The 100 Year Old Man Who Jumped Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

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This delightful story is a sort of Swedish Forrest Gump for world history.  Allan Karlsson, on the morning of his 100th birthday, decides that he needs to take back control of his life and leave the Old Folks Home – via the window.  Little does he know that he’d be starting out on a madcap adventure.  But then again, madcap adventures are not exactly new to Allan, as we learn in the flashbacks that tell of his amusingly political, apolitical life.

I loved this book!  The writing is so understated and subtle that it makes the crazy events in the story that much more outrageous and entertaining.  I could not help laughing out loud at some of the dialogue – it is brilliant.  And the way in which the tale winds around historical events is playful and so imaginative.

I haven’t recommended a “must-read” in a long time – but here’s a most definite!  You are bound to love this one.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

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Ove has lost the one person in his life who understood him (his wife) as well as the purpose for him to get up each morning (his job) and he’s now trying to take matters into his own hands.  All he wants is to be reunited with his only love, his wife, Sonja.  Unfortunately, each attempt he makes on his own life gets interrupted by his prying, needy neighbors.  Even the cat seems to need him.  Is everybody helpless?  In spite of his grumpy-old-man exterior, Ove endears himself to everyone around him who recognize that he is in fact the kindest of hearts and the truest of souls.

Because of the tone of the story, which is written through the prism of Ove’s cynical and rigid perspective, I found it, at first, hard to get engaged in this story.  But gradually, there grew moments of subtle tenderness that were so utterly sweet that I was reeled in.  By the end, I was just mush.  Teary mush, actually.

The writing in this story is really very beautiful.  I so admire a writer who can create such colorful and deeply genuine characters as these and who can create such subtly charming moments between them.  Even when Ove is ranting at another – and he does so at almost every  other character – you feel the affection that is exuding between them.  You cannot help either smiling or tearing up through much of the story.

I highly recommend this book.  Just stick with it – it’s worth it!

The Rocks by Peter Nichols

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Out of the stunning beauty of the Mediterranean, on the isle of Mallorca, grows the story of Lulu and Gerald, whose marriage years ago, that was cut short by tragedy, has a lingering effect on everything and everyone that comes afterwards.  Lulu has moved on, to marry and divorce again, but to have given birth to Luc, to whom she is sometimes neglectful and sometimes movingly devoted. Most importantly, she is now running the successful resort, called “The Rocks,” where much of the story takes place.  Gerald, too, has moved on, to marry and have a beautiful daughter, Aegina, whose life also intersects with Luc’s.

It is the telling of the story, though, that is unique.  It is told by peeling off layer by layer of time in reverse order, almost in vignettes or short stories, but still clearly interconnecting.  As each layer is uncloaked, we learn more and more about each character — in the way a psychologist would, by digging deeper and deeper into one’s chronology to find the root of a behavior.   In these layers  are hidden some very deeply disturbing events, told so subtly that the full impact seems to hit in a delayed fashion.  The whole effect is actually quite powerful and the more I think about the story, the more I appreciate it.

There is a lot that is sad about this book, but there is beauty and culture as well.  An excellent read!

 

The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams

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This was my favorite book of the summer!

Vivian has stumbled on the makings of a news story from her own family, when she receives a suitcase from an aunt she’s never heard about before, who is rumored to have killed her husband and run off with her lover.  In tracking down the details of her aunt’s romantic history, she also becomes embroiled in a romantic “situation” of her own.  And what starts as a simple tale of the heart actually broadens to a historical fiction saga of more worldly proportions.

I’m being vague about the description here because I don’t want to give anything of this twisting and turning novel away.  The author throws curve balls when the reader least expects them and I don’t want to ruin it for anyone lucky enough to read this book.

The writing of this book is exquisite!  The voice of Vivian is delightful – with a playful and biting edge and air of self-deprecation.   And the voices switch from Vivian to her aunt Violet, as the time switches back and forth as well.  I found myself giggling throughout, even as the plot thickens and becomes quite suspenseful, there is always humor to lighten the tone.

Between the writing, the gorgeous characters, and the story itself, this is a great read for all.  A definite “Must read!”

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

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Somehow I’ve managed to live this long without ever having seen the movie or play.  Not sure how that happened, but the situation has been rectified, as I’ve just read the play…

Stella and Stanley, a married couple living in a small apartment in New Orleans, have been just fine until Stella’s sister Blanche appears at their doorstep, apparently with no other place to go.  Blanche, with her superior airs and haughty attitude, reports that the family home has been lost and she is on leave of absence from her job as a teacher,  and that she will only be staying with Stella for a short visit.  As the visit becomes prolonged, the truth about Blanche slowly unwinds and Stella must, sadly, confront the truth about her sister.

The play is truly a timepiece, set in the late 1940’s, with music, word phrasing, and even the prejudices that were characteristic of the time.  However, at the same time, it deals with big issues that are really timeless – marital relationships, post-traumatic mental illness, family stressors, and so on.  The characters are drawn so eloquently – with simple actions and articulate dialogue.  Even the stage directions are poetically written and extremely precise.

It is clear how this play has gotten so much acclaim – it really is a “must read.”

The Last Summer of the Camperdowns by Elizabeth Kelly

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LOVED this book!

Riddle, a woman shunned by a man from her past during a momentary encounter, looks back on the summer that changed her (and his) life forever.  At the age of 12, Riddle was an accidental witness to a crime, but was quietly terrorized into remaining silent about what she heard and saw.  As her fretting over her own silence mounted, so did the confusion and mystery around the crime, and the circle of guilt enlarged like the rippling of water from a stone.  Riddle saw her own family become entangled in the mystery, and she saw first hand, how keeping secrets can haunt you and endanger you in the end.

What shines in this book is the writing – it is absolutely resplendent, with richly painted imagery and razor-sharp dialogue.  The banter between Riddle’s father, a war-veteran and politician running for office, and her mother, an actress who’s taken a break from acting but not from being glamorous and cynical, is full of jabs at each other that are biting and callous and occasionally laugh-out-loud hilarious.   The setting is also near and dear to my heart – it takes place in Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, on a beautiful estate overlooking the Atlantic.  The characters are rich – figuratively and literally – and are adored and detested as the rich often are, and there is frequent commentary on both the power and the vulnerability of money.  There is also the component of the coming of age of Riddle, who is thrust into the lives of adults as she turns only 13, and her character is extremely sympathetic.

From glamor and romance to suspense and thrill – and especially fantastic literary sheen — this book has it all!  Highly recommended for that Cape Cod vacation – and any other time as well.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (migrated from bookblogger)

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This is a MUST-read!

Vianne and Isabelle, sisters living in France during the late 1930’s, could not be more different from each other.  Vianne is calm, very settled and contented;  while Isabelle is impulsive, daring and always desperately seeking attention and love.  Both, however, had their lives completely disrupted by the German invasion into France during the advent of the second world war.  And both resisted the Germans each in her own very brave way.  Through their miserable experiences during the war, they each came to understand each other and respect each other for who they really were and who they each became.

This book, while extremely emotionally difficult to read, was outstanding.  The writing was clear and fluid and just explicit enough to get the sordid details across.  The characters are beautifully drawn; both sisters became real people for whom I felt a powerful empathy.  It also was descriptive but still kept the action moving so that there was never a lull, never a single sentence I wanted to skim over.  It is a story that keeps your heart beating at high speed until the very last page.

Once again – a MUST-READ!

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (migrated from bookblogger)

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This was one of those jewels that has you laughing even as you’re reading about a subject that is profoundly serious.  On the surface, the story reads almost like a comical documentary, with the narrative intermixed with comments given by each of the characters who were peripherally involved in the death of a character (this is not a spoiler — this comes out in the beginning, but through the whole story it is unclear who is killed by whom).  On a deeper level, though, the story deals extremely sensitively and honestly with the frightening issue of relationship violence.

Jane is about to move to a new area in Australia near the ocean with her son, Ziggy.  During the kindergarten orientation, an incident occurs with sweet, little Ziggy that initiates a huge divide among the mothers of the class.  As alliances form, each of the characters shows her true colors and the friendships begin.  Jane is initially secretive about her own past, but as she warms to her new friends, she sees that revealing her own story can actually free her of the burden of  it.  She also learns that she is not the only one with secrets.

The characters in this story are remarkably real and 3-dimentional.  The story also has a number of different corollaries, which keeps it moving both sideways and forward and also works to add to the suspense of who is killed and by whom.  And while the underlying message is clear and strong, there is  a warm humor threaded through which kept me loving this book.

Can’t wait to read more by this author!

An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris (migrated from bookblogger)

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Wow.  I am a little speechless from this book.  It’s funny, too, because I started this book awhile ago and put it aside.  It felt very dense and I wasn’t sure it was worth the “work” of reading it.  Needless to say, I am glad I returned to it as it very quickly became not work but almost a driving force and kept me up to all hours of the night (luckily it’s vacation time!), needing to find out what happened next.

This is the story of the Dreyfus Affair, which if you are not acquainted with it, is the frightening, true story of a Jew, Alfred Dreyfus, who served in the French army in the late 1800’s who was accused and convicted of treason and punished in an absurdly inhuman way.  This historical fictional version of this dark episode in French history, is told from the perspective of a Colonel, Georges Picquart, in the army who was assigned to be the head of intelligence for France and who uncovers the true traitor.  The story is a brutal, gradual revelation of a top-level cover-up of a shabby investigation with the unsurprising victim a Jew.  Because of the persistence of this lonely officer, the case is reopened in spite of all the efforts of his superiors to suppress his work.

Here is another story of French anti-semitism, something that is echoed today.  Reading this leads one to wonder if anything has actually changed since the turn of the last century…

China Dolls by Lisa See (migrated from bookblogger)

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Three Asian girls — Helen, Grace and Ruby — seeking to reinvent themselves, meet as they each are auditioning for a dance club in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1938.  They instantly develop a friendship, a new experience for each of them.  The story follows them through the second world war, during which the paranoia over the Japanese, as well as each of their own secrets/ghosts, almost tear them apart.

Lisa See creates a heart-wrenching experience for the reader – each character is so lovingly portrayed and it is easy for the reader to be drawn in.  She also creates a real experience of the time in our history, the impact of a cruel war and its resultant prejudices on each of its individual citizens.

I heartily recommend this book – a definite “must read,” especially for those of us obsessed with historical fiction!