Fruit of the Lemon

I picked this book, Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy, off of the library shelf last week, and it looked promising and different from the mainstream genre books.  It's the story of Faith, a woman born in England of parents who emigrated from Jamaica.  With first-person narration, we learn the story of Faith's life in England, how she grew up never hearing about her parents' life in Jamaica, and becoming aware of the way racial prejudices affect her life.  I liked Faith's voice and I was impressed at how beautifully Levy kept the feeling of the story light and even funny at times, while simultaneously addressing serious issues.

And then Faith's parents decide that they want to return to Jamaica, and Faith takes a trip there for her first experience of Jamaican life and culture.  Great jumping off point, right?  I had high hopes.  But for me, here's where the novel lost focus.  Faith's voice, so clear in the first half of the novel, was diluted by sections in which the stories of Faith's Jamaican relatives were told to Faith.  If only Levy had shown us Faith discovering these aspects of Jamaican life in a more natural way -- this structure only frustrated me, as it took me away from the narrator I'd come to care about AND seemed so heavy-handed in the way it dumped out different character's histories at me.

Sadly, the part I wanted the most -- Faith's reactions to the new place, her new sense of her own history, and how that made her view and approach her parents differently -- was not really shown in this book.  The novel ends, in fact, with Faith stepping off of the plane when she returns to England so you never get to see Faith interact with her immediate family afterwards.  But I wanted to see her family dynamic, rich now with her sense of where her parents came from, unfold with the same skillful writing that set up the family dynamic in the first half of the book.

I've noticed this a lot -- the first half of a book will be good, but the second half just slides away.  I wonder -- did the author have to submit half of the novel to get the publishing contract, and didn't put as much work into the second half?  Or did the author get tired of the story and want to just wrap up fast and move on to another?  Most probably, it's that it's easier to build a good premise than it is to maintain that complex balance of character and plot as the story comes to a conclusion. 

At any rate, here's my summary:  good premise, skillful writing, but the second half of the novel didn't live up to the first half.

Secrets of Eden

In the past, I've considered Chris Bohjalian one of my favorite "go to" authors when I want something to read that will engross me and surprise me and offer me something a big different.  I loved Law of Similars and Midwives. 

So I started this book with eagerness and confidence that I was headed for a good reading ride.  And, I'm sorry to report, I was disappointed.  The plot itself held promise.  Alice and her husband have been found dead -- presumably she was strangled by her husband and in a presumed fit of drunken remorse, he then shot himself.  But as details about the scene of the bodies emerge, it appears that perhaps someone else shot the husband.  And so the mystery unfolds.

Partly it was the tone of the different narrators in the book.  None of the narrators -- Alice's minister and friend, the DA charged with overseeing the investigation of the deaths, an angel-seeing spiritualist ,and Alice's daughter -- are particularly likable.  In fact, the minister was cold and distant and almost smug at times, and Catherine, the DA was even worse, bitter and crudely portrayed.  I never really understood why the spiritualist was even in the story, except to muddy the waters a bit.  There's a point, to me, where the plot itself just won't carry me forward if I don't care about any of the characters.

I'm getting very tired of the tactic of having the narrator shift through the novel.  I get that it allows you to get inside the heads of different characters, and that it makes the point that one incident can look very different from different perspectives.  Bohjalian did it beautifully in Law of Similars and Midwives, and Jodi Picoult is another author who has used it well.  But in their early novels, it was a relatively new (or at least not commonly used) device.  Now it just feels tiresome.  Mr. Bohjalian, I think you're a very good writer.  But this shifting narrators thing feels formulaic and lazy now.  We get the point.  Try sticking to one character and see if you can tell a story that way.  (You too, Ms. Picoult.)

So here's my summary.  Promising plot, less interesting characters, and an annoyingly predictable ending.  It's like Bohjalian has made a template from some of his other novels and used it again to just fill in the blanks. 

Darn.  I expected and wanted something better.

Such a Pretty Face

Cathy Lamb is one of those authors whose books I open with the knowledge that I'm going to be in for a great reading experience.  And her newest novel, "Such a Pretty Face," did not disappoint me.

Stevie Barrett is quirky, funny, and in deep pain.  She has a new body and new sense of health, thanks to major weight loss after bariatric surgery; she has a confusing history of childhood with a schizophrenic mother, an abusive uncle, loving grandparents and crazy cousins.  She has a pile of medical bills, and works as a paralegal and dancing chicken to pay them off.  Her journey to accept herself and cope with the truth about her family form the core of this novel.

But it's not as sad or grim as it sounds.  Lamb creates a likable and admirable character, and infuses a great deal of humor into these serious subjects.

I loved this book, and can't wait for Cathy Lamb's next one.

I should have been a librarian

I read incessantly.  I love to read novels and magazines and art books and, well, pretty much any kind of book.  And I love to read what others have to say about books.  I read book reviews, and blogs about books, and blogs about book reviews about books... well, you get the idea.

Seeing as how I'm reading so much and telling others what I've read, I thought I'd collect all those things here in one comfy book-filled place.  So pull up a comfy chair, get a mug of coffee or tea, and let's talk books!