Telegraph Avenue

A friend in the publishing business gave us a reader's copy of Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon. Marty started reading it and gave up after 100 or so pages. He favors action novels, and this one isn't. There's a lot going on in the characters' minds, which appeals to me, usually.

Reading this book is similar to reading a Russian novel in that most characters have nicknames. The family trees are difficult to figure out (no chart), and unless you read the book in 2 days, it's challenging to keep everything in place. What's happening? I dunno.

I didn't care about the races of the characters, but I sense I was supposed to. I think there was one white woman, a mid-wife. Her husband may have been white, too, but I have no idea. I just wanted to read the story and see if the big bad conglomerate closes down the record store, and how the baby-birthing turns out.

Telegraph Avenue has a surprisingly sunny ending, which I found unsettling.

If you collect vinyl records, like jazz, and have an interest in black culture of the 70's, you may enjoy this book.

I picked up a book at the hospital last week, White Noise by Don Dellilo. Even fiction snobs can occasionally find a worthy book among the action and the true love novels.