Archive for the ‘Family Matters’ Category

STONE ARABIA by Dana Spiotta

…This nostalgic and affecting story of siblings (and family) is a philosophical meditation on memory and the driven desire for autobiography–to document and render a consequential life, and to assemble disparate experiences into coherent narratives. “And even then,” says Denise, “the backward glance is distorted by the lens of the present…It is not just that emotions distort memory. It is that memory distorts memory.”

September 6, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Contemporary, Family Matters

THE FAMILY FANG by Kevin Wilson

Perhaps it’s entirely appropriate that their last name is Fang. For Caleb and Camille are truly parasites—sucking the blood out of their children, while using them primarily in the service of their art. “Kids kill art,” the elder Fangs’ mentor once told them. Determined to prove him wrong, Caleb and Camille incorporate Annie and Buster, their two children, into their art—even referring to them as Child A and Child B, mere props in the various performance art sketches they carry out.

September 5, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2011 Favorites, Contemporary, Debut Novel, Family Matters, Humorous

THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE by Helen Schulman

Somewhere on the journey from the comfortable upstate college town of Ithaca to the glistening moneyed world of downtown Manhattan, the Burgamots have lost their way.

August 2, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: Contemporary, Family Matters, NE & New York, New York City, Reading Guide

THE ASTRAL by Kate Christensen

THE ASTRAL, by Kate Christensen, gets its title by way of its namesake, the Astral building in Brooklyn, New York. This building houses the protagonist of this book, an aging poet named Harry Quirk. His last name befits him and his family. They are interestingly dysfunctional in many ways.

Harry was once a somewhat well-known poet, teaching poetry workshops and writing his lyrical poems in rhyming and sonnet style. His publisher and mentor has moved to Europe and his style is now out of favor in the United States. His wife, Luz, decides after thirty years of marriage that Harry is having an affair with his best friend, Marion. Despite Harry’s pleading innocence – and he is innocent – Luz does not believe him and she kicks him out of their apartment in the Astral.

August 1, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: Contemporary, Drift-of-Life, Family Matters, New York City, Satire, y Award Winning Author

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