If you are a McEwan fan, you will not be disappointed.  The narrator is an eight month old male fetus,  and the plot is a take-off on Hamlet.  Claude, the uncle and Trudy, the pregnant mother want to murder John Cairncross(the name may sound familiar to some), the unnamed baby’s father.  Scattered throughout this short novel are allusions galore, mostly Shakespearean.  McEwan’s intellect is on display throughout-I went to the dictionary and Google often.  His knowledge of literature, science and even wine are to be highly admired.  And while Nutshell is a learning experience, it is far more fun than educational.  Sit back, suspend belief and enjoy the ride!

I picked this book up because I am planning a trip next month to Monticello.  I was pleasantly surprised how interesting and readable this work of historical fiction is.  This novel is mainly the adult life of Martha Jefferson Randolph, oldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson and mother of eleven children.  Martha, according to Monticello,  was an amazing woman who took care of all of her children, supervised her father’s home when he was President in Washington D.C.,  and tried to be a good wife to her husband, Tom, even when he was in the throes of depression and deeply in debt.  Although Martha, like her husband and father, understood the evils of slavery, for economic reasons they could never free their slaves.  Martha also denied until her father’s death that Sally Hemings was his mistress and bore his children. For Martha to admit this, would take Thomas Jefferson off the pedestal she had place him on.

 

Commonwealth is the story of a blended family.  Fix and Beverly Keating have two daughters, Caroline and Franny.  Bert and Teresa Cousins have four children, Cal, Holly, Jeanette and Albie.  Bert and Beverly divorce their spouses, marry, and all six children then spend summers together at their home in Virginia.  Patchett deftly describes each of these characters’ and their relationships to each other.  All four parents and their children have their own personalities which evolve while they are explored through five decades.

Commonwealth is a readable and entertaining novel which is sure to be another bestseller for the ubiquitous Ann Patchett.

Main character, Jacob Bloch, is a husband, son, grandson and father.  He has been searching throughout his adult life, but is never exactly sure what he is trying to find.  When his marriage is in trouble,  Israel suffers an earthquake which results in a catastrophic war, and Bloch is asked to come aid his “homeland,” he is forced to look more deeply into himself and his effect on those he loves.

Here I Am depicts a man, a marriage, the Mideast and American Judaism in crisis.  Much of the repartee is enormously clever, but the entire Bloch family is too smart and quick witted to be true, including Jacob’s three young sons.

Cora, a slave on a plantation in Georgia, escapes with another slave named Caesar.  With the help of the underground railroad, which, in this novel, is actually a railroad, Cora travels through several states, each with its own peculiar laws and treatments of blacks.   Always in pursuit of her is Ridgeway, a slave catcher who is zealously trying to capture Cora and take her back to Georgia.

Whitehead’s novel has gotten many accolades and is this month’s selection for Oprah’s Book Club.  Quite frankly, I don’t get it.  At times the prose is awkward and the blending of historical fiction with blatant inaccuracies, even if they are meant to be literary tools, didn’t work for me.  I much preferred James McBride’s Song Yet Sung, also about a runaway female slave and the underground railroad.

On February 4th, 1974, Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper mogul, William Randolph Hearst, was forcibly taken from her San Francisco apartment by members of The Symbionese Liberation Army, a group of eight young radicals.  Two months after her abduction, she had joined the “army,” taken on a new name, learned to expertly handle fire arms, and robbed a bank.  Was Hearst brain washed, did she suffer Stockholm Syndrome or was this an act she put on to save her life?  Toobin, in objective, straight forward prose, looks at all the angles and makes it pretty clear what he believes really happened to her.

If, like me, you are curious what the real story was or if you just want to read a true story that is often more unbelievable than a work of fiction, you will want to read American Heiress.

Finally, a book about immigrants that is not horribly depressing.  Jende Jonga leaves Cameroon for New York City.  Several years later he is able to send for his wife, Neni, and their young son.  A successful cousin helps him land a job as a chauffeur for the Edwards family while Neni works as a caregiver and attends school part-time, hoping someday to become a pharmacist.  Their life is better than they ever dreamed it could be until Mr. Edwards’ company, Lehman Brothers, is destroyed.

Behold the Dreamers is a fine debut novel with engaging characters.  It is a tale of strength, resourcefulness and optimism.

 

Dave Eggers never repeats himself; each of his books is unlike anything he has written before.  In his most recent work, he tells the story of  Josie, a woman who suddenly leaves for Alaska with her two children, Paul age 8 and Ana 5.  Traveling across the state in an old RV she has rented that does not exceed 48 miles an hour, Josie ponders her history and the people who she feels have been responsible for her flight from Ohio.

Heroes of the Frontier is both poignant and funny, and Josie is a wonderfully drawn character who grabs her readers, despite her flaws.  Seldom can a male writer get into the head of a female character and depict her in an honest, realistic way.  Dave Eggers is one of those male authors.

Ada Sibelius lives an unconventional childhood.  She is raised by a single father, is home schooled, and her only friends are her dad’s colleagues at a computer lab at a prestigious Boston university.  When she is twelve, as her father’s thinking becomes foggy and his memory fails, Ada, with the help of her father’s close friend, begins to live a more typical life.  And when her father must go into a nursing home, she is forced to see that her father, David Sibelius, is not who he claims to be.

The Unseen World is an enjoyable read, for the most part.  However, the ending left me flat.  It was predictable, silly and self-conscious.

Daniel Sullivan is retrieving his father’s ashes when he meets Claudette Wells, a world famous movie star who abandoned her high profile life to live anonymously with her young son.  Thus begins Daniel and Claudette’s lives together in an very isolated part of Ireland.  Told from different points of view, This Must Be the Place is Daniel’s story from his Catholic upbringing in Brooklyn to his college years in England to his first marriage in California to his life with Claudette.  At the onset of the novel, the reader begins to learn that Daniel is suddenly paying for the mistakes he made when he was young and the secrets he told no one.

O’Farrell writes an engaging tale with interesting, complex characters.  Another good summer read.

This Must Be the Place is on sale Tuesday, July 19th.