Hill, Robert When All Is Said and Done
Recommended if you're into: Mary Cantwell's Manhatten When I Was Young, glamour as a defense mechanism, Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire
This is the setup:
"It is the early 1960s, and Myrmy stubs her toe in the predawn hours on her way to soothe her infant son, cursing the latest nurse for not waking up, again. Dressed to the nines, it is Myrmy who is off to an executive position writing advertising copy for shampoo. Her husband, Dan, who fought in two wars, sells ties and cooks dinner. A Jewish couple living in an exclusive suburb of New York, Myrmy powers through her life in high heels and Dan silently suffers the mysterious aftereffects of a radiation experiment conducted by the military. Together they raise a family."
Sometimes the author drove me crazy with run-on sentences that went for pages, but some of the book's best moments are stacatto admissions of ambivalence to the bed they've made for themselves -- "Eight years and four jobs and five pregnancies and meetings and train schedules and formula and diapers and deadlines and clients and mortgage and croup and a revolving door of baby nurses and Dan stagnating in that civilian job I convinced him to take when the Air Force wanted him back for Korea of all things, they got Elvis, they didn't need Dan, a man of his age, for crying out loud, and after what they did to him in that hospital upstate..."
I like explorations of the psyche of women in the 1960's who watched their children adore the nanny more than them and almost felt relieved to leave the house & go to work. It was a rough time to be a working womann (when is it ever been easy, really).
I'll admit, I didn't finish this. Maybe another time.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Boyd, William | Restless
Recommended if you like: Alias, imagining that your mother is distant because she has a fantastic double life
Restless is a very readable novel about a contemporary British grad student/single mom who discovers that her mother was a spy during WWII. The chapters go back and forth between the daughters daily life (procrastinating on her thesis, taking care of her son, and giving English lessons) and her mother's
I realized what disappointed me about this portrait of spying was that it made it all look easy -- as if anyone, with the right training, could pull it off. That takes the fun out of it for me. However very enjoyable cloak & dagger escapades got me through the Chinatown bus ride from Philadelphia to DC.
I think Booklist said it best:
"If an espionage thriller...can be called a cozy, this is it....A somewhat clumsy narrative enlivened by some expertly generated suspense."
Restless is a very readable novel about a contemporary British grad student/single mom who discovers that her mother was a spy during WWII. The chapters go back and forth between the daughters daily life (procrastinating on her thesis, taking care of her son, and giving English lessons) and her mother's
I realized what disappointed me about this portrait of spying was that it made it all look easy -- as if anyone, with the right training, could pull it off. That takes the fun out of it for me. However very enjoyable cloak & dagger escapades got me through the Chinatown bus ride from Philadelphia to DC.
I think Booklist said it best:
"If an espionage thriller...can be called a cozy, this is it....A somewhat clumsy narrative enlivened by some expertly generated suspense."
Lynch, Jim | The Highest Tide
Recommended if you like: Neil or Sam from Freaks and Geeks, Squid.us, playing in the woods by yourself
I love this Publisher's Weekly review:
"The fertile strangeness of marine tidal life becomes a subtly executed metaphor for the bewilderments of adolescence in this tender and authentic coming-of-age novel, Lynch's first. As a precocious, undersized 13-year-old living on the shore of Puget Sound, in Washington State, Miles O'Malley has developed a consuming passion for the abundant life of the tidal flats. His simple pleasure in observing is tested and complicated over the course of a remarkable summer, when he finds a giant squid, a discovery that brings him the unwelcome attention of scientists, TV reporters and a local cult. Meanwhile, Miles's remote parents are considering a divorce; his best friend, Florence, an elderly retired psychic, is dying of a degenerative disease; his sex-obsessed buddy, Phelps, mocks his science-geek knowledge; and his desperate crush on Angie Stegner, the troubled girl next door, both inspires and humiliates him. Events build toward the date of a record high tide, and Miles slowly sorts out his place in the adult world. While occasionally Lynch packs too much into a small story, this moving, unusual take on the summers of childhood conveys a contagious sense of wonder at the variety and mystery of the natural world. Agent, Kim Witherspoon. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)"
That's it, exactly.
Here's my competetive Powell's review:
"This book's got me writing my beau mashnotes covered in entanged squid staring longingly into the other's eye.*
Miles O'Malley is a nice kid -- a good kid and a smart kid. He takes shockingly good care of the decrepit old lady who lives on the beach, and he's got a reverent, encyclopedic understanding of the aquatic ecosystem at his doorstep. Of course, all of his kindness and intelligence can't save him from or prepare him for the chaos of adolescence; I finished this book in less than 24 hours because he's sympathetic and charming as he struggles to understand & cope with divorce, dying, and the bizarre deep-sea wildlife that keeps washing up in the bay.
I love coming-of-age novels, and this one hit the spot; the powerful juxtaposition of the mysteries of the ocean and the mysteries of adolescence has left me in greater awe of both. I closed this book with a wistful smile on the my face & some Rachel Carson on my reading list."
*I did do this. I was a little drunk.
I think I misused "juxtaposed" and "wistful" but whatever -- I loved this book. I loved how earnest Miles is; I loved the endless fun facts about how strange sea creatures mate; I loved that most people lost interest in the mysteries when scientific, not supernatural, reasons were uncovered but Miles didn't miss a beat. It's not a letdown! It's still all extraordinary!
It was happy ending, not because good things happened, but because the character seemed to have survived the rough stuff that had been going on through the story & seemed optimistic about the future.
I think this book could make a fantastic movie. So pretty.
Jim Lynch also wrote a fantastic essay about how it's messed up that kids these days don't play outside they way they used to.
I love this Publisher's Weekly review:
"The fertile strangeness of marine tidal life becomes a subtly executed metaphor for the bewilderments of adolescence in this tender and authentic coming-of-age novel, Lynch's first. As a precocious, undersized 13-year-old living on the shore of Puget Sound, in Washington State, Miles O'Malley has developed a consuming passion for the abundant life of the tidal flats. His simple pleasure in observing is tested and complicated over the course of a remarkable summer, when he finds a giant squid, a discovery that brings him the unwelcome attention of scientists, TV reporters and a local cult. Meanwhile, Miles's remote parents are considering a divorce; his best friend, Florence, an elderly retired psychic, is dying of a degenerative disease; his sex-obsessed buddy, Phelps, mocks his science-geek knowledge; and his desperate crush on Angie Stegner, the troubled girl next door, both inspires and humiliates him. Events build toward the date of a record high tide, and Miles slowly sorts out his place in the adult world. While occasionally Lynch packs too much into a small story, this moving, unusual take on the summers of childhood conveys a contagious sense of wonder at the variety and mystery of the natural world. Agent, Kim Witherspoon. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)"
That's it, exactly.
Here's my competetive Powell's review:
"This book's got me writing my beau mashnotes covered in entanged squid staring longingly into the other's eye.*
Miles O'Malley is a nice kid -- a good kid and a smart kid. He takes shockingly good care of the decrepit old lady who lives on the beach, and he's got a reverent, encyclopedic understanding of the aquatic ecosystem at his doorstep. Of course, all of his kindness and intelligence can't save him from or prepare him for the chaos of adolescence; I finished this book in less than 24 hours because he's sympathetic and charming as he struggles to understand & cope with divorce, dying, and the bizarre deep-sea wildlife that keeps washing up in the bay.
I love coming-of-age novels, and this one hit the spot; the powerful juxtaposition of the mysteries of the ocean and the mysteries of adolescence has left me in greater awe of both. I closed this book with a wistful smile on the my face & some Rachel Carson on my reading list."
*I did do this. I was a little drunk.
I think I misused "juxtaposed" and "wistful" but whatever -- I loved this book. I loved how earnest Miles is; I loved the endless fun facts about how strange sea creatures mate; I loved that most people lost interest in the mysteries when scientific, not supernatural, reasons were uncovered but Miles didn't miss a beat. It's not a letdown! It's still all extraordinary!
It was happy ending, not because good things happened, but because the character seemed to have survived the rough stuff that had been going on through the story & seemed optimistic about the future.
I think this book could make a fantastic movie. So pretty.
Jim Lynch also wrote a fantastic essay about how it's messed up that kids these days don't play outside they way they used to.
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