A Poignant Character Study
581746
This is a novel about a man who has devoted his life to only one thing, and who has nothing left when that is taken away from him.  The Go Master Shusai is a poignant, but also pathetic (in the negative sense) character.  One wonders whether such single-minded dedication, with its concomitant success, is worth the price one pays for it.
The novel is somewhat confusing, as it has not been told chronologically.  It goes back and forth with the barest warning.  This development feels appropriate, however.  The novel feels like a memoir.
This is not Kawabata's best novel, but it is worth reading if you like Kawabata, if you have the money to buy a good (but not a great) novel, or if you like Go.  There are quite a number of printing errors in it, however....
If you don't care about Go I don't suppose you would mind these errors.  But the book IS about a Go match, and is it too much to ask the editors to do a proper job?
3234344
Colm Toibin, long recognized for his sensitive character studies, adds to his list of fine accomplishments with this memorable study of young Eilis Lacey, on her own in New York while the remainder of her family stays behind in Enniscorthy, County Wexford.  It is less than a decade after World War II, jobs are hard to come by, and the economy in Ireland is a disaster.  When Father Flood, an Irish priest with a parish in Brooklyn, returns home for a brief vacation, he suggests that he can find Eilis a good job.  Though Eilis is woefully unprepared for the cultural changes that she will face, she decides to leave the familiarity of home for a new world.  "Parts of Brooklyn are just like Ireland.  They're full of Irish," she is told.

Focusing on the minutiae of life, which is Eilis's own focus, Toibin recreates her passage across a stormy Atlantic, her introduction to life in a Brooklyn boarding house, with its assortment of characters, and her experience as a saleswoman at a department store in the ethnically changing Brooklyn neighborhood where she lives.  She sometimes attends Saturday dances at the local parish hall, and she attends night school, studying to become a bookkeeper/accountant.  It is certainly not an exciting life, and it is not an exciting plot, yet Toibin recreates Eilis's feelings within these scenes so minutely and chooses his descriptive details so carefully, that her life becomes a delicate drama, a life filled with universal themes "writ small."

As she faces the challenges of her new life in Brooklyn,we see her as immature, nave, and touchingly anxious to please.  Sometimes timid, she is also, on occasion, almost impossibly righteous.  Despite her firm grounding in her Catholic faith, however, she is surprisingly enigmatic and vacillating--reluctant to take chances--and she can try the patience of her reader as much as she does some of the characters in the novel.  Through his simple and straightforward language and imagery, however, Toibin allows us to share Eilis's inner life, and we come to know her on an emotional level.  Immature and "unformed" as she may be, she is understandable and comes alive.  When she meets Tony, "innocent, eager and shiny,"  at a parish dance, it appears to be an ideal romance.

A trip home to Ireland leads to the climax, in which Eilis, like so many other emigrants before her, must confront how much she may have changed, if at all, as a result of her experience in another world and what she sees as her future.  Readers may argue about the "rightness" of the conclusion, the realism or its lack in Part IV, and the extent to which the author relies on coincidence to resolve the action, but in his characterization of an often conflicted main character (and in the vibrant supporting characters), Toibin has created a memorable novel which proves that a character "drama" like this need not always be shocking in order to be "dramatic."  n  Mary Whipple

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2772165
Far too often, I choose light-weight reading as I read to escape the everyday. Not always, however, and this week I fortunately plucked this novel from my ever-growing list of must-reads.  One of the attractions was its pleasing, engrossing length. It is very well-constructed--so well that one feels it is the only way the story could be, and I found myself surprised quite far in to recognize the parallels. The experience of war here is sufficiently harrowing to allow the experience without being so dreadful that one cannot read it.  The lives unfold as lives do, with sweet moments in the midst of dreadful circumstances, and the wise among us choosing to make the best of the good while putting aside the rest. Poignant.
351507
Although not autobiographical, many of the characteristics of the narrator, Grant Wiggins, are in this deeply moving novel about 1940's southern life on a plantation in which lifestyles of the freed man of color are little different from their slave ancestors.  A simple reading on Wikipedia shows the parallels.

A mentally challenged boy, Jefferson,  is the victim in this novel. Bullied to accompany other hooligans into a store, the endeavor becomes a ruckus and a shooting ensues.  The bad boys who requested the innocent's company, and the store owner, die.  Because the boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and not altogether thinking about what to do when the bodies lay prostrate on the cold floor, a trial before a white judge, before a white jury, led tot he unsurprising result - the death penalty.

It is at this point that the boy's grandmother does the great deed - she tells her best friend to tell her nephew to teach the boy.  So Grant Wiggins, who owes everything to his aunt, begrudgingly abides by the women's request, and goes to the jail on routine basis to see if he can make the innocent Jefferson become a man.

What passes over the pages is great literature. At first, Grant and Jefferson have stilted, if any, conversation.  Thereafter, the walls between them subside and each learns from the other.  Cleverly, the witnesses from the outside, the readers, grow as well.

Although you know that the young man will never receive a pardon, although you know Jefferson will inevitably warm up to Grant, and although the many of the reactions by the whites who witness the relationship between Grant and Jefferson are predictable, this is a great novel.  This is writing by someone who knows the art. Do not rely on this objective perspective alone -  A Lesson Before Dying won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.

Etched in the novel's seemingly simple story are great philosophical proclamations.  Sometimes sneaky, often seemingly dicta to the novel's core, they scoot by the skimming reader.  But, don't miss these pearls of wisdom.  Here is one example.

"We black men have failed to protect our women since the time of slavery.  We stay here in the South and are broken, or we run away and leave them alone to look after the children and themselves. So each time a male child is born, they hope he will be the one to change this vicious circle - which he never does. Because even though he wants to change it, and maybe even tries to change it, it is too heavy a burden because of all the others who have run away and left their burdens behind. So he, too, must run away if he is to hold onto his sanity and have a life of his own."

I had never read works by Mr. Gaines before. I intend to find others and hope they are even just partially a moving as this novel.
3584162
This novel deals with some serious and important themes we all come across at some point in our lives, some more directly than others: grief, homelessness, family relationships, love, spiritual and religious beliefs, prejudice (sexual, social), paedophilia, young runawaysBut it is not an issue novel where the characters are just mouthpieces for different points of view or an attempt at indoctrinating the reader. It is a novel where the reader gets inside the skin of a series of complex characters and experience with them strong emotions. We might share their points of view or not and the world they live in might be far from our daily existence but the author manages to get us completely enthralled by the events life keeps throwing at the protagonists and we cant help but feel for them.
Raphael experiences the loss of his teenage son to a cruel illness, and full of guilt for not being able to reassure him about the afterlife, he lets his life sink, falling into depression and losing his partner, his job and his voice in the company he created, and his earthly possessions. He meets a boy slightly older than his son at the cemetery, Brian, who is homeless like him and whose life is a disaster waiting to happen. Through him, he meets Michael, a childrens social worker. There is hope and Raphael works hard to rebuild his life and create a new family but there are also many difficulties on the way, and the happy moments are interspersed with disappointments and drawbacks. The lives of all the characters in the story are touched by their interactions with each other, and in this drama, nobody is truly evil (with the exception of one of Brians johns) and most are trying to do their best. The third person narration that follows the different characters and allows the reader to see things from their point of view works well; it avoids becoming too intrusive whilst offering insight into the motivations and emotions of the main players.
I was very intrigued by the character of Angela, the nurse, who plays the part of the fairy godmother/guardian angel, always appearing at the most difficult moments, with vital information, support and advice. Id be intrigued to know what other readers thought about her.
The title of the novel comes from Raphaels job as an architect, and the impact his experience of homelessness has on his creativity and his design of the next big project for the city, the opera house, that serves as backdrop to the action. Although I don't know how well the practicalities of the design of the opera house in the novel would work, I admit to loving the concept and the idea.
As a word of warning, there are some erotic scenes (not the most explicit Ive read by far, and fairly brief, one with violence towards a minor) and emotions ride high. Id advice readers to have tissues at hand.
If you like novels about relationships that explore serious issues, with complex characters youll get to care about, I recommend it. This is the third novel Ive read by Hans Hirschi and it won't be the last one.
2488245
The theme of this novel can perhaps be summed up in a question that one of the protagonists poses to herself, "Does anyone have an excuse to live an ordinary life?" The novel tells the intertwined stories of two women, one more or less "ordinary" (Holly, the middle-aged widowed mother of two kids struggling to cope with increasingly desperate financial straits) and the other about as extraordinary as you could imagine (Vivian, a survivor of polio in her 60s who has lived in an iron lung most of her life).  The book toggles back and forth between conventional narrative focusing primarily on Holly's struggles and autobiographical sketches recorded by Vivian.  While the details seem mundane, by the time you are finished with the book, you realize you have been grappling with the extremely important question of resilience:  How are people able to go on when life kicks you in the teeth?  How was Vivian able to rise out of a well of self-pity to become an educated and successful businesswoman, universally respected and liked by her community? How can Holly cope with the grief and loneliness of being a widow early in her life, not to mention the demands of home ownership and parenthood single-handedly, while simultaneously confronting a professional crisis (she is the editor of a failing local newspaper)?

While the novel has the ingredients--and potential--to wallow in despair, the overall message is the exact opposite.  We see instead that people can make it through circumstances that most of us would believe to be devastating.  We see that Vivian finds the courage to set goals and achieve them, and to grasp control of her life even though she can move only her head. In that respect, Holly--one of Vivian's caretakers--finds Vivian to be more of an inspiring role model than the converse.

While there were aspects of the conclusion not to my liking (Holly's problems get resolved perhaps too neatly and unrealistically), without giving any spoilers, the climactic act raises important moral issues of autonomy and the right of people to control their own destinies.  "The Virtues of Oxygen" leads us to the conclusion that the strength of will matters far more than any physical limitations.
420542
In this tale, Morrison recounts the destruction of Pecola Breedlove, an African-American schoolgirl in 1940s Ohio. (Morrison reveals the ending - in brief - at the beginning, so I haven't given anything away here.) The author uses narrative from various points of view (Pecola herself, one of her classmates, her mother, and her father) and spans several decades to tell the story.

Ultimately, the story is a powerful illustration of how experiences and viewpoints (in this case, mostly negative) get passed on from parent to child. Morrison further reveals in her afterword that this novel (her first) was an exploration of "the damaging internalization of assumptions of immutable inferiority," and "something as grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take root inside the most delicate member of society: a child." These lessons are well taught through Morrison's adept storytelling.

The prose is gorgeous. I regularly relished Morrison's beautiful diction, phrasing, and narrative technique. In that regard, the book is a fine piece of art.

Morrison laments that the story "didn't work: many readers remain touched but not moved." The goal was that the readers would, rather than pity Pecola's destruction, be led into "an interrogation of themselves for the smashing." Although the book may not lead to as much introspection as Morrison wished, it still managed to evoke deep emotions.
4786305
At times tender, at times achingly painful, this debut novel tells the story of a young girl born with a rare genetic condition given the opportunity to look back on her life and her impact upon those she loves in her "after-life."  The author has an artful grasp on his characters and their motivations (both simple and complex).  This is a poignant saga, and a satisfying read, of all the ups and downs and foibles and love of a true-to-life family. Raoul Wientzen is a unique new voice, and I look forward to his next effort with anticipation.
3951947
Bombay Time deals with the Parsi residents of a Bombay apartment house in a delightfully fresh way. Always in the background is the setting of the huge city itself, which most of the characters feel has changed for worse during the their lifetimes. To a large extent the novel is really a series of related "mini-biographies" of characters who have known each other throughout their lives, with the focus shifting from time to time to a different character. As a novelist writing recently about Indian characters myself (in India Treasures), I greatly admire Thrity Umrigar's insightful and sympathetic portrayals. Compared to the multitudes of the poor outside on the streets, the apartment residents live a privileged existence, yet they have their own worries and problems. While focused on the viewpoint of one resident, the reader typically learns something about another character in the building, often one with whom there is some sort of conflict. Later in the book, the viewpoint shifts to that other resident, and the reader has the revelation of seeing how differently that person views himself from how he's seen by the other characters. The framework of the novel is a wedding that almost all residents attend, where most of the late-middle aged characters realize how much their lives have ended up disappointingly different from their plans or hopes when they were young; yet, in a short space of hours the characters come to see themselves and their antagonists with more empathy and understanding. Along with them, I found myself viewing people in general in a more positive light, quite a compliment to Thrity Umrigar's skill.
4873898
[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Blogging For Books/Broadway Books in exchange for an honest review.]

I must admit that I enjoyed reading this book a lot more than I enjoyed reading Middlemarch when, about a decade ago, one of my former classmates compared me to Nicholas Bulstrode, the prim and sanctimonious hypocrite who serves as the novels true villain. As my interest in the novel was to untangle a mystery, I suppose it would not be fair to blame a lengthy and richly complicated novel merely because the characterization was an unpleasant one. This book, which has a chapter for every book in Middlemarch (there are 8 in all), takes about 300 pages of carefully researched and documented text unraveling three interrelated mysteries. One is a textual analysis of Middlemarch and its commentaries and reviews, one is the life of George Eliot and how it influenced and informed her writing, and the third is a memoir of the author herself and the way in which Middlemarch has shaped her own life, as well as the way in which growing up has led to different readings of the same text.

All of these levels are woven together skillfully and form a rich textual tapestry. The best books (like the novels of Jane Austen, referred to often here) are those with enough depth and complexity that they reward deep reading. As readers invariably personalize the texts they read to feel closer to them, a text that offers enough richness of characterization is able to be deeply resonant with others. Many of us can relate to feeling past our prime, caught in unhappy marriages or a longing for a better life than a provincial small town life of our childhood. Others can relate to being older scholars in heady and passionate courtships with earnest and adoring young women, or struggling to deal with debt and honor and reputation, and seeking what is best for others even when it hurts us to do it.

Despite being nearly 300 pages of text, along with bibliographic material, the book feels short (unlike Middlemarch itself) largely because its interlocking aims and complex structure reward reading and provide a great deal of interest without overstaying its welcome. A reader of this book not only gets to know the life of Rebecca Mead and George Eliot (and her friends and family) and the characters of Middlemarch better, but also leaves with a greater sense of the importance of reading good literature and the melancholy nature of life and love. Furthermore, the book makes Eliot a likeable figure despite occasionally waspish wit and an unsettling and unconventional life. Often great thinking and great writing come from intense suffering, and just as the witty but timid Eliot was only able to start writing great fiction once finding happiness in love, so too many people require fortunate circumstance for the full blossoming of our greatest gifts. We may not all have a life in Middlemarch, but whatever fiction inspires us does so because it possesses depth and richly rewards our study and loyalty and repeated reading.
884917
This wonderfully moving novel takes us into the lives of remarkably non-remarkable but real characters, whose lives speak of the universal human condition. Theirs was an age and place where vanity and self-absorption were not the norm. This novel does not scream bloody murder at the reader. Rather it quietly takes us inside the minds and hearts of it characters, most of whom (with one major exception) live rather unexamined - but deeply felt -- lives, as most people do. This novel carries us through a difficult time (The Great Depression and post-Depression era) in a difficult place (the deep rural South). After reading this book I felt that I had been on a very long trip with some good lifelong friends to some other, simpler, less pretentious world. The image of a southern farmstead on the cover captures the atmosphere...if you like the cover, I think you'll like the book.
4923680
This is a wonderful novel; the writing is beautiful, the story is gripping. At first I was a bit put off by the way the author jumps back and forth between characters from chapter to chapter, but as I read on I came to appreciate her masterful work in drawing the reader in to the central mystery and yet making us care about all of the characters (and there are quite a few characters). Her writing borders on the poetic: her descriptions of people,  places and things makes the reader feel like s/he is there observing, too. The novel combines what is essentially a "character study" of a whole community with a mystery, whose answer is not revealed until the final chapters. What a lovely book... a must-read.
4478198
Certain types of characters are a given in novels about WWII and resistance movements: the fiery, doubting cleric; the loner antihero who drinks to forget; the noble, self-sacrificing woman on the homefront; the oafish, seemingly dense but surprisingly heroic peasant... A Thread of Grace has these characters, but Mary Doria Russell fleshes them out superbly so that they seem fresh, and surrounds them with a bounty of unique, distinctive friends, enemies, and kin. In fact, my one criticism of the book is that there are almost too many characters to keep track of; happily there's a list of major characters in the front of the book to assist.

The writing is precise and insightful without being distractingly ornate. The story moves quickly. The fates of the heroes and villains are more often than not unexpected--and as was the case in real life, too often heartbreaking. If you're looking for a haunting, thoughtful story that will resonate long after you've finished, this is it.
2822268
Keith Donohue's debut novel is an artful inquiry into identity and relationships, unfurled through a dark fairytale. It delivers the supernatural in such earnest that the reader never doubts its veracity. This dual-narrative follows the life of Aniday, a child snatched by changelings, and Henry Day, the doppelganger who has stolen his identity and his life.

The being that becomes Henry finds his identity assaulted both from within and by those around him. The unwitting adoptive father, vexed by the imposter-son's sudden development of musical talent, compulsively erodes the lie and himself in the process. Both strands of the story explore the relationships between parents and children, but Henry's experiences, first as a son and later as a father, deliver a stark perspective on the divide between fathers and sons.

The author's expansive yet unpretentious command of literature is most evident through Aniday's abductors. Donohue's gang of ageless changelings evoke Barrie's mischievous Lost Boys and Golding's brutal tribe of children uncivilized, but reflect a numb cynicism that can only be earned with age. The well-read Speck channels Dickens' Nancy, sometimes mother and sometimes object of an innocent's desire.

The product is a play of distant but sympathetic characters searching for themselves, their roots, and their purpose across the span of frequently melancholy, often startling lives. Along the way, the reader finds questions about family, growing up, and a changing world. Donohue fluently manipulates theme, voice, memory, and the perception of time to craft a moving and entertaining myth. Witness the birth of a classic.
4410935
I learned quite a bit about the diverse cultures of the characters in this moving novel. While they were somewhat foreign to my personal experience, the author brought them to life in such a way that I found myself caring for each of them deeply. A beautiful, poignant book.
4508421
While Gogol is the central character in the novel, it is something of a character study of the parents as well. The name change is a metaphor for Gogol's evolution as an Indian-American wanting to be more of an American who is simply of Indian heritage. This is strikingly evident in his two main love interests who are like day and night. The writing is fluid and descriptive although sometimes oddly and awkwardly using passive present voice ("The book is seen by him as he turns around." as opposed to "He turned around and saw the book."). My main criticism, though, is the truly melancholy feeling about Gogol's relationships - whether it's with his father, his mother, his love interests - and how all of their stories end. I truly cared about the characters, but wished somehow things might have resolved in a more positive way. I'll push this from three and a half up to four stars for the wonderful insight of life of foreign nationals settling in America and the compelling storyline.
4877452
I just read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and I could not put it down. All of Betty Smith's characters are vivid illustrations of types of personalities, yet she manages to show a bright side to all of them; the alcoholic father  who loves his daughter, the "free" aunt who knows the true  meaning of family loyalty, and a strong, sometimes harsh mother who will  fight to the death for her children. This book is poignant and touching,  with scenes that expose the tender and fragile nature of childhood.  Francie's insights about society and people are also thought-provoking. The  novel is an easy-read; however, by no means should it not be considered a  literary treasure. Pick this one up for a novel study, a reading group, or  just some summer reading next to the pool.