Friday, September 16, 2016

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

Friday, Sept. 16, 2016--Kastraki (Meteora), Greece

This book is a bit unusual for me.  It's not a novel, but it reads like a novel.  It is a true story of people living in a slum in Mumbai written by an American woman who went there to live among them and write about their lives.  Like so many other books about India I have read, it is quite depressing because of the circumstances of their lives with things often getting worse rather than better.  The book is Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, and it won the National Book Award for non-fiction.  Even though I didn't like what was happening in the book, it was well written and well documented.  It's an extraordinary achievement.  I gave it 4 out of 4 stars.


Sunday, September 4, 2016

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016--Cetinje, Montenegro

I finished reading my novel, The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, today.  It's a western about two brothers who are hired killers--one rough with little conscience and the other somewhat sensitive.  It was named to best-of-the-year lists by a number of reviewers and was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize.  It's a unique western that incorporates some science fiction as well as some superstition.  I enjoyed the book and gave it 3 1/2 stars out of 4.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

August 5, 2015--Ptuj, Slovenia

I finished reading my 800+ page novel, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, that won the 2013 Man Booker Prize. It is a wonderful book. At the beginning, there were so many characters and there was so much happening that I wondered if I would ever be able to keep up with it all. But slowly each character became distinguishable from the other and the pieces of the puzzle of what the book is about started coming together. By the end, the whole story becomes known. The reviews reference it as a nineteenth century novel updated for today’s readers. What is amazing is that the author was only 28 years old when she finished it and it was published. I give the book 3 ½ stars out of 4.