Apparently, it's all about "sons"!

I recently found myself with a line-up of three books whose titles all include the word "son".  It felt completely coincidental, although I understand most therapists would disagree ;)  The three novels were quite different from one another but of course did share the very familiar plot line of father-son dynamics.
No earth-shattering moments of insight were expected and none were received.
I guess those will be coming in my next line-up of books about mothers and daughters: Tell the Wolves I'm Home,  Where'd You Go, Bernadette?  and The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry.  Stay tuned!
In the meantime, my take on my "Sons" binge...

& Sons by David Gilbert

I enjoyed reading David Gilbert's take on the oft-written about dysfunctional Upper East Side privileged family.  It was cleverly written and had a plot worthy of it's length: the story centers around the sons of a famously reclusive writer in his dying years.  The father, A.N. Dyer regrets his mostly failed attempts at fatherhood with his two sons, Richard and Jamie, (now grown men living out their own ill-fated attempts at happiness) and is heavily invested in improving his reputation as a father with his much younger son, Andy, a half-brother to Richard and Jamie.

Dyer's fame rests largely upon a novel he wrote at a very young age: "Ampersand" passages of which are frequently scattered throughout the story.  "Ampersand" has become an incredibly successful novel; one of those books everyone has read.  It is set in a boys college prep academy, loosely based on Exeter, which Dyer had attended, and tells the story of a boy who has been "kidnapped" and tortured by a gang of cruel classmates.  Is it autobiographical? How closely does it relate to Dyer's life and that of his best friend, Charles, who attended school with Dyer? Correspondence between Dyer and Charles scanning the many years of their friendship are also inserted here and there and add an intriguing layer to their relationship.

Many years later, Dyer collapses at Charles' funeral and feels the need to gather his sons about him and set the story straight; or does he? Dyer's motives and actions are purposely obtuse and often the reader is left to wonder exactly what is going on at this family reunion.

Amidst the angst, sarcasm, and puzzling statements about the past, the story eventually unfolds. There are many clever bits used to subtly bring the reader into the story.  Although & Sons would most likely be classified as a "realist" novel, along the lines of an Updike, about 2/3 of the way through the story, Gilbert throws in a strange curve that certainly defies understanding and damages its realistic style.  It's not a good fit and just sort of hangs there until coming to an abrupt and unhappy resolution.

Putting the failed left turn aside, which was completely unnecessary as far as moving the story forward, I enjoyed & Sons.  I think David Gilbert is smart and clever (the play on the title of the novel and the title of the novel-within-the novel, for example) and shows the potential to totally capture our attention with his next attempt. Fingers crossed!

"Fathers start as gods and end as myths and in between whatever human form they take can be calamitous for their sons."

My rating 2 and 1/2 **

The Son by Phillip Meyer

There was tremendous buzz about this novel, published on 2013, and most of it included the words "epic" and "Great American Novel" and "sweeping multi-generational family saga" and so on.  I was excited to finally pick it up and get into this past summer.  While it certainly is a sweeping epic tale of a Texan family from the early 1800s to the present day,  it could never be classified as a great novel in this reader's opinion.  Many critics seem to have a soft spot for sprawling tales set in the West; maybe that partially explains their euphoria.

Interestingly, after completing the novel, and wondering why I had such a different opinion of the novel as the critics had published, I went back to several of the reviews and skimmed through the "Comments" sections and found many other readers agreed with me: an overall disappointing read.  It wasn't a horrible book, by any means, but for some of us, it just didn't live up to the hype.  

I found the narrative structure of The Son to be just too demanding of the reader.  I should not have had to flip back and forth to the family tree in the front of the book nearly as many times as I did.  By the time I had a firm grasp on the relationships of the three main characters, I didn't much care about them anymore.  The increasingly popular trend toward chronology-shuffling and multiple narrators can be done well, but often I find it too distracting and demanding.  Believe me when I say I generally throw myself into a story and give it my all, but it has to feel way more inviting than this one did.  I also found the prose too flowery and too strained.  The Son read like it was hard WORK to write; after awhile, it was hard work to read, as well! 

The author certainly has a good story to tell: young Eli McCullough, the young son of a Texas rancher in the 1800s is kidnapped and raised by Comanche Indians.  Released as a young man, Eli goes on to make a fortune in the cattle business.  His time with the Comanches, told in flashbacks  throughout the story by Eli on his 100th birthday, makes up the most interesting part of the story.  Within Eli's lifetime, the Comanches and white settlers visit tremendous violence upon each other, all described quite graphically. The "sprawling saga" continues with ever-shifting narratives by Eli's son, Peter, and Eli's great-granddaughter,  Jeanne.  The violence continues during Peter's life, only this time it's Texans brutally murdering their Mexican neighbors and grabbing their land.  Generations later, Jeanne, who has become a fantastically wealthy and much-maligned  oil baron (baroness?) was poorly drawn by the author (as other readers commented) and frankly, I couldn't wait for to succumb to the slowest-moving fire ever!! Yikes, did I just say that? Yes; yes, I did. 

“Toshaway had been right: you had to love others more than you loved your own body, otherwise you would be destroyed, whether from the inside or out, it didn't matter. You could butcher and pillage but as long as you did it for people you loved, it never mattered.” 

Really??

My rating **

The Son: A Novel by Jo Nesbo

If you enjoyed Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, you may also be or might want to become a fan of Jo Nesbo, now considered to be the top Scandanavian crime fiction writer (with the death of Larsson, who come to think of it, did die under mysterious circumstances...hmmm).

Apparently quite the prolific author, The Son: A Novel is the first Larsson novel I've read.  While I thought it was good, it was not quite the page-turner I was hoping it would be.  

Sonny Lofthus, he of the title, has been in prison serving time for a double murder.  He is innocent, but has found that copping to murders in exchange for a steady supply of heroin is just A-Ok with him.  He continues to reliably confess to crimes to keep the chain of heroin unbroken.  I know; it's complicated.  He is also, for reasons I found cloudy, thought to possess spiritual powers with which other prisoners find comfort and forgiveness. Long story short, Sonny's father was a cop who was accused of corruption and committed suicide.  When Sonny finds out that his father was set-up, he masterminds an escape plan and walks out of the maximum security prison with ridiculous ease. He is set on revenge.  

The main character is a little hard to connect with and some of the circumstances of the story seem just too far-fetched. The "good cop" character, Simon Kefas, was much more fully developed and had a good backstory.  If you're looking for a fairly undemanding read (just skip over the Norwegian street names and towns, as I did with this novel and all the Larsson novels; wasted too much time trying to figure out how the heck to pronounce them. What does it matter, really?) The Son: A Novel isn't bad; it just isn't great.

I'm not including a quote from the book because there really weren't any passages that jumped off the page and gob-smacked me :(

My Rating **