No contemporary writer is better at convincing the reader that a person with many faults can be a hero than Richard Russo. His mixture of empathy, honesty, warmth and wit made Sully a heroic figure in Nobody’s Fool and makes Doug Raymer the equally-unlikely hero in the sequel Everyone’s … Read More
Category: fiction
“The perennial question of motherhood, Eloise thought, was how honest to be.”
“Lonely was the first flavor I had tasted in my life, and it was always there, hidden inside the crevices of my mouth, reminding me.”
“I’ve never heard anything like that. The last line comes out of nowhere.”
This line from a conversation between a seventy-seven year-old poet and an IRS agent about a poem by James Wright in the short story “Yancey” is vintage Ann Beattie: it’s an astute comment in an unusual situation by characters who come to each other from unanticipated angles, and who … Read More
Best of 2015 Books
2015 has been a wonderful year for publishers and readers. My “Best of 2015” list consists of the books that I am most likely to read again. In the memoir category, Norway’s Karl Ove Knausgaard’s fourth volume of My Struggle is part of a series that I believe will be … Read More
“To scatter beams of light on the darkness of your unknown past is my duty.”
A Beijing taxi driver is stalked by someone who claims to have been his soul mate in five of his past lives during the last 1300 years. It’s an interesting premise for this novel, which has received rave reviews from critics around the world. This wildly ambitious rollick … Read More
“Was the crisis real or make-believe?”
What makes a light novel, such as this one, satisfying? Texture, I think, can have a lot to do with it. While the plot is thin — The Queen of England decides to leave the palace for a day — the author incorporates photos from actual events, insider knowledge … Read More
“Her father always said, ‘That loneliness of his,’ and when she saw it in him now, she felt lonely, even abandoned for the moment it lasted . .”
Writing about loneliness is surely one of those tricks that should come with the warning “Do not attempt this at home.” Often, descriptions of loneliness trigger disengagement. It takes a master, such as Marilynne Robinson, to write a novel about loneliness that’s a page-turner. In an interview, when asked … Read More
“You are a coward as well as a snob and a tyrant, Atticus.”
Much has been written about Atticus’s moral compromises in Go Set a Watchman, which might remove him from the list of “Best Dads in American Literature.” However, what I find more remarkable is Scout’s courage to reject the views of the men she loves most and to tell them that … Read More
“It was as if nothing I’d ever done in my life prior to this counted.”
The wonderful thing about 600-page sagas is, in my view, the opportunity to develop a wide perspective. Readers get to see the consequences of decisions as they play out over the span of decades. Sometimes characters come to see things differently, and sometimes readers do, too. Moments of reconsideration can … Read More
“But, like most families, they imagined they were special.”
What makes this family special? Anne Tyler provides this list: They thought their uncanny ability to keep their dogs alive for eons set them apart, as did their fierce disapproval of any adults who wear jeans, and their air of good-natured patience “that was not entirely deserved.” They also have … Read More
“A good book . . . leaves you wanting to reread the book. A great book compels you to reread your own soul.”
If you agree that a great book does compel you to reread your own soul, you will find yourself contemplating the capabilities of the human spirit after finishing The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. What astonished me most about this award-winning novel was the way contradictions … Read More
“…her relationship with him was like being content in a house but always sitting by the window and looking out.”
One of the many remarkable attributes of Chimanda Ngozi Adichie‘s dazzling novel Americanah is her ability to capture a complex condition, situation, or decision in just a few precise words. She describes the central character’s loneliness this way “… she felt sheathed in a translucent haze of difference.” (80) … Read More
“You were right to tell me that in life, it is not the future which counts, but the past.”
What kind of person believes that the past is more important than the future? Wouldn’t the least likely be someone with amnesia? The central character in this novel by Nobel Prize-winner Patrick Modiano is a Parisian who has no memory of his life before the second world war. It appears … Read More
“It was a very clear night, or morning, very still, and then there was such energy in the things transpiring among those trees, like a storm, like travail.”
This beautiful novel could be a “how to” manual for aspiring writers. It shows how to have a virtuous central character who is interesting — a rare feat in contemporary literature. It shows how to structure a novel without using standard architectural tools, such as chapters. It shows how to … Read More