off because I enjoyed the first 3/4 of the book, but then to have to be subjected to…blech.

Pikelet and Loonie are two teenage boys obsessed with surfing.  They meet up with Sando, a guy in his mid 30′s who coaches them in the sport and sometimes encourages them to go a little too far with it.  Sando’s wife, Eva, was an extreme skier but now has a blown knee.  Consequently, she’s bitter because her husband still gets to do what he loves and because he’s not spending any time with her.  Breath is about pushing everything in life to the extreme to see how far one can go.

I’m giving it 2 stars because Tim Winton is a good writer and I enjoyed all but the last fourth (which totally ruined the whole thing for me.) 

Here’s an example of a passage I did enjoy:

I will always remember my first wave that morning. The smells of paraffin wax and brine and peppy scrub.  The way the swell rose beneath me like a body drawing in air.  How the wave drew me forward and I sprang to my feet, skating with the wind of momentum in my ears.  I leant across the wall of upstanding water and the board came with me as though it was part of my body and mind.  The blur of spray.  The billion shards of light.  I remember the solitary watching figure on the beach and the flash of Loonie’s smile as I flew by; I was intoxicated.  And though I’ve lived to be an old man with my own share of happiness for all the mess I made, I still judge every joyous moment, every victory and revelation against those few seconds of living.

2008, 465 pp.

The original Swedish title of this book means Men Who Hated Women, and that title is an excellent forewarning about what the book is about.  If you like gritty crime novels or shows like CSI, you’ll probably love the book.   My eyes and stomach prefer much [...]]]> The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson

2008, 465 pp.

The original Swedish title of this book means Men Who Hated Women, and that title is an excellent forewarning about what the book is about.  If you like gritty crime novels or shows like CSI, you’ll probably love the book.   My eyes and stomach prefer much milder fare, but I’ll still probably read the second installment, The Girl Who Played with Fire, when it comes out next year.

The girl who has the dragon tattoo is Lisbeth Salander, a girl in her mid-twenties who is a PI and can find out just about everything about anyone.  I liked her.  A lot.   Her character was fascinating and Larsson ends the book in such a way that leaves you wanting to hear more of her story and background.

Mikael Blomqvist is a journalist who has just lost a court case for libel, which then puts his reputation and his magazine Millennium at risk.  He decides to temporarily leave the paper in the hands of his partner to save face.  Enter Henrik Vanger.  Vanger is the former CEO of his family business, the Vanger Corporation.  He hires Blomqvist to write a family history of the Vangers as a pretext to dig into the disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vanger.  The case has been cold for decades and though Mikael believes he won’t be able to find any new evidence, he accepts.  This is where the book really grabbed me and kept me reading until 1 am to learn the outcome.

The book really has three storylines to it, the Harriet Vanger story is in the middle, with Lisbeth Salander’s story on the outside of that, and with Mikael Blomqvist’s story on the very outer edges.  Consequently, the climax occurs with quite a few pages still left in the book.  So at first it felt like the book should be over, but then after awhile I was able to get into the secondary and tertiary stories as well.

As I stated in the beginning, it really is about men who hate women, so if you read it be prepared for what that involves.  I didn’t care for the more graphic scenes in the book, but I do know that not everyone is as sensitive to that as I am.  And I do want to find out more about the girl with the dragon tattoo when The Girl Who Played with Fire comes out next year.

2008, 195 pp.

It seems this story has polarized readers. Some love it, while others intensely dislike the book. I fall into the latter camp. I thought I was really going to like it initially, but then the story went way over the top into unbelievability [...]]]> The Story of a Marriage
by Andrew Sean Greer

2008, 195 pp.

It seems this story has polarized readers. Some love it, while others intensely dislike the book. I fall into the latter camp. I thought I was really going to like it initially, but then the story went way over the top into unbelievability for me. I found myself disliking it more and more as the pages progressed. It’s really almost impossible to speak about the issues I had with the book without giving away some huge spoilers, but I will give you a taste of what it’s about.

Holland and Pearlie Cook are childhood sweethearts with a son and a dog that doesn’t bark. Everything is going along fine until one day Buzz, a man from Holland’s past, shows up at the door and changes everything.  Set in the 50′s and San Francisco.

Those who loved it:

• dovegreyreader
• Lizzy Siddal
• Kirsty

Those who didn’t:

• John Self
• Mark Thwaite
• Eve’s Alexandria

Those who were mixed:

• Shelf Love

If you’d like me to add your review, just let me know in the comments!

2008, 300 pp. Booker Prize Shortlist Rating:

What can I tell you further? I once lived among humankind, and found them in their generality to be cruel and cold, and yet could mention the names of three or four that were like angels.

I’d be happy if this book won the Booker Prize.  [...]]]> The Secret Scripture
by Sebastian Barry

2008, 300 pp.
Booker Prize Shortlist
Rating:

What can I tell you further? I once lived among humankind, and found them in their generality to be cruel and cold, and yet could mention the names of three or four that were like angels.

I’d be happy if this book won the Booker Prize.  Yeah, I would, and I haven’t read any of the other contenders yet!  Sebastian Barry is a magnificent writer, and I will definitely be reading more of his work.

Roseanne McNulty is almost 100 years old, and Dr. Grene is the psychiatrist attending her at Roscommon Mental Hospital.  The story slowly unfolds by giving alternating accounts of Roseanne and Dr. Grene.  As he seeks to understand her and her tragic past, he must also deal with some tragedy of his own.  As everyone knows, ‘grief lasts two years.’

With Ireland as a backdrop and themes of religion, mental illness, and family loyalty and betrayal, The Secret Scripture is superbly crafted and is definitely worthy of the Booker Prize.

The narrator is Jimmy, code-named [...]]]> I love Margaret Atwood, but Oryx and Crake was just too gritty for my taste. This was compounded by the fact that I listened to it on audio. Hearing the graphic descriptions was even worse than reading it.  This was my fifth Atwood, and by far my least favorite.

The narrator is Jimmy, code-named Snowman.  Crake is a sort of Dr. Moreau figure, while Oryx is a woman caught between the two.  I don’t want to give away too many details for those who still want to read it, but if you’re squeamish about graphic s*xu*l situations (including child p*r*o*raphy), I would advise against it.  I didn’t get why it had to have that element to the story.  I also wondered why the title of the book was named that way, but in the end, I guess it was because Oryx and Crake were the two most influential figures in Jimmy’s life.

I would recommend reading other Atwoods before this one.  The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, and The Penelopiad are my favorites so far.

2003, 378 pp.

Alice Winston lives on a horse ranch in the desert with her father and reclusive mother, while her older sister Nona has run off [...]]]> I knew I would probably enjoy The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle because it’s about a girl growing up in a small town in Colorado — this girl did the same.

Alice Winston lives on a horse ranch in the desert with her father and reclusive mother, while her older sister Nona has run off with a cowboy riding the rodeo circuit.  With her sister gone, Alice’s father struggles to make the ranch profitable by boarding the horses of the wealthier women in town.  It’s a lot of work for just the two of them, and somehow they make do for awhile.  But all of them miss Nona and can’t understand why she’d leave the family and the ranch.

Meanwhile, Alice is dealing with being accepted at school and recovering from the death of a classmate.  She experiences her first kiss and her first crush.  She tries to make sense of the adults around her.  I sympathized with Alice and winced at the all too familiar pains of growing up.  I rooted for things to go her way.  Sadly, however, life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan.  Sometimes we just have to accept the way things are.

The God of Animals was Aryn Kyle’s first book.

2008 Spur (Best Western Long Novel)
2007, 320 pp.

Lin Enger’s debut novel is a modern take on Hamlet, but with a few differences from the original. Even though I’m very familiar with the play, I found that Undiscovered Country surprisingly kept me in suspense throughout. There were just enough differences to keep [...]]]> The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn
No traveler returns,  – HAMLET

Lin Enger’s debut novel is a modern take on Hamlet, but with a few differences from the original. Even though I’m very familiar with the play, I found that Undiscovered Country surprisingly kept me in suspense throughout. There were just enough differences to keep me more than interested in the novel.

Set in wintry Minnesota, Jesse finds his father in the woods — dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.  While the local law enforcement thinks it’s a closed case, Jesse refuses to believe that his father committed suicide and sets out to prove it.  Of course there’s a suspicious uncle in the story as well as an ‘Ophelia’, but it doesn’t always follow the ’script,’ so there is that element of suspense to the tale.

Enger’s descriptions of the starkly cold winters in Minnesota really add to the atmosphere of the book, and his writing of the characters, though familiar,  seem very real.  We feel Jesse’s angst, just as we did Hamlet’s.  We want justice, just as we do in Shakespeare’s play.  I would love to read and compare this book to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and The Dead Father’s Club, both also modern retellings of the famous play.

Lin Enger is the brother of Leif Enger, who wrote Peace Like a River, which I loved, and also So Brave, Young, and Handsome, which I hope to read sometime this year.  I’ll definitely keep an eye out for Lin Enger’s next novel as well.

2008, 304 pp.