Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer

I started reading this novel at my eleven-year-old daughter's elementary school's roaring twenties gala. I knew to take along a book, because at the last school function, a seventies soiree, she asked me not to dance with her. Then I was crushed, but this time I was happy to find a little corner beneath a dim light and submerge.

I thought I would be crying my eyes out, knowing the subject matter was a boy's loss of his father on 9/11, but for the first third of the novel, and then intermittently throughout, I laughed my head off. I forgot I was at an elementary school dance, as I wiped tears from my eyes and threw my head back in uncontrollable laughter. A mother sitting next to me assumed I was laughing at a kid dancing in front of us. "He is hilarious," she said. I pointed at the book. "This is hilarious," but I didn't want to be sucked into a conversation with her, so I stuck my head back between the pages.

To me, the story was like a cross between The Incident with a Dog in the Nighttime and The Shadow of the Wind. Three different narrators, all with issues, are endearing and tragic in their own ways. We have the boy, Oskar, whose father is killed in 9-11; we have his grandma who helps to take care of him and whose family was killed in the bombing of Dresden; and we have the grandpa he never met and who also lost family and loved ones in Dresden, where he knew Oskar's grandma. There are a host of other interesting characters, equally memorable, which add great depth to the story and illustrate the genuine goodness people are capable of along with the evil.

It's interesting to see the parallels between the two tragedies generations apart and the struggle of the survivors to continue to live in a world where such things happen.

My book club hasn't yet met to discuss this story, but I couldn't wait to blog about it. We are in the process of finding a date on which we can all watch the movie together. After our meeting, I may update this entry to better represent the reaction of the entire group and to add my opinion of the movie.

I highly recommend this novel.

A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick

I read A Reliable Wife in one day. I literally could not put it down. I instantly cared for the characters, even though Ralph beat his son and Catherine was plotting to murder Ralph. Although the novel was written by a man, the internal lives of the characters were as fleshed out as one finds more frequently in stories written by women. One member in my book club said that she thought she was reading the words of a woman. To me, the sex gave the author away. More sensual and romantic than the sex authored by most men I've read, the shear abundance of it signaled to me that a male psyche was behind the story. Someone once told me that men have sexual thoughts throughout the day, and that was certainly demonstrated in this story. But I was not put off by it at all. I sympathized and longed for Ralph to find pleasure.

Everybody in my book club felt that Catherine went too far in her plot to murder Ralph, and that if she hadn't tried so hard to save her sister, her sympathy as a character would have been lost. And Ralph accepted too much. Once the horrible side effects of the arsenic presented themselves, he should have fought back, though I suppose his dilerium might have hindered that.

Tony was also nicely fleshed-out and complex. He was easy to hate, but also easy to understand. I was satisfied with the way the author ended the story, though not as sure as Catherine concerning whose child she carried. I was okay with that. I liked the ambiguity and felt Ralph would want to raise the child regardless.

I highly recommend this novel.

The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain

My book club read this novel about Hemingway this month, and every person in the club enjoyed it. Having read most of Hemingway's works, in addition to works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson, and Gertrude Stein (not to mention the Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas--Stein's lifelong partner), I can say with confidence that McLain depicts the essence of Hemingway's life as a young man. The Bohemian lifestyle of the expatriates, the attention to the craft of writing, the struggles with finances, and Hemingway's interactions with other literary figures and their partners all ring true. I also felt McLain was able to show the inspiration behind Hemingway's writing of The Sun Also Rises, with wonderful scenes of the bullfights in Pamplona, Spain.

Told from the point of view of Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, this fictional interpretation submerged me into Hemingway's lifestyle and struggles while presenting me with a good story. I immediately liked Hadley and sympathized with her, feeling crushed by her husband's betrayals. There were moments I hated Hemingway, but McLain does a superior job of keeping him sympathetic to the end.

I highly recommend this novel.

Mothers and Other Liars, by Amy Bourret

How would you feel if what you believed to be true about your nine-year-old daughter weren't, and she was suddenly taken away from you even as you attempted to do the right thing? I don't think I could go on living, but Ruby does as she fights to be reunited with her daughter in Amy Bourret's well-crafted novel, Mothers and Other Liars.

With a literary, musical style and vivid characters and setting, Bourret takes us through Ruby's struggle in Santa Fe, New Mexico to avoid prison and protect her precious daughter, not to mention the baby growing inside of her. I found myself sobbing uncontrollably and clinging to my own daughter after sneaking into her room in the middle of night, just to remind myself that she was still there. I can't recall another book making me react so strongly. I could barely read between my tears.

Ruby comes up with a surprising plan to save her daughter, and, I have to say that, as a mother, I would have done the exact same thing! Ruby's actions are entirely believable and sympathetic, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the ending.

I highly recommend this novel.

The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett

As in Bel Canto, I was a hundred pages into this novel and still wondering why I hadn't given up. I'll tell you why I kept reading: It wasn't because the plot immediately compelled me. It wasn't because I connected with the characters or even understood them. I kept reading because State of Wonder and Bel Canto changed my life and I had faith that if I kept going, I wouldn't be sorry.

I was right.

Somewhere between the first hundred pages and the last hundred, I came to care so deeply for the characters, that I couldn't stand to be away from them. Even now, I want to jump back into the pages of the novel and say, "Scoot over. Make room for me. I want to spend more time with you."

I feel so sad that the story is over. I wish I would have dragged it out a little longer. The characters become so personable and intimate, and the plot, which seems insignificant in the first half of the story, has a major surprise by the end. How delightful you are, Ann Patchett! I can't wait to read another of your books!

Burning Bright, by Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier is one of my favorite authors. I've loved every book she's written, except this one. Although she created believable and endearing characters in Jem and Maggie, she failed to make the real star of the book, William Blake, much more than a friendly blur. If A Girl with Pearl Earring gave me insight into Vermeer, Burning Bright only more confused my understanding of Blake. The children's references to opposites, as an underpinning theme to Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, seemed forced, and most of the recitations of the poetry did as well.

I did enjoy getting to know the children in the story, who were very real and mostly endearing, as well as the English landscape, but the plot was only engaging in a few areas, unlike everything else Chevalier has written. Even my least favorite, Virgin Blue, was better than this one. What a disappointment.

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett

After reading State of Wonder, I immediately returned to the bookstore to find another novel by Ann Patchett. I must admit, I was disappointed, at first. I had trouble getting into the various points of view. I kept wondering, "THIS was a bestseller?" But I knew the whole world couldn't be wrong in recommending this book, so I plowed onward.

Oh...my...God! I am so glad I read this novel! Patchett shows us the beautiful side of humanity and the love we can have for one another in spite of the violence around us. And the catalyst for the bond between people is the joy of music. This story is a study of the role of music, and by extension all of the arts, in bringing the best out of humanity.

I might have written the ending a little differently, but I was very pleased overall and would highly recommend this novel.