This wasn’t a bad book, per se, I just REALLY felt like I’d read it before, so much so that when I learned from the jacket that it was being made into a movie my kneejerk reaction was “but why? I’ve seen this plot a hundred and eleventy twelve times.” Patriarch of a fractured and imperfect family dies, and the grieving process helps the family come to realize truths about each other and heal old wounds. That’s right up there with the hero’s journey and […]
It wasn’t a horror novel like I thought, but a family vacation can be very scary.
I had no idea who Emma Straub was until I picked this off of the new release table at the library last week. I assumed that maybe she was Peter Straub’s daughter, and thought I was getting myself a fun horror story for the end of the summer. Well. I don’t know if she is actually related to Peter. Maybe? And this was actually a pretty fun book. I’d compare her writing toJonathan Tropper — telling a difficult story with humor and wit. And while I […]
Slapstick and Family Hijinks at a Shiva
I noticed one complaint about this novel on Goodreads was the fact that it seemed like reading a novel that was meant to be a movie. Unfortunately I can’t speak to that; given that it has already been optioned as a movie, I couldn’t help but see Jason Bateman as the narrator, Judd, and could of course picture how various scenes would play out in the film. However, I don’t know if I would have had those same views if I had read this before […]
Enough with the humor. Just tell me the story.
For the past 5 of 6 months, I’ve been juggling two different book clubs. The first one, the one I’ve been in for years, was starting to get on my nerves. Not the people so much as the book choices. They just weren’t for me. I’m not a Twilight Mom and I’m not an Oprah addict, so there wasn’t much there for me. And I found myself a second, more “me” club. But even if I didn’t read the chosen books for the original club, […]