From Briefs to Books

Unsheltered – by Barbara Kingsolver

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Fiction

Unsheltered is a none too subtle examination of the times we live in, and the blinders that prevent us, and likely have always prevented us, from being our true selves and securing a meaningful future. The story takes place today and in the 1870s in Vineland, New Jersey. Today’s story and the story of yesterday revolve around a ramshackle house.

Willa Knox and her husband Iano Tavoularis, along with unconventional daughter Tig, far right nationalist and dying father in-law, Nick and ancient dog Dixie, have just moved to Vineland from Virginia. Iano had been a professor in Virginia when the university suddenly closed and the family was left border line destitute. Iano found a job at a small college in Philadelphia and thus the move. Willa had inherited the house from an aunt and so the family moved in, only to find that the house was about to fall down. Much of the family’s story revolves around what to do about the house.

Thatcher Greenwood has recently married the younger and beautiful Rose. Rose’s mother, Aurelia, had been forced to leave her beloved home and social stature in Vineland when her husband died, leaving her penniless. She had been forced to rent out the home and move Rose and her other daughter Polly into a cousin’s house in Boston. Thatcher, a teacher, found a teaching position in Vineland, and the entire family moved back into Aurelia’s Vineland home. Thatcher arrives to find that the home is crumbling around them and that the family’s expectations of his economic success are unrealistic. Thatcher’s story takes place between the years 1874-75.

Willa’s sun, Zeke, has a newborn child whose mother has committed suicide. Zeke had been living in Boston but returns to Vineland with the baby to enlist the aid of his family. Zeke does not stay in Vineland long and the task of raising the child goes to Tig and Willa, as does the task of taking care of Nick. Zeke is something of an investment banker and Tig is something of a free spirit, very focused on the environment and waste. The two do not get along and the differences in their life philosophies, as well as Nick’s far right sentimentalities, are used as a vehicle to express the author’s concerns with environmental decay, climate change, health care, the rejection of science and today’s politics.

Thatcher is a science teacher who believes strongly in evolution and survival of the fittest. His next door neighbor is Mary Treat, a historic botanist and entomologist who regularly corresponded with Charles Darwin. Thatcher and Mary become friends and Thatcher goes to Mary with his challenges teaching science in a school where the emphasis is on religion. While the two are becoming friends, Aurelia and Rose are befriending the very wealthy Dunwiddie family, trying to desperately enhance their social and economic standing. Thatcher befriends the editor of an alternate newspaper. The friend is shot and things go downhill fast for Thatcher.

Back to Willa. Nick is dying and when she takes him to a medical clinic they refuse to see him due to lack of health insurance. Health insurance and the saving grace of Medicaid are a significant part of the story. In a desperate effort to shore up their crumbling house, Willa starts to research the history of the house hoping to receive an historic landmark designation and grant money. Through that research she learns about Thatcher Greenwood, Mary Treat and some of the history of Vineland.

The book is about moving beyond materiality and ambition and opening your heart and mind. In a sense, the book is a warning about what happens when you fail to move beyond yourself. Ultimately, both Willa and Thatcher understand that there are bigger things than ambition and possession.

“She aimed to be immune to the ambitions and disappointments that had maimed her parents’ existence and now were stirring up a national tidal wave of self-interest…Here was the earthquake, the fire, flood and melting permafrost, with everyone still grabbing for bricks to put in their pockets rather than walking out of the wreck looking for light.”

Each chapter alternates between Willa’s story and Thatcher’s story. The end of each chapter is effectively the beginning of the next. The novel starts out very slow. I have to admit that I almost gave up, but I trudged through and by the end was glad I did. The book is a tad preachy, but the concerns expressed and the characters themselves are real and thoughtful. If you like Barbara Kingsolver novels then you might want to give this one a try. You can reserve this at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Milkman – by Anna Burns

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Fiction

“Milkman” is a novel that is difficult to describe. It is not clear exactly where it takes place (somewhere in Northern Ireland) and none of the characters have names (at least not what we think of as proper names). Some of the paragraphs go on for pages and the writing style can be described best as the narrator’s not always chronological stream of consciousness. All that said, I loved this book.

The narrator, nameless, is 18 years old and is being stalked by milkman (later Milkman), a well-known renouncer of the state. Her family consisted of a mother, a father, 3 or possibly 4 brothers, 3 older sisters and three younger sisters. Consisted is the proper term because at the time of the story one brother has been killed, one brother has disappeared into the Middle East, one brother married the wrong woman (therefore ostracized) and fourth brother is not really a brother and he is on the run. Each one is designated as First Brother, Second Brother etc. So far as the sisters go, First Sister’s ex love was killed in a bombing and she married a horrible man, Second Sister was banished by the renouncers and Third Sister, as best I can tell, is perpetually drunk. The three younger sisters, ages 7, 8 and 9 are brilliant and precocious.

The times are precarious with defenders of the state and renouncers perpetually at war. Government operatives are hiding in the bushes taking pictures of perceived state enemies. Every family has lost numerous family members and narrator’s best friend has lost every single member of her family. The community includes a serial poisoner. Everyone is in everyone else’s business and judgmental to a fault. People are afraid to go to the hospital for fear of being asked questions and being deemed an informer “Us and ‘them’ was second nature…By unspoken agreement—which outsiders couldn’t grasp unless it should come to their own private expediencies—it was unanimously understood that when everybody here used the tribal identifiers of ‘us’ or ‘them’, of ‘their religion’ or ‘our religion’, not all of us and not all of them, was, it goes without saying, to be taken as read.”

In the time frame of the novel nothing about life is exactly normal. The times are so fraught that even the most ordinary events are suspect. “So shiny was bad, and ‘too sad’ was bad, and ‘totally joyous’ was bad, which meant you had to go around not being anything; also not thinking, least not at top level, which was why everybody kept their private thoughts safe and sound in those recesses.”

In addition to the family tragedies resulting from the battle between the renouncers and the defenders, the novel addresses the role of women in the middle of all this (significant and determinative). The community has different groups of women, groups looking into their rights as women and more traditional women who stand up and take action when it is needed. All of the women serve as protectors in one way or another.

The narrator is haunted by milkman. First he shows up in his white van while she is walking reading a book (yes she walks and reads, which the gossipy community finds frightful, ultimately labeling her “beyond the pale”). Then he shows up while she is out running. She is taking a French class and he shows up while she is walking home, carrying a dead cat’s head which she found at a bombing site (a particularly peculiar part of the book which only adds to her reputation as “beyond the pale”).

Narrator has a maybe-boyfriend who works on cars and has come into pieces parts of a Bentley, sadly from over there. The Bentley creates political mayhem in his life. Maybe-boyfriend’s parents deserted maybe- boyfriend and his brothers when they were relatively young, to become famous ballroom dancers. Narrator wonders about maybe-boyfriend because he likes to cook and enjoys sunsets, the normal things she is unable to understand. “it wasn’t just sunsets I didn’t understand. I didn’t understands stars or moons or breezes or dews or flowers or the weather…This was when I began to wonder, again, if maybe-boyfriend should be going to sunsets, if he should be owning coffee pots…”

Milkman is 41 years old, a high ranking renouncer and his stalking causes narrator to suffer what can only be described as multiple anxiety attacks. Despite her refusal of his advances, the community is certain that she is involved with him and of course her mother and family are highly critical and reject her denials. On the other hand, there are the renouncer groupies, who  respect her because of her presumed romantic engagement with milkman. Milkman knows of maybe-boyfriend and frequently discusses the unfortunate consequences of car bombing in the context of maybe-boyfriend’s work with cars.

The book has lots of twists and turns, and is filled with dry wit. It focuses on the importance of community and its disruption by religion and politics and ultimately the importance of enduring love. Although it is an extremely difficult read, the story, the characters, the humor and the perspective make this book well worth the effort. The book won the Man Booker prize and can be reserved at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Good Kids, Bad City—A Story of Race and Wrongful Conviction in America – by Kyle Swenson

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Nonfiction

“…the American justice system repeatedly fails to fully analyze its own mistakes and abuses. In wrongful convictions, lawsuits and cash settlements have become common, but the system itself has little inclination to push deeper with detailed inquisition into how it could break down so catastrophically.”

“Good Kids, Bad City” is the story of the wrongful conviction, and ultimate exoneration of Wiley Bridgeman, Kwame Ajamu (formerly Ronnie Bridgeman) and Rickey Jackson. The three were convicted of the murder of Harry J Franks in 1975, solely on the basis of the testimony of then 13 year old Ed Vernon. All three maintained their innocence and were incarcerated for a combined 106 years, part of the time on death row.

But the book is also about the history of Cleveland politics and corruption and racial inequity and injustice.

On May 19, 1975, 58 year old money order salesman Harry J Franks collected $429.55 from a client and traveled to his next client, Cut-Rate, owned by Bob and Anna Robinson. As he exited the Cut-Rate, two young men hit him with a pipe, threw acid in his face, shot him and stole his briefcase. Mrs. Robinson was also shot through the store door.

Ed Vernon, a 13 year old schoolboy, identified the Bridgemans and Jackson as the culprits. They were convicted solely on his testimony, despite conflicting testimony by eyewitness.

Kwame was paroled in 2003. While he was attempting to find help to get Wiley and Ricky out of jail, a well-known Cleveland attorney sent him to a reporter at the Cleveland Scene, Kyle Swenson. Swenson did his own research, concluding that the three men were innocent and in June of 2011, the Cleveland Scene published a story about the case and the innocence of the three men. Nothing happened. “Yet outside of a couple emails, hey great job, keep it up, the response was nil…There was real world heft to this: two men were sitting in prison cells, a third was adrift between a past he was powerless to escape and a present he couldn’t comfortably embrace.”

In the meantime, Rickey was sending jailhouse letters to everybody and anybody who would listen. Ultimately, he got the attention of the Ohio Innocence Project. In 2014, Ed Vernon publicly recanted his 1975 testimony and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor withdrew its case. Wiley and Rickey were freed, after each served roughly 39 years of incarceration.

This summary of the book does not relay the intensity and emotion of the story. The men’s friends and neighbors from 1975 were aware of their innocence but never spoke up. The police manipulated young Ed Vernon and arguably withheld conflicting evidence. The men had bright futures which were literally stolen from them. The horror of their experience is hard to overstate.

The book also tells the history of Cleveland politics and police corruption. It describes the segregation of the city then and now and the city leadership’s inability to improve living conditions in predominantly black communities while downtown Cleveland thrives. And sadly, the book highlights how as much as things change, they stay the same. One day after Rickey Jackson was released from jail, Tamir Rice, a 12 year old black Cleveland boy holding a toy gun, was killed by Cleveland police. The officers involved were not charged.

“The thirty-second soundbite version being promoted here was that a boy lied, innocent men were sent to prison, and now they had been cleared. That view, however, ignored all the critical context of Cleveland racial politics, not to mention the direct role police detectives allegedly played in forcing Ed to falsely testify. Without those pieces, the Jackson-Bridgeman case existed in a vacuum, a one-time piece of tragic luck; but within the framework of Cleveland’s history, the wrongful conviction felt chained to so much more than what a boy saw or didn’t see.”

The story is a real life tragedy. Despite some cringe worthy writing in places, this book is a must read if you want to understand the inequities of our system and the bold efforts of many to right these wrongs. If you want to read this book you can reserve it at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Killing Commendatore – by Haruki Murakami

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Fiction

“Killing Commendatore” is prototypical Murakami—magic realism meets philosophical quandary meets spirituality meets self-awareness—enveloped in a highly unique story with a range of characters.

The protagonist, whose name we are never told, is a talented artist who has been wasting his talents painting portraits. Although his talents might be wasted, his skill is apparent in his ability to capture not just a person’s likeness, but his (almost always HIS) essence.

After living in Tokyo with his wife, Yuzu for six years, Yuzu announces that she wants a divorce. This separation sets off an almost 9 month course of events that teaches our narrator who he is and what he wants from life.

Our narrator leaves the apartment he shared with Yuzu and drives around for almost a month before he settles in to a house offered to him by his friend Masahiko Amada, in the mountains outside Odawara. The house had been previously inhabited by Amada’s father, the renowned artist Tomohiko Amada. Tomohiko Amada was best known for his Japanese-style painting. The 90 year old Tomohiko is in a nursing home where he is suffering from dementia.

During the almost eight months that our narrator lives in the house, a lot happens (861 pages worth). He hears a noise in the attic and discovers a hidden painting, Killing Commendatore. The painting, one of Tomohiko’s, depicts what at first glance appears to be a scene from the opera Don Giovanni. It is the finest painting the narrator has ever seen and infuses him with an unsated curiosity about Tomohiko Amada. We do learn that Tomohiko had spent the late 1930s in Vienna and had been involved in an unsuccessful assassination plot leaving others in grave danger. His family’s connections and wealth enabled him to return to Japan without physical injury. The painting, we learn, has something to do with that time, and various characters in the painting come alive throughout the story.

In the meantime, the narrator meets a neighbor, Wataru Menshiki, who lives alone in a white mansion up the mountain. Menshiki, in his mid-50s and with a full head of shocking white hair, commissions the narrator to paint his portrait. The portrait reflects his essence rather than his physical self and Menshiki is satisfied. But it appears that Menshiki, who is very wealthy and has a mysterious past, wants something more from our narrator.

The narrator takes to teaching art classes two nights a week, one adult class and one children’s class. Through the adult class he takes a lover and through the children’s class (and a few other steps which I cannot divulge), he befriends a young girl, Mariye. He and Mariye become friendly when the narrator commences to paint her portrait. Mariye’s beautiful aunt, Shoko, becomes romantically involved with Menshiki.

For a couple of nights in a row the narrator hears a bell and one night goes out into the forest to find a shrine. The ringing seems to be coming from underground, beneath the shrine. With Menshiki’s help they arrange to remove layers of stones and discover a well like pit, with an old antique bell at the bottom. It is unclear how anyone could have been ringing the bell. The pit and the bell become an important part of the story.

At one point in the novel, Mariye and the narrator disappear at the same time. The narrator is pulled into an underworld and Mariye’s disappearance is a mystery. When they return, each shares the story only with the other. Through these stories we learn a little about a lot–or maybe a lot about a little, I am not sure!

There is a lot of Japanese history in the novel, a lot of music and a bit of sex. And weirdly, there is a Cleveland Indians baseball cap!

The novel addresses the depths of art, loneliness, spirituality, relationships and life’s very inexplicable complexities. There are ideas and metaphors personified, each sharing life’s invaluable lessons. The personified idea at one point comments, that “What is important is not creating something out of nothing. What my friends need to do is discover the right thing from what is already there”. The metaphor, who is not really all that bright, has no words of wisdom, although he does warn our narrator about the perils of double metaphors.

When you read Murakami you feel like you can almost grasp the meaning of life in his story, but he always leaves it just outside your reach. That said, while Murakami’s failure to bring you to that promised enlightenment is disappointing, the journey is still a blast! You can reserve this book at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

The Friend – by Sigrid Nunez

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Fiction

“The Friend” is a novel about writing, friendship, loss and man’s (in this case woman’s) relationship to animals, most particularly dogs. Although short (214 pages), The Friend packs a punch in the way it touches on life’s many wonders.

The novel is in part a musing on writing. In this part of the novel, the narrator is a writer and teaches writing in a university in New York. Her closest friend was a successful novelist and also a professor of writing. A great deal of the book is devoted to questions about the writer’s role in society and the changing perceptions of writers in culture. The narrator  spends a great deal of time discussing other writers and approaches to the themes of the book (the other musings that come next). Many of my favorite authors are quoted or discussed.

The novel is in part a musing about suicide and grief. The narrator’s friend has just died and the death is a suicide. This disclosure is not a spoiler since the cause of death is made clear at the beginning. The narrator spends time reading about suicide, thinking about writings about suicide and mentioning other authors who have committed suicide. She wonders what would have happened if her friend had failed.

Finally, the novel is a musing about our relationship to dogs. The narrator’s friend had a dog, a Great Dane named Apollo. Apollo weighs 180 pounds and stands 34 inches, shoulder to paw. The friend’s wife, known in the novel as wife Number 3, cannot take care of the dog and asks the narrator to take the dog. The narrator lives in a 500 square foot apartment in Manhattan that does not allow dogs. She takes Apollo and all three parts of the novel, writing, grief and dogs come together.

The landlord threatens to evict her, but the narrator comes up with an ingenious solution—you need to read the novel to discover the solution. She falls madly in love with Apollo and he became a most important part of her life and also gives her a lasting connection to her friend. When pondering the relationship of humans and dogs she asks a lot of questions and makes a number of points that most dog lovers have likely considered. For instance, after we are introduced to the lovely Apollo, Nunez taunts the reader with “Does something bad happen to the dog?” That seems to me the question I ask in every book, every television show and every movie I see where a dog plays a role.

Nunez also asks “Why do people often find animal suffering harder to accept than the suffering of other human beings?” Reflecting on the outrage we feel over cruelty to animals, Nunez answers the question by reflecting on our own instincts in early life when we are helpless and observes that “when we are no longer capable of feeling it [outrage] will be a terrible day for every living being, that our own downward slide into violence and barbarity will be only that much quicker.”

Nunez ties all three musings together at the end of the book by acknowledging the significant role that love and loss play in shaping who we are. “What we miss—what we love and what we mourn—isn’t it this that makes us who, deep down, we truly are.”

I loved this book! The author uses a number of literary tricks which work, her life observations are real and poignant, without being preachy, her writing is fantastic and then of course there are the dogs. I acknowledge that this book may not be for everyone. But if you love to read literary fiction, this is a book for you. Oh, and one more thing, the novel won the 2018 National Book Award for fiction. The Friend can be reserved at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

There There – by Tommy Orange

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Fiction

There There is the story of urban Native Americans, whose lives come together at a massive Powwow at the Oakland Coliseum.

There There is not a cheerful tale and involves a lot of characters. Tony Loneman is a physically disfigured 21 year old whose appearance and mental capacity were adversely affected by fetal alcohol syndrome. He makes a living selling drugs.

Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield and her half-sister, Jacqui Red Feather, were taken by their mother to live at Alcatraz for the occupation. Jacqui was raped and their mother informed them that she was dying of cancer, leaving them to live with an unrelated man. You can guess how that went.

Dene Oxendene receives a grant to film interviews with Native Americans living in Oakland, giving each person the opportunity to tell his or her story. “I want to bring something new to the vision of the Native experience as it’s seen on the screen. We haven’t seen the Urban Indian story.” The interviews are sort of the story in the story. When we first meet Dene he is listening to Radio Head’s “There There”. (Just ‘cause you feel it doesn’t mean it’s there”). He also reflects on Gertrude Stein’s description of Oakland, that there is no there there. “For Native people in this country, all over America, it’s been developed over, buried ancestral land, glass and concrete and wire and steel, unreturnable covered memory. There is no there there.”

Octavio Gomez is a drug dealer. It is his idea to rob the powwow of the prize money. There are many shady characters who revolve around Octavio.

There are lots of other characters too, all engaged in some way around the powwow. The story is brilliantly conceived, bringing numerous seemingly unrelated people together, and describing differing cultures, struggles and identities. As the powwow arrives and the attempted theft begins, the chapters become short and relay a sense of urgency to the reader, so that you feel like you are part of the story.

The book made me sad and ashamed. This is a book we should all read to remind us about how our country evolved and the continuing isolation and prejudice the original founders of this country continue to experience. You can reserve this book at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Ohio – by Stephen Markley

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Fiction

Ohio is a story about a fictional small town in Ohio, New Canaan, “cradled in the state’s northeast quadrant, equidistant from the cities of Cleveland and Columbus…”. Ohio tells the story of the town’s long term devastating impact on a group of young people who grew up there.

The novel starts in October of 2007 with the New Canaan parade in honor of 22 year old Rick Brinklan, who was killed in action in Iraq in April of 2007. Rick had been the star quarterback of his high school football team. Rick’s high school girlfriend, Kaylyn Lynn, who had rejected his marriage proposal, attended but refused to speak. “In terms of our story, the parade was perhaps most notable not for the people who showed up but for those who were missing that day. Bill Ashcroft and nasty Tina, former volleyball star and First Christian Church attendee Stacey Moore. And a kid named Danny Eaton.”

The novel then moves to a time 6 years later, when all of the people missing from the parade, Bill Ashcroft, Stacey Moore, Danny Eaton and Tina Ross, each of whom had left New Canaan, return at the same time for different reasons. And through this return, we learn the haunting story and frightenly unlikely intersections of their lives.

The novel starts with Bill Ashcroft, who is telling the story of his life and his high school experience in New Canaan. Bill’s family was relatively well to do, his father a dentist and his mother a journalist with the local paper.  Bill was romantically attached to Lisa Han throughout high school, but we learn that he also had a side relationship with Kaylyn. Bill was madly in love with Kaylyn.  Bill was the high school political radical.

Bill returns to North Canaan from New Orleans, having been fired from his job writing media releases for a wetlands conservation group. He is being paid to transport a package from New Orleans to North Canaan. He does not know what is in the package, described as a rectangle, the length of a number 10 envelope, a few centimeters thick, which he has hidden in the back wheel of his truck. After a night of drinking at the Lincoln, coincidentally with Dan Eaton and former high school friends Todd Beaufort and Jonah Hansen, Bill runs out of gas and is forced to remove the package from the truck and tape it to his back. He goes on a drug and alcohol bender and then delivers the package to its owner, who happens to be a pregnant Kaylyn. The years have not been kind to her, one of the most beautiful girls in high school. The have a friendly reunion and she tells Bill she has done terrible things. We learn about these terrible things throughout the book.

Stacey Moore returns to New Canaan at the request of her best friend’s mother, Bethany Kline. Stacey had been involved with Ben Harrington, who became a moderately successful musician and who died of an overdose. Bethany’s daughter is Lisa Han, Bill’s former girlfriend. Lisa has not been seen since high school and has limited communication with her mother and her friends. Bethany and Lisa had a falling out and Bethany is hoping that Stacey can help find her. Stacey had been looking for Lisa over the years and has her own theory about Lisa’s whereabouts.

Dan Eaton had been involved with Hailey Kowalczyk in high school and she had wanted to marry him. But he enlisted in the military and redeployed for two more tours of duty and Hailey broke up with him. She was married and had a child when he returned for a visit and they reunited. The war had a visible and significant impact on him.

Tina Ross returns to New Canaan seeking to avenge the cruelty heaped upon her by her high school boyfriend Todd Beaufort, with whom she is still in love. This is a particularly disturbing part of the book.

Every character’s life is miserable in some way or another, some more extreme than others, all as a result of their New Canaan experience. In some ways the book is a horror story, particularly when you learn about some of the things the individuals have done to each other and the utter hopelessness of their lives. The book is well conceived and written and all of the lives and events are well connected. But the story is unpleasant and the misery of the community and the experiences are not well explained or understandable. Maybe Markley is telling us that small town life is insular and miserable. I certainly felt miserable and tortured when I was done, so if that was the intent, I say job well done. If you want to punish yourself with well written unpleasantness, then by all means read this book. It can be reserved at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Salvage the Bones – by Jesmyn Ward

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Fiction

Jesmyn Ward’s National Book award winner “Salvage the Bones” is a  complex, often difficult story that simply pulls the reader into the lives of a poor Mississippi family that ultimately survives Hurricane Katrina. In a Question and Answer session regarding the book, Jesmyn Ward says “I often feel that if I can get the language just right, the language hypnotizes the reader.” In Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward not only succeeds in hypnotizing the reader, but she makes the reader feel like she is living through every painful and uncomfortable moment described in the book.

The novel is broken down into twelve days, days one through eleven leading up to Hurricane Katrina, and day twelve describing the initial aftermath. Each day follows siblings Randall, Skeetah, Esch, and Junior, as well as “Daddy”, living in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi.   The family’s mother had died 7 years before during child birth. Along with the family are friends Manny, Marquise and Big Henry, as well as others. A lot happens during the 12 days, but interspersed throughout the first 11 days are preparations for the hurricane.

At the start of the novel Skeetah’s beloved pit bull, China, is giving birth to 5 puppies. China, the puppies and dog fighting play a significant role in the book. Esch, who is 15 years old and telling the story, is naively in love with Manny and discovers early in the story that she is pregnant.

A siblings are very active.  Skeetah breaks into a neighboring  family’s property to get worming medication for his beloved China and the puppies. Daddy, an alcoholic, has an accident and loses some of his fingers. Randall, a basketball prodigy, loses an opportunity to go to a basketball camp where he could be discovered. Esch and Manny have a falling out and Junior, 7 years old, just tries to keep up. Throughout Esch’s narration she weaves in the story of Medea, the Greek sorceress who slaughters her children to punish her husband for taking a new bride. This is a paltry summary of a complex and beautifully written story.

The Hurricane proves to be much stronger and violent than the family anticipated. Their house is devastated and they almost drown, but through ingenuity and love they all find a way to survive. Looking at the aftermath, Esch observes that “…there is nothing but mangled wood and steel in a great pile, and suddenly there is a great split between now and then, and I wonder where the world where that day happened has gone, because we are not in it.”

The book is simply brilliant. Throughout all the tragedy the family sticks together and that strength and love is one of the hopeful aspects of an otherwise difficult story. In addition, their close friendships, in particular with Big Henry, reassure the reader of the goodness in the world. This is a book that will stick with me for a long time. Ward’s ability to make the reader actually feel part of the story, without ever telling the reader how to feel or having any of the characters engage in a soliloquy about their emotions is awe inspiring. This book deserved the National Book Award and is a must read. You can reserve it at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Red White Blue – by Lea Carpenter

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Fiction

“Red White Blue” is a literary espionage novel, written in a very unique style. The story unfolds in a slow, deliberate and fascinating way, building on itself and bringing the reader directly into the fold.

Anna is the character around whom the story revolves. Anna was effectively raised by her father, Noel, after her mother, Lulu (short for Eleuthera) inexplicably left when Anna was young. Although Lulu stayed in touch, Anna was most deeply influenced by Noel. Noel worked in finance and when asked what he did for a living he told people he “moved things around.” Noel actually worked for the CIA and that is the story Anna confronts throughout the book.

Noel bought a chalet in Switzerland and Anna and Jake are to marry in Switzerland. The day (or the day before) they are to marry, Noel dies in an avalanche while skiing. Anna and Jake marry anyway and later go to the south of France for a honeymoon. They are both mourning Noel’s death.

Jake is a musician and is in the process of selling the record label he owns and is away frequently during the honeymoon. During the trip, Anna meets an unnamed CIA operative (although she does not realize that is what he is at the time) who cryptically tells her part of her father’s story. Anna learns that both Noel and the unnamed operative spent most of their time in China working with an “asset” who deeply affected their lives.

When Jake and Anna return to New York, Jake decides to run for the Senate. At roughly the same time, Anna receives in the mail a package including a tiny silver USB with a collection of videos relating to Noel and the unnamed operative. As a result of of Jake’s candidacy Anna is subjected to numerous FBI interviews where she never discloses the USB. Jake wins the election and their lives become very public. The book ends with Anna being further drawn in to her father’s activities.

The story is told in chapters alternating between Anna’s story and the unnamed operative’s story. The writing and story telling style are unique and rhythmic. The story is compelling and at the same time has a distant foggy feel to it, probably reflective of the nature of the business the story describes. I really liked this book. Give this one a try. You can reserve this at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Southernmost – by Silas House

By Patty Shlonsky on Posted in Fiction

“Southernmost” is a thoughtful contemplation of tolerance, acceptance and the role of religion in everyday life.

Asher Sharp is a self-taught Pentecostal preacher in a small town outside Nashville, Tennessee. When we first meet him, the town is in the midst of a flood brought on by incessant rain and a rising river. Asher rescues his beloved mother-in-law, Zelda, and takes her to his home, which sits high and is protected from the flooding. He arrives home to a distraught eight year old son, Justin, who is unable to locate the family dog, Roscoe.

Justin runs off in search of Roscoe and Asher goes in search of Justin. The flood waters are rising and Asher is relieved to see Justin in the care of two men. At the same time that he sees Justin, he sees a house completely deluged, with a man and woman trapped on the second level. Asher and one of the men with Justin risk their lives to save the pair, Cyril and his teenage daughter.

After the rescue, Asher, Justin, the two men and the rescued pair return to Asher’s home. It becomes clear that the two men, a country singer, Jimmy and Stephen, are a couple. Asher’s wife, Lydia, vehemently opposes having the two men in the house, and over Asher’s objection, they leave. This episode is the beginning of tensions in the marriage.

Justin is a very sensitive eight year old. His mother is extremely concerned about his emotional fragility and sends him to a therapist in Nashville without Asher’s knowledge. When Asher becomes aware of Lydia’s actions the tension rises.

Jimmy and Stephen start attending Asher’s church, where the congregation is extremely intolerant. In fact, “[m]ore than one of his congregants had blamed this new flood on the Supreme Court’s ruling. No coincidence that the rain had started the same day as the marriages started happening over in Nashville, they said.”

The congregation effectively gives Asher an ultimatum, culminating in a fiery speech by Asher about the role of religion, tolerance and love. One of the congregants video tapes his speech and it goes viral on social media, making him look like both a hero and a lunatic. He is voted out of the congregation. His marriage fails and because of the video he loses custody rights of his beloved son, Justin. That is when everything simply goes off the rails.

During the story we learn that Asher has a gay brother whom Asher and his mother rejected on the basis of their religious beliefs. Asher has not seen his brother, Luke, in 10 years. Periodically, Asher receives an anonymous postcard from Key West with a poem or quote which he knows is from Luke.

I will not tell you the rest of the story (I have probably told you more than I should), but after losing his congregation Asher  starts over and learns more about tolerance, the differing roles of religion, life and love. His son, Justin, refers to religion and G-d as The Everything. The novel has a serious but heartwarming message told through a compelling and thoughtful story. The characters are real and flawed. I really liked this one. You can reserve Southernmost at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

LexBlog