Dear Great Book Guru,
This Sunday is one of my favorite Fall events- the Sea Cliff Civic
Association’s Cider Social. Heidi Hunt
and her merry troupe of teen volunteers will be serving refreshments,
organizing crafts, and spreading cheer to a bevy of costumed lads and lasses at
Central Park from 3 to 4pm. Well, of course, I’ll need a good book to read
while I wait for the fun to begin. Any thoughts?
Ardent Fan of the Cider Social
Dear Ardent Fan of the Cider Social, I just finished a very
unusual novel: THE NUTSHELL by Ian McEwan. This is the story of an impending
murder told from the perspective of a fetus.
It begins with the words “ So here I am –upside in a woman” and our
narrator- a nine month fetus- listens in on the world of his twenty-eight year
old mother as she and her lover plot the murder of her husband/his father. Of
course, one has to suspend reality as we listen to his insightful, utterly
humorous insights into the daily lives of those outside the womb. When he discovers that his uncle Claude is
part of this plot, we quickly see the parallels with Shakespeare’s HAMLET. This
is a darkly humorous murder mystery despite the wildly farcical nature of the
story. Very fast, very clever, very
short (195 pages), this is a wonderful book to read on a busy Fall afternoon-
recommended!