This book by Alex Kotlowitz (author of the best-selling There Are No Children Here) is praised by Kirkus Reviews as being "A powerful record of an untimely death in middle America." The disappointment is that this is not a particularly powerful nor compelling book, although the subject matter certainly is compelling. This nonfiction account is of two cities in Michigan: lily-white and rich St. Joseph and poverty-stricken and black Benton Harbor, just across the river. This could have been a powerful book because the contrast between these two towns is fascinating; however, Kotlowitz stumbles as a writer, taking the long way about and leaving a maze of jumbled stories. I couldn't help but compare this to John Grisham's The Innocent Man, which follows a similar story of injustice and an unsolved crime. Where Grisham uses his storytelling skills to make his nonfiction account read like a mystery as well as a social commentary, Kotlowitz's story lacks the kind of personal close-ups that makes for a gripping tale. He could have done a lot more to make the reader know the characters on a deeper level.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Book Review: The Kite Runner
How have I missed this spectacular book by Khaled Hosseini until now? This is the heartbreaking, beautiful story of Amir and Hassan, two boys raised in the same Afghan household, but worlds apart. Amir is the privileged heir; Hassan is his servant. The story that follows is terribly painful to read, but worth every single paragraph. The book is full of the beauty and violence of a country, a father/son relationship, a friendship, a marriage, a community, a childhood--there is just so much to this book. The writing itself is superb, and the ending is truthful but gratifying. I'd put this on my Top 20 list, if I had such a thing.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Book Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
This is another one of the books on my American Lit possibility list. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a candid look at life in Brooklyn's slums in the early 1900s, told through the eyes of Francie Nolan. Francie is the daughter of a lovely alcoholic papa and a hardworking, floor-scrubbing mama. She navigates through her adolescence in the midst of poverty, realizing early on that education is the key to rising above the plight of the poor and that family is ultimately what provides sustenance. I read this book as a teenager and remembered only that I loved it; to re-read this as an adult was a tremendous gift.
Book Review: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
This book was not what I was expecting. I must not have read the reviews carefully enough, for I believed this to be a nonfiction account of a little-known part of American history. Actually, this “historical” account never happened, as author Jim Fergus quite clearly states in his introduction. Apparently a Cheyenne chief suggested to an Army officer, sometime in the 1870s, that 1000 white women might be traded for 1000 horses; but the chief’s offer was met with scorn and dismissed. This book is a “what if” story: what if the U.S. government had agreed to provide 1000 white brides in exchange for 1000 horses, so that the American Indian and white American cultures might start to be blended?
The premise of the book sounded promising, but I have to give this book a “blech” rating. It had its moments: the writing was good and the characters interesting and some quite likeable; however, the author was too crass for my taste. My favorite chapter was probably the last, written as if it were penned by the monk, Father Anthony. Here the writing was gentle and lyrical, something I appreciate and admire much more than the “shock value” technique the author uses throughout much of the book. If this were truly nonfiction, I might recommend it for its enlightenment of a historical period; but as a work of fiction, I’d skip it.