A Word About Awards

TRICK by Domenico Starnone   Nominations: National Book Finalist 2018, PEN/Translation Finalist 2019   Date Read: August 29, 2023   This beautiful novel is loosely paralleled to “The Jolly Corner” by Henry James as the Grandfather in this story also travels to his childhood home and begins to wonder what other paths his life could have taken. Currently living in Milan and tasked with illustrating this work by James, the Grandfather reluctantly agrees to return to Naples, his hometown, to watch his 4 year old grandson. His daughter and son-in-law need to attend a conference and, in his own words, get down to the business of serious fighting.   Grandfather, however, is ill-matched with Mario, his know-it-all grandson. Having completely forgotten what childhood entails, Grandfather is pestered every second of the day to play, draw, pretend, attend to physical needs, carry him, retrieve toys and, for a brief period, be locked out of the house and completely at the mercy of his grandson.  

OUT STEALING HORSES by Per Petterson   Award: Dublin Winner 2007   Nominations: LA Times Finalist 2007, NY Times Finalist 2007   Date Read: August 28, 2023   Out Stealing Horses somewhat reminds me of Tinkers: that calming and quiet cold encompassing humans surviving how humans do. Kindnesses are extended. Violence comes to visit. Human error is forever costly.    Towards the end of his life, Trond returns alone to the idyllic lakeside cabin where one summer with his father changed his entire life. Having lost his wife and his daughters now grown, Trond buys the cabin his father once owned. Yet this cabin also has the distinction of being the last time Trond was with his father.   Trond’s closest friend is Jon, who is brother to twins Lars and Odd. Jon randomly appears on Trond’s doorstep to propose all sorts of mischief. One day in particular, Jon proposes they go out stealing horses, a sort of horse joy ride rather than ownership change. Trond doesn’t realize this will be the last ti

I WAS AMELIA EARHART by Jane Mendelsohn   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1998, LA Times Finalist 1996, Women’s Prize Finalist 1997   Date Read: August 25, 2023   In this fictionalized account of Amelia’s life and disappearance, Mendelsohn has created the most ideal of all endings – landing safely on a deserted island that provides all of the basics of existence and she and Noonan, her navigator, find a way to live together in harmony until their natural end.   With all the speculation and intrigue surrounding her disappearance (I mean, what actually happened to her?), this ending is perhaps the kindest. Some believe she, Noonan and her plane are at the bottom of the sea. Some believe she landed somewhere and was interned by the Japanese. Some believe she was eaten by cannibals (seriously). And some, like Mendelsohn, believe she landed on a deserted island.   What is not in dispute is that Amelia was truly one-of-a-kind, with an adventurous spirit and an unconventional, for her time, life

BITTER ORANGE TREE by Jokha Alharthi   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2023, James Tait Black Finalist 2022   Date Read: August 24, 2023   Bitter Orange Tree is a multi-generational look at the contrast in opportunities between an Omani woman studying in Europe and a relative who acted like her grandmother who squeezed herself into the role required of her.    Zuhour is studying medicine in England. She is aware of the lonliness, longing and unfulfilled dreams that Bint Aamir endured. Bint Aamir was pretty much a servant hired by Zuhour’s real grandparents. She raised Zuhour’s father, Mahmoud, and then raised Zuhour and her siblings. The great love of her life, though, was Mahmoud, a man she loved from afar but never possessed.   Bint Aamir’s life was challenged from the moment of her birth – abandoned by her parents, blinded in one eye, never able to marry, a lifelong servant to one family. The only reason Bint Aamir plagues Zuhour’s thoughts is because she failed to say goodbye when she

AMERICAN WAR by Omar El Akkad   Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2018, Dublin Longlist 2019, James Tait Black Finalist 2018   Date Read: August 23, 2023   American War is a bleak look at the U.S. should the north and the south engage in civil war. In El Akkad’s vision, the tension arises over the use of fossil fuels and the subsequent environmental devastation. Civil war seems absolutely plausible in reality, although I doubt it would be over the use of fossil fuels. Our country is just that divided.   Sarat is both the protagonist and antagonist, in turns garnering our sympathy and loathing. She is a twin whose youth is devastated by the loss of her father, the loss of her home and the loss of her twin sister. Through the refugee camps she inhabits throughout her childhood, all she ever knows is struggle, loss and war. She becomes proficient at all three.   Sarat is lethal in her focus and an imposing figure in her physical stature. She is someone to be respected and feared, fighting he

FIRST LOVE by Gwendoline Riley   Nominations: James Tait Black Finalist 2018, Women’s Prize Finalist 2017   Date Read: August 21, 2023   First Love is such a frustrating novel because the entire read I wanted to smack Neve upside her head and tell her to just leave. She is married to Edwyn and although I believe she loves him, they are so ill-suited for each other, their relationship can be explained as nails on a chalkboard. Actually, Neve is fine. Edwyn is like nails on a chalkboard.   We are privy to Neve’s background, her relationship with her father who, not shockingly, is very similar to Edwyn. He seemed to delight in other’s pain, was manipulative and violent and there was a brief allusion to molestation? An early relationship with a musician who went in and out of town at random intervals also left her wanting and was never emotionally fulfilling.   And then she settled on and even married, Edwyn. Edwyn is one of those guys that can turn any conversation into a criticism of you

IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS by Tim O’Brien   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1996, NY Times Finalist 1994   Date Read: August 16, 2023   In The Lake Of The Woods is a thriller about a failed politician with a very dark side. After losing his father to suicide at a young age, John Wade recedes further into the magic tricks that his father gave him so much grief over. He realized this magician part of himself was secret and separate from his outward facing self.   In college, with a plan for politics and the charm to back it up, he meets and falls in love with Kathy. Not only does he fall hard for Kathy but he becomes obsessed with Kathy. He begins stalking her to find out where she goes, who she sees, whether she’s faithful. She consumes his mind and day and life. Until, that is, he leaves for Vietnam.   In Vietnam, John soothes his platoon mates’ anxieties by his magic tricks, that it’s all just a big illusion. There’s nothing to fear. They nickname him Sorcerer. And tapping into that inner

CANE RIVER by Lalita Tademy   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2003, Oprah Book Club 2001   Date Read: August 13, 2023   Tademy began with her own family’s lore to create Cane River. She includes photos, deeds, letters, newspapers and oral history to support the structure of her family, both black and white. Beginning with Elizabeth, a slave on the Rosedew plantation, who was forced to have children by her slave holder, these illegitimate children set off a pattern that is so difficult for the women to break.   Not having any power, slave women were unable to say no when white masters called them to their beds. Birth control still being 100 years away, of course children were conceived from these unions. And as their mothers before them, these children became slaves. How a father regarded his mixed children ranged from denial and indifference to absolute devotion and longing.   Cane River follows Elizabeth’s matrilineal line from Elizabeth to Suzette to Philomene to Emily and the offspring

DUCKS, NEWBURYPORT by Lucy Ellmann   Award: James Tait Black Winner 2019   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2019, Carnegie Longlist 2020   Date Read: August 12, 2023   I don’t even know where to start with this book. It took me so long to read and I usually plow through books like butter. This is an incredible accomplishment and a definitively unique voice and style. I am shocked it didn’t garner more attention but perhaps that’s because it’s so damned long.   The stream of consciousness about the world crumbling around our ears, gun violence, the environment, and the treatment of animals, to name a few of the terrors afflicting America right now; these obsessive thoughts are couched in a homey kitchen where our narrator bakes pies to try to add to the family’s income. They have four kids that She cannot believe are all hers because there are just so many.   In between the rants about the evils of the world, we also follow a mountain lion that has wandered into territory where a mountain l

THE GREEN ROAD by Anne Enright   Nominations: Booker Longlist 2015, Carnegie Longlist 2016, Dublin Finalist 2017, LA Times Finalist 2015, Women’s Prize Finalist 2016   Date Read: August 2, 2023   The Madigan Family is having a reunion of sorts. The widows matriarch, Rosaleen, has managed to get all of her adult children to come home for Christmas. This is a family with some harmony, a lot of disharmony and a large splash of crazy. And they are bringing it all under one roof for the last time. Rosaleen has decided to sell the family home and this will be their last get-together there.   Only Constance (hence the name?) has remained in their hometown. She is the one her mother turns to for support and a sympathetic ear but it wears Constance down. Not to mention she has children of her own and has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is literally on the ragged edge.    Dan is the golden child and favored by Rosaleen. He was supposed to join the priesthood but after a summer in