Coming Soon!

A review of The Girls of Cincinnati by Jack Engelhard

The Girls of Cincinnati begins with a zinger of a one liner. “Anyway, I hired her.” I actually thought for a moment that I had missed something that came before. When I realized that it was what came after, I was hooked. The “I” in question is Eli Brilliant, and the “her” is Sonja Frick, a psychic, and possibly psychotic, telemarketer. Eli, the manager of the telemarketers in a carpet store, hires Sonja despite the fact that she threatens his would-be girlfriend, Stephanie Eaton. Eli and Stephanie broke up eight months earlier, after she proposed marriage, which Eli declined for fear that his acting career would be sublimated to working in the Eaton family business. He realizes his mistake, especially after he spends several months in New York City, trying unsuccessfully to be an actor, and possibly murdering a man who was beating his son on the street. Eli has returned to Cincinnati with his tail between his legs. Stephanie, who went to California during that time, has returned having had “experiences” outside her sheltered rich-girl life.
Cincinnati is enhanced by the secondary characters, notably Fat Jack, a salesman at the carpet store who continually berates Eli about work, while also trying to play matchmaker with Stephanie. He, along with Eli, provides a jaded view of the business world, one in which business is always failing. At one point, Eli comes into work and finds Going Out of Business signs in the window. He is both sad and relieved, perhaps because he would at that point be forced into change, but Fat Jack explains that this is just another way to sell, and the business is fine.
The story is part character sketch and part social commentary, all written with a tongue-in-cheek flair. The story has a less modern feel to it, as if the characters are living in the 1950’s rather than today. Eli chases women, or rather, they chase him, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Quite a few different women wind up in his bed “by accident” or at least after Eli tries to tell them they can’t come home with him. Of course for most women, as soon as a man professes his disinterest for them, that whets their appetites, making them want him all the more. Perhaps this is the strategy Eli uses, albeit unconsciously.
Eli is an interesting mixture. He is a modern man, not unwilling to sleep with pretty much any woman around, but he professes disdain for most of these women, especially those from Kentucky, who are, in his mind, low class. Eli finds most women “moody” but seems almost fascinated by their moodiness. Marie, one of his telemarketers, doesn’t speak to him for weeks, and he is intrigued as to the reasons behind this. Sonja is genuinely crazy, and yet Eli hesitates to fire her, for fear of what she might do, especially to Stephanie. Eli is very passive, allowing life to happen around him, but unwilling to do anything to choose his path. This is frustrating to the other characters of the story, all of whom want Eli to make a choice; a career choice, a marriage choice, any choice at all.
On the whole, I found this story to be a fascinating one. It is written without frills, in a rhythm that is smooth and lacking in melodrama. The big events of the story are told without overstating the obvious, and without any sappy emotional scenes. It is refreshing to read a story that is boiled down, one that doesn’t get itself mired in extraneous information or analysis. I would recommend this book to all readers.

Coming Soon!

Do you like shoes? Do you use Zappos? Well, a book is coming soon by the man behind the business. It's called Delivering Happiness. I will be receiving two copies, one for myself, which I will read and review, and one for someone else. Interested? Let me know!

Still Reading...

I am into The Girls of Cincinnati but I haven't finished reading it yet. I will try to get it finished in the next couple of days so I can write my review. I am enjoying it quite a bit so far!

Regards,

GBG

The Next Book

Next Up

As per a follower's suggestion, I wanted to let you know the next book I will be reading and on which I will be posting a review. The next book is The Girls of Cincinnati, by Jack Engelhard. Read it with me, if you'd like!

Regards,
GBG

A Review of Winter Garden and True Colors by Kristen Hannah (see below for Amazon book information)

Although Winter Garden was published after True Colors, I read it first for my book group. I enjoyed the book quite a bit as the story was very compelling. What I didn’t like as much were the characters. I don’t know that I would have read True Colors on my own, but my 4 year old son picked it out for me as a birthday present because of the pink cover. He thought I’d like it. Turns out, he was right.
What is most interesting here are the similarities between the characters in both books. In WG, there are two daughters, Meredith and Nina, an extremely loving and doting father and a completely emotionally absent mother, Anya. When the father passes away, the two adult girls are forced to deal with their mother, who has been extremely distant and unloving toward them their entire lives. She is cold and refuses to communicate with them almost at all. Subsequently, Nina lives her entire life elsewhere as a photojournalist, while Meredith constantly seeks her mother’s approval or attention as she takes care of everything on the family orchard. Meredith is an exceptionally annoying character; no matter how often faced with the truth of things, she refuses to see it or deal with her emotions. Her marriage is in trouble and she just ignores it while remaining convinced that forging ahead will make everything better. The sections of the story from Meredith’s point of view in the first half of the story were very irritating. WG starts slow, but eventually, once Anya begins to tell her story, and her daughters and the reader get an idea of why she behaves the way she does, the narrative drive of the story makes the reader unable to put it down. The second half of this book was a huge tearjerker. The characters themselves become more compelling and less one-dimensional. Meredith’s obtuseness melts as she becomes a more aware character, which was a relief. She was the main thing I disliked about the story.
True Colors felt very much the same as the author began sketching the characters. Although the plots of these two stories are nothing alike, except for both taking place in the Pacific Northwest, the characters felt very similar. In TC, the mother has passed away at an early age from cancer. The three daughters, Winona, Aurora and Vivi Ann, are left behind with their emotionally absent father. Here, Winona constantly seeks her father’s approval or attention as she tries to keep his ranch from going bankrupt. Her defining characteristic in her own mind is that she’s “fat”. She is very smart, but completely blind to other people’s emotions and unable to gauge what any of the other character’s reactions will be when she constantly intervenes in their lives. She is incapable of saying things that don't alienate her family and there are many emotional rifts between her and her sisters. They are not all caused by her, but each time the story is told from her perspective it is frustrating to the reader. This aspect of the story is very similar to WG. The fact that there is another sister in the middle, Aurora, should somehow change the feel of the story from WG. However, Aurora is a largely undefined character. There are no parts of the story from her perspective, as there are for Winona and Vivi Ann. Winona eventually changes, as Meredith does in WG, and becomes a wholly more likable character.
What is truly redeeming about both of these stories is that both have riveting plots. In reading both stories, the second half is truly more compelling than the first. Both take a while to warm up while getting their characters introduced, which for me was difficult since I was not fond of either Winona or Meredith. In WG, the flashback from Anya’s past in 1940’s Russia was well written, well researched and the best part of the story. In TC, the love story between Vivi Ann and her husband Dallas Raintree was very compelling. The courtroom and legal parts of the story and the small-mindedness of the townspeople make the reader want to keep reading. The second half to this story is also a tearjerker, emotionally fraught and written in haunting detail.
I enjoyed both of these books. I think Kristen Hannah’s talent lays in storytelling. I am not as overjoyed with her characterizations. It’s not that they are badly written; she changes perspective quite a bit, telling the story from different character’s points of view. While I enjoyed the changes, especially in TC when Noah, Dallas and Vivi Ann’s son, was writing in his journal, I think it leaves the other characters a little flat. Both of the dead parents from each story don’t seem nearly as real as the ones who are alive. In TC, the mother who died is barely referenced at all, except to illustrate how messed up the rest of the family is in her absence.
I would recommend reading both of these books. Both take a while to grab you, but when they do, it is quite a story on both counts. Readers who enjoy Jodi Picoult will probably enjoy these stories. Ms. Hannah can keep you reading in the same way, wanting to find out what happens next.

White Noise

This story was an assignment for my writing class. The idea given to us was a person driving down a highway that they couldn't get off. This was my entry:


White Noise
Driving always calmed him down. No matter the situation, there was something about the movement of the car, the feel of the wind rushing through the windows that always settled him. As he drove down the deserted highway, he reflected that perhaps it was the white noise generated by the tires. On some highways, the seam of the macadam would punch a rhythm over and over, one that soothed his nerves.
He couldn’t believe he had missed his target. In the 12 years he had been working in the field, he had never once missed a target. He had meticulously researched the woman, determining schedules, family entanglements and anything that might get in the way of completing his business. He had followed her for longer than usual, nearly 6 days, before attempting to complete the job. His blood pressure started to rise, so he cut off the thought and concentrated on the driving for a moment.
He had been driving for the better part of the day. It had been early morning when he left, and now the sun was getting low over the mesas that he could see to his right. He sighed, realizing that he had not stopped for many hours. He looked at his gas gauge finally, realizing he’d probably need to fill the tank. To his surprise, the gauge was nearly full. Pleased, he remembered that the car he had rented got terrific gas mileage for highway driving.
Thinking again about his work, he pictured for the thousandth time the front of the woman’s house. His employer didn’t care where, only that the work got done. He thought again of her front door, the bushes that surrounded the walk. He had wanted to strike as she came out of the line of bushes, but suddenly, a small child- her daughter- had been there, and he had quickly aborted. The girl was too much of a distraction, and he didn’t want to be sloppy.
He realized that he was hungry. His stomach had been growling for quite a while, but he had been so preoccupied with calming himself down, that he hadn’t noticed. He hadn’t eaten in close to 24 hours.
The man began to look for a turnoff. He was in the middle of the desert, so there probably wouldn’t be very many. He tried to think back to the last one he had seen, and he began concentrating on his surroundings. There were no other cars in sight and he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen one in his rearview mirror or on the opposite side of the road. It suddenly struck him as odd, being completely alone on this highway.
He continued on his way, thinking to turn off at whatever the next exit was, no matter how remote. As he felt that same frustration from his work surfacing again, he forced himself to concentrate on the white noise.
The girl had come running out of the house to her mother, handing her a bag of some sort, a lunch perhaps? He had to walk by them, instead of stopping, and continued around the block to where he left the rental. He had dropped his bag on the passenger seat and drove to the nearest highway entrance. He knew at that point that he needed to get far away.
As he continued driving, he realized he hadn’t seen any signs. Not even the mile markers you normally see on the side of the road. No signs, no exits, just the noise of the car driving down the highway. It no longer seemed soothing, that noise; the rhythm took on an ominous tone, as if the thumping noise was counting down to the end, but the end of what he didn’t know.
He decided to stop the car, perhaps wait until another car passed. He could flag it down, pretending there was a problem with his rental, get a ride. He suddenly didn’t want to be alone. But when he tried to press the brake, nothing happened. He pumped it frantically, even stood on it with both feet, but the car just kept on. He wrenched the wheel to the right, and again, nothing.
The highway, the noise, it had lulled him too far. Panic gripped him. “But I’m doing God’s work!” he shouted out the window. “Why is this happening to me?” The only response was the continued rhythm from the car. Frantically, he yelled out the window what he had been about to say to his target, “Hello, I’m making just a brief call to share an important message with you! Please note what it says about accepting Jesus Christ in the Bible. What do you think about that?! Does it sound good to you?!"
On the seat next to him sat his bag, which began to unzip itself, revealing its contents. The pages of The Watchtower rippled in the breeze as the man began to scream.

Coming This Week!

What Else?

I feel it is necessary to let all (one!) of my followers know that I intend to post some original writing here as well. I would not say I am new to creative writing, or its process; I have been writing since I was a child. But the web has made it easier to "self-publish" in the words of Jack Englehard, my current writing teacher. He is a well known and prolific writer himself, perhaps best known for "Indecent Proposal" which he wrote before it was captured by Hollywood. He has told us that self-publishing is no longer considered vanity, and that blogging is a great way to start. I really enjoy writing, almost as much as I do reading. All of the writing I will post on this blog is original, written by me. I expect that it will not be stolen and passed off by anyone else as their own. I do fully admit, however, that I occasionally ask for help in editing. I hope you enjoy what you read here.
Regards,
GBG

A Review of Bufflehead Sisters by Patricia J. Delois

The book Bufflehead Sisters is one in which a child in crisis, Sophie, is taken in by her friend, Janet, and Janet’s family. The two girls meet in kindergarten. Sophie is a strong, vibrant presence, even at five. The events of her childhood will shape the woman she is to become. Janet‘s parents are welcoming to Sophie at first, when she is simply Janet‘s friend. But eventually, serious events in Sophie’s home compel John to want to bring her into their home, as a semi-permanent member of the family. It is suggested that he was not satisfied with having only one child, and so Sophie becomes a surrogate in that sense. Janet’s mother is always trying to bring Sophie to heel. She tries to enforce appropriate manners at the dinner table, wants Sophie to wear shoes, and take baths. Sophie, who appears to be mildly psychic, passively resists all endeavors to change her behavior, whether in school or at home.
This continues as she and Janet grow up. Janet is the good student, the well-behaved child, the conventional daughter. Sophie does go back to live in her father’s house, although he is rarely home. Her lack of direct parental authority contributes to her free-spirited attitude and subsequently, Sophie never gains direction in her life.
I felt the characters were very one-sided. Janet is the quintessential early sixties daughter, always doing what she’s told. Janet is a “good girl”. Sophie is a “bad girl”. She was drawn that way as a child, bucking authority in school and with Janet’s parents, and it continued into her teenage years. She sleeps around, gets into drugs and generally is an outcast, while somehow still being part of the crowd.
As this story warmed up past the introduction of the characters and the girls’ lives, it became clear that there was a “big secret” in the story. Unfortunately, the author does not do a very good job of hiding it. I was aware very quickly what the “big secret” was going to be, even before it happened, and it was intended that the audience not know what it was. The author even planted a few seeds early on, a sort of foreshadowing that wasn’t at all subtle, and it was clear exactly what took place.
In some ways, I was reminded of The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry. Towner Whitney, the main character in that story, has flaws similar to Sophie’s. But The Lace Reader is a well-crafted tale, more so than Bufflehead Sisters. That story, too, contains a “big secret”, but was completely surprised when I figured it out, unlike this tale.
While Patricia Delois’s writing style is fine, even lovely in parts, I was not overly impressed with the story.

Loved this book!

A Review of This Is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper


While reading This Is Where I Leave You, a novel by Jonathan Tropper, I was struck by both the similarity to other books in a genre rising in popularity, and its uniqueness within that genre. This novel is about a fractured family comprised of two parents and four siblings who have grown up and apart due to many family issues. It includes a therapist mother, Hillary, who feels it is best to shame her children into adulthood and an emotionally absent father, Mort. The story is centered around the three brothers, Paul, Judd and Phillip, and the sister, Wendy, who nurse various childhood traumas into adulthood as reasons to dislike each other as adults. The family is brought together once again in grief after Mort passes away, his dying request that his wife and children sit shiva in mourning for an entire week.
In hearing this synopsis, I was expecting a tired, overused plot, but was pleasantly surprised by both the incisive humor used to depict the characters and by situations that seemed so absurd and yet entirely realistic. The author tells the story from Judd Foxman’s point of view. Judd is the second to oldest son, whose non-Jewish wife has recently been discovered in bed with his boorish, radio shock-jock boss. The day his father passes away, as Judd is about to go to his family’s home, his estranged wife comes over to tell him she’s pregnant with his child. This is how Judd begins his week of mourning. It evolves into a revelation of family issues, both real and imagined, as well as a resumption of and ultimately an emergence from the roles they played as children.
Jonathan Tropper layers extremely weighty subject matter on his characters, including, but not limited to, infidelity, infertility, homosexuality, violence, loss of childhood dreams, masturbation and brain damage. He does this with unflinching directness: “When I was twelve years old, [my mother] unceremoniously handed me a tube of KY Jelly and said that she could tell from the laundry that I’d begun masturbating, and this would increase my pleasure and prevent chafing….My siblings did joyous spit takes into their bowls of chicken soup, and my father grunted disapprovingly and said, ‘Jesus, Hill!’ He uttered those two words so often that for a long time I thought Jesus’ last name was actually Hill. In this particular case, I was unsure if it was masturbation my father condemned or the relative merits of discussing it over Friday-night dinner.” The simultaneous view of the family unit, the mother’s outrageous behavior, the father’s lack of intervention, and the dark humor of this improbable and yet plausible situation is characteristic of this book.
This Is Where I Leave You evoked other writers, such as Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris, memoirists who mine their family stories without shame, so that their readers will be both amused and reassured of their own relative normalcy. The fictionalized genre of this story is reminiscent of the style of these writers as well as Adam Langer, author of Crossing California, who depicts characters who came of age in the 1970’s and 1980’s. This is perhaps the reason this type of story has become popular. Readers who are currently in their 30’s and 40’s will find many hilarious experiences that feel similar to their own childhoods. At one point, Judd and his brothers smoke pot in a synagogue classroom during the reading of kaddish, the prayer for the dead, and set off the fire alarm. All is forgiven since Rabbi Grodner is an old family friend, who the Foxman boys nicknamed “Boner”. They describe him as practically a member of the family who was always “’jerking off’, ‘trying to touch my boobs’ [and] ‘smoking weed’” in the house of the Foxman family.
Jonathan Tropper’s story is expertly woven, and is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It is true that few people are as unlucky as Judd Foxman, but his family’s dysfunction is reminiscent of many that I have seen. What could be a harsh story is modified by humor, tenderness and even hopeful feelings for its hapless main character. It is definitely worth the read.

First Time

Good morning fellow book lovers. This is my first attempt at blogging. I have been a lifelong reader and lover of books. I recently made a more formal foray into writing. I have been taking a class on American Writing just for fun, and one of the assignments was to write a book review. I enjoyed it quite a bit, as I enjoy reading and discussing books, so I thought I might start a blog about reading, books and writing. I plan to include book reviews and my opinions, which anyone is free to comment on in any way they would like. I hope you enjoy it!