The Goldfinch is the story of Theo Decker, a 13-year-old boy whose Mother is killed in an explosion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. It's nearly 800 pages of Theo coping with that loss into his adult life.
First Theo is taken in by his wealthy friend Andy Barbour's family on Park Avenue. Then his deadbeat dad Larry shows up with his girlfriend Xandra and takes him off to Las Vegas. In Vegas Theo meets borderline (okay, actual) criminal Boris, and the two become fast friends/drinking buddies/druggies. Eventually Theo comes back to NYC where he is taken in by, and eventually goes into business with, furniture restorer James Hobart.
Throughout the story is the Goldfinch of the title, a tiny little painting that had been hanging on the wall of the Met when the explosion happened - and which Theo took with him from the rubble, after conversing with Welty Blackwell, Hobart's friend and business partner, who gave him a ring to take to Hobart before he dies of his injuries. The painting will play a major role in Theo's life.
Okay. So, this novel won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Which is why I stuck with it through almost 800 pages. But I skimmed A LOT. The characterizations are great - I liked Boris best - but there are only so many vodka-and-pot-fueled adventures that I can be interested in. And I'm glad I stuck it out to the end, because it was a bit of a surprise.
The Goldfinch
Friday, May 12, 2017
Friday, April 7, 2017
God Help the Child
Okay, so I found this story VERY hard to get into. Toni Morrison's style is that she sort of just throws you into a story and trusts that you can figure out where you are. Plus she lives in a very harsh world where a lot of bad things happen. But since it's a Toni Morrison novel I stuck with it and I will say that I'm glad I did.
The crux of the story focuses on the relationship between Bride and Booker. Bride's a beautiful cosmetics executive and Booker is, well, we aren't exactly sure what Booker is. But when Booker leaves Bride, her world falls apart, and she has to figure out a way to get it back.
But this being Toni Morrison, the story of Bride and Booker is part of a larger discussion about how the way parents raise their children affects them as adults, and how the things that are done to children - and the things they see done to others - affect their personalities. Morrison's world is not a very nice place, and many of the adults in it experienced some pretty horrible things in their childhoods. In fact that's probably why I found the book so hard to get into.
My biggest disappointment with the book is that Rain, the character I found most interesting and wanted to get to know better, was only a tiny part of the story. But I guess that was Morrison's intention, to just have Rain drift in and out of Bride's, and the reader's, life.
God Help the Child
The crux of the story focuses on the relationship between Bride and Booker. Bride's a beautiful cosmetics executive and Booker is, well, we aren't exactly sure what Booker is. But when Booker leaves Bride, her world falls apart, and she has to figure out a way to get it back.
But this being Toni Morrison, the story of Bride and Booker is part of a larger discussion about how the way parents raise their children affects them as adults, and how the things that are done to children - and the things they see done to others - affect their personalities. Morrison's world is not a very nice place, and many of the adults in it experienced some pretty horrible things in their childhoods. In fact that's probably why I found the book so hard to get into.
My biggest disappointment with the book is that Rain, the character I found most interesting and wanted to get to know better, was only a tiny part of the story. But I guess that was Morrison's intention, to just have Rain drift in and out of Bride's, and the reader's, life.
God Help the Child
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
The Summer Before the War
This is a really charming novel by Helen Simonson, the author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. It takes place in a small town in rural England called Rye, in the summer leading up to WWI (so all you Downton Abbey fans should like it).
The town has just hired Beatrice Nash to be the Latin teacher at the school. Beatrice is a well-educated young lady with wit and charm who was left too independent by her well-traveled and independent late father, so some of the townspeople find her a bit shocking, although most of the more sensible ones find her charming.
Beatrice's benefactor is the grand dame Agatha Kent, who loves her two nephews Hugh and Daniel like the sons she never had. Hugh is studying to be a surgeon and hopeful of marrying his professor's daughter, while Daniel is a poet who has a special friend of his own. The town is also populated with lots of other interesting people, including gypsies, and we also have a whole truckload of Belgian refugees thrown into the mix.
At any rate, it's a really well-written and well-told story. I laughed and cried, which is what the best books make me do.
The Summer Before the War
The town has just hired Beatrice Nash to be the Latin teacher at the school. Beatrice is a well-educated young lady with wit and charm who was left too independent by her well-traveled and independent late father, so some of the townspeople find her a bit shocking, although most of the more sensible ones find her charming.
Beatrice's benefactor is the grand dame Agatha Kent, who loves her two nephews Hugh and Daniel like the sons she never had. Hugh is studying to be a surgeon and hopeful of marrying his professor's daughter, while Daniel is a poet who has a special friend of his own. The town is also populated with lots of other interesting people, including gypsies, and we also have a whole truckload of Belgian refugees thrown into the mix.
At any rate, it's a really well-written and well-told story. I laughed and cried, which is what the best books make me do.
The Summer Before the War
Monday, March 6, 2017
Where I Lost Her
I initially had a hard time getting into this novel, but once I did I was hooked.
Tess and Jake are visiting old friends at their camp in Vermont, when Tess sees a lost child on the road in the woods - but the child runs away before Tess can help her. An extensive police search turns up no child, there have been no children reported missing, and events in her past make the local police think Tess is imagining the child - or made the whole story up for attention.
What follows is the story of how Tess solves the mystery, and a look back at the events that have brought her to this moment in time. It's a very emotional and surprising story that I couldn't put down.
I'll definitely look for other works by this author.
Where I Lost Her
Tess and Jake are visiting old friends at their camp in Vermont, when Tess sees a lost child on the road in the woods - but the child runs away before Tess can help her. An extensive police search turns up no child, there have been no children reported missing, and events in her past make the local police think Tess is imagining the child - or made the whole story up for attention.
What follows is the story of how Tess solves the mystery, and a look back at the events that have brought her to this moment in time. It's a very emotional and surprising story that I couldn't put down.
I'll definitely look for other works by this author.
Where I Lost Her
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Bossypants
First, I have to say I think Tina Fey is one of the funniest people on the planet. Mean Girls? Amazing. Sisters? Hysterical. I've never seen 30 Rock but now I really want to.
This book is basically a series of essays by Tina about her life and work. Even though it is intended to be funny - and it is very funny - she's also got some great advice about succeeding and finding happiness in the workplace.
This is a really enjoyable, funny, and quick read. Even if you aren't a Tina Fey fan, read it just for the stuff about how the whole Sarah Palin impersonation went down.
Bossypants
This book is basically a series of essays by Tina about her life and work. Even though it is intended to be funny - and it is very funny - she's also got some great advice about succeeding and finding happiness in the workplace.
This is a really enjoyable, funny, and quick read. Even if you aren't a Tina Fey fan, read it just for the stuff about how the whole Sarah Palin impersonation went down.
Bossypants
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Hillbilly Elegy
I don't read a lot of memoirs, but this has been a best seller for a while and it was recommended by more than one friend. And I have to say, I really enjoyed it. And I highly recommend it.
For those of you who haven't heard of this book, Hillbilly Elegy is the memoir of one J.D. Vance, who grew up poor in Southwest Ohio in a family of hillbillies from Kentucky and went on to attend Yale Law School. The book is his story of how he escaped an almost certain fate of addiction, teen pregnancy/marriage, and even crime, with the help of his Mamaw and Papaw and other adults in his extended family and community.
Vance is a very good writer, in equal parts eloquent, folksy, direct, and funny. Reading his story makes one see how different it is for folks in certain parts of the country from those in other parts, and how we have no idea of our differences. Growing up in a very small town in Maryland I saw a tiny bit of what Vance experienced but for me it was the exception, and where he grew up it was the rule. That he was able to achieve what he has achieved is a testament to his own strength and power of will, but also to the positive influence of his maternal grandparents.
I highly recommend this book.
Hillbilly Elegy
For those of you who haven't heard of this book, Hillbilly Elegy is the memoir of one J.D. Vance, who grew up poor in Southwest Ohio in a family of hillbillies from Kentucky and went on to attend Yale Law School. The book is his story of how he escaped an almost certain fate of addiction, teen pregnancy/marriage, and even crime, with the help of his Mamaw and Papaw and other adults in his extended family and community.
Vance is a very good writer, in equal parts eloquent, folksy, direct, and funny. Reading his story makes one see how different it is for folks in certain parts of the country from those in other parts, and how we have no idea of our differences. Growing up in a very small town in Maryland I saw a tiny bit of what Vance experienced but for me it was the exception, and where he grew up it was the rule. That he was able to achieve what he has achieved is a testament to his own strength and power of will, but also to the positive influence of his maternal grandparents.
I highly recommend this book.
Hillbilly Elegy
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Some Kind of Fairy Tale
This novel is a really interesting take on the old "fairy snatching" legends of the British Isles. Tara shows up at her parents' door on Christmas Day - 20 years after she disappeared in the Outwoods without a trace, and looking very much as she had back in 1983. She proceeds to tell a very detailed story of how she rode off on a white horse with an intriguing stranger, and had to stay at the odd and wondrous place he took her for six months before she could "cross back over" to home.
I don't want to give the story away, but let's just say that Tara seems perfectly sane, she willingly submits to psychiatrists, medical tests, and anything else they ask but won't change her story. There's an interesting side story with a kooky old neighbor and her cat too.
The end is a bit of a stunner too. A really enjoyable read.
Some Kind of Fairy Tale
I don't want to give the story away, but let's just say that Tara seems perfectly sane, she willingly submits to psychiatrists, medical tests, and anything else they ask but won't change her story. There's an interesting side story with a kooky old neighbor and her cat too.
The end is a bit of a stunner too. A really enjoyable read.
Some Kind of Fairy Tale
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