not those hostages

Anxious People by Frederik Backman

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: One day someone decides to rob a bank.  The bank in question, however, is a cashless bank, which makes robbing it kind of pointless.  Flustered, the bank robber runs across the street and into an apartment building.  The first open door is an apartment where there's an open house, so the bank robber accidentally takes everyone there hostage.  The hostage situation is resolved with no loss of life, but the bank robber is nowhere to be found.  What happened to the bank robber?

First, this is not a riddle.  It's the plot of Frederik Backman's new book, and his hands, this story is funny, touching, sad, and generally un-put-downable.  

Second, lest you be like me, hear "hostage situation" and think Bel Canto, be warned: this book is not like Bel Canto.  It's just as good (Backman and Patchett are two of my absolute favorite authors), but the tone is very different, as is the story itself.

Told in shifting perspectives of the bank robber, various hostages, and two police officers, we get the unfolding story of the investigation in the bank robber's whereabouts, the story of the incident itself, and the backstory of some of the hostages.  Put together, it forms a beautiful tapestry of love, loneliness, and hope.

FTC Disclaimer: I recieved this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

technically good

What My Best Friend Did by Lucy Dawson

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: If there is a textbook for "How to Write a Suspenseful Novel," then Lucy Dawson has surely read it. Her book opens on a suspenseful scene of Alice calling an ambulance for Gretchen, who has apparently tried to commit suicide by drinking and taking pills. But the reader is clearly not getting all the information. After a couple of chapters that build the suspense of what really happened and whether the truth will out, the action jumps back to when the main characters met. Chapters describing how the relationship among the various characters developed are intercut with continuing scenes from the hospital where Alice watches tensely to see whether Gretchen will wake up and tell everyone the truth. In the flashbacks, hints of the ultimate reveal are placed at exactly the right moments to ratchet up the tension, and the reveal itself is pitch-perfect. So if technically good pacing appeals to you, you'll like this book.

But there's one other problem: I think Dawson didn't quite make it to the end of her text. Although the secret itself is surprising while also being believable, and all the characters react realistically and consistently with how they've been described, the resolution is terribly disappointing. It's as though Dawson followed all the steps laid out in the textbook, but couldn't quite muster the imagination to bring it all together.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

it's just too easy

Another Life Altogether by Elaine Beale

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: I give this book 3 stars because the language itself is quite lovely. The story, on the other hand, leaves something to be desired. Jesse is a fairly standard teenage-girl-who-finally-learns-to-stand-up-for-herself-and-for-what's-right. She's a sympathetic character, but not a very interesting one. She seems like a dynamic character only because all the others are flat as pancakes (her parents don't so much grow as characters as just randomly start acting differently toward the end). Ultimately, though, it's hard to feel too much for Jesse, because she doesn't respond to her predicament in a believable way.

The story is set in a small town in northern England in the mid-'70s (complete with some great descriptions of the clothes) and for that time and place, and what we know of her upbringing, Jesse takes her "predicament" far too easily in stride. We see very little internal struggle with her situation; the only real conflict in the story is how long she'll let things drag on. This does not make for very captivating reading.

FTC disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

the river and the people

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: Great story with great, believable characters. The language occasionally faltered into too-modern speech, but overall the setting is well-constructed. The conflicts are realistic, as are the resolutions. The black and white period photos are a great addition. A very enjoyable read.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

interesting take

Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction, YA

Review: Thirteen people are included in Hannah's taped narrative of the events leading up to her suicide. The book is told from the perspective of one of the recipients of her message. However, Asher made an interesting choice in writing this book. Rather than writing the book from the perspective of one of the people who arguably drove Hannah to commit suicide, Asher puts the narrative in the hands of Clay, the one person who Hannah says bears no responsibility at all, but is just incidental to her story. But it makes for an interesting meditation on the repercussions of suicide, which typically focus on the guilt of those left behind. But Hannah herself makes it clear that Clay doesn't really have anything to feel guilty about. The depth of his feelings for her are what drive this book; unfortunately, although I did enjoy the book, this isn't quite enough to pull it off.

Lost Girl

Hangman by Chris Bohjalian
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: Bohjalian's writing is just as magnetic in this early work, but he does not demonstrate the deftness with plot and character that he shows in his later works.

too much other stuff

The Worst Thing I've Done by Ursula Hegi
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: I found parts of this book to be a bit vague and confusing. What exactly was the worst thing? And who is the I? Perhaps both of those questions are meant to be left unanswered, which is fine.

But there's a lot of other distracting stuff in this book, including the commentary of radio psychologists and the fact that the confession (for lack of a better word) of one of the characters is cut off in the middle of a sentence every time. Some of these narrative devices take away from the story, which is, overall, a good one. I definitely wanted more of the story, and less of the fancy writing.

easily overlooked flaws

Gardens of Water by Alan Drew

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Challenge: A-Z (author)

Review: Sometimes, obvious flaws in things like characterization can be overlooked because of how well the book is written overall. Such is the case here. It wasn't until I was nearly at the end of the book, when things were clearly winding down, that I realized that most of the major characters had not been fully developed, nor were their motivations always totally clear.

But perhaps in this book the individual characters were stand-ins for the eternal conflicts of East vs. West and one generation against another. Both are realistically drawn as Irem struggles with herself against the traditions with which she's been raised, but is unable to completely break away from them. Her mother struggles to reconcile the choices she’s made, and her desire to raise her daughter in the same way she was raised, with the evident changes in the world around her and the greater opportunities Irem could take advantage of. Sinan, Irem’s father, struggles to support his family and to maintain the religious traditions that are important to him. None of the characters ever fully resolves their struggles, which is perhaps very realistic, although in some cases their own actions or events outside their control inadvertently lead to a resolution.

Drew portrays these struggles very well. Indeed, in some places he demonstrates a rare gift for the ability to paint a scene. One scene in particular that deserves special mention is the scene where Sinan takes his son to visit the holiest mosque in Istanbul. There, while trying to teach his son how to pray, Sinan must deal with the distraction of Western tourists who are touring the mosque. This scene is so vividly rendered that the reader can’t escape the implications of the potential dangers to Sinan’s faith and way of life inherent in the encroachment of Westerners.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.