VPL Staff Fiction Picks - October 2009
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Ozeki, Ruth Topical novel dealing, in part, with the dangers of modified foods. Ozeki’s approach is far fom preachy. Instead, she opts for humour and sharp ovservation. Her characters are drawn with warmth and compassion. A terrific book.
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First published in 1931, maverick investigative journalist Schuyler combines comedy, science fiction and satire in a novel that speculates on race relations following the discovery of a formula that turns blacks into whites. This would make an interesting companion read to the recent novel Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo.
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Levine, James A. This is the story of Batuk, a young Indian girl who has been sold into prostitution. Batuk lives in Mumbai and despite the tragic circumstances of her life, she transcends her suffering in stories, fables and observations she writes in a blue notebook which also serves as her diary. Although a fictional character, Batuk has been compared to Anne Frank
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Hill, Lawrence Wow! This is the stuff they forgot to teach us in school. Based on the original historical British Military ledger of the same name, Hill brings us a Canadian perspective of the history of slavery through the voice of Aminata Diallo, who at the age of 11 was kidnapped from her family, put on a slave ship and taken to America. Using skills she learnt from her mother, she is able to help her fellow slaves on the ships, the plantation and in their attempts to get their promised freedoms both in Nova Scotia and Freetown, Sierra Leone. This is a well written and powerful novel.
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Vollmar, Rob One of the great virtues of the graphic novel is its easily accessible presentation of fiction and non-fiction. Add powerful illustrations and you attract an audience from a wide variety of backgrounds including those not especially interested in traditional print formats. Told from the point of view of a young boy, the Castaways is a wonderful depiction of the men riding the trains during the Great Depression and living in hobo jungles. This graphic novel has the strong emotional tug of historical fiction and will appeal to adult and teen audiences alike.
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Lodge, David Touching and, at times, humorous account of retired linguist Desmond Bates coming to grips with his increasing deafness. The domestic details of his life are involving. I especially liked the portrayal of the relationship between Bates and his elderly father and the reversal of the child-parent caregiver role. This would be an excellent choice for a book club.
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Echlin, Kim 16year-old Anne Greves meets a young Cambodian student named Serey in Montreal. Serey cannot return home because the Cambodian boarders have been sealed by the Pol Pot regime. When he is able to return to Phnom Penh, he finds his entire family has “disappeared.” Anne travels to Cambodia to reunite with Serey. She finds a society still living in fear and intimidation. Basic human impulses to show pity for the suffering and respect for the dead are on hold. Like Antigone, Anne argues in favour of divine law over the laws of state. A moving account.
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Halpin, Brendan Halpin uses e-mail, instant messaging, journal entries and other random forms of communication to bring us the story of Rosalind, a young girl who loses both of her mothers in a tragic accident, and Sean their sperm donor. Halpin will make you laugh out loud, he will make you cry…but through it all you will follow his characters as they struggle to go from being strangers in the same house to becoming a family. Highly recommended.
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Origen, Erich This unauthorized parody of Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon depicts the bedtime antics of a juvenile George W. Bush. In images loaded with deeper significance to the Bush term of office, simple childhood toys take on sinister meaning. The scene is complete with a creepy Dick Cheney whispering, “Hush!”
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Befeler, Mike The second instalment of Befeler’s “Geezer-Lit Mystery Series” finds the elderly Paul Jacobson relocated in Boulder, Colorado with his son’s family. Imagine Miss Marple as a crusty codger with short-term memory loss and you will have some idea of what to expect. In this outing, Paul takes on an unscrupulous real-estate developer preying on the elderly. Off-beat and charming, the book also takes a serious look at issues important to seniors. It will appeal to fans of cozy mysteries.
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Farrell, Fiona Award winning New Zealand author Fiona Farrell offers a sweet-tempered romance featuring a poacher, an elderly natural scientist and his beautiful granddaughter. The book features Gothic romance, animal lore, a perilous voyage and a happy ending – who could ask for more?
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Ishiguro, Kazuo The idyllic memories and the seemingly privileged lives of three school friends, are contrasted sharply with the brutal reality of their adulthood. The children are clones and have been bred to be living organ donors. Ishiguro’s dystopian vision is tempered by the beauty of his prose. This is a compelling read and should appeal to fans of Muriel Sparks’ Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
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Worster, Donald This biography is the moving account of the life of John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club who throughout his life inspired generations to celebrate “the sacred beauty of the natural world.” Today’s national parks and wilderness areas in the United States – especially Yoseminite – owe their existence to Muir.
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Sfar, Joann A wonderful continuation of Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat series. These tales are set in Northern Africa. My favourite tale in the collection involves the elderly Malka, his trained lion, his pet cat and a snake that follows behind them in case anyone requires his “dispatch” services. It is the cat who narrates these stories that explore the relationship between life, death, legend and tall-tale. Sfar is a born storyteller.
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Malouf, David Malouf offers a poetic retelling of the scene from the Illiad where King Priam travels in secrecy to the camp of Achilles to ramsom the body of his dead son, Hector. In leaving the “representational” world of the palace with its form and deference, Priam encounters a more basic and natural world and discovers “what was new could also be pleasurable.” No tale of the Trojan War could be without its meditation on chance and fate, and Ransom offers its characters ample room to meditate on personal mythologies and dark foreshadowing. A complex and satisfying read.
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Bao, Ninh This book is the stunning retelling of the Vietnamese War from the point-of-view of a northern soldier. Many years after the war has ended, we see the survivors still haunted by the horrors they experienced. The narrative is non-linear and poetic. Dream and legend allow memory to resurface and events to be recounted with a hypnotic distance that is both beautiful and chilling. Recommended.
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Chariandy, David The moving story of an unnamed narrator and his Caribbean-born mother, Adele. Throughout the novel, she recalls her life and early experiences as a visible-minority immigrant in Anglo-Saxon Toronto. Touchingly, Adele also suffers from early onset dementia.
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McCall Smith, Alexander As fresh and as charming as always, this is the latest title in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. In this outing Precious and Grace investigate football treachery, questionable sales practices at the Double Comfort Furniture Store and, of course, chat about life in Botswana over endless cups of tea. Highly recommended.
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Proulx, Annie 25-year-old Bob Dollar, hapless recent graduate of a third-rate college, is seeking direction and a job. Hired as a stooge for Global Pork Rind, Bob is sent to Wollybucket, Texas where, under the guise of a luxury-home developer, he is to acquire prime farmland to be used as future hog farms. Bob arrives only to find a rival speculator also scamming for farmland and a town of in-the-know citizens who play the situation for the town’s benefit. A hilarious glimpse at small town history. This would make a great companion read to Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection.
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McLynn, Pauline A young woman from the city, overcome by the joint effects of a bum-romance and more than one-too-many drinks, wakes to find herself adopted by the locals. A funny, contemporay novel set in the Irish countryside that also manages to deal intelligently with the themes of alcoholism and bereavement. A nice companion to McLynn’s excellent Leo Street mystery series.
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