Guest blogger Lauren Baratz-Logsted drops by again with a big passel of book reviews, including The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, The Days of Awe by Hugh Nissenson, and The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey.
Something must be severely rotten in the city of Danbury, or life must be going too good, because I go on liking nearly everything I’m reading. Someone please stop me before I turn into a sap.
The Days of Awe, by Hugh Nissenson. This is a damn quirky novel, published by Sourcebooks and written by a National Book Award and Pen-Faulkner finalist. It features a protagonist with whom I have nearly nothing in common, a 67-year-old male author of illustrated books of mythology, save that we’re both Jewish. I kept wanting to find passages I could skip. I had the next book to get to! But Nissenson’s complex writing scheme commanded my attention as he wove a compelling story of Artie Rubin’s concern for his wife of 40 years who’s at risk for a heart attack, as well as the loves of several other characters, all set in New York City before, during and after September 11, 2001.
The Highest Tide, by Jim Lynch. Is it just me? Is there something about me personally that attracts quirky books lately? Whatever the case, I hope the trend doesn’t stop, because I love quirky books. Here’s another one I was hoping to punt early so I could get on to the next book in my stack. I mean, it’s a coming-of-age story, for crying out loud, and I’ve famously said that everyone who needed to come of age in print had done so already and what else interesting was there to say on the matter? Then here comes Lynch with his gorgeous story of Miles O’Malley, a 13-year-old insomniac, obsessed with Rachel Carson, who discovers a giant squid on the tidal flats of Puget Sound and who goes on making astonishing discoveries, of the marine sort and of the human sort, as his incredible journey continues.
The Darwin Conspiracy, by John Darnton. I really had no impulse to breeze through this one quickly, outside of the fact that the author already has an enviable gig writing for the NYTimes. That said, just like I’ve long believed that certain titles are destined to be best-sellers because they have certain magical words in the titles – “secret,†“bees,†“diaries,†“princess,†“club†all jump readily to mind, making The Secret Diaries of the Bee Princess Club arguably the most sure-fire best-selling title ever – I’m also starting to think that there are certain concepts that are slam dunks, in this case then-and-now stories that involve literature in some way, rendering the books darlings of the critical press. A.S. Byatt’s Possession, John Crowley’s Lord Byron’s Novel – both fit. And, except for the awful poetry in the former, both are excellent, as is Darnton’s tale of, well, a Darwin conspiracy, that manages to keep the pedal to the metal concerning the attack on Darwin’s Origin of the Species credibility while at the same time tying it to modern-day scholars, a man and a woman, hot on the trail of the truth.
And now, since I’m still reading a lot of young-adult novels to strengthen my own writing in that area, two notable ones that are still forthcoming:
Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. Isabella Swan movies in with her dad in a rainy Washington town and life is anything but dull when her high-school life manages to combine love and vampires. This is lush writing and not at all the fluff it might sound. Me, I’m hoping for a sequel.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp, by Rick Yancey. This book has one of the ugliest covers I’ve ever seen, but that does nothing to stall a tale involving elements of both The Lord of the Rings (the ring is a sword here) and Harry Potter (an oversized not-quite-there jock who happens to be a descendant of Sir Lancelot). It’s all great fun, and often moving as well, not least for its Acknowledgments at the back. I’ve read a lot of great Acks before, and written three fair ones myself, but this one moved me almost to tears, the Ack being one long paean to the author’s wife who apparently stood by her man through all his long years of disappointment while trying to launch a writing career. Now that he’s firmly launched. Apparently Hollywood has even come calling. Like the author, I too hope she sticks around for the good stuff.