Category Archives: Literary Fiction

May 29, 2015 · 8:08 am

Review: Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf

Knopf did not let me have access to this title when I requested it on Edelweiss. Sometimes bloggers do get rejected when they request review copies. But this book piqued my interest enough for me to buy it on my own anyway.  As always, this is my honest review.

My Review:
Our Souls At NightThis title is a brief yet beautiful read that took me by surprise.  Addie, a septuagenarian who has been widowed for years, walks over to her neighbor Louis and makes a proposition to him.  Since he also lives alone, Addie wants him to come over to her house at night and sleep with her and talk to her in the dark.  But there is nothing sexual or indecent about her suggestion.  She is lonely at night and instead of taking sleeping pills Addie would rather have a companion to talk to in the dark to help lull her to sleep.

Addie and Louis are awkward at first in a very sweet and gentle way.  They talk in the dark about their respective deceased spouses.  They slowly get to know intimate details about each other’s past lives.  Eventually they start holding hands as they communicate in the dark.

The small town in Colorado in which Addie and Louis live start to gossip about the pair because people see Louis walking over to Addie’s house every night.  The stance that they take, Addie in particular, against the nosy neighbors is that they don’t care what other people think anymore.  Addie and Louis are happier spending time with one another than they have ever been in their lives and they are no longer lonely.  However, will Addie and Louis also be able to dismiss the opinions of their grown children who also get wind of their “relationship” and don’t approve of it?

Addie’s grandson, Jamie, also comes to spend the summer with Addie and Louis.  Jamie’s parents are in the middle of a separation and poor Jamie has been cast off to live with his grandmother for the summer; when Jamie is dropped off at Addie’s home is upset and lonely.  Addie and Louis gradually establish a routine with the boy, shower him with love and attention, and adopt a shelter dog for him.  Addie, Louis, Jamie, and Bonney the dog have a wonderful summer and all four of them find comfort and solace in their little group.

OUR SOULS AT NIGHT packs a lot of though-provoking messages into one small book: it’s never to late in life to make connections and establish relationships, we can find happiness is simple things like conversations, and we really shouldn’t care what other people think of us if what we are doing makes us happy.  I highly recommend you put this book on your “To Read” pile for the summer.

 

About The Author:
Kent HerufKent Haruf was born in eastern Colorado. He received his Bachelors of Arts in literature from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1965 and his Masters of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1973. For two years, he taught English in Turkey with the Peace Corps and his other jobs have included a chicken farm in Colorado, a construction site in Wyoming, a rehabilitation hospital in Colorado, a hospital in Arizona, a library in Iowa, an alternative high school in Wisconsin, and universities in Nebraska and Illinois.

Haruf is the author of Plainsong, which received the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Maria Thomas Award in Fiction, and The New Yorker Book Award. Plainsong was also a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award. His novel, The Tie That Binds, received a Whiting Foundation Award and a special citation from the Pen/Hemingway Foundation. In 2006, Haruf was awarded the Dos Passos Prize for Literature.

All of his novels are set in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado. Holt is loosely based on Yuma, Colorado, an early residence of Haruf in the 1980s.

Haruf lived with his wife, Cathy, in Salida, Colorado, with their three daughters. He died of cancer on November 30, 2014

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May 25, 2015 · 10:44 am

Review: Don’t Try This at Home by Angela Readman

I received an advanced review copy of this title from And Other Stories.  They are a small not-for-profit literary press with am impressive selection of books.  Please visit their website for a complete list of great titles: andotherstories.org

My Review:
Dont-Try-This-at-Home-_-cover_-FINAL1-300x460This is a quirky, bizarre collection of tales that also deal with serious social topics.  Child custody, divorce, and gender issues are all explored with an accompanying twist of magic or fantasy.  In one story a mum who works at a chip shop is tired of her mundane life; it is only when she transforms herself into a hip-shaking Elvis that she feels happy and fulfilled.  This story is an interesting commentary on gender identity and the ways in which we suppress our true selves when we try to conform and fit in.

Some of the stories seem downright absurd.  In the title story, “Don’t Try this at Home ”  a woman wants to spend more time with her husband, so she chops him in half.  When the couple needs more money, she chops him in quarters and eighths so he can work more at various jobs.  When one of his other halves has an affair the woman has mixed feelings about her decision to chop up her husband into so many different persons.

I particularly enjoyed the last three stories.  They featured individuals that are misunderstood by their family, friends and neighbors.  In “Keeper of the Jackalopes,” a man lives in a run down trailer with his six-year-old daughter and taxidermies animals for a living.  Business has been very slow so they rely on food tossed into dumpsters behind grocery stores for their meals.  The loyalty that the little girls shows towards her father is very touching and it is this little girl’s advice at the end of the story that helps him deal with some sad issues in his life.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME is a fantastic and entertaining group of stories with memorable characters.  I highly recommend that you add this collection to your summer reading list.

About The Author:
Angela-Readman-_Photo-by-Kevin-Howard-460x250Angela Readman’s stories have appeared in a number of anthologies and magazines, winning awards such as the Inkspill Magazine Short Story Competition and the National Flash Fiction Competition. In 2012 she was shortlisted for the Costa Short Story Award for ‘Don’t Try This at Home’ – an award she would go on to win in 2013 with the story ‘The Keeper of the Jackalopes’. Readman is also a published poet.

 

 

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May 18, 2015 · 8:43 am

Review: Still Life with Insects by Brian Kiteley

I received an advanced review copy of this novella from Pharos editions.  The description of this press from their website states: “Pharos Editions is dedicated to bringing to light out-of-print, lost or rare books of distinction. A carefully curated list of beautifully produced books, Pharos titles are hand-picked and introduced by some of today’s most exciting authors, creators, and artists. Pharos Editions is an imprint of Counterpoint Press.”

My Review:
Still Life With InsectsElwyn Farmer’s life hasn’t exactly turned out as he had planned.  He was in graduate school to become an entomologist but circumstances out of his control forced him to abandon his work before he finished his degree.  He does, however, maintain a passionate interest in bugs throughout his life and collects and catalogues them with meticulous precision.

The book is unique in that each memory Elwyn has about his life is punctuated by the bugs he has collected along his journey.  For instance, he is on a camping trip with his wife and he captures two mating beatles in an outhouse.

Even though this is a very short read, I fell in love with the character of Elwyn.  We are told through the course of his narrative that had a nervous breakdown at one point in his life when his job became too much.  He is a kind, dependable, humble man whose family, friends and colleagues all display a great amount of respect for him.  His evolving relationship with his sons and grandsons, in particular, is deeply touching.

In the end, maybe it is because it is a hobby and not his job that helps Elwyn maintain his passion for entomology.  If he were forced to deal with bugs he might not have had such a zeal for collecting.  Elwyn teaches us that sometimes life has other plans for us and in the end all things work out for the best.

About The Author:
Brian Kiteley is Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Denver, and the author of the novels Still Life With Insects, I Know Many Songs, But I Cannot Sing and The River Gods and two fiction writing guides, The 3 A.M. Epiphany, and The 4 A.M. Breakthrough. The recipient of Guggenheim, Whiting, and NEA fellowships, Brian has also had residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Millay, Yaddo, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His fiction has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Four-Way Reader.

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May 13, 2015 · 9:59 am

Review: This Life by Karel Schoeman

I received and advanced review copy of this title from Archipelago Books through NetGalley.  It has been translated from Afrikaans by Elise Silke.

My Review:

This LifeThe narrator of this story is an old woman who is lying on her death bed and trying to remember the story of her life which involves growing up in a remote part of South Africa on a farm.  Her life is sad, lonely and pathetic.  As a child she is neglected and forgotten by just about everyone in her family, including her mother.  She never marries and spends her entire life alone and living with family members who oftentimes forget that she even exists.

The narrative is very slow-moving but descriptive.  This old woman describes her parents, her siblings and the servants who all lived together in a crowded house on their farm.  Her mother had a volatile temper and never showed any true affection towards her.  Her father displayed more love for her but his life on the farm kept him very busy.  Her brothers, Pieter and Jakob, have a sibling rivalry that becomes deadly when they both fall in love with the same woman.

Many of the details in the book are vague because the old woman is trying to piece together her memories as her life is slipping away.  As a marginalized member of the family she is never told even the most basic details of their life so she can only put together bits and pieces of her past.  As further evidence of her isolated existence, the narrator’s name is only said a few times in the book and her name seems more like a nickname and not her given name.  No one takes notice of her, no one addresses her, no one acknowledges her place in the family.

Since she never marries, the narrator is dependent on her family for her entire life, being passed down from one generation to the next like some sort of family relic or heirloom.  When her parents die she lives with her nephew and his wife who seem to barely tolerate her presence in their home.  When she is left at home for long stretches of time she finally feels like she has found some independence and  no longer has to follow everyone else’s commands.  Every other female character in the book, from her mother to her sister-in-law, to her wife’s cousin are dependent on men and cater to the whims of their husbands.  But she is able to avoid marriage and attachment to a man for her entire life.  We are left with a sense of ambiguity as to whether or not her life is any better or worse than the other married women in the novel.

THIS LIFE is a sad tale about a woman who lives in the shadows and never finds her own identity.  One should not expect high drama with this novel; it is a disjointed reflection of a long life with much suffering and little joy.

 

About The Author:

K SchoemanSchoeman is one of a handful of Afrikaans authors who has achieved real greatness in his own lifetime. His prizes include the Hertzog prize for prose three times (1970, 1986, 1995), the CNA prize (1972), the Helgaard Steyn prize (1988), the W.A. Hofmeyr prize and the Old Mutual prize for literature/fiction (1984, 1991). His work investigates the existence of the Afrikaner in Africa, especially those that came from Europe.

After completing his schooling in Paarl, he went on to study a B.A. at the University of the Free State before going to a Catholic Seminary in Pretoria. In 1961 he joined the Franciscan Order in Ireland as a noviciate for priesthood, but then returned to Bloemfontein to continue studying Librarianship. Before returning to South Africa for good in 1983, he was a librarian in Amsterdam as well as a nurse in Glasgow. Back in South Africa he continued writing and working as a librarian in Cape Town. He currently lives in Trompsburg

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May 11, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review: Alexandrian Summer by Yitzhak Gormezano Goren

I received an advanced review copy of this title from New Vessel Press.  They have quickly become one of my favorite small presses, especially for translated fiction.  Published in Hebrew in 1978, Alexandrian Summer appears now in translation for the first time.  This edition has been translated by Yardenne Greenspan.  Please visit the publisher’s website to read about all of their wonderful titles: www.newvesselpress.com .

My Review:
Alexandrian SummerThis story takes place over the course of the summer of 1951 as Robby, a ten-year-old boy and his Jewish family share a flat in Alexandria with another Jewish family.  Egypt is an interesting place at the time as people from all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa converge on this country.  Jews, Muslims and Christians all live together side by side peaceably, but in 1951 this pleasant coexistence starts to show some cracks.

The grown-ups in the book are seen through the eyes of Robby who sometimes doesn’t quite understand what is going on with the adults.  His grandmother is constantly gossiping with her friends as they play cards and his older sister goes on dates with different men but doesn’t want to seem to settle down and get married.  At one point Robby and his friend Victor begin to explore their own sexuality and burgeoning bodies.  This part might be disturbing to some readers, but it brings up an important issue about how children learn about sex, attraction and how their bodies function.

The Hamdi-Ali family, who live in Cairo during the rest of the year, move in with Robby’s family for the summer.  The language of the book perfectly captures the atmosphere of Alexandria with its cool breezes from the ocean that  stave off the heat of the Libyan desert.  The residents of this seaside town are also captivated by the horse races that take place during this hot and dusty season.  David Hamdi-Ali is a famous jockey whose most important race during the summer is against an Arabian Muslim.

The horserace between David and the Arab becomes a metaphor for the tension that is steadily growing between Muslims and Jews in Egypt at this time.  David’s father, Joseph, is also a symbol of this religious tension as he feels guilty for abandoning Islam and converting to Judaism in order to be able to marry his Jewish wife.  When Joseph’s son loses to the Muslim, he views this as Allah’s punishment because Joseph turned his back on his faith because of his love for a woman.

This is a rather brief novel, but there are so many elements within it to think about and digest.  The author has brilliantly created an interesting cast of characters that represent all stages of life, from childhood to old age, and the very human struggles that we encounter during each of these stages.  ALEXANDRIAN SUMMER is sensual, funny, descriptive and a fabulous story that I highly recommend.

About The Author:
Y GorenYitzhak Gormezano Goren was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1941 and immigrated to Israel as a child. A playwright and a novelist, Gormezano Goren has an MFA in theater directing from Brooklyn College. He cofounded the Kedem Stage Theater in Tel Aviv in 1982 and directed it for 30 years. Gormezano Goren is a winner of the Ramat Gan Prize for Literature and received the Israeli Prime Minister’s Prize for Literature in 2001.

 

 

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