Book Banter — The Obituary Writer

I love it when I am completely caught off-guard by a book.

I was sent an ARC of The Obituary Writer back in February by the good folks at W.W. Norton. It was unsolicited and completely out of my normal wheelhouse.

Two things compelled me to read it. One, they sent it to me and hey! free books! And second, the cover art of a Gastby-era girl sitting at a desk with a pen (presumably, I figured, the obituary writer of the title).

The book opens in 1961, weaving together the story of Claire, a wife and mother caught up in the dream of the Kennedy inauguration (and the fascination with Jackie) who’s had a scandalous affair and now may be carrying his baby and Vivian, an obituary writers in 1919, living in the grief of losing her lover in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. I was expecting this book to be kind of academic or slow or something and I found myself pouring over its pages with eagerness. I finished it in two days with almost a voyeuristic need to understand how these two women walked through the grief and loneliness of their lives.

Make no mistake. It’s not a happy book. It’s pages are permeated with loss, even in Claire’s story with the promise of Kennedy’s Camelot. It strikes of Gatsby, clinging too hard to things which are over, and hinted at John Irving’s familiar theme, the wanting of what one cannot have.

Hood’s writing was urgent and quiet and deft, plucking at emotions and the feel of life in these two distinct time periods. I would not be surprised if this ends up as a top 10 pick for me this year.

 

Book Banter: Bel Canto

Title: Bel Canto

Author: Ann Patchett

Genre: literary fiction

Length: ~350 pages

Plot Basics: In a small South American country, a party — featuring renowned soprano Roxane Coss — become the scene of a hostage crisis as guerrilla fighters take over. As the crisis drags on, the lives of the terrorists and the hostages become intertwined through the language of music and love.

Banter Points: Ann Patchett is coming to Indianapolis in April and since I’ll get to meet her, I figured I should read at least one of her books. I went in to in with a bit of that assigned-reading-for-school feeling, but quickly got sucked in to the amazing prose. While the plot sounds like a thriller, it’s not. The story is about people and how relationships are formed that transcend verbal language (it’s quite an international cast of characters) and how music can cut through barriers.

Patchett is clearly an opera fan, but as not an opera fan, I was not overwhelmed by its presence in the story. I appreciated not having to know the pieces to get it. (Granted, as a classical music fan, I know a little by default…)

Bummer Points: The end. This is the perpetual problem with literary fiction. It never ends well. And actually, the end reminded me somewhat of Hunger Games in that characters made choices because of having lived through a terrible experience together. Also, because it’s a big cast of characters, I got a little lost on who was who and sometimes Patchett painted different

Word Nerd Recommendation: If you think you don’t like literary fiction, this is a great one to pick up. The vocabulary isn’t overwhelming and it’s not not the kind of literary fiction that beats the reader over the head with metaphor and symbolism. I’m already pushing this title to other readers and it’s a good bet this could be a top 10 pick of the year.

Book Banter: Finding Camlann

Title: Finding Camlann (ARC from WW Norton)

Author: Sean Pidgeon

Genre: literary fiction

Length: 346 pages

Plot Basics: Archaeologist Donald Gladstone wants to cut through the clutter of Arthurian legend and find the truth about the fabled leader. When a dig near Stonehenge turns up the site of what looks like a ritual killing that was also described in an old Welsh poem, Donald — along with OED researcher Julia Llewellyn and one-time Welsh revolutionary poet and professor Caradoc Bowen — piece together clues. As they work to untangle the ancient past, their own pasts have them stumbling for the truth in their own lives about love and family.

Banter Points: Finding Camlann is getting good critical reviews and it’s easy to see why. Pidgeon clearly knows his subjects and is intimately familiar with the Arthur story and Cornish and Welsh landscapes where he moves his characters. For King Arthur fans (like me), it’s a new step into that world, seeing how the legend really has affected and permeated the British consciousness for good and bad through the eyes of academics and linguists.

Pidgeon’s also managed a well-layered tale, not only telling the story of Arthur’s last battle, but digging into the pasts of his characters. Donald and Julia’s restrained British romance is compelling, as is the complicated history of Julia and her husband and their pasts with Caradoc Bowen.

Bummer Points: This is not a King Arthur book for the lay reader. While I’ve done my fair share of Arthurian legend reading (and one ghastly long paper in college World Lit class), I’ve stepped away from the mythology in the last few years and some of the book felt like I was struggling through a foreign language I used to know. Littered with Welsh place names and spelling, part of the book were like a foreign language and will frustrate an uninitiated reader when they come upon Welsh words with seemingly no vowels. Also, while the Arthur mythology here mentions the familiar set pieces (Tintagel and Uther/Ygraine, The Grail, the Lady of the Lake) they are the dressing, not the meat of the story also making it a harder entry point for those who may only know the Arthur story from movies like the Sword in the Stone.

There book also sports an impressive amount of quoted poetry or “excerpts” from academic texts. It supports the story, but it often sucks the reader out of the magic of the narrative, especially the academic parts.

Word Nerd Recommendation: It’s kind of a toss-up, really, depending on who you are and what you like. I wouldn’t push this one as a genre-bending title for readers on the fringe of interest. Arthurian die-hards should take note.

Book Banter — The Casual Vacancy

Title: The Casual Vacancy

Author: J.K. Rowling

Length: 503 pages

Genre: literary fiction

Where Word Nerd’s Copy came from: Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library

Plot Basics: In the idyllic town of Pagford, life seems perfect until Parish Council member Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly, causing a casual vacancy on the council. As the town deals with grief, new candidates emerge, revealing the town’s dark underside as schemes for the seat and local politics take over.

Banter Points: Like a lot of people, I was really excited to see a new book coming out from J. K. Rowling, something that’s not Harry Potter. And the Casual Vacancy is not at all like Harry Potter. At. All.

Which is really sort of great and sort of terrible at the same time.

Rowling shows off her writing chops in this one with a literary fiction tome that’s reminiscent of John Irving in his early years. Where HP was a rip-roaring page-turner, Casual Vacancy can’t be read with the same kind of speedy abandon, because she dwells in characters and motivation in this book instead of plot.

She wrote nuanced characters, nobody over the top like in HP, but regular people with their quirks and idiosyncrasies and phobias. She wrote about social classes and drugs and the strain of politics on a small town and how the actions of parents affect their kids and vice versa.

Bummer Points: It’s not Harry Potter. Others have written about how not-kid friendly this book is they’re right. There’s swearing and sex and all kinds of grown-up themes. It’s a book for adults.

Also, part of the bummer is about expectations. It’s a grown-up book, yes, so I knew not to quite expect the whimsy of HP. Think about it, even in the worst times for Harry, they are using goofy gadgets like the Putter-Outer light gizmo. Pagford isn’t Hogwarts. But, somewhere, back when I read the first news blurb about it, I got it in my head that the book involved ghosts. While there’s a bit of a ghost, it’s not Caspar and nor Nearly-Headless Nick and not whimsical. I spent the whole time reading trying to adjust in my brain what I thought this book was supposed to be. It’s not a ghost book.

Word Nerd Recommendation: I liked the book if I pretended it wasn’t by Rowling. If I wanted to think about it being from Rowling, I had a hard time getting excited about it because it was such a shift from previous work.