DCL Book Chat

In a mere 144 pages Julie Otsuka manages to cover over one hundred years in the lives of Japanese picture brides and their families. Picture brides were the young women that came to America as mail-order brides, to be wed sight-unseen to Japanese men already established in their new country. Award-winning author Otsuka accomplishes this in an unusual style, using repetitive lists of events in an all-encompassing third person plural voice. Instead of focusing on the life story of a single character we learn of the cumulative events of many nameless characters: One of us . . . Some of us . . . None of us . . . It’s a bold and controversial style that would make for great discussion in a book group, as some will love the retrained power and dynamic of this style and others will feel the lack of a centralized characterization. There’s a haunting beauty to the story presented in this step-back style, and a distinctive way to tell a powerful story.

Laura

Red Cross nurse Nina Borg thinks she’s just doing a friend a simple favor when she agrees to pick up a suitcase from the train station. Little does she know this act will lead days on the run and a fight for her life, as well as the life of, yes, you guessed it, a vulnerable three-year-old she finds drugged inside the suitcase. Of course it’s not a simple choice to turn the boy over to the authorities. Instead, we learn how this bizarre event came to pass and the whys and wherefores of who wants what from whom. It’s a great story of good intensions gone horrible wrong. This Danish mystery keeps the pace whizzing along at the same time that it takes the time to give some real depth to its characters. This is the first book in a planned series.

Laura J.

Whimsical novels, all succeed on the author’s ability to make the reader want to abandon reason and embrace the impossible. Like a skilled circus barker, Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel, The Night Circus, calls out to the audience and pulls readers in through the circus tent with a swish of imagination and a flash of romance.

The premise for the plot is that two rival magicians of indeterminate age, have over many generations, tested their skill at choosing and training a young student in their preferred method of magic; magic that goes way beyond rabbits and top hats. They set their students against each other in a battle of wits and skill in a contest where the pupils know neither the rules nor their opponent. But this time the contenders, Marco and Celia, fall in love while Marco is managing and Celia is performing in the mysterious Night Circus, a glorious venue offering whole landscapes of delight run by a host of intriguing entertainers. The most magical element of the book is the earnest and electric tension that connects the young magicians as they use their wits and hearts to win for their tutor and put an end to the contest — without knowing the dire consequences of that end.

The juxtaposition of the staid Victorian era with the ethereal, lush visual imagery of the circus prevents the book from floating away on its own imagination, and the patiently woven plot that folds through time like the pleats of the circus tent adds to the book’s dynamic mix of reality and wonder.

Laura J.

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.

In Zanesville is a pitch-perfect coming-of-age story that fully captures the aching agony of teen angst, focusing on the alluring pull of peer pressure among the in-crowd and loyalty to the old guard. Author Jo Ann Beard’s fourteen-year-old narrator (whose name, Jo, is only hinted at) considers herself a sidekick, a role she’s happy to play until life begins to force her and her best friend, Flea (Felicia) outside their insular cocoon. “I’d like to be the kind of person who can do something weird and not become weird because of it, but that’s out of reach for me . . .” Beard’s details of life in the 1970’s are fantastic, from the plaid culottes and two-tone Capezio’s to the image of a toaster with a Wonder Bread wrapper melted to its flank. The gripping, comedic and horrific opening scene sets the tone for the remainder of the book as the story flies through a pivotal season of teen-dom with sharp, wry dialog and emotional punch. (Suitable for older teens)

Laura

Covering a span of roughly 100 years Galore tells the many stories of two sparring families in fictional Paradise Deep, (a purposefully ironic name), as they literally weather the abundance and deprivations, both physical and emotional, that life in 19th century Newfoundland affords. This wonderfully cyclical story begins with the emergence of a man from the belly of a beached whale and proceeds through six generations of equally quirky characters.

Award-winning author Michael Crummey wanted to infuse the book with folklore and was even drawn to the title Galore, because of “lore” being in the word. There are stories galore, characters galore and folktales in abundance–a term, the book reminds us, that can be both positive and negative. As the characters scrabble to eke out an existence and fight against the tide of inevitability, they both glory in and suffer from abundances both good and bad. While the story mostly makes a forward progression, the unpredictable jumps in time can be challenging, but also add to the spontaneous and quirky feel of the narrative.

The story does not rely on a central protagonist, so our allegiance is blown from one family member to another like the gale-force winds that come driving in from the sea, but that also means that we have the opportunity to attach ourselves to several powerful characters throughout this family saga.

Crummey says he admires both Jane Smiley’s novel, Greenlanders and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and he has done a marvelous job of creating a new work that simultaneously captures a culture and unfurls a history of family feuds.

Like the rugged and rocky landscape of Newfoundland, Galore isn’t easy to navigate (thank goodness for the family tree), but the rewards for persistence are breathtaking.

Laura