Book-Book (Read It)

Book Review: Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel

I was beyond excited to read Allison Bechtel's second graphic memoir after the magnificent Fun Home, but I was disappointed. Perhaps because I am so skeptical about psychoanalysis, I was annoyed and /or bored with the long passages about Bechdel’s therapy and her infatuation with the theories of Donald Winnicott.  When Bechdel reaches into the past with clarity and concentrates on specific details about her mother, it was interesting.  Much of the rest left me cold

I remember at the end of Fun Home I had tears in my eyes, but with this one I’m sorry to say I was emotionally unmoved by the story and intellectually confused. That possibly reflects my intellectual shallowness. But I'm not sure that it does.

Book Review: Defending Jacoby by William Landay

I seldom read suspense novels but I do enjoy courtroom dramas and true crime on TV, so I thought I would get this best-selling book a try. Once I got over the fact that everything that causes me to love a book was missing: complex characterization, rich settings, interesting language -  I enjoyed the book for what it what it is,  a good, fast-paced story.

The "Jacob" of the title is the son of a Massachusetts assistant district attorney who is been charged with the murder of a classmate. His parents are of course sure of his innocence, but the reader is not so sure. The courtroom setting and the legal maneuvering is fun to read, but what really makes the book stand out are the family dynamics. Essentially this is a cross between a legal thriller and We Need to Talk about Kevin -  if that book had been narrated by the clueless father. It's not remotely as interesting and well-written as Kevin, but it's a satisfying read.

Book Review: The Finishing School by Gail Godwin

Godwin's 1984 novel is about a 14-year-old girl who is infatuated with her 40-something neighbor, the sophisticated Ursula DeVane. Justine Stokes is bored and lonely, having moved to rural New York State with her recently widowed mother. She is instantly smitten with the eccentric Ursula, who encourages the attachment. We know from the beginning of the novel that things do not end well.

I loved this book for the same reason I loved Unfinished Desires (2010). Godwin writes about intelligent women, seeking self-knowledge and wisdom in relation with each other. Even self-consciously feminist novels - and this is not - too often depict women in relation to men or to their children, despite the fact our relationships with other women are a key part - maybe the most important part? of our inner lives. Godwin respects the complexities of women's relationships and does not romanticize them.  I also admire how Godwin doesn't do our thinking for us and does not cast judgment on the characters she has created.

Book Review: A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

As mentioned before, I'm smitten with this mystery series set in the charming Quebec village of Three Pines.  This one concerns the murder of a perfectly horrid woman who is trying to market herself as a sort of New-Age Martha Stewart. The only flaw is the Rube-Goldberg murder scheme. The method chosen to kill the victim is so agonizingly complicated as to strain all credulity, and I started fantasizing that Indiana Jones would show up and just shoot the lady and be done with it.

Book Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth

This novel about a teen-aged lesbian sent to a Christian re-education school is a YA book that adults can read without feeling that they're reading down. It's a good story, told with due regard to nuance and not at all like the After School Special you might expect. Cameron is an enormously appealing character, with some tooth but also with great vulnerability.  The reader is obviously invited to sympathize with her.  But the Christian de-gayers are not portrayed as monsters, although Cameron's counselor Lydia seems modeled after Aunt Lydia, the terrifying enforcer of Patriarchy in The Handmaid's Tale.

I'm guessing this book is a tough sell.  It's obviously aimed at the YA market, but some schools and libraries may be reluctant to shelve it with YA because of sex, language, and quite a bit of pot smoking. My library was ready to shelve it with adult fiction, but I felt strongly that teens should have easy access to the book without having to come to the librarian and ask for it.

Book Review: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

This slender novel, translated from the Norwegian is one of those slow reads that I generally prefer, but for some reason I failed to appreciate it. It's about an elderly man who has retired to an isolated cabin, only to find himself living next to a neighbor from his boyhood, with whom he shares painful memories.

The prose is beautiful, but beautiful in uneven ways: sometimes as plain as Cormac McCarthy in The Road, and sometimes very florid and descriptive. I wonder if the translation has an impact on that; that was the same criticism I had of Orhan Pamuk's Snow (which my book group renamed "Slow.")

There is a lot going on here: tragic accidents, wartime heroics, adultery, and logging - don't forget the logging - but the tale is told so quietly, so subtly, that I got a little impatient - it seems I'm in an unsubtle mood for my reading these days.