The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton: Some climate dystopias strike me more as an exercise in paranoia than as realistic. But this one is so entirely plausible and believable— especially in the first half— that I occasionally had to remind myself when I wasn’t reading that the events hadn’t actually happened. It’s mesmerizing, and the characters felt real and like people I know. It’s deeply disturbing, and yet there are threads of hope throughout in the form of people who learn and grow and adapt. There’s also a bit of magical realism, but not enough to pull it into the realm of fantasy.
The Mutual Friend by Carter Bays: A group of interconnected people in NYC come and go, crisscross and connect and don't, come into focus and fade away. It's brilliant and I loved it. I don't know that I can do a better job of describing it than the blurb does, but I will say that it builds slowly--not boringly, but slowly-- for the first half or so, and then all that careful character building begins to pay off. There are also a bunch of literary allusions for the lit nerds among us but you don't need to know anything about them to love this.
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J Ryan Stradal: Stradal's newest novel tells the story of several generations of women whose lives become intertwined with a local restaurant in Northern Minnesota. Betty leaves an abusive home situation and takes her daughter Florence on the road from one precarious situation to another, until she runs into Floyd, who owns the titular supper club. Florence grows up to become a human wrecking ball, creating havoc in one life after another in her desperate search for security. Her daughter Mariel grows up and falls in love with the heir of an enormous chain of restaurants that seems to exist to put supper clubs out of business. I was enthralled. It trails off a bit at the end, but I loved it.
The Last Ranger by Peter Heller: Ren Hopper is a ranger in Yellowstone National Park. He lives alone in a cabin, a few yards away from another cabin where wildlife biologist Hilly lives. Shortly after the book opens, he finds Hilly near death, almost certainly due to the actions of a particular poacher. Ren is recovering from the death or loss of almost everyone he loves, so parts of this book are deeply sad. There is a bit of suspense as Ren tries to figure out exactly what happened and who is to blame, but mostly this is just the story of Ren, trying to figure out how to make it through the day, and then the next. Another one that falls off a bit toward the end, but I loved this book.
Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck: George and Wren met almost by accident, but they are immediately attracted to one another. Not long after they marry, George begins to exhibit strange symptoms. They discover that he has a rare disorder that will result in his mutation into a great white shark. The premise is so bizarre that if Shark Heart hadn't come so highly recommended, I would never have believed it could work.
But it does, and it is a story of rare beauty and courage. It's hard not to compare it to Franz Kafka's 1915 novella Metamorphosis, about a young man who wakes up to find out he's turned into a giant insect. But in spite of all the parallels, the resulting story is entirely different. Kafka's story is famous for its bizarre depiction of alienation and despair, but while Habeck ignores none of the pain and suffering of George's transformation, she turns George and Wren's story into one of beauty, courage, and hope.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett: Lara is in her late fifties and her three adult daughters have come home to spend lockdown at the family cherry farm in northern Michigan. The first half is practically an empty nester fantasy- all your kids are home, getting along, working together, and hanging on your every word as you tell the story of the summer you spent having an affair with a man who would become the world’s most recognizable star. But summer flings (and cherry harvest season) eventually come to an end, and not always gracefully— the ending of that long ago summer comes back into focus and things turn a little dark. The final reveals are sad and somewhat difficult to read, but it's beautifully done-- a tour de force by an author at the top of her game. I liked it better than The Dutch House, but I think I'm in the minority there.
Entirely by accident, I read these last two books (Shark Heart and Tom Lake) immediately after one another. Both books have characters who are deeply involved in a production of Thornton Wilder's classic play Our Town, which was first performed in 1938. I've never seen it, but I ordered a copy of it after reading these two novels and it is great (of course) and makes a thought-provoking reading experience together with the two novels. Made me wish I was still teaching so we could discuss.
Six more next week. Let me know if you have any recommendations!
No comments:
Post a Comment