Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the Revolution
by Peter Andreas
Motherhood as rebellion (8/16/2017)
No matter where you fall on whether you think Carol Andreas was a good mother or not, you will be forced to examine motherhood as an institution and what constitutes a happy childhood. Because Peter Andreas ends up happy and fulfilled with a career and a family and a stable home does this mean that Carol was a good mother, despite all outward appearances to the contrary or is it all just dumb luck that things turned out the way they did. There is much to be said for teaching your child to think critically and in the end I think that is what Peter took from his early life experiences. He may ultimately reject what his mother stands for, but he seems to come to it not from a place of anger or resentment, but from a place of considered thought. Great book group selection to discuss themes of motherhood, family, women's roles, siblings, etc.
The Heart's Invisible Furies: A Novel
by John Boyne
A coming of all ages story (6/29/2017)
To call The Heart's Invisible Furies a coming-of-age novel would be selling it short. Sweeping in scope, it is Cyril Avery's "coming of all ages" story. Cyril is many things: a boy with a secret, an adolescent dealing with desires he has no idea how to reconcile with the society he lives in, a conflicted young groom running away from responsibilities, a man running toward and embracing his true desires, ultimately a man becoming his authentic self. He must make his way in a time when begin gay meant relegating yourself to either a life of lies and repression or a life lived on the ostracized margins of society. Cyril is achingly human on his life's journey: he struggles; he loves imperfectly; he makes mistakes; he loves again and finds happiness only to have it snatched away. You ache for Cyril at every stage of life, wishing the best for him, but you are never sure that the decisions he makes will lead him to happiness. This is a story about what makes a family, about enduring friendships, about betrayal and forgiveness, about redemption. Big themes wrapped in a very human story, this would be a solid pick for readers and book groups who like family sagas with an edge.
Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders
Life in Death (4/19/2017)
Just brilliant. I was skeptical at first because the structure of the novel is so unconventional (in the best way), but I believe the narrative carries you until you catch up and then you are just swept up. I was sobbing by the end. I will recommend it to everyone who will listen to me. George Saunders captures the hopefulness of life even in the face of its fragility and the inevitability of death. Saunders does not romanticize this, some of the characters are repellent but in a very human way. The narrative elicits some kind of primal empathy. For me, life changing.
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
Wow (2/5/2013)
Wow, wow, wow! Did I mention wow? At first I thought I was going to have trouble with the book, that the moving back and forth in time, between different realities, would be confusing, instead I was absolutely captivated. I let go of trying to track narrative threads and found that it all made sense and didn't at the same time. You should leave the novel a bit turned around, you should leave the novel wondering.
All of the characters are fully realized and vibrant. The narrative is plotted in such a way that regardless of where you are in time, you read anxiously through to the end of each chapter wondering what will happen next, increasingly anxious as the novel progresses because you have become familiar with the characters, the setting, the set-up. It is all both familiar and strange. You have become like Ursula in a way, you know something bad may happen but you don't know what; you feel the sinister atmosphere. Unlike Ursula, you can only watch, not act.
This novel was brilliant.
I should also point out that I read an e-galley, and while I am not always a fan of reading on my electronic devices, I think this actually helped me because I could not easily flip back and forth between sections. I think if I had been able to it would have disrupted much of the narrative"magic" for me. My advice? Read it once through without flipping back and forth. Let the story take you where it wants you to go. If you want to truly puzzle it out, save it for the second reading--because you WILL want to read it again.
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