A Word About Awards

LEAVING THE ATOCHA STATION by Ben Lerner   Nominations: James Tate Black Finalist 2012, LA Times Finalist 2011   Date Read: September 26, 2023   On a fellowship in Madrid, Adam is a self-doubting, talented but obtuse writer trying to figure out where he goes from here. That’s basically it. He doesn’t know where he stands with women, with his career, with his future or his friends. This is the inflection point we find Adam in. And as talented as Lerner may be, I didn’t relate to nor like Adam.   I didn’t really care for 10:04 and, honestly, I didn’t really care for this either. I found it repetitive, overly self-conscious and self-indulgent.   Talent, spliff, why can't I get laid, spliff, self-doubt, spliff, poetry, spliff, repeat . I hate to say it but that sums this up for me in a nutshell. I am sure there are those who really appreciate and resonate with his work, I’m just not one of them.  

MOONGLOW by Michael Chabon   Nominations: Carnegie Finalist 2017, Dublin Longlist 2018, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2016   Date Read: September 25, 2023   Moonglow is the fictional account of Chabon’s grandfather in all his real and imagined glory. Having lived an unconventional and eventful life, Chabon attempts to discover his grandfather’s secrets and motivations for his decisions.   Grandfather married a French woman he met during WWII. He helped to raise this woman’s daughter, who wasn’t his biological child. He stayed by his wife’s side when she literally lost her mind and was in and out of a mental hospital. He served time in prison for attempted murder when he attacked his boss after he was informed he was being let go. He began an entirely new career in his retirement making models of spacecraft for NASA. And in his widowhood he fell in love with a neighbor, giving her his whole heart.   These accounts are presented as a deathbed confession of a man who is on heavy p

WOLF IN WHITE VAN by John Darnielle   Nominations: LA Times Finalist 2014, National Book Longlist 2014   Date Read: September 19, 2023   This stark and bleak novel is written in stark prose and contemplates forever, games, obsessions, religion and the fortitude required to make it through life. Sean, we learn early on, is injured in some way and has become mostly a recluse. Only later on do we learn his entire face is disfigured because he shot himself in the face.   Sean lives off of disability and small earnings from a game he invented called Trace Italian. Even in this era of high tech graphics and multiple plot lines, Sean’s game is played in increments, trading moves by snail mail. There is something about this concept that I love and makes me nostalgic for that anticipation that comes with a slow society.   Sean has in-home caregivers that help him with the tasks he cannot manage on his own but otherwise he lives a very independent life. Most of his contact with the outside world

BEASTS OF NO NATION by Uzodinma Iweala   Award: LA Times Winner 2005   Nominations: Dayton Literary Peace Longlist 2006, Dublin Longlist 2007, James Tait Black Finalist 2005   Date Read: September 17, 2023   How an American was able to capture the horror of a child soldier in Nigeria I will never know. Agu is a young child and after his father is killed and his mother and sister disappear, he joins a militant sect fighting in Nigeria. But all Agu has ever wanted to do is go to school. An adept reader, he spent the better part of his early years begging to be let into the school and he was admitted earlier than most.   With nowhere else to turn and the pictures in his young mind of the stateliness of soldiers, Agu becomes a soldier. He quickly learns the violence and disregard for human life that are required of him. Agu is also subjected to starvation, beatings, rapes and constant fear. For such a young life, the reader just knows his life will always have been profoundly affected by t

ST. BURL’S OBITUARY by Daniel Akst   Nominations: LA Times Finalist 1996, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1997   Date Read: September 16, 2023   St. Burl’s Obituary is an odd novel that, for me, went in and out of interest. Burl is morbidly obese, although the author’s ratio of weight vs. girth seemed really off to me. Over his lifetime, he has done everything he could to lose weight until he finally surrendered to the fact that he loves food and he loves to eat.   His resignation flags, however, when his co-worker Norma, who Burl has pined after for years, says that she would fuck him if he lost weight. As would just about any man, he immediately resolves to diet. And he does lose weight. For a time. And in that time, he and Norma fool around but are never consistently physical.   All of this is tempered by the fact that Burl witnessed the tail-end of a hit job at the restaurant he co-owns and can identify the mobsters involved. They know his identity too and begin threatening his life to preve

THE INCENDIARIES by R.O. Kwon   Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2019, Carnegie Longlist 2019, LA Times Finalist 2018   Date Read: September 13, 2023   Students at a fictional college are recruited by a cult. While Phoebe Lin takes the bait, Will Kendall rejects it and in the process, loses Phoebe, the love of his life. Will has been down that road before, practicing devout Christianity and ultimately realizing that God was just a fiction, an idea created for comfort. Although he goes through the motions of joining Jejah, his main purpose is to try to get Phoebe out.   Will has nothing. He comes from a mentally ill mother without a cent to her name. Will does his best to offer her supplemental income as he can, but he’s also paying his way through college. He meets Phoebe at a party and they instantly feel a connection. As their connection grows, they move in together and their lives seem happy.   When Will goes to Beijing for an internship, however, he realizes Phoebe is spending a l

AUTUMN by Ali Smith   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2017, NY Times Finalist 2017   Date Read: September 12, 2023   Part fantasy, part reality, Autumn is an interesting exploration of modern society, a friendship that transcends age, politics, art and love. Elizabeth, after a pretty funny and painfully accurate depiction of applying for a passport, goes to visit Daniel in an assisted living facility. He was once her neighbor and influenced her chosen profession in art history.    Smith places this story in current time, discussing the broader implications of Brexit and the facets of British society that are changing as a result. Further in the novel, mysterious electrified fences appear and Elizabeth’s mother is arrested for throwing junk at them. Instead of being deterred, her mother is empowered and begins gathering more junk. These fences serve as a symbol of how citizens have isolated themselves from the greater world.   Daniel, in a historical flashback, remembers his greatest love

AUGUSTUS by John Williams   Award: National Book Winner 1973   Date Read: September 9, 2023   In the realm of historical fiction, Williams has clearly outdone himself and I can see why Augustus earned him a National Book Award. Created from fictionalized letters and memoirs of those who orbited in Emperor Augustus’ world, we slowly begin to see a portrait of a man who is trying to serve Rome and dodge the continuing threats that encroach on him from all sides.   Perhaps the greatest love of Augustus’ life is his daughter Julia. He dotes on her in her childhood and can deny her almost nothing. As she matures, her status serves the causes of Rome and she is married at a very young age in an advantageous match. After her husband dies in battle, she is married again for the benefit of Rome, her own preferences and desires irrelevant. And when her much older husband also passes away from a sudden illness, she is married again to a cruel man who she despises, Tiberius.    During this marriag

DROWNING RUTH by Christina Schwarz   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2002, Oprah Book Club 2000   Date Read: September 2, 2023   Drowning Ruth centers on a tragedy: the drowning of Mathilda in her early 20s. As a newlywed and new mother, Mathilda’s life was just getting started when she fell through the ice of a lake in winter. But why was she out on the lake at night? What was she doing on the island house at the center of the family’s property? How did her daughter Ruth survive?   While these mystery’s unfold slowly through the pages, we watch these characters age, grow and make mistake after mistake. I always get so frustrated when the truth could set everything right but no one is brave enough to utter it. Instead, elaborate schemes are deployed to cover up inconvenient or shameful truths, burying the schemers even deeper into lies and further than they want from the light.   Amanda embodies this 100%. She fell for the wrong man; a man who was obviously married but naive Amanda never