Posts tagged with "contemporary fiction"
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive
Posted by Ultra Violet on 09/19/11
Strange and lovely, as it is quirky and bizarre. This book layers metaphors and meanings in such a way that it all comes together in the end. Makes you laugh and think.
Meeks
Posted by Ultra Violet on 04/07/11
Weird, funny, unsettling, and intense. Meeks is a post-modern fairy tale filled with unreasonable laws, bizarre characters and the feeling that there is something deeply true nestled in the surreal landscape Julia Holmes has painted. A great companion read to one of my former blog-posts, Light Boxes.
Room
Posted by Pam I am on 05/24/11
Ma and five-year old Jack seem to have a typical life together . . .they watch t.v., play word games, read books, tell stories, sing songs. Except for one huge difference. Ma and Jack are being held captive together in an 11 foot by 11 foot room where they live day after day. Ma was kidnapped when she was 19 years old and has been imprisoned in a garden shed for 7 years and she is doing her best to craft a normal life for her son, Jack despite the horrible conditions. Room is the only world Jack has ever known and when this world suddenly expands for both Ma and Jack they must learn what freedom really means and how to live in the outside world. Despite the disturbing premise of this book, it is a great book. The narration is told from Jack's viewpoint and the five year old voice gives the novel a very different and interesting perspective than if it were told from Ma's viewpoint. This book is both heartbreaking and heartwarming.
The fates will find their way
Posted by Ultra Violet on 06/02/11
When 16-year old, Nora, goes missing on Halloween it permanently changes the lives of her sister and the boys of the neighborhood. As these teens grow into adulthood and have families of their own, they are still haunted by the disappearance of the girl. Unanswered questions, emptiness and a feeling of what might have been pervades this bittersweet novel. Hannah Pittard currently teaches fiction writing at DePaul University, Chicago.
The Sisters
Posted by Pam I am on 02/21/12
Nancy Jensen's debut novel takes the reader on a journey of two sisters lives over the course of eighty years. Mabel and Bertie are living with their stepfather after their mother has died and it is a sad and tragic life filled with horrible secrets. On the night of Bertie's graduation a misunderstanding leads to Mabel and Bertie seperating ways and each begins a new life far away from each other. The reader then learns what happens to these sisters and their subsequent families over the course of decades. Chapters are told from various women in the generations that follow. There are secrets, lies and heartbreak that ties each generation together. There is a family tree in the front of the book which was very helpful to keep track of the characters.
The Weird Sisters
Posted by Auntie Anne on 07/22/11
"See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much." This statement is announced on the front cover, before you even open the book. At first glance, the Andreas family appears to be no more dysfunctional than the average American family. Dad is Dr. James Andreas, Shakespearean scholar and professor at a Midwestern college, who communicates largely in Shakespearean verse. Mom is a little spacey - not so unusual - right? The three Andreas daughters were, of course, named after characters from favorite Shakespeare plays - Rose (Rosalind from "As You Like It:); Bean (Bianca from "The Taming of the Shrew"); and Cordy (Cordelia from "King Lear). While other kids were into normal kids' stuff - T.V., sports, shopping, etc. - the Andreas girls were into books and the unrealistic fantasy world they provided. That's not to say that they didn't totally fulfill the characteristic traits set forth by their birth order. Rose, the eldest, was the responsible one, to a fault. Bean, the middle child, starved for attention, became hooked on living an exciting life. Cordy, the youngest, was classically irresponsible and seemingly carefree. That is until Mrs. Andreas became gravely ill with cancer. This gave them all an excuse to come home, bad baggage and all.
Once under the same roof again, they picked up right where they left off. Ever the martyr, Rose feels that no one can get along without her help, and has trapped herself inside a "mental circle with Barnwell at the center of it." Bean has escaped her glitzy life in New York City with embezzlement charges pending against her by her previous employer. And Cordy appears out of nowhere, pregnant and adrift. All the while, Dad is spewing sonnets in lieu of advice like "The Bard" himself.
With a great caste of supporting characters, The Weird Sisters is funny and poignant at the same time. The dialogue is smart, the character development spot on. Eleanor Brown's debut novel deftly explores family roles and how traditional sibling rivalry can grow into mature relationships, helping each other to finally make smart choices.
