A Pair of Memoirs

Dough by Mort Zachter

Mort Zachter tells the story of his uncles and their Manhattan bread shop in the 40s and 50s. At the same time, in the 1990's, an adult Mort discovers that one of his uncles had been saving all of his money and his fortune had amassed into the millions. Zachter bounces back and forth, telling the story of his childhood, living in a leaky Brooklyn tenement, while his mother helped out at the bakery without getting paid. When the adult Zachter discovers his uncle's fortune, a part of him becomes resentful. He'd struggled through college and grad school with no financial assistance, and his parents lived a life of minimal means, taking care of the two uncles as they grew older. Zachter explores the secrets kept by families during times very different from today. Ultimately, Dough is an homage to Mort's mother, a strong-willed, patient woman for whom family bonds meant everything.


The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy by Robert Leleux

Robert Leleux's mother was also a strong-willed woman, one who was a little more outgoing and colorful than Helen Zachter. In The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy Leleux transforms his life as a teenager, who along with his mother must deal with the fact that his father has left the family for another woman, into a novel populated by smart-tongued Texans. Being deserted by his father also meant that Robert and Mother had to get accustomed to living a life with a lot less money. They are forced to move into a much smaller living space, and every penny Mother is able to scrounge up ends up going toward wigs, makeovers and plastic surgeries, all with the goal of finding another husband. Of course, while Mother pursues her destiny, Robert falls into his during preparations for the school mucsical. When Michael is enlisted to help teach Robert to dance, the two fall almost instantly in love... a romance that has continued to this day. The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy reads like a Southern Potboiler, and somewhere deep within the rim-shot sharp lines lies Robert's fairty-tale coming-of-age story.

Jonathan Santlofer combines art with writing in his latest mystery

In The Murder Notebook, Jonathan Santlofer's second mystery featuring police sketch artist Nate Rodriguez, is a fascinating exploration into a tragic circumstance that reaches into the lives of both perpetrators and victims of a series of murders and suicides. Nate is assigned to a task force to solve a series of unsettling crimes, and using his skill as a sketch artist and his dogged determination to uncover the truth, finds himself embroiled in a complicated case that no one seems to want him to solve. Rodriguez is also plagued by the death of his police officer father years ago, and a new romantic relationship with Terri Russo, his fellow police officer and head of the task force. As Rodriguez gets closer to the answers, he begins to uncover something so massive that even the federal government gets involved.

Santlofer has written a dark, literary thriller. An artist himself, the book is liberally sprinkled with Rodriguez' sketches, truly bringing the work of the sketch artist to life. While central character Nate Rodriguez is a little bit to intense to be thoroughly likable, Santlofer keeps him grounded with the wonderful supporting characters around him. This is a book you can really sink your teeth into.

McKillip Works Her Magic Again

Full disclosure: Patricia A. McKillip is one of my favorite writers of all time. She can turn a phrase in such a way to make the phone book a work of literary art. Her books all revolve around magic and the fantastic, and in her latest novel, The Bell at Sealey Head, she grounds her magic in a tiny village overlooking the ocean, and a family manor whose inhabitants are enchanted by a old and powerful spell.

Judd Cauley runs the Inn at Sealey Head, and when the mysterious traveler Ridley Dow, becomes his first visitor for quite some time, he does everything he can to keep him happy. Dow is intrigued by the goings-on at Aislinn House, a fading manor, home to the dying Lady Eglantyne and her dwindling retinue. Emma, one Aislinn's housekeeper's has been opening doors and spying another world, and one Princess Ysabo since she was a child. It is this world that Dow is searching for... hopefully to break a spell laid upon it by his ancestor. Meanwhile, Gwyneth Blair is writing a tale... a tale about Sealey Head and the bell that rings every day as the sun slips beneath the waves. This is not a bell that exists in their world, but where it actually tolls is a mystery that many would like to solve.

McKillip once again shows her mastery of fantasy, magic, and romance. The characters in this novel live ordinary lives, but McKillip makes them wondrous. When the magic is uncovered, the splendor and danger are magnified, but it is the ordinariness... the humanity of her characters that are truly magical.

Marilynne Robinson's Writes Another Award-worthy Novel

Robinson was evidently still interested in the small, Iowa town of Gilead, about which she wrote and won a Pulitzer Prize in her previous novel. In Home she returns to that quiet town and focuses on a different family that previously played a supporting role. Glory Boughton youngest in the family, is in her late thirties when she returns to Gilead to care for her aging father Robert. There is a sense that she is fleeing something, but she does not confide anything in her father, a retired preacher. The two have managed a routine that involves Glory caring of the house, making meals, and watching over her ailing father, when suddenly their home is disrupted by the return of Jack, the quintessential prodigal son. Charismatic and problematic, Jack has been incommunicado for twenty years, and despite the trials that he has brought upon the family, nothing pleases Robert than to see his son return home. Glory, on the other hand, is uncertain. She was very young when Jack first left and with his return comes a resigned defeat that is so unlike the vibrant young man she remembers. The two spend a little time performing an awkward dance of acquaintance, but eventually their shared secrets and a lack of judgment on Glory's part allows them to develop a closeness that neither have encountered before.

With Home, Robinson returns to the wistful longing and sadness that so beautifully pervaded her first masterful novel, Housekeeping. Home also gives her another complex and surprising woman to write. Glory is a character I could read another novel about. Filled with contradictions, yet so true and so beautiful. She is the moral center of the book who grounds her mercurial brother and without realizing it, does what he asks and saves his soul.

Mary Jane Clark Knows Her Way Around a Thriller!

In Mary Jane Clark's latest thriller, It Only Takes a Moment, the author tackles that most terrifying of parental situations, the kidnapped child. Eliza Blake is the talk show host of the popular KEY News morning show. She is a successful career woman whose is beloved by her viewers. She leads a very public life, as does, by extension, her seven-year-old daughter, Janie. When Janie and her nanny go missing one day, all of Eliza's worst fears come to the surface... and to make things even more difficult, she must face the horror that her daughter has been kidnapped in front of the eyes of a news-conditioned public.

Fortunately, while the FBI search desperately for clues in Janie's disappearance, Eliza is able to rely on the Sunrise Suspense Society. Made up of her closest friends and colleagues -- brilliant producer Annabelle Murphy, cameraman extraordinaire B.J. D'Elia, and psychiatrist Dr. Margo Gonzalez -- the Sunrise Suspense Society mobilize to uncover clues sometimes overlooked by the FBI.

Clark is an economical writer, keeping chapters short and direct. It Only Takes a Moment is certainly a page-turner, with twists and turns a-plenty. Clark also keeps things interesting by following stories that may or may not have to do with the kidnapping. I was certainly taken by surprise by the neat twist ending. For this character-driven fiction lover, I found Clark's latest to be a little plot-heavy at the expense of character development, but for many, this will be a thriller that can not be put down.

Brrr, the Cowardly Lion. is the protagonist in A Lion Among Men, Gregory Maguire's third installment of "The Wicked Years." After offering up an alternate, heroic take on Elphaba, the erstwhile Wicked With of the West in Wicked, then exploring the identity of Liir, Elphaba's rumoured son in Son of a Witch, Gregory returns to a well-known popular figure, who is his hands shares more with Elphaba than you might expect. Like his one-time green nemesis, Brrr is an extremely complex character, not one you might think would make a very good hero to a story upon first reflection. In many ways you would be right: while Elphaba's story was surprising in its heroism, Brrr's story tends to move in the other direction.

Obstensibly on a mission for the powers-that-be in the Emerald City, Brrr is seeking out any who had connections with Elphaba, and more importantly, the Grimmerie, Elphaba's magical spellbook. He finds Mother Yackle, and ancient crone who seems to defy death, but who has lived on the fringes of Elphaba's life. Before Yackle will share any of her knowledge with Brrr however, she demands that he share with her his life story. Grudgingly, and not always intentionally, he reveals a life spent searching, fleeing, and often being held responsible for circumstances he has had the bad luck to peripherally involved with. His sobriquet, "The Cowardly Lion" follows him and gives shape to his reputation. As more of his person is revealed, we are alternately moved by his plight and disappointed with his choices, but perhaps the whole point of this novel is to find Brrr redemption?

One review I read thought A Lion Among Men was book that felt like one long set-up for the next installment. I certainly did not feel that. Brrr's story is worth telling in its own right, but the final segment does weave itself into the Wicked mythos that Gregory is building so wonderfully, that a follow-up novel, should there be one, would certainly be high on my reading list.

An introduction to Carlotta Carlylse

I'm starting to enjoy the mystery genre more and more. The more mystery writers I meet, the more mysteries I tend to read. I just thoroughly enjoyed the latest Caroltta Carlysle mystery by Linda Barnes, Lie Down with the Devil. Barnes masterfully launches into a complex, page-turning plot that is clearly in th e middle of Carlysle's story, and she weaves plenty of backstory into the narrative, naturally, seamlessly, and without making anything seem awkward or expository. I quickly understood Carlysle's character and the very complex situation she was in, even as her latest case unfolded.

In Lie Down with the Devil Carlotta takes a simple case where a distraught young woman needs her fiancee followed to prove his fidelity. The case goes horribly awry, and the client ends up dead... and not who she said she was. Not only that, but the case seems tied into Carlotta's personal life, as her fiancee, tied to the mafia, and hiding out abroad ends up connected to the murdered young woman. Barnes does a terrific job weaving the drama of Carlotta's personal life with the particulars of the case giving us a solid, traditional detective novel mixed with a nice bit of personal drama. I look forward to reading more from Linda Barnes.

Bujold's series gets better with each installment

Passage is the third volume in Lois McMaster Bujold's romantic fantasy The Sharing Knife. It continues the story of Dag, a Lakewalker and Faun, a farmer who defy convention by marrying thus earning the suspicion and enmity of most Lakewalkers and farmers. In the second volume, Legacy, the couple tried to make a go of it with the Lakewalkers, in Dag's former camp. In addition to almost losing his life destroying a particularly powerful Malice, Dag and his new farmer wife are not accepted in the camp, and decide to leave. In addition to the lack of acceptance, Dag has found a new purpose. The Malice he killed in Legacy would never have grown so powerful had farmers known more about them, and if they had gone to the Lakewalkers for assistance. Lack of trust and knowledge prevented this from happening, and Dag has decided to start a one-man crusade to educate farmers about the ways of Lakewalkers so that the two are able to live in more productive harmony.

This mission leads Dag and Faun back to Faun's home, where they pick-up Faun's brother Whit. After practicing his diplomatic mission somewhat successfully on Faun's family, the trio head downriver toward the sea. Dag quickly finds out that his mission will not be so easily accepted everywhere, especially by the Lakewalkers he encounter. Yet as Dag and Faun's company begins to expand, including both farmers and Lakewalkers, hope begins to bloom. If only they can survive the mysterious threat downriver that is causing good men and women, both Lakewalker and farmer, to disappear.

Bujold continues to deepen the characters of Dag and Faun, particularly with the latter, whose role in this tale is beginning to grow more complex. By serving as both a beacon and an anchor for Dag, Faun illustrates how important such a seemingly passive role truly is. The supporting characters in Passage are lots of fun as well, with Whit gaining a little maturity as he sees his younger sister out in the real world. Berry, their flatboat's Captain, shows Faun a bold, aggressive strength that she had rarely seen in farmer women. Remo and Barr, a young pair of Lakewalkers who slowly become converts to Dag's mission, and the rest of their ragtag crew provide variety and story fodder making Passage an entertaining and satisfying read.

Insightful and Realisitic Look at Family Dysfunction

Jennifer Haigh's The Condition draws a portrait of an emotionally reserved family that has spent years holding each other apart. It begins in 1976 during the annual summer vacation on Cape Cod, when the McKotch patriarch Frank notices that his 13-year-old daughter Gwen still hasn't reached puberty while her younger cousin has. The resulting medical exploration and discovery that Gwen suffers from Turner's Syndrome, a condition that will keep her in the body of a little girl, tears Frank and his wife Paulette apart and sets a course for their three children away from them. Oldest brother Billy is successful and emotionally distant. The details of his private life are a mystery to all but Gwen. Gwen's life is even more shrouded in the unknown as she refuses to discuss her personal life with anyone. Youngest brother Scott wastes his teen education on pot-smoking and finds himself in a soul-killing job and a bad marriage.

As the inevitable reunion of family draws near, Haigh explores a family dysfunction that is powerfully real, avoiding soap operaish craziness for behavior that many of us have probably seen in our own families. She does a terrific job at keeping her characters three-dimensional and complex, as seen both through the eyes of various family members and as they truly are. Frank is given particular care, as superficially painted as a sex-crazed pursuer of younger women by his wife, when in fact, while he has an appreciation for beautiful women, it is his wife whom he wants the most.

While Gwen's medical syndrome is "the condition" that each individual family member seems to use to excuse their chosen life path, Haigh does a wonderful job at going beyond the medical and into the emotional, looking deeply into each family member's heart and revealing hidden truths. If you read one book on family dysfunction this year, make sure it's Jennifer Haigh's The Condition.

Is Father/Son Film Club a Good Substitute for Formal Education?

In Canadian former film critic/television host David Gilmour compelling memoir, The Film Club, the author makes an arrangement with his fifteen-year-old son Jesse, stating that he can drop out of high school as long as he watches three films a week with his dad (and does not do drugs.) Gilmour could see the writing on the wall as far as his son was concerned, and graduating high school just wasn't in his future. He didn't have any formal lectures or high-faluting syllabus in mind, just took advantage of the situation to introduce his son to a series of films as wide-ranging as The 400 Blows to Basic Instinct.

Over the course of three-plus years, the father and son share conversations on a wide range of subjects, and gradually, Jesse develops an entire language around discussing film that many adult film lovers never attain. Could there be a future for Jesse in film criticism? Perhaps, but by the end of the book, it seems that Jesse is striving for a career as part of a rap/hip hop duo. There is a curious lack of consequence in Gilmour's recounting of these years, and a rather heavy importance placed on young Jesse's incipient romantic life. Gilmour's memoir is highly readable and well written. The observations he makes about life as related to movies are interesting and sometimes nicely wrought. Still, there's a discomforting sense of privilege steeped in this tale, and a nearly alamring telescoing of viewpoint. Besides an occasional mention of his wife, and a slightly more frequent mention of his ex-wife (and Jesse's mother) the book lacks any other perspectives. In fact, I was quite surprised to read in the author's note that Gilmour had a grown daughter! While many might enjoy this readable memoir, there are a few things that turned me off so I can't really recommend it.

Brad Metlzer's The Book of Lies explores some literary truths has made a convert out of me

As I've said before, I'm not a fan of thrillers. Not that they're not fun to read on occasion, and can be very well-plotted, but for me, good novels are all about characterization, and if there was ever a genre that sacrificed characterization for plot, it's the thriller. But when I met the charming and witty Brad Meltzer (pictured below, right) at BookExpo America this past May and told him that, he said I should read his forthcoming novel, The Book of Lies, and that I would like it. Well, he was right, and the way it reeled me in so surreptitiously, I was hooked before I realized it.

It's an ambitious synopsis: The Book of Lies explores the world's first murder, that of Abel by his brother Cain, and draws a connection with Justin Siegel, the creator of Superman, whose father was gunned down when Justin was a little boy. If only Justin's father was invulnerable to bullets, think of how his life would have turned out differently? The central character in this novel is Cal, a fallen FBI agent who now spends days with his partner Roosevelt, helping out the homeless in Florida. When they come across an apparent vagrant that turns out to be Cal's long-estranged father, his life turns upside-down and he ends up on a wild race staying just second ahead of a relentless pursuit from both sides of the law. On the one side is a ruthless killer, marked with the brand of Cain, wearing the uniform of a policeman, who will stop at nothing to obtain that which Cal is hunting for. On the other side is Naomi, an FBI agent who mistakenly thinks Cal killed her partner. All Cal has going for him is his father, whom he doesn't trust, and Serena, a new age yoga instructor who may or may not be sleeping with his father. That and his own wits and training, and a healthy does of curiosity.

As the tension winds up and the chase gets hotter, Meltzer taut plot keeps thing humming, but in the end, it is the surprising emotional denouement that really touched me. In the end, The Book of Lies is about family, and the way we tell stories. It all unfolds like magic in the hands of a master craftsman. You were right, Brad, I'm a convert.

Russian Thriller Filled with Complex Characters

Brent Ghelfi writes thrillers set in modern-day Russia. They are hyper-violent, in-your-face, complicated tales set against a massive political power that is still finding its legs after the fall of communism. And Brent knows what he's talking about. At a recent publisher's lunch, Brent regaled the visiting authors with tales of post-communist Russia and the political players there that you just know will one day end up in his series about Volk, a former Chechen soldier, now a hardened, ruthless agent for The General.

I'm not a fan of thrillers generally, but I do appreciate good writing and intricate plots, and Volk's Game, the first in Ghelfi's series, has both of those. He's also created some pretty complex characters, which is always appreciated. Volk could almost be a caricature, but his twisted and horrific past, and his carefully hidden compassion provide him depth and empathy, even when he's torturing those who would hurt him and his loved ones. It's with Volk's beloved Valya that Ghelfi really scored. Barely into her twenties, Valya was also a victim of the Chechen skirmishes, including rape, beatings, torture, and ultimately a forging into the lithe, beautiful and deadly assassin that she has become. She and Volk are quite a pair, but it's not an easy or natural pairing, and given the intrigues they face there are a plethora of obstacles in their way. I suspect that one day Ghelfi will focus a book on Valya, and that will be one I want to read.

In the opening pages of Volk's Game, Volk is asked what he knows about art, and the answer is not much. By the end of the novel, Volk knows a great deal more, and he's lost a lot because of it. It's a powerful story, and even though I was getting impatient with all of the reversals and intrigues about three-quarters of the way through, I can tell a good thriller when I read one.

Francine Prose's Goldengrove a powerful coming-of-age tale

Francine Prose's forthcoming novel Goldengrove, coming out in September, is a poignant coming-of-age tale about a thirteen-year-old girl whose family endures a terrible tragedy, and the summer they spend they almost unravel. Nico's family lives in Upstate New York on the shores of an idyllic lake. Her older sister Margaret is the star of the family, with a lovely voice and a possible career as a singer in her future. She is poised and beautiful, with the adoration of everyone, including her younger sister Nico. The two watch old movies, imitating the actors, and sharing secrets. Aaron, Margaret's artist boyfriend, is not accepted by her parents, so Nico covers for her older sister so the two can be together.

As tragedy strikes at the beginning of the summer, Nico finds herself drowning in misery, unable to pull herself out of it, and she is not alone. Prose skillfully shows how the entire family copes with grief all the while keeping the focus sharply on Nico. With a few neat nods to old movies, particularly one Hitchcock film, Goldengrove is a wonderful read that is both literary and readable.

Neil Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOK is another winner

The Graveyard Book is Neil Gaiman's latest work for children coming out in September. Now I don't remember what it was like to be 10 or 11, but his man in his forties loved this novel. No one writes books with appeal to all ages as well as Neil Gaiman. Borrowing a concept from Kipling's The Jungle Book, which tells the story of an orphan raised in the jungle, The Graveyard Book features a toddler who wanders out of the house and into the graveyard after his family is brutally murdered, and is raised by the spirits and others beings who live there.

Young Bod (short for Nobody) is adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Owens, a kindly couple who died childless, and watched over by Silas, a mysterious and powerful being who is neither alive nor dead. Bod learns the secrets of the graveyard, and things no living beings know. As he grows up, he begins to encounter the living from time to time, and a curiosity is sparked. All the while, Jack, the man who murdered his family, is hoping to correct his failure by finding and finishing of Bod as well.

Gaiman populates The Graveyard Book with all the sorts of mystical and fantastic creatures he is known for. Silas' wonderful, Eastern European substitute guardian Miss Luprescu is surely my favorite, but from ghouls to witches and other denizens of the dead, there is something to astound and capture everyone's imagination. Watch for this one when it's published in September.

Elizabeth Haydon's The Thief Queen's Daughter

The Thief Queen's Daughter is part two of Elizabeth Haydon's series for young adults, The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme. Ven isn't human, he's a Nain, age 50 (about 15 in human years) and he's just recently gotten the job of Royal Reporter for King Vandemere. His first mission is to head into the Gated City to discover the origin's of a mysterious artifact given the king by his father. The trouble is, the Gated City is ruled by the mysterious Thief Queen, and entering the city sometimes means never getting out again.

When Ven and his friends find themselves trapped in the Gated City, they just rely on their wits, their insatiable curiosity, and their hidden skills to survive... and get that information for the king. Elizabeth Haydon keeps things moving, and continues the fine development of her young cast of characters. Ven is slowly becoming a young man, and his supporting cast grows more interesting as their adventures continue. One character in particular has some of their mysteries revealed making them more fascinating than ever. Fantasy series have to work really hard to keep me engaged nowadays, and I'm pleased to say that Haydon's The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme has me hook, line and sinker.

Jonathan Barnes' The Somnambulist

The Somnambulist is the debut novel from British author Jonathan Barnes. Set in Victorian England, The Somnambulist is a melange of styles: the detective novel, historical fiction, occult thriller, dark fantasy. When a string of bizarre murders take place in 19th century London, Edward Moon, fading stage magician and detective, and his mysterious, silent sidekick known only as The Somnambulist, find themselves energized once again. For the first third of the book, Barnes creates a masterful and creepy atmosphere involving secret societies, traveling freak-shows, and the various social strata of historic London.

As the mysteries begin to unfold, leading to even more tightly-coiled mysteries (including the central one re-creating the apocalyptic prophecies of poet/philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge) Barnes starts to lose control of his lovely creation. In fact, halfway through the novel, I suddenly felt I was reading a satire or parody of the far superior work I had been reading 25 pages previous. Barnes manages to regain some control of the fantastic plot as he nears the conclusion, but a late-added element, almost a deus ex machina, threatens to tear it all down again. Ultimately striving for a Neil Gaimanesque dark fantasy, The Somnambulist misses more than it hits, but judging from the first third of this tale, there's some real talent there.

Peter Cameron's Andorra

As I was packing for BEA in Los Angeles, I realized that I needed another paperback book to bring on the plane because I was going to be finished with the book I was reading soon. I grabbed Peter Cameron's 1997 novel Andorra; it was a novel I'd owned for years and had been meaning to read but never got around to it. I admire Cameron's work, and Andorra may be one of his best.

Alexander Fox is a man who is seeking refuge from his past. He travels to the remote principality of Andorra on the overnight train and decides to make it his new home... a fresh start, as it were. He immediately befriends the sad but personable Ricky Dent and her dog Dino; followed by her husband, also named Ricky. He is also drawn into the social circle of the wealthy Quay family with two beautiful but troubled daughters. It seems Andorra is a community of secrets, and the much sought after Alexander becomes entangled among them. When he falls under suspicion of murder, he finds himself once again seeking to seek refuge from a life that has risen up around him.

Cameron has created a marvelous batch of eccentric characters around whom sadness seems to hover like a vapor. There are moments of brilliant honesty even as secrets are kept close to the heart, and moments of sublime revelation. Andorra makes an already sparkling body of work including The Weekend, The City of My Final Destination and Someday This Pain will be Useful to You shine even brighter.

Luck can be good or bad in Margot Livesey's new novel

Margot Livesey explores a friendship between two women, and how luck, or fate, can impact your life in the powerful and finely crafted novel The House on Fortune Street. Abigail was moved around by her parents every few months. The only sense of responsibility she has felt was when she stayed with her grandparents from time to time. As a teenager, her parents cut her loose, and she supported herself by working in order to finish her high school education. In college, Abigail meets Dara, who had her own eventful upbringing. When Dara was young, her father left home somewhat inexplicably, despite a superficially happy marriage. Dara and Abigail develop a strong bond that continues into adulthood.

While Abigail's experiences result in a capable, self-sufficient, if a little distrustful woman, Dara searches for a storybook romance and is continually disappointed by life. The men in their lives, Dara's father, and Abigail's boyfriend, provide depth and context to the women's stories, and Livesey tells it in four parts, each featuring a different character's perspective. It's absorbing and compelling like a paint-by-number image slowly being filled in. Livesey has a strong sense of place (the book takes place in London, Edinburgh, and across the British countryside) and character, and weaves a powerfully emotional story as well. For adult drama, Livesey is master.

Starbuck's Helps Garth Stein's Third Novel Become an Unqualified Hit!

Apparently Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain was purchased in a very public auction with several publishers bidding for the rights to publish it. Why Garth's first agent scoffed when first presented with the manuscript is beyond me. Apparently the fact that this novel is told from the point-of-view of a dog was what kept the agent in question from supporting the book. Seems like a bad business to me... especially in retrospect. The Art of Racing in the Rain is a well-written, tear-jerker that explores family dynamics, spirtuality, and the unconditional love that exists between man and his pet dog... it's got all the elements of a hit! And now, thanks to some clever marketing by HarperCollins, and a push from Starbucks, it is!

The Art of Racing in the Rain tells the story of Enzo. He's an old dog who has lived a long full life. By watching a television documentary, he has learned that after a dog has lived enough lives, he moves on to becoming a man. Enzo is convinced that this will be his last life as a dog, and he's looking forward to it. He lives with Denny, who splits his time between his wife and daughter, and his professional race car driving career. When Denny's wife Eve starts her struggle with cancer, the family begins its inevitable and tragic decline. The trials that Denny and Enzo endure as a devastating custody battle begins are likened to the danger of racing in the rain. When the track or road is wet, there is less margin for error. Denny is adept at racing in the rain, and he must use every bit of his skill to survive the traps and tricks his life throws at him.

Garth writes the family relationships and the emotional scenes nicely, which is why so many people respond to the novel and why people are calling it a tear-jerker. While Enzo and Denny are bonded, my favorite part of the book was the way Enzo's relationship with Eve develops. It's tentative at first, yet grows into some of the most powerful moments in the novel. Where The Art of Racing in the Rain goes astray for me, was the philosophical ruminations on race car driving, which just didn't interest me, and an unfortunate epilogue that I felt was unnecessary. Still, it's a strong read, and one that I would recommend to anyone.

(at right: Sharon (left) and Bobby (right) of HarperCollins, flank Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain. The three claim they are siblings.)

German novelist;s English language debut isn't quite perfect

The Perfect Waiter is German author Alain Claude Sulzer's first novel to be translated into English. It's a sweeping novel that focuses on a man who is forced to come to terms with the memory of his lost love. Erneste is the perfect waiter. Thirty years ago, while working as a waiter at a grand hotel in Switzerland, Erneste met Jakob and he was immediately captivated by the handsome, bold new hire. The two entered into a passionate love affair, but Erneste's heart was broken when a year later, Jakob fled to America with a wealthy, married man.

Now it is the late 60's and Erneste receives a letter from a man he hasn't heard from in thirty years, being asked a favor that awakens feelings long buried. Still the perfect waiter, Erneste must decide whether he can allow these emotions to return in order to find some sort of closure in his regimented life.

A Perfect Waiter is an enjoyable and quick read. There is a lot of restraint on display, and plenty of control just waiting to snap. Sulzer and his translator John Brownjohn do a great job with language to convey the conflicting desires simmering just under the surface of these characters.

Elizabeth Bear Spins a Complicated SF Tale

Elizabeth Bear's latest science fiction novel, Dust, is a grand space adventure where angels and ghosts of computers work together, or sometimes at cross-purposes, to keep a society in existence. A massive spacecraft carries the remnants of a dying civilization to a new home; or it would be if it wasn't stranded. Subsequent generations have adapted to life on a spaceship through genetically-altering themselves in various ways. Now the sun they are orbiting is about to expire, and their civilization is once again threatened. To survive, the ships artificial mind, now splintered into dozens of separate personalities, must merge again, against their will, and they have no qualms in using various members of the living as pawns to gain power. Through this all, young Rien, a handmaid in a feudal society, is just trying to survive, and when she discovers that the mutilated "angel," Ser Percival, who she is assigned to care for, is her half-sister, she find herself in the untenable position of betraying her cruel ruler and rescuing her captor. As Rien comes of age, she also find herself a key player in this conflict to save her race.

Bear is adept at writing big, complex sci fi sagas such as this. She also ignores convention with regard to sexuality and relationships, having her characters love come in varied forms. Bear is clearly talented, but some of she may be mixing in a few too many elements, cluttering her story to the point of distraction. The powerful ending may lead many to the eventual sequel.

Medwed's Latest Satisfies

It's been a while since my last review, but I'm back, and hopefully we'll be seeing some new contributors around here soon as I encourage all those reading librarians to send in their reviews! Now it's time for some catch up.

Mameve Medwed is the author of five novels, including Mail, and last year's Massachusetts Book Awards Fiction Honors title, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life. Now Medwed is back, and tackling some difficult mother-in-law issues in Of Men and Their Mothers. Maisie Grey is divorced from her husband, but she can never fully disentangle herself from her horrific mother-in-law, matriarch of the Pollock chicken pot pie empire, because of her teenage son Tommy. When Tommy's grandmother finds something suspicious among his belongings, she can't help but stick her nose into his upbringing, much to Maisie's dismay. On top of that, Maisie must deal with her business, Factotum, Inc. where she helps out those in need, and her first employee, a young mother at odds with the child welfare system. Add to that a new potential man in her life, and things get just a trifle complicated.

Medwed writes with clarity and humor, and even as Maisie's life seems to falling apart around her, we never worry too much, because things always seem to work out for the best in a Medwed novel. But what makes her work so satisfying is that those happy endings are never cheap or unearned. Maisie works hard for her happy life, and we can do naught but cheer her on when she makes it. Of Men and Their Mothers would make a great vacation read, so pick it up before you head out this summer.

The Sweet Hereafter is Powerful Examination of the Human Spirit

Atom Egoyan's film adaptation of The Sweet Hereafter is one of my favorite films, so I thought the time had come to read the novel by Russell Banks. Like Egoyan's film, the novel is a powerful examination of a community that undergoes an horrific tragedy, and how certain individuals cope with it. When a bus bearing a load of school children in Upstate New York runs off the side of the road into a frozen river, killing most of the riders, the town flounders. Some look for someone to blame, others become numbed by their own grief. Two survivors, the bus driver who is miraculously unhurt, and a high school cheerleader who is now paralyzed from the waist down, find their lives irrevocably altered to such a state that they in turn end up irrevocably altering the town again.

It's hard for me to talk about the book without referring to the film because the latter had such an impact on me. Egoyan was extremely faithful to the novel in his adaptation, using great chunks of dialogue and narration word-for-wrod in the movie. One of the two major changes he made was the addition of a "Pied Piper" storyline that added a poetic analogy to the disappearance of the town's children and the rage personified by the lawyer who comes seeking to represent the bereaved parents. The other change was the elimination of the entire final scene which in the book is vital and extremely powerful, but in the film is not necessary. It would totally change the film's focus and the end result from which is hinted at well enough as is. I'm pleased to find that this is one case where both the book and the film stand up as works of art.

The Return of Scott Heim

Scott Heim writes about difficult subjects. In his debut novel, Mysterious Skin, Scott tackled the sexual abuse of children. We Disappear, his first novel in over ten years, looks at child abductions and the death of a parent. With its raw honesty and thoughtful prose, Heim doesn't flinch from the ugliness of his characters, but by exploring them so thoroughly, he exposes their beauty.

In this novel, Donna is dying of cancer, yet her obsession with abducted children seems to be growing more intense. Her son Scott returns to his Kansas hometown from New York City addicted to meth, but concerned for his mother growing obsession. While he is there, he slowly uncovers secrets of his mother's past that cast a whole new light on their lives as a family. It's intense, it's beautifully written, and it's powerfully moving. Just about everything you want a novel to be.

Delightful Fantasy Series for Teens Begins Here!

Elizabeth Haydon's The Floating Island is the first volume in the series The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme. Our protagonist, Ven, is not human, but rather Nain, a long-lived race that tends to live underground and work with the earth. Ven's family is a bit of an oddity as their trade is ship construction, and most Nain fear water. Ven himself is an oddity among his family members. At fifty years old, an age when he was long overdue, he has yet to sprout a beard. He also possesses a singularly unique drive to explore the world where most Nain are more than content to stick very close to home.

After barely surviving a pirate attack while on an inspection tour on his father's latest contracted ship, Ven finds himself drifting alone at sea in the middle of the nights. It seems that Ven has been blessed with a bit of good luck though, by the presence of an albatross that keeps appearing in his life. Through a series of fantastic events, Ven is rescued, and befriends the Captain of a trade ship and his crew. The Captain shows Ven many wondrous things, not the least of which is the mysterious Floating Island that mysteriously appears for a very few, special people. But while Ven encounters compassionate people and amazing wonders, he makes enemies as well, simply because of who and what he is, and those enemies have their own plans in store for him.

Haydon has created a magical world that will be both familiar and unique to readers of fantasy. Ven Polypheme is an endearing protagonist, with his insatiable curiosity and good-hearted nature, and his supporting cast is delightfully varied. I'm looking forward to reading more of Ven's journals.

A Tiny Gem from Doubleday

CS Richarson's The End of the Alphabet is lovely and sad portrait of a British husband and wife, happy and in love in the middle-years of their lives, when Ambrose Zephyr is told that he has thirty days left to live. Together Ambrose and his wife Zappora (Zipper) Ashkenazi embark on a journey to destinations they have most loved or most longed to visit... in alphabetical order. But their journey is more of a journey through their loving relationship, so real, complete with imperfections, but conveyed to the reader with Richardson's gentle and musical prose. There are moments of emotional frustration alongside sublime beauty. One side journey to the Old Jewry where we meet Mr. Umtata, Ambrose's longtime tailor, is resplendent in its joy and poignancy.

The End of the Alphabet is a quick read, but one that will leave you in that place of deep literary satisfaction. Take a moment and devour this tiny gem.

French Translation Tackles Sex and Meteorology

Translated from the French, Stéphane Audeguy's The Theory of Clouds is a sensual look at clouds, both historically and imaginatively. A Japanese fashion designer in Paris, survivor of the big mushroom cloud in Hiroshima, has become a collector of literature related to clouds. His knowledge of the history of meteorology is extensive. When he hires a young librarian, Virginie Latour, to help him catalog his collection, she is surprised when during her first several shifts, he simply tells her stories from those histories. Eventually she begins to work on the collection, but their time together is often punctuated by more stories and revelations about man's curiosity about clouds and the weather. As Virginie becomes more involved in her patron's quest for knowledge, she travels to London to try and obtain The Abercrombie Protocol, one of the most notorious, coveted, unpublished works on clouds. What she uncovers in London reveals a complex story that ranges from the aborigines in Australia, through the South Pacific, to Polynesian brothels. As the ever-changing skyscape of clouds can sometimes suggest sensual forms, so too is the history of meteorology peppered with surprising carnal quests.

Audeguy has a gift for storytelling, even through his characters. His story is imaginative and complex touching on a variety of subjects, and creating an interesting modern yet somehow timeless woman in Virginie. Filled with what I can only presume is fact-based histories, The Theory of Clouds was a rewarding read for this once cloud-fascinated reader.

A story of class, race and family in Boston

Ann Patchett's Run is a wonderfully written modern tale of race, class and family set in Boston. In fact, the main characters live in my old South End neighborhood a few blocks from where I used to live. Bernard Doyle, a former mayor of Boston, lost his wife Bernadette at an early age. They had given birth to a single son, Sullivan, then adopted Teddy and Tip, a pair of African American brothers several years later. Now Teddy and Tip are in college, and Sullivan has been estranged from his family living in Africa. On a snowy winter night, a freak accident connects the Doyle family to a poor African American woman and her daughter in a way that will change all of their lives in 24 hours.

Patchett has spun a gentle tale that touches on some important issues. Her characters are good people who make mistakes. As the pages turn, I was really rooting for them. I wanted everything to work out for them all. As is often the case with life, not everything works out perfectly, but Run tells a satisfyingly positive story. Patchett uses the cities of Boston and Cambridge effectively as the story's backdrop, both from a geographical and cultural perspective. She is a talented writer whose work is definitely worth a look.

Tom Perrotta Tackles Religion

With The Abstinence Teacher, popular author Tom Perrotta tackles the issue of religion, particularly the evangelical type, in a setting where it's not usually expected: the liberal-minded northeast. Ruth teaches sex education in the town high school, and things have started getting a little strange. A strange conservative waves has reared its head in the town, and the curriculum is being changed to teach abstinence rather than education and birth control. Ruth's younger daughter plays soccer, and her coach, Tim Mason, is a former drug addict who turned his life around by accepting Jesus into his heart. Now he is active in the Tabernacle, an evangelical Christian church that doesn't approve of Ruth's teaching style. When Ruth catches Tim leading the girls on the soccer team in prayer, she lashes back with unexpected results.

Perrotta tries very hard not to take sides, presenting most of the principle characters as three-dimensional with passions and doubts both; particularly Tim. Still, he can't help but paint some of the religious views as extreme (not that they aren't). My problem was I was much more interested in Ruth's character, and when the focus shifted to Tim, I found the book less compelling. Strangely, despite the time spent developing Tim's character, I found him to be rather tiresome and predictable. This was my first of Perrotta's books to read, and his trademark humor was also lacking. I think I will go back and read one of his earlier works like Election or Joe College.

Douglas Coupland's Voice of a Generation

Douglas Coupland made history with his first novel, Generation X, where he wrote with the definitive voice of a generation. Now eighteen years later he continues to refine that generation's voice with his eleventh novel, The Gum Thief. Roger is a divorced, middle-aged, Staples employee whose life has lost direction and meaning. Through a journal sequestered in the Staples break room, he begins a written correspondence with Bethany, his twenty-something co-worker in the final phases of her goth phase. The two spark a strange connection where they are able to confess their deepest thoughts without the masks and filters they employ in their face-to-face encounters with the world. Roger is also writing a novel called Glove Pond, a timeless, yet modern-day "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" that is not-so-loosely based on his life populated by the people around him. As Roger and Bethany watch their lives unfold in a parallel track to the characters in Glove Pond, their bond strengthens, providing Roger with a much-needed anchor in his unsettled life.

Coupland writes with humor and honesty, in a voice that could certainly represent that of the aging generation he first wrote about in 1991. As characters of different generations, Roger and Bethany are representative of the lives of many people today, both young and middle-aged, just trying to succeed, be happy and find their places in life.

The Sharing Knife: Volume Two - Legacy

Prolific science fiction writer Lois McMaster Bujold returns with the second volume of The Sharing Knife, a fantasy/romance series that began with Beguilement. In Legacy, our protagonists Fawn Bluefield, a farmer, and Dag Redwing Hickory, a Lakewalker, have survived Fawn's family to marry, and now must return to Dag's family who are even less thrilled about the prospect of a farmer/Lakewalker union. Even as Dag's community is deciding what is to be done with this flagrant act of disregard to their culture, a particularly horrific magical malice attack emerges to the north, and Dag must lead a troop of Lakewalkers out to destroy it. Left alone in Dag's village, Fawn tries to mend ways with Dag's mother and brother and comes up against a stone wall of resistance. Instead, she follows the mysterious bond between her and her husband to help Dag survive his encounter with the malice and return home.

Bujold has created a winning pair with Fawn and Dag, each so different from the other, yet the love they share is well drawn and believable, despite their age and cultural differences. I'm not sure where she will be taking them in volume three, but I'm sure it will be quite a ride.

Serbian Author Creates a Mosaic Novel

Serbian author Zoran Živković has written a delightful novella, or perhaps it's a collection of short stories, called Steps Through the Mist: a Mosaic Novel. Each of the five stories focuses on a woman who is struggling with life, death and time. Each encounters a gray mist where time seems to stop, or allows people to move through it. The stories are all discrete, but they are linked thematically perhaps telling the universal story of a single woman. Živković kicks things off with "Disorder in the Head," where a strict teacher at an all-girls' boarding school has the girls report on their dreams, priding herself on the fact that she can tell when the girls are making things up, or worse, intentionally trying to deceive her. But when she calls a group of girls on just this, another girl claims to have been with them in their dreams and insists they are telling the truth. The teacher is forced to face her own reality by refusing to believe. In "Line on the Palm," a fortune teller must choose between her own reputation and the life of a visitor who wants to commit suicide. Živković has a lovely, fanciful way of writing, and the stories move by swiftly in this slender volume. Brimming with originality and style, Steps Through the Mist is worth a read for those looking for something different.

Hero Covers All Bases

As a long-time comic book reader, I am fascinated with the fact that superheroes have truly entered the zeitgeist of popular culture as evidenced by the success of superhero comic-based movies and television series. Now there seems to be a run on 'serious' novels set in the super-heroic world of comics. (See my recent review of Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible.) Perry Moore's new novel, Hero, follows along this path but takes it even further, yielding a complex, finely crafted, heroes-saving-the-world, story, the likes of with you rarely find in comics.

Hero focuses on the complicated coming-of-age of Thom Creed. This teen-aged basketball star has several burdens to carry. Not only is he gay, but he's recently discovered that he has super powers. His father, Hal, was once a famous superhero in his own right, until a tragic accident left thousands dead, Hal horribly disfigured and disgraced, and led to the disappearance of Thom's mother. When he is approached by the League, a beloved team of superheroes who routinely save the world, it's just one more thing he has to keep from his father. Add to that his unrequited crush on Uberman, the strange rivalry he has developed with his classmate Goran, and the fact that someone is murdering members of the League, and it's almost more than Thom can handle. Moore however handles things remarkably well, keeping the plot moving forward in a natural and believable way (within the context of a superhero milieu), developing the characters in realistic yet surprising ways, and instilling this fantastic story with very real emotions.

Great for adults and young adults alike, Hero stretches beyond categories and succeeds roundly. This is the type of involving, well-written, thought-provoking story that actually used to appear in comics in the 1970's and 80's. It's too bad comics have moved away from such high-level storytelling, but thankfully it seems to have crossed over into another medium.

Eli Gottlieb Explores Friendship and the Destruction of a Marriage

Eli Gottlieb's second novel, Now You See Him, is a finely written examination of the way our closest childhood friend can impact our lives. When Nick's friend Rob murders his girlfriend then ends up dead himself, Nick finds himself overwhelmed with grief and embarks on a reevaluation of his life. Lucy, Nick's wife of ten years is having trouble understanding his inability to move on, and when Rob's younger sister Brenda, also an old flame of Nick's, comes back into his life, Lucy has had enough. While Rob's impact on Nick's life is at the core of this novel, Now You See Him is also a film about the disintegration of a marriage.

While Gottlieb is certainly a skilled writer, his deft prose illuminates these characters inner lives, and he successfully crafts a compelling novel revolving around a fairly unsympathetic protagonist, his plotting skills are not to my liking. Halfway through the novel, he introduces my least favorite soap-opera twist which was a major disappointment, and there is a startling twist at the conclusion that isn't all that shocking. Overall, Now You See Him is worth the read if you're a fan of finely written drama if you don't mind some soapsuds.

Canadian Author Weaves Fragmented Portrait of Troubled Adolescence.

I was drawn to read Maureen Medved's The Tracey Fragments after seeing Bruce McDonald's amazing film adaptation starring the incomparable Ellen Page. Medved's novel about a teenaged girl fragmenting perilously close to madness is powerful stuff, and it's nice to see much of the meat of the story in the original novel. While McDonald's inventive use of of editing, split screens, and music elevate the novel into an ambitious and succesful movie (again, partially thanks to the amazing performance from Page as the title character), the core story is entirely Medved's.

Tracey Berkowitz is a fifteen-year-old girl living in remote, impoverished area in Canada. Her parents are remote and a bit mad, her younger brother thinks he is a dog, her boyfriend is an MTV-style rockstar, and her psychiatrist, while possibly her only ally, is a terrifyingly, cold bitch. All of this according to Tracey, who is the amazingly unreliable narrator of her own life. When little brother Sonny disappears into a blizzard one night while tenuously under Tracey's care, she boards the city bus to find him. In fact, as the book unfolds, Tracey is sitting in the back of the bus, naked except for the plastic, flowered shower-curtain wrapped around her tiny frame. She proceeds to tell her story in episodic pieces that often contradict themselves but gradually reveal the truth of this young girl's life. Picked on mercilessly at school, a source of eternal disappointment at home, sexually attacked and finally terrorized while wandering the streets in search of her brother, Tracey retreats into her own mind and the colorful world she creates.

Medved's novel is an illuminating tale of adolesence at its most cruel and difficult. I recommend this novel, and even moreso, the movie that it spawned (if it is ever released in the United States.