jdukuray

One of my favorite authors

Revisado: 11-09-23

This one did not disappoint. It is a wonderfully observant story of a family in all their dysfunction and resilience. When the world seems too much, Lively is one of the writers I turn to for her sharp eye, her humor, and her humane judgment of her more or less flawed characters.

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Brilliant retelling from the point of view a the goddess Hera and the queen Penelope

Revisado: 06-26-23

This is a fantastically well written and well read novel. CAN’T WAIT for the sequel! Claire North has developed the characters from mythology in ways that make them relatable, funny at times, proud and moving in their parrying of events. Never have I read anything that made the relationship between the gods of the Greek pantheon and the humans of Greece more intelligible and believable — and thought provoking. I loved it!

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Prescient story about a world off its axis

Revisado: 03-10-23

I loved this book, both the writing and the Audible reading of it. Written in 1939 by a veteran of WW1, you can imagine some of real world events and issues Sherriff brought to a story of the moon falling into the Atlantic Ocean. There are points throughout that might make a reader think of today’s world.

In addition, it is a story of an ordinary man, one who feels he deserves to be more than he is. He is a bundle of insecurities, snobbish attitudes, resentments, and grandiose ideas about himself. He is not very likable and yet I could not help but feel for his vulnerability, his isolation. He never really changes even though he finds love and courage and, through his manuscript, finally inserts himself into history. A wonderful book.

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Superbly delicious!

Revisado: 10-23-22

This is a marvelous novel, my first by Mrs Gaskell. I had no idea what I was missing. The reading by Juliet Stevenson is flawless and compelling. The story is rich in incident with a charming romantic lead and vivid invocation of a time and place, exploring issues of class, industrial change, and social responsibility. I just loved it!

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Perfect story of another world

Revisado: 01-05-21

Five stars on all criteria. This is an utterly original story that is engrossing and deeply moving. This is the first book of Clarke’s that I have read. She writes beautifully and treats her imagined world with the respect it deserves—that is, she leads you down a path into something wondrous and never takes it back or explains it away. She has mastery of her characters and of her plot and yet I’ve never read anything quite like Piranesi.

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The beloved Cazalets

Revisado: 11-24-20

This is my second time listening to the series. I can’t wait for enough time to pass so I can enjoy it all over again.

This is the story of an English middle class family that covers the period from 1939 to the late 50s. The story and cast are brilliantly sustained and developed in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s telling, which is unfailingly insightful, full of pathos and humor. I live inside that world as I am reading.

One reads different books for different things, making it impossible (at least for me) to say of any book: this is my favorite of all. But for a five volume family saga depicting the era between the wars in England, the Cazalet Chronicles are just perfect.

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Compassionate Account of Mental Illness

Revisado: 09-18-20

Thoroughly gripping tale of the unluckiest family in the world--12 children, 6 of whom become schizophrenic, plus violence, sexual abuse, denial, etc. But this is not a sensationalized story, but a meticulous cooperative effort with the family to tell their family misfortunes, to explore society's role in making it hard as hell to deal with mental illness, and the long and frustrating scientific search to understand schizophrenia, to treat it, perchance to prevent it. The six sick brothers were all floridly psychotic from the time they became ill and the course of illness was compounded by the family's well-meaning but mostly hapless efforts to deny and to deal. From the birth of the eldest son in 1945 to the present, two of the well children, both sisters, were courageous in their efforts to save themselves and, eventually, to come to terms with their family history. But all six well children, not to mention their parents, were ravaged by the illness. In that sense, this is a very sad story. But the author is brilliant at conveying all the permutations of their suffering, and the particular hell that is psychotic mental illness. I worked for a time with chronically mentally ill patients and observed the curse of losing one's self to psychosis. Also well portrayed are the depravations of drug treatments which further erase the self, sometimes containing behavior, but never really curing the individual. This is a compassionate book and I could not put it down.

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Brilliant all around

Revisado: 08-27-20

I found this to be absorbing, funny, disturbing. The reader was outstanding and the writing imaginative and involving. I had read the non-fiction account of the Troubles in North Ireland, Say Nothing by Patrick Keefe (also highly recommended), and wanted to read another perspective on that tormented situation. Milkman served that purpose, and helped me understand how people endure such overwhelming conflict—the message being that it is tragic, messy, crazy-making, calling on bravery and humanity. In any case, this story is not ultimately a downer. There were many moments that made me laugh out loud. I recommend it.

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Superb story-telling

Revisado: 12-22-19

Wonderful book. It comes to life in the Audible version much as Lincoln In The Bardo did. While the latter was read by a cast of many, The Water Dancer is read by Joe Morton and he is simply the best. When I wanted to read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, I chose the Audible version based on recommendations of Joe Morton's rendering of it. It is hard to put into words just how present and passionate a reading can be, while at the same time disappearing into the text.

Coates' tale itself is original, humane, wise, hard-to-put-down. He also manages something, that might once have been called "magical realism" but which deserves its own name (again, perhaps, reminding me of Lincoln in the Bardo) and which succeeds so movingly as a leitmotif throughout the story.

This is a book about slavery. Sometimes such tales lean heavily on violence and sadism--of which no doubt there was much. But Coates casts a much broader net, capturing both the cruelty of the institution of slavery and the complexity of all things human. Slavery was a horror but this book is not the horror movie version of it, and as such makes its roots and effects all the more real in the long shadow it casts onto our own day and times.

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A best book of the year

Revisado: 11-30-18

In my opinion, this should win a prize for best memoir of 2018. No, I haven't read them all but this is a wonderful book. Jeff Tweedy, for those who don't know, is a musician and lead singer of a couple of different bands, most notably Uncle Tupelo and Wilco. I know his name because of a Dylan cover on the soundtrack for the Todd Haynes movie about Dylan, I'm Not There, but have never really got to know Wilco's music. I heard Tweedy interviewed and was so taken with him that I got the book. A happy choice--and the audio version is especially good, as narrated by himself.

The story Tweedy has to tell is honest, funny, sad, revealing (what is it like to be a rock musician, what is it like to make a record in a recording studio), thoughtful and insightful--about being creative, navigating a potentially rejecting world, dealing with demons and your very own self, in all its complexity. I--a woman, older, not a musician, not mid-western--have little in common with Jeff Tweedy, but so much of what he writes is so fundamentally true that I saw myself again and again: we were both weepy kids, is just one example that knocked me over with recognition, and understanding as he explored that aspect of himself.

Jeff Tweedy is not the biggest rock star in the world, but he is and has been for decades a working musician, singer, lyricist. He has had serious troubles with drugs and illness. He has been blessed with good parents, a wife and two sons. They are all interesting characters in their own right. And (this maybe is a spoiler--it came as a surprise to me) one of the most unusual and effective aspects of the audio book was the participation of Jeff's wife Susie and elder son, Spenser, in the narrative. This was seamlessly done and there was something so gratifying, so real, so... joyful almost.

Having finished the book, I now turn to getting to know the music of Wilco and related projects. Because a guy this bright and devoted to his craft will not, I think, disappoint me musically.

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