First Time for Everything by Henry Fry

Sunday, Nov. 20, 2020--San Antonio

First Time for Everything by Henry Fry is often hilarious.  It takes place in London with the main character being a gay man in his late 20s who has always been rather meek and unsure of himself.  His best friend is a flamboyant friend from early childhood who dresses in drag and uses the pronouns they/them.  He is trying to work out who he is, how he should be, what would make him happy, why things in life are not working out as he had planned.  At the beginning of the novel, he is facing relationship problems and being kicked out of the home of a straight female friend from childhood where he has been renting a room from her and her boyfriend for 7 years.  He faces panic attacks and begins seeing a therapist while experimenting in trying to change himself to be more open and authentic yet really just becoming quite mean and inconsiderate.  Accidentally, he becomes quite famous (even becoming a meme) and gets recognition for having created a gay story (through video) that was meant to be just him being himself but is understood by others to be one of the most creative and authentic gay series in broadcasting of the year.  I enjoyed the misadventures of this young man and his road of discovery.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Perpetual West by Mesha Maren

Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022--San Antonio

Perpetual West by Mesha Maren takes place in El Paso and northern Mexico.  Two of the main characters are young man who was born in Juarez and immediately adopted by a white ultra religious couple from West Virginia and his wife who is estranged from her father and whose mother chose to keep the child and have her even though it would likely cost the mother her life due to having been diagnosed with cancer.  The young man wants to try to connect with his birth heritage and both he and his wife are enrolled in graduate school at UTEP.  The young man is working on a thesis research topic in sociology related to lucha libre, Mexican professional wrestling.  And the wife is trying to write a book or article around the theme of bold choices that women make in their lives.  Both are a bit disenchanted with their lives and there is little passion in their marriage. In his research, the husband meets a professional wrestler.  As time passes, a sexual relationship develops between the two of them.  Everything goes wrong for everyone one week when the wife has gone back east for a week and the two men are caught by a cartel warlord who has searched them down in the mountains of Chihuahua where they were visiting the wrestler's family.  The warlord is determined to have the wrestler work for him.  There are problems for the wife trying to get the police to search for her missing husband and for the two men who are separated with the husband being locked up and the wrestler being sent all over Mexico to fight--with minders watching over each of them.  All three characters are frustrated with the situation they find themselves in.  I felt that the build-up at the beginning of the book took too long causing me to put the book down more frequently than I would with a novel.  It's an interesting story and I ended up liking it, but it could be better edited, I think.  For a book with a gay theme, I gave it 4 stars out of 5 (although as general literature I would drop that to 3 1/2 stars out of 5).

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022--San Antonio

Signal Fires, by Dani Shapiro is a book I didn't want to put down.  I cared for every character wanting things to go well for them--even including the abusive father who just didn't know how to deal with a son who was not what he expected a son to be and didn't realize the problem was within him instead of within his son.  The book jumps back and forth over several decades following the lives of the members of two different families who live across the street from each other but do not have social interactions with each other.  It addresses connections that occur between people by accident that can have long term affects (both good and bad) on the lives of family members who become involved both directly and directly.  It deals with the affects of hiding secrets and never discussing them even among family members who know the secret.  It deals with lives that are not as fulfilling as one had hoped.  It's main theme, however, is connectedness to each other in various ways.  I felt intimately involved in all the lives and just kept reading and reading until I finished the book within hours.  I rated the book at 4 1/2 stars out of 5, but I would have given it 5 out of 5 if the author had just ended the story without trying to analyze and justify her theme of everyone being connected to everyone else in the last 2-3 pages.

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022--San Antonio

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng was just published within the past month and got great reviews.  The author has speculated about the near future of the USA as its economy falls behind that of China resulting in many people becoming underemployed or unemployed and homeless, as its citizens become more violent (against Asian Americans in general and the government), and as the government becomes more paranoid about the situation.  This creates a crisis that lasts for several years without signs of letting up.  In response, the government has passed PACT, a patriots act which puts great limitations on what people can and cannot do and gives government agencies great power over its citizens.  One of the most significant is the right to remove children from families where the adults have acted in ways in which the government doesn't approve.  All of this ties in with how the government has acted in its past history, the current movement toward right-wing authoritarianism, and the peoples' tendency to ignore what is happening and just try to get by without being noticed.  In other words, it is a horror story about what our future could be based on current events and our history.  The central characters are a family unit consisting of a white male, a Chinese-American female, and a child they want to protect from the dangers; a child who has been removed from her family and wants to try to find them; and a white friend of the Chinese-American female.  Innocent people get trapped by PACT, and lives that should be safe are affected.  And an underground system grows to try to provide assistance to families with children who have been removed and to provide resistance to the government.  It is not a fairy tale, so there is no true happy ending.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Magpie by Elizabeth Day

Friday, Oct. 28, 2022--San Antonio

Magpie by Elizabeth Day is a story that is told and then retold from the perspectives of two of the main characters.  As the book continues, it is possible to realize why the story is believable in both versions and the reader comes to know which version is closer to the truth and why.  There is suspense, concern, frustration, etc., as aspects of the story are revealed--a controlling mother of an adult child, a bipolar character who functions well as long as medications are taken, a couple wanting a baby so bad that they go through IVF and consider the doctor's recommendation of either getting a surrogate or consider adoption.  I enjoyed the twists and turns and the tension that built up.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022--San Antonio

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer is the second of two books in a series.  I read the first book (entitled Less) two years ago because it won the Pulitzer Prize, but I wasn't impressed for reasons that can be read here.   This second book got great reviews and since it was available for the Kindle through the library, I decided to read it, too.  I am happy to report that for me this second book is much better than the first.  It picks up 15 years after the breakup with his older poet lover when his former lover has died, when Less is having money problems but seems to have some new opportunities, but also when his relationship with Freddy (his new lover) through all these years may be running into trouble.  Less and Freddy have continued to live for free in his old lover's cottage in San Francisco, but upon his death, back rent is due.  Plus Freddy has taken a job a a college in Maine for a year, so they are living apart.  This new book covers the adventures and learning experiences that are a part of each of their lives.  Freddy, also a writer, leaves his job to go to a small island to write and to think through what he wants out of his life.  Less is traveling across the country in an old van to provide introductions for another better-known author who is apparently nearing the end of his life and insists on some detours.  Then Less continues after that tour with a theater company that is presenting one of his minor works on a theater tour based on an entire reading of the chosen story on stage with minimal props.  This tour involves Less having to return to the South where he grew up with great fear and anxiety due to being gay, provides him some insight on how audiences seem to appreciate his story, and gives him an opportunity to try to reconcile with his father who abandoned the family when Less was young.  It's not necessary to read the first book before reading this one and, as I said above, this is a better book in my opinion.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022--San Antonio

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura is a short novel that was on the long list for the National Book Award in 2021.  It takes place at the United Nations' International Criminal Court (which I have visited with a friend who worked there) in The Hague.  It's the story of a woman who has taken a one-year appointment as an interpreter at the court to see if she will like the job and the city--if it can become her permanent home.  Her father is deceased and her mother has moved to Singapore.  She has never had a "home" city and New York where she has been living is too expensive and her work there is not satisfying nor lucrative enough for her to remain.  The novel covers her whole year in which she makes a few friends, proves herself capable of performing the job, becomes very involved in both the trail of and as a personal translator to an African President accused of crimes against humanity, and falls in love with a married man who is separated from his wife who has taken their two children and moved to Lisbon.  The book deals with the intimacies involved in all these relationships--with friends, with colleagues, with work clients, with her relationship partner--and the strains that are a natural part of being intimate with such persons within one's life.  It's a good book.  I rated it 4 stars out of 5.