A lost generation
In 1985, at the beginning of this novel, several young men attend a memorial wake in Chicago. This is not a standard memorial service; it is a party, held at the same time as the official funeral several miles away....
The Color of Me
While one may disagree about Booker Prize winners, amongst the other shortlisted novels for the prize, there are usually some gems to be found. In the 2023 shortlist, Sarah Bernstein’s Study for Obedience is wonderfully detached, telling of a Jewish woman...
Redemption Song
Say the word ‘Rastafarian’, and many people will think of Bob Marley and reggae. Beyond the catchy, unmistakeable rhythm of the songs, few people in America, including myself, know much about the Rastafari religion. Safiya Sinclair’s arresting new memoir, How...
An Obedient Woman
From the very start, the quality of the writing was obvious, which explained why it had been shortlisted for the 2023 Booker. The writing style is so distinctive it took me a page and a half, at least, to sync...
Things Fall Apart
Nell Freudenberger’s Lucky Girls was a wonderful collection of short stories (see Reeta’s review), but it’s a big step from short stories to a full-length novel, and not every novelist can do it well. Freudenberger, however, is one of those...
Lost in Translation
This book is supposedly an international bestseller, the debut novel about twenty-five year old Takako, niece of the owner of the 3rd generation Morisake Bookshop in Jimbocho, a part of Tokyo with more than 170 second hand bookshops, said to be...
Books are dangerous! They can open your mind!
A novel not just about libraries or bookstores, but specifically about a Little Free Library! Who could resist? Well, not me at least. Set in a small Georgia town, this novel hits every one of the cultural hot-button issues of...
A readable rehashing of stereotypes
This is by no means the worst of Umrigar’s novels, but it is not her best either. It is a very readable, pleasant novel, set within a Parsi community in Bombay. This novel is fairly conventional, the classic story of...
Deception in Enniscorthy and Lindenhurst
When we left Eilis at the end of Colm Toibin’s lovely Brooklyn, she had just departed the small Irish town of Enniscorthy to return to her husband in New York; the Italian husband that no one in Ireland knew about,...
Clear and Distinctive as a Bell
The writing voice is clear and distinctive as a bell from the very start, a stream of consciousness which runs through the novel which is set within the space of a single day, very much in the Mrs Dalloway style....
How strange a world that one’s equal must argue for one’s equality
I said these kinds of things were adventures; but he said he didn’t want no more adventures. Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Published 1884 So says Huck Finn during the raft journey down the Mississippi in a book that is...
A Story of New Beginnings
The Story of a Widow is a lovely book by Musharraf Ali Farooqi about a middle-aged woman in Karachi adjusting to widowhood. The story begins as Mona Ahmad reflects on her marriage and wonders what, if anything, she should do...
Character studies of ladies and gentlemen, though not in Moscow
A full-length novel is very satisfying, but even short stories from such an accomplished author are too tempting to pass up. Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway were both lovely pieces of historical fiction. They have...
Neither white enough nor Arabic enough, though she can pass for either
Isra is the child of a Palestinian (Falasteen) father and an American (white) mother. When her mother dies young (when Isra is only 8), and her father seemingly deserts them, she is brought into Amu and Amtu’s household (literally, uncle...
Infidelity, Indian style
n an interview at the end of The Other Woman, a collection of short stories primarily about extramarital affairs, editor Monica Das says she was interested in studying the literary representation of polygamy and bigamy and their adverse socioeconomic impact...
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