A Word About Awards

THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE by Audrey Niffenegger   Nomination: Orange Longlist 2004   Date Read: December 13, 2021   I read for many reasons, but perhaps the primary reason is to discover beauty – in language, in story, in characters. And I found beauty here. Although I am still trying to wrap my head around the flitting in and out of past, present and future, this is a beautiful story masterfully told. And just about everything can be found here – profound love, desire, intellectual curiosity, humiliation, the art of letting oneself down, appreciation for the moment. All of this and more are woven into these pages.   I found the ability for Henry to meet up with himself bizarre and relieving. He can warn himself, guide himself, and help his younger self acquire the skills he will need to survive his bizarre life. And, yes, he can alleviate the all-encompassing desire for sex every teenager has by – having sex with himself. This was quite a brilliant point Niffenegger ...

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 ...

SWAN SONG by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott   Nomination: Orange Longlist 2019   Date Read: September 20, 2021   I have to admit that I was drawn to this book because of the beautiful cover (yes, I am that shallow) and because of the fallout over broken trust. I also knew that that broken trust was something Capote never quite overcame. Using his circle of friends as fodder for a novel seemed like laziness and betrayal, honestly. I think only after he published the article in Esquire did he come to realize that too.   As privileged and elite as this parade of characters is, they lack some of the fundamental, life-sustaining authenticity such as purpose, true connection and true love. They are able to indulge in purchasing whims and luxurious vacations to enviable locations but there is something vacant about their existence. I wouldn’t trade places with any of them for a minute.   My heart really went out to Tru, who with a child-like countenance still cannot grasp...

WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? by Zoe Heller Nomination: Booker Finalist 2003, Orange Prize Longlist 2004 Date Read: August 12, 2019 I'm honestly surprised this won a Booker nod, since it reads like a tabloid story. First, and it goes without saying, Sheba is a rapist,  double standards not withstanding. Any man who would seduce a 15 year old student would be accused of rape and the same applies here. While Sheba's affair with her student, some may argue, is the gist of this novel, I found the character of Barbara to be much more compelling. Barbara makes a perfect teacher, since she relishes control, attention and is the most meddling loner there is. (The early story of her criticizing a fellow teacher and how she must abhor her own bodily functions since she wears panty liners every day and buries  them at the bottom of the trash can told me quite a bit. How the hell would she know that unless she dug through the trash. Ew!) She enjoys bestowing tidy j...

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...