A Word About Awards

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 ...

THE MASTER by Colm Toibin   Awards: Dublin Winner 2006, LA Times Winner 2004   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2004, NY Times Finalist 2004   Date Read: March 19, 2023   In The Master, Toibin embarks on a fictionalized version of Henry James’ life, focusing primarily on his mid-life. Having been born and raised in America, James makes his home in England, traveling through Europe in search of new experiences and material for his novels. At the outset of the novel, we see James mortified by the flop of one his novels turned into a play.   James has dedicated his life to his craft. He never marries and his relationships are squeezed in around the love of his life – writing. This is true for family and for friendships. After the flop of his play, when he was literally booed off the stage, James escapes London to avoid running into anyone he may know. In his travels, he falls in love with Rye, a small town in England and sets his heart on residing there.   James m...

AMERICAN STUDIES by Mark Merlis   Award: LA Times Winner 1995   Date Read: Sepember 17, 2022   Before it was okay to be openly gay, Merlis takes us into a world that is difficult to bare. The men depicted in American Studies live secret lives, in constant fear of being “outed” and persecuted politically, legally and socially. This fear robbed the men of the time from finding true love and connection because brief, short encounters were more discreet and less suspect.   We meet Reeve in the hospital, recovering from a brutal assault from a “trick,” a man he paid and brought home for an evening of sex. Somewhat comical is the way the man rifles through Reeve’s apartment looking for cash and Reeve is trying to explain that everything is handled through plastic now. He has no cash. Added to the terror is the fear that people will find out what really happened and discover he is gay. I cannot imagine.   Set in the world of academia, before universities became coed, R...

THE TURNOUT by Megan Abbott   Award: LA Times Winner 2022   Date Read: September 2, 2022   “Dara was dark, but Marie was light. Dara was cool, but Marie was hot.” This just goes to show how different these sisters are, from the very beginning of their lives, to the tragic house of cards that come tumbling down on their heads. While Dara does her best to forget all the terrible things that have happened in her life, – her parents violent marriage, her mother having sex with Charlie, her parents’ tragic car accident –Marie wants to face it all, even if it drives her crazy. And it just about does.   Charlie came to live with them as a teenager, the elder Mrs. Durant unwilling to let him go with his bio mother to England. Male dancers are very precious. Almost as soon as Charlie is ensconced in their lives, Dara and Charlie begin a relationship and are eventually married. Marie, for the most part, is single and has been for a very long time. They still live all together ...

AT NIGHT ALL BLOOD IS BLACK by David Diop   Nominations: Booker International Winner 2021, Dublin Finalist 2022, LA Times Winner 2020   Date Read: July 6, 2022   Alfa, a rifleman in the Senegalese army fighting in WWI, lets down his best friend and practical brother by failing to kill him. Mademba Diop has been Alfa’s friend since childhood and Alfa followed Mademba into war so that they could remain together. But when Mademba is shot and his intestines are outside his body, Alfa cannot bring himself to kill Mademba, although he begs repeatedly for Alfa to put him out of his misery.   Losing his grip on reality a little, Alfa attempts to atone for failing his friend by killing the enemy, gutting them like Mademba was and chopping off their hands as a remembrance. At first, those in Alfa’s camp find the hands brave, then strange, then crazy. At Alfa’s 7 th  hand brought back to camp, he is sent to the rear for rest and, hopefully, recovery of his sanity.   H...

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 cur...

EXIT WEST by Mohsin Hamid   Awards: Aspen Words Winner 2018, LA Times Winner 2017   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2017, Carnegie Longlist 2018, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2018, Dublin Finalist 2019, Kirkus Finalist 2017, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2017, NY Times Finalist 2017, Rathbones Folio Finalist 2018   Date Read: November 19, 2021   Exit West is an interesting take on immigration and a relationship expedited by the pressures of war. In Hamid’s version of earth, literal doors allow people to migrate to different countries, bypassing paperwork, visas and passports, to simply arrive unannounced in a new country.   This is what happens for Saeed and Nadia, a couple in Syria who had just started dating and were finding the delights in each other’s company. The collapse of their city and Nadia’s vulnerability as a single woman living alone causes Saeed to invite her to come live with his father and him. Saeed’s mother had just recently been killed....

HARBOR by Lorraine Adams   Award: LA Times Winner 2004   Nomination: Women's Prize Longlist 2006   Date Read: November 6, 2021   There’s a lot to unpack in this novel that focuses on one aspect of the immigrant experience in America. Coming from Algeria, the men depicted here are desperate to start a new life in America that they risk everything to come – surviving in inhuman conditions as stow-aways on ships at sea for over 50 days. This was the experience of Aziz, Ghazi, Rafik and the three brothers. Others among them were luckier, winning the lottery, such as Mourad, Aziz’s brother.   Regardless of how they get there, the U.S. does not open her arms to receive them but they have to claw and fight for their survival. The one thing they have going for them is each other and at times, they don’t even have that. Yet, the U.S. is a blank slate in which they can begin a new story and imagine a better future.   Almost before he has a chance to do anything, Aziz...

AMERICAN RUST by Philipp Meyer   Award: LA Times Winner 2009 Nomination: Center For Fiction Finalist 2009,  Dublin Longlist 2011   Date Read: May 18, 2021   American Rust is the perfect title for this novel as it occurs in a small, Pennsylvania town that has been abandoned by the steel mills that once supported a thriving middle class. Now, buildings are abandoned, futures look bleak and poverty is the norm. This is where we find Poe and Isaac, two unlikely friends that discover tangible humanity in one-another, although their interactions in this book are limited to only two.   Poe has been raised by his mother Grace, his father Virgil abandoned the family years before due to his wandering penis and a belief that something better was just around the corner. Similarly, Isaac was raised practically by no one as his mother committed suicide and his father permanently disabled due to a horrific factory accident. Isaac is benefited by having a successful sister, Le...

IMAGINE ME GONE by Adam Haslett   Award: LA Times Winner 2016   Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2017, Kirkus Finalist 2016, National Book Longlist 2016, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2016, Pulitzer Finalist 2017   Date Read: April 25, 2021   Imagine Me Gone is a brilliant delve into the world of mental illness that runs in a family. From the very beginnings of the parent’s, John and Margaret, meeting and courtship in England, to Margaret’s discovery of John’s undiagnosed mental illness, abandoning their relationship seemed never to occur to Margaret. She loves John and their marriage seems inevitable.   Fast forward to their times in the States, a future they never envisioned for themselves seemingly preferring England, their three children, Michael, Celia and Alec, grow into adolescence. Yet, for the kindness and openness this family seems to inhabit, there still seems something missing: warmth and tenderness. Celia and Alec form a close bond as Michael,...

ATONEMENT by Ian McEwan   Award: LA Times Winner 2002, National Book Critics Circle Winner 2002   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2001, Dublin Longlist 2003, James Tait Black Finalist 2001, NY Times Finalist 2002   Dates Read: June 1, 2005 & September 24, 2020   McEwan is a brilliant writer and it’s no wonder that Atonement received the recognition it did. Essentially, this novel is about the mistakes of youth and how they follow us into adulthood. In this case, the mistake was egregious with lasting consequences.   Briony is a precocious 13 year old who has just begun to hone her craft of writing. She lives in a largely imaginary world, and lives in a very real world of privilege and rules. She has been harboring a crush on the charwoman’s son, Robbie, who she has professed her love to.   Perhaps out of jealousy and decidedly out of a desire for drama, Briony accuses Robbie of raping her cousin. The only problem is that none of the other characters in thi...

THE SECOND COMING By Walker Percy   Award: LA Times Winner 1980 Nominations: National Book Finalist 1981 & 1982, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1980, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1981   Date Read: August 31, 2020   The Second Coming was terrifically disappointing. To be honest, I couldn’t get past this novel’s gut-wrenching racism, particularly as the world is on fire from protests against police brutality (read: executions) of black lives. I would love to say we have come far since this book was written, but I believe the racism so flagrantly displayed here has just gone more underground.   The Second Coming is about two people who find a second chance at life. Both Will and Allie are in worlds of their own as they struggle with mental challenges – Allie due to mental illness; Will due to a brain lesion. The world is out of sync for both of them until they discover one another and they fit together like puzzle pieces.   Will’s journey is amplified by his re...

BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK by Ben Fountain Awards: Center For Fiction Winner 2012, LA Times Winner 2012, National Book Critics Circle 2012 Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2013, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2013, Dublin Longlist 2014, National Book Finalist 2012 Date Read: May 8, 2020 Fountain did an incredible job of packing almost a lifetime into a single day. A novel that combines the military and football was not something I was looking forward to, but Fountain's writing and character development kept me engaged. Now that I'm writing this, I am unsure what branch of the military Billy's in, but I assume it's the Army. Billy is home from the war in Iraq on a victory tour, being paraded around the U.S. to generate goodwill for a very unpopular war. At only 19, Billy finds himself in multiple situations that are above his pay-grade, honored for the worst day of his life. What's worse is he continually relives it throughout his victory tour bec...

A FLAG FOR SUNRISE by Robert Stone Award: LA Times Winner 1982 Nominations: National Book Finalist 1982, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1981, NY Times Finalist 1981, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1982, Pulitzer Finalist 1982 Date Read: August 23, 2019 A Flag For Sunrise reads to me like a thriller but with a deeper focus on human nature, coincidence and the meaning (or, rather, lack thereof) of God. Each character in this novel has a trajectory all their own yet intertwined with one another to form a compelling symphony of chaos, greed and self-annihilation. There are members of the clergy, wrestling with their own faith. A washed up professor who drifts from one boozy and treacherous interaction to the next, often embarrassing himself. A ne'er-do-well drug addict who becomes a killer in pursuit of delusional grandeur. And a sadistic officer who can't keep himself from killing but requires absolution nonetheless. Stone has done a remarkable job here of creating a...

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon   Award: LA Times Winner 2003 Nomination: Booker Longlist 2003, Dublin Longlist 2005, James Tait Black Finalist 2003   Date Read: January 24, 2019   Every novel has something unique about it – plot, voice, construct – and this one has it all. Written from the perspective of a child with autism, Haddon has created a world where readers get to inhabit a unique mind and achieve a greater understanding of the behaviors associated with a brain that is trying to process too much stimuli. I loved every page of this.   “Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.   Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little m...

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan Awards: LA Times Winner 2010, National Book Critics Circle Winner 2010, Pulitzer Winner 2011 Nominations: Dublin Finalist 2012, Orange Prize Longlist 2011, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2011 Date Read: April 16, 2011 I absolutely loved A Visit from the Goon Squad, although it almost reads like a collection of short stories. Set in the past, present and future, these stories cover a wide range of characters, all connected to Bennie Salazar, a record company executive and his assistant Sasha. In this novel, "goon squad" serves as a metaphor for time and how time robs each of the main characters of their youth, innocence and success. Each story relates in some way to the music industry, an industry that notoriously celebrates youth culture, which only serves to illustrate how the present becomes the past so very quickly. In Egan's own words, "There's no way to avoid becoming part of the past." Egan fluidly ado...