Peace Like A River

As kids we were all told, on some nice Summer day, to get outside and play. Summers were endless weekends spent poolside, or doing outdoor chores, so staying inside on any given day to read and live someone else's adventure never seemed exactly like punishment. Twenty years later sitting at desks in offices, knowing it's a beautiful Tuesday and that there are still three days of work before the weekend, we have a little more appreciation for our parents' suggestions. However, reverting back to my 9 year old self, I spent the better part of a beautiful weekend day living with the Land's.
Peace Like a River is Leif Enger's first book, and tells the story of father Jeremiah Land, his eldest son Davy, his younger son Reuban (the narrator) and his young daughter Swede. The live in a small Minnesota town in the early 1960s, but the kids dream of the outlaws and the West of a century before. Before long, they are given a chance to play out every kid's dream: vindication for a bully's crime, a daring jailbreak, riding horseback in the Badlands and living to tell about being tailed by the FBI.
All the Lands are fleshed out and maintain traits and speech specific to their characters. Reuban's narration in the far future is believable while at the same time painting a picture of romantic nostagia. Swede's epic poem of Sunny Sundown parallels the Land's journey from Minnesota to the Badlands. Jeremiah is the heroic and sometimes miracle performing father, wanting to teach his children right from wrong while acknowledging there is often a fine line separating the two.
Peace Like a River seemed to take the best qualities from To Kill A Mockingbird and In Cold Blood, while maintaining the (sometimes) lightheartedness of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I don't regret wasting a beautiful day reading this book.
Netflix rating 5/5 stars.

A Million Little Pieces

I'll be the first to admit those Oprah's Book Club stickers bug me. For awhile it was because I knew it meant the book was going to tell the story of incest or abuse with an amazing protaganist turn around by book's end (think The Lovely Bones). She started expanding her choices, including Faulkner and McCarthy, but still...her pushiness and cult following (ladies, really, does a multi-millionaire woman have so much in common with you, trying to pay off student loans while raising two kids and facing a home foreclosure?) irked me. I cheered when Jonathan Franzen rejected her and refused to be a guest on her show, and I cringed and rooted for James Frey when she publicly derided him.

Having not actually read A Million Little Pieces, I thought: now's the time, and why not compare it to Jonathan Franzen's book of essays, How To Be Alone (I'd read The Corrections years ago and loved it).

First up, A Million Little Pieces. Steph gives a nice synopsis here, so I won't go through all that. But honestly, I was disappointed. Maybe it was because it was hyped in so many ways-- before he was exposed, and after. I just didn't think the writing was that great. He capitalizes a lot of Things and is very repetative. I'm not sure if I was influenced by the fact I knew he had exxagerated and made up parts of his story, but I found a lot of it completely unbelievable, and was surprised so many people bought it, hook, line and sinker. It was all tied up very neatly and in fact read pretty well as a novel, save for the bad writing. I was captivated for sure, and won't become a drug addict anytime soon, so I guess in that regards it's successful. I give this book 3 netflix stars. And I recommend drinking gin and tonics while reading it, because it's kind of more kick ass that way.

SPUTNIK SWEETHEART- by haruki murakami

Sputnik sweetheart is narrated by a young elementary teacher- k. He is in love with his friend sumire, though she doesn't return these feelings. She quit school in an attempt to focus on her writing, but never is able to complete a piece. She shares her writing only with k., who relishes this opportunity to feel close to her. Soon though, sumire meets an older woman, miu, at a wedding, and falls deeply in love with her. As with sumire and k., miu is unable to return this love, but does form a strong bond with sumire that is shown throughout the course of this story.
Staying true to his general style, this book incorporated a surreal/alternate world that existed alongside the normal one. Sumire disappears into this world, and forces both miu and k. to make hard decisions in their search for her.
Murakami doesn't tie up all the loose ends, but does so enough to satisfy the reader. I certainly enjoyed it, and checked this quick read off in just under a week.
Netflix rating? 4.5/5 stars.

THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE- by haruki murakami

I finished this right under the gun- about 10 mins before needing to leave for bookclub. While i liked it (as i do most of murakami's books), at 600+ pages, it was just a little longer than my normal read. While reading it, several people asked me how i was enjoying it.
"It's good. I like it a lot," was my typical response.
The next question- what's it about?- wasn't so easy to answer.
"Um, well, this guy loses his cat, then his wife disappears and this virtual prostitute and her sister help him out. He doesn't get along with his brother-in-law who's running for political office, but has a dark side. He meets an older man who spent time in a well, and then he also sits at the bottom of a well for a few days. He's friends with the 16 year old neighborhood girl (though he's 30 or so), he surveys and categorizes levels of baldness in men around japan, meets an older ocd woman he calls nutmeg, and joins her healing business with her mute son cinnamon."
This description leaves much to be desired, and wouldn't convince anyone to read this book that i liked so much. Yet, there's not a good way to sum up the events of this story without sounding insane. If you've read any of his other books (including one of my favorites- kafka on the shore) and enjoyed them, you'll also love this. If you can't buy into surrealism, don't even bother!
Netflix rating? 4.5/5 stars.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I have fond nostalgia for the early 90s-- my generation saw the end of the Cold War and the crumbling of the Berlin Wall. My mom learned that JFK was shot while she was in typing class, but when I was in typing class, I pondered "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" Indeed, the 90's were a Lynchian wonderland. I watched and analyzed each episode of Twin Peaks the way people today watch and analyze Lost. So reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami triggered the part of my brain that lusts after crazy David Lynch.
Murakami creates a "real" world in parallel with a credible dreamlike "alternate" world. As in Kafka On The Shore, the protagonist is semi-alone, and searching for the meaning of his life. A cat is once again the catalyst for the search. Lynch created bizarre characters who were just accepted (the Log Lady) and Murakami does the same. The Kano sisters appear out of nowhere and dress as if from a different decade. They have psychic powers that are only slightly questioned. More new characters are introduced to the protagonist Mr. Okada than I might meet in an entire year; and Mr. Okada doesn't work and rarely leaves the house! A woman Nutmeg and her son Cinnamon become benefactors for Mr. Okada, and a Lieutenant Mamiya relates a distant past that turns out to be quite relevant to Mr. Okada's present, and likely his future.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was long. It's no secret I love a short and well edited book, but somehow this book kept me engaged, because I knew in the end all the storylines would somehow come together. And they did. Sort of.
I give this book 4/5 netflix stars.
Wine pairing: Casillero del Diablo Sauvignon Blanc. Translates as "Cellar of the Devil", not unlike the ominous wells which feature in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Also, at $7.99, a nice price for unemployed folks who have time to sit in wells, like Mr. Okada. And also for people who have time to take notes on every episode of Twin Peaks.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Everyone knows at least one cool kid. The girl who can introduce trends without ridicule, the guy who knows the next hot band, the girl who has friends across all groups, and is so smart, and the guy who can effortlessly go out with any girl.

Oscar Wao is not any of those cool kids. But Junot Diaz is.

Diaz wrote The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao with the kind of effortless prose and dialogue that any would-be writer could only hope to emulate. In this book you get the comi-tragic story of one cursed family, told in reverse. But hidden in that story is the less comic and more tragic story of the Trujillo rule in the Dominican Republic.
Any fan of Marquez or Allende would appreciate this book-- it's got a tinge of Latin magical realism, but with bite. If I could only recommend one book to read this year, this would be it! It's taken me more than a week to write these few sentences...I just can't compete with Diaz at all. He's way out of my league. 5/5 stars easily.

The Girl on the Fridge

In a perfect world the 29 or so books that I've read over the past year for this project would all have come directly from my bookshelf. I would not have bought books for a "nice price", nor would I have taken recommendations from friends and acquaintances. I certainly would not have checked out books from the library! But it's not a perfect world and I did all these things.

No one can write about the imperfect world more concisely, and with such dark humor as Etgar Keret, whose book of short shorts, The Girl on the Fridge, I just finished.

Etgar Keret is an Israeli writer and I read his book The Nimrod Flipout a few years back and surprisingly loved it. Soon thereafter I saw a movie based on his writing, Wristcutters: A Love Story, and despite its unfortunate name, it was a wonderful movie which perfectly captured the essence of his style. He writes with a baudy humor-- frequent subjects are suicide and break ups and terrorism. The situations in which his characters interact swing back and forth between reality and the fantastic or dreamlike. Most of his protaganists act on impulses that most of us would check. The orderly who glibly can't recall the name of a recently deceased patient is attacked and strangled by the patient's roommate. A young man realizes he has the power to yell "freeze!" and then direct people to do whatever he desires. A magician's power to pull rabbits out of his hat is suddenly disrupted and the rabbits he pulls out are sometimes headless or bodiless, dripping with blood. Underneath all the id directed actions, however, are underlying fears and insecurities, making the stories honest and wistful.

I think the short story is the hardest thing to write-- to contain a scene or characterization in just 1000 words or so takes immense talent. Plus, Etgar Keret writes from a uniquely Israeli experience-- guns and violence are a major way of life there, and he doesn't gloss over that. I give this book 5/5 netflix stars.