Sycamore/ Bryn Chancellor /323 pgs

If you read the back cover of Sycamore, it sounds like a mystery/suspense novel. It's really not. If anything, I would describe this as a character study. A teenage girl goes missing in 1991 and is never found. Fast forward 18 years and bones are found by a person who just moved to town. I'm not really sure why this person was introduced to the story since she really plays no other part except to find the body. And yet we are given a detailed description of her life. And that of every other character in town. I almost gave up on this book a couple of different times because, while the writing is absolutely gorgeous in some places, there is too much of the minutiae of the townspeople's lives. The most glaring example of this is a woman who jokes to herself that she's had twelve lovers in her life and compares them to the twelve apostles. Ok, fair enough. But then she goes on to describe each one in a couple of paragraphs each. This was too much for me and each character who was introduced was like this. I will say that after about halfway through, the book's pace picks up and I was more interested to find out what happened to the missing girl, and yes the mystery is revealed (to the reader at least) at the end. If you like a more literary and in depth style of writing, this book might be perfect for you.

The Japanese Lover / Isabel Allende / 322 pgs

I just finished the audiobook of The Japanese Lover, which will be my book club's book to read for our April meeting. The story revolves around Alma, a woman in her 80's who moved recently to an assisted living area. She is cared for by Irina, a Moldovan young woman who immigrated to the United States as a young teenager with her mother. Irina carries a lot of secrets, but so does Alma. Alma was born in Poland and was sent to live with her rich uncle and aunt in California in the early days of WWII. Her parents died in the war and she is raised to be like a daughter to the rich Belascos. It is there that she meets the Japanese gardener's son, Ichimei, and forbidden love eventually blooms. The story goes back and forth between the past (from the 1930s to the 1980s) and the present in 2013.

I don't know. I feel as if we were never really told much about why these characters went from friends as children to lovers in their 20s. The plot feels thin and too conveniently tied up. When Alma marries another man because marrying a Japanese man just wasn't done in that time or social circle, you're led to believe that this other man loves Alma, only to find out that it was never the case. Maybe I should believe that there really wasn't a love triangle at all, but I find myself disappointed that everything just fell neatly into place. The book didn't challenge me in the least. It's good if you want fluff without the smut, but there's no real fun in that.

Run: A Novel / Ann Patchett / 295 pages

   I read this on the recommendation of Lisa Kimmel at Kisker Road. We had been talking about how much we enjoyed Bel Canto when Lisa said I must read this novel. I tried something different this time. I read the book at home and listened to it when in the car. I will repeat this experiment in the future.
   Bernard Doyle is the former mayor of Boston and he has two sons named Tip and Teddy. They were adopted at birth and 18 months. Tip is the older one. Doyle has decided his adult children will have a role in politics and towards that end he has brought them to hear Jesse Jackson speak. On a very snowy night, the Doyle family meet in an auditorium. Tip is looking for a way to get back to his job. He doesn't want to attend the reception and begins walking away, not watching where he is going. The next thing he knows there is an SUV and an unknown woman pushing him out of the way. With the appearance of this woman, the life Tip and Teddy and even Doyle know begins to unravel in ways they can not imagine.
   I was drawn into this story. It takes place over a 24 hour period. The characters and their individual stories were very compelling and heartbreaking. I felt I could go and see these people, sitting down in their living room and picking up the story. The older brother Sullivan and his life was a plot line that could have been filled out a little more - making the reader understand why he reacted the way he did. That really is my only quibble with the book. Coincidence and fate in one's life are discussed - why the choices we make effect other people we don't even know. I think this is a great book for a discussion group.

Six degrees of reading: The Dead by James Joyce, The Color of Water by James McBride, Hood by Emma Donoghue.

Life of Pi / Yann Martel / 319 p.

Life of Pi is a novel that is sometimes hard to wrap your mind around.  The main premise is that a young man, Pi, and his family decide to move to Canada via ship, taking along some animals from the zoo they owned in India.  Once aboard, the ship has mechanical trouble and sinks.  Pi is tossed into the only successfully launched lifeboat.  Unfortunately, the lifeboat is also occupied by part of his family's zoo-a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and Bengal tiger.

Although the synopsis makes the title sound like a survival story, it is anything but.  Along Pi's journey, you are given clues as to the real meaning but it isn't until the end that you truly understand Pi's struggle.

The challenge with this book is that when you DO get to the end, you realize that you need to reread the entire novel.  So much of the book is written with symbolism in mind that determining what really might have happened takes work on the part of the reader.

But even with the extra work, the storytelling from Martel is well worth it.

Joy Luck Club / Amy Tan / 288 p.

Now I know why this book is considered a literary classic.  Amy Tan has a way with using symbolism, imagery, and dialog in order to create this multi-generational tale about hope, love, survival, mothers/daughter relationships, and life.  The story is about four Chinese women who immigrated to America right after WWII.  It is about their struggles in their war torn country and their hopes for their daughters' as they start a new life in the USA.  The book also follows the 4 daughters as they walk that line of being American, but also trying to preserve their cultural heritage (when it suits them).  This is not a very good description about this book, because there is just so much more to it, which many themes and issues discussed within.  This would make a good book club choice. 

Swamplandia! / Karen Russell / 316 pages

As you read Swamplandia! you will find yourself wanting to jot down phrases, descriptions, and questions.  This is a book that begs to be savored, discussed, and re-visited.  You will find humor, pathos, psychology, creepiness, rich characters, symbolism, and characters that take hold of you.  It is the story of the Bigtree family and their alligator wrestling tourist trap of a park vs the new "amusement" hell-themed park that you enter via the gullet of the whale that swallowed Jonah.  It is the story of a family trying to survive deep grief over the loss of a mother and wife, debt-ridden land, and isolation.  It is the story of the culture and features of the swamp and Everglades of Florida.  It is the story at last of family, survival, and redemption even when you are damaged.  Highly recommended for readers of literary books.

The Good Daughters / Joyce Maynard / 278 pages

I think what attracted me to this book was the two girls born the same day in the same hospital in 1950....just like me and one of my cousins. Would it be funny like that movie Big Business with Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler? Nope. Maynard is a great storyteller who can keep you turning the pages. She offers lots of emotion, feelings about love and family, parental roles in our lives, what's important in life and trials of figuring out who we are. It is very apparent early in the book why the girls feel out of place in their families yet the story is mesmerizing and you want to keep reading to find out if in the end they are happy with themselves and what life brings them. It is hard to imagine what it would have been like to be either of the daughters or either of the mothers yet you feel like you've known people just like them. Details of changing life in the 50's, 60's and 70's make the book seem real to anyone who lived them! Go ahead and read it and let me know what you think!