Dear Great Book Guru, Exciting events await us here in Sea Cliff - the Scrooge Stroll, the Turkey Scavenger Hunt, the Holiday Lighting, the Introduction to The Nutcracker - all over the next few weeks!  Will there be time for a good book?  Of course... and do you have something to suggest?   Never Weary in Sea Cliff

Dear Never Weary, I have just the book for you - fast moving, under 300 pages, and a prize winner: COLORED TELEVISION by Danzy Senna.  Told from the perspective of Jane - a writer and untenured academic - set in Los Angeles, this novel explores the intricacies of class, race, and Hollywood politics.  We meet Jane as she is struggling to finish her second novel, a huge undertaking:  a modern WAR and PEACE - while dealing with her children Finn and Ruby - and aspiring artist husband Lenny.  Little money is coming in and their credit cards are maxed out - largely on an unscrupulous marriage therapist, when an unbelievable opportunity arises (emphasis on unbelievable): a year-long housesitting stint in a Hollywood mansion.  This is a dream come true for Jane - she will finish her novel, her children will attend a great school, and Lenny can paint masterpieces.  Things take a dark turn when she answers the lure of Hollywood and finds herself in a plagiarism debacle. While Senna tells a very funny tale, there is a strong undercurrent of horror at the pressures that our heroine faces, and the reader soon realizes this is a cautionary tale indeed - highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, Now with Halloween over and Thanksgiving a few weeks away, I am is search of a good book to get me through the cold dark weeks ahead. Something captivating and meaningful… Fall into Fall

Dear Falling into Fall, The much awaited and celebrated latest Sally Rooney novel has  arrived on the literary scene: INTERMEZZO. Rooney is a thirty-three year old Irish writer who has written a number of very successful novels – some made into movies - BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE and A CONVERSATION WITH FRIENDS, among others.  Her latest deals with two brothers grieving the death of their father. Peter is a thirty-three-year-old very successful lawyer and academic while Ivan is his much younger brother – a chess prodigy and very socially awkward.    Peter is involved with two women – Naomi who is essentially homeless and in her early twenties and Sylvia, a brilliant college professor who is permanently disabled from an earlier car accident.   The story opens with Ivan attending a chess tournament and meeting Margaret who is ten years older and struggling to recover from an abusive marriage.  The story is told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of the brothers and the women who love them. The brothers actively dislike each other through much of the novel and it is only through the women in their lives do we get to know or like them. By the end of the novel, we realize both men are deeply grieving past losses and only the present, fleeting, intermittent moments of love can offer them peace.  A challenging book but worthwhile – recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, While I love all seasons of the year in Sea Cliff, Fall is a particularly beautiful, event-filled time. The Halloween parade, the Cider Social, the Progressive Dinner…all favorites of mine! Of course, I would like a good book to read while watching each of these events unfold.  Any suggestions?  Falling for Fall

Dear Falling for Fall, Last week I read a wonderful, very unusual book, FIRE EXIT by Morgan Talty.  Blood lineage plays a major role in this novel. Charles is a middle-aged man whose mother was white and married to a Penobscot. According to an 1980 law passed in Maine, Charles was forced to leave the reservation when he turned eighteen because he was not a “pure blood” Penobscot. His Penobscot stepfather Frederick helps find him a home across the river from the reservation, but the added “blood” tragedy is Charles has a daughter Elizabeth with a Penobscot young woman Mary.  So that Mary and she will continue to live on the reservation, Charles allows her to be raised by Mary’s new Penobscot husband.  Tortured by his love for Mary and Elizabeth, Charles turns to alcohol and battles this addiction for twenty-two years - all the time living across the river from them. When Elizabeth shows signs of depression – an affliction his mother has battled for years, Charles desperately wants to reveal his paternity.  The story line focuses on community ties versus blood ties as Charles tries to reconcile his needs against those of his daughter. A riveting tale that presents characters trying to do the right thing in a complicated world bound by culture and yes…blood! Recommended!

 

Dear Great Book Guru, Sea Cliff is so beautiful at this time of year - well it’s beautiful every season of the year, but the old  Victorians give an especially awesome, eerie feeling during the Fall.   I’m looking for a really good book that evokes that sense of mystery and autumnal wonder.  Thoughts?  Falling for Sea Cliff

 Dear Falling for Sea Cliff, I just finished the perfect book for you: THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore. Set in an Adirondacks camp owned by a very wealthy family, the novel recounts the disappearance of a young camper in August 1975. The story is told from the perspectives of seven people: the parents, various campers, counselors, and the young detective assigned to the case. The family employs most of the townspeople so there is an uneasy alliance between the two groups.  The novel goes back and forth from the fifties to 1975 - where the story opens. Barbara, daughter of the wealthy VanLaar Family, is missing from her bunk – fourteen years before her eight-year-old brother disappeared and was never found.  The remainder of the book traces the impact these events have on three worlds: the opulent summer community, the camp which exists in its shadow, and the working-class townspeople who serve both worlds. This is much more than a simple thriller - it is a complex study of character, sociological impact, and history of the times. It appears on many Best Books of the Year lists, including Barak Obama’s Summer Reading List.  Highly recommended

 

Dear Great Book Guru, Last week at the Sea Cliff Mini Mart, I met up with so many friends from long ago and one of them mentioned an intriguing book about family dynamics set on  a London stage. Does it sound familiar?  Fan of Family Tales

Dear Fan of Family Tales, THE HYPOCRITE by Jo Hamya is set in Sicily and London and takes place in 2010 and 2020.  Sophia is a twenty-seven-year-old successful playwright whose latest work is about a month she had spent in Sicily ten years before with her novelist father.  Her father is in the audience for a matinee performance of her play, having no idea the play is about him - he has carefully avoided reading reviews. Sophia and her mother are having lunch above in the terrace restaurant of the playhouse. The storyline shifts from the father and his reaction to seeing his past come to life on the stage - the kitchen in Sicily, his favorite purple shirt, and most importantly the many women he entertained while his daughter slept nearby…. to the mother-daughter conversation about the play.   Her memories of the conversations she overheard, the lies and exaggerations, half truths are all acted out on stage and her father - to his horror - is portrayed as a mediocre writer and latent misogynist.  Meanwhile as Sophia and her mother lunch, a variety of characters appear to discuss the play going on in the theater below.  As her mother becomes more and more drunk and belligerent, Sophia continues to deny the play is about her family, leaving the reader to question who indeed is the hypocrite? Recommended! 

 

 

Dear Great Book Guru, I heard recently there are some great books out that are based on Charles Dickens’s novels but set in present time. Sounds very interesting…are you familiar with them? Lover of Dickens

Dear Lover of Dickens, Yes - I just finished DEMON COPPERHEAD by the award-winning author Barbara Kingsolver, and it was great!  Based on Dickens’s DAVID COPPERFIELD, this novel is set in present time Appalachia – Lee County, Virginia and many of the same issues Dickens’s addressed in 1800’s London are covered here.  Demon Copperhead - born Damon Fields - to a young drug addicted mother - tells his life story from birth to adulthood and quite a story it is.  His first years are spent with his mother and although impoverished, the pair are relatively happy. This somewhatsecure existence comes to an end when she marries Stoner, a harshly cruel man who abuses her and tortures Demon.  She soon falls back into addiction and dies leaving Demon in the care of his stepfather who turns him over to a corrupt, dehumanizing foster care system.  Demon goes from one bad situation to the next when a sports injury causes him to become addicted to doctor-prescribed painkillers.   Along the way he encounters a few caring adults, but, for the most part, family,friends, and community fail him, and it is only through his own perseverance that he manages to survive.  Like Dickens’s David, our Demon fights many demons not of his making - but those created by failures of society and its institutions. A painful tale but a very worthwhile read and highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, My friends and I have decided to tackle reading the latest Booker Prize winners and I see that the group has just published their “short list” of winners.  Could you suggest a favorite of yours from this list?  Reader of Winners

Dear Reader of Winners, There are six books on this year’s list and all are great, but my favorite by far was Rachel Kushner’s CREATION LAKE. Kushner’s novel is a fascinating combination of mystery, humor, science, and spy antics.  Set in the present, it is the story of “Sadie Smith” a pseudonym for a thirty-four-year-old woman who has acted as a government agent for many years until a botched case involving a young man, five hundred pounds of explosives, and charges of entrapment cause her to be fired by the FBI.  She then sets out on a very lucrative career path as a spy-for-hire. Her first assignment is working for  a huge unnamed industrial complex that is eager to shut down an environmentalist farming commune with a long history of violence.  The mastermind/puppeteer is Bruno who had been involved in the May 1968 Paris riots. He subsequently disappeared from public view, communicating his radical ideas in emails from underground caves.  His messages are perhaps the most fascinating part of the book as he lays out his beliefs about human evolution and the superiority of the Neanderthals or Thals as he calls them. According to him, much of present-day discord and misery lies in the demise of the Thals and the ascension of the Sapiens.  Sadie finds herself rethinking her mission as she grapples with Bruno and his disciples.  A very different take on spy craft and highly recommended!