Boyd Halverson, an alcoholic and pathological liar, feels life isn’t worth living anymore, so he robs a bank, grabs the bank teller as a hostage, and begins his odyssey across America in search of his ex father-in-law. While on his journey, Boyd little by little reveals his real life and his made up one. During his search he encounters a number of intriguing, amoral characters.

Judging from the title of O”Brien’s novel, one can figure out that Boyd’s journey is in some ways the author’s view of what has happened in The United States in the last few years. Although the tone of America Fantastica is often lighthearted and comical, its underlying message is serious. If you are far to the right and a Trump fan you will not enjoy America Fantastica.

Nathan Hill’s second novel is a modern day love story-sort of. Elizabeth is from a wealthy, immoral New England family. She leaves them forever to attend college at DePaul in Chicago. Jack has a punitive, lonely childhood in rural Kansas. He too moves to Chicago to escape his past. Jack is a photographer and Elizabeth works at a lab that studies the placebo effect. Although they are very different in background, interests and personalities, they fall in love, eventually marry, and have a child, Toby, who is more involved with Minecraft than the real world.

Wellness is clever and entertaining, but it is not an easy read. It’s Jack and Elizabeth’s story, but it is also a critique on the flaws in our 21st century world, described in much detail-sometimes too much detail.

This is the story of a yellow house situated in the north woods of New England. The home first becomes a refuge for young lovers deserting a Puritan colony. It is then taken over by a British soldier who turns some of the land into an apple orchard. He bequeaths it to his identical twin daughters. And on it goes for many generations. As the years pass, the house’s owners change as well as the appearance of the house.

Anthony Marra said that what the Overstory is to trees, North Woods is to houses. This is not the type of book that will grab you immediately. Rather, one appreciates and becomes involved with the narrative slowly. Some characters and their stories may seem more interesting and exciting than others, however, North Woods is certainly a beautifully written, unique novel.

Told in four narrative voices, The Bee Sting is a story about a family that is falling apart. Dickie Barnes, the father, took over the family car dealership and is running it into the ground. Imelda, the mother, was born poor, had an abusive father and marries Dickie because she must. Cass, the daughter, is in love with her best friend and is an alcoholic. PJ, the brother, is smart but naive, unwisely communicating with strangers over the internet. The Barnes family is in trouble and full of secrets.

Although my description of The Bee Sting makes it sound like a soap opera, it truly isn’t. It is a terrific “can’t stop reading” novel. Paul Murray deftly creates characters and situations that has the reader empathizing, yet disliking these family members at the same time.

Man Booker Prize winner, Anne Enright, has written a novel about three generations of Irish women and the man they need to know more about. Phil McDaragh is a fairly famous Irish poet who deserts his family when his wife Terry is recovering from breast cancer. As a result his youngest daughter Carmel unconsciously raises her daughter, Nell, with no father. Nell, in an attempt to understand Phil, her DNA and her quest to find a satisfactory relationship with a man, studies her grandfather’s life and his poetry.

In an indirect way The Wren, the Wren is a feminist work. It is partially about what women go through when a male deserts the family. Carmel learns to live without a man in her life, Terry creates a fantasy about this man, and Nell searches, often unsuccessfully , for a permanent partner. The Wren, the Wren would lend itself to some good discussions in a woman’s book group.

Meg Kissinger is the fourth oldest in a family with eight children. All of the children spent most of their childhood in Wilmette, Illinois. Her parents were alcoholics and her mother suffered bouts of depression. Her father could be lots of fun, but he also could be physically abusive. He was bipolar. It is not surprising that all eight Kissinger children had emotional problems. Even though there were many traumas experienced by Meg’s family, it was always covered up and never discussed.

I’m not sure why I could not put this book down. Perhaps because it happened in a Chicago suburb next to mine or maybe because this family has many advantages but mental illness got in the way. Meg Kissinger’s memoir is also a plea for more help and understanding for the mentally ill as well as the need for families to discuss their problems rather than ignore them. Because she is reporter, her writing is clear, well written and pretty objective.

Wittold Walccyzkiecz (The Pole) is a 70 year old Polish concert pianist specializing in works by Chopin. At a recital in Barcelona he meets Beatriz, a forty year old married woman who helped organize the concert. She and an elderly couple take Wittold out to dinner after the concert. Months later Beatriz begins getting love letters from Wittold, urging her to go to Brazil with him. At first she finds his amorous letters ridiculous and bizarre. However, eventually she finds his infatuation appealing and invites him to stay with her at her husband’s summer home in Mallorca.

Because this is a work by Nobel and twice Booker Prize winner J.M. Coetzee, I know there is more to The Pole than just a May-December romance. Beatriz and Wittold are enigmatic characters who left me full of questions and theories regarding their lives and their behaviors

Author Michael Frank met with now 98 year old Stella Levi on 100 Saturdays over six years. Stella is a Jewish woman born and raised in Rhodes, Greece. She grew up amongst Greeks, Turks, Italians and Judeo -Spaniards. Stella came from a close knit family where she was the youngest of seven children. As the Germans invaded Greece, Stella’s carefree, yet learned, life became more and more frightening. Eventually she and other family members arrived in Auschwitz. Stella and her sister, Renee, somehow survived. After, Stella tried living in Italy and Los Angeles, but felt most comfortable in New York City.

Although there are horrifying scenes of the Holocaust, One Hundred Saturdays is more than a book about that period of history. Rather, it is a biography about an intelligent, lucky, no nonsense, very honest and exceptional woman who lived a unique life.

The setting for Glass’s most recent novel takes place in a pristine coastal village on the east coast sometime in the near future. Told mainly by five narrators, Vigil Harbor describes what happens to the town and its citizens when two strangers suddenly arrive.

Because there are a number of different voices, it took me about 50 pages to get into Vigil Harbor. Once I did, it certainly qualified as a good read. Vigil Harbor was not as good as Glass’s first novel, Three Junes, but better than others of hers that I’ve read.

Zadie Smith’s new novel is a work of historical fiction centered around an English trial in 1873. The case, which actually occurred, involves a man who claims that he is a missing aristocrat who was ship wrecked and then lived in Australia for many years. The other main characters in Fraud are Eliza Touchet a women who appears prim and proper but is anything but. Her lover is her cousin, William Ainsworth, a mediocre author. Andrew Bogle, a Black man and former slave who is a key witness at the trial, is the main reason Eliza is fascinated by the daily happenings at the trial.

I found Fraud disappointing. The descriptions of the trial and the characters involved made me eager to read Fraud. However, Smith’s novel keeps jumping around in time and setting, making it confusing and frustrating.