Redhead by the Side of the RoadAnne Tyler writes about the extraordinary in the ordinary. “Redhead by the Side of the Road” is a beautiful example of her prototypical story telling.

Micah Mortimer is in his early forties and his life is just sort of slipping along. “You have to wonder what goes through the mind of a man like Micah Mortimer. He lives alone; he keeps to himself; his routine is etched in stone.” Micah’s routine includes an early morning run, shower, breakfast, cleaning and work. His apartment is immaculate and he is very disciplined in his cleaning regimen.

Micah operates “Tech Hermit”, traveling to people’s homes and businesses to help with computer issues. He is the author of a tech guide called “First, Plug It In.” He also functions as the super of his apartment building, where Micah’s apartment is in the basement. “Does he ever stop to consider his life? The meaning of it, the point? Does it trouble him to think that he will probably spend his next thirty or forty years this way?”

Micah has a girlfriend, Cass, who teaches fourth grade. They have a nice routine together until Cass starts to fear the possibility of being evicted from her apartment. Micah suggests she could live in her car and things go downhill from there.

Micah has had other girlfriends in the past but something has always gone wrong. Micah is reminded of his college girlfriend Lorna Bartell when her son, Brink Bartell Adams, suddenly shows up at his apartment. Brink is convinced that Micah is his father, which as it turns out is not possible. Brink, a college freshman, is having some issues and has disappeared from school and his family, causing his parents no end of concern. Suddenly Lorna, and her husband Roger, enter Micah’s life. Lorna’s recollection of their college relationship adds some clarity to Micah’s relationship perspective.

Micah runs every morning, and despite his progressively deteriorating vision, does not wear glasses. He notices that inanimate objects always appear as humans to him. “On the homeward stretch this morning, he made his usual mistake of imagining for a second that a certain fire hydrant, faded to the pinkish color of an aged flowerpot, was a child or a very short grown-up…What was that little redhead doing by the side of the road.” We are all myopic in the way we see things in our lives!

Micah comes from a large family and has four sisters, all of whom are waitresses. His family is loud and boisterous and intrusive. There are a couple of enjoyable scenes of family interactions.

Interspersed throughout the novel are visits to computer clients and their various issues, as well as visits to the apartments of residents needing repairs. Through all these visits the reader gets more insights into Micah.

At the end, when the Brink issues have resolved, his family is quiet and he and Cass have broken up, Micah is back where he began at the beginning of the novel. “You have to wonder what goes through the mind of such a man. Such a narrow and limited man; so closed off. He has nothing to look forward to, nothing to daydream about.” And yet, happily, this is not quite the end of Micah’s story. Because as ordinary as his life might seem, it is in fact extraordinary.

I am a huge Anne Tyler fan. Some novels are better than others, but I loved this one. As always, her characters seem simple but they are not; their lives seem ordinary but they are not; and their relationships seem shallow, but they are not. This is a good one! You can reserve it at Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Writers & Lovers is a life affirming novel about all that can go wrong and all that can go right in one person’s life.

Casey (nee Camila) Peabody is a down on her luck writer, living in a potting shed and working as a waitress at a restaurant near Harvard University called Iris. “I have to eat at the restaurant. I can’t afford more than cereal and noodles.” She is deeply in debt and suffering from a great deal of self-doubt about the novel she  has been writing for about six years. Her landlord, Adam, who is also a close friend of her brother Caleb, is dismissive of her efforts to be a novelist, saying “You know I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say.” Comments like that do not help!

Casey  enters into one bad romantic relationship after another. She meets Luke at an eight week writer’s residency, where they have an intense romantic relationship. Afterward she finds out that Luke is married. Later, at a writers event, she meets Silas and is very attracted to him. He asks her out, only to call back and tell her he is leaving town. And while waiting tables at Iris, she meets the famous author, Oscar Kolton, who is recently widowed with two children. They begin dating and well… (read the novel to see how that turns out).

Casey has fraught family relationships. Her brother Caleb, to whom she is very close, has romantic problems. Casey’s father is a “difficult” character and Casey’s mother  left him when Casey was in the ninth grade to be with a man she met at Church. Casey’s mother has died recently while traveling with friends in Chile. Casey is devastated and throughout the book is dealing with her grief. Her mother’s friends brought back a ring that her mother wore and Casey wears it each day.

A lot of the story takes place at Iris, that is until Casey gets fired. The employees at Iris have complicated relationships with each other and the patrons. One day Casey’s father and his wife show up at Iris. Casey’s father lives in Florida most of the year and spends the summers on the Cape. She has not seen him in three years. The “reunion” does not go well, particularly when Casey discovers that  her father has an ulterior motive for the visit.

Other parts of the story deal with physical health, writing, writers and gender issues. Casey’s closest friend is Muriel Becker, a very successful writer. Muriel helps Casey with her book and helps her find an agent. She also takes her to certain writers events. She and Muriel share stories of their personal lives and book recommendations. Casey observes that “It’s a particular kind of pleasure, of intimacy, loving a book with someone.” Of course, all readers know this!

Casey is regularly noticing the different expectations and reactions of men and women in various circumstances. One evening she is at a dinner party at Muriel’s house with other writers, one of whom is a woman named Eva Park, who has just won a PEN/Hemingway award for a short story collection. Casey watches her. “All the stuffing seems to have gone out of her…She looks embarrassed, sitting on that stool, to be who she is now. She seems pained by all the compliments Muriel’s colleagues are giving her. Success rests more easily on men.”

And when Casey first meets Oscar, she is aware of  how he was sizing her up. “I…think about how you get trained early on as a woman to perceive how others are perceiving you, at the great expense of what you yourself are feeling about them. Sometimes you mix the two up in a terrible tangle that’s hard to unravel.”

Ultimately, Casey gets her life together and the book is sort of uplifting. Lily King is a wonderful, thoughtful writer and this book is no exception. Her language is concise, her characters are alive and relatable and the story is quite a bit of fun. 5 stars! You can reserve this novel at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

The Glass HotelThe Glass Hotel wraps a family saga, financial crime and coming of age story all into one novel. Then it throws in a little magical realism for extra effect!

The novel begins at the end, with Vincent falling to her death from a ship. Ironically, Vincent’s mother had died years before while canoeing. Thus begins (or ends) the family saga! As a child, Vincent lived with her father in remote Caiette British Columbia. The only way to get to the town is on a boat. Although Caiette is remote, during Vincent’s childhood, a large hotel was being constructed on the island.

When she was 13, Vincent’s mother disappeared during a canoe trip and Vincent is at loose ends. She writes the words “Sweep me up” in acid paste on one of the school windows and her father, whose job requires extensive travel, decides to send her to live with her Aunt. Vincent has a half-brother, Paul, who lives with his mother in Toronto, but at the time of the graffiti incident is living with Vincent and her father. Paul has substance abuse problems and has gone through rehab a few times.

Fast forward a few years. Vincent leaves her Aunt’s house at the age of 17 and drops out of school. Paul is at the University of Toronto when there is an incident involving drugs and he flees the city and goes to find Vincent. He has not seen her for years. Vincent is living in a ramshackle apartment in a terrible neighborhood with her friend Melissa. Melissa was part of the graffiti incident four years earlier. Vincent is strikingly beautiful and although Paul is reaching out to her for help he is also resentful of her existence. Vincent is not quite sure what to make of Paul.

Paul and Vincent part ways and next come together six years later working at the Hotel Caiette. The Hotel is a spectacular structure, with lots of glass, and is intended as a getaway for the extremely wealthy. The hotel is described as “an improbable palace lit up against the darkness of the forest…The building would have been beautiful anywhere, but placed here, it was incongruous, and its incongruity played a part in the enchantment.” Vincent is the bartender, Melissa ferries people to and from the hotel and Paul is the night houseman. The family saga portion of the novel seems to be told as part of Paul’s therapy sessions many years later.

The Hotel is owned by Jonathan Alkaitis, a wealthy financier, who owns a financial advisory/ management business and a brokerage business. He periodically stays at the hotel and of course this is where he meets the beautiful Vincent. During one of his visits, someone has written “Why don’t you swallow broken glass?” in acid paste on the glass eastern wall of the Hotel. Obviously this is very disturbing. Ultimately, Paul is fired for the act. But why would he do this?

Alkaitis is widowed three years and is 34 years older than Vincent. They marry (or do they?) and she leaves the hotel for a life of luxury in NYC. But all is not as it seems. Begin the financial crime! Alkaitis is running a Ponzi scheme. During this part of the novel we meet a number of the people who have invested with him and whose lives are effectively ruined. We also meet the people who worked for him and whose lives are effectively ruined. Interestingly, this part of the story is told by an unidentified Alkaitis employee. Alkaitis goes to jail for the rest of his life and the line between reality and fantasy start to blur. He sees the ghosts of people who have died, including as a result of his financial crime, and he begins to devolve into what appears to be madness.

Vincent is something of a videographer and has been since childhood. She learns that her half-brother has a performance at a theater in New York (I forgot to mention that he is something of a composer), where she discovers that he has taken some of her video and is using it in his shows. She is incensed. After Alkaitis is sentenced Vincent tries to find a life and becomes a cook on the Neptune Cumberland. It is on this ship where she finds the love of her life and joy. This is the coming of age portion of the novel.

The novel moves back and forth through time and comes together like a jigsaw puzzle. It is a lot of fun to read and a great distraction during these turbulent times. You can reserve The Glass Hotel at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Actress“You will wake some morning and pat yourself down. You will realise that you think too much and live too little and that most people, men and women both, are mostly fine. You will love more easily and relinquish blame. At least I hope you will.”

“Actress” is the story, at least in part, of Katherine O’Dell, as told by her daughter Norah FitzMaurice. Norah is almost 59 years old at the time she is telling the story. Katherine O’Dell was a star of stage and screen. She was born in April 23, 1928, the daughter of “strolling players”, Menton FitzMaurice and Margaret Odell. Her given name was Katherine Ann FitzMaurice, which she changed to O’Dell, adding an apostrophe to her mother’s surname. She was the most famous actress in Ireland and as it turned out, “Katherine O’Dell, the most Irish actress in the world, was technically British….My mother was a great fake…you could call her anything you like, but you could not call her English. That would be a great insult. It would also, unfortunately, be true.”

Katherine spent much of her childhood traveling with her parents as part of Anew McMaster’s (“Mac”) acting troupe. Mac’s daughter, Pleasance, also an actress, became Katherine’s best and closest friend. Pleasance was a child actress in the troupe and played Trilby O’Ferrall in Trilby. Katherine was 10 years old when she made her debut in the Royalton Theatre in London, playing a crocus in a chorus of spring flowers. A few years later, Pleasance came down with Scarlet fever and at the age of 13, Katherine had to take her role as Trilby O’Ferrall. Her natural talent was apparent.

In 1946, Katherine and Pleasance set off to London together. Each got a job, Katherine as a receptionist for a theatre impresario. She found herself in the role of Talitha in The Awoken on stage. She was so good that it took her to New York and Broadway. Pleasance was jealous and their friendship waned. Katherine became a stage star in New York and soon was off to Hollywood to make movies.

Throughout her career, Katherine periodically came into contact with Boyd O’Neill, 11 years her senior. Boyd had joined the McMaster tour when Katherine was 14 and she valued his opinion of her talent.

While Katherine was in New York, Philip Greenfield was her co-star and at the age of 21 the studio arranged for them to marry. Katherine Despite the fact that Philip was homosexual, they remained married for a number of years. Philip is not Norah’s father.

Norah is obsessed with her mother and Norah’s husband suggests she write the book. She travels to England and other places for background, she muses over her mother’s relationships and she wonders about the identity of her own father, about whom her mother refused to speak. We learn that Katherine devolved to madness, and became institutionalized after inexplicably shooting Boyd. Katherine died at the age of 58.

Although the book is about Katherine, it is also about Norah, her relationships, her children and her marriage. The story is interwoven with sexual innuendo and violence, which shapes the spirits and stories of both Katherine and Norah. Norah’s recollections result in a constant shifting of emotion which pushes and pulls the reader with every shift.

The novel is beautifully written although at times it is difficult to follow the chronology, feeling choppy. I suspect this is an intentional technique intended to move the reader back and forth along with  Norah’s shifting emotions– and I must say, it worked. The novel ends with a hint of hopefulness. “But I had…a great sense of the world’s generosity. Even though it was just my hopefulness in another guise.” Or is it just another turn of Norah’s emotions?

You can reserve this book at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Simon the Ftddler“Simon the Fiddler” is a corny love story–boy meets girl, boy pines over girl and against all odds, boy gets girl. And yet, there is something visceral and enjoyable about the story and the way it is unfolds.  The story itself describes characters who grow, love and find meaning in the midst of difficult conditions, and is written in a smooth straight forward style that is just right for this peculiar time in history.

Simon Boudlin is a fiddler, who, in October of 1864, is desperately trying to avoid being conscripted into the Confederate army. He travels from place to place playing his fiddle and escaping the conscription men. “But they finally got him in March of 1865.” He ends up in Giddings regiment in a regimental band.

Simon is assigned to a shelter that includes Damon, a dark spirited flautist.  The war is coming to an end, so other than having very little to eat and a lack of clean clothes, there is little war to see.Simon has a very valuable fiddle that he takes great care to protect.

“On the morning of May 12, 1865, when a storm arrived in banks of hard blue clouds, Federal troops decided to row across from Brazil’s Island and attack them. Nobody knew why. It didn’t matter why.” This attack changes Simon’s life.

Simon and Damon survive, the regimen surrenders and Simon’s fiddle has been stolen. They march to the Union army’s fort and Simon sees a soldier with his fiddle. He screams at him and hits him in the head with a rock, recovering his fiddle. Simon has a temper. After a short stay in a punishment cell, he is escorted to a room where there is a group of former soldiers who have been told to become an orchestra to play for the officers and their wives. “The musicians were both Yankee and Confederate. They were all filthy, they had recently been trying to kill one another.” The group includes Damon, Simon, Patrick (Yankee drummer boy), Doroteo (guitarist) and others.

As soon as he walks into the event, Simon sees Doris Dillon, an 18 year old from Ireland who is working as a governess for a Union officer. Simon is immediately smitten. He learns that Doris works for Colonel Webb, a cruel, hard drinking Union leader, and that Doris is signed to a three year commitment of service to the Webb family. Simon contrives to introduce himself and needless to say, Colonel Webb, who apparently has less than honorable intentions toward his employee, is less than pleased. The band performs and then everyone goes their own way. Simon, Patrick, Damon, and Doroteo come together and travel to Galveston. Doris and the Webbs travel to the Webb home in San Antonio.

The four men play at various bars and parties and accumulate some money, but Galveston is struck with yellow fever and they decide to leave and head toward Houston. “They were all too young to die and always would be.” Simon is thinking about nothing other than buying some land, finding his way to San Antonio and getting his girl.

Doris and Simon strike up written correspondence, but they have to be very careful because Colonel Webb does not allow her to have a relationship and reads all of her correspondence. Initially, the letters come from Patrick, who is of Irish descent, and the letters include various missives about things happening in the old country. Soon the relationship deepens.

Finally, Simon purchases property and then finds his way to San Antonio where he ultimately liberates Doris. As you can imagine, a lot happens in between. The men have lots of adventures in their travels and a whole host of characters enter and exit their lives. The lives and backgrounds of the main characters are disclosed throughout the novel. And of course, we learn a lot about Doris, who is a happy curious person but finds herself in a precarious situation with the Webbs.

In some ways, the story is just like any other love story. But the writing is superb and the story telling paints vivid pictures of the characters, the times and the various places where the story takes place. If you are looking for a light read that won’t make you feel as though you are wasting your time, you might want to try “Simon the Fiddler.” You can reserve this book at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Weather“Weather” is a very short, observational stream of consciousness. The story and the narrator’s musings reflect  those weird thoughts and dysfunctional relationships we all have (I think).

Lizzie is a middle aged, married, mother of one who is keenly aware of aging and the peculiarities of the world around her. Lizzie works in the library of a university, a job procured for her by her friend and former university professor Sylvia. Sylvia is a rather well known lecturer although the actual focus of her expertise eluded me.

Like most novels, the story focuses on real life issues like aging, relationships, career, family and motherhood. But unlike most novels, the story unfolds in a clipped, free flowing, sort of disconnected way, more like life itself.

Lizzie ended her education in graduate school in an effort to help her drug addicted brother, Henry. More on that later. She is self-conscious about working in a library without an appropriate degree and knows that the librarians resent her. The day before her birthday, one of the librarians acknowledges her saying: “Now you are officially middle aged” Lizzie concludes that “…She has never liked me because I don’t have a proper degree. Feral librarians, they call us, as in just wandered in from the woods.”

Reflecting on her age, Lizzie observes: “My #1 fear is the acceleration of days. No such thing supposedly, but I swear I can feel it. “ And “Young person worry: what if nothing I do matters? Old person worry: what if everything I do does.” And “I am old enough now that I sometimes think I am making a fool of myself by doing something that would not have attracted notice when I was younger.”

Lizzie has a husband Ben who, honestly, seems too good to be true, particularly in the context of everyone else in the novel. They have a son Eli, who is in the first grade. Lizzie is constantly musing over Eli and the mistakes she is making in his upbringing. “Why didn’t I have more kids so I could have more chances?” Eli is a character and like every first grader loves and hates his mother in equal doses. When Eli asked her if she was sure she was his mother because “Sometimes you don’t seem like a good enough person,” she let it go. “And now years later, I probably only think of it, I don’t know, once or twice a day.”

Lizzie has a completely dysfunctional relationship with her brother Henry. Henry has drug issues, as well as deep psychological issues. It was Henry’s problems that caused Lizzie to drop out of graduate school. Throughout the short novel, Henry cleans up, gets a job, gets married, has a child, relapses, gets divorced and ends up on Lizzie’s couch. Lots in between.

There are characters that float in and out of the novel. Nicolais the mother of one of Eli’s classmates and Lizzie makes special efforts to avoid her. And then of course “later it occurred to me. There’s no way I could have kept from running into her all these years by chance alone.” There is also the drug dealer and the busy body in her apartment building, the meditation therapist, her mother and her journalist friend Will. Actually, there is a lot going on in this very short novel.

Weather is an idiosyncratic, amusing, and yet poignant novel that covers a lot of ground. Sometimes the story is so funny you can’t help but laugh out loud and sometimes it’s so tragic you just want to weep. At the same time, Lizzie’s experiences are relatable and reflective. Give it a try—it is really short and you won’t be sorry. You can reserve “Weather” at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

The Mirror and The LightThe Mirror & The Light is the story of Thomas Cromwell and King Henry from May 20, 1536 through July 28, 1540. The novel, which begins with a beheading and ends with a beheading, is the final novel in Mantel’s trilogy chronicling Thomas Cromwell’s rise and fall. Since it is a historical novel, with some liberties and fictional characters thrown in, I am going to assume you do not need to be warned about spoiler alerts!

The novel starts with the beheading of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife. Anne is beheaded for what can best be described as adulterous behavior. There is a rather chilling scene where Anne, at the scaffold, is still hopeful of Henry’s forgiveness. “He remembers her faltering progress to the scaffold; her glance, as the Frenchman says, was directed over her shoulder…Still she did not let hope weaken her….He had seen her start to tremble…she did not see the sword, not even its shadow, and the blade went through her neck with a sigh, easier than scissors through silk.”

But of course, Anne’s execution is just one more in a long line of beheadings and other killings, and life goes on for Thomas Cromwell. “Once the queen’s head is severed, he walks away. A sharp pang of appetite reminds him that it is time for a second breakfast, or perhaps an early dinner.” Thomas Cromwell is 50 years old at this point in time.

At the time of Anne’s execution, Henry has already selected a new bride. He has also executed all of the men who were believed to be “involved” with Anne. “The king did not choose to display the heads of Anne’s lovers on London Bridge; in case he decides to ride through with his new wife, he wants to keep the capital tidy.” Henry  marries Jane Seymour shortly after Anne’s execution.

Henry has a bastard son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, a daughter Mary, from his first wife Katherine, and a daughter Elizabeth, from Anne. He is obsessed with having a son within the confines of marriage to carry on his legacy. A great deal of the book deals with his concerns, and his councilor’s machinations, regarding his successor.

Religion is a serious issue and anyone whose faith is connected to Rome, or alternately who is a Lutheran, is considered a heretic, a traitor and subject to execution– and not a kind and easy execution like Anne’s. There is a lot of burning and dismembering in the novel. A lot of people are sent to the “Tower”. The level of cruelty and disregard for human life portrayed in the novel is stunning.

Henry’s daughter Mary is on the verge of execution for her refusal to recognize England’s state religion and her father as head of the Church. Cromwell has a soft spot for Mary, who is 20 years old when the novel begins. He forces her to recognize her father as head of the Church, and disavow Rome. She is then able to return to England. Cromwell is constantly helping Mary and giving her gifts, rejecting marriage possibilities on her behalf. These behaviors are viewed as his desire to marry her and accede to the throne, causing him no end of trouble toward the end of the book.

Henry is not exactly virile and his lack of sexual prowess is a constant theme in the novel, as is his vanity. However, Jane does manage to become pregnant and give him a son, Edward. Jane dies shortly after Edward’s birth. Henry becomes obsessed with finding his next wife. In many cases, marriages are arranged to ingratiate countries and to add wealth. Women generally have little say in the arrangement. “…women are to be named and renamed, it is their nature, and they have no country of their own; they go where their husbands take them, where their fathers and brothers send them.”

Henry confides almost everything in Cromwell and Cromwell makes a lot of decisions and engages in a lot of business on Henry’s behalf. This creates a great deal of envy from Henry’s other advisors, particularly since Cromwell does not come from a grand family line, and is just a “common man.” Further complicating Cromwell’s life is the fact that Henry is perpetually suspicious of anyone he is close to. “He saw Henry’s need and he filled it, but you never let a prince know he needs you; he does not like to think he has incurred a debt to a subject.”

There are lots of characters in the novel, some reliable, some not. Everyone spies on and schemes against everyone else. The gossip is never ending, as are the superstitions, particularly about the dead (and there are a lot of dead). In the end, Henry turns on Cromwell and that is all she wrote.

The novel is spectacular. Hilary Mantel’s writing is simply magnificent and the story, most of which (but not all) follows history and is gripping. That said, the novel is 750 pages and it is a big commitment, which in my opinion, is well worth it. You can reserve this novel by clicking here.

Lost Children ArchiveLost Children Archive is a complex novel involving sensory perception through sound and echo. The novel focuses on a family of four—husband, wife, boy girl. No names.

Husband and wife met four years before the story begins, when they were recording a soundscape together in New York City. They were part of a large team of people working for New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress. The project was intended “to sample and collect all the keynotes and the soundmarks that were emblematic of the city…The two were paired up and given the task of recording all the languages spoken in the city, over a period of four calendar years.”

At the start of the novel the NYU project has ended and the couple is each deciding on a new project. The husband has a 10 year old son from a prior marriage. His wife has died and that is all we know. The wife has a five year old daughter from a relationship. The wife is partly (or wholly) of Mexican descent. And that is also all we know. Standing in line at her daughter’s school, the wife meets Manuela, whose two older daughters have crossed the border into America and are being held in a detention center. The wife decides that her next project will be to create a sound documentary about the children’s crisis at the border.

In the meantime, the husband has decided that he wants to do a sound project on the Apaches, which would require him to move from New York City to the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona. Thus begins a road trip. Husband fills four bankers boxes (Boxes I, II, III and IV) with information to take on the trip.  Wife fills Box V. Girl has Box VI (it is empty) and Boy has Box VII (also empty).

Each box is to serve as an archive. “The question is, when, in the future, we dig into our intimate archive, replay our family tape, will it amount to a story? Or will it be sound rubble, noise, and debris?”  Before the family leaves New York City, wife gives Boy a polaroid camera which he uses to photograph events throughout the trip (once he figures out how to use it).

Through the three week drive, father tells stories of the Apaches and they stop at historical sites. Mother takes calls from Manuela and listens to news stories about the refugee crisis. It is all very disturbing. At one point, the family stops at an airstrip in New Mexico where refugee children are being flown out of the country. The boy and the girl refer to the refugee children as the Lost Children.

Husband and wife differ in how they relate to sound. He just listens; her style is more journalistic. They joke that she was a documentarist while he was a documentarian, which meant that “I was more like a chemist and he was more like a librarian.” As the trip progresses it becomes clear that those differences are irreconcilable and that husband and wife will split at the end. “How do you fill the emotional voids that appear when there are sudden, unexpected shifts.”

Wife has a book called the Elegies, which are stories of refugee children traveling to the border. The stories stick with the children. In addition, there is a lot of discussion of sound and echoes.

At the Burro Mountains, the family rents a cottage. While the parents are sleeping the boy decides that he and the girl should leave and search for the lost children, and then find their way through the desert to Echo Mountain. His thought process was deeply influenced by the adult’s obsessions. “Ma would start thinking of us the way she thought of them, the lost children. All the time and with all her heart. And Pa would focus on finding our echoes, instead of all the other echoes he was chasing…Ma and Pa would have to find us.” The children’s solo travels are paralleled by addition elegies.

At different stages of the book the wife opens and catalogues each box. At the end, the reader is treated to each polaroid taken during the trip. The first part of the book is narrated by the wife, the runaway by the Boy and the elegies by a third party. The children’s walk through the desert is described in one 19 page sentence. The book focuses on the child refugee crisis, the distancing of husband and wife and the impact of everything on the children. The book is complex, creative and literary. The author’s notes at the end clarify many of the references. The novel is beautiful, but it is difficult both in its density and its substance. It can be reserved at the Cuyahoga County Library by clicking here.

The ResistersThe Resisters is a complex dystopian story envisioning the consequences of an authoritarian technology dependent future. And yet, the story involves baseball!

The story begins with Gwen. As a baby, Gwen “threw her stuffed animals straight through her bedroom doorway. They shot out, never so much as grazing the door frame, and they always hit the wall of the staircase across from her bedroom at a certain spot…”. Gwen had a golden arm.

Gwen’s parents, Eleanor and Grant Cannon-Chastanet were Surplus, Unretrainables, people with discontinued professions. “Factory workers, drivers, and customer representatives, in the beginning—joined…by assorted doctors, lawyers, accountants.” The list goes on. Eleanor had been a lawyer and Grant had been a teacher. Both were deemed unretrainable. “…it was hard not to notice that the Unretrainables did somehow include everyone coppertoned, as well as everyone spyeyed, like Eleanor.”

The family lives in AutoAmerica, and the government is run by Automation and AI rolled up with the Internet.  The family referrs tothe government  as Aunt Nettie. However, AutoAmerica still has a constitution and Eleanor is an activist trying to obtain rights for the Surplus. She has been jailed and tortured a number of times.

The job of the Surplus is to consume. There are MallTrucks for free food and living points for doing as Aunt Nettie decrees. On the other hand, the Netted, who are much more privileged than the Surplus, must produce. Their children can go to college and they have many freedoms.  As you can imagine, the Surplus and the Netted have certain unsubstantiated ideas about each other.

Gwen goes to school and makes a friend, Ondi. Ondi is a handful and spends a lot of time at Gwen’s house and learns to knit. She goes off on a lark and falls afoul of the “Enforcers”. Her family, the Nickelhoffs, live in a Flotsam town on the water. As a result of Ondi’s behavior, the family is set to drift on the high seas with no port of entry for 30 days. AutoAmerica experiences extremes of weather as the result of climate change. The 30 day castoff is miserable and Ondi’s parents blame Eleanor and Grant.  the i8mpact of this punishment is felt throughout the story.

In the meantime, Eleanor establishes a secretive baseball league for the Surplus. The league had to start underground because the Surplus had no baseball fields and “gathering in unsanctioned spaces was Unlawful Assembly.” Gwen becomes a pitcher and is extremely successful.

Aunt Nettie learns about Gwen’s pitching and they offer her the opportunity to try out for the Netted University baseball team. Surplus are rarely given the opportunity to attend Netted University. Gwen is not interested but she is convinced. She manages to bring Ondi with her as a catcher. She has two netted roommates who are kind and outraged about the discrimination experienced by the Surplus. Gwen becomes a pitcher on the team and is very successful. She also develops a relationship with the Coach.

In the meantime, Eleanor has just won a lawsuit against Aunt Nettie regarding Emanations coming from Surplus fields where children play. The Emanations were causing physical ailments. Eleanor is also pursuing litigation involving the food at the Mall Trucks. Aunt Nettie does not like Eleanor!

Gwen is forced to join the AutoAmerica Olympic team and the team ultimately goes to the finals against ChinRussia, where there has been some resistance to the repressive government. During the final game, Eleanor disappears and all kinds of things happen. You will have to read the book to see how it ends.

There is a lot in the book. There are enforcers and drones and GreetingGrams and PigeonGrams. Surplus can cross over and copper tone can PermaDerm their skin and become AngelFair. But mostly, the novel is about the excesses of authoritarianism fueled by artificial intelligence and the resulting discrimination and isolation. The story is deeply rich and the characters are complex and sympathetic. There is a bit too much detail in the futuristic description (bots, talking houses, etc.), but once you get past that the novel is a thought provoking read. You can reserve it at Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.

Red at the BoneRed at the Bone is about the complexities of love, youth, parenthood and unsatisfied expectations.

When beautiful Iris becomes pregnant at the age of 15, not only is her life turned upside down, but the lives of her mother, Sabe, her father, Sammy Po‘Boy Simmons and her boyfriend, Aubrey Daniels, are thrust into turmoil. The novel describes each person’s reaction to the pregnancy and the arrival of Melody into their lives and gives the reader insight into the earlier lives of each character.

The novel starts with Melody’s 16th birthday coming out party. Melody is living in her grandparent’s house In Brooklyn, along with her father Aubrey. The adults are marveling over the passage of time. An orchestra is playing Prince’s Darling Nikki and Melody is wearing the coming out dress that Iris was never able to wear. Melody is thinking of the history of the house and her ancestors, musing that “I and everything and everyone around me was their dream come true now. If this moment was a sentence, I’d be the period.” This feeling was a far cry from the reactions to Melody’s arrival 16 years prior.

When Sabre discovered that Iris was pregnant with Aburey’s baby, she tried to beat the baby out of her. She was distraught at the fact that a teen pregnancy could happen in her family. “But when your child shows up with a belly and she’s not even full grown yet…you cry into the night until your throat is raw and there’s not another heave left inside you….so even though you feel like you’re never gonna get out of bed again, you rise…You rise in your Lord & Taylor cashmere coat and refuse to let shame stand beside you.”

Despite all the shame and angst, once Melody is born, there is only love. But Iris needs more and she leaves New York and enrolls in college at Oberlin, far away from Aubrey, Melody and her family. And after she graduates, she does not move in with them but lives in an apartment in Manhattan and sees her daughter on weekends.

Each character has a story. Aubrey is raised by a single mother—highly educated but destitute and untraditional. He has seen his friends go through dangerous experiences, both with drugs and gangs. After he graduates from high school, he goes to work in the mailroom of a law firm in the World Trade Center and that, along with raising his daughter, is enough for him. Iris is not interested in spending her life with him.

Sabre’s outlook on life and wealth was shaped by the experiences of her mother and grandparents.  Sabre’s grandmother had a beauty shop in Tulsa and her grandfather had a restaurant. In 1921, white residents burned both down and her grandparents and then two year old mother fled to Chicago to make a new life. That history taught Sabre to hold onto things that could not burn. “I know you hold onto your dreams and you hold onto your money. And I know that paper money burns…you find the men who sell you the blocks of gold. And you take those blocks of gold and stack them beneath your floorboards.”

The novel goes through the normal life cycles and ultimately Sabe and Po’Boy pass on. Iris describes an intense love as feeling “red at the bone—like there was something inside of her undone and bleeding.” The novel is both tragic and hopeful, describing the frustrations and difficulties of the past and the hopes and possibilities of the future. You can reserve the novel at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.