I can’t remember where I heard of this book, and I’m not sure how it ended up in my shopping cart, but I’m so glad it did. I wound up listening to the audio version during my commute (in L.A., which is fitting), and the match of Mia Barron’s voice to Eve Babitz’s words seemed just perfect. I don’t know what Eve Babitz sounds like, but Barron did an amazing job of making me feel as if I were listening to the author. Eve Babitz was a writer and all-around denizen of Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s, and this […]
Tragic Sandwich
Tragic Sandwich's Reviews:
Less is More
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
This book won the Pulitzer Prize. I didn’t know that until I sat down to write this review, so I have no idea how it wound up on my radar. I’m very glad it did. Arthur Less is a novelist. He has an enemy and a nemesis, which is a lot of antagonists for someone who isn’t particularly antagonistic; an identity-defining blue suit; friends; and ex-boyfriends, the most recent of whom is marrying another man. And he is about to turn 50. Arthur can’t bring himself to go to the wedding, and he can’t bring himself to not go, so […]
Close, But No Cigar
Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser
A mother and her twins go missing, and her friends are mystified. Was it the soon-to-be ex-husband? Did she leave on her own, and if so, why? Ultimately, it’s not that suspenseful. I mean, there are things that are unknown, and at the end they are, to one degree or another, known, but there’s only one scene that really has a notable level of tension. I feel like there’s an idea here, and maybe it would have worked better with tighter editing–and probably fewer characters. It’s fine. I’ve definitely read worse. But I think I’m going to forget this one […]
9/4/2018 's CBR10 Review No:11 |
Choosing Change
Everyone Is Beautiful by Katherine Center
Every aspect of Lanie Coates’s life has changed, and she’s not sure it’s for the better. She’s the mother of three very young children, her husband is in grad school, and they’ve moved halfway across the country. An encounter in a local park motivates Lanie to change her life and take time for herself, with far-reaching and unexpected consequences. I “found” Center through a podcast, and thought that her focus on finding joy was something I could use in my reading. I liked Lanie, and Center does a great job of depicting how 24/7 motherhood is exhausting. I did not […]
Book of Monsters
You Were Made for This by Michelle Sacks
This book. I can’t even. I’m amazed I stuck it out. I can’t imagine how the author managed to spend so much time with these appalling people in her head. She definitely shows that monstrosity is made, not born, but there is no one I could possibly like. There is no one for whom I retain sympathy. Merry and Sam, two American ex-patriates, live what appears to be an idyllic life in a remote Swedish cabin. But no one is happy, and no one can let anyone else be happy–especially once Merry’s lifelong friend Frank (NOT Frances) arrives for an […]
Surprised Me — In a Good Way
Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
Manon Bradshaw is smart, competent, and lonely. She’s a Detective Sargeant in Cambridgeshire, and while she is having exactly the level of career success she looked for, she spends her off hours trying to build relationships from Internet dates she doesn’t really want to be on. Some of her actions made me think, “Urgh! Don’t do it!” But her actions are what a lot of people do, so it rang true in a way that can be hard to capture on a page. When a young graduate student goes missing, Manon is one of the investigators assigned to the case. […]
Close the Book
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
So I’m back to my “British women in peril” theme, apparently, and this entry is . . . not good. It’s gripping; I definitely wanted to know what was going to happen. And (a) there’s a denouement, and (b) some really key information was missing that would make me feel the level of dread I was supposed to. The heroine of B.A. Paris’s Behind Closed Doors is given a backstory that is emotionally traumatic, but she doesn’t seem to recognize it as trauma, and seems to have no awareness of how that trauma informs her actions and decisions. She’s positioned […]
Threepeat
Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff
Some books, you read more than once. In this case, I’m going to tell you about three of those. You’ve probably read Helene Hanff’s 84, Charing Cross Road. (If you haven’t, do.) But you might not have read her other books. I have, and they’re all worth multiple reads. I’m highlighting two here (and a third book by another author). Q’s Legacy is Hanff’s account of how she became and stayed a writer. While 84 and its sequel, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, are delightful accounts of unexpected success, Q’s Legacy shows how hard–and how limited–that success was. Hanff’s love […]