Category Archives: Books

Less, by Andrew Sean Greer

Andrew Less is about to turn 50 and his younger lover leaves him to marry another man. Andrew hatches an escape plan which involves accepting every invitation he’s received and proceeds to lecture, teach, and write his way around the world.

It took a little bit to get into this book. There is some odd shifting of narrative voice that I found a little confusing at the end. But this seems like a minor complaint in the face of the poetic comedy of Greer’s writing. Once it got going I was gaffawing every other page, and annoying my family by reading passage after passage aloud.

A good but slightly quirky read. I give it 3.5 👍 out of 5 👍.

Station Eleven: A Novel, by Emily St. John Mandel

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This book could be the ideal or the worst book to read in the midst of a pandemic, depending on your anxiety level. The story takes place in a future present time, during the eruption of a “Georgia Flu” Pandemic and takes place primarily in the Great Lakes Region of the US and Canada. The Georgia Flu is more deadly than the Coronavirus – 4 hours from infection to the onset of symptoms and 1-2 days to death. In a short period of time 99% of the population dies. So either you could read it and be relieved that our Pandemic is not as serious as the Georgia Flu (which is how my book group colleagues responded) or you could read it and fear for the worst about your current situation.

The narrative starts on Day 1 of the Pandemic, with a performance of King Lear in Toronto, during which Arthur Leander (the actor playing the title role) has a heart attack and dies. Jeevan Chaudhary, an EMT and friend of Arthur’s, was sitting in the front row and rushes on stage to try to resuscitate him, but it is too late. As the EMT’s take the body away Jeevan leaves the theater and is wandering the streets of a snowy Toronto in a daze when he gets a call from a doctor friend about the Flu outbreak in his hospital. The doctor tells him to immediately pack and leave the city. Jeevan picks up on the urgency of his friend’s voice and buys 7 grocery carts of food and supplies to bring to the apartment of his handicapped brother Frank. The two ride out the beginning of the pandemic (and the death of Toronto) from his 10th floor apartment window.

The narrative leaps back and forth in time from the King Lear performance on Day 1 of the Pandemic, with occasional extra-diegetic warnings inserted such as “everyone at the bar will be dead in 2 weeks”. What seems like a random assortment of characters, we learn are in fact all loosely connected to Arthur. The story is like a fabric which comes unraveled and then is knitted back together by the end.

Among the characters from Arthur’s past are his first two wives, Miranda and Elizabeth. Miranda is an artist whose life passion is a graphic novel project about a space station named Station Eleven. The story within a story provides a sci-fi mirror to the otherworldly events on earth, and also serves as a device to connect characters. Station Eleven has rescued a group of earthlings from the planet’s natural destruction, but in their escape the station was damaged so it’s always twilight. Factions emerge among the Station Eleven inhabitants between those who want to return to Earth and those who know there is no return.

Another story within the story is the series of letters Arthur writes to his childhood friend “V”. V later sells the letters and publishes them. V never responds to Arthur’s letters so they become an autobiographical view on Arthur’s life.

The future narrative shows post-pandemic life – small towns become strongholds for rural living with collective security measures in place. The conductor of the army orchestra forms the Traveling Symphony which wanders from town to town performing music and Shakespeare. In the troupe is one of the child actors from Arthur’s King Lear performance. Another group of survivors have colonized an airport in Michigan. The group ends up at this small airport after their flights on Day 1 of the Pandemic were re-routed and grounded. Some of these passengers had been on their way to Arthur’s funeral in Toronto. A religious group following “the Prophet” travel from town to town terrorizing residents and stealing their weapons. This group also has a connection to Arthur which I will not spoil for my readers.

A delightful aspect of fiction is that in a world where 99% of humanity has succumbed to a virus, so many characters and plot lines can come together at the end. This is especially comforting from the perspective of a New Yorker stuck in a quarantine with no end in sight. The book also wraps up with a note of hope – Electricity has re-emerged in Chicago – a grid of streetlights appear on the distant horizon. Despite the devastating losses, humanity has preserved its knowledge and basic technology. Station Eleven is a beautifully written novel, and even if you must wait until after our own Pandemic to read it, it will be worth the wait. I rate this book a 4.5 👍 out of 5👍.

Weather: A Novel, by Jenny Offill

Weather is a book written in short vignettes like a long poem in verse. That “A Novel” is part of the title seems almost a point of clarification, to assure the reader that this ephemeral narrative will meet the expectations of the genre.

A writer friend I know keeps a journal with detailed observations from her everyday life. This book reads like that journal, filled with delicious snippets of the overlooked and unexamined. The narrator works in a library and is privy to an ever-changing cast of characters who visit and work around her.

“Also in the air: a coworker who has taken to carrying X-rays around in her purse. Some kind of medical mistake. It can’t be undone, but it can be recounted.”

Interspersed with the vignettes are some very quirky jokes, not all of which I understood.

The story itself is told from the perspective of Lizzie Benson, and describes her life with her husband Ben (a philosophy PhD who makes money as a coder) and son Eli (whose New York public school drop offs each morning are an encounter with otherness). The book takes place just prior to the last presidential election, so the volatile political environment is background to the narrative. The changing Weather marked by the title is both environmental and political.

Lizzie has a very close relationship with her brother Henry, a recovering substance abuser who struggles with depression. Their relationship is endearing, including the little tricks Lizzie employs to support him and keep him alive from day to day.

In Weather, the future is uncertain; the war photographer comments on the nature of countries about to erupt in war (“hackles up”), the environmentalists say there is no where to relocate to keep your family safe in the inevitable climate catastrophe to come, Eli’s uncomfortable questions about death are diverted and unanswered. The counterpoint to this temporal anxiety seem to be the everyday acts of kindness and a present-focused living. A driver with a car service Lizzie uses is getting forced out of business by that “other company” so Lizzie starts taking his cars everywhere and wonders if she is his only client. Her mother buys socks for the homeless which she hands out with dollar bills. She takes in her brother after his marriage falls apart, and stays up late with him each night brainstorming greeting card ideas to distract him from the depression.

Just as this story resides very much in the present, the ending comes almost arbitrarily. At first I found this unsettling, but have come to understand this as consistent with Offill’s present-centered focus. Though short, the book covers a lot of ground and I would give it a 4.5 👍 out of 5👍.

Age of Myth, by Michael Sullivan

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This is book one of a fantasy fiction trilogy set in Erivan and Rhulin, a land of men and magic. The world of Rhunes and Fhrey is characterized by the extraordinary abilities of the Fhrey who live thousands of years, and the struggles of the Rhunes, who are seen by the Fhrey as uncivilized animals. Within the Fhrey there are also divisions, with the Miralyith tribe, masters of the magical Arts, the most powerful. Some Miralyith see themselves as god-like creatures and even distain the other Fhrey as lowly and beneath them.

Like many fantasy epics this is a story of social justice, dressed in garments dissimilar enough that we don’t recognize the tale as our own. A few members of the most remote tribes of the Fhrey unite with the Rhunes to fight the Miralyith oppressor. Their success is lead by our female hero Persephone, who breaks the tradition of her village to become the first woman Chieftain, a clearly feminist side story.

But for the most part I don’t read fantasy fiction for its social justice subtext (although I expect and appreciate it in the books I prefer). I read it to take a break from the stress of the real world where there are no magical solutions to my mundane problems. The best stories are written with the most conviction and detail, and the invented landscape, languages, and belief systems present seamlessly to transport the reader into the story. In other words, there is enough detail to transport the reader into the story but not so much detail that every five pages I have to look at the map at the beginning of the book or the glossary at the end to figure out where I am and what is going on.

Based on these basic criteria I give Age of Myth 3 1/2 👍 out of 5 👍. The story is not as intricate as some in this genre, and a little predictable, but well written and poetic. I’m looking forward Age of Swords, the next book in the series.

Where The Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owen

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The Marshy coastal region of North Carolina where this story takes place is nothing like the gritty urban neighborhood where I live. The solitude of life in the marsh and its rich biodiversity, are almost unimaginable as I sit reading on the subway every morning, shoulder to shoulder with my fellow New Yorkers. But Delia Owen tells a captivating story of how one little girl left with nothing builds a life out of communion with her environment.

Catherine “Kya” Clark, the youngest of 5 children, grew up in a shack among the “Marsh People”. Shunned by the local townsfolk for their isolated ways, the weekly walks into town for provisions were a source of terror and humiliation. When she was 7, her mother walked out of the house and down the road, never to return. Following the departure of her mother, her four siblings slowly escaped leaving Kya alone with her alcoholic father. When she was 10, her Pa left too, leaving Kya in the marsh to fend for herself, 3 miles from the nearest town.

Truant officers, orphanage staff, and well meaning adults reach out to Kya but she has an understandable mistrust of others and a lifetime of practice hiding from adults. Her one adult connection becomes Jumpin’- the Negro gas station manager who gently keeps her alive by buying her bags of mussels collected from the shore, and selling her supplies in return.

Tate, a friend of her brother’s, enters her life by leaving her exotic feathers on a stump by her shack. After all of Kya’s struggles the reader cheers Tate on and he provides some of the nurturing companionship Kya desperately needs. Kya and Tate share a love of the natural world and explore the marsh, collecting shells and observing flora and fauna. Tate teaches her to read and starts bringing her books. As Kya masters reading, her keen interest in her environment takes an academic turn and she starts making detailed studies and observations of the creatures and grasses around the Marsh.

But there are two narratives in this novel; one which starts in 1952, when Kya’s mother walks out of the house, and follows Kya’s struggles to survive and keep her life in the marsh. The other story begins in 1969, with two boys on their bikes finding a dead body at the foot of an abandoned fire tower in the Marsh. The boys run to get the Sherrif and the investigation into the death of Chase Andrews begins. The narrative goes back and forth between these two stories, and their inevitable collision brings a growing sense of dread.

I’ve only scratched the surface of this remarkable book, filled with intricate descriptions of bird mating rituals, poems by Galway Kinnell, meditations on solitude and the desire for connection. It is also a compelling read right up to the end. Of a total of possible 5 👍 I would give this one 5👍👍👍👍👍.

Mission Critical, by Mark Greaney

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Mission Critical is the eighth book in the Gray Man series. These are books fueled by pure adrenaline. This one takes it up a notch with its focus on biological weapons; just what you want to be reading during the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

If you’ve never dipped in Gray Man before, the books chronicle the blacker than black ops of the CIA. If you like spy stories set in exotic locations these books are for you.

Mission Critical is set in Scotland – a little less exotic than some of the other Gray Man books. A rogue North Korean scientist and secret agent has teamed up with her Russian counterparts to take down the western intelligence community who are all attending a conference in Edinburgh. Court Gentry, the Gray Man, accidentally finds out about this and soon becomes an integral part of the case.

If I told you any more about the plot I’d have to kill you so you’ll have to read the rest yourself! Rating this book within the Spy Thriller Subgenre, of a total of possible 5 👍 I would give this one 4 👍👍👍👍!

The Magister Trilogy, by Celia S.Friedman

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The Magister Trilogy is an epic fantasy series based in a world where expending magic comes at the cost of one’s own life force. Those with magical abilities only have a limited amount, and once expended, they expire. The magical exceptions are the Magisters, a secret group of male witches with an undying athra (or magical force).

It turns out that secret source of the Magisters’ life force is their ability to remotely feed on others’ life forces. Mere humans suddenly become afflicted by the mysterious “wasting disease” while they are slowly drained by the Magisters, who deliberately remain ignorant of their hosts (“consorts”). Early in the series we learn that Prince Andovan, son of one of the most powerful rulers in the world, has suddenly become inflicted by the Wasting Disease.

This is surprising to all the Magisters, because it defies the Magister Oath. The Magisters keep to a code of ethics to temper their more base instincts – they are fiercely territorial and cannot stand being within proximity to others of their kind, but they each have the power to flatten armies and destroy kingdoms single-handedly. Accordingly they have made an Oath that if one Magister is retained by a royal house, the others will leave their employers alone. Thus since King Danton is served by the powerful Magister Ramirus, his son Prince Andovan should be off limits to other Magisters as a consort.

It is against this complex web of magical stage-setting that we are introduced to Kamala, the talented witch with magical Sight, who doggedly seeks out a male Magister mentor, and convinces him to train her. She survives her training to become the first female Magister.

Siderea, the Witch-Queen of the Free Peoples, has stayed in power longer than any witch should last due to her secret manipulations of her many Magister lovers, who help keep her alive.

Gwynofar, Queen of the High Kingdom and wife of King Danton, pursues the religious rituals of her native Kierdwyn, convinced of the inner power of the Lyr people who will supposedly rise up to protect the world when the evil Ikati reappear. While ridiculed by the High Kingdom court and even her husband, she remains dedicated to the Lyr mythology.

While this series has many of the traditional elements of epic fantasy – magic, dragon-like creatures (Ikati), secret invaders, and epic quests – it is also a feminist story. The main female characters – Kamala, Siderea, and Gwynofar – are women of power trying to break into a boys club. To some extent the series tracks their individual successes and creative problem-solving, as they kick ass and change the world. Friedman’s female characters are complex and interesting to follow, and it is refreshing to have the women take the spotlight.

I haven’t been rating the books I review but think it might be helpful to add this feature to my reviews. Of a total of possible 5 👍 I would give this one 4 👍👍👍👍!

A Woman Is No Man, by Etaf Rum

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The story of this book is one of courage in the face of oppression, in the voice of Palestinian American women trying to escape the restrictive role of women in their culture. The story is told through three generations of women – the traditional grandmother Fareeda, the daughter-in-law Isra (and her sister-in-law Sarah), and the granddaughter Deya. Both Fareeda and Isra were raised in Palestine. Fareeda and her husband Khaled escaped the refugee camp with their children, managing to leave their country behind and come to America. Isra was arranged in marriage to Fareeda’s son Adam and left her family’s home in Palestine to come live in Adam’s family home in Brooklyn. Deya is the oldest of Isra’s four daughters, haunted by the death of her parents and searching for their true story.

The women in this story lead incredibly restrictive lives. They are responsible for all the work of the home – cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. The richest passages in the book describe the women together preparing the traditional (labor intensive) dishes cooked for the men – the stuffed grape leaves, the meat pies, the onions with sumac. School is a site for religious instruction and a holding spot until girls are married off. They are not to leave the home without supervision. College is not for women.

For the older generations, it is seen as acceptable for women to be beaten at their husband’s discretion – if their tea isn’t spiced correctly, if they have a girl baby instead of a boy baby, if the husband is just in a bad mood. It is a bleak existence. The women all struggle in different ways to spare their daughters the ordeals of their adulthood. Isra, Deya and Fareeda’s daughter Sarah are all passionate readers, and literature brings them hope and helps them gain perspective on their lives.

Many women immigrants who come to America not knowing English, not having family (other than their spouse), and not having money, face similar problems to the characters in this novel. But the chaotic background of Palestine seems to make women’s situations even more dire. When Isra starts to be beaten by her husband Adam, Sarah tells her “you know domestic abuse is illegal here right? If a man ever put his hands on me, I’d call the cops right away.” Isra explains “Husbands beat their wives all the time back home. There is no government in Palestine. It’s an occupied country. There’s no one to call. And even if there was a police, they’d drag you back to your husband and he’d beat you some more for leaving.”

In spite of the constant fear these women face, they all take courageous steps to improve their lives. It is a gripping story which opens a window on a community I know little about.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

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Little Fires Everywhere is an emotionally packed novel. There is rich material in the story and as I was thinking through my experience reading it I wondered what my daughter would experience if she were to read it too. It has a little something for everyone – rebellious teens, inter-racial relations, town planning, abortion, immigrant experience, surrogate pregnancy, infertility…the list goes on.

To me, this is really a book about motherhood, in all its shapes and sizes. There are good mothers, surrogate mothers, accidental mothers, neglectful mothers, single mothers, adoptive mothers, mothers from other cultures, and absent mothers. The two primary mothers – Mrs. Richardson and Mia Warren – provide the narrative arc of the book. Mrs. Richardson grew up in Shaker Heights, and internalized the structured planned community in which she was raised. She met her husband in college, they planned out their careers, house and family, and then worked to achieve their goals; hardworking but using conventional means. Mia on the other hand was an artist who used photography in her idiosyncratic body of work. She followed her intuition and was very attentive to the world around her, both in her art and her life. Her life was itinerant, she and her daughter never stayed in one place very long. As an artist who studied photography there were aspects of Mia’s character I identified with, but if I’m honest with myself I also identified with the rule-following Mrs. Richardson who embraced rules and routine.

Mia, I found myself thinking, is the mother I always want to be; saying the right things to the children in their times of need, being open and accepting, and creating a feeling of home through one’s presence rather than the choice of decor. Mrs. Richardson, on the other hand, is the mother I fear I might be – so absorbed in her work, and the need for structure and rules, that she is missing the emotional register of her family entirely. Of course neither of these characters are perfect, and as a reader and mother I know that good parenting requires both a little bit of Mia and a little Mrs. Richardson.

I haven’t been rating my books, but if I did, out of 5 👍, I would give this one a 👍👍👍👍👍. It is a totally absorbing read, the characters are complex and do unexpected things. As noted it really has something for everyone and in fact I do plan to give this to my daughter, as I’m very curious to hear her response.

The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood

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The Testaments is a cringey book that you can’t put down. The long awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments takes place in a not-too-distant future America, where the zealots have overthrown the US government and set up a religious totalitarian state. America, now Gilead, is a place where gender roles are strictly defined, and the men in power get to write all the definitions. Women are confined to their “rightful” place of home and family, no longer taught to read or allowed to have positions of responsibility, other than having children and maintaining their households.

Where Handmaid’s Tale focused on the horrors of the Handmaids, who served as sex slaves and wombs to the ruling Commanders, in The Testaments, the Handmaids are in the background. The peripheral characters of the first book (children, wives, maids “Marthas” and the nun-like “Aunts”) are the players here. The book weaves together the stories of three women; Daisy, an outsider from Canada; Agnes, of the first generation to be raised in Gilead; and the older Aunt Lydia who lived through the violent formation of Gilead to become one of the most powerful women in the new regime. Without spoiling the story I will just say that Atwood cleverly weaves together these women’s lives and the future of Gilead.

When I read the Handmaid’s Tale many years ago, during the Reagan/Bush era, the nascent anti-choice movement was emerging and the vision was frighteningly real. The Testaments emerges in the age of Trump and is equally dread-inducing. There is a very Trump-like Commander Judd, who kills off his young wives and collects child pornography, while torturing women for their improprieties. In passing we learn of Judd’s “National Homelands” campaign to promote whiteness. The various Commander’s wives, in the absence of meaningful work or education (only Aunts are taught to read) vie for power in the home, over the petty details of domestic life.

Agnes is the one pure character in the book, as she knows not of life beyond Gilead, cannot read, and rarely leaves home, other than to attend the sanctioned religious school for girls. Her transformation and bravery are a challenge to the reader. In the face of overwhelming opposition, will you stand up for what is right? Put your body on the line to help others? The Testaments is both a warning and a call for action that is hard to ignore.