To mark the 50th anniversary of The Tin Drum, a new translation of Nobel Prize Winner Gunter Grass's masterpiece has been released. Featuring one of literature's most unforgettable characters, Oskar Matzerath, The Tin Drum effectively examines the German psyche during and after World War II. It shows the brutality of the Nazis and the absurdity of war through the eyes of a boy who refuses to grow out of childhood. Even after fifty years, it remains just as poignant and relevant today as it was when it was first published.
The Tin Drum has rightly earned its place in the pantheon of great books. If you appreciate excellent world literature, but haven't had the chance to read this yet, take the opportunity that this new translation presents to you to introduce yourself to it. It is a book that will challenge you, but it is worth it.
Colin Singleton — former child prodigy, anagram expert, and recent high school graduate — has a problem. In his brief eighteen-year life, he's been dumped by nineteen girls, all named Katherine, with Katherine XIX breaking it off just after graduation. Adrift in the nebulous space between childhood and manhood, high school and college, he's convinced that life is over. His best friend Hassan — an overweight Lebanese whose two loves in life are Judge Judy and junk food, and insists on introducing himself to people with the disclaimer "I'm not a terrorist" — knows the cure for what's ailing Colin: a lengthy road trip to nowhere. Just them, the open highway, Colin's car (a beater Oldsmobile nicknamed "Satan's Hearse"), and absolutely no girls named Katherine. Their wanderings lead them to Gutshot, Kentucky, the alleged final resting place of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There, Colin and Hassan get attacked by a feral hog and find themselves roped into an oral history project of the town's factory, while Colin tries to reduce his abysmal love life to a mathematical equation (the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability). But will lovely Lindsay Lee Wells be the one to break the cycle of Katherines for Colin, and will he perhaps discover something about himself in the process?
Penned by John Green, winner of the Printz Award for Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines is hilarious from beginning to end. There's the snappy and laugh-out-loud funny dialogue, the footnotes on nearly every page, the use of the faux epithet 'fug' (a nod to Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead), and there's also the great anagrams Colin comes up with (e.g., 'yrs forever' = 'sorry fever'). The characters are really well-rounded, and Green does a great job portraying Colin's journey of self-discovery. There's also the fact that the book works on so many levels. It's intelligent and a bit geeky, while at the same time full of bawdy humor (mostly from Hassan), and yet manages to say something about love and relationships. This is one book where you can actually say it has something for everyone.
This is the type of novel that lingers long after you've put it down. Clara, the main character, is an undertaker who grows flowers in a greenhouse attached to her cottage behind the funeral home where she works. She feels it's her job to honor the memory of each person she prepares for burial. She tucks a small bouquet of flowers in their casket; each flower has a special meaning which represents that person's life. Clara has secrets of her own, and throughout the book, she tells stories of her youth, and the major moments which shaped her into the troubled young woman she is in the novel. At the heart of this story is the unsolved murder of Precious Doe, a young girl who was found murdered nearby three years previously. No one ever claimed the child, and Clara visits her grave in the nearby cemetery. The mystery of Precious Doe takes center stage, and the race is on to find out who the killer is and if they'll be stopped before another child is murdered. Precious Doe is the most obvious symbol of lost identity in the novel, and Clara has also lost her sense of self through the actions of others in her life. This story will grab you and keep you reading until the final heartbreaking, yet beautiful pages. I can't say anymore without giving away key parts of the story--but what a book to read and discuss with your friends. This is a novel I would not have read otherwise, but the cover captured my attention, and the writing pulled me into the story until I couldn't put it down.
I know of few novels - except Pride and Prejudice - that inspire as much fierce lifelong affection in their readers as I Capture the Castle. - Joanna Trollope
One of my favorite books (outside of Jane Austen's canon of course), I Capture the Castle is a contemporary classic originally published in 1948, but still as fresh and vibrant today. Dodie Smith, more famously remembered for her children's classic 101 Dalmatians, has humorously assembled an eccentric cast of characters living in less than genteel poverty in a crumbling castle in England. The story is revealed through 17-year old heroine in the making and aspiring writer Cassandra Mortmain in a series of journals, an she attempt to improve her skills as ticket out of her dire circumstances. Her sister Rose will use more avarice means to free herself from her parent's neglect by setting her cap for their wealthy new landlord Simon, and easily succeeds. Less of a schemer, Cassandra is attracted to his younger brother Neil and is hopeful for her own romance. As the wedding plans proceed, Rose's vain and selfish nature blossoms with her newly elevated social position causing conflict. Cassandra, left out of the plans and Simon, who Rose is treating as an annoyance are drawn into their own romance.. Rose, on the other hand, is drifting away from Simon and secretly into the arms of his brother Neil. An elopement will cause a family panic, a change of heart and an unusual ending.
Filled with allusions to Pride and Prejudice, this coming of age story is more a gentle nod to Austen's style than a copy of her novel. Witty and moving, Smith connects with readers through perceptive observation played against dry wit resulting in a moving and memorable story. It's what makes for great literature, and also what Austen is valued for today. Enjoy!
Laurel Ann, Austenprose
A Welcome Grave (Lincoln Perry Series #3)
Lincoln Perry's back! And, once again, I have nothing but praise. A Welcome Grave is somewhat darker than its predecessors, but I again read the book cover-to-cover, unable to look away until I reached the end. With how easy Koryta makes it to empathize with the good guys, hate the bad guys, and worry through the shades of gray, it's no wonder it's so easy to be completely swept up into this not-so-fictional world.
By this book, the reader knows that Lincoln lost his job on the police force when he found out his fiancée was having an affair with prominent lawyer, Alex Jefferson, got drunk, drove to see him, and punched Jefferson in the face. So when the first lines of the book are, "Sometime after midnight, on a moonless October night turned harsh by a fine, windswept rain, one of the men I liked least in the world was murdered... The detectives went looking for suspects -- people whose histories with Jefferson were adversarial and hostile. At the top of that list, they found me..." you know right away Lincoln's in trouble. Being investigated for murder by the very department for which he used to work, Lincoln complicates matters more by being unable to refuse an assignment by the widow Jefferson, his ex-fiancée. She sends him to find her late husband's estranged son and let him know of his inheritance. Instead of the simple assignment he expected, Lincoln ends up in a jail in Indiana, and Jefferson's son ends up in the morgue. With the case against him growing increasingly strong, Lincoln must race against time to find the real killer and clear his own name.
With an unrelenting pace and depth far surpassing expectation, it's no wonder this new addiction is so compelling. More please!
For more Lincoln Perry see Tonight I Said Goodbye (Lincoln Perry Series #1), Sorrow's Anthem (Lincoln Perry Series #2), and The Silent Hour (Lincoln Perry Series #4). For Michael's stand-alone novels, check out Envy the Night and his new release,So Cold the River.
Sorrow's Anthem (Lincoln Perry Series #2)
After finishing Michael Koryta's first novel, Tonight I Said Goodbye (Lincoln Perry Series #1), it took all of five minutes before I was in the car, on the way to get the next book. After a sleepless, page-turning night, I was once again impressed with the "unputdownableness" (official Barnes & Noble lingo!) of Koryta's writing.
Sorrow's Anthem is the second of (so far, I hope!) four novels starring former cop PI Lincoln Perry, only this time, the case is personal. In fact, no one even hired Lincoln. Plagued by guilt over his involvement in his childhood best friend, Ed Gradduk's, arrest, Lincoln is shocked to hear that the now ex-con is the prime suspect in a murder/arson case. Still wanting to try to do right by Ed, Lincoln seeks him out. After only a brief insight into what had happened, a police car arrives on the scene and Ed is killed in the chase, right before Lincoln's eyes. Against the advice of his partner, Joe, and against the wishes of Ed's mother and the rest of the neighborhood, Lincoln dives headfirst into the case and, inevitably, his own past. Intent on clearing Ed's name, Lincoln's fervor brings trouble down on Joe and himself as the discovery of another murder confuses the case even more.
Sorrow's Anthem is fast-faced, riveting, and explosive without being plot-heavy, as it left me feeling even closer to the characters than the first book. I will DEFINITELY keep reading and you should, too!
When Lanie Coates and her family uproot themselves from Houston to Cambridge, Massachusetts so that husband Peter can pursue his musical aspirations, this mother of three slides into a giant-sized mid-life crisis. The crush of three young sons and the absence of a support system leave her reeling, doubting even the authenticity of her marriage. Suddenly, without notice, an old camera found a storage closet offers not just release, but also exciting new vistas. Novelist Marisa de los Santos said that “I laughed, winced in recognition, and cheered wholeheartedly (sometimes out loud) for Lanie as she struggles to learn how to love everyone enough and still give part of herself to herself.”
Dark family secrets, savage acts of violence, and simmering resentments surface in this auspicious novel debut. For several generations before, during, and after World War I, the Richters and Sutters of New Germany, Minnesota have lived beside one another, their lives strangely and tragically intertwined. Estranged from their more assimilated neighbors, these ingrown old world families have shared one another’s company and punished one another for their unspeakable misdeeds. Nicole Helget’s debut novel resonates with the atmosphere of haunting European folklore and the immediacy of characters you can’t forget.
A yard sale at an old Victorian house, hosted by a young couple, the wife eight months pregnant with their first child. Among the eager bargain hunters is a barely recognized former classmate of these happily married high school sweethearts. This aggressive, nervous woman, also expecting, talks her way into the aging mansion. She is never seen again. Suspicion begins to slip around the necks of the young couple; when incriminating evidence is found, the husband is arrested for murder. The wife, left to investigate on her own, begins to realize that she scarcely knows the man she married. What she doesn’t yet know is that the surprises have just begun…..
Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron is the first volume in a new series from bestselling author Jasper Fforde. The world conjured in this series is in some aspects like our own - there's tea, jam, bacon (if the Greys don't eat it all first), team sports, linoleum, forks and knives - but it is also quite different, particularly in respect to color (also, there aren't very many spoons). One's place and path in life is determined by one's ability to see colors in the visible light spectrum; Purples (and Ultraviolets) are upperclass with classes arranged in descending wavelength and Greys (those who see no color) at the bottom of the heap. This is the world of Eddie Russett, sent to East Carmine to conduct a chair census and learn some humility. But the Outer Fringes don't quite follow the Rules like Eddie is used to and he soon finds his well-planned life turned topsy-turvy in only a few days.
Shades of Grey is delightful and just what I expected of a Jasper Fforde novel - witty, clever, and absurd - so I was prepared to enjoy Eddie's story but there is a darkness to this novel. The dystopian world of Chromatacia is evocative of We, Brave New World, and 1984 with issues of class, self-determination, and freedom at the heart of the story. The suggestion that something sinister lurks at the heart of Chromatacia sets the stage for a fantastic story arc to carry through the next two books in the trilogy. I also greatly enjoyed Fforde's ability to build this world, making it understandable and believable to the reader, without resorting to stretches of exposition. Shades of Grey has a little something for everyone - action, romance, thrills, yucks - and it's a great book to start off the new year.
For a little "something extra" visit the Jasper Fforde website - click on the "Shades of Grey" graphic to access the special features for Shades of Grey and see what was rolling around Fforde's bean while writing the book.
If you spend a lot of time with poets, you know that many of them spend a lot of their time musing about poetry and other poets, rather than actually writing verse themselves. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; it might actually make their poems better. Whatever the case, Paul Chowder, the narrator of this novel, is definitely one such poet. At the moment, he's stuck between a hard place and stone cold silence. His girlfriend Roz has (not completely unwisely) deserted him and he's collided with a writing block that prevents him from writing a short anthology introduction that will bring him a big payday. Fortunately, his mind is moving at top speed, though not always in predictable directions. Like Nicholson Baker's previous novels, The Anthologist unfolds so idiosyncratically that it will never be optioned for the screen, which actually makes it that much winning as a work of fiction. His ruminations on poets past, present, and future are worth the price of the book, but it's the whole trajectory of Chowder's journey that makes The Anthologist the winning book it is.
We all know that Snow White's stepmother is wicked, right? Who else would demand her Huntsman to cut out her daughter's heart and bring it back in a locked box? Well, the Queen isn't so much evil as she, well, let me not get ahead of myself.
The Evil Queen hasn't always been a queen. The daughter of a master mirror maker, she actually has a modest upbringing lacking a mother's guiding hand. The King, indeed, notices her when admiring her father's craftsmanship in the family shop. The young-maiden-soon-to-be-evil-queen never imagines that the King could have any genuine interest in her. But when he comes to court her, she timidly steps into the Kingdom that will be her bliss.
The King has been married before, but sadly Death steals his wife at a young age. This leaves the ill-fated King to raise young Snow White alone—at least until he meets his new Queen. Having come of age without a mother, yet wistfully envisioning who she would have been, the Queen vows to be the perfect mother to Snow White. She dotes on Snow, telling her stories, taking her on adventures, and honestly answering questions about her real mother. The Queen is a nurturing mother and caring bride. The madness begins when the King goes off to battle for months at a time...
Like any normal wife, she constantly worries about his safety. She tries to pass the time with her lovely daughter, taking her on outings, spending time with family including the King's deranged triplet cousins. Sometimes that just isn't enough to keep her sane, especially since the cousins have delivered a special gift to the castle—a magic mirror. This mirror actually had been a present from the King on their wedding day, but disappears after the Queen breaks it. When it returns, it possesses an ominous presence that she cannot shake. The great King ultimately dies in battle, the ghastly looking glass describing each horrifying detail to his fragile wife.
When the Evil Queen reveals the identity of the apparition in the mirror, almost everything makes sense. She fills in all the sordid details, leaving us no doubt that her hatred of Snow White is justified. By the end of the story, we have been drawn into sympathizing with her lethal lunacy. Don't believe me? Try reading this twisted tale—just in time for the long-awaited DVD release of the Disney classic adaptation.
William Trevor novels invite us into a world so fully formed that you might imagine that it really exists somewhere. In the case of Love & Summer, his 14th novel, the gateway couldn't be more plausible:
Mrs. Connulty owned half the town of Rathmoye, Ireland, so it is only natural that her funeral would draw out the entire community. Among the throng is one stranger who arrives with a camera. Photographer Florian Kilderry merely chances upon the gathering, but his presence is noticed by two women: Mrs. Connulty's aging spinster daughter and Ellie Dillahan, the naïve country girl who has recently married a older widowed farmer. Kilderry intends to leave soon for other lands, but before he goes, he and his two attentive watchers will become part of a drama that will change them and the place where they live. Reviewers always write that William Trevor is one of England and Ireland's finest literary novelists; I prefer to think of him as one of our keenest observers of human behavior.
The Missing is one of the best examples of southern writing I have read since Pat Conroy. The story revolves around a quiet man who finds himself in the middle of chaos. Upon returning from Europe after WW1 he is an unwilling participant in the kidnapping of a toddler. Driven by guilt, he sets out to find her and bring her back to her family who are workers on one of the Mississippi steamboats. During this journey he learns more about his own family's history and secrets. His strict sense of honor shines through all of the misery and potential unraveling of his own family as well as that of the riverboat community. Tim Gatreaux weaves a beautiful tapestry of what it means to be from the south and that burning need to do the right thing.
A Regency era historical fiction with a navy man in blue! Need I say more?
Inspired by her love of C.S. Forester's dashing Royal Navy hero Horatio Hornblower and Jane Austen's novel Persuasion, new author Kaye Dacus' Ransome's Honor is a moving Regency era historical fiction infused with naval lore and engaging characters. The novel is set in Royal Navy port of Portsmouth and begins in 1802 as the war with France has come to end. Seventeen year old Julia Witherington will never forgive Lieutenant William Ransome for not proposing to her when she and all of Portsmouth society expected it. He is a promising young naval officer who has earned his advancement but no fortune. She is an heiress and the daughter of his Captain. Feeling he will be tagged a fortune-hunter, his honor prevents him from proposing. Reunited twelve years later, the intelligent and proud Julia is still harboring strong resentment and Captain Ransome his regrets. Pressured by her unscrupulous relatives into an alliance with her ne'er-do-well cousin Sir Drake Pembroke, she enters into a bargain with Captain Ransome for a one year marriage in exchange for her dowry. He is not interested in her money, but is honor bound by his promise to her father his commanding officer and his own heart to assist her. Will Ransome's honor prevail and soften Julia's resolve and rekindle her affections?
A sweet romance, this novel is actually classified as Christian fiction, but I did not find the religious vein imposing. A most delightful voyage with the distinguished and dishy Captain Ransome, I am all anticipation of his further adventures in romance, and the sea, when the next installment of The Ransome Trilogy, Ransome's Crossing makes port next July.
Laurel Ann, Austenprose
In the fifth installment in her Pink Carnation Series, more Napoleonic espionage ensues as Lauren Willig spins her captivating tale following the exploits of Robert Lansdowne, the reluctant Duke of Dovedail and his bookish young cousin Charlotte. Set in England in 1803, Robert's unexpected return after a decade in the Army in India to his ducal estate in Sussex rekindles Lady Charlotte's idealistic romantic fantasies. Fueled by her passion for popular 'novels' such as Evelina, she is hopeful that Robert has come home to rescue her from the embarrassment of three failed London seasons and her grandmother's succession of unacceptable eligible bachelors. However, Robert's main objective is not romance, but to track down the spy who murdered his mentor during the Battle of Assaye. Even though their reunion sparks a quick romance, Robert abruptly ends their relationship and departs for London in pursuit of the elusive spy whose signature scent is the heady and seductive night jasmine. Meanwhile, Charlotte acting as lady in waiting to Queen is witness to the madness of King George, or is she? Robert and Charlotte must join forces to thwart the plot to kidnap the king, and learn to trust each again before they can catch a spy, and, re-fall in love.
Reverently harkening to her predecessors Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, Willig handles comedy, historical context, and dialogue beautifully. In addition to The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, the Pink Carnation series included The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, The Masque of the Black Tulip, The Deception of the Emerald Ring and The Seduction of the Crimson Rose. Her next novel in the series is The Betrayal of the Blood Lily is due out in January, 2010. If you re in the mood for a Regency era romantic spy comedy romp, I recommend this book highly.
Laurel Ann, Austenprose
It shouldn’t surprise us that more than one reader has compared J. California Cooper’s novels to the works of Zora Neale Hurston. Like the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Cooper witnesses people going about their lives in small-town American appreciatively, but without sentimentality or an abiding sense of human pain. In Life is Short But Wide, several generations of residents of tiny Wideland, Oklahoma tangle with economic hardship, historic change, and, of course, romance. Cooper has a gift; her novels offer access into a world of rural African American life that few of us have witnessed on such an intimate human level.
Every Monday evening, eight men and women come to Lillian’s Restaurant to learn cooking and, perhaps, also find a healing recipe for the very diverse problems in their own lives. Lillian, a master chef in more ways than one, knows that she teaches lessons more subtle and far-reaching than chopping or blending or achieving the ideal texture. In her classes, she imparts wisdom through the essential ingredients that she combines and shapes into aromatic, delectable treats.
