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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – Jamie Ford

Oct 18th, 2011 by

This novel was recommended on a blog I read (possibly this one). I didn’t know anything about it, but reserved if from the library – there was quite a queue.

Here’s the description …

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While ‘scholarshipping’ at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship-and innocent love-that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice-words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

I have visited Seattle and it is always nice to read about a place you have been. This novel, in particular, had a great sense of place – the smell of salt, the rain and mud at the fairground, chinatown and japantown. The characters were wonderfully drawn as well.

For me this novel was an easy way to learn slightly more about the internment of people with Japanese ancestry during world was two. I didn’t know anything about it at all until I read Snow Falling on Cedars.

The prose was at times slightly forced – I was jolted out of the story and made aware I was reading a novel. However, I still think this novel is well worth reading and I look forward to Mr Ford’s next novel.

More reviews …

http://pattispages.blogspot.com/2011/10/hotel-on-corner-of-bitter-and-sweet-by.html 

http://imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/unconditional-acceptance-hotel-on-the-corner-of-bitter-and-sweet-by-jamie-ford/

http://knightofswords.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/review-hotel-on-the-corner-of-bitter-and-sweet/

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The Best of Everything – Rona Jaffe

Oct 12th, 2011 by

As it is school holidays, reading is happening, but thinking and writing is not.

I read a review of The Best of Everything here and was intrigued, Luckily I could get a copy for my Kindle (have I said how much I love my Kindle?).

This novel is Mad Men from the girls’ perspective, although as it was written in 1958, we should say Mad Men is like it.

Here is the description …

When Rona Jaffe’s superb page-turner was first published in 1958, it changed contemporary fiction forever. Some readers were shocked, but millions more were electrified when they saw themselves reflected in its story of five young employees of a New York publishing company. Almost sixty years later, The Best of Everything remains touchingly–and sometimes hilariously–true to the personal and professional struggles women face in the city. There’s Ivy League Caroline, who dreams of graduating from the typing pool to an editor’s office; naïve country girl April, who within months of hitting town reinvents herself as the woman every man wants on his arm; and Gregg, the free-spirited actress with a secret yearning for domesticity. Jaffe follows their adventures with intelligence, sympathy, and prose as sharp as a paper cut.

I loved reading this novel. The characters were very convincing (even the scary stalker one!). It was about gaining independence and moving out of the family home. They all seem to be marking time waiting for something better to come along (this usually means meeting a man and getting married – Caroline might eventually find satisfaction in her career). It is a 1950′s version of Sex and the City. The exploits of single women looking for fulfillment in New York. It is a fun read of the ‘glamourous’ life of a New York City girl.

More reviews .

http://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/the-best-of-everything-by-rona-jaffe/ 

http://www.picklemethis.com/2011/08/25/the-best-of-everything-by-rona-jaffe/

http://www.afashionacityastyle.com/2011/07/book-recommendation-best-of-everything.html

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The Love and Death of Caterina – Andrew Nicoll

Sep 23rd, 2011 by

We read The Good Mayor and really enjoyed it (I don’t think I blogged about it.)

Here is the blurb …

Luciano Hernando Valdez is his Latin American nation’s most celebrated novelist and he’s suffering from writer’s block. So far his latest great work comprises the words ‘The scrawny yellow cat crossed the road’. He’s tried all his usual tricks to get back on track – he’s had a few debates with his trusty colleagues at the university, he’s had an affair with the banker’s wife, nothing will work. Until he meets Caterina. Beautiful, young and one of his biggest fans, she has idolised him since she was a child and he has inspired her to write. Convinced that falling in love with her, spending every minute he can alongside her, moulding her to his world, will unlock something and enable him to write, he pursues her and soon enough, he falls headlong into her arms. But it’s only a matter of time before he murders her.

I found this quite a struggle to read. I’m not sure why – I just found myself doing things other than reading even at one stage the vacuuming.

I am impressed by the world created by Nicoll. A small country somewhere in South America – I could feel the heat, humidity and corruption. Valdez is a thoroughly detestable character. He has no self knowledge or awareness of the world around him. We know from the start that Caterina is going to die and at Valdez’s hand, but how and why and when are revealed slowly over the course of the novel.

Caterina is a young university student who writes – her short story is the best part of the novel. She and Valdez begin a relationship – his motives are less than pure, but she makes him feel for another human being for the first time. Meanwhile political forces are gathering and suspicions arise. I won’t reveal any more of the plot.

The writing is very accomplished and the characters superb. Despite not enjoying this novel as much as The Good Mayor I will be reading Nicoll’s next novel.

More reviews …

http://www.killyourdarlingsjournal.com/2011/08/i-mourn-the-death-of-story-andrew-nicoll-on-the-love-and-death-of-caterina/ 

http://www.curiousbookfans.co.uk/2011/fiction-books/7308/the-love-and-death-of-caterina-andrew-nicoll

 

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Let the Great World Spin – Colum McCann

Aug 23rd, 2011 by

This was a random choice by my book club. Someone had it, but hadn’t read it yet, but was keen to read it. That was enough – a bit of enthusiasm and we will all jump on board.

Here’s the blurb …

In the dawning light of the late summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. . . . It is August, 1974, and a tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter-mile in the sky. In the streets below, ordinary lives become extraordinary as award-winning novelist Colum McCann crafts this stunningly realized portrait of a city and its people.

Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among prostitutes in the Bronx. A group of mothers, gathered in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn the sons who died in Vietnam, discovers how much divides them even in their grief. Further uptown, Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenaged daughter, determined not only to take care of her ‘babies’ but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful novel comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the tightrope walker’s ‘artistic crime of the century.’

McCann uses the 1974 tightrope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center as a way of linking his characters (a bit of a six degrees of separation thing). This is another novel with many (and varied) narrative voices – eleven (I drew a chart). These narrators cover a large spectrum of humanity; a prostitute (she’s 38 and a grand mother), the judge who sentences her, mothers who have lost their children in Vietnam, a man who compulsively photographs graffiti in the subway tunnels and a computer nerd. McCann is fabulous at bringing these voices to life – I particularly admired Tillie (the prostitute).

Hooking was born in me. That’s no exaggeration. I never wanted no square job. I lived right across from the stroll on Prospect Avenue and East Thirty-first. From my bedroom window I could see the girls work. They wore red high heels and hair combed high.

In 1974 none of the characters appeared to be happy, but choices were made and lives changed and the next generation seemed to be on the path to happiness. Tillie’s grandchildren did not become prostitutes (breaking a family tradition). This novel is about balancing, between playing it safe and being risky, making a connection with others or being alone and it is also about picking up the pieces and getting on with life.

I’m glad that I read this novel – although I struggled with the first section (the bit narrated by Ciaran) and I’m not sure I will be reading it again in a hurry. I admire the characterisation and the sense of place created by Mr McCann.

Another review …

http://rippleeffects.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/let-the-great-world-spin-how-not-to-judge-a-book-by-its-cover/ 

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Elegies for the Broken Hearted – Christie Hodgen

Aug 2nd, 2011 by


I read about this novel on a book blog, but I can not remember which one and google searching hasn’t enlightened me.

This novel consists of five elegies. In each one the narrator is talking to the character describing their lives and her interaction with them. It is an interesting structure like, but also different from, connected short stories. This method allows Hodgen to reveal things about the narrator (Mary).

Here is the blurb …

A savvy, spirited, moving, and surprisingly humorous novel in elegies. A skirt-chasing, car-racing uncle with whiskey breath and a three-day beard. A ‘walking joke, a sitting duck, a fish in a barrel’ named Elwood LePoer. A dirt-poor college roommate who conceals an unbearable secret. A failed piano prodigy lost in middle age. A beautiful mother haunted by her once-great aspirations.

In Elegies for the Brokenhearted, Mary Murphy tells her own story as she paints lively portraits of the people with whom she’s crossed paths. Having weathered her mother’s erratic movement among homes and multiple husbands, the absence of her runaway sister, and a discouraging search for purpose, Mary’s reflection on her own path intertwines with the histories of the people she’s loved and lost. With a rhythmically unique voice and distinctive wry humor, Christie Hodgen builds an unconventional narrative about the difficult search for identity, belonging, and family.

These are all sad, defeated and damaged people. Except for Elwood, but even his life appears sad to an outsider. As the narrator says

We were a family of bad citizens. Drunk drivers and tax evaders, people who parked in handicapped spaces and failed to return shopping carts to their collection stands.

Despite sounding depressing (after all we know sone of the characters are dead) this book is ultimately uplifting as the narrator finally determines what constitutes family – and it’s not blood …

What joined two people together wasn’t always exciting. The cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, the maintenance of the home and car, all the mundane things you never wanted to be bothered with – this I believed, was what bound people together.

The characters are beautifully written. I found each of their stories compelling and I was desperate to know how Mary reconciled herself to her life and her family (such as it was).

Here are some other reviews …

http://feministreview.blogspot.com/2010/06/elegies-for-brokenhearted.html

http://bookreview.mostlyfiction.com/2011/elegies-for-the-broken-hearted-by-christie-hodgen/

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A Visit From The Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan

Jul 27th, 2011 by

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I selected this book for book club after reading a review in the Weekend Australian. I liked it. It has different points of view – the structure is quite intriguing ranging from first person to third person there is even an amazing chapter in second person. The time period changes as well from the near past, to the present, to the near future (where the environment has suffered – solar panels in the desert, etc.)

Here is the blurb …

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

I would say this novel is a series of interconnected short stories. Although it is more than that – the characters grow, change and adapt, the writing technique alters with each chapter (including one chapter that is consists of power point slides) and then there is the inner lives of the extremely diverse characters – who would have thought that an attempted rape could be so hilarious? And the idea of a suicide rock tour?

The goon in the title is time and all of the characters have certainly been visited by time. I enjoyed the different stages of people’s lives – it seems like one part is going to last for ever and before you know it you’re at a different point with different people and then that changes and your some where else again.

For me this novel was also about appearances and spin. With just the right hat you can make a war criminal look benevolent. By using ‘parrots’ you can create enthusiasm for a musician (he must be good if all of these seemingly independent people say he is).

This might all sound quite chaotic and although I think this book deserves a second reading, it all comes together quite convincingly. From the experience of my book club, it would appear that different readers take different things away.

Some where in my ‘to be read’ pile is The Keep (also by Egan), which I look forward to reading soon.

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The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen

Jul 25th, 2011 by

After having enjoyed Freedom, this one was a must read. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Freedom - the characters weren’t as appealing – although I did get the same sense of an America not normally described in novels.

Here is the blurb …

After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson’s disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man-or so her mother fears. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.

Franzen has the ability to write from quite varying viewpoints; from Enid wilfully refusing to acknowledge her husband’s descent into madness (if only he would do his exercises he would be OK), to Chip who seems determined to destroy every opportunity that comes his way, and Alfred in his madness (which from Alfred’s point of view seems to make sense). This creates sympathy for a cast of characters and I was interested in their ‘trials and tribulations’.

The narrative shifts around in both time and view point allowing the story to unfold slowly – a technique that seems to be quite popular of late Maggie O’Farrell did something similar in The Hand That First Held Mine. I like it. I like having my opinions about particular characters challenged when I read their version of events.

More …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corrections 

http://takingleadnow.blogspot.com/2011/07/musings-on-jonathan-franzens-bulky-but.html

 http://exlibrisamie.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/corrections-franzen/

 



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The Bronte Project – Jennifer Vandever

Jun 9th, 2011 by

I found this novel in Target for $6, so obviously had to buy it. I’m always slightly concerned about this type of novel – contemporary takes on a classic, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  It’s not a re-telling, prequel or sequel, but rather a modern novel about a Bronte academic – the project in question is making a movie of Charlotte Bronte’s life.

Here’s the blurb …

“As to intense passion, I am convinced that it is no desirable feeling” Charlotte Bronte, 1840.

Shy young scholar Sara Frost’s unsuccessful search for the lost love letters of Charlotte Bronte hasn’t won her any favours at her university, particularly now the glamorous new Head of Princess Diana Studies has introduced her media-savvy exploits to the staid halls of academia.
But it’s not until Sara’s fiance suddenly leaves her that she begins to question her life’s vocation. How can she reconcile the mythology of romance with the harsh reality of modern love? As she tentatively re-enters the dating scene, Sara is to discover that the life and writings of Charlotte Bronte have more to teach her than she could ever have guessed about the perils and pitfalls of the 21st century relationship game.

Each chapter has an excerpt from one of Charlotte’s letters, which I found fascinating. For example,

… No young lady should fall in love till the offer has been made, accepted – the marriage ceremony performed and the first half year of wedded life has passed away – a woman may then begin to love but with great precaution – very coolly – very moderately – very rationally – If she ever loves so much that a harsh word or a cold look from her husband cuts her to the heart  - she is a fool …

Charlotte Bronte, to Ellen Nussey 1840

This novel has a great story and it’s lots of fun to read – the characters are hilarious. Claire, the Princess Diana scholar, who edits a journal called Labia. Claire’s brother who calls himself a poem (yes that’s right a poem), the two men who try to live in the 19th century (their New York apartment is very cold in winter) and finally Sara, our heroine, who is searching for lost Bronte letters. She teams up with Mr Emmons to create a movie on Charlotte Bronte, but her life is deemed too depressing (could they end with her wedding and not her death and does she really have to marry Arthur Bell  Nicholls?). You don’t have to be a bronte fan to read this anyone who enjoys romantic comedy fiction will like this one.

More reviews …

http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2006_04_008403.php

http://susan-thoughtsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/2011/01/goodreads-bronte-project.html

http://www.alifeinbooks.com/?p=90

 

 

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Freedom – Jonathan Franzen

May 19th, 2011 by

This book is about Patty and Walter’s marriage, but it is also about so much else; America’s involvement in Iraq, the environment, parenting, the effect of poverty on a community and individuals, etc.

Here is the blurb …

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul – the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter’s dreams. Together with Walter – environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man – she was doing her small part to build a better world.

But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz – outré rocker and Walter’s college best friend and rival – still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become ‘a very different kind of neighbor,’ an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street’s attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom’s intensely realized characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

This book was easy to read, however, it is quite complex. It reminded me of Middlemarch – so much going on. I’m not going to do it justice in this review, which (as is my custom) is going to be short – I’ll like to some other reviews at the end. For me this was novel was about the American condition in a post 9/11 world. This isn’t the America portrayed by Hollywood. There is no black and white only shades of grey. For example, is it OK to allow MTR (Mountain Top Removal) mining in your bird sanctuary if the miners are going to return it to a near pristine state and then the land will be off limits for future development? Walter, Patty and Richard participate in a love triangle that lasts for decades and inflicts pain on all of them.

This novel is beautifully written, the characters are true to life – messy, confused. I’ll definitely be reading more of his work.

Here are some more reviews …

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/freedom-by-jonathan-franzen-2081177.html

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/s3022839.htm (This is the First Tueday Book Club’s take on Freedom)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Tanenhaus-t.html

 

 

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‘The Distance Between Us’ and ‘My Lover’s Lover’ – Maggie O’Farrell

May 11th, 2011 by

I’ve been having a bit of a Maggie O’Farrell festival.

Here is the blurb for The Distance Between Us

Stella has fled London to confront the childhood secret which has marked her life. A set of tragic circumstances and a hasty marriage bring Jake from Hong Kong to Britain, where he embarks upon a quest for the father he never knew. When Jake and Stella meet, both of their lives are changed forever.

I didn’t like this novel as much as The Hand that First Held Mine or After You’d Gone, but more than My Lover’s Lover. Stella has a secret and it seems to involve a red-haired man with a Scottish accent (all sorts of ideas run through your mine, but I never guessed the truth). She is very close to her sister Nina (too close I think). Stella runs away from a job in London to a menial job in a hotel in country Scotland. Jake, while searching for his father, turns up at the same hotel. This story has all of the features of an O’Farrell novel; different view points, a mystery, shifting time, etc.

Here are some other reviews …

http://sophiasbookblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/distance-between-us-by-maggie-o-farrell.html

Reading Guide at Maggie O’Farrell’s website

Here is the blurb for My Lover’s Lover

When Lily meets Marcus at a gallery opening in London, she is immediately attracted to him. In less than a week, she falls deeply in love with the magnetic but elusive architect and moves into his echoing loft apartment in East London.

Nothing could have prepared Lily for what she finds there. A distinct presence of another woman lingers in the loft, one who seems to have disappeared in a hurry, leaving behind a single party dress hanging in the closet, a puzzling mark on the wall, and the suffocating scent of jasmine. Lily’s unsettling curiosity turns to obsession as the spirit of this mysterious woman increasingly haunts her.

Who was she? What were the circumstances of her sudden disappearance? Marcus refuses to talk about the woman or her fate. The apartment’s other inhabitant, Aidan, seems to understand Lily’s concern, but he is also unwilling to give her any information.

This would have to be my least favourite novel. I didn’t like Lily or Marcus and there wasn’t much of Aiden (who I did like). The ghost sections were fabulous, but Lily just seemed creepy and/or mad. I could see what O’Farrell was trying to do (can’t tell you otherwise it will ruin the story), but I just didn’t like it.

Here are some other reviews…

http://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-lovers-lover.html

http://acaseforbooks.blogspot.com/2011/05/21-my-lovers-lover-by-maggie-ofarrell.html

 

 

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