Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

I have not read any Pynchon since grad school about 14 years ago, and this turned out a poor choice to pick back up – I barely made it to page 28 before invoking that most wonderful “Rule of 50.” The hard-bitten private eye, the beautiful, sexy, mysterious client, the smarmy, sarcastic LAPD cop, a murder, and guess who gets framed? I could not care less about any of these characters or what happens to them. I don’t care who killed the victim or why. The first 28 pages became one long boring cliché. Two stars just for the name and the glory of Gravity's Rainbow

--Chiron, 5/29/10

Thomas Jefferson: Author of America by Christopher Hitchens

This slim and interesting volume has Hitchens’ peculiar voice with occasional strident undertones leaking through. I don’t mind, because he is one of the best writers around today who criticizes the religious excesses our country founders in at this point in history. While most of the biography had a dry tone, the first chapter dealing with religion had the most meat for me. Four stars.

--Chiron, 5/28/2010

A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch

This novel puts me at half way through reading all of Iris Murdoch’s 26 novels. All of her characters are complex and interesting. Her stories are interesting, serious (mostly), poignant, unusual. A Severed Head adds to the mix with brilliant comedy at its drollest. Many times I actually laughed out loud to the consternation of the inevitable cat on my lap.

Martin Lynch-Gibbon runs a successful wine-merchant business. He married a beautiful, charming, sexy woman, Antonia, and he maintains a beautiful, charming, sexy mistress, Georgie. Add to this his best friend, an American psychiatrist, Palmer Anderson and his sister, Honor Klein. Martin’s sister Rosemary plays the role of mother to Martin. I understand Murdoch’s casts of characters much better now that I have read Conradi’s excellent biography.


What could possibly go wrong with this tangled gaggle of free spirits? Everything!

While the novel starts out with a “stiff-upper-lip” British tone, things do fall apart. As we top the hill, and the roller coaster rushes down, shocking and funny events made me read faster and faster all the way to the surprising ending – like the zigzags of the roller coaster for one last thrill as it pulls into the station.

Martin thinks he can have it all without consequences, but demons shadow him at every turn. While her style takes some getting used to, stay with it. Sometimes the beginnings do get confusing, but Murdoch’s marvelous prose will draw the reader deeper and deeper into the plot. Here Martin describes his wife, Antonia:

“Antonia has great tawny-colored intelligent searching eyes and a mobile expressive mouth which is usually twisted into some pout of amusement or tender interest. She is a tall woman; and although always a little inclined to plumpness has been called ‘willowy’, which I take as a reference to her characteristic twisted and unsymmetrical poses. Her face and body are never to be discovered quite in repose.” (17)



If you do not know Iris Murdoch, begin with The Bell, or her Booker Prize winner, The Sea, the Sea, or as I did with one of her last novels, The Book and the Brotherhood. You are in for hundreds of hours of delightful reading.

--Chiron, 5/23/10

Iris Murdoch: Letters and Diaries, 1939-1945 edited and introduced by Peter J. Conradi

After reading Conradi’s exquisite and thoroughly documented biography of Iris Murdoch, I thought I would have little to learn about one of my all time favorite novelists. But these insights -- directly from the pen of Murdoch herself -- reveal much more about her. Even with Conradi’s superb effort, these journals and letters reveal inside information about Iris’ life, loves, relationships, and early life. I hope this is the first in a long series from Conradi.

This volume from England -- not yet published in the US -- will appeal to devotees of Iris and should be must-reading for all serious students of her work.

If you have never read Iris Murdoch, you are missing out on one of the great novelists of the 20th century. She wrote 26 novels as well as a handful of plays, poetry, criticism, and philosophy. Murdoch is truly one of the most outstanding women of letters in the history of British literature. She ranks with Pope and only a smidgen below Dr. Samuel Johnson in my estimation. Start with her Booker Prize winner The Sea, the Sea, or The Bell, or, as I did, The Book and the Brotherhood. I am about half way through her novels, and this has inspired me to read A Severed Head next. 5 stars

--Chiron, 5/16/10

Pretend All Your Life by Joseph Mackin

Suspense/Thrillers are not really my thing, but I have to say, this 9/11 novel held my interest. While I should have seen the end coming, I didn’t and it was an unsettling surprise.

Richard Gallin is a successful New York plastic surgeon, who is spiraling downward since the loss of his son in one of the twin towers. He has an attractive girl friend, and he begins an affair with an art dealer who comes to his home to appraise some artworks. Encounters with a couple of other characters all complicate his life. This cast seems to weave a web of intrigue and danger around Gallin, but you will have to read this recently published first novel to find the who, what, when, where, why, and how for the resolution.

At first, I did not care for Richard -- he seemed not a nice person in several respects, but as Mackin peeled away the layers of his character, I began to soften. While I never completely sympathized with him, I did have a better understanding of his motivations.

Not, in my estimation a perfect novel, but then few are. A couple of bizarre coincidences also really annoyed me. 4 stars

--Chiron, 5/12/10

Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

If you are lucky, sometime during your life, you will meet that one person you belong with -- to have and to hold from that day forward. If you are very lucky you get to be with that person for a long time. If you are extremely lucky, that person is the last you ever need to meet.

Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors, and I haven’t read anything by her in quite a while. She revels in relationships made and broken, found at the oddest times, in the oddest places and sometimes solidified and lost in a couple of weeks.

Liam Pennywell is nearly 61. He has a job he loves and does well, but it was not what he prepared himself to do. He drives a used Geo, and he lives alone. His ex-wife is a librarian, and he has an acceptably good relationship with her because of their three daughters. One day he meets Eunice Dunstead, who faintly reminds me of Muriel in an earlier Tyler novel, The Accidental Tourist. Liam and Eunice bond almost immediately, and Liam even says, “You’re the woman I love, and life is too short to go through it without you” (230).

Alas, life is not so simple, and numerous complications crowd in on Liam and his solitary life -- strangers, family, a job -- and Liam reflects on his life in great detail. On Christmas day, Liam visits with his daughters and grandchild, but later, he opts for solitude. Tyler writes,

“It didn’t bother Liam that he would be spending Christmas Day on his own. He had a new book about Socrates that he was longing to get on with, and he’d picked up a rotisserie chicken from the Giant the day before (275) …

Before he settled in with his book, he put the chicken in the oven on low and he exchanged his sneakers for slippers. Then he switched on the lamp beside his favorite armchair. He sat down and opened the book and laid Jonah’s bookmark on the table next to him. He leaned back against the cushions with a contented sigh. All he lacked was a fireplace, he thought.

But that was all right. He didn’t need a fireplace.

Socrates said … What was it he had said? Something about the fewer his wants, the closer he was to the gods. And Liam really wanted nothing.” (276)

This novels has such a warm, sweet flow to it, I could barely put it down. It is a wonderful story, wonderfully told. I like Liam. I like Anne Tyler -- a whole great big whopping lot of like -- for both of them. Five stars

--Chiron, 5/5/10

Spooner by Pete Dexter

Pete Dexter’s new novel, Spooner, takes me back to the glory days of newspapers in the Philadelphia of my youth. The morning Inquirer and The Evening Bulletin, which my father brought with him every night as he came off the 5th street trolley from downtown, were sandwiched around the afternoon Daily News for the blue collar/sports-minded crowd. Pete Dexter wrote a column for this paper before leaving journalism to write fiction. This is his seventh novel along with a book of his newspaper columns.

Although originally from Michigan, Dexter has the voice of a Philadelphian when telling stories set in The City of Brotherly Love -- which is mostly true, except for when the Eagles, Flyers, Sixers, and Phillies host out-of-town teams. I remember one incident when sports fans booed Santa Claus and pelted him with snowballs during the final Eagle’s game of the 1968 season. Dexter’s characters have that quirky, interesting, volatile, and highly recognizable aura of Philadelphia about them.

Spooner kept me turning pages. As in all his works, Dexter sprinkles funny situations and comic utterances by his characters throughout, and let’s not forget his sometimes dark humor -- especially Chapter 85. The novel also has its poignant moments, however.

Dexter tells the story of Spooner, a misfit child whose father dies when he is quite young. Spooner’s mother remarries, and the novel largely revolves around the relationship between Spooner and his step-dad.

Near the end, Dexter writes,

“Spooner, a man by now of some reputation for going his own way, who had over the years taken pretty dramatic steps to be seen that way, craved the good opinion of his stepfather more than he could ever admit, and felt the chance to find out where he stood with him slipping away.” (442)

Dexter always takes me on a tour of familiar places in Philly -- Center City, the fictional, but all too recognizable “God’s Pocket district, and even Dirty Frank’s, a legendary bar near the Inquirer/Daily News building that was a favorite hangout of reporters. The narrator sounds like a cynical, observant reporter on the trail of an interesting story.

Although he denied being autobiographical during an interview when the book came out a few of months ago, numerous incidents in Spooner’s life match Dexter’s biography -- even down to the title of one of Spooner’s novels, Deadwood. The HBO series of a couple of years ago was based on Dexter’s Deadwood.

If you have never read Dexter, start with his National Book Award winner, Paris Trout. If you love newspapers and reporting as I do, you will want to read all of his works. Five Stars

--Chiron, 5/3/10

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

I dimly remember reading this back in the 60s when it first came out. I didn’t like it then -- as I did Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and I have little additional regard for it now.

This postmodern piece of metafiction is somewhat interesting, but I think the antiwar message is muddled with all the stuff about the Tralfamadorians. I found the 100 plus uses of “So it goes” somewhat annoying. As a rule, postmodern fiction does little for me -- along with postmodern poetry, art, and film.

I read Catch-22 back in the 70s and took its anti-war message seriously. Years later, I re-read it and better appreciated the humor Heller infused into his story. Perhaps the TV series M.A.S.H., with its thinly veiled criticism of the Viet Nam war, influenced my second reading of Heller and Vonnegut.

Lately, I have been reading some of Vonnegut’s non-fiction, and when a member of my book club proposed it, I thought it might be the perfect time to re-visit Slaughterhouse Five. I am not giving up entirely on Vonnegut however, since I am going to read Cat’s Cradle soon. A trusted friend tells me it is his best. Three stars

--Chiron 4/25/10

The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt

About 140 pages from the end of this 675-page masterpiece – short-listed for the 2009 Booker Prize -- Byatt wrote, “They seem to me like coloured mosaics, with separate little pieces that fit together” (536). This perfectly describes this complicated, funny, sad, absorbing, sprawling story, which Byatt has skillfully interwoven with numerous historical events and figures: from Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw to Asquith, Kaiser Willhem, King Edward V, Tsar Nicholas II, and Queen Victoria, from the Fabian’s and anarchists of the late 19th century, to the last days of World War I.

If I pulled any one of the dozens of quotes I underlined, they would only provide a tantalizing glimpse of the whole – as if I held up a single piece of a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle and said, “Isn’t this a beautiful picture!” You simply have to read this novel and immerse yourself in this fantastic world created by the Booker Prize winner for Possession in 1990. I had the good fortune to meet A.S. Byatt at Baylor University when I was a grad student there. She delivered the Virginia Beall Lecture on Literature in 1994. She also sat in on a class I was taking – British Women Writers. Meeting her was one of the highlights of my graduate school experience. Her insights on writing, reading, and other English Women writers were priceless.

The Children’s Story revolves around five families. Basil Wellwood, a wealthy conservative banker and his wife, Katharina, and their two children; Basil’s brother Humphry Wellwood, also a banker – at first – and his wife Olive, a writer of children’s tales, and their eight children; Prosper Cain, widower and curator of a major museum in London, and his two children; Benedict Fludd, master potter, and his wife Seraphita and their three children; and, lastly, Phillip and Elise, orphans of poor working people.

Humphry and Olive give a “Midsummer Party,” and Byatt describes the attendees. “Their guests were socialists, anarchists, Quakers, Fabians, artists, editors, freethinkers and writers, who lived, either all the time, or at weekends and on holidays in converted cottages and old farmhouses…the children mingled with the adults, and spoke and were spoken to…They were neither dolls nor miniature adults. They were not hidden away in nurseries, but present at family meals, where their developing characters were taken seriously and rationally discussed, over supper or during long country walks” (31). These progressives had radical views on everything from raising children to women’s suffrage.

Byatt presents this foundational information and weaves a tale spanning about 30 years. Imagine the parties, the family crises, the current events, the intermingling of all these children with the arts – writing, painting, pottery, music, reading, education, the theater – well, you get the idea.

The most amazing thing is the fluid and beautiful prose Byatt has given the reader. If Possession has a revered place in your library and reading history -- and it should! -- you will become immersed in this marvelous story. The surprising and inevitable, shocking and unexpected endings will not fail to disappoint.

I would like to offer some tips which might make this a more enjoyable read. Make family trees of the five families and refer to it frequently. The children travel, party, and visit together frequently, and this helps keep the relationships in order. Also, I wish I had a detailed map of England in and around London, Cambridge, Canterbury, and Dungeness so I could follow the travels of these characters. One of my top reads of the year – 10 stars out of five.

--Chiron, 4/20/10

Ninety-Fifth Street; Sally's Hair; North Point North by John Koethe

The annual Beall Poetry Festival at Baylor University has become an event I eagerly await as each spring rolls around. This year was no exception, despite the fact I had only the slightest familiarity with only one of the three poets, Carol Frost. However, the poet that impressed and inspired me the most was John Koethe.

His poems tell stories, in plain language, with gentle strokes of humor, pathos, and intelligence -- all with profound insights into human nature and the creative mind. I even found an epithet for my own thesis, which Prof. Koethe enthusiastically gave me permission to use.

The epithet comes from the opening lines of the title poem of Ninety-Fifth Street. Koethe wrote,

“Words can bang around in your head
Forever, if you let them and you give them room.
I used to love poetry, and mostly I still do,
Though sometimes ‘I, too, dislike it.’ There must
be something real beyond the fiddle and perfunctory
Consolations and the quarrels -- as of course
There is, though what it is is difficult to say.” (72)

I was thrilled to recognize the interior quote as the words of Marianne Moore, the eccentric 20th century poet, editor, librarian, and teacher. Her apartment was moved from New York City -- following her death in 1972 -- and reassembled at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia. So, I have a close personal connection to her work.

Like Moore, Koethe’s poetry is simple, yet profound with wit and irony. He tells stories and -- in the telling -- reveals philosophy and the inner workings of the human psyche.

Furthermore, a measure of irony lay in my selection of this epithet. To paraphrase Koethe, “I used to hate poetry, but now I mostly love it, although some I still dislike.”

The title poem from Sally’s Hair is a good example of the story-telling talent of Koethe. He writes,

“I took the train back from Poughkeepsie to New York
And in the Port Authority, there at the Suburban Transit window,
She asked, ‘Is this the bus to Princeton?’ -- which it was.
‘Do you know Geoffrey Love?’ I said I did. She had the blondest hair,

Which fell across her shoulders, and a dress of almost phosphorescent blue.
She liked Ayn Rand. We went to the Village for a drink,
Where I contrived to miss the last bus to New Jersey, and at 3 a.m. we
Walked around and found a cheap motel I hadn’t enough money for

And fooled around on the dilapidated couch. An early morning bus
(She’d come to see her brother), dinner plans and missed connections
And a message on his door about the Jersey shore. Next day
A summer dormitory room, my roommates gone: ‘Are you,’ she asked,

‘A hedonist?’ I guessed so. Then she had to catch her plane.
Sally -- Sally Roche. She called that night from Florida,
And I never heard from her again…” (69-70)

Hearing the poet read this poem impressed me with the power of his words, and his voice reinforced the story-telling nature of his work. I can only begin to hope to write something as touching, sincere, and emotional in my own work

Lastly, a poignant piece from North Point North, “The Little Boy.”

“I want to stay here awhile, now that there came to me
This other version of what passes in my life for time.
The little boy is in his sandbox. Mom and Dad
Are puttering around in the backyard.” (116)

I have to stop here, because memories of my own childhood are welling up inside, and I have gone on long enough. If these three samples don’t tempt you, you have not discovered the depth, the breath, the beauty of well-crafted poetry. 15 stars -- 5 each!

--Jim, 4/3/10

Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris

This novel was a quick read. Were I without distractions, I most likely could have finished it in a day. However, those pesky students keep writing essays I assign, so I must pay them some attention.

Bebris has created a spot-on imitation of Jane Austen in this "sequel" to Pride and Prejudice. Caroline Bingley becomes engaged, and she seeks Elizabeth’s advice in planning her wedding. Elizabeth, somewhat miffed that Caroline’s wedding follows so closely upon her own, responds, “With your own taste to guide you, I am sure your celebration could derive no further benefit from my opinions” (19). Classic Austen with the drop of acid she so ably inserted in her prose.

Only occasionally does a modern anachronism pop into the story. The physical relationships are also quite more detailed than Austen gave us. The reader glimpses a private scene between Elizabeth and Darcy. One night, “Darcy rolled over and spooned against her” (123). Several of these tidbits made me smile.

Bebris also slips in quotes from several of Austen’s novels. My favorite comes from Sense and Sensibility. In Bebris, Mr. Gardiner (also a character in Pride and Prejudice) discusses the library of Pemberley, Darcy’s elegant home. “But the library of a great house can never have too many books” (29). What a wonderful sentiment! The Augustan view of Americans and the colonies also provides a good bit of humor.

I won’t give away any plot details, but I will say I found the path to the end disappointing. Elizabeth and several of the characters embrace some rather silly hocus-pocus to explain the mysterious goings on a Netherfield. Woven into this nonsense is a perfectly logical and reasonable explanation of greed and human nature.

The novel mostly has the feel of a lost work by Austen herself, but I doubt I will delve any further into the series. Apparently this is the first of three -- so far. Lovers of Austen will enjoy this story. Four Stars.

--Chiron, 4/2/10

A Theory of All Things by Peggy Leon

Peggy Leon’s second novel is an original story, with an interesting cast of characters – all with different personalities and voices – yet all molded of the same stuff. Her story is way more than interesting, and kept me turning pages.

The story revolves around the six Bennett children, their father who suffers from Alzheimer’s, a mother who disappeared years before, and two young women in relationships with two of the sons. The story is told in diary form, with snippets of e-mails sprinkled in between.

Peter, the oldest, committed suicide sometime after the mother abandoned the family. Sarah, a photographer, and her twin sister, Ellie, a sculptor, live in New York and on an Aegean Island, respectively. Mary has stayed at home to care for Frank, their father, and even though she has an advanced degree in English Literature, she has never worked outside the home. She is also the anchor that holds the family together. Luke is the youngest, and he is a loner, who wanders the roads around Southern California and collects discarded soda and beer cans which he fashions into mobiles. Luke also collects Willow, a young woman with story-telling tattoos and piercings galore.

The sixth sibling – and the most interesting -- is Mark. He has a PhD in physics, and never misses an opportunity to apply scientific principles to every aspect of life. Somewhat dorky and relationship-challenged, he is dating Clare, a graduate student where he teachers.

With amazing skill, Leon has created unique voices for all these characters. I hope this novel makes it to the big screen, because the humor, the mild pathos, the tension all work together so well with these characters, I can see them and hear their voices as I read. This book is now available, and you want to get on the Peggy Leon bandwagon now! 5 stars

--Chiron, 3/10/10

Old Girlfriends by David Updike

David Updike led a class in short fiction at The New England Writer’s Conference I attended back in the 80s. Recently, I heard David read from his latest book, Old Girlfriends. “Adjunct” tells the story of a part-time college instructor. Having spent a couple of years in this position, I was drawn to this story and his description of several experiences we shared. Little did I know the book held many, many more associations for me than a temporary teaching assignment.

All the stories have a high degree of craftsmanship. The diction flows smoothly and neatly, conveying vivid images, thoughts, and emotions. These stories provide the reader with serious, thought-provoking situations. For example, “Shining So Nicely in the Sun” is the most poignant story, telling of the narrator’s last visit with his grandmother. Many memories of my own grandmother came to mind.

In the first story of the collection, “Geraniums,” the narrator has rented two rooms in a house with two other borders. The story ends with an epiphany about his landlord, a fellow tenant, and Sashi, his girlfriend, all of whom are at a party:

“As they stood there talking, something finally left him, and he could feel himself smiling back, all four smiling, and for once he saw the beauty and sadness of their love, the loneliness of circumstance, the hardship of things to come. He could see, too, that they had wanted him to know all along: all love needs an audience, and he had become theirs. Without his even knowing, they had adopted him their son” (15).

This passage reminds me of the epiphanies in James Joyce’s Dubliners. Furthermore, this story really sets the tone for the collection. I had such a warm feeling, I immediately read it again – something I did with several stories in Old Girlfriends.

The title story was my favorite, however. The narrator, Trevor, is in therapy, and he examines his relationships with past and current girlfriends. After a long, difficult drive in a snow storm, Trevor arrives at his parent’s home with his latest love interest. She has a certain amount of caution about the visit, but when they arrive, Trevor has some hesitation:

“He turned off the car and it spluttered to silence, just a few odd ticks of it cooling. He could hear the individual snowflakes landing on the windshield and roof, gathering, thrumming with motion, momentum, a million tiny explosions that had powered them there. He took his bag from the back and started to get out, then stopped. He slipped the key back into the ignition and turned, but nothing happened – not even the tick, tick, tick of the starter motor, trying. There was only the sound of snowflakes on the windshield, adding to the whiteness. He turned the key again, and again, but still there was no other sound – only the snowflakes and the silence, silence all around” (151).

I can’t remember a better description of silence since the closing lines of Joyce’s final story in Dubliners, “The Dead.” The parallels with the great Irish writer are all there for the careful reader to enjoy. 5 stars

--Chiron, 2/27/10

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

This novel by Larsson is the first book I have read upon a recommendation of a student – and a good student at that! But I am afraid for the second time in three reads, I have had to invoke the rule of 50. After a two page explanation of Fermat’s Last Theorem and how Salander solved it in seven weeks, I felt a severe math migraine coming on. The prose suffers from a weakness of spirit, infected with clichés and stiff, awkward prose. I should have known better. Two stars.

--Chiron, 2/23/10

Easy for You by Shannan Rouss

I met Shannan Rouss at ALA in Boston this past January. Her reading had a certain rhythm that became more evident as she worked through her initial nervousness. When I approached her for a signature, I found out my copy of her first book would be the first she ever signed.

The collection of stories have varying levels of amusement, pathos, dry humor, and near belly laughs. I can’t quote from the stories, because I only have an Advance Uncorrected Reader’s Proof, but I can assure you, faithful reader, I will buy a hard cover of Easy for You when it comes out in March.

My favorite of the collection relates the story of an elderly man protesting the construction of a mansion opposite his nondescript home, which he has occupied for more than several decades. Max finds himself on a one-man crusade. “Beverly Hills Adjacent” has a voice I can hear of an elderly man, alone, missing his wife, his children, and his youth. He takes on this protest in an attempt to fill in some of these holes in his life.

Six of the ten stories have a woman narrator, and the four narrated by men lose nothing in the telling. The most poignant story is “Neither Here Nor There.” This slightly suspenseful story has an eerie feeling about a dead child.

I thoroughly enjoyed every one of these stories. 5 stars

--Chiron, 2/22/10

The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig

I hereby invoke the “Rule of 50”! I found this book slow and plodding with way too many clichéd characters – the sassy woman pilot, who has to prove every minute she is as tough as the men, the cigar chomping, scowling general who has to deal with the brass in DC, and the other young men just into the war. I have read it all before, and I can’t waste time on these 406 pages. The prose is ordinary and dull. Two stars.

--Chiron, 2/22/10

"It All Changed in an Instant": More Six-Word Memoirs by the Editors of Smith Magazine

This fun book takes its place on my shelf among many others of the genre. John Train’s “Remarkable” series heads the list – True Remarkable Occurrences and Remarkable Names of Real People, for example, have a hilarity about them, which sometimes causes roars of laughter or a bout of goose bumps. This little volume does all that and more.

The premise is simple: famous and unknown writers submitted six-word biographies to Smith Magazine. I have so many favorites, but here are a few:

“Books then. Books now. Occasionally life.” –Nancy Pearl
“Heard some Shakespeare. Never went back.” –Casey O’Toole
“Everything I touch turns to mold.” –Lisa Anne Auerbach
“I have to constantly reinvent myself.” –Terry McMillan

And, of course, I could not resist making up one of my own: “Read, write, listen, love, and live.”

Lots of fun for a rainy afternoon. 5 stars

--Chiron, 2/18/10

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan is one of those unusual writers nearly everyone loves. His prose is smooth and calm, with interesting characters mixed into a deceptively simple plot. I am tempted to throw away all my scruples about revealing too much of the story, since McEwan fooled me so thoroughly, but I won’t.

His prose pulls the reader along, like a lazy day on the river. And even though we might hear a dull roar ahead, we are two closely bound into his story to pay any attention. Then, when it’s too late, the end comes and we are flying over the waterfall in shock – and delight!

Clive and Vernon have been friends for a long time. They both had a relationship – at different times – with Molly. Clive is a composer who has been commissioned to compose a symphony for the celebration of the millennium. Vernon is the editor of a newspaper teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and closure. The both have a tense relationship with the wealthy George, widower of Molly. The story opens at Molly’s funeral. That is all you get.

This typical scene has Clive working on his symphony as the deadline approaches. Constant interruptions prevent him from piecing together fragments of the ending:

"At nine-thirty he stood and decided to pull himself together, drink some red wine and get on with the work. There was his beautiful theme, his song, spread out on the page, craving his attention, needing one inspired modification, and here he was, alive with focused energy, ready to make it. But downstairs he lingered in the kitchen over his rediscovered supper, listening to a history of the nomadic Morroccan Tuareg people on the radio, and then he took his third glass of Bandol for a wander about the house, an anthropologist to his own existence." (150)

I put down the novel after reading this passage, and wandered through my house looking at paintings, carvings, drawings, photos, and books that spelled out the interests of my life. I tried to imagine what someone who did not know me might think. Then, I understood what Clive was doing.

If you have never read McEwan, many of his novels are good places to start – Atonement, or A Child in Time, or Saturday, or Black Dogs, or, of course, Amsterdam, which won the Booker Prize in 1998. I am working my way through his 12 novels – this is my fifth, and it is about time I went on a spending spree and completed my collection. Five Stars

--Chiron, 2/18/10

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

I hardly know where to begin with this review. Every once in a great while – ten years? twenty? – a book comes along that combines all the best things about literature: characters who are interesting, sympathetic, emotionally complex, with intelligence, élan, and a clear perspective on the world around them, and a story that won’t allow the reader to put down the book, all the while making the approaching end something to be delayed. My only regret is that I cannot read Barbery in the original language.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is the story of Renée Michel, who says of herself, “I am a widow, I am short, ugly, and plump, I have bunions on my feet” with “the breath of a mammoth” (19). She has served as concierge for an upscale condo building in Paris for twenty-seven years. Renée also refers to herself as “poor, discreet, and insignificant” (18). Despite all this, she is extremely intelligent and incredibly well-read across an amazingly eclectic selection of literature, philosophy, history, art, and politics.

Living with her parents and an older sister in one of the eight luxury apartments is Paloma Josse, a precocious twelve-year-old who has decided to commit suicide on her 13th birthday, June 16th. Paloma describes herself as “Exceptionally intelligent” (23). Paloma likes few things more than reading, and she, too, is incredibly well-read for someone her age.

What these two share amounts to an obsessive desire to hide their intelligence from the world. Renée does so because of her position as a concierge, “since it has been written somewhere that concierges are old, ugly and sour” (19), and Paloma does so because “an exceptionally gifted child would never have a moment’s peace” (23).

The lives of these two characters intersect in a surprising and unforgettable way. Elegance represents one of the finest examples of the psychological novel I have ever read. This complicated genre examines the “invisible life” of a character, who employs an interior monologue to describe her unspoken and subconscious existence. The list of practitioners of this form of the novel date back to Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, George Meredith, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad up to James Joyce and William Faulkner. If this sounds dry and dull, I will admit it can be. But Barbery has defied that stereotype and written a magnificent, wonderful, and lovely book.

The story abounds with literary and cultural references. It does take a fair amount of concentration, but I can list ten or twelve chapters that I immediately re-read to absorb the full impact of the prose. When thinking about a cup of tea, Renée muses,

“When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment” (91).

What a wonderful line – “a jewel of infinity in a single moment.” Breathtaking prose like this occurs on nearly every page.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, or the original title, L’Élégance du Hérisson, is clearly one of the finest novels I have read in many years. If you call yourself a reader, you must read this book. Now. Without delay. 10 stars. The highest possible rating.

--Chiron, 2/11/10

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Every once in a while, a book comes along that has a certain feeling of joy, and comfort, and fun. Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society clearly fits that bill – this book has enormous fun and appeal about it.

The story begins simply. Juliet Ashton is a young woman living in London shortly after World War II. She wrote a column during the war, and those pieces were collected into a book. She has become exasperated during a book tour, and is struggling to recall her muse, when she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a resident of Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands occupied by the Germans during the war). He has read a book which once belonged to Juliet and hopes she can connect him with a reputable bookseller in London. You will get no more out of me about this story.

The title intrigues, the characters charm, the story delights. I could barely put it down, and if I had started a bit earlier on Sunday, I would have finished it in a day! If I had more than about 60 pages when I turned out the lights, I might have been tempted to call in sick. However, I didn’t, and I let Juliet, Dawsey, and all their friends and adventures wander with me on Monday until I could get home and finish it off.

Guernsey reminds me of a book I read a while ago – and need to re-read soon! The title character of G.B. Edwards’s The Book of Ebenezer LePage resembles Dawsey Adams. I highly recommend LePage, which is also set in Guernsey before and after WWII. Even though it might be hard to find, it will prove more that worth the effort.

I can hardly wait until my book club Thursday night to see how the others felt. To my mind, a perfect little read. 5 stars.

--Chiron, 2/1/10