By Mat Johnson

The Short Take:

Wow! What a witty romp Mat Johnson has concocted for our enjoyment! His adventure-fantasy satire gleefully pokes at racial identity and even slavery (!?!). His writing is so sly, his approach so original — I just loved it.

Why?

We’ve seen spurious sequels and twisted takes on classic books, but this one is something special. E. A. Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is Johnson’s the starting point — not exactly the best known piece of American literature (and, blessedly, you need absolutely no prior knowledge of that book to fully enjoy this one).  Johnson’s protagonist, Chris Jaynes, discovers that fantastic tale may have some basis in reality and sets out to discover the truth.

Jaynes is a wonderful creation — equally self-aware and self-deluding — he makes a brilliant narrator for this novel. Johnson surrounds this pale-skinned African-American with an all-black team of unlikely crew mates who cope with every obstacle they encounter in wildly different ways.

The entire plot is full of astonishing twists that both parallel with and depart from Poe’s original. But it’s the stories within this book — centered around things like DNA testing, an ongoing riff on a popular artist found in shopping malls, the ineffectiveness of diversity committees — that really strengthen the reader’s enjoyment while cleverly getting across the author’s point.

A Little Plot:

Chris Jaynes doesn’t get tenure because he refuses to serve on the diversity committee (and he’s the only professor of color) and would rather teach Poe than African-American literature. Fortunately his attention is diverted from his woes by an old manuscript written by a real Dirk Peters — the supposedly fictional black character in Poe’s supposedly fictional narrative.

Both the manuscript and the novel describe the land of Tsalal, a land populated only by black people with no European interference. Jaynes determines to find this land and puts together a group to help him: his former (and still loved) fiance and her lawyer husband; an overweight and out-of-work bus driver; a pair of gay, would-be heroes; and his civil rights activist cousin.

They head to Antarctica to harvest glacier water to subsidize their journey where they encounter another type of human, also referred to by both Peter and Poe. That’s when those tales because all too real.

For more about Mat Johnson, Pym, and the other influences Poe’s only novel had, visit the author’s website by clicking here.

By Gabrielle Burton

The Short Take:

Ignore the romance-style title. This imagining of Tamsen Donner’s personal journal of the Donner Party’s western journey and snow-bound entrapment is a fascinating tale of human endurance and frailty. It’s a worthy read.

Why?

Burton admits to a certain obsession with Tamsen Donner, wife of the group’s leader, and her book is all the better for it. It’s a thoughtful and detailed look at the hardships faced by early wagon train travelers. By using Tamsen’s supposed journal entries to convey the bulk of the story, Burton gives you access to her protagonist’s deepest secrets, fears, and hopes as well as day-to-day events. This allows for a much richer and more rewarding portrait than simply presenting the facts could ever accomplish.

I was glad to find that Burton did not dwell on the cannibalism that gained this group of people such fame. It is treated straightforwardly as just another defense against starvation — a way to keep one’s children and oneself alive long after normal sustenance has given out and even cattle hides are gone.

The story starts with the Donner Party already stranded in the mountains, waiting out the snowy winter and moves backwards and forwards in time to give you a picture of their entire journey. To give background to her character, Burton also makes use of family letters to explore Tamsen’s upbringing, personality, and innate wanderlust. It all works together quite nicely.

However, I was so put off by the book’s title, I almost let this one slide by. It sure sounded like a bodice-ripper to me. Fortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Instead Burton has taken a tragic story and given it great context, with worthy empathy for its participants.

A Little Plot:

You basically know this one: A group of families travel by wagon train, headed for California in search of new opportunities.Along the way, some poor choices are made that ultimately result in them being snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for the better part of five months. Starvation and death become constant companions.

It’s an unimaginable situation, but Burton does a solid job of helping you see — and feel — what it must have been like.

For more about this book and Gabrielle Burton, click here.

She just won the Pulitzer for her novel: A Visit from the Goon Squad.

I thought it was a terrific book. You can check out my review by taking my little calendar back to September 10, 2010.

Other winners include Siddhartha Mukherjee for The Emperor of Maladies in nonfiction and Kay Ryan for The Best of It in poetry.

By Karen Russell

The Short Take:

The Bigtree family owns the Florida gator park Swamplandia! and when the family matriarch and star performer dies every character goes to hell, or at least some version of the underworld. Their dream/nightmare-like journeys become progressively darker as the book moves forward but the outstanding writing shines throughout. Plus, Ava, the main protagonist, is an irresistible character

Why?

First of all, don’t judge this book by it’s cover. I did and was expecting a quirky family story in the manner of Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. While you might draw a few comparisons, this first novel is something else entirely. But that’s not a bad thing at all.

Danger and darkness take the larger roles in Russell’s book, yet there are also plenty of amusing moments scattered throughout — from bright humor to sharp irony. Russell’s vividly crafted descriptions of the 1000 Islands area in southwest Florida are similar in nautre — bright light piercing dark and dangerous landscapes. She surrounds you with its sights, scents, and mystery.

The Bigtree family itself is as quirky as they come, living an isolated life with only the most tenuous connections to normalcy. Older brother Kiwi is a voracious learner and not happy with the family’s circumstances. Middle child Osceola is a romantic dreamer with a mystical leanings. Ava, the youngest at 12, just wants to be as good a gator wrestler as her mom. Dad is largely uncommunicative. And, as I mentioned earlier, they each take a journey into the underworld — yet in entirely different forms.

This is a rich, imaginative book. It starts relatively lightly then carries you into deepening feelings of dread. But there is no way you can abandon little Ava — her spunk, family loyalty, and determination keep you buoyed no matter how dark and murky the future looks.

A Little Plot:

Swamplandia! is in trouble: its star performer (and mother to the Bigtree brood) has died, debts are high, and a new nearby theme park — The World of Darkness — has opened nearby siphoning off what few tourists Swamplandia! drew. The Bigtree family is in crisis.

Osceola starts dating ghosts, or at least thinks she is. Kiwi leaves to work at The World of Darkness, a truly hellish theme park, to raise money to save Swmaplandia! Dad also leaves “on business” of an uncertain nature. When Osceola elopes with her ghost to get married in the underworld, Ava is determined to find her sister and reunite her family. To do that, she must take the most dangerous journey of them all.

Budding gator-wrestler that she is, Ava  is up to the task.

By Kevin Brockmeier

The Short Take:

This book is brilliant! No pun intended. Once again, Brockmeier has penned a novel that defies categorization. Though his central concept could come straight from a sci-fi movie, this incredibly moving tale of human love, loneliness, and pain is rich, nuanced, and heartbreakingly beautiful.

Why?

Brockmeier is the author of one of my all-time favorite books, The Brief History of the Dead, so I had high expectations going into his newest effort. He did not disappoint.

A sudden, world-wide change impacts everyone personally, yet this global alteration is nothing compared to the effect a book of love notes has on six individuals. As this book passes from one person to another, so does the story. Each of the six main characters struggle with the human hunger for connection and companionship, yet each struggle takes a unique form.

Moving, often profound, and beautifully written, The Illumination certainly brightened my reading world.

A Little Plot:

Suddenly and for no known reason, all human suffering emits light: hangnails, hunger, toothaches, cancer, every form of pain emits a visible light that brightens, fades, and changes along with the pain. Everyone’s physical suffering is visible to all. But not the suffering of the human soul.

For one lonely woman,a new widower, an abused autistic child, a missionary with uncertain faith, a writer who every spoken word hurts, and a homeless man with a special power it is not this illumination that changes their lives as much as a book. Single sentence love notes were written by the widower every day of his marriage and then copied into journals by his now-deceased wife.

These messages of love haunt each person who comes to possess this book in different ways. Some find pain, some find a strange comfort. In a way, that also describes Brockmeier’s incredible novel.

I couldn’t find a web site for Brockmeier, but to see his Random House page, click here.

By Brian Leung

The Short Take:

I didn’t expect to like this book set in a late 1800s Wyoming coal town filled with white and Chinese miners who are beyond wary of each. Wrong! This story of the relationship between an independent woman and a Chinese cook swept me away completely.

Why?

I’m not wild about the wild west. And seemingly doomed romances are not my thing either. While I can’t deny those two statements somewhat apply to this novel, they just don’t adequately describe it.

First of all, it’s more a story about survival, trust, and friendship than it is about love. It’s about the ability to see past differences to find commonalities. It’s about maintaining your humanity in an inhumane setting. And this flat, arid Wyoming territory certainly qualified as inhumane. Treeless, waterless, harsh — Leung conveys its soul-crushing emptiness well.

These are the elements that won me over. Of course, I also love a feisty, daring heroine and Miss Addie, the main character, certainly fills that bill.  Addie’s wonderings about her own mother’s ability to abandon her husband and children without a word also play an important role in the unfolding of this tale.

Take Me Home was certainly different from what I suspected and surprised me repeatedly. I liked it for all those reasons. And though the resolution was certainly more bitter than sweet, it felt just right.

A Little Plot:

Addie joins her brother Tom  on his failing Wyoming homestead. Tom wants to join the coal miners while Addie stays on his land. To bolster their income, Addie decides to hunt game and works out an arrangement with a Chinese cook, Wing Lee, to buy her game for the meals he prepares.

The rest of the plot revolves largely around how their relationship develops, as each fights tremendous feelings of loneliness and isolation. There’s a tragic accident, a heroic rescue, a marriage of convenience, and a riotous climax. Hints of the latter’s outcome are revealed piecemeal throughout the book in segments set some 40 years later.

If you want to know more about the author and this book click here.

By Nina Revoyr

The Short Take:

This tragic tale of extreme racism in a small Wisconsin town in 1974 really shook me up. The events are experienced by a half-Japanese little girl but considered anew by her adult self. It’s a powerful tale of loyalty gone wrong and the insanity of blind hatred.

Why?

This is not a gentle book. It’s hard edged and clear eyed about racism in an all-white, tight-knit community that can’t even accept little Michelle, a half-Asian child that’s the granddaughter of a prominent and respected citizen. When an African-American professional couple comes to town, pretty much all hell breaks lose.

Revoyr wisely references the 1974 Boston riots over school desegregation in her novel. Even then I had trouble accepting racism this strong at that point in time (in my native South, we were past that stage by then). So I asked Revoyr about it and she had the solid background to substantiate her plot.

Despite her ethnicity, Michelle is adored by her grandfather, Charlie. However, his tolerance reaches no further and he is the stalwart center of the town’s unbending racial attitudes. For him and his friends, there is no place in their community for African-Americans.

Small town loyalty is the second pillar supporting Revoyr’s plot. Alliances are so strong they hold even against evidence of child abuse: Lifelong friends are deemed simply incapable of such actions.

Ten-year-old Michelle cannot understand a lot of the attitudes and events rocking her world. For that reason, including the voice of the adult Michelle brings welcome perspective to the narrative. She can articulate the feelings a child has but simply cannot explain.

Though it is a set in the past, this book has great relevance today. This powerful novel reminds us that sometimes what we consider to be strengths are actually flaws. Certainty can easily be a liability. This is a worthy read. It reminds of us what was and helps us to see what is.

A Little Plot:

As the only non-white around, Michelle is either picked on or ignored by almost everyone in Deerhorn, where she has been abandoned to her grandparents. Her life is filled with fear, except when she is beside her adored grandfather or alone with her dog, Brett.

When a black couple is brought into town by the medical clinic, the town’s focus shifts and tensions rise to code red. She is a nurse, he a needed substitute teacher. The townsfolk are aghast .

As her grandfather is a leader, Michelle’s home becomes the hub for plots to drive them away. She doesn’t understand what is driving her grandfather and his friends and instead feels a bond with this hated couple.

Tragedy is inevitable.

If you want to know more about Nina Revoyr, this book, or her other novels, click here. And look for this book. It will hurt but it’s worth it.

By Eleanor Brown

The Short Take:

As a book lover myself, it’s hard not to like a book in which every character also loves books. But this family drama about three loving yet rivalrous sisters has much more to recommend it.

Why?

Start with the whimsy of a Shakespeare scholar naming his daughters Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia. Then give those three grown women some serious flaws along with individual crises they face just at the point their mother is fighting breast cancer. Bring them back together in their childhood home and you have the makings of the perfect family storm.

This book could have gone really sappy, ultra-cute, or melodramatic easily. But Brown neatly sidestepped all that in her debut novel. The three sisters are each unique characters and nicely defined. They love each other, but there’s not a lot of “like” in their relationships. Nor do any of them have much “like” for the life they’ve been living so far, either. They’re not just running to help their Mom, they’re trying to run away from themselves.

Unlike a lot of books in this general category, there’s nothing over the top here. Everyday problems and annoyances are enough to get under people’s skin and move the story forward. The dialogue, relationships, and characters all feel genuine. The small college town of Barnwell feels just as true — with all its limitations along with those familiar comforts.

You might think you can predict the ending, and you might even be partially right (I was largely wrong). But, right or wrong, the journey is still a delight.

A Little Plot:

Rosalind never wants to leave Barnwell, she likes being close to her parents and her nice, ordered life. But her beloved fiance has a major opportunity at Oxford and wants her to come to England with him. Meanwhile, Bianca is living the fast life in New York City, picking up men and expensive designer clothes but paying for it all with embezzled funds. Cordelia has been living a drifter’s life, following rock bands and living hand to mouth when she discovers she is pregnant.

Their mother has cancer, which is the perfect excuse for each of them to move back home while they figure out what to do next. Their dilemmas and as well as their complex relationships provide plenty of fodder for a whole book — a whole book so engaging I could barely put it down for two days.

If you want to know about Eleanor Brown and her novel, just click here.

By Stacy Schiff

The Short Take:

This fascinating biography not only gives you a much better understanding of this last of the Egyptian pharaohs, it also illustrates the huge gulf between the majestic culture of the Alexandrians of Egypt and the muscular, conservative outlook of the Roman people. It was a real eye opener for me.

Why?

I freely admit that my image of Cleopatra VII was largely shaped by Hollywood movies. I did know that the Ptolemys — the 32nd and last dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs — were one messy family and actually Greek, not Egyptian. But I had no idea just how messy and murderous their family tree was. Yowza!

I also had no idea that Alexandria was a much more cultured, orderly, and prosperous place than Rome at that time. The vast differences between the two cultures as well as the superior attitude the Romans took over all other peoples were deftly described by Schiff and gave me a more balanced vision of this Mediterranean world.

Schiff also presents good evidence of Cleopatra VII as a smart, confident woman was raised to rule and well suited to her job. Schiff delves past the work of centuries of pro-Roman writers who considered Cleopatra a scheming seductress and the enemy of all things Roman. Schiff looks into the actual history of the time to see how all the pieces fit together as well as referencing those disparaging writings.

The result is a fascinating book that not only expands historical knowledge but also adds nuances to one’s understanding of relations between Rome and Egypt as well as between Cleopatra and her two famous lovers.

A Little Plot:

You probably already know the mainpoints — Hollywood has been close enough with actual events if not in tone: first Julius Caesar, then Mark Antony. But there is so much more to Cleopatra’s story. She fought for her crown and her country, ruling successfully for 20 years. She strived to keep Egypt free of the Roman yoke by choosing alignments that should strengthen her position. She never gave up.

Huzzahs to Schiff for giving us a much richer portrait of this capable and clever leader of a great civilization!

If you want to visit Stacy Schiff’s website and learn more about her, her book, and its reception, click here.

Super Sad True Love Story

A Facebook friend sent me a link to this fun website and I just had to share it. Different people send in alternative titles and book designs for everything from classic literature to the latest political rant. This was one of my favorites. The new title so describes this book (which I liked and reviewed here, by the way).

There are some funny ones, some rude ones, and some incomprehensible ones, but you’re sure to find at least one alternate title that amuses you.

Check it out by clicking here.