Ode to Reading - Fiction: 2024 (January-March)
Many rational souls would characterise the first quarter of 2024 as depressing. Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, a pathologically dysfunctional American congress- a forthcoming Presidential election featuring a narcissistic sociopath and a struggling octogenarian. What, me worry? To maintain emotional stability, I adopted a two track strategy. First, abandon TV news viewing and double down on this strategy by simultaneously avoiding the poison of social media. Second, read great fiction and embrace fascinating characters jousting with difficult moral choices. Hopefully, track two will lead me to conclude that all is not lost. I happily report that the state of modern fiction writing is good. I have posted reviews of three of Ann Patchett’s works: Patron Saint of Liars, Commonwealth and Tom Lake. I also shared my opinion of Zone of Interest by Martin Amis in my review of the movie bearing the same name. Today, let’s do “down and dirty” mini reviews of the other fiction works I tackled from January 1 to March 31.
1) The Bee Sting (Paul Murray). A 610 page effort which received very positive reviews from the critics at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I give it a grudging thumbs up. I admire the prose, but didn’t love the narrative. Although lengthy, the story has gripping moments and intriguing and complex characters. My issues are with the plot. It is a classic portrayal of Ireland in distress- a wildly chaotic Irish family beset by every conceivable inner demon. Personal angst and disappointment, sexual identity issues, financial setbacks and ruin, self destructive behaviour including substance abuse, sudden and violent death- such is the life of the Barnes family (Dick, Imelda, Cass and PT). The true life McCourt family depicted in Angela’s Ashes is a picture of harmony and social stability and balance next to this crew. My hesitation in giving the novel my full endorsement is probably just a defense mechanism- unease with the unattractive and disconcerting behaviours of my ancestral tribe. Are the Irish really this crazy or is this the winning formula for best selling books about Ireland? My own personal experience with multitudes of Irish clans suggests these tales of non stop distress are overwrought. Entertaining in an odd way though! The Irish “Troubles” genre- both personal and political, certainly has a devoted audience. The story here is brutal at times, but Murray is a beautiful writer. It also is a book with flashes of hilarity- followed by the readers’ realisation that they should probably not be laughing! I welcome the perspectives of others who have conquered The Bee Sting.
2) The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (James McBride). Author McBride has already won a National Book Award. He is a hot commodity and definitely possesses the “it” factor in high brow writing circles. My instinct is to be skeptical in the face of universal acclaim, but I can report the reputation is justified. This is a GREAT book- my favourite read in the first quarter of 2024. The story is charming, even endearing- though set in dreary mid 20th century Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Pottstown is gritty, approximately 50 miles from Philly. The novel covers 40 year period and is the opposite of a linear format- there are many tangents with secondary characters bouncing in and out of the story. The magic lies in the “character” of the main characters. Nate, his spouse, Dodo- African Americans with lousy jobs, living in “Chicken Hill”- a poor quasi ghetto in pre civil rights era America. Moshe and Chomo, a childless Jewish emigre couple who had fled the pogroms in Eastern Europe. He owns the town music hall and she manages the grocery store which basically serves as the town’s community center. Throw in the white supremacist old line power structure and you confront a social dynamic with endless possibilities of mischief and intrigue. McBride nails it- one hundred percent. The unpredictable- even odd- cast of characters creates a very American parable. I recommend it! Great stuff here!
3) The Fraud (Zadie Smith). Ms Smith won a Pulitzer for White Teeth. Similar to McBride, she has developed an admiring audience- both critics and the general reading public. I am making some “safe” choices on author selection for 2024. She is an English citizen and her mother is Jamaican. She has become a featured commentator at book fairs and is developing borderline celebrity status overall. This book is set in mid nineteenth century Victorian England. We travel from London to the countryside with brief snapshots of slave plantations in the West Indies. Charles Dickens parachutes into the story on multiple occasions- so does Thackeray. The protagonists are wide ranging and quirky. Eliza Touchet is my favourite character here- a independent woman operating in the confines of a very conservative world. She is a Scottish widow and is funny, smart and acerbic. Smith employs her as the primary narrator. Andrew Bogle is a dignified former slave from Jamaica. We encounter an outrageous imposter attempting to inherit a dead Duke’s country estate. Populist themes drive the narrative with unsubtle messages about our own social media culture. A never ending trial, a pompous and fading aristocratic author-and depictions of the underlying inequities in England combine to create an ambitious tale. Smith want to make a major point and it isn’t just applicable to good ole England. She intends it to be a warning on the dangers inherent in craziness and idiocy rampant today. Unfortunately, I found it uneven and disjointed. It didn’t work for me. Just read Dickens if you want to understand Victorian England.
4) Hello Beautiful (Anne Napolitano). This is well crafted work primarily set in Chicago and Evanston- so home base for me. It captures the rhythms of the locale effectively. The primary characters are four Italian American sisters raised in a lower middle class Chicago ethnic enclave. They are smart, ambitious and interesting. The two older sisters, Julia and Sylvia get the most air time. Their relationship with William Watson is the driving drama of the book. This choice presents challenges because the Watson character is no bundle of joy- he comes from a very strange east coast family and suffers from chronic depression. He is a Northwestern basketball player, a grad student and teaching assistant, has a very cool friend, a high achieving and purposeful wife and his continuing angst is frustrating because objectively he has a good life with a great future. Frankly, he isn’t worth the trouble. He also disowns his infant daughter which is not attractive. The parents of the 4 sisters are idiosyncratic. The father is kind, economically unsuccessful and sadly dies early. The mother lives in an alternative universe and is not a good communicator- to put it mildly. The development of these characters by Napolitano is impressive- great depth and deep emotions pervade their actions. They aren’t particularly likeable or admirable, but ultimately it is a story of redemption and reconciliation. Tragedy strikes every 60 pages or so - you need to be emotionally resilient to hang with the story line. There is a Little Women aura to the relationships between the sisters. Overall, it is not a light read, but I suspect it will be big hit in North Shore Chicago book clubs.
5) Absolution (Anne McDermott). McDermott wrote Charming Billy a lovely book which I read 12-15 years ago. I haven’t engaged with her subsequent novels. Her specialty has been Irish- American culture in the urban centres of America’s northeast. She has great ear for the voices and values of that demographic. Absolution draws on that experience and culture, but goes beyond it. The setting in 1963 Vietnam and Peter and Patrica Kelly are recently married idealistic Fordham grads heeding JFK’s call for public service. We are in the “advisory” stage of our ill fated intervention is southeast Asia. Peter is clearly a CIA operative and his impact on the story is minimal. The couple is a pre-feminist movement caricature - traditional in the extreme. She is bright, but lacks confidence. Her job is to be her husband’s trusty helpmate, smoothly running the household and creating their social life. They are good Catholics and genuinely believe they are destined to save to poor Vietnamese from the godless communists. The political naïveté is painfully captured by McDermott. The other primary character is Charlotte- a force of nature Wasp married to another American “advisor”. She bonds with Patricia and they embark on ambitious schemes to help the Vietnamese- feed them- house them- teach them- save them. it is exhausting, but we meet a cast of interesting characters and McDermott makes an effort to portray what the Vietnamese were actually thinking. The entire book is a parable for America’s mission in Vietnam. Well intentioned, clueless, ignorant of cultural nuance, overconfidence leading to fiasco and many people damaged in the process. The strength of the novel is the vivid description of an era long gone- the narrow definition of a women’s role back then is eye opening. In terms of style and pacing, the book builds good momentum, arrives at the precipe of crisis and then wraps up quickly with updates on who ended up where 30 years later. There are gaps and unanswered questions, but the characters make the book a worthy read- and ABSOLUTION is an appropriate title.
