Book talk

Okay, fans of my blog, I know you've been wondering what I've been reading lately, so here are my books and comments. (And I'd love to see yours!) Keep on bloggin!

Anthony Doerr, About Grace
About a man in Anchorage who sometimes can see the future. He leaves his wife and baby, Grace, because he sees himself causing the baby’s death. Spends 27 years working in West Indies, then goes back to search for Grace. Sounds allegorical, but it is in fact beautifully realistic and gorgeously written, a real gem.

George Eliot, The Lifted Veil One of two novellas, this one deals with supernatural goings-on, sort of Edgar Allen Poe-ish.

George Eliot, Brother Jacob, The better of the two, about an immoral confectioner who robs from his own mother and, when observed by his feeble-minded brother Jacob, cons him. Goes to West Indies and when he fails to make his fortune, returns and sets up as confectioner in another town (tempting the housewives into slothful ways by making ready-to-eat pastry available). He almost wins the hand of a prosperous farmer’s daughter, but Jacob shows up and inadvertently reveals all his lies.

George Pellicanos Drama City
Pellicanos is terrific in writing about blighted lives in the off-the-tourist-trail mean streets of Washington, DC. He always has some very sympathetic characters—in this one an ex-con who now works for the Humane Society but still is close to friends from his shady past—and some monsters who are understandable, given their horrific backgrounds featuring crack-addicted mothers etc., but still monstrous. This one involved a drug-gang war, and the ex-con’s parole officer who herself is battling addictions. And although these are set in Washington, there is no mention of Congressmen or embassies or anything like that; this is a totally different world, unconnected with the federal government. Wonderful writing, and while the plots are totally different from those of Lee Child, both transcend the usually level of crime writing. Not that I always mind the formulaic ones—Janet Evanovitch can be lots of fun, in a fast-food sort of way—but these are truly novels, not just thrillers.

Lee Child One Shot
I love his books and now have read them all. Jack Reacher, an ex-military policeman and rolling stone, gets involved in murderous adventures in various American cities; this latest one takes place in an unnamed city in southern Indiana. The plots are incredibly complex, there is always a high body count, Jack invariably has a strong-but-gorgeous lady on the scene, and the writing is excellent.

The Book Thief
This was fascinating, both a heart-breaker and joyous. Narrated by Death, who is sensitive, bemused by human foibles, and notices the color of the sky when he comes to carry off souls, it tells the story of Liesel, a German orphan who lives with her foster parents in a town near Munich in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Much of the story involves the personalities of her neighbors and friends, all against the background of Hitler Youth meetings, increasing poverty, parades of Jews on their way to the camps, and her family’s quiet resistance to what is taking place. For much of the book they are hiding Max, a young Jewish boxer, in their basement. Liesel, though fending off the amorous advances of her best friend, Rudy, goes with him to steal fruit and, especially, books, many from the wife of the mayor, a recluse since her son’s death in World War I. Books and reading are a central theme: her beloved foster father has taught Liesel to read, she reads with Max and he draws some books for her, she reads to neighbors and eventually to people in air raid shelters, she steals books, and eventually she writes her own. Meanwhile death is everywhere. Truly an extraordinary book, and I cried at the end, which I don’t do very often.