A Word About Awards

AXOLOTL ROADKILL by Helene Hegemann   Nomination: Dublin Longlist 2014   Date Read: April 30, 2022   Axolotl Roadkill is a controversial novel for many reasons. First, the novel was authored by a girl who was only 16; 17 by the time it was published. Not only is this novel shocking for graphic and often violent content but the intellectualism portrayed by Mifti, the narrator of the story. She is precocious and obviously a fictional manifestation of Hegemann herself.    Like Hegemann, Mifti’s mother died and her father abandoned her. Left to her own devices for survival, she falls into all the trappings of the teenage years – dropping out of school, experimental sex, drugs and psychologically torturous relationships. The only people left to hold Mifti accountable are her siblings Edmond and Annika. While they attempt to keep Mifti on the rails, they all realize, Mifti included, that no one can really do that except Mifti herself.   Second, after publication Hegemann was accused of plagi

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy   Award: Booker Winner 1997   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1999, LA Times Finalist 1997   Date Read: November 13, 2003 & April 28, 2022   The God Of Small Things is a fascinating book about relative privilege, the meaning of the caste structure in India, worker’s rights and love that knows no bounds. Seen primarily through the eyes of fraternal twins Rahel and Estha, readers are a witness to this families undoing. Some within the family are happy to see the upheaval, such as Baby Kochamma, while others are victims of circumstance.   Rahel and Estha’s family are considerably well-off by India standards. They own a pickle factory and rubber estate that provides a generous living. They also employ a number of local people, including some that are Untouchable, the lowest caste in Indian society. In particular, Velutha is an Untouchable, yet loved dearly by the twins and, over time Ammu, the twins’ mother. Of course, Ammu being a Touchable and Ve

CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN by Sayaka Murata   Nomination: Dublin Longlist 2020   Date Read: April 24, 2022   Keiko Furukura is different. She is what some might call “on the spectrum” and has a hard time knowing how to act as a human being. She has become adept at copying others’ mannerisms, forms of speech and clothing. Particularly in Japan, where uniformity and conformity are highly valued, nothing represents this better than the convenience store worker.   The convenience store is where Furukura finds her home. Everything is dictated to her – from the uniform, to the way to greet customers, to a schedule that offers no surprises. The store is where she feels safe and valued.   All of this is turned on its head one day when the store hires Shiraha, a man that loathes a schedule, a job, and believes convenience store workers are losers even though he has become one. Shiraha proves to be lazy, tardy and a general slacker and is fired after only a few days. Furukura is glad to see him go.

11/22/63 by Stephen King   Awards: Goodreads Winner 2011, LA Times Winner 2011   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2013, New York Times Finalist 2011   Date Read: April 23, 2022   I am in shock and awe over this book. The level of detail. The complexities of King’s working and understanding of time. Of the repercussions of moving one thing in the past and the impact that has on the future. I can only say that I think he’s a genius. Then again, over the last several years, I have heard King remark on current events and I think he’s brilliant at breaking down the hypocrisy that dominates our current political discourse and my opinion of him has only risen. Now it has gone stratospheric.   Jake is a teacher with a divorced alcoholic as his ex-wife and not a lot of ties to the community. You can tell from the get-go that he has a good soul and his heart is in the right place. Out of the blue, the owner of the diner Jake likes to eat at urgently summons him and out of curiosity, he responds. He

BOTTLED GOODS by Sophie Van Llewyn   Nomination: Women's Prize Longlist 2019   Date Read: April 14, 2022   A newlywed couple, very much in love and looking forward to their future together, become caught up in circumstances beyond their control. Alina yearns for nothing more than perfume and some Levi’s. Liviu just wants to live his life and enjoy the company of his wife and brother, who visits them nearly every night. But in the blink of an eye, the brother has sold his belongings and fled to Paris, sidestepping the oppressive regime of Ceaușescu’s Romania.    The brother’s defection puts Alina and Liviu under government scrutiny, believing that this couple know more about the brother’s plans than they are letting on. Of course, Alina and Liviu don’t know a thing but this puts stress on their marriage, pressure on their teaching jobs and tension within their family.    Alina suddenly finds herself entertaining a Secret Service agent every Tuesday, as she hopes to keep him at arm’s

THE NEST by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney   Nomination: Goodreads Finalist 2016   Date Read: April 12, 2022   All four Plumb siblings are in dire straits. Each have found themselves in precarious financial predicaments that only the Nest can remedy. The Nest is a trust fund that their father established for Jack, Leo, Bea and Melody (the baby) with those funds being distributed when Melody turned 40. Leo Sr. never intended for the Nest to become as large as it has but with time and prudent investing by their attorney, what once was a modest helping hand has become millions.   Knowing those funds were out there has caused all of the siblings, with the exclusion of Bea, to live a more financially reckless life. Jack owns an antiques store that continually runs at a loss. He has taken an equity loan against his and his husband’s summer house to keep his store afloat and to make capital improvements. All of this will be wiped clean when Jack gets his share of the Nest and his husband will never

70% ACRYLIC 30% WOOL by Viola Di Grado   Nomination: Dublin Longlist 2014   Date Read: April 9 2022   This is possibly the strangest book I have read in quite a while. Set in Leeds, Camelia is lost in her life having dropped out of university and moving back home to care for her mother who has suffered a psychological break at the loss of her husband and Camelia’s father. She has gone completely mute and only Camelia seems to be able to interpret her mother’s meaningful stares.    Her mother was once a beauty and a world-renowned flautist. Her father was a writer and Camelia had become used to existing in artistic and literary circles. With the death of her father, everything came crashing down, including her opinion of him. He was killed in a car crash with a woman that was clearly his lover.   One random day, Camelia meets Wen and he takes her on as his student of Chinese and he begins teaching her Chinese ideograms or hanzi. Why Di Grado doesn’t actually use the word hanzi, I will n

THE LOVER by Marguerite Duras   Award: PEN/Translation Winner 1986   Date Read: April 4, 2022   The Lover is a beautiful novella about a first love that’s mistaken as business and a family in turmoil. The no-name nymph is fifteen and experimenting with her own style that she is aware sets her apart from other girls. Her white skin in Vietnam also makes her stand apart. While crossing the Mekong River to her boarding school one day, a rich Chinese man sees her on the ferry and is besotted. He is instantly in love with her.   While he is aware she is very young, he cannot help but have her. The girl, aware of the depths of his longing, sees an opportunity to help her family. With no feeling on her part, she offers him her virginity, her body, her time and without her quite realizing it, her heart. Of course, their love affair is not to last as his family will never permit him to marry a white girl and the girl’s family is intent on moving back to France.   All of this is set against a tu

RITES OF PASSAGE by William Golding   Awards: Booker Winner 1980, Nobel Winner 1980   Date Read: April 2, 2022   Imagine being trapped in a floating cesspool for months with nothing to occupy your time but a handful of the same books and the other passengers. In Rites Of Passage, you don’t have to imagine. Golding has painted that all too vivid picture for us.  Through Edmund Talbot, an up-and-comer whose godfather has bestowed a position of privilege on, we can see the operation of a very old ship and the drama of his fellow passengers, one of whom comes to a tragic end, partially at his own hand.   Reverend Colley is also aboard and from the instant, everyone sees a single-minded, gullible man. This weakness is exploited for the pure amusement of the other passengers and crew and results in his tragic death. The reader becomes privy to the inner-workings of Colley that reveal a gentle and earnest soul that is continually striving to do the Lord’s work. Yet, the only concern Captain A

THE TEA GIRL OF HUMMINGBIRD LANE by Lisa See   Nomination: Dublin Longlist 2019   Date Read: April 1, 2022   Liyan is a member of tightly-knit Chinese minority tribe called the Akha. Their lives revolve around the seasons, especially as they relate to growing tea, strict rituals and family. Everyone in the village – the old and the young – participate in the growing and picking of tea. This is their sustenance and their identity.   As with all children, Liyan dreams of breaking free and seeing more of the world. She is willful and manages to convince her family to let her attend school. She falls in love with the wrong boy – the one her parents warned her about – and she gets pregnant before he is off to make his fortune in Thailand. While gone, Liyan gives birth to a daughter, one she knows she can’t keep because being born out of wedlock makes her daughter a human reject.   With no other choice but to kill her own flesh and blood, she abandons her daughter outside of an orphanage, on