The main thread of Zadie Smith’s fifth novel is the on again/off again friendship between the nameless narrator and Tracey.  They meet in a dance class and are drawn to each other because they have the same complexion, but that is where their similarities end.  Although Tracey is the one with the talent, our narrator has most of the advantages in life.  The older they get, the less they have in common.  Tracey continues to dance, but never gets beyond the chorus line.  The narrator is assistant #1 to a world famous entertainer, traveling worldwide with her and spending a great deal of time in a small village in Africa.

Swing Time is not an easy read-it is slow, descriptive and has several subplots.  However, I am very happy I stuck with it.  Smith’s characters seem authentic, her plots are engrossing, and I loved her descriptions of dances and dancers – everything from Fred Astaire dancing with a broom to Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk.

Political cartoonist, Javier Mallarina is being honored for a long, brilliant, powerful career.  During a slide show presentation at an event that is celebrating his accomplishments, a young woman in the audience recognizes Mallarina’s home, knows she has been there, but is unable to remember anything else.  The next day she pays the cartoonist a visit, and he recalls the drama that she was involved in twenty-four years earlier.

Vasquez writes an easy to read yet complex novel that explores concepts of the past and the future as well as the positive and negative aspects of memory, power, and the written word.

A young writer named Mike Chabon visits his dying grandfather.  The grandfather had always been the strong, silent type, but perhaps pain killers and knowing this will be his last chance to tell his story, he relates in vivid detail, his life from the Jewish ghetto in South Philadelphia to Germany in World War II to a retirement village in Florida.  This fictional death bed memoir describes a middle class Jewish family, the history of the space program and the undying love one man has for a mentally unstable woman.

Moonglow is clever, interesting, complex and in many ways historically accurate.  Mike’s grandfather is a well-drawn character who the reader will admire and empathize with.  However, Moonglow contains a drawback for some:  this is not a chronologically linear novel.  Like an eldery person’s mind, Chabon meanders from era to era, and at times,  it takes the reader a few paragraphs to realize he has moved on to another decade.

The first American author to win The Man Booker Prize, Paul Beatty has written an amusing, ironic, sarcastic, intelligent novel that will not be to everyone’s liking.  The character known as the Sellout is the narrator.  He is a Black man who was raised by his father who made the young boy a guinea pig for his sociological studies. He was born and raised in Dickens, California, a rural farming community outside of Los Angeles.  Dickens, like the narrator, has lost its identity; it has been erased off the maps, and one of the Sellout’s missions is to put it back.  With the help of his “slave, ” Hominy Jenkins, a former child actor who had minor roles in “The Little Rascals,” he tries to segregate his hometown, most notably the school and buses, in an effort to put Dickens back on the map.

If the plot seems a bit confusing-that’s because it is.  For me, The Sellout, is a book to be appreciated, but not necessarily enjoyed.  Be warned:  Beatty takes pot shots at almost everyone-Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Jews-just to name just a few.

 

Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, age seventy-one, is asked to deliver a ten year old girl to her aunt and uncle who live on the other side of Texas.  Kidd earns a living traveling to small, rural towns and reading articles from a  variety of newspapers to the illiterate folks who wish to know what is going on in the world.  The girl, Johanna, was captured by Native Americans who murdered her parents and her younger sister.  She has lived with that tribe for four years and, in that time, has forgotten the ways of the white man.

The journey Kidd and Johanna make is wonderfully described by Jiles.  The longer the two travel together, the more they trust and understand each other.  Jiles has written a lovely novel that would make a perfect book group read.

Fans of Alice Hoffman will not be disappointed in her latest novel.  The main character, Shelby Richmond, feels responsible for an automobile accident that left her best friend paralyzed and in a coma.  Self-destructive, depressed and in a mental hospital for three months, she doesn’t have the will or desire to get on with her life.  Fortunately, there are several people who truly love her and want her to survive, which includes her “guardian angel,” her mother and four stray dogs.

Faithful is a well-written novel with, for the most part, likeable characters who understand the importance of love and understanding.  Although the ending was a bit too tidy for me, most reader’s will be pleased with Shelby’s recovery and growth.   GO CUBS!!!

The title refers to a mediocre musical adapted from a popular children’s book being performed off off off Broadway.  Prose uses each chapter to describe a character associated with the play-actors, director, author and audience.  There is the twelve year old boy playing Mr. Monkey who is just beginning to feel the joy and angst of adolescence, the professional actress who is upset that she is working with amateurs, the widower who brings his five year old grandson to the production, and several more.  All of the characters are sympathetic, and each chapter successfully moves the plot forward, however; there’s no “aha” moment.  I finished the novel and thought, “good, fun, so what.”

The Muse brothers, George and Will, were African American albinos living in Truevine, Virginia.  In 1899, when they were six and nine years old, they were either kidnapped or sold to a circus passing through their hometown.  They traveled with various circuses as part of their “freak shows” for more than a decade.  They were told that there mother was dead, when, in fact, she spent all that time trying to locate them.

Macy’s narrative is part an historical review of life for Blacks in the Jim Crow South, part biography of the Muse brothers and their mother, and part description of the rise and fall of the American traveling circus.  Because Macy tried to cover three different topics, she never gave an in depth rendering of any.

 

Defiant, angry, confused seventeen year old Nadia Turner has a lot to contend with.  Her mother recently committed suicide, she is having an affair with the preacher’s son, and she is pregnant with his child, a child she doesn’t want.  What happens to Nadia during her seventeenth year impacts her future for the next decade.

This is a book I couldn’t put down; I finished it in two days.  Bennett’s writing is clean and clear, and her characters, major and minor, are complex and believable.  Although the plot makes this novel sound like a soap opera, believe me, it’s not.  I also like book titles that seem simple but really are not(think Sophie’s Choice).  There are many mothers and potential mothers throughout Bennett’s debut novel with different meanings and connotations.  The Mothers is a great read!!

The Wangs are the American Dream turned upside down.  Charles Wang’s cosmetic company has gone bust, he has filed for bankruptcy, and has turned over all of his assets to the bank.  He must pull his daughter, Grace,  out of a fancy boarding school in Santa Barbara, his son, Andrew, must withdraw from Arizona State University, and along with their step mother, they head to Charles’s oldest daughter’s home in Helios, NY in their former housekeeper’s ancient Mercedes.  Living an ultra frugal life they never thought they would have to be subjected to, the Wang’s cross country adventure is humorous,  frustrating and poignant.  .  All the Wangs  are engaging, infuriating, amusing and sympathetic in their own ways.  Chang’s debut novel is a good easy read that is satisfying but lacks depth.