Sunlit Night is breezy, like a good summer read; yet thought provoking, humorous and at times dark. This is the debut novel by Rebecca Dinerstein and is an impressive first effort. It’s the story of strange and estranged families, and in particular, two young adults who must find themselves despite their familial dysfunction.
Early in the novel, we discover Frances and Yasha, both New Yorkers, in separate tales. Frances, a neurotic recent college graduate dealing with romantic heartbreak and a flawed family, decides to accept an artist’s apprenticeship in Norway (above the Arctic Circle) to escape the oppressiveness of Manhattan and create space between herself and all that is familiar to her. Yasha, a Russian immigrant, has just graduated high school and works side by side with his father in their Brighton Beach bakery. Abandoned ten years earlier by his mother, she makes a mysterious reappearance and breaks his father’s heart all over again - literally. His father’s last wish is to be buried at the top of the world, which is where Frances’s and Yasha’s lives intersect.
Read moreAward-winning author Joseph Kanon is internationally recognized, having published bestsellers, including The Good German, which was made into a film starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. With much acclaim, I picked up his latest spy thriller with great expectation. I was disappointed.
Leaving Berlin takes place in 1949 Berlin; the city divided by the Allies into Soviet, French, British and American sectors. In the East, the Soviets rule with an iron fist, grabbing people off the streets for small suspected infractions, friends turn into informants, and war-time concentration camps are turned into prisons for party dissenters. At the center of the drama is Alex Meier, a Jewish German writer who was able to leave a concentration camp during the war after a payoff. 15 years later, after exile in America, he returns at the invitation of the new Soviet-backed German party to help form a cultural revival.
Read moreDisclaimer: If you don’t like lawyers or graphic sex, you should skip this book. Post script: Read it anyway.
I Take You is set in Key West during the week leading up to Lily and Will’s whirlwind wedding. Lily, a New York lawyer, is having some serious doubts about the upcoming nuptials as evidenced by the fact she can’t stop sleeping with other men. Will, on the other hand, the nerdy anthropologist, appears steadfast and only more committed to Lily as the big day draws near.
The story heats up as the secondary characters, which really give the book its texture, begin arriving. There are Lily’s “moms”, her real mom, her two ex step moms and her fierce grandmother, who band together to try to talk Lily out of the wedding. Lily’s dad, from whom she obviously inherited her wandering eye, shows up with very few helpful contributions other than to play the role of the old guy Lothario. And then there is Will’s acerbic politico mom, who has zero love for Lily and is determined to wreck the wedding. And finally, Freddy, Lily’s sexually confused loyal best friend, who will do anything to get Lily through the week, wedding or not.
Read moreReminiscent of the movie Little Miss Sunshine, the majority of One Plus One chronicles a mismatched group taking a three-day car trek from England to Scotland for a math Olympiad. The main characters, who each narrate chapters from their perspectives, are: Ed, a recently divorced financial guy facing insider trading charges; Jess, a single mom struggling to makes ends meet for her daughter and “sort of” son, Nicky, an angsty male teen who wears eyeliner, is the subject of intense bullying, and disappears into violent video games to escape; and Tanzie, a whip-smart grade school girl who wears thick glasses and way too many sequins to ever be cool. Finally, there is Norman, though he does no story telling, the family’s enormous loving mutt who spends most of his time drooling and farting.
Read moreSet in the 1930s in New Guinea off the coast of Australia, King’s novel, Euphoria, follows three anthropologists doing immersive research of small tribal groups living along the region’s waterways. Fen and Nell, tumultuously married Australians, cross paths with Bankson, a lone Brit, at a government post where all three are regrouping. Fresh off a thwarted suicide attempt, Bankson is enamored with the Aussies and makes it his mission to spend more time with them, particularly the lovely and fragile Nell.
Euphoria revolves around the love triangle that emerges among the three main characters and the differences in their anthropological studies. While seemingly on the same page as the trio feverishly comes up with “the Grid” (a novel breakdown of races by their cultural traits into North, South, East and West), tensions strain as Fen’s increasing self interest and competitive nature butt up against Nell and Bankson’s compassion as well as their burgeoning relationship.
Read moreI hear a lot of people say they don’t care for short stories. I never quite understood this. Short stories can be as beautifully written as a novel, with the added benefit of feeling accomplished - getting through a story in a short period of time. It’s perfect for those with short attention spans or who read multiple things at once. But that’s just me.
Young Skins is a collection of short stories and one novella. It’s the debut book from Irish writer Colin Barrett, and it’s completely absorbing. Barrett combines edgy and prosaic prose with lyrical descriptions of the stories’ backdrop, placing the reader in clear view. The title, Young Skins, refers to the 20- and 30-something year old lads as the protagonist of each tale. Most of these young men live in the small Irish town of Glanbeigh, rarely hold traditional jobs, and find themselves in and out of conflict - with the law, business dealings, friends, relationships and alcohol. They are gas station attendants, bouncers, fathers and criminals. There is a melancholy tone, and you can feel the gray clouds of Ireland hovering just overhead. Barrett ends each of his stories rather anticlimactically; and none with a fairly tale ending.
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