Archive for the ‘Character Driven’ Category

LOLA, CALIFORNIA by Edie Meidav

In this artful, cerebral novel spanning four decades and encompassing the tribal conventions and counterculture movements of the 70′s and 80′s, the reader is plunged into a cunning world of philosophy and hedonism that is best described as baroque rawness or stark-naked grandiloquence. If these terms appear to be incompatible pairings, the reader will grasp the seeming polarity as axiomatic soon after feasting on Edie Meidav’s complex narrative style. A carnal vapor infuses every provocative page of this unorthodox psychological crime thriller.

August 4, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , ,  Â· Posted in: California, Character Driven, Mystery/Suspense, Thriller/Spy/Caper

NORTHWEST CORNER by John Burnham Schwartz

Over 12 years ago, John Burnham Schwartz introduced us to two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis – the inadvertent death of a young boy, Josh Lerner, by a hit-and-run driver, a small-town lawyer named Dwight Arno. The book was RESERVATION ROAD, a wrenching psychological study about how a single moment in time can shatter an orderly world into tiny little shards. Now, in a poignantly written sequel, Mr. Schwartz revisits the two families – the Arnos and the Lerners – years later, at the cusp of yet another crisis.

July 26, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags:  Â· Posted in: 2011 Favorites, Character Driven, Contemporary, Family Matters, US Northwest

ELEGIES FOR THE BROKEN HEARTED by Christie Hodgen

The premise—we are shaped by our interactions with others—sounds like something from a school summer writing assignment and is almost too bland to be worked with. But if truly great writing creates marvels from almost nothing, then Christie Hodgen’s ELEGIES FOR THE BROKENHEARTED is one such wonder.

July 19, 2011 · Judi Clark · One Comment
Tags:  Â· Posted in: 2011 Favorites, Character Driven, Coming-of-Age, Contemporary, Family Matters, Literary, y Award Winning Author

THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME by Donald Ray Pollock

I read Donald Ray Pollock’s collection of short stories, KNOCKEMSTIFF, in 2009 when it first came out. It amazed me with its brilliance at the same time that it wrenched my guts. His new book, THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME is just as brilliant but feels more like a kick in the guts. It’s heavy, horrific, beautifully written and filled with studies of people one hopes never to meet. There were times when I felt like a voyeur, watching something that was meant to be private and not shared but I read on anyway, fascinated and sometimes disgusted, but always riveted and totally impressed with the quality of the writing. The tenor, weight and tension of the novel never lets up.

July 12, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Character Driven, Contemporary, Short Stories

THE BORROWER by Rebecca Makkai

Debut novelist and elementary schoolteacher Rebecca Makkai combines a wily, madcap road trip with socially poignant conundrums and multiple themes in this coming-of-age story about a twenty-six-year-old children’s librarian, Lucy Hull, and a ten-year-old precocious book lover, Ian Drake, in fictional Hanibal, Missouri. (Guess who is coming-of-age? Answer: not so evident.)

Lucy isn’t entirely sure that she’s a reliable narrator—part of our reading pleasure is to figure that out. She tells us in the enigmatic prologue “I’m not the hero of this story.” Is she the villain? And, if she is not the hero, who is? The answers turn out to be thoughtfully complex and yet exquisitely simple for those of us–and only for those of us–whose love of reading is almost religious (upside down pun there).

July 9, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Character Driven, Debut Novel, Reading Guide, US Southwest

THE EVOLUTION OF BRUNO LITTLEMORE by Benjamin Hale

Consider the big questions. For instance, what does language afford us? Is self-consciousness and all it implies (self-reflection, guilt, joy…) embedded in language, daresay a function of language? Why do we create art? Nature or nurture, what shapes us? How is love possible? Where does rage come from? Cruelty? What are we to make of the animals, those we imprison, those we consume, the beasts we love as companions? What, indeed, does it mean to be a human being and can it, whatever it might mean, be fully realized? Now, take these questions and a bunch more just like them, and wrap them up in a narrative so unique and compelling, so rich as to bring transparency to the questions. Then shape the story around a unique voice that ranges from the mindlessly inarticulate to the Mensian complex. If you can imagine experiencing all that, you have a sense of what this book affords the adventurous reader.

June 26, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2011 Favorites, Character Driven, Coming-of-Age, Contemporary, Debut Novel, Literary