Audition by Katie Kitamura

Wednesday, July 30, 2925--San Antonio

Audition by Katie Kitamura is what I consider to be an intellectual novel--one that is constructed in a way that the reader has to think, question, reason, etc.  I almost didn't read it because some of the comments I read made it sound as if it might be confusing.  But I picked it up and never wanted to stop reading it although I never got really excited about reading it.  It has characters that are interesting, but ones that grab you and make you love them.  And it is beautifully written. At 50% when I had ideas of where the story might be going, there was instead a major turn.  At 75% when I was guessing what was really happening (which turned out to be true), it was announced in the news that the book had been longlisted for the Booker Prize this year--the only nominee I have yet read and one that maybe deserves to be shortlisted in a few weeks or months when as they pare down the list to the most deserving.  In the final 5% of the novel there was an added surprise.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

Monday, July 28, 2025--San Antonio

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White is a magical fantasy novel.  It takes place in a empire ruled and powered by an all-powerful god/goddess with supernatural gifts.   There are several provinces with each ruled by a "Blessed" who passes the ruling down to one of his/her children who receive their blessing (their own unique power that manifests usually before adulthood).  At the time of the story, the god ruling the empire, who uses much of his strength to maintain a wall to keep enemies of the empire from overrunning it, is growing old and weak.  The goddess who will take over from him, is bringing all of the children/young adults who have received their blessings on a traditional voyage to a sacred mountain so they can officially be enshrined as the new leaders of their individual provinces.  But there are problems in this land.  It is expensive to keep it safe from its enemies.  Some provinces are richer than others.  Some of the blesseds are considered to be lesser than others.  Some have ambitions to change the system.  And murders start occurring on the voyage.  The protagonist is from the lowest of the low provinces.  He hates the whole system and makes no attempt to hide it.  He is also humorous, so he is not taken seriously.  He is pudgy.  And he is gay and in love with one of the other blesseds who is ignoring him and has become engaged with a female.  But he is also curious and intelligent.  As the murders stack up, he and two others among the lower cast blesseds team up to try to figure out what is going on--who is doing this and why.  It's a fun premise.  The statements and thoughts of the protagonist are often laugh-out-loud funny.  The love story is one that the reader wants to succeed.  But the structure of the story has problems.  Maybe that is because it supposedly started on TikTok--brief entries that became so popular it was turned into a book.  I was enjoying reading the book throughout; it was after I had finished that I started realizing its weaknesses.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5 overall with a rating of 4 out of 5 for the pleasure of it having such a funny and interesting main character.  

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

Sunday, July 20, 2025--San Antonio

I paused about 20% of the way into The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich and read a novel I had had on hold that became available.  I just had not felt "involved" in the Erdrich book.  After finishing the other novel, I returned to this book, though, and found myself really enjoying the story as it went along.  It was quite compelling and entertaining until about the 85% point.  Then I found it less interesting again.  I had previously read The Round House by her, and had found it to be "almost perfect," and I had read 20% of The Night Watchman by her and quit the book completely  Overall, I'm glad I read this latest book, however I can't give it a better rating than 3 1/2 stars out of 5. 

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Tuesday, July 15, 2025--San Antonio 

I wanted to enjoy The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong more than I did.  The "story" didn't start until too many pages in--pages that I kept thinking, "Why am I reading all of this?"  Overall, the book seems a bit of a hodgepodge.  A review I read suggested it was if an editor never handled it and the company just published it as originally written.  Vuong is talented with words, but I have to agree that there was too much book beyond the story.  The story was fascinating and interesting when it did come around.  Unfortunately, I am a bit tired of the level of drug abuse that characters in modern novels display, though.  And, although the characterization of Sony as a young man dwelling constantly on the Civil War is realistic in terms of what I know about symptoms of autism, I have encountered such characters too often in TV shows and books recently.  It's easier to like spending so much time with them if they are loved family members, I'm sure.  As a casual reader, I got too much of a dose of Sony in this book.  I wonder how much of this book is true to Vuong's own life?  If much of it is, he should write a sequel explaining how he turned his life around--moving on from the person he was at the end of this novel (dependent on drugs, lying to his mother about being in medical school, finding a way to support himself while becoming the author he desired to be to be, etc.  I rate this book at 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Swift River by Essie Chambers

 Monday, June 30, 2025--San Antonio

Swift River by Essie Chambers is an interesting novel.  It was named a best book of 2024 by many online publications, and I liked the story.  The problem I had with it was that I just wasn't motivated to go back to it quickly.  In other words, it isn't a page-turner.  I was interested, but not excited by it.  The story incorporates a number of aspects that have affected the lives of Blacks in America--the immigration from the South to the northern manufacturing areas, sundown cities that ran all of the blacks out of their city, mixed-race marriages and how families react to them, etc.  The protagonist is a 16-year-old mixed (white/black) race girl who weighs over 300 lbs. and is the only "black" person living in her town since her father disappeared 7 years ago leaving her there with her white mother and grandmother.  But it back-tracts to tell the stories of her family when they lived in Alabama and left for better opportunities and of when all but her aunt (a mid-wife and trained by the local doctor to even perform other medical duties and was, therefore, valuable to the community) were eventually run out of the northern factory city of Swift River where they had settled.  Life has been hard for the protagonist, and she dreams of leaving the hard-scrabble life she and her mother lead to find a place where she can fit in better, make friends, and go to college.  During the time she plans for this, she carries on a communication with an aunt still living back in Alabama which answers her questions about her family history, and she wonders if her disappeared father died 7 years ago or is just living elsewhere.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

Thursday, June 19, 2025--San Antonio

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig is the story of Grace--a retired school teacher who is depressed and lonely.  She feels guilty for not having gone out with her 10-year-old son on a day when he died and for having had a one-time dalliance with a colleague which she kept secret from her husband.  Her life is essentially meaningless.  Then she gets word from a lawyer that a long ago fellow teacher has remembered her kindly for having invited her to spend Christmas with her rather than letting her be alone and has left her a home on the island of Ibiza.  Not wanting to take advantage of the opportunity at first, Grace eventually takes a leap of faith and goes to the island.  There, her life takes a turn as she makes new friends and finds purpose in trying to help protect a nature preserve.  The reader will have to take a leap of faith, too, since there are supernatural science fiction elements to the story.  But read it and enjoy the adventure.  I gave it 4 stars out of 5.

All Down Darkness Wide by Sean Hewitt

Saturday, June 14, 2025--San Antonio

All Down Darkness Wide by Sean Hewitt is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read.  It is a memoir of and Irish man who grew up west of Liverpool hiding his real self in so many ways to try to fit into life there--working to lose his Irish accent, to hide any indications that he might be gay, etc.  Currently a professor at Trinity College in Dublin, a reviewer for the Irish Times, and an award-winning poet, the book covers the part of his life before--when a child discovering the church he loved didn't really love what he was, yearning to fit in and be accepted by others in school, yearning even more to have physical contact with males, discovering on his own that he could meet others by cruising in dark, possibly dangerous places in the evenings, falling in love as a graduate student only to learn have his Swedish lover to become a victim of SAD (the depression so common with people who live in northern climates) and try to commit suicide.  What I liked the most about the book is the way he describes all of these experiences--in words that are perceptive, clear, and beautiful.  What I disappointed me is the length of time (number of pages) spent on describing the depth of his partner's depression and its effects on their lives.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.