RollnSmoke Literary Cafe: April 2011

Monday, April 25, 2011

RollnSmoke Reviews: THE IMPERFECTIONISTS by Tom Rachman

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (Random House, 2010)

This engaging, fast-reading, debut novel centers on an English-speaking newspaper opened in Rome by American Cyrus Ott in 1954 and reveals the characters – primarily the editors and writers – who work there. These distinctive characters are skillfully interconnected, and their many foibles overlap and affect one another. The compelling and original structure of the novel strings together this collection of textured character profiles, unveiling each character’s “motives, resentments and disappointments” while also charting the de-evolution of the newspaper itself in such a way that the reader is fully invested in novel’s conclusive fate. Tom Rachman is certainly an emerging writer to watch! (9/10)

Sunday, April 17, 2011

RollnSmoke Reviews: A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan (Random House, 2010)

Jennifer Egan’s fourth novel features an intricate web of characters mired in drugs, sex and the music business. Many of the characters are difficult to like, gritty and headed towards fierce self-destruction. While the writing, as ever, is strong and engaging, the reader has to work hard to keep track of the changing points of views and the shifting focus in cast. Chapters seem unconnected and often read like separate short stories so that the reader cannot always recall how each character is connected and therefore cannot discover an affecting central narrative in this novel (6.5/10).

Thursday, April 7, 2011

RollnSmoke Reviews: JUST KIDS by Patti Smith

JUST KIDS by Patti Smith (Harper Collins, 2010)

Winner of the National Book Award (“The Best of American Literature”), Patti Smith celebrates in memoir her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe that began one summer in New York City in 1968. In spare thoughtfully collected diction, Smith recounts how she and Mapplethorpe lived a gritty, Bohemian life devoted totally to the pursuit of art -- sometimes homeless, sometimes living at The Hotel Chelsea, for a long time living together -- each cultivating funky creativity amidst evolving androgyny. As an expression of their unique love, they vow never to “leave the other;” but they do love others, and as Robert lives into his homosexuality, they drift apart and evolve separate, ever-artistic lives, vow unbroken (9/10).

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

RollnSmoke Reviews: A MOVEABLE FEAST by Ernest Hemingway

A MOVEABLE FEAST by Ernest Hemingway (1964)

Ernest Hemingway’s only memoir, published posthumously several years after his suicide, covers the years 1921-1926 when he was young and married to his first wife, Hadley, living poor but happy with their young son, Bumby, in Paris. Hemingway was a struggling, oft- tippling, ever-hungry writer back then who juggled deep indulgence in life with inspired discipline at work. Here is a literary pastiche of keenly written scenes and snippets of dialogue with iconic luminaries like Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald. What rises in retrospect as most poignant and wise is Hemingway’s lasting love for Hadley. “I wished I had died,” he writes in the end, “before I ever loved anyone but her.”

RollnSmokeRecords Recommends: BEST NEW BOOKS

...NONFICTION...

BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER (Amy Chua, Penguin, 2011). An ambitious Professor of Law at Yale University, Amy Chua builds a defense for results and skills-oriented Chinese parenting – ruthless, where parents have “higher dreams and higher regard” for their children -- over Western parenting – which she presents as indulgent, choice-offering and overly-nurturing of self-esteem (8/10).

JUST KIDS (Patti Smith, Harper Collins, 2010). In spare, thoughtfully collected diction Patti Smith celebrates in memoir her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe that began one summer in New York City in 1968, two artists, in love (9/10).

LIFE (Keith Richards with James Fox, Little Brown, 2010).
The infamous guitar player for The Rolling Stones offers up an account of his own, spirited and adventurous life, very much in his own words – unliterary and British raw -- this is indeed, quite a Life (8.5/10).

UNBROKEN (Laura Hillenbrand, Random House, 2010).
A fascinating, non-fiction story that reads just like flowing fiction, featuring track Olympian, Louie Zamperini, who survives a wrenching Pacific bomber crash to float for weeks on a rubber raft until he is captured by the Japanese and held as a POW for years (9.5/10).

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS (Rebecca Skloot, Crown, 2010) This debut book by a young, accomplished science writer tells the story of the infamous HeLa cell, which came from the ovarian cancer mass of a poor, young black woman who accessed John Hopkins University Hospital for medical care in the early 1950’s (9/10).

...FICTION...

FREEDOM: A NOVEL (Jonathan Franzen, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010). A love story between two people who meet and marry young, grow up together and slowly learn the thresholds of wanting to be together vs. not wanting to lose each other (8.5/10).

STATE OF WONDER (Ann Patchett, HarperCollins, 2011)
Patchett’s sixth novel is a fast and fun summer read situated in the steamy Amazonian tropics of Brazil where a doctor named Marina is sent by her employer, the head of a drug company that is funding research for an emerging fertility drug, to uncover the circumstances of a dear colleague who recently disappeared there (8.5/10)

PRIVATE LIFE (Jane Smiley, Knopf, 2010). Smiley writes with a smart, keen eye, stringing her narrative like holiday lights among historical American icons – The St. Louis World’s Fair, the Great San Francisco Earthquake, two World Wars and the U.S. encampment of Japanese – while at the same time slowly revealing the sad and intimate details of an unraveling marriage (9/10).

THE IMPERFECTIONISTS (Tom Rachman, Random House, 2010). This engaging, fast-reading, debut novel centers on an English-speaking newspaper opened in Rome by American Cyrus Ott in 1954 and reveals the characters – primarily the editors and writers – who work there (9/10)

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN (Colum McCann, Random House, 2010). Winner of the National Book Award, this novel is Colum McCann’s emotional response to the devastation of the 9/11 attacks. He achieves resolve, hope and rebuilding by harkening back to New York City as it was in 1974 when Viet Nam was raging, art was flourishing, liberation theology was emerging and technology was quickly developing (9.5/10).

...Recently Read Old School …

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Hachette Book Group, 1960)
Winner of The Pulitzer Prize, this debut novel is filled with sustained mystery & suspense and compelling misdeeds & murder. Told from the endearing and feisty point of view of 8-year-old Scout Finch and set in 1935 rural Alabama, this classic novel is loaded with timeless lessons about racism; good, honest parenting; the meaning of honor and conscience; and the importance of empathy: “… you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them” (10/10).

A MOVEABLE FEAST by Ernest Hemingway (1964)
Ernest Hemingway’s only memoir, published posthumously several years after his suicide, covers the years 1921-1926 when he was young and married to his first wife, Hadley. What rises in retrospect as most poignant and wise is Hemingway’s lasting love for her. “I wished I had died,” he writes in the end, “before I ever loved anyone but her.”

THE END OF THE AFFAIR by Graham Greene (Penguin, 2004)Greene’s provocative story about an affair that fails to disintegrate is considered one of his greatest “catholic novels” in its wide consideration of faith. What emerges in the wake of passionate and illicit relationship is a shared struggle with hatred, love, jealousy and ultimately, belief, which Sarah catches “like a disease” (9/10).