A Word About Awards

THE 27 TH  KINGDOM by Alice Thomas Ellis   Nomination: Booker Finalist 1982   Date Read: December 29, 2020   The 27 th  Kingdom was a fun and strange novel – my first introduction to Ellis. Valentine is an apprentice nun and prior to her permanently taking the veil, her Mother Superior decides she needs some more real-world experience. She sends Valentine to her sister’s house, Aunt Irene.    Already living at Aunt Irene’s are her nephew, Kyril, and another lodger, Mr. Sirocco. Both Kyril and Aunt Irene are completely self-absorbed, consumed with furthering their own interests and pleasures. I was immediately curious how Valentine would fare being thrust into their worlds.   Aunt Irene, although she continually argues to the contrary, especially to the tax man, is quite comfortable. Granted she takes in lodgers, but she is able to indulge in new knick-knacks for her home, going to the races, taking tea at the Ritz, hailing cabs rather than public transit and generally enjoying her life

MUMBO JUMBO by Ishmael Reed   Nomination: National Book Finalist 1973   Date Read: December 28, 2020   The one comment everyone seems to agree on with Mumbo Jumbo is that this book is challenging. I couldn’t agree more. While I pride myself on being a relatively intelligent human being, the ideas and concepts put forth here were difficult to identify with. I don’t believe this stemmed from any racial disparity but that Reed is operating on a completely different level.   I appreciated that at the beginning the definition of Mumbo Jumbo was provided as a “Magician who makes the troubled spirits of ancestors go away.” The premise seems simple until it spins off in every direction: Jes Grew (as in the spirit Jes Grew and grew) is spreading like wildfire across the globe, a pandemic of dancing and general revelry that some consider a plague, but others deem it the anti-plague. Of course, black artists or “Jes Grew Carriers” are the main culprits.   From here, Reed spins out into historical

UNDERWORLD by Don DeLillo   Nominations: National Book Finalist 1997, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1997, Pulitzer Finalist 1998   Date Read: December 27, 2020   Underworld begins with an interesting and well-written vignette about a baseball game where the Giants win the pennant and advance to the World Series. The roar of the crowd, the paper floating down from the tiers above, the tussle for the game-winning ball that landed in the stands indicate a pretty good beginning, even though I am not a baseball fan. And in addition to a lot of pages, Underworld also has a lot of baseball.   A quarter of the way through, I believe this entire novel is a bloviated meditation on the past and how we experience nostalgia. For Nick, a character revisited more than any other, what baseball games meant back in the day, visiting his former love and experiencing the pangs of lost romance, reminiscing with his Mom and tapping her memory to fill gaps in his own.   In a baseball “museum” run out

ACCORDION CRIMES by E. Annie Proulx   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1998, Women's Prize Finalist 1997   Date Read: December 22, 2020   Being a big fan of The Shipping News, I was very much looking forward to another dose of Proulx. Unfortunately, this one missed the mark completely. While I appreciate the concept and the writing, I feel like I should receive an award for making it through this.   The main character throughout Accordion Crimes is a green accordion. This is the vehicle by which Proulx presents countless vignettes of the immigrant experience as the accordion passes from one person to another through generations. Or. as one other critic said it could also have been named “Eight Million Ways To Die.”   I tend to be drawn to character-driven novels and I didn’t find much character development here. Instead, these individuals flashed by so quickly that I wasn’t able to embrace any of them and experience life from their perspective. Instead, this was an object-driven novel,

10 MINUTES 38 SECONDS IN THIS STRANGE WORLD by Elif Shafak   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2019, BookTube Finalist 2020, Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist 2020, Dublin Longlist 2021   Date Read: December 18, 2020   Leila is dead. She was murdered and her corpse thrown into a dumpster, like human garbage. Her consciousness, however, is far from over, extending beyond the lack of a heartbeat for 10 Minutes 38 seconds as she relives the best and worst parts of her life. We experience what she thinks as well as what happens as a result of her death. It’s interesting to begin at the end and work your way backwards. As I got to know Leila, the loss of her became increasingly sad.   Leila lived on the margins of society, having been rejected by her family and sold to a brothel. The circumstances of her life are tragic – her own mother wasn’t allowed to raise her; she was raped by her Uncle; her family did not believe her when she finally told what was happening; her leaving was probably a r

INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri   Award: PEN/Hemingway Winner 2000, Pulitzer Winner 2000 Nomination: LA Times Finalist 1999   Date Read: May 27, 2008 & December 16, 2020   A Temporary Matter A couple confronts the loss of their unborn child, stillborn at 8 months. What I saw as them trying to heal and draw closer to one another is actually their coming apart.   When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine A family from India living in the U.S. adopts a visiting professor into their family. Mr. Pirzada joins them every evening for dinner and to watch the news. Hailing from Pakistan, they watch night after night the developing conflict between India and Pakistan as they sit helpless in front of their TV. Mr. Pirzada has a wife and seven daughters that remain behind. He is eventually reunited with them when he returns home and is grateful to the family that took him in.   Interpreter Of Maladies An Indian-American family go to India to visit their relatives and sight see. They display all t

PARIS TROUT by Pete Dexter   Award: National Book Winner 1988   Nomination: National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1988   Date Read: December 15, 2020   Paris Trout follows the lives of several characters living in a small town whose lives are turned upside down by the killing of a Black girl. Paris Trout, under the guise of collecting on a defaulted debt, hunts down and shoots a young girl in her own home, causing her death. He shoots her Aunt-like figure as well, although she survives her injuries.   Readers follow Paris Trout’s actions and influence as he becomes more and more unglued – threating people with his gun, installing glass on the floor of his rooms, saving his urine and fingernail clippings in case of him being poisoned. He is a ticking time bomb that does eventually go off. I couldn’t help but wonder if Paris was what results in a person being somewhat on the spectrum combined with violent and misogynistic tendencies. He believes he was justified in killing the girl becau

THE ACCIDENTAL by Ali Smith   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2005, Dublin Longlist 2007, James Tait Black Finalist 2005, Women's Prize Finalist 2006   Date Read: December 10, 2020   I just finished The Accidental and I’m not sure how I feel about it. During a family summer vacation to Norfolk, a highly dysfunctional family ends up taking in a stranger, Amber, who turns their lives upside down. The mother, Eve, thinks the husband, Michael, invited her to stay and vice versa. The fact that they never discuss this in any detail goes to show just one facet of their dysfunctionality.   Their children are equally struggling due to a lack of direction. Their daughter, Astrid, is aimless but immersed in photographing and videoing the world, trying to make sense of her 12 year old self and the world around her. The brother, Magnus, is struggling with massive depression, having unintentionally played a part in a classmates’ suicide. This is not something he takes lightly but feels every measur

ABOUT SCHMIDT by Louis Begley   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1998, LA Times Finalist 1996, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1996   Date Read: December 9, 2020   Schmidt is a pitiful soul, wandering through the echoing halls of his life, facing head-on the fact that he has become obsolete. His wife Mary passed tragically from cancer. His daughter Charlotte is engaged and consumed by her own life. He is a retired lawyer, somewhat estranged from the colleagues. So what is a man to do?    As lonely and hopeless as Schmidt is, he seems to attract females right and left. His daughter’s fiance’s mother puts the moves on him and he seems somewhat receptive to her advances but nothing ultimately comes from this. And then there’s Carry, the waitress at his local diner who is in her early 20’s and is definitely interested. I found this relationship difficult to swallow. I couldn’t help thinking she was simply using him for his money.   This brings me to his wealth. Schmidt is very well off d

DALE LOVES SOPHIE TO DEATH by Robb Forman Dew   Award: National Book Winner 1982   Date Read: December 5, 2020   The title for this novel is incredibly misleading. I had thought it would be about a passionate love that either triumphed or failed. In reality, it is about a couple who spend their summers apart as the husband, Martin, maintains the house and his work schedule, while his wife, Dinah, spends the summer in her childhood hometown taking care of the children.   I didn’t relate to any of the characters here. I found Dinah to be self-absorbed and extremely bitter with not a lot of reason. I thought she was unsympathetic to her children, having overlooked her son, Toby’s illness until it was too much to ignore. She doesn’t seem to relate to her kids on an emotional level at all.   Meanwhile, Martin is left to his own devices and he (surprise, surprise) embarks on an affair that just seems to fill the time. The affair does not sprout over emotion or a lustful passion but, rather,

VERNON GOD LITTLE by D.B.C. Pierre   Award: Booker Winner 2003   Date Read: December 2, 2020   I didn’t know much about this Booker Winner before picking it up and I was slayed by the irreverence of Vernon, the cluster fuck he finds himself in and the mass-murder as entertainment angle brought about by Lally. Vernon’s voice throughout is clearly that of a teen as he navigates surreal situations most adults aren’t equipped to handle. His mother, Doris, is absorbed by her own life and relinquished the role of parent long ago.   The appearance of Lally in the Little’s life is clearly a turning point for the worse and serves to heighten the culpability of Vernon in bringing about the demise of his classmates. Lally appears out of nowhere and positions himself as uniquely qualified to follow Vernon’s case and how it affects the people of Martirio as they seek justice. What everyone but Vernon doesn’t know is Lally is a TV repairman who is trying to break into broadcasting. Add in a lack of