Someone

Someone (2013) by Alice McDermott. This is an extraordinary book about an ordinary person. McDermott tells the life of Marie Commeford from childhood to old age, as she mixes with the other inhabitants of her Irish-American neighborhood in Brooklyn. The novel has the ring of authenticity as it jumps from time period to time period, describing Marie's periods of devastating pain and unexpected joys, bursts of brilliant clarity and moments of profound confusion. She ends up by chance with a job as a comforter in a funeral home, a job that gives her a unique perspective on the human condition. She suffers heartache at lost love, and then love from a surprising quarter. It all makes for a very good read in this slender volume. Recommended. Grade: B+ 

Rabbit at Rest

Rabbit at Rest (1990) by John Updike. The fourth and final book in Updike's series about Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is the best. Updike exhibits incomparable range and virtuosity in describing Rabbit's final year of life, wherein he fights with his family, has sex with his son's wife, and suffers a heart attack. The central dilemma in the novel is Nelson, Harry's grown son, who has become addicted to cocaine. This directly affects Rabbit, because Nelson has gone deeply into debt, even using assets of the car dealership that they all depend on, to finance his coke habit. But even more gratifying to the reader, Updike has evoked the time and place of the novel with names of stores, snatches of songs off the radio, and other arcana of American pop culture which, regrettably, will probably not be recognizable to future readers of the novel. For those of us who lived through the time in which the novel is set, however, it is a marvelous evocation of a time in our lives. Grade: A 

Cartwheel

Cartwheel (2013) by Jennifer DuBois. This book is a fictionalization of the Amanda Knox story, in  which an American student in Italy was accused of murdering her roommate, convicted and later acquitted by a higher court. The American girl in this story is named Lily Hayes, and she goes to Argentina instead of Italy. But, like Amanda Knox, she is accused of killing another exchange student whom she shares housing with. There are many parallels between the two stories, but they are not identical -- nor are they meant to be. One important difference is that Lily does, in fact, turn a cartwheel in the room where she is waiting to be interrogated. Amanda was reported to have turned a cartwheel, but this was later shown to be false. I found the book to be interesting, though I couldn't say for sure what the purpose was in writing it. I'm sure the writer is getting at some truth, but I just couldn't see what it was. Grade: B 

Kiss Me First

Kiss Me First (2013) by Lottie Moggach. Imaginative novel set in the Internet age, in which a woman (Leila) poses online as a second woman (Tess), who intends to commit suicide and doesn't want to upset her friends and relations. Leila is rather backward socially, and is thrilled when she is invited, by the operator of a web site called Red Pill, to impersonate the beautiful and glamorous Tess. But Leila ends up falling in love with one of Tess's old love interests, and gets caught up in a tangled web of deception and lies. Although I'm not fond of Internet-based stories in general, this one caught and held my interest. Leila and Tess are two interesting characters, and the book holds the reader in suspense about Tess's fate until the very end. Grade: B+ 

Rabbit, Run

Rabbit, Run (1960) by John Updike. Tour-de-force novel by Updike concerns the life of twenty-something Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, a former high school athlete who is now unhappily married. Rabbit has been forever stamped by the effects of his high-school success as a basketball player, which leave him feeling a little entitled and encourage him to do whatever he feels like. In this book, he leaves his wife, Janice, and takes up with a floozy named Ruth, whom he proceeds to take advantage of. Updike's writing is dense and virtuosic, crammed solid with references to contemporary culture and plays on words. It's a compulsively readable book, and I found myself racing through it to see what would happen to Rabbit next. It turns out to be the first in a four-book series which continues with Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, and Rabbit at Rest. I am currently reading Rabbit at Rest and it is great. Updike is one of the great American authors, and it is a pleasure to read his books. Grade: A

Coming Clean

Coming Clean (2013) by Kimberly Rae Miller. Fascinating memoir by Miller about her parents, especially her father, who was a hoarder. Miller's life was blighted by always being ashamed to have friends over to her house to see how she lived, with papers and other junk piled to the rafters if every house and apartment in which her parents lived. She somehow eventually rose above it to become something of an Internet star, and now looks back to let the rest of us know something of what it was like to be the child of hoarders. An excellent book. Grade: A-

The Draining Lake

The Draining Lake (2004) by Arnaldur Indridason. A murder mystery with an Icelandic accent. When a body (well, skeleton, actually) is found where a lake once stood, an investigation is sparked among a group of Icelandic police. Inspector Erlendur is the chief inspector, and he becomes somewhat obsessed by the case. Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, we learn of a group of Icelanders who went to school in East Germany years ago, during the cold war. Somehow, we know there is a connection between the skeleton and the students, who have now returned to Iceland. This is an easy-to-read, low key book that has its own modest rewards. I really did look forward to going back to it every night and reading some more about these interesting characters. And the ending wraps things up quite satisfactorily. Grade: B+

Wild Tales

Wild Tales (2013) by Graham Nash. The British musician, Graham Nash, has written an autobiography. It gives the impression of being a tell-all, although of course he could have reserved some details. I found it fun to read, at least the first half. Nash started out as a founding member of the Hollies, then moved on to Crosby, Stills & Nash, and then of course to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. A lot of great music is mentioned in passing, and it's great fun to look songs up on You Tube and listen to them again after all these years. It was also interesting to learn that Nash had a romance with Joni Mitchell, one of the great singer-songwriters of the 20th century. And it was enlightening to learn the provenance of certain songs -- for example, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," which Stephen Stills wrote about Judy Collins, and "Our House," which Nash wrote about a day he spent with Joni Mitchell. The second half of the book was kind of a downer, with people (David Crosby in particular) getting in trouble with drugs, and with formerly happy relationships crumbling into acrimony and occasional bitterness. Plus, Nash is quite full of himself and the songs he wrote, so that takes some of the fun out of the book. But altogether, a really enjoyable, nostalgic book to read. Grade: B+

The Sound of Things Falling

The Sound of Things Falling (2012) by Juan Gabriel Vasquez. Translated by Anne McLean. In the city of Bogota, Colombia, young lawyer Antonio Yammara befriends a man named Ricardo Laverde. As they walk down the street, they are attacked by a gun-wielding motorcycle driver. Yammara is severely wounded; Laverde is killed. After he recovers, Yammara delves into the history of Laverde, who is largely a mystery to him. He meets Laverde's daughter, Maya, and learns that Laverde was a big-time drug mule and that Laverde's American wife, Elaine, died in a plane crash as she was traveling back to Colombia to rejoin him. The story is involving, but it is translated in British English, and loses something in the translation. The syntax and vocabulary make the novel seem a bit stilted, but the exploration of Colombia's history during the drug war of the 20th century makes for interesting reading. Grade: B

The Woman Upstairs

The Woman Upstairs (2013) by Claire Messud. Nora Eldridge, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has settled into uncomfortable middle age and (dare we say it) spinsterhood. Then one day, into her classroom comes eight-year-old Reza Shahid, an enchanting boy child who wins her heart. Soon, she finds herself involved with Reza's family, in fact in love with them, separately and as a group. Reza's mother, Sirena, is an artist visiting Cambridge for one year while she works on a new installation. She and Nora rent a loft space together and work on their art together (for Nora is an artist, too). Nora becomes practically a member of the Shahid family, and it is not an exaggeration to say she is obsessed with them. She gives completely of herself, but is unable to proclaim her love. When the Shahids leave at the end of the year, go back to Paris, she must make peace with herself and with her loss. She eventually visits them in Paris, leading to a devastating climax that I did not foresee. This is a well written book with pretty high entertainment value. You will care about Nora. Grade: B+

The Girl You Left Behind

The Girl You Left Behind (2012) by JoJo Moyes. Set in the midst of World War I in occupied northern France, this is a surprisingly affecting story about love, faithfulness and sacrifice. The book has basically two parts. The first is set in 1917, as Sophie Lefevre struggles to deal with occupying Germans and maintain her integrity. The second is set in the present day, in which a young woman named Liv Halston struggles to maintain possession of a painting of Sophie which, down through the years, has come into her possession. Was the painting stolen by the Germans, and thus should go back to the possession of the Lefevre family? Or was it given freely, as a gift, and thus rightfully belongs to Liv? The question becomes more and more complicated as more witnesses come forward, but ultimately is resolved satisfactorily. I found this book, in the end, to be very moving and heartfelt. It's cleverly constructed, and the reader comes to really care about the characters. I recommend it highly. Grade: B+