Thursday, December 28, 2023

How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney

Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023--San Antonio

How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney was longlisted for the Booker Prize and was named a New Yorker best book of the year among other honors from other sources.  It takes place in a village in western Ireland.  A young boy is starting his secondary education and apparently has Aspergers Syndrome--mentally high functioning, yet not socially inept.  It is the story of his challenges, especially when going into a new situation.  His English teacher who is used to working with special needs students takes him under her wing to help him deal with the adjustments needed in the new school.  And the book is her story, too; one of a woman who has unsuccessfully tried to become pregnant through artificial insemination twice and failed and who is realizing that she and her husband are no longer in love with each other.  Another teacher of woodworking also takes an interest in the student by involving him in building a currach, a homemade Irish boat made with reeds as a means to teach him to deal with the chaos in the world--to learn to accept that things may not go the way they are planned.  The best parts of the book are the ones where the student is reacting to what is happening.  The way he thinks is hilarious at times!!  The story bogs down at times when it is about the failing marriage of the English teacher, and there seems to be more information than needed at times about the process of building the boat.  But it is a delightful book in general.  I gave it 4 stars out of 5.   

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Open Throat by Henry Hoke

Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023--San Antonio

Open Throat by Henry Hoke is a fascinating short novel.  It all takes place in the mind of a cougar living in the Hollywood Hills.  The cougar has learned to understand and think in English because of all the encounters he has had with hikers, campers, etc.  He tries to avoid direct encounters with humans and has never eaten human flesh before.  He actually considers homeless human campers as his alternative family, since he has come to be alone in the hills over time and one of the humans in the camp (who all know he exists in the area) always leave a bit of meat for the cougar under the bones he throws away from the meals they have eaten.  Life as he prefers it is becoming harder for the cougar, however.  There are more and more encounters with humans.  And eventually, a fire occurs that destroys his habitat sending him fleeing into "elay" (the spelling he hears when humans talk about the city) as his only escape.  There is so much to appreciate about this story--the imagination required to write it, the humor that occurs based on the spellings used to express what the cougar thinks he has heard, the dignity and morality that the cougar tries to build his life around, the stress that the development of cities places on the natural animal inhabitants of the land, etc.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it.  I'm down-rating it to 4 stars out of 5 only because of the improbable chance encounter with a known human (from previous encounters in the hills) that occurs at the end of the story.

Monday, December 25, 2023

Kunstlers in Paradise by Cathleen Schine

 Monday, Dec. 25, 2023--San Antonio

Kunstlers in Paradise by Cathline Schine has some intriguing elements, but it wasn't a novel that grabbed me and kept me interested in the story throughout.  Julian, a 21-year-old with no motivation to become an adult was not a character to admire in any way.  And by the end of the novel, after his parents had quit supporting him in New York and he had spent a year living with his grandmother in Los Angeles, he was still a dreamer with no solid plans; he had just shifted to a new location and was happy he could continue living for free in his grandmother's guest cottage as he figured out what to do with his life.  He announced a new "idea" of what he might try as his aim in life with a likelihood he would not be successful.  The grandmother has stories she shares of her early life in Los Angeles as a Jewish refugee from Vienna.  But as one more fantastic story after another gets told the logic of such a life of experiences becomes less and less likely.  The title seems to imply that the book is about lots of artists ("kunstlers" being the plural of the German word for artist), but the book is really about the aimless young man-boy and his grandmother.  Other famous immigrants from Europe who were real people do come and go in the stories of the grandmother, but this is fiction so the stories are not true.  And so much time is spent telling about one of those artists, Arnold Schoenberg, and his introduction of atonal music that I became bored and was wishing the grandmother would move onto other stories of her life.  It seems like a slap-dash of stories barely tied together, all involving famous people but none being true,  and the sum of them not really adding up to much at all.  It was on the NPR list of best books of the year, but I disagree.  I gave the book 2 1/2 stars out of 5 which seems generous.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince

 Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023--San Antonio

You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky is a gay romance that was on a list of best LGBTQ+ novels of 2023.  The main character is the son of two rich parents.  He is considered to be a lost F*ck-Up who regularly makes headlines in tabloids in a negative way.  He also suffers from GAD (generalized anxiety disorder--a mental disease diagnosis) which is likely part of the reason that so many things go wrong in his public life.  And he runs with the wrong crowd--one that loves to be the center of attention by being seen with him and associated with him in other ways.  Unfortunately, so much of the beginning of the novel is written to make a point of how bad his behavior and his reputation is before any mention of the cause is encountered; I almost quit reading the book because I wasn't enjoying reading about such a spoiled, bad brat.  After a few days of having been sent to his grandparents rural community for the month of December to avoid another scandal in the headlines, things begin to change.  Set during the Christmas season, this is a coming-of-age (at the late age of 21) fairy tale of love and redemption.  I gave the book 3 stars out of 5--2 for the first half and 4 for the second half.  It's not great writing, but anyone who can make it through the 2-star part of the story will begin loving it during the 4-star part.

Sunday, December 17, 2023

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023--San Antonio

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese is a New York Times Top 10 book of 2023 which was also recommended by NPR, Oprah, and other sources.  It's a saga covering three generations of a Christian family in Kerala, the southwestern state of India that is known for waterways and palm trees and for regularly electing communist governments in modern times.  The book is set in the scope of the early to the late 1900s.  There are many characters, but they all tie together in some way and often leave the story and return later.  Its a story of a mysterious disease that causes drownings over many generations of a family, of corruption, of arranged marriages, of the caste system, of the plight of lepers, and of other factors of life in Kerala.  As a person who has visited Kerala 3 times and spent months there as a volunteer in a school, I could relate to so much of what was happening in the book.  But it is a fascinating story that keeps re-hooking the reader to continue even though it is almost 800 pages long and at times seems as if it has wandered too far off track creating concern that all will not be tied together at the end.  The reader who continues will be rewarded.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5. 

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023--San Antonio

Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry was long listed for the Booker Prize and named a top book of 2023 by many reviewers.  It is beautifully written.  The format is like a stream of consciousness going through the mind of one man which, with so many details, slowed down my reading speed but allowed me to appreciate the beauty of the writing.  It is the story of a man and his family, all of whom had had sad lives.  He is retired and is the only one still alive. He and his wife grew up without parents present.  There are stories of abuse and neglect.  When they meet, he can't believe such a beauty would be interested in him, but their common backgrounds attract each to the other.  He has become an criminal inspector for the Irish police, and she is working in a cafe.  They have married and have had 2 children.  Slowly, the flowing thoughts going through his mind reveal the secrets of what has happened over the years. Central to the story are two priests, one who has abused young girls for years and one who has abused young boys.  The retired inspector is living in a small apartment attached to a small new castle (from the early 1900s).  It is in a remote seaside area of Ireland.  He has maintained a quiet, private existence in the 9 months since he retired.  But he is contacted by two young policemen whose boss (who was a partner on the force with the retiree decades ago and who has remained friends with him) has recommended they visit him to get information about one of the priests.  Decades ago, the retiree and his partner had investigated the priest, found lots of photos of nude young boys, and had tried to charge the priest with crimes.  However, the higher authorities, all good Catholic Irishmen, had given the evidence to the Cardinal and the priest was allowed to continue his misdeeds.  With the church losing lots of its influence in current times, they were trying to find witnesses who would be willing to testify against the priest.  But there is also a complication due to the fact that the other priest, the one who had molested young girls, had been murdered years ago with no clear proof of who had done it.  The two priests had been close friends, so digging into the case against one led to digging into the other, since there is a chance in modern times that DNA could be found on items of clothing that had been retained in storage.  But the book is mostly a slow reveal of the lives of the retiree, his wife who died just before his retirement, and his two children who both died as young adults.  It's the story of how it is hard to escape the past and its influence on the rest of one's life.  And its the story of a man aging who seems to be having memory lapses and maybe hallucinations.  It's a very good book.  I gave it 5 stars out of 5.