Spring Reading List

It's been a while.

Little Face, by Sophie Hannah. A mystery about a missing baby who is seemingly replaced by another. The mother claims a different child has been substituted for her "little face", but the husband and evil mother-in-law claim otherwise. A pretty good story that manages to work out the inherent contradictions fairly rationally.

Bridge of Sighs, by Richard Russo. As predicted when I blogged about The Risk Pool, I didn't like this Russo as much as either The Risk Pool or Empire Falls. I am kinda Russo'd out now. There are only so many stories you can come up with that have at their heart the experience of living in upstate NY (or some small New England town). Or at least only so many I can read. In this episode, a threesome of buds, two guys and a girl, live through a troublesome childhood on various sides of the proverbial railroad tracks. One guy marries the girl, and the other goes off to become a famous artist (living in Venice near the Bridge of Sighs). The girl has great affection for the other guy but plays it safe and stays home. Angst and soul-searching ensue.

Rabbit Run, by John Updike. When Updike died, and I read so many glowing reviews of his work and pithy writing style, I thought it must be time for me to step up to reading something by him. Certainly this was a good read, but I have a hard time with books where I hate pretty much all of the characters. Rabbit finds himself trapped in a going-nowhere life, his wife pregnant and more unattractive to him by the day. He decides to walk out, shacks up with a prostitute with a heart of gold, is hovered-over by a well-meaning parish priest, and finally returns to his wife for the birth of their baby. Things don't get better from there. Personally, if you're looking for a good read about the conflicts of meaningless suburban life in the 50's, I would go for Revolutionary Road. Now that it's been made into a movie, you won't be able to impress your neighbors quite as much by it, though.

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan. Excellent story about a woman whose husband sells everything and buys a farm in Mississippi, around the end of WWII. It wasn't her idea, and she's none too happy. Her name for the place is Mudbound. They struggle to make it work, while the husband's brother comes back from the war with a set of his own issues. The brother strikes up a controversial friendship of sorts with the black sharecropper's son who is also returning from the war. It turns out to be tough for both of them to adjust to the old ways of Mississippi black-white attitudes. Really a very good story, not just the old race relations and injustice grind, and highly recommended.

Regeneration, by Pat Barker. Mom bought this for me at a used bookstore while she was out here. This book is part of a trilogy, but Mom's advice is to stick with this one. I really enjoyed it. The story of a decorated war hero who decides to protest the continuing bloody, stalled trench warfare of WWI by refusing to serve any further, and publishing a declaration against it. Although he's quite sane, he is remanded to a mental institution used to treat soldiers with various types of what we would call PTSD. The main character is the doctor who works with him, but he's surrounded by various cohorts, and their lives and stories intermingle in ways that keep you turning pages. Makes me want to go back and read All Quiet on the Western Front.

Tree of Smoke, by Dennis Johnson. There are about four intertwined stories surrounding a single common character, Skip Sands, who works for the CIA during the Vietnam war. His uncle is a famously independent war hero and now CIA agent, who is working on a grand scheme in the Psychological Operations area. You get the story from the Vietnamese angle, in addition to the religious humanitarian volunteer. Of all the story lines, the one I liked the least surrounded the uncle. Unfortunately, that is the central one, so I found myself trying to skim past it to find out what happened in the other ones. Not a very satisfying way to journey through a very thick book. Sort of a cross between The Quiet American and A Bright Shining Lie, but not as good as either.

The Appeal, by John Grisham. I haven't read a Grisham book for years. The story line on this one seemed up my alley, and it was a pretty good read. The story follows the appeal after the conviction of a chemical company accused of causing many cancer deaths in a small Mississippi town. There's not any question of their culpability. The company battles the appeal by working to replace a sitting Mississippi supreme court justice with a firebrand conservative who is clueless about how he's managing to run such an effective well-financed campaign. Can't let those damned lawyers wreck the business climate! Good, entertaining story. I remember Grisham books being laced with valiant lawyers battling death-defying violence and plots, but this one is more my style with pure politics and dirty business. Of course, who needs fiction for that.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome, by Leif Enger. Terrific western-style story. We follow a one-trick-pony writer who tags along with a semi-reformed train robber on a cross-country adventure. The robber wants to trace down his former fiance whom he deserted as the law was breathing down his neck. Along the way they run into a famous Pinkerton detective, Charlie Siringo, and spend the rest of the book trying to elude him. Although the book takes place around the turn of the century, as cowboys get relegated to theme shows like Wild Bill's, it has the feel of a more traditional western.

American Pastoral, by Philip Roth. It won a Pulitzer, so it must be great, right? Need I answer? This book was very hard for me to get into, as the first third or half of it is dedicated to details about growing up Jewish in northern NJ, and the relationships of the main character, which are rooted in his experience being the sports star in high school. A lot of this is accomplished through the literary vehicle of a high school reunion of people in their mid-sixties, which made it even harder for me to enjoy. Once past that barrier, the rest of the story was interesting. It follows the model family's ordeal of dealing with the fallout from their only daughter joining a sixties underground organization, bombing the local post office, and living on the run. They are left with the guilt and uncertainty as their lives have to carry on in her absence and the surrounding atmosphere.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, By Kate Summerscale. Ever play Clue? This is the true story that inspired the classic Clue-like Victorian murder mystery, such as The Moonstone. I thought it was fascinating. Even the profession of detective was new then, as Scotland Yard was only recently formed. Detective Whicher is dispatched to the scene of a child killing, and the entire house is under suspicion. Ultimately, the case ruins Whicher's career, as he stubbornly works to sort things out regardless of how many sordid Victorian household dramas he uncovers along the way. The real-life ending is just as entertaining as the detective work. Highly recommended.

The Good Parents, by Joan London. I really loved Joan London's Gilgamesh, and this is her second novel. It was a good story, but it didn't have the same appeal for me as her earlier novel. The "good parents" of the story go to visit their small town daughter who is living in the city, only to find she's missing. She's been having an affair with her boss, whose wife was suffering from cancer and just died. They spend a lot of time hanging out, thinking she will show up, but soon start to work tirelessly to find her. Along the way, we find out all about her upbringing, but more interestingly about the parents background. Very enjoyable, but I think I had my hopes up too high based on Gilgamesh.

Fieldwork, by Mischa Berlinski. Another of Mom's recommendations. Great book! Although it's fiction, the main character is... Mischa Berlinski. His girlfriend finds out you can get a job teaching English almost anywhere in the world with minimal credentials, so off they go to Thailand. He scratches a living writing odds and ends, but gets turned on to the story of an American anthropologist who did her fieldwork in Thailand studying a remote tribe. She killed a missionary and ended up in prison. He becomes obsessed with uncovering her story, and I have to admit I was pretty obsessed with it myself. Read it and learn about the tribes of Thailand; what it's like to get your PhD in anthropology from Berkeley; and the ins-and-outs of being a missionary in China and Thailand. With a murder mixed in, how can you beat it.