WordSmith

Here is the list of books that I read in 2008. Seventy-three interesting and thought-provoking books. Mostly novels, and those are mostly literary, but also poetry, civil war history, and musical topics. A great year for reading.

Good writing. Novel idea. Imaginative. Unique. Alternate history mystery.

But I was terribly disappointed in the ending. The novel just stops - there is no denouement. There are major threads of the plot that are left hanging. It left me very dissatisfied.

This book got great reviews and won the Pultizer Prize. Diaz came up with a unique voice. The title is somewhat misleading. The novel is really about the culture of the Dominican Republic and the diasporo follwing unrest there. It follows a family curse that culminates in the death of Oscar Wao.

Another exceptional book by Richard Russo, and another insightful look at small town America.

Also interesting from a craft standpoint. It’s the story of a trio of friends - two boys and a girl. Their interaction comes to a climax in their senior year of High School, but the novel begins when they are 60. The portion of the story that occurs when they are 60 serves as a narrative wrapper around the rest of the story, which follows the two boys from childhood through High School, and the girl from about age thirteen on.

The parents play an important part as well, and the behavior of the children is foreshadowed by that of their parents. The 60 year old characters again have their behavior echoed by their own children.

Third person is used for all the characters except one. that one is used as the central character of the book, and his story is told in first person. He is also a slightly unreliable narrator, in that a lot of the story that he relates is contradicted by other characters. This adds an extra dimension to the storytelling.

There are plenty of echos in the novel, from the bridges that are in the title to the repeated character traits of the parents and children. Richard Russo’s insight into human character is what makes the novel an outstanding read.

A clever, original book. Written in the second person plural (”We”), it is a darkly comic examination of office life. Are they friends, or just co-workers? Do they care for and look out for each other, or are their jobs more important than personal relationships. The book follows an advertising agency as it declines and workers are laid off. Very true to life and authentic.

A sad and tragic book, but intriguing. I especially liked it since the settings were my old stomping grounds - the low country of South Carolina and the mountains of western North Carolina. It’s the story of Cassie, who is married to a fireman, Peck, and has a fifteen-year-old daughter. She is having an affair with another fireman, and unwisely exposes her daughter to her misconduct.

Cassie is not a very likable character. She is self-centered, selfish, and whines constantly about her life. I just wanted to slap her. Her husband Peck, coping in the best way he can, is much more likable.

The novel is told in the first-person serial format, unusual and rare, but not unique. There are only two viewpoints, Cassie and Peck. The climax is a surprise, and I can’t reveal anything about it without ruining the book for the prospective reader. But, as the title suggests, this is Cassie’s story. As much as I might want it to be about Peck, or Peck and Cassie together, in the end Cassie is the focus.

It’s a great read, extremely well written, and there are plenty of little things to keep the reader turning the pages.

Picked this up as reading material for a backpacking trip. I read it years ago, back when it first came out. Heinlein is strong on ideas and creativity - not so strong on other things. This is a retelling of the Job story from the old testament, with the added twist that the Judeo-Christian God is not the only God.

An interesting non-fiction book about the author’s efforts to become an amateur musician late in life. I say amateur not as a comment on his ability, but because he did not use music to make money - except by writing this book. The first and last chapters are the best, in which he recounts his personal experiences as a musician. The middle chapters are more of a journey narrative and were not as interesting to me.

But the book is inspiring if you are like me and trying to be more musical late in life.

I read this years ago, and when I finished it I threw it across the room in disgust. But my book club was looking for a challenging mystery, so I suggested this. Let me just say this - unreliable narrator. Probably best example I have ever read. So I read it again, knowing the ending, just to see what sense I could make of it. The ending still made me mad!

Senior citizen sex! Have I gotten your attention? Wisely the author did not dscribe the sex in any detail - visualization is left to the reader. But there is plenty of it here. Four or five couples (there are a lot of characters) that have known each other for decades have their lives disrupted when one old couple returns to their hometown. It’s like the TV show “Friends” for seniors - they have all slept with each other.

They also do an incredible amount of drinking and smoking, pub crawling all over a fictional Wales. That is part of the theme of the book, searching for the old Wales and the real Welchman. There is a fictional poet that serves as the symbol of that search. Celebrated as a great Welch poet, he didn’t even speak Welch.

It’s a good read, full of wry British humor.