DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD, by Olga Tokarczuk

 Olga Tokarczuk, a well-known and controversial writer in her native Poland, became better known to an international audience when she was awarded the International Booker Prize for her novel Flights in 2018.  Her 2009 novel Drive your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead caused a sensation in her homeland and more than a little controversy - she was accused of promoting eco-terrorism! The novel is hard to categorize - on the surface, it is a noir crime novel - indeed it is a story of several murders that take place under mysterious circumstances in a rural, mountainous area of western Poland, complete with a creative resolution. But there are other very interesting aspects of the story - particularly, the odd character of the protagonist, Janina Duszejko, who is an elderly women, suffering from an undisclosed illness with strange symptoms, and has a fascination to both astrology and nature (in particular, animals). It would not be an exaggeration to call her a fanatic regarding both of these pursuits. She is also a retired English teacher and passionate admirer of William Blake, and helps a friend work out translations basically as a mental exercise. The novel is narrated by Janina and her personality quirks color the entire story.   Despite the murder plot, the novel is also very meditative - the tone is calm and solemn, philosophical, really, as issues such as free will vs. determinism and species chauvinism surface throughout. It's a wonderful and fascinating read.

For a review of the book by The Guardian, click here:  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/21/drive-your-plow-over-the-bones-of-the-dead-review 

CLEAR, by Nicola Barker

 Clear, by Nicola Barker, is an entertaining and often funny book set against a unique publicity stunt - magician David Blaine's 44-day public starvation illusion in London in 2003. Given the bizarre context of the story, the novel explores some unexpected and amusing people and events at its fringe. An interesting aspect of the novel is the male narrator, Adair, who hangs around the event basically to pick up girls. He sort of succeeds at this goal in his pursuit of Aphra, a quirky girl with a special gift of a highly sensitive sense of smell, which she uses in her work at a department store. As it turns out, she has some other secrets. His character is irritating but somewhat rings true - although his characterization is sometimes overdone. The book's style matches his character, with lots of sarcastic asides and pseudo self-reflection. The story does take a poignant turn late in the novel.  Overall, the novel is rather light but often entertaining and worth a read for that.

For a review of the book by The Guardian, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/18/featuresreviews.guardianreview19 

 

STATION ELEVEN, by Emily St. John Mandel

 I have reviewed a few "COVID" novels, novels written during the pandemic or at least thematically related to the pandemic, for example, Orhan Pamuk's Nights of Plague and Jonathan Lethem's The Arrest. What sets Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven apart is that it was written in 2014 several years before the actual COVID outbreak. The novel is set in the dystopian aftermath of a pandemic that suddenly arose and wiped out 99% of the world's population in a very short time. Although somewhat familiar now in its depiction of a wasteland of decayed civilization populated by a ragtag set of survivors, the novel is saved from cliche in the way it intertwines the past (pre-pandemic) and present (pandemic aftermath) in an interesting narrative structure. Several characters, in particular, Arthur Leander, a professional actor who died on the eve of the start of the pandemic, and his daughter Kirsten, who was 8 years old at the time. Set in "year 20" of the new "order", the most poignant aspect of the book is the complex role of memory of "how things were" which makes the idealized past so sweet and the present both depressing but in a way bearable. The novel was serialized in a TV mini-series in 2021 in an obviously changed world from that of the book's publication in 2014. 

For a review of the book, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/25/station-eleven-review-emily-st-john-mandel

OH, WILLIAM, by Elizabeth Strout

 Having picked up the novel Oh, William cold, I didn't realize that it is a kind of sequel to two earlier novels by Elizabeth Strout, My Name is Lucy Barton (2016), in which Lucy is the narrator, and also a character in her novel Anything is Possible (2017). Despite reading some reviews that suggested that my lack of context might be a problem reading Oh, William without having read the other two novels, I feel that the book is quite readable without the prior context and if anything, it made for a subtler read in which I had to surmise a lot of context and history from brief allusions. At any rate, Oh, William is a beautifully written book about Lucy's complex emotional landscape and her complicated feelings toward her ex-first husband William Gerhardt.  There's also a lot in the novel about Lucy's own attempts to create a safe identity for herself, overcoming a difficult childhood and various emotional attachments over her life. It's a quiet book, full of contemplation but with moments of intensity and even occasional humor. 

Click here for a review of the book from NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/books/review/oh-william-elizabeth-strout.html

  

CASE STUDY, by Graeme Macrae Burnet

 Case Study is a novel that is centered on the concept of deceit (definitely including self-deceit) of the main characters. The story is centered on a fictional '60s-era wunderkind spokesman for the anti-psychology movement in Britain, a certain Dr. Braithwaite. The main story line is about a women (with, as we discover)  psychological problems who is the sister of one of his ex-patients who had committed suicide.   This sister initiates a contact with Braithwaite in an attempt to discover whether he is to blame for his sister's tragic end. She does to by pretending to be  "Rebecca Smith", a troubled women who is seeking therapy from Braithwaite. It's basically detective work. She becomes his patient and the book walks us through their "relationship" as patient/ therapist. It's clear that "Rebecca" doesn't have a real plan to discover the truth and finds herself caught up in the roleplay she initiates. Turns out she has her  own share of issues herself and there is some back-and-forth between "Rebecca" and the actual sister. Central to the story is the truly unlikeable character of Braithwaite, who is, basically, an arrogant ass with a despicable moral standard. But the big question is, is he a "fake"? So the theme of authenticity reverberates throughout the novel. It does have very funny and ironic moments and is quite enjoyable.

For a review of the book by Kirkus, click here: CASE STUDY | Kirkus Reviews

A SYSTEM SO MAGNIFICENT IT IS BLINDING, by Amanda Svensson

 Long-listed for the Booker Prize, "A System So Magnificent it is Blinding" is a meandering, sometimes incoherent journey into the family dynamics of triplets who have a major skeleton in the family closet that has skewed their personal and familial identity. The book presents an impossibly complicated, twisted plot as the struggles and personalities of the 3 siblings create odd situations and intra-family conflicts. Ultimately, by means of a big revelation of the truth that comes about in a convoluted and bizarre turn of events, the family reconciles itself to the truth and reconstitutes itself. Although often tiring to make sense of, the writing is clever and even beautiful at times, and worth the effort overall. To be honest, though, I did sometimes find my self pondering, "Is this really Booker Prize material?"

Click here for a review of the book from NY Times: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/books/review/amanda-svensson-system-so-magnificent-it-is-blinding.html

MY REVOLUTONS, by Hari Kunzru

 My Revolutions, Hari Kunzru's third novel, is the story of a "failed" revolutionary, a member of a radical left-wing group (think, Weather Underground) set in Britain in the late 1960s. The protagonist, Chris Carver, AKA Michael Frame, has gone "underground" for several decades as the story starts - in 1998. "Hiding in plain sight" would be a more accurate description of his situation. He is living a manufactured identity as a middle-class househusband in London. His affiliation with a radical group of revolutionaries decades earlier resulted in his having dropped out of sight as things got too hot, doing a stint in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand to detox from a heroin addiction among other adventures, before taking on a new identity. His new status quo is shaken when, on a holiday in France, he sees a women he thinks is his old companion, lover, fellow revolutionary in the old days who he presumed had been killed in the violent takeover of the West German embassy in Copenhagen years earlier. This incident, along with the unexpected and "unfortunate' meeting of someone tangentially connected with his revolutionary days precipitates a crisis. The narrative jumps back and forward in time and paints a clear picture of Chris/Michael and his current mental state as well as what he has been through. Considering the fact that the writer was actually born in 1969 and certainly had no first-hand experience in the milieu he describes so vividly, it is a believable and compelling story of a turbulent time and the reflection about it in the mind of one of its participants.

For a review of the book from the NY Times, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/books/review/Blythe-t.html

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND, by Anthony Doerr

 

Cloud Cuckoo Land is an enjoyable and profound reflection on preserving what is valuable and the unlikely combination of chance events that might make that possible. It also focuses on the way love preserves that value. The novel has a complex intertwining set of narratives of the stories of 5 main characters spread over wide historical and geographical settings, such as around the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in the mid 15th century, 20th and 21st century Idaho, the fields of the Korean War,  aboard an inter-generational space ship enroute to a "second earth" in mid-21st century. All of these at first seemingly disconnected narratives gradually converge to tell a story of preservation that is centered on a "lost" ancient Greek comedy entitled "Cloud Cuckoo Land". The novel itself is much more interesting than what my above comments suggest, not in the least because of the often beautiful writing that situates us as readers at each of these narrative spaces and connects us to the memorable characters.  

For a review of the novel by The Guardian, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/24/cloud-cuckoo-land-by-anthony-doerr-review-a-joyous-epic-of-love-and-survival

Nights of Plague, by Orhan Pamuk

 Like several other writers, Orhan Pamuk took time during the recent COVID-19 pandemic to write a "COVID book" (Jonathan Lethem's The Arrest also comes to mind). Pamuk's book, the nearly 700-page long Nights of Plague is an epic story set at the start of the 20th century in the fictional backwater island in the Aegean Sea "Mingheria", that was part of the disintegrating Ottoman empire. The island territory, at the start of the story, is in the early stages of a plague epidemic that ultimately gets much worse and ravages its people and precipitates an independence movement away from Ottoman control.  The long and convoluted story, embedded in a self-reflexive narrative structure, is detailed and vivid. There is also a murder mystery at the start of the story that regularly comes back into focus.  The book is a pleasure to read if you are a Pamuk fan and don't mind getting dragged through a convoluted story that eventually comes together in interesting ways. 

For a review of the book by NY Times, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/30/books/review/nights-of-plague-orhan-pamuk.html

BIG BANG, by David Bowman

 I first noticed David Bowman's novel Big Bang when I recently did a search of titles by Jonathan Lethem, one of my favorite writers. I hadn't seen any new novels by Lethem since his "COVID novel" The Arrest in 2021, so I was interested to see Big Bang pop up in my search. It turns out that Big Bang was not written by Lethem at all, but he had written the introduction to the book. Both the introduction and the novel are very entertaining. Big Bang is an encyclopedic walk through the American social landscape of the mid-20th century. Influenced by DeLillo, particularly the novel Underworld, Bowman puts a dizzying array of personalities on the page, writing blunt and often very funny vignettes about the lives of a diverse set of well-known '50s and '60s characters such as: JFK, Jacqueline Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis, Richard Nixon and Ngo Dinh Diem, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Lee, Dr. Benjamin Spock and his wife, Jane, J.D. Salinger, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, Saul Bellow, Marilyn Monroe, etc. (just a representative list). Major events in American society and politics are also part of the story, such as the Cuban missile crisis, Watergate scandal, "Red scare" of the '50s, etc. Central to the story is the assassination of JFK (the Big Bang?). The book starts and ends with this event, presumably the pivotal moment starting the downward shift of US culture/society over the past half century. After reading the 600+ pages of this loosely structured book (very roughly chronological but seemingly random in the choice and sequence of individual episodes), the reader feels both exhausted and excited. It's particularly satisfying for Baby Boomers who have actually lived through all the stuff narrated in the book.

For a review of the book by New York Times, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/books/review-big-bang-david-bowman.html

WHEN WE CEASE to UNDERSTAND THE WORLD, by Benjamín Labatut

 When We Cease to Understand the World is an extraordinary work of ... nonfiction? historical fiction? Dystopian fiction? Some sort of combination of all three.  The book consists of a number of vignettes - narratives about scientists who were mostly part of the often contentious discourse about the newly-"invented" field of Quantum Physics in the first half of the 20th Century. The stories all highlight some dark aspects of the lives of these scientists (and others), often with mixed results for the reader. They are seldom absolute heroes or villains. One reviewer called the book a dystopian novel set in the present, because the unsettling real-life uses of mathematics underlying the work of these scientists are certainly dark and destructive. 

For a review of the book from The Guardian, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/10/when-we-cease-to-understand-the-world-by-benjamin-labatut-review-the-dark-side-of-science

THE FRIEND, by Sigrid Nunez

 The Friend is  moving novel about the themes of mourning, loss and writing that is based on an unusual device - the "friend" in question is both the narrator's close writer friend who has recently committed suicide and his dog, a comically huge Great Dane that scarcely fits into her tiny NYC apartment, whom she is "willed" to take care of. Based on this setup, the story could have turned sentimental or even silly, yet the story is fiercely honest and emotionally raw.  The story is narrated directly to her dead friend, reflecting on their past relationship and her current feelings, which are heavily oppressed by trying to deal with his suicide. It's a heartbreakingly transparent view of the narrator's grief. The canine "friend", though, plays a role in her grieving and coming to terms with the tragic loss of her friend, who was certainly no angel while alive and with whom she had a complex relationship that gets described little-by-little. The third theme, writing, is very interesting. The book is a real-time reflection on the power of writing to help the grieving process (or not). Descriptions of her interactions with other writers and with her students in the creative writing classes she teaches leaves the whole neo-romantic notion of the healing power of writing unresolved. It's a wonderful book and was very favourably received by critics.

For a review of the book from NPR, click here: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/23/579233885/the-friend-is-no-shaggy-dog-story

LOST FOR WORDS, by Edward St. Aubyn

 Lost for Words is an entertaining satire by acclaimed British author Edward St. Aubyn. In this novel, he sets his sights on the world of literary awards, masterfully poking fun at the whole concept and process of award-giving for literary achievement. We are introduced to the rag-tag set of judges for a fictitious literary award, each with their own foibles and shortcomings and complicated relationships with each other. The excerpts of some of the listed books are the most fun - ridiculous in the extreme, they are great send-ups of the sort of novels that are often hyped by the publishing establishment (e.g., pseudo-exotic "The Mulberry Elephant"; supposedly gritty "Wot u starin at?"; lame thriller "Roger and Out"; "All the World's a Stage, updated Shakespearean theme written from Will's own perspective). Although intelligent and insightful,  it sometimes borders on slapstick (e.g., the awards ceremony), At any rate, it's great fun to read.

For a review of the novel from The Guardian, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/11/lost-for-words-review-edward-st-aubyn-review-prize-satire

Eat the Document, by Dana Spiotta

 Eat the Document is the story of a '60s radical, implicated in a bombing plot gone awry, and her attempt to escape justice by reinventing herself completely into a new person. Although this idea has some romantic resonance, the reality, as illustrated by the author, is psychically debilitating. The novel traces the protagonist, who moves through several invented identities as she tries to obliterate her past self. Parallel journeys are suggested in that of her boyfriend at the time, and other minor characters. The novel is engaging and subtle in its telling of the psychological toll of living a life of lies and never being able to be truthful to anyone. There is also, later in the book, a parallel story of the discover of the protagonist's true identity by her teenage son. All-in-all, it is a powerfully written book and worth reading.

For a review of the book by NY Times, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/03/books/a-radical-on-the-run-determined-to-escape-the-past.html

NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS, by Patricia Lockwood.

 I was familiar with Patricia Lockwood only from having read her warmly comedic 2017 memoir "Priest Daddy", which is an enjoyable window into growing up in an absurd family situation - her father was a "married priest" and her family life not exactly "the norm". No One is Talking is centered on the culturally overwhelming phenomenon of the internet, called "the portal" in the book, and the addictive and negative effects of its overuse (basically a universal phenomenon). The book is divided into two parts - the first is a fragmented trip through the "portal", or more accurately, through the mind of a person who is immersed in the internet. Much of it describes outrageous mems and the kind of toxic interaction among users that substitutes for social discourse these days. The style of the book, disconnected fragments usually with no apparent connection, mimics the internet experience well. The perversion of language and of humor are constant themes, but it's essentially plotless. In the second half of the book, an event occurs that blasts her virtual existence into reality - her sister has a child who is severely disabled. Coming to terms with the heartache of the situation and the real, raw emotions makes the virtual world recede from its occupation of her soul. The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021, and is a very interesting critical look at the subtle, colonizing, addicting phenomenon of the internet and its effects, and in the second half, a raw and agonizing look at an impossible situation. Although the narrator's sister's mother says at one point in the story, "I can't see anything good in this", at least the emotions are real and pure, liberated from internet influence.

For a review of the book from the Guardian, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/12/no-one-is-talking-about-this-by-patricia-lockwood-review-life-in-the-twittersphere

ANNIHILATION, by Jeff VanderMeer

 I don't mind a good dystopian story, so I picked up Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer as it was getting quite a lot of buzz recently. After reading it, I found out that it had been made into a movie, and that fact confirmed my reaction to it. I felt, as I read it, as though I was watching one of the seemingly infinite number of low-budget Sci Fi films on TV in which a small number of characters work their way through a claustrophobically small set and get bumped off one-by-one by an unknown (or known) force/monster/ boogieman. That pretty much sums up the book. Set in the not-to-distant-future, this "eco-nightmare" takes place in "Area X" - somewhere in Louisiana evidently, where there is some sort of major psychic/ecological disruption taking place. The government (?) periodically sends exploratory parties into the area and all meet with some sort of disaster, usually a combination of physical and psychological trauma. The novel follows the 11th expedition into the area. Consisting of five women, we only know the characters by their functional names (archeologist, linguist, psychologist, etc.). They discover a "tower" not on the official maps of the area and explore it, finding a creature of interest. There's also a "lighthouse" where relevant action takes place. The novel is the 1st in the 3-book "Southern Reach" series. The writing is good, basically mimetic fiction with some weird stuff thrown in. Although not a bad piece of writing, I'm skipping the rest of the series.

For a review of the book from The Washington Post, click here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/annihilation-by-jeff-vandermeer/2014/02/25/0a52a03a-9d82-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html

For a review of the movie based on the book from Variety, click here: https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/annihilation-review-natalie-portman-1202706321/

Mr. Loverman, by Bernardine Evaristo

 I recently heard that Barack Obama has recommended Booker Prize winning British author Bernardine Evaristo as an author worth reading. I totally agree. Her novel "Mr. Loverman, is her 7th book. Although the premise is rather "tragic" - the story of a long-dysfunctional marriage between two Jamaican immigrants living in London, it is written with great heart and even has a positive resolution to the seemingly intractable domestic conflict at the heart of the book. The novel's protagonist, "Mr. Loverman", is 76-year old dandy Barrington Jedidiah Walker Esq, otherwise known as Barry. It so happens that the love of his life is not his wife of 50 years, but his gay lover who he has known since adolescence back in Jamaica. The backstory of Barry's connection to Morris, his wife and the intervening years get told in a series of flashbacks. Barry, by no means a spotlessly character morally, suffers from living his double life and it turns out that his wife Carmel has a few secrets of her own over the years. Both characters are treated very warmly and humorously, and the book is a joy to read.

For a review of the book from The Guardian, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/31/mr-loverman-bernardine-evaristo-review

The Twilight Zone, by Nona Fernandez

 "The Twilight Zone" is a National Book Award finalist novel about the turbulent and sometimes surreal recent history of Chilean politics told through a narrator who lived through it as a girl, a young women and an adult in the 1970s through current times. She uses many elements of pop culture from those 50 years, including the central metaphor of the Twilight Zone TV show brought bizarre and darkly ironic stories into our living rooms and embedded themselves into our consciousness. The story's anchor is an interview read by the narrator of a self-confessed killer and torturer who implicated himself in many of the dark deeds that occurred during the long period of oppression under the Pinochet regime. The killer, usually referred to as "the man who tortured people", had a crisis of conscience and provided evidence of the killings, kidnappings, disappearances, etc. that sometimes had links to the narrator's life (a classmate murdered, familiarity with some of the henchmen, etc.). The novel is translated by Natasha Wimmer, who also translated Roberto Bolano's "The Savage Detective" and "2666". It's a harrowing and depressing story, but the strangeness of Chile's rebuilding is perfectly reflected in the Twilight Zone metaphor and it's well worth reading.  

For a review of the book from the NY Times, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/books/review/nona-fernandez-twilight-zone.html

Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu

 I was keen to read "Interior Chinatown" by Charles Yu after hearing good things about it, and I wasn't disappointed. The novel's title perfectly encapsulates the theme. The author uses a screenplay format to explore the stereotyping of Asian-Americans in the media, and by extension, in American society in general. As a bit actor in a cop buddy series "Black and White", the protagonist, Willis Wu, finds himself excluded from both the white majority and black minority experience, and relegated to "generic Asian man". The full eventual assimilation into "generic American man" seems out of reach as he first struggles to achieve success as "Kung-Fu man", which eludes him. The novel is very funny, and also thought-provoking as it examines the psychological effect of this social stereotyping - hence "interior Chinatown", that psychological condition that reflects the physical ghetto of exclusion Asians have been relegated to despite two centuries of presence in America. 

For a review of the book from the Washington Post, click here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/charles-yus-interior-chinatown-brilliantly-skewers-hollywood-typecasting/2020/01/27/4d04be48-3711-11ea-bf30-ad313e4ec754_story.html

BEYOND BLACK, by Hilary Mantel

 Beyond Black is an extraordinary novel - a place where the living and the dead, psychics and lowlifes all mingle. The book is inventive, graphic, disturbing, dark and somehow compelling. There are 3 narratives intertwined in the book. In the main one, we trace the life of psychic Alison - or Al, a "large woman" with a deeply troubled upbringing, who has the "gift" of psychic powers that is, to put it mildly, a double-edged sword. We meet her in media res while doing a psychic stage show in a ratty outer suburb of London. It's clear that Alison's psychic ability causes her great pain - physical as well as emotional. Evidently, in the world of the novel at least, psychics have "spirit guides" who help them connect with those on the other side. Alison's is vulgar dirty and possibly perverted Morris, who is a sinister presence throughout the book. He is "accompanied" by a number of similar lowlife types, who, it seems, were once live people who tormented, molested and tortured Alison when she was growing up in extremely degraded circumstances with her prostitute mother. This links to the second narrative, that of Alison's childhood. We only get flashes of that part of her life, but all are disturbing and haunt Alison, who has been deeply traumatized. The third narrative is that of Alison's manager, Collene, who is emotionally disturbed in her own way. Leaving a broken marriage, she connects with Alison as she sees there is a way to make money from the psychic gig. She's not a believer but sometimes feels psychic disturbances along the way. Much of the novel meanders through seemingly random plot lines but ultimately ends in a satisfying way. It's not so much the details of what happens to the two women and associated spirits and other people along the way that drives the novel - it's all about the haunting presence of Alison's past, the spirits mingling with the living, the emotional stress and pain of the two women as they steer through their unusual landscape. 

For a review of the book from The Guardian, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/apr/30/featuresreviews.guardianreview30