DCL Book Chat

Will Silver is a handsome, thirty-something teacher at the International School of France. He is the kind of teacher who is inspiring and adored. He encourages, or provokes, creative thinking from his students as they read Camus, Sartre, Faulkner, Keats and discuss issues of social justice, ethical living and discovering the truth. To his rather sophisticated students Mr. Silver is cool, composed, and a man of action; someone they aspire to be, or in some cases, to be with. To the extent that Will himself is able to act in accordance with these socially conscious choices, it turns out that the best choices are hard to make and the worst choices are sometimes the most compelling.

In particular we see the effect of Mr. Silver’s passion on Marie, a junior who doesn’t want to party with her socialite crowd; Colin, a rough and tumble Irish boy with high expectations of bravery and action; and Gilad, a shadowy figure with a troubled home life. While Mr. Silver is encouraging them to push the envelope of thought and action, the concepts of morality and lawlessness hover over everything.

Will Silver is haunted by choices of his past; guilt over a broken marriage and grief over the death of his parents, and is dealing with his own sense of alienation. His own resolve is tested after witnessing a random act of violence and an outbreak at a political rally. With a deft touch, Maksik explores the difficulties of living up to one’s own ideals.

This is very much a novel of Paris. The romance, history and vibrancy of the city seem to cast a spell on the characters. As Maksik describes the lighting, the streets, the imposing architecture, we can feel the pull of the history and the energy of the surroundings. It’s a wonder anyone can escape this erotic city without having a life-changing moment.

While the premise of You Deserve Nothing may be considered time-worn (teacher/student involvement), Maksik has created such complete characters with thoroughly developed inner lives that he makes it plausible that such an event could happen and not be met with revulsion. Maksik’s choice to tell the story from three voices, looking, almost casually, back on the events, gives the narrative a haunting and surreal quality that suits the introspective tone of this wonderful debut novel.

Laura J.

The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen is a wonderful examination of a family’s reaction to the father’s somewhat mysterious death. It’s 1979 when Nicky Fleming, a British diplomat posted to Bonn and working closely with East Germany, is discovered at the base of the embassy building. Politely escorted out of the country, his wife Letty and their three children retreat to Letty’s family home in the remote Outer Hebrides. As Letty sinks further into anger, abject grief and confusion, Georgie, Alba and Jamie each cope with their father’s death in different ways. This sounds grim, but the tone of the story is more quirk than quiet and the story zooms along as the children bump against each other and wrestle with their rambling, misinformed thoughts. Of course there are various queer island folk to perk up the already perky story, as well as an escapee sentient bear who plays a pivotal role in the mind of Jamie, who processes information in a less-than usual manner. Rotating chapters precisely capture the tone of each family member (as well as the bear) and the story wraps up with a very satisfying conclusion. I wanted The Summer of the Bear to continue on for many more seasons.

Laura J.

Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? is a book about nothing much. Just about a life slowly unfolding and a talent unused. Just about a life spinning out of control as fast and as quietly as a rocket orbiting the moon. It’s a book about the distance we have to travel in order to make relationships work. It’s a book about the footprints we leave behind and the untamed territory ahead; like the first step on the moon.

Twenty-nine-year-old Mattias had been content, no, he has worked, to be an anonymous cog in life. He wants to be useful, but like a superhero he wants any rescues to be incognito. He wants nothing to change and for things to be fixed for all eternity – just like the moon footprints of Buzz Aldrin, the person Mattias admires most in the world. Mattias thinks that, like Buzz, it’s always best to be in second place, to not be noticed and fussed over. But it turns out that Mattias is wrong about Buzz. He didn’t fade away. Being in second place didn’t protect Buzz from life’s hardships, and it doesn’t protect Mattias either.

Told from an intimate first-person rambling perspective, with run-on sentences to rival Faulkner, Norwegian author Johan Harstad has created an intensely sensitive character in Mattias. As he stumbles through his young life the reader is drawn into his world of doubts and fears at the same time that we are cheering him through his successes. By focusing on his quotidian movements we become attached to Mattias as if he were sharing our space, and when he responds with humor and truth we burst with pride.

The harsh landscape of the Faroe Islands provides the perfect setting for Mattias as he and a crew of other sensitive souls heal their wounds and find their rightful places in life. When Mattias suddenly inspires the group to set themselves adrift, we realize that this journey might as well be a moon walk, and it just might be the step that changes a life forever.

Harstad won the 2008 Braga award – previously won by Per Petterson. This, his first novel and his first book to be translated into English, was published in 2005 in Norway and has already been made into a Norwegian television series.

Laura J.

Come on, admit it, didn’t we all have a terrible, wonderful, all-consuming crush on a teen pop sensation sometime during our youth? Author Allison Pearson has taken that premise (a deeply personal one for the author) and turned it into a winning, engaging and sweet novel. In I Think I Love You, we meet Petra, a 13-year-old Welsh teenager. She and her friends are obsessed with David Cassidy, who in 1974 is the teen sensation of the world. Petra and her friends read The Essential David Cassidy fan magazine with religious fervor and take each and every word as the ultimate truth. If only it were true, but no. Unfortunately for recent journalism graduate Bill those pearls of pop wisdom are crafted, much to his unending embarrassment, by him. The story unfolds and each chapter tells us more about these two likeable characters in both 1974 and then in 1998 when Petra, now grown with her own daughter and a troubled marriage is attending her mother’s funeral. She discovers that her mother hid her prize-winning ticket to meet David all those many years ago. Pearson does a great job of capturing the essence of teen self-discovery, and delving into the real meaning of love and relationships. The introspection of the two characters is honest and truthful and the story intertwines into a sweet ending.

Laura J.

Newly divorced, and without custody of her children, Barb Barrett fills her days answering complaint letters for the local dairy. She’s just purchased a house in upstate New York once owned by Vladimir Nabokov and one of the many funny scenes in this surprisingly wry look at pulling your life together has Barb reflecting on her status as dairy-trouble mollifier in the same spot where Nabokov created his iconic Lolita. When Barb happens upon what might be Nabokovian notes on a baseball love story her life begins to take on a whole new shape, including the entrepreneurial leap to day-spa/cum brothel owner. What starts out as a seemingly serious divorce story ends up being a witty and somewhat crazy little romance where Barb meets a hunky carpenter (could he really have been anything else?) and falls in love with “the ex-person’s” dog. Author Leslie Daniels brings a bit of a twisted eye to all that Barb reflects upon, adding sardonic wit to the language and plot of this upbeat and original story.

Laura J.

Alice Love wakes up on the floor after knocking herself unconscious during a spin class. She is shocked when she discovers she’s in the gym. (She hates working out!) Alice soon gets an even bigger shock because she believes that she is 29 years old, happily married and expecting her first child. Alice discovers she is actually 39 years old with three children and in the middle of a nasty divorce. What happened to those ten years? And when did sweet Alice become the control freak no one likes, not even Alice herself? This fast paced, funny and touching book, with the added delight of an Australian setting, may be your perfect beach read this summer.

Dedra

As Zeke Pappas introduces his life to us, it appears he’s got it under control. He is director of GMHI, the Greater Midwest Humanities Initiative in Madison Wisconsin. He and his mother provide loving care for his two young nieces. But appearances are deceiving. As we began to see Zeke through the eyes of those around him, it is evident he’s on shaky ground. The tragedies of his life are catching up with him. He’s a young widower, his brother was killed in Iraq, and the Department of Departmental Compliance and Oversight is investigating GMHI. To add to the stress, Zeke must find a wife if he wants to keep custody of his nieces. Will it be the cute Starbucks barista who loves Zeke’s uncanny ability to guess the drink orders of perfect strangers, the attractive newly divorced neighbor, or the single mom who is his administrative assistant? Who knows, he’s always fantasized about Sophia Coppola, maybe she’ll come through for him. A kind evaluation would be that Zeke is overly optimistic, but totally clueless is closer to the truth. Will Zeke get it figured out? He takes us on a wild, funny, ironic and surprisingly tender ride and, in spite of how annoyingly obtuse he can be, you’ve got to root for him.

Marsha

The Uncoupling is a book about sex. Or rather, it’s a book about no sex. In the sleepy suburban town of Stellar Plains, New Jersey, a spell has come over the women who work at the local high school. They feel an icy chill and they suddenly no longer have any desire to engage in sex. The very thought is repulsive. This cold wave happens to coincide with the staging of that year’s school play, Lysistrata, the ancient Greek comedy where the women of Athens decide to withhold sex until their men stop fighting the Peloponnesian War.

If you can let yourself embrace this magically-realistic premise, Wolitzer’s story puts an interesting spin on how sex and our love or hate of it can affect a relationship. The spell knows no bounds and we hear from, among others, a formerly passionate spouse; a teen in the thrall of new love; a disaffected partner resentful of hurtful remarks; and a serial-dating single. These different voices give the story a well-rounded perspective. As the characters exam their sex lives, they examine their whole lives and their place in each relationship. They consider intimacy at all its levels. Wolitzer’s writing style is easy to read and she is spot on with describing certain elements of high school life and suburban living.

The ending of the story is, perhaps, a bit predictable and heavy on the mystical, but the body of the story is entertaining and thought-provoking enough to carry the reader through.

Laura J.

Julia Glass won the 2002 National Book Award for Three Junes. In this her fourth novel, she writes a funny, moving and thought provoking story revolving around a curmudgeonly 70-year-old retired Harvard librarian. Percy Darling’s wife, Poppy, died suddenly 30 years ago. Now, his staid, solitary lifestyle changes dramatically when he allows his older daughter, Clover, to renovate his barn and turn it into Elves and Fairies, a preschool for the wealthy families who live in their suburb outside Boston.

Other characters whose stories unfold and intertwine with Percy’s are his other daughter Trudy, a renowned Boston oncologist; her son Robert, a premed student at Harvard who gets involved with an eco-terrorism group; and Sarah, whose son Ricco attends Elves & Fairies and to whom Percy forms an attachment. Others include Ira, Ricco’s gay teacher and Celestino, a Guatemalan gardener, who Percy meets while Celestino is tending Percy’s neighbor’s garden.

I would recommend this book to discussion groups and to readers who enjoy Elizabeth Berg, Joyce Carol Oates and Anne Tyler.

Allison

Three adult sisters return home to straighten out their own lives and support their mother who is fighting cancer. The girls are not particularly close and their personalities strongly reflect their birth order so they tend to drive each other crazy.

This refreshingly unsentimental story of family dynamics is told with warmth and humor by promising new novelist Eleanor Brown who will be at the Highlands Ranch Library on June 30.

Marsha