A Word About Awards

ALL OUR NAMES by Dinaw Mengestu   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2016, Kirkus Finalist 2014   Date Read: October 30, 2021   All Our Names is precisely as the title suggests: We pick up and discard names throughout out lives that serve a function in the moment but ultimately do not define us. The man we know as Isaac, and who’s real name we never do know (but does it matter?), shares this name with his best friend and co-fighter in the war to liberate Uganda. Warrior Isaac was gifted by his lover and leader Joseph a passport, visa and plane ticket to the U.S. and instead gives it to No Name Isaac. As much as it devastates Isaac to leave, he takes the opportunity.   Upon arriving in the Midwest with his new name, under the guise of an exchange student and confusing the locals with his deep black skin and proclivity for Victorian English. Isaac soon learns the racism that still inhabits much of our country. Not only does he now need to learn to live alone, in exile but to he learns how it f

THE BUILD-UP by William Carlos Williams   Nomination: National Book Finalist 1953   Date Read: October 28, 2021   Having not read the previous two books in the Stecher trilogy, I was concerned It wouldn’t fully follow this novel. It turned out not to matter a bit. I was able to fall in love with this family just from this single dose. Joe and Gurlie are European immigrants looking for their piece of the American dream. While Gurlie is terse and abrupt, shattering any uncomfortable remarks with a hearty laugh, Joe is more mild-mannered and bends to Gurlie’s will more often than not.   Their daughters, Lottie and Flossie, are diametrically opposed. Not particularly close but not enemies either they both go about the business of growing up in their own unique ways. From an early age, Lottie shows clear promise as a musician, while Flossie is a typical little girl, running around with her friends and getting into minor trouble.  In their mid-teens, Gurlie decides to return to Norway to vis

POP by Kitty Aldridge   Nomination: Women's Prize Longlist 2002   Date Read: October 25, 2021   After her mother dies (I believe she committed suicide but it was never quite clear), Maggie is sent to live with Arthur Landywood, her grandfather who requests she call him Pop. Her father is in the U.S. and cannot be found, leaving Pop as her closest living relative. At first, Pop declines taking her on but calls the social worker back immediately even though he knows he “…has no use for a 13-year old girl.”   Pop is fundamentally a sweet man with a simple way of life, enjoying his rounds at the local pubs and pining for Iris. His other heart’s desire is to be the winner at the local quiz match. And then there’s Blowbroth, a useless dog with an even more useless name.   Maggie coming into Pop’s life doesn’t disturb his lifestyle as much as one would think. She tags along on his rounds to the pubs. She helps him in his efforts to woo Iris, helping with a bird table (?) and dropping off

AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD by Kazuo Ishiguro   Award: Nobel Prize Winner 1986   Nomination: Booker Finalist 1986   Date Read: October 24, 2021   Ono, an officially retired painter, is middle-aged and has renounced the work he has produced over the course of his career. Although relatively well-known in the art world, he still craves attention and appreciation for his contributions over the years. The question remains, what drove Ono to put down his brushes at such an early age? We learn there is no single reason but a multitude of reasons, each of which show the character of Ono.   Put off by his student’s blind submission to his instruction and a tendency to copy his style rather than develop their own, Ono cannot abide the inherent submission that teaching produces. Ono, in his early years was guilty of this as well and chastised by his teacher for leaving his instruction to work on his own style. Further, Ono was afraid his art could be co-opted into propaganda, something he ha

THE ACACIA by Claude Simon   Award: Nobel Prize 1991   Nomination: LA Times finalist 1991   The reason I love novels is becoming intimately acquainted with the characters and expanding my mind to the infinite possibility of humankind. The Acacia is a tough one because no names are used, making the plot somewhat difficult to follow and leaving me scratching my head, asking what was the point?   I know Claude Simon won the Nobel Prize and I’m sure he fully deserved it, however, this may not have been one of his better representations. With multipage sentences and gauzy depictions of war, Simon seems to me the French answer to Faulkner. The novel weaves between the 1910s and the 1940s and I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the time periods.   This isn’t to say I like my novels spoon-fed to me, but I rarely enjoy a war novel and one this challenging even less so. Glad I got an introduction to Simon’s work, though. Having fought in numerous wars, he undoubtedly has a firm grasp

ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS by Ocean Vuong   Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2020, BookTube Longlist 2020, Carnegie Longlist 2020, Center For Fiction Finalist 2019, Dublin Finalist 2021, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2020, PEN/Hemingway Longlist 2020, Kirkus Finalist 2019, National Book Longlist 2019   Date Read: October 18, 2021   I cannot remember the last time I read a novel that was so beautiful, so too-the bone honest and real. In a letter to his mother that is never meant to be sent, Vuong brings out the beauty and the complexity of a mother and son relationship made even more complex by the son often assuming the role of parent, helping his mother navigate a world in which she doesn’t speak the language. A lover of all things beautiful, often violent, traumatized by a war she endured as a child, brings home the fact that none of us is perfect and we are all reacting to a past that no longer exists.   “I want to insist that our being alive is beautiful enough to be worthy of replic

QUEENIE by Candice Carty-Williams   Nomination: Women's Prize Longlist 2020   Date Read: October 15, 2021   I’m not going to lie and say this novel was smooth-sailing for me. There were moments when I was annoyed at Queenie’s inability to tell the vipers from the puppy dogs when I could see it coming a mile away. I got frustrated that she allowed herself to be treated like a doormat and/or cum-dumpster while ignoring her own pleasure or self-interest.    More importantly, I felt like Queenie’s dabbling with the BLM movement was merely an attempt to make her seem more woke and relevant. She kept pitching ideas about race and police violence against the black community but never that hard or seriously. These forays into exposing systemic racism were more annoying than admirable. I felt like she needed to be more vigilant and serious about this issue or abandon it altogether.   Critics have compared Queenie to a black Bridget Jones and I have no idea if that proves true considering I

THE TRANSLATOR by Leila Aboulela   Nomination: Orange Longlist 2000   Date Read: October 14, 2021   In The Translator, Aboulela captures the various incarnations of grief in realistic and tangible  ways. Sammar is caught between two worlds – Sudan, her country of birth and home to her faith and language, and Scotland, her country of loss and isolation and an almost encounter with love.   Sammar is a translator at a Scottish university, translating various texts from Arabic into English. Having lost her husband, Tariq to a tragic car accident, she was incapable of raising her son on her own. She returned to Sudan with her husband in a coffin and placed her son in the care of her husband’s family. When she set out to bring her boys home, she didn’t believe she would return to Scotland but the heartbreak she absorbed from Tariq’s family’s grief was too much to bear. She returned to Scotland alone.   And alone she remained, living in Scotland like a woman trapped in stasis – doing the mini

BEWILDERMENT by Richard Powers   Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2022, Booker Finalist 2021, Carnegie Longlist 2022, National Book Longlist 2021, Oprah Book Club 2021   Date Read: October 11, 2021   It has been a long time since a book made me cry and here I am sobbing with the beauty and devastation of this piece of art. I think I feel especially connected to these characters as my son struggles through his complicated and bewildering life. I am doing everything in my power to help him but I am terrified it’s not enough. The only thing that could really make a difference is if I had given him a better world. And that’s just not within my power.   Robbie, Robin, is different. His teachers and other adults in his life really want to slap a label on this wondrous soul and shovel some medication down his throat. Theo, his father, instinctively and understandably resists. “My boy was a pocket universe I could never hope to fathom. Every one of us is an experiment, and we don’t even know

A SHOWER OF SUMMER DAYS by May Sarton   Nomination: National Book Finalist 1953   Date Read: October 10, 2021   Charles and Violet, a childless couple who remain very much in love, return to the mansion Violet grew up in in Ireland. They have been gone for quite some time as Charles completed a diplomatic mission in Burma. The house harkens to a time long-gone by and is itself an imposing structure, worn down by time and neglect.   Just as Charles and Violet are getting settled, Violet’s sister insists on sending her niece, Sally, over. She has fallen hopelessly in love with Ian, an actor deemed unworthy of Sally’s love. The hope is that distance will put their relationship in perspective and cool the feelings Sally is swept up in. But being 21, Sally is capable of intense feeling for everyone, even with a determination to maintain her distance until she is able to leave.   Sally’s presence adds an element of drama where there was once peace. She finds herself attracted to both Violet

THE BIRD OF NIGHT by Susan Hill   Nomination: Booker Finalist 1972   Date Read: October 7, 2021   The Bird Of Night recounts the friendship of two fictional souls, Harvey and Francis. Harvey is a mild-mannered Egyptologist who works in quiet museums and goes about his business with duty and conviction. Francis is a manic-depressive who swings from very high highs to very low lows where he is literally out of his mind. The poetry Francis is able to write is inextricable from the psychosis that swirls around and through his work.   Francis, wanting to blame his madness on the war because it’s such an easy, logical cause is so understandable. Everyone wants an explanation for madness – the cause and effect trap. It’s so much simpler and tidy. I can relate to this so deeply. As someone who struggles with depression, I have always said that I wish my husband beat me or my life was super fucked up in some way because then I could point to that “thing” and say that’s the reason. Ah, the beaut

THE STRANGE CHILDREN by Caroline Gordon   Nomination: National Book Finalist 1952   Date Read: October 4, 2021   The Strange Children depicts the behavior and actions of adults through the eyes of Lucy who is 9 years old. On one crazy weekend, her parents friends inundate their house and all hell breaks loose. Uncle Tubby, Kev and his wife, Isabel arrive for a brief but fraught visit that ends with mayhem.   The day that Lucy had hoped for had finally arrived, the day she was going to get the pony she had been longing for. Her Uncle Tubby, who is actually her father’s best friend, shows up derails those plans. As much as she doesn’t remember him, Lucy does enjoy his company. Tubby informs them that their other friends, Kev and Isabel, will be arriving the following day.   Much alcohol is consumed, much religion is discussed, and previous dramas are revisited. A lot of this goes over Lucy’s head but she is there to witness most of it. This leaves me to believe The Strange Children refer

THE AGUERO SISTERS by Cristina Garcia   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1999, Women's Longlist 1998   Date Read: October 1, 2021   The Aguero Sisters is a novel about the Aguero family both past and present. What makes this particular tale of family legacy unique is the Cuban culture and mysticism that is sprinkled throughout. Told through the lives of Constancia and Reina, two sisters who have both fled Cuba for the U.S. but still carry the burdens and beauty of their native country with them.   Constancia and Reina couldn’t be more different. Raised apart because of jealousy and a mentally questionable mother, Constancia fled Cuba and lived most of her adult life in New York before moving in retirement to Miami. Reina has stayed behind in Cuba and became an electrician and while out working during a storm, was struck by lightning. Her skin is a patchwork of donated skin. Rather than cause her self-esteem to flag, her skin makes her feel even more desirable.   Reina eventually moves