Book Buzz

ANNE MICHAELS

A beautifully written, poetic phrases pour from the pages, but plot wise unsatisfying novel. It me against the critics on this one. VAULT has been longlisted for the Giller Prize. The background to this poetry are the dam building projects in Quebec in the 50’s and Egypt in the 60’s. Perenial problem is what do we do with the people whose land is flooded. Avery is an engineer in both projects. He met his wife Jean on the former and lost her during the later. All is well at this point but three-quarters into the story Michaels interjects a new character into the mix and fogets about Avery until the last few pages. She has an affair with an old man, an artist. And a new background Warsaw pre, during and post WWII. What Avery thinks or how he feels is not there which creates a large gap in the tapestry of Vault.

Quote: “–Please go.     His words turned her cold. But he did not let go.   She gradually felt her longing was not separate from his. The slow, impossible, surrender to what was true. He did not let go, and in this union, his confession of aloneness was as close to love as all that had yet passed between them; as close as love is to the fear of love.”

Read it for the language. Forgive the breach in the tapestry.

ANDRE ACIMAN

An impressive novel, this love story of Elio and Oliver. Elio is a seventeen year old boy at his parents villa in Italy. Every year his father, a respected literature professor, takes an intern for the summer to help with his papers, work on his own writing, to enliven the discussion in the house and to enjoy the Mediterranean  in the summer. This summer the intern was Oliver with impressive literary credential, American movie star looks and charming. The story is narrated by Elio as an adult. Though on the surface a gay novel, both young men have relationships with women. Too much of the story is Elio’s adolescent angst whining about Oliver’s coming and going. Which to me really emphasized the inherent power and age difference between the two. But the the ending of the book is strong which pulls it all together.

“Are ‘being’ and ‘having’ thoroughly inaccurate verbs in the twisted skein of desire, where having someone’s body to touch and being that someone we’re longing to touch are one and the same, just opposite banks on a river that passes from us to them, back to us and over to them again this perpetual circulation where the chambers of the heart, like the trapdoors of desire, and the wormholes of time, and the false-bottomed drawer we call identity share a beguiling logic according to which the shortest distance between real life and the life unlived, between who we are and what we want, is a twisted staircase designed with the impish cruelty of M.C. Escher . . . He was my secret conduit to myself — like a catalyst that allows us to become who we are, the foreign body, the pacer, the graft, the patch that sends all the right impulses, the steel pin that keeps a soldier’s bone together, the other man’s heart that makes us more us than we were before the transplant.”

PETER MAYLE

I was in the mood for something light; I had already discarded several books as being unreadable when Pastis appeared. Pastis is an anise flavoured alcohol associated with Provence a southern area of France. A poor little rich CEO, driven ad executive wants to get out of the fast lane. Simon had just completed divorcing “the bitch”.  He does it by creating a hotel in a village of Provence with encouragement and help from his romantic interest.

The most interesting character, Ernest, his valet extrodinaire, obviously gay, has kept his home and executive life in order for years. Superb organizer, Ernest sets up and runs the hotel. His dream job and in the sunny south of France. The best part of the book is the fun of  creating the hotel. The subplot of thieves and kidnapping is poorly handled. But then again it is light reading fun.

A NOVEL OF LOVE, MARY POPPINS & FENWAY PARK

STEVE KLUGER

A sweet, positive, feel good book about teens and for teens but worth reading by adults. But it is a world to good to be true. The two main characters TC and Augie decided that they were brothers at an early age and for years have had beds and dressers in each others bedrooms. TC is into baseball big time. Augie is into Broadway musicals big time. Throw into the mix a beautiful girl, a hot guy and a high school musical. It’s a fun uplifting read. Interestingly it is written as letters, texting, e-mails etc.

ANTONIO SKARMETA

A Chilean classic, Postman is set before the ravishes of the Pinochet regime. Poetically written, it is the story of the young postman and his love and lust for the lovely  Beatriz. Postman has some of the most poetic erotic scenes written. It is also quite funny in parts, especially Beatriz’ mother.

Great read.

PETER MANSEAU

Songs begins on the night of a pogrom in Kishinev in Russia, while blood thirsty Christians were seeking Jewish blood, the narrator Malpesh is born in 1903. A lot of change is coming to central Europe. Malpesh is a poet, constantly writing on what ever surface he can find. He found a photo of a girl who as a child attended his birth and falls in love with  this girl. She is his muse but he discovers she lives in Palestine. Luck or fate (or are they the same thing) take him to the golden land: New York City. 

The ending looses energy but still well worth the read.

CATHERINE SANDERSON

Sanderson’s autobiography is a story of escaping a decaying relationship by falling in love with another man she met through her blog Petite Anglaise. The author is a young English woman living in Paris; loving all things French. The first blog she ever read was Belle de Jour penned by a high-class call girl. Blogging caught her imagination and soon became her hobby if not her life. “Petite Anglaise” became a highly successful blog. She called her partner Mr. Frog and her daughter Tadpole. Her blogging community became a great source of support. She met “Lover” and discovered an intense loving relationship. He soon professed his loved and quickly suggested that they consider having a child together. But as time passed he came to discover that he was in love with Petite Anglaise not Sanderson herself. But how it all resolves? You need to read.

A good light read, especially for people interested in blogging.

ANDREW DAVIDSON
A man burned beyond recognition, a beautiful stranger come to be his saviour add up to a page turner of a book. Some of the descriptions of the healing of burn victims are nasty but at the same time interesting. Descriptions of monastic life in a nunnery in medieval Germany also captivating, especially the scriptorium. A sculptress, in a trace, laying on stone waiting for the gargoyle trapped within to reveal itself to her so she could release it. The couples’ love waiting 700 years for fulfillment. I always hate to say too much other than I loved it. It was hard to put down.

GENE WILDER

My first thought that the famous comedian would write a crazy off the wall type of novel but this is actually a sensitive, romantic easy read. Jeremy is a violinist who is sent to a Swiss resort/asylum after having a complete nervous breakdown on stage. A most public humiliation. The story is of his healing through love. Romantic through and through.