It’s hard to give a plot summary for this novel because I’m not sure there is a clear plot line. The narrator Marie gives us her life story, an ordinary life with love and loss, births and deaths, set in Brooklyn from her 1920s’ girlhood through WWII, then marriage and family. It’s about what happens to her, her neighbors, her parents and brother. These are ordinary lives but no life is really just ordinary. There’s always more to people than you realize. McDermott’s writing is […]
Book of Ages by Jill Lepore
Book of Ages was a 2013 National Book Award finalist in the non-fiction category. Historian Jill Lepore pieces together the life of Ben Franklin’s sister Jane and in doing so not only reveals the life of a fascinating “ordinary” 18th-century woman who happened to be the beloved little sister of a Founding Father, but also demonstrates her own prodigious skills as an historian. Lepore’s work is specifically about Jane but more broadly about history and historians, biography and novels, and determining whose lives are worth […]
The Woman Upstairs. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.
This novel appeared on several 2013 “best novels” lists and it seems to fit into a genre that’s very popular these days, featuring a narrator whose truthfulness and mental well being are unclear. As I read, I was reminded of novels like The Other Typist and The Dinner, but The Woman Upstairs carves out its own place. The narrator comes across as abrasive yet sympathetic, a flawed human deserving compassion and yet somewhat self-involved, too. This contradiction compelled me to stay with the story and find out […]
ElCicco #CBR6 Review #2: The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story; a graphic novel written by Vivek J. Tiwary, art by Andrew Robinson with Kyle Baker
This graphic novel, released in November 2013, focuses on Brian Epstein’s crucial role in developing and promoting the Beatles from 1961 until his death in 1967. Tiwary, a Wharton Business School graduate and a film/TV/theater producer, was drawn to Epstein’s story not just because of his own love of the Beatles’ music or because of Epstein’s drive and business brilliance in getting the Beatles to the top of the music industry, but also because of Epstein’s personal demons and societal obstacles that threatened his professional […]
ElCicco #CBR6 Review #1: Jeeves and the Wedding Bells: an Homage to P.G. Wodehouse by Sebastian Faulks
PG Wodehouse fans should be delighted by this novel. Faulks revives our favorite duo, Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, for a fun summertime romp at Lord Henry’s country estate. At stake is the happiness of Bertie Wooster’s friend Woody. His engagement to Lord Henry’s daughter Amelia is in jeopardy due to a combination of misunderstanding and financial crisis. Complicating the situation are Amelia’s beautiful and lively cousin Georgiana and a hilarious plot contrivance that requires Bertie to play the valet Wilberforce to Jeeves’ Lord Etringham. If […]