Books of Note

I really have to put the books down and do some cleaning.

If you've ever read Lionel Shriver, you know you're in for psychological trauma. I read We Need to Talk About Kevin in a book group back in Rhode Island. I highly recommend this beyond-noir account of a very troubled youth. Shriver's latest novel is Big Brother. Nominally it's about obesity in the Heartland. Psychologically/emotionally it questions how much can family do to heal a member's extreme problems, in this case over-eating. This sister-brother tale is a bit of a let-down in that it uses a time-worn device to wiggle out of the ordeal cum triumph, but it's worth reading anyway, especially for the doll Baby Monotonous which you can order to look like someone you know and have it say phrases that person uses ad nauseum.

I'm ashamed to say I've never read anything by the Haitian writer Edwidge Danticat. Her new novel Claire of the Sea Light is a beautifully woven tale, sprinkled with Creole patois, about a small village outside of Port-de-Prince. Most of the the inhabitants are dirt-poor and have little control over their lives. Mothers die giving birth, children die capriciously, young women are raped by their employers, fisherman die at sea leaving their families even more poor, and the government can be bribed to sanction murders of innocent people. Shining through this so-called life is Claire, a seven-year old girl who is innocent and yet wise. The luminosity of her spirit washes over the townspeople like a powerful wave, and they are better for it.