Novels Now

The Elephant Keeper
By Christopher Nicholson
Completed August 2, 2009

For an animal lover like me, it’s hard to dislike The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson. The main character, Tom Page, is a likeable guy, who devoted his life to care for two elephants in late 18th century England. The elephants were all personality – characters that you loved and wanted the best for.

The Elephant Keeper, however, is the perfect example on how interesting characters alone can’t make a good book. The writer must add other ingredients – writing style, plot development and credibility – to the book to make it a story. Unfortunately, these final key elements were lacking in Nicholson’s debut novel.

What frustrated me about The Elephant Keeper was that Nicholson had these elements in the first book of the book. This is the section written by Tom as a “history” of the elephants under his care. Then, the story shifted to the present day, and the whole thing lost its luster. I questioned Tom’s reliability as the narrator, found his conversations with the elephant Jenny to be troubling and was disappointed that the ending tied no loose ends. If only Nicholson could have kept everything as a “history,” I think the story would have fared better.

Where I give Nicholson credit, though, was his depiction of Jenny. Her calm demeanor as an observer of the human race was insightful. Like Rose from Water for Elephants, Jenny had a sense of right and wrong, a wicked sense of humor and love for those who loved her. She was Tom’s faithful companion and the one constant thread throughout the novel.

If you can take The Elephant Keeper at face value – a story about a man and his elephants – than you will enjoy this book. It’s a nice escape into historic England and love between humans and animals. ( )

He had no memory of a beginning – of a mother or father, sister or brother. His life was simply there, at Saint Anthony’s, and what he remembered began in the middle of things – the smell of boiled sheets and lye; the taste of watery oatmeal; the feel of dropping a brick onto a piece of stone, watching the red pieces split off, then using those broken shards to write on the wall of the monastery, and being slapped for this, and being forced to wash the dust away with a cold, wet rag. – from The Good Thief, page 4 -

Ren, missing a hand,  has lived for eleven years at an orphanage in New England – a place where children are whipped for infractions and schooled in Catholic doctrine. His friendships are few and his questions are many. Then one day a man named Benjamin Nab arrives at Saint Anthony’s claiming to be Ren’s brother. His wild stories convince the authorities at the orphanage to let Benjamin adopt Ren – and thus begins Ren’s second life filled with grave robbery, violence, and lies. Along the way, Ren makes friends with a paid assassin, a dwarf, a landlady who has a heart of gold, a nun, and a drunkard. He also begins to uncover the mystery surrounding his birth.

The Good Thief is a fast read and filled with unexpected events and excitement. Hannah Tinti’s story is a bit Dickensonian, but with more violence. Ren’s character is likable (he is the good thief, in case you were wondering)…he wants to do good, but is forced to lie and steal to survive. The writing in the novel is clean and vivid.

But, despite these strengths, I did not really enjoy this book. At times I felt the plot was too contrived, and the violence overdone and gratuitous. The number of evil characters in the novel turned me off a bit. I found myself wanting a better life for Ren and wondering if there were any loving adults in his world. Luckily, Mrs. Sand (the landlady) ends up being someone who provides the love Ren has never known. And although Tinti redeems some of her “bad” characters,  the novel overall was just too dark and depressing.

Many readers liked The Good Thief – in fact, it has won a host of awards including:

When I read through that list, I wonder if I was just not in the mood for this book at the time I read it. Reader’s who like fast-paced fiction and are not overly disturbed by graphic violence, might give this one a try.

The Author’s Website

Standing above the rug, he began to pray, but his thoughts continually turned to Nouf. For the sake of modesty, he tried not to imagine her face or her body, but the more he thought about her, the more vivid she became. In his mind she was walking through the desert, leaning into the wind, black cloak whipping against her sunburned ankles. – from Finding Nouf, page 2 -

Nayir ash-Sharqi, a desert guide, is hired by the Shrawi family to locate a family member who has disappeared. Nouf, only sixteen years old and planning her wedding, appears to have run away into the desert. But when her body is found in a wadi and the coroner reveals her cause of death as drowning, disturbing questions arise. Nayir joins forces with Katya Hijazi, a lab worker at the coroner’s office who is like no woman he has ever met. Together they begin to piece together Nouf’s last days and hours to uncover the mystery surrounding her death.

Finding Nouf is at its heart a mystery, but it is also more than this. Set in modern Saudi Arabia, the novel explores the role of women in a gender-segregated society which clings to its history while at the same time must address the changing views of the women it seeks to control and protect. Nayir is a devote man who prays regularly and wishes to follow the laws of Allah; but he is also a bachelor who fantasizes  of one day finding a woman with whom he can share his life.

Nayir sipped his tea and marveled at the casual way that Muhammad had spoken of his wife. There had been no need to explain who she was, and telling Nayir her name was something else entirely. It put Muhammad squarely in the category of young infidel wannabe. Gone were the days of calling one’s wife “the mother of Muhammad Junior”; today women had first names, last names, jobs and whatnot. He wondered how many men had known Nouf’s name. – from Finding Nouf, page 97 -

Nayir’s conflicted feelings provide the tension in the book. At first I disliked Nayir, finding him rigidly pious and chauvinistic. Ferraris does a remarkable job turning Nayir from a largely distasteful character to one the reader begins to respect. It is Nayir’s growth as a man (who comes to see women as human beings with dreams, desires and individual strengths) which elevates the novel to more than a simple whodunnit.

Katya represents the modern Saudi woman – a woman who has her own job and dares to speak to men not related to her. It is through her that the reader begins to gain a deeper understanding of Nouf – a teenager from a wealthy family who yearns for freedom.

Zoe Ferraris once lived in Saudi Arabia during the time following the first Gulf War. At that time, she was married to a Saudi-Palestinian Bedouin and was exposed to a culture largely closed to Americans. Knowing this about the author gave me respect for the perspective of this novel which although seen mostly through the eyes of the lead male character, exposes the dreams and desires of women living in a paternalistic society.

Ferraris’ writing is clean and riveting. The core mystery (what actually happened to Nouf) has many twists and turns which kept me guessing right to the end. This is a novel I would classify as “literary mystery” as its focus is as much on its main characters (and their growth) as on the mystery which propels the story.

Readers who enjoy a good mystery, as well as literary fiction, will enjoy this look inside the Saudi culture.

Recommended.

Finding Nouf is the 2009 Alex Award Winner

Zoe Ferraris Website

New Novel due out Spring 2010 (sequel to Finding Nouf): City of Veils

It’s hard for anyone to know where allusion ends and reality begins, let a lone a small child. - from Between Here and April, page 25 -

Elizabeth Burns, a journalist who has given up traveling the world to cover war stories in order to be there for her two children, begins suffering blackouts one day. When medical tests show there is no physical reason for her fainting spells, Elizabeth seeks psychiatric help. What she discovers is a long buried memory of the disappearance of her best friend April when she was six years old. Driven to seek out the truth, Elizabeth begins to research her April’s disappearance and uncovers a horrible truth – the disappearance was actually a murder committed by the girl’s own mother. Elizabeth’s journey to uncover the truth and understand the mind of a woman who would kill her own child opens a floodgate of unresolved issues for Elizabeth – a failing marriage, a brutal gang rape, and questions of her own ability to mother.

Between Here and April is a novel which reaches into the dark recesses of the human mind and looks at one of the most difficult to understand crimes: filicide. Deborah Copaken Kogan brings to the novel her own background of  journalism (she is the author of the bestselling memoir Shutterbabe which explored her life as a war photographer), and a history which includes a murdered childhood friend. In mining her own experiences, Kogan brings to her writing an honesty and clarity that transforms the novel into something that feels like a true crime story.

Between Here and April is provocative, tough to read and at times uncomfortable as it explores the subjects of sexual perversity, rape, child abuse, discrimination against women, and the unrelenting demands placed on mothers. Filicide is a crime which is almost unspeakable – and yet Cogan takes this topic head-on and seeks to find empathy for the woman who would be driven to commit such an act.

“Mrs. Cassidy had one arm wrapped around each of her daughters. The two girls…were lying on pillows, their feet toward the tailgate. They were dressed in flannel pajamas.” She held them while she killed them. She loved them, even as she was suffocating them. But she must have hated herself more. – from Between Here and April, page 223 -

Cogan’s writing is sharp, intuitive and hypnotic. I always enjoy novels written by journalists who have honed their writing skills to get to the core of the story quickly, and who know how to create tension and conflict between characters. This is not a book for everyone. Many readers will be disturbed by the images Cogan creates. The subject matter will turn many readers off. But, those readers willing to follow Cogan into the darkness will be rewarded with a story not soon forgotten.

Recommended.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivey
By Reif Larsen
Completed July 2, 2009

It was with great anticipation that I picked up The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet from the library. The synopsis of a 12-year-old science prodigy hopping a train “hobo style” to accept an award from the Smithsonian sounded like the coming of tale that I would adore. Once I had the book, the illustrations and marginalia that graced each page pleasantly surprised me. For certain, this was one of the most aesthetically pleasing books I’ve seen in a while.

Unfortunately, the plot couldn’t keep up with the visual interest of the book. The beginning and middle of the book were fantastic, learning about T.S. and his overanalysis of the world around him. His depictions of his scientist mother, rugged father, sarcastic sister and the innocence of his deceased brother all emanated from the pages. T.S.’s narrative made me smile and laugh in some parts, sigh and reflect in others. He was a little boy with a big brain and heart.

As I reached the last 75 pages, the story became muddied with displaced characters, secret societies and a sense of detachment from the first two-thirds of the book. The daVinvi Code-meets-Alvin and the Chipmunks ending was lost to me – as was T.S.’s humor, wit and childish innocence. I missed my old T.S.

Despite the lackluster ending, I would encourage any visual person to check out this book – if for nothing else but to look at the illustrations and sidebars. They did not detract from the story (in fact, T.S. drew arrows to his sidebars so you knew when to veer off). Like T.S., they were wonderful in every way.

All in all, I am glad I read The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. This was the debut novel by Reif Larsen, and I hope he continues to mature as a writer. His writing style and characterization are spot-on. Perhaps a T.S. sequel is in order? ( )

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
By David Wroblewski
Completed June 28, 2009

 Suspected murder, family loyalty and tragedy all marked David Wroblewski’s debut book, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Loosely based on Hamlet, this doorstop of a book centered on main character, 14-year-old Edgar, and his suspicions of his father’s death.

Edgar was born mute. While going to school, he assisted his parents at their at-home kennel, where they bred and trained “Sawtelle Dogs” – dogs that were highly intuitive, using their sense of vision to interpret their owners’ commands. One afternoon, Edgar’s father, Gar, fell to the barn floor and died. His death marked the beginning of numerous tragedies for the Sawtelle family.

One rainy evening, Edgar believed that he saw Gar’s ghost. The ghost told Edgar that Gar’s brother, Claude, had poisoned him – that Claude would stop at nothing to get what he wanted (presumably the family business and Edgar’s mother, Trudy, who was now in a relationship with her brother-in-law). Edgar became enraged and vengeful, promising his father’s ghost that he would prove Claude’s guilt. However, before he could, Edgar’s rage forced him off the farm and into the wilderness with three of the Sawtelle dogs.

Wandering through the forest, Edgar learned a lot about survival and had time to think about his situation. He missed his home, mother and loyal dog, Almondine. His decision to go back was a hard one to make, and any reader knowing Hamlet could foresee how this story might end.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle was a long, complex story. I felt Wroblewski’s passion for his masterpiece on every page. With the greatest respect to the author, I wondered where his editor was. So many of the descriptions, plot diversions and character stories were unnecessary to the story. In fact, I bet 200 pages could have been skimmed off the book, leaving a succinct but effective story.

Despite the book’s length, I did enjoy Wroblewski’s writing style, plot and character development and his animation of the dogs. You felt invested in each person or dog that Wroblewski included in his book. My favorite characters were the dogs, Almondine and Essay. Through their actions (and eyes), you could see their loyalty toward their human friends. And with this story’s tragic side, I believed that the dogs had the most common sense of all the characters. They outranked the humans in compassion and spirit.

Patient readers, dog lovers and Shakespearean fans should all give The Story of Edgar Sawtelle a try. It’s a book with many flaws, but the overarching story of love, greed and jealousy made it a worthwhile read. ( )

And then suddenly an arm of sunlight reached through a high window and opened its hand upon her face. I saw her eyes as clearly as if we had been pressed against one another in a very small space. - from Love Begins in Winter, page 41 -

Simon Van Booy’s five story collection, Love Begins in Winter, explores the lives of ordinary men and women who stumble upon love in all its many forms.  From the lonely and grieving cellist who literally bumps into the woman who becomes his lover, to the young gypsy boy who lingers outside the home of two girls who have lost their parents … Van Booy’s characters take the reader on a journey of the heart. Threaded through these simple stories are the themes of self identity, grief, longing, and renewal.

Van Booy is a poet and a journalist who has lived in London, Wales, Greece, Paris and New York City – and these experiences are apparent in his writing. Lyrical and stylistic, Van Booy’s prose is a bit like listening to a complicated musical performance – at once beautiful and elusive. He sets his characters in places like Montreal in the winter, and in St. Peter’s square in Rome, and along the steep cliffs of Ireland – places that invite introspection.

One story in this collection baffled me. Tiger, Tiger is disjointed and confusing, a story about a pediatrician and her boyfriend which draws on childhood memories and behavior. It is the second piece in the collection which,  had it not been for the wonderful title story, I might have put the book down. I am glad I did not.

My favorite story in the collection is the title story: Love Begins In Winter. From the first, the reader understands that Bruno Bonnet, a cellist, holds grief in his heart from the loss of his childhood friend. He carries her mitten in his pocket at each of his performances.

If only one of them recognized me, I could slip from the branches of my life, brush time from my clothes, and begin the long journey across the fields to the place where I first disappeared. A boy leaning crookedly on a gate, waiting for his best friend to get up. The back wheel of Anna’s bicycle still spinning. – from Love Begins in Winter, page 4 -

Van Booy captures the loneliness of the protagonist, even when Bruno is in the bustling city of Los Angeles.

Further north, approaching Hollywood – hot dog stands with neon arrows and faded paint; tattooed women with chopped black hair buying lip gloss at Hollywood pharmacies; a homeless man pushes a shopping cart full of shoes but he is barefoot. He keeps looking behind. His stomach hangs out. Sometime in the 1960s he was delivered into the trembling hands of his mother. If only it could happen again. Los Angeles is a place where dreams balance forever on the edge of coming true. A city on a cliff held fast by its own weight. – from Love Begins in Winter, page 50 -

It is only when the cellist meets Hannah, a woman who still mourns the loss of her brother, that he realizes he is no longer alone in the world. Love Begins in Winter is a touching story about the healing power of love.

I also was delighted with The Coming and Going of Strangers which revolves around a love sick gypsy boy named Walter living in Ireland.

Walter wheeled his hot, ticking motorbike up and down the muddy lane, breathing with the rhythm of a small, determined engine. Fists of breath hovered and then opened over each taken-step. He would soon be within sight of his beloved’s house. – from The Coming and Going of Strangers, page 135 -

In this tale about first love, Van Booy provides a wonderful surprise ending that lifts the story a notch above excellent.

In The City of Windy Trees, a character named George Frack receives a letter which completely changes the course of his life. I loved this story about the renewal of the human spirit through our connections with others.

Van Booy captures the essence of what makes us human, and how love can be found in the most unexpected places. Readers who love poetry will enjoy this collection of stories which often feel like long, narrative poems.

Highly recommended.

Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Pages: 194
First Published: Mar. 24, 2009
Genre: YA, realistic fiction
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Most people like to talk in their own language.

Reason for Reading: I don’t usually read this type of teen fiction but since the theme was autism I was interested. I myself have Asperger’s and my 9yo is on the Autistic Spectrum.

Comments: Jason Blake is 12 years old and is on the Autistic Spectrum, commonly referred to as ASD. He was diagnosed when he was 8 and has many typical symptoms of autism: swaying, flapping, zoning out, meltdowns, social dysfunctions plus he also shows signs of Aspergers: having conversations running continuously in his head, rambling from one topic to another, obsessions and an above average intelligence in creative writing. He finds a “friend” on an online creative writing forum for teens and they start pm-ing each other when he realizes both that they are speaking to each other the way that friends would and that she is a girl. He begins to think of her as a girlfriend. Then one day his parents surprise him with the news that one of them will be taking him to the website’s yearly convention and just as he is about to tell his girlfriend, she tells him she is going because it is happening where she lives. This puts an end to Jason’s excitement. What will she think when she meets him?

This is a story of self-acceptance. Jason seems to be pretty much self-accepted of himself throughout the book but he perceives the worst opinion of others upon himself all the time. This is the lesson he re-learns to accept about himself. It is also a story of the mother’s final acceptance that Jason is not a burden to be shouldered but an example of strength and love that she should try to live up to.

While one could say Jason’s autistic symptoms are overexagerated, that would not be fair, as no two autistic people have exactly the same symptoms and a case such as Jason’s may very well exist. The author has the inside feelings of an autistic person down to a “T”. She has either researched very well or lived with someone on the spectrum herself. While I have not experienced the extremes that her character has neither myself nor with my son, there were parts that hit terribly hard. The point when Jason hears that his friend will be at the convention also. I felt the same thing he did before reading the words that came next. That exact same feeling has happened to me so many times in my life I cannot count.

I definitely recommend this book though not for the publisher’s recommended ages. I’m not sure what ten year olds would get out of the book besides just reading about someone different. It would be a great read for teens on the Autism Spectrum so they can relate to what the main character has gone through and for other teens interested in the subject matter. I also recommend the book to adults with any interest in the field of autism as I can personally vouch for the validity of the feelings and inner turmoil portrayed by one with ASD. A rather bittersweet ending but then such is life. Recommended.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Ballantine Books, 2009
Fiction; 290 pgs

Paul Harris
321 pages

Danny Kellerman is a British journalist. In the year 2000 he is sent on assignment to cover the war in Sierra Leone. He winds up in Freetown where he meets a woman, named Maria Tirado, who changes his life. She is a foreign aid worker who tirelessly helps the orphans and boy soldiers of the bloody conflict. Maria and Danny become romantically involved but Danny leaves Sierra Leone and Maria stays, refusing to leave the children behind. He goes back to London and carries on with his life until four years later when he receives a note from Maria asking him for help. He quickly finds out that he is already too late. Maria has died under suspicious circumstances in a roadside robbery. As he investigates her death Danny uncovers a huge web of secrets. However, as the answers to his questions begin to unfold, Danny finds that telling the truth can carry a heavy cost.

The Secret Keeper is a story that is hard to classify. On one hand it’s a mystery/thriller, on the other it is very enlightening with regard to the political situation and events surrounding war-torn Sierra Leone. While I possess regrettably limited knowledge of the events of the war, the author served as a war correspondent in that area and this book is detailed and reflects his experience.

The mystery/thriller aspect of the story was handled very deftly as well. I don’t like to figure out the ending of a book but sometimes you can just see it so clearly spelled out in black and white that you can’t help but know. Not so with The Secret Keeper. I was kept guessing right up until the end where the truth is revealed.

I found Danny hard to like in the beginning because I felt like he was wallowing a bit in self pity but as you move through the story with him, you begin to realize that he is a man shaped both by the events in Sierra Leone and by his life before.

If you enjoy political intrigue, learning about government and conflict in other countries through the eyes of a journalist or if you just love a good thriller then I can recommend The Secret Keeper without reservation. I would caution that there is war violence . (4.5/5)

He was hunting just then, hot on the trail of something obscure, tracking a rare butterfly-like quotation as it fluttered through thickets of dense tropical paragraphs. The chase seemed to require the utmost concentration; still, he couldn’t help but think later on that if he’d only glanced up from the work, he might’ve seen something: a look in her eyes, a foreshadowing of doom, perhaps a train ticket in her hand or the words I’m Leaving You Forever stitched on the front of her coat. - from Last Night In Montreal, page 3 -

Lilia awakes one night when she is seven years old and finds her father waiting for her outside in the snow. She walks out of her home and into his arms. What follows is a life of constant travel - moving from place to place with the sensation of being hunted, changing identities, and an inability to create lasting relationships.When Lilia meets Eli, a young man studying dead and dying languages in New York City, she knows she will eventually leave him. But when she does just that, the act puts in motion a series of events which will not only change Lilia’s life, but the lives of those around her.

Fifteen years later in another country Lilia pressed her forehead against a windowpane in Eli’s apartment, looking out at an uncharted landscape of Brooklyn rooftops in the rain, and came to a somewhat unsettling conclusion: she’d been disappearing for so long that she didn’t know how to stay. - from Last Night In Montreal, page 9 -

Last Night In Montreal is a novel which intersects the lives of four flawed characters: Lilia, scarred by events she cannot remember but from which she constantly flees; Eli, stuck in one place and unable to move forward until he becomes obsessed with Lilia; Christopher, the private investigator who gives up everything to find a missing child and uncover the mystery of her disappearance; and Michaela, Christopher’s daughter who is abandoned by her parents and haunted by a girl she only knows through her father’s notes. The mystery surrounding Lilia’s abduction serves as the focal point from which the other characters’ stories revolve. As they are all drawn into Lilia’s life, they are forced to come to terms with their own weaknesses, desires, and fears. Thematically, the story is one about loss, repressed memory, family secrets and identity.

Lilia is a complex character whose life is not her own. She has no recollection of her years before the abduction and seems unable to stop traveling - a compulsion which allows her to see the world and yet not be a part of it.

She moved over the surface of life the way figure skaters move, fast and choreographed, but she never broke through the ice, she never pierced the surface and descended into those awful beautiful waters, she was never submerged and she never learned to swim in those currents, these current: all the shadows and light and splendorous horrors that make up the riptides of life on earth. - from Last Night In Montreal, page 119 -

Last Night in Montreal is Emily St. John Mandel’s first novel, and it is a stunning debut. Told from multiple viewpoints and moving back and forth between the present and past, the book is compulsively readable. Mandel’s writing is flawless - poetic, compelling, and achingly beautiful. Perhaps the strongest aspect of Mandel’s prose is her ability to fully develop her characters - people who are adrift and searching and often in pain, but who attract the reader’s empathy and admiration despite their weaknesses.

Last Night In Montreal is one of those books which once started cannot be laid aside. Disturbing and dark at times, it is a novel which will haunt the reader long after it is completed.

Highly recommended.

Near mid-century when Edward was born, the full moon was years from being the brightest. That would happen - in terms of luminosity and size - in the last month of the century. [Opening of The Brightest Moon of the Century]

Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

Pages: 344
First Published: Mar. 10, 2009
Genre: fiction
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

“Well,” the bookstore manager said, “it is Valentine’s Day.”

Comments: Cassandra Fallows, author of two memoirs and one novel, travels back to her Baltimore neighbourhood to research her new book. Her first memoir centred around the lives of her middle class white family and that of her three best friends who are black and of mixed financial backgrounds. There was a fifth black girl on the outskirts of her group of friends whom Cassie never really paid any attention to but it has just now been revealed to her that this girl was questioned in the death of her infant son and then spent seven years in jail for contempt for pleading the fifth and has never uttered one word about her missing, presumed murdered son. This is what Cassie wants to base her new book on and as she travels home she finds that no one from the past wants to talk about that incident. It seems she has come to uncover a secret so big that many people have been silenced for what very little they do know and no one wants to open those doors again. But while unraveling other families secrets Cassie finds herself face to face with a secret from her very own family’s past which she has not known of and must face before she can face anyone else’s secrets.

I really enjoyed this book. I’ve read one other Lippman book and it was not a stand-alone as this one is. I had expected this to be a mystery but, in fact, I would not classify it as such, nor would I call it a thriller, crime or even a suspense. It is much more akin to what I think of as Southern Fiction (with the eccentric characters and the race relations) but being set in Baltimore takes that option away. What we have here is really non-genre fiction. A story of people, a select group of people, and how a secret affected their lives.

Lippman is wonderful at characterization. There is a big company of players in this book and the main characters are fleshed out, fully realized with full backgrounds and flawed human beings. The secondary characters are less developed but they certainly consist of an eccentric cast. While the plot mainly focuses on Cassandra and her life and relationship with her parents and friends from the past, often including passages from her published book of memoirs, the tracking down of the girl who grew up to possibly kill her own son forms a cohesive plot that pulls the whole together and gives an enjoyable mystery to solve with a satisfying ending, for this reader. But other readers looking for a traditional mystery may not find the ending quite so satisfying. Not having read many Lippman books I can’t say whether this book is typical or not of her stand-alones but if you are looking for a traditional mystery/thriller/crime book this is not the book you are looking for. However, if you are looking for a compelling read with an intriguing plot that includes a secret to unravel then by all means you’ll have found your book with Life Sentences.

P.S. I can’t help but mention that I just love the cover of my edition!

The Blue Notebook
By James A. Levine
Completed April 11, 2009

The Blue Notebook was one of the most eloquent but haunting books I have read in a long time. It’s the story of Batuk, a 15-year-old prostitute, whose father sold her into sexual slavery when she was nine. Living in a brothel in India, Batuk took up writing as a therapeutic way to deal with the abuse in her life.

The author, Dr. James Levine, is a highly renowned Mayo Clinic physician, who was inspired to write The Blue Notebook after a visit to India. There, he met a young prostitute on the streets who was writing in a notebook, and Dr. Levine spent time talking to this young girl about her life. Thus, the character of Batuk was born.

Batuk left nothing to the imagination in this narrative. The reader learned every detail about her rapes, physical assaults and sexual encounters. Admittedly, it was hard to read about Batuk’s life because she endured such horrors, and the idea of it happening to a child make it harder to bear.

Despite the tragedies, Batuk’s sense of humor and wit made the other parts of the narrative very enjoyable. She was a delightful character. Stories of her childhood provided glimpses into Batuk’s life before she became a prostitute – when she was innocent and fearless. It, however, illuminated Batuk’s tragedies even more.

This book will make many readers uncomfortable, as it should, but it’s an important book because the horrors in Batuk’s life are happening now to girls and boys around the world. If you have the stomach for it, I would highly recommend The Blue Notebook. Additionally, proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. Thanks to Dr. Levine for being so generous with his creativity and funding – you can tell this is a subject matter near and dear to him. And after reading The Blue Notebook, I believe it will become important to you too. ( )

To Tricia and her coworkers, my mother is not entirely human - not a daughter, not a mother, not a wife. Her past wiped out, she is just another sack of flesh, dehumanized. She has become a freak. Staff members put food in Ellen’s mouth, strip clothes off her body, dress her and lay her in bed - she’s an oversized doll, an animate toy - but she does not belong to their species any longer. I understand this. It’s a human impulse to think: I will never be like that. - from Buffalo Lockjaw, page 111 -

Greg Ames has written a searing, all too real novel about watching someone you love slip into dementia. When James Fitzroy returns to his hometown of Buffalo at Thanksgiving, he finds himself tormented by his mother’s mental and physical decline from Alzheimer’s Disease. He wonders why his mother - a nurse who everyone loved and a woman whose nursing text is still being used to educate new nurses - should have to suffer this indignity, while James wastes his life drinking too much, having meaningless sex and working in a dead end job as a writer of taglines for greeting cards. He also worries about his father who is aging and alone now.

As per usual in his presence, I feel like I’m eight years old again. This is unnatural, I realize, a moral failing, and this tentativeness must end, because I am the stronger man here, young, powerful, intelligent, a representative of the future, and he’s old, decrepit and doddering - he’s literally riding in the passenger seat of life - and it’s my job to worry about him now that he lives alone. What if he falls down and breaks his hip in his bachelor pad? What if he chokes on a TV dinner? It’s time for me to step up and assume my new role in this family. This is my responsibility. Nobody else will do this. Time to become a grown man. But how does one begin? - from Buffalo Lockjaw, page 220 -

It is this misdirected sense of responsibility that compels James to consider ending his mother’s life. He agonizes over how he would do it, or if such an act is even justified.

I sit beside her trying to imagine what she thinks and feels. If it’s true that she experiences no physical pain, and that mentally she is no more cognizant of her condition than a baby is - the baby doesn’t recognize the helplessness of her life because she has nothing to compare it to - then this is my problem and not hers. But if she is suffering with the knowledge of loss, if she recognizes the absence of dignity, which I suspect is the case, then her shame and despair must consume her. And she has nothing but time, the regulated ticking of minutes on a clock, to remind her of that. - from Buffalo Lockjaw, page 117 -

James Fitzroy is not a wholly likable character - he can be crude and he drinks too much, he seems to have no aspirations to raise his life to a higher level - and yet, I found myself empathizing with him and appreciating his deep love and loyalty to his mother. In one scene, he carefully flosses his mother’s teeth, believing she would be ashamed by her poor dental hygiene. James shows compassion even toward other residents at the care home - holding their hands, or speaking to them with empathy. One gets the feeling that here is a young man completely misunderstood for most of his life, and trying now to rectify this.

Interspersed throughout the narrative are clips of other characters talking about Buffalo and the people who live there - at first I wasn’t sure what to make of these interuptions in the novel. But the reader ultimately understands that James was an “urban ethnologist” and these snippets of narrative come from his interview tapes. They lend a surreal touch to the book and offer a glimpse at the personal stories of others living in James’ hometown, but aside from this they seemed a distraction from the real purpose of the novel.

Ames writes with black humor and irony as he explores the controversial subject of assisted suicide for the terminally ill. He does not offer an answer as to whether euthansia is morally right or wrong, but instead opens up a fertile ground for discussion. Buffalo Lockjaw would make a great book club read for this reason. Thematically the novel is about aging, loss, love and the parent/child relationship through time.

Buffalo Lockjaw is a laudable debut and one which captivated me from the beginning because of its authenticity. I not only work with patients suffering dementia in my profession of Physical Therapy, but my father also suffers from progressive dementia because of small vessel disease. Greg Ames has skillfully captured the immense sadness and utter hopelessness of watching a loved one be robbed of their intellect, personality, and dignity because of a disease like Alzheimers.

Recommended with a caution - Ames writes with direct, sometimes unnerving prose which may disturb some readers.

And so I was in a state of fuming helplessness when I stepped out into the inverted obscurity of the afternoon. As I stood there, thrown by Herald Square’s flows of pedestrians and the crazed traffic diagonals and the gray, seemingly bottomless gutter pools, I was seized for the first time by a nauseating sense of America, my gleaming adopted country, under the secret actuation of unjust, indifferent powers. The rinsed taxis, hissing over fresh slush, shone like grapefruits; but if you looked down into the space between the road and the undercarriage, where icy matter stuck to pipes and water streamed down the mud flaps, you saw a foul mechanical dark. - from Netherland, page 68 -

The protagonist of Joseph O’Neill’s latest novel is Hans, a wealthy banker living in the Chelsea Hotel in post-911 New York City. Rachel, Hans’ conflicted wife, abandons him to return to London with their child and leaves Hans to navigate his way through a city of immigrants, idealists, and whacky characters. It is not long before Hans discovers the little known, yet thriving culture of immigrant men who gather each week to bat and bowl their way through cricket games. One of these men is Chuck Ramkissoon - an immigrant from Trinidad who runs an illegal gambling operation, cheats on his wife with a scrapbooker, and dreams of creating The New York Cricket Club - a venture which he envisions making millions while introducing Americans to a ‘whole new chapter in U.S. history.‘

“I’m saying that people, all people, Americans, whoever, are at their most civilized when they’re playing cricket. What’s the first thing that happens when Pakistan and India make peace? They play a cricket match. Cricket is instructive, Hans. It has a moral angle. I really believe this. Everybody who plays the game benefits from it. SoI say, why not Americans?” - from Netherland, page 211 -

Netherland explores the aftermath of 911 through the eyes of America’s immigrants who have come to America in pursuit of their dreams but find a country conflicted in the face of impending war with Iraq.

We were trying to understand, that is, whether we were in a preapocalyptic situation, like the European Jews in the thirties or the last citizens of Pompeii, or whether our situation was merely near-apocalyptic , like that of the Cold War inhabitants of New York, London, Washington, and, for that matter, Moscow. - from Netherland, page 24 -

O’Neill uses Hans and Rachel’s marriage as a metaphor to explore fear, isolation, disaapointment and reconciliation as they separate and then come back together. Family and country are two intertwined themes as Hans tries to understand his own identity within the larger concept of community.

Although O’Neill’s writing is fluid and evokes a New York which most American’s will relate to, I found myself indifferent to Hans and his troubles. I liked the colorful and outgoing Chuck, but his ultimate fate left me thinking “so what?” I am not exactly sure why the character development left me cold in this novel - O’Neill certainly gives the reader plenty of background and insight into the two main characters - but, ultimately, I found them forgettable. There are also long passages about the game of cricket - a sport which I know next to nothing about - and these I found mostly boring.

At the end of the book, Hans is talking to a minor character who had considered funding Chuck’s idea for a cricket club in New York:

“The New York Cricket Club,” Faruk says, raising his eyebrows, “was a splendid idea - a gymkhana in New York. We had a chance there. But would the big project have worked? No. There’s a limit to what Americans understand. The limit is cricket.” - from Netherland, page 251 -

And this is pretty much how I felt about O’Neill’s novel. A good idea, but it did not work for me. Although this book has gotten some great reviews (including being recognized as a NYT Most Notable book in 2008), I wonder if many Americans will struggle as I did with a story which in large part centers around a sport which is not well-known in our country. Some readers might like this one.