Old Favorites

Everything Is Illuminated; Jonathan Safran Foer
is an all-time favorite. This author has recently published his second book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and it has gotten decidedly mixed reviews, BUT his first one was, in my opinion, an exceptional story and beautifully written. I have to thank Matt for recommending it. It's written in what I think is called a "stream-of-consciousness" style that causes the reader to have to stay pretty focused. But absolutely well worth it! You really should read this one!


The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay; M. Chabon
just grabs the reader from the very first sentence. Complete with golems and magic and miraculous escapes and evil nemeses and even hand-to-hand Antarctic battle, it pursues the most important questions of love and war, dreams and art, across pages brimming with longing and hope. Samuel Klayman--self-described little man, city boy, and Jew--first meets Josef Kavalier when his mother shoves him aside in his own bed, telling him to make room for their cousin, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague (amazon.com synopsis). Both Tony and Matt read this one first and said, Mom, you gotta read it and they were right! Absolutely near the top of my list!


Carter Beats the Devil; G. Gold
has magic as a theme, also, but it's also a terrific and well-written love-story. The author weave real people and events into this great story: Gold's debut novel opens with real-life magician Charles Carter executing a particularly grisly trick, using President Warren G. Harding as a volunteer. Shortly afterwards, Harding dies mysteriously in his San Francisco hotel room, and Carter is forced to flee the country (amazon.com synopsis). By the way, Gold is married to Alice Sebold who wrote Lovely Bones; what an incredibly talented twosome they are!


Middlesex; J. Eugenides
is the odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope (amazon.com synopsis). It's really well-written and original. And it definitely sets you thinking about the tough life of a hermaphrodite! I have recommended this book to a lot of people and so far, they have all liked it.


Life of Pi; Y. Martel
is truly, truly one of my favorites. It is one of the most original stories I've ever read. I have heard some express mixed reviews on it, but I can never believe it! I think I would have to categorize it as a fable, although I haven't seen it described this way anywhere else. It's just marvelous and one of the most magical things about it is that the last few pages completely turn you upside down and force you to totally re-examine the whole story! And even then, you're left wondering, but not in a frustrating way.


Infinite Jest; D. Foster Wallace
is so hard to summarize I'll just copy and paste amazon's synopsis: "Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction, features a huge cast and multilevel narrative, and questions essential elements of American culture - our entertainments, our addictions, our relationships, our pleasures, our abilities to define ourselves." It's an extremely challenging novel; written in a post-modern, non-linear style and weighing in at over 1000 pages (with about 50 pages of endnotes that the reader constantly has to refer to; I kept a bookmark there, as well). Many people who have read it, have read it several times; I don't plan on doing that! It's REALLY dense, but if you want to delve into this type of writing and try to get a handle on today's authors (Wallace, Eggers, Foer, Franzen)) this is the book for you.


A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; D. Eggers
is memoir based on Egger's (still pretty young) life. When he was 22, both his parents died (a few months apart) and he became responsible for the care and upbringing of his 8 year old brother. Eggers is considered one of today's best writers and his debut novel shows him to be a very creative, original, gifted author.


The Corrections; J. Franzen
is so sad and depressing at times, but above all, a moving story of a dysfunctional family. The characters are amazingly written and you feel intimately acquainted with everyone in the book by the time it draws to its (not fairytale) ending. Moving in the extreme.


Angle of Repose; W. Stegner
seems brilliant and thoughtful to me. Angle of Repose is a commentary on marriage, what makes it work and what makes it fail. A severely disabled (wheelchair bound) professor, whose marriage has failed, researches and writes the saga of his pioneer grandparents, a couple whose marriage lasted in spite of tremendous adversity and tragedy. The professor's attendant, the woman who bathes and dresses him, gets him up each morning and to bed each night, also has a failed marriage.  These two characters connect in a strong way.
Stegner won the Pulitzer for Angle of Repose; it's beautifully written. The last several chapters were breathtaking and moving!