The New Wilderness by Diane Cook

 Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020--San Antonio

The New Wilderness by Diane Cook is a science fiction novel set in the future--one that could plausibly happen.  It was on the short list for the Booker Prize this year (2020).  It follows the lives of people who have left life in the city which is a highly polluted high-rise megalopolis what covers all available land except for special designated areas for mining, for storing waste, etc., and one very special area that is closed to the public and being maintained as a wilderness.  Those who have left are a group of 20 who are admitted to the wilderness as an experiment to see if people can live there without damaging it.  They have to learn how to take care of themselves while following a book of rules.  They are supposed to move every day.  They must carry their trash (and discard it on their monthly check-ins at ranger stations), must make sure that where they have camped cannot be realized by anyone who shows up after they have left, must follow orders related to where they should head and which ranger station will be their next check-in point.  But it is also the story of one particular family--a professor of history (especially of those living in wilderness areas) whose mind glorifies the idea of going to the wilderness more than his body can handle it, his wife who goes along with the plan because their daughter is sick from the pollution in the city and who becomes a leader within the group of 20, and the daughter who adapts well to wilderness life and who, when she is a young teenager, grows into a role of being the guide for the group as they move from place to place.  It's a good book.  I didn't want to put it down.  Warner Bros. has bought the rights for the book to be made into a TV series.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek

Monday, Nov. 23, 2020--San Antonio

To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek is a story set in 1348 with various stories colliding and unfolding as it progresses:  1) A young man who should be free since his father was free but who is considered a serf by the landowner (local lord) decides the only way to get is freedom is to to use his skill as a bowman in the war in France.  The right to buy his freedom for 5 pounds with the spoils he will gain in France is his demand to the lord for signing up to represent his manor region in the war.  2)  A young daughter of the same lord is trying to escape an arranged marriage by her father who has promised her to an old neighboring lord in return for the neighboring lord promising his own daughter to him.  She is fascinated by the story of a romance novel she is reading and repelled by the idea of being married to an old man, so she runs away to find the man she loves who is off fighting in France where he has been given property for his accomplishments in battle.  3) A local serf in charge of the pigs runs off to follow the young bowman whom he has loved since childhood and takes a disguise as an unknown twin sister to make his escape and to try to appeal to the bowman (who identifies as heterosexual and is engaged to a local woman) as someone he can come to love.  4)  A group of bowmen who are traveling back to France for further fighting have with them a French woman who has been their captive since they killed her father and raped her and have strict rules of conduct and obediency for the bowmen in their group to follow.  The French woman faces regular abuse from the bowman who has claimed her as his own and tries to keep all other men at a distance from her.  5)  The plague has been raging in France and starts making its entry into England as all these people move toward the port where they are to catch a boat to go to France.  Reading the story is complicated due to the use of so many words from the local dialect when the bowmen and others who are not formally educated speak.  It's an interesting story, but I almost gave up on it due to the difficulty of the language.  Eventually I was invested in all of the characters to the point that I wanted to continue reading to know what would happen.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

 Friday, Nov. 13, 2020--San Antonio

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi is a complex book that won the National Book Award for fiction in 2019.  It's a story built around the students attending a high school for the performing arts in a large American city (based on hints that it has an opera house, has Spanish moss hanging from oak trees, is not near a river or a body of water, has a park name I could match, and others, I pictured Houston as the location).  Students, a graduate, and a faculty member from a similar school in England who make a visit in the spring to stay with the American students and perform a play at their school are also a part of the story.  A major topic throughout is sexual exploitation.  Another topic is that most of these students dreaming of becoming stars in theatre, dance, voice, etc., will never make it--that a rare few students over the years have had some minor success and maybe one has had success that could be considered great enough to avoid the "minor" designation but not great enough to be a known name by most people.  Most of these students are talented only in one discipline and some of them have quite limited talents even in that best discipline.  So the book is about the struggles of these students, their families, and their faculty members in dealing with their hopes and dreams and with their disappointments and failures.  There is a major twist that occurs right in the middle of the book.  At times the story flows smoothly and is very entertaining.  At other times, it is drug down by details (lots of explanations of the true meanings of words as they are used and what else they could mean) and confusion (due to the fact that the same character may be referenced by different names at different times).  The complexity of the story (including the twist that occurs) must be the reason it won the award.  As I read, at times I thought I would give the book 4 1/2 or maybe even 5 stars, but at other times, I wanted to give it 2 1/2 to 3 stars and considered quitting it.  By the end, I was glad to be finished with the book and settled on a rating of 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Memorial by Bryan Washington

 Friday, Nov. 6, 2020--San Antonio

Memorial by Bryan Washington is the second book by this author that I have read recently.  The first was Lot, a collection of short stores.  Mr. Washington is a Houston author who is receiving lots of acclaim.  Before Memorial was released in the past few weeks, I read articles in TIME and EW about it and heard a report on NPR about it.  I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up on the short list for the next National Book Award.  The book is well written in a unique style that is very conversational and often consists of short entries (of only a few lines each) that slowly build the story.  It revolves around two young minority men (Benton who is Black and Mike who is a Japanese immigrant) who are gay, live in Houston, and establish a relationship which appears to be unstable for long-term success.  But the main story taking up most of the book starts about 3 years into that relationship when Mike's mother is coming from Japan to Houston for a visit at the same time that he finds out that his father (estranged from his mother) is dying in Japan.  Mike leaves for Japan to make a last-ditch effort to establish a relationship with his father (whom he hasn't seen since he was 9 years old) before his mother, who Benton has never met arrives at the home where the two men live.  Relationships are strained on both sides of the world with Benton and Mike's mother slowly, and with great difficulty, getting to know and appreciate each other and with Mike and his father slowly, but with great difficulty, reestablishing a relationship which over time each has had mostly negative feelings about and learning to appreciate each other.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book and gave it 4 stars out of 5.

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

 Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020--San Antonio

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante is the second book I have read in a month by this pseudonymous author.  This is her latest novel (released in English in August of 2020) and has gotten great reviews all over the world.  I found it to be a fast, easy read.   The main character is a young female high school student whose life changes dramatically as she learns that life is not always as simple as it seems and has to deal with adjusting to having relationships with her relatives, her friends, and new acquaintances that are not as straight forward or as easy as relationships when she was young and innocent.  Set in Naples, there is the contrast between two parts of her own family whose neighborhoods are very economically different and whose lives have been lived at a distance also because of conflicts, disappointments, and grudges.  But it also deals with her having to determine what is important to her in life and whether she will make decisions that lead her into a life of the kinds of conflicts that have been occurring for decades within the family.  It's a good book, although I did find myself wanting yell at the young lady that she needed to grow up and not be so self-centered.  I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars.