The Paris Wife

I've always loved fiction and poetry which gives voice to interesting, often voiceless, historical characters and imagines their most private lives.  So it's no surprise that I enjoyed Paula McLain's The Paris Wife:  a story told from the perspective of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife.  Though written as fiction, the author does her research and mostly accurately traces the lives of this couple from their first meeting, through their time in Paris, and long after their divorce.  There's a lot here that's spot on, and that makes the fictional intricacies of their story all the more believable.  McLain imagines all that we may not glean from biographies, letters and interviews:  the interior monologues, the feelings, the juxtaposition of a solid, supportive woman living in Paris with a man as temperamental and eccentric as Ernest Hemingway.  Enjoyable and engaging, even for those who know nothing of the great American author.

Fall Fiction Preview

Kirkus Reviews recently revealed its 2012 Fall Fiction Preview. 

Beautiful Ruins

Beach reading doesn't get much better than Jess Walter's playful literary genius.  And his newest novel, Beautiful Ruins, serves to feed the escapist, gossip, and dreamer in all of us.

The story begins in 1962 in a resort town along the Italian Rivera. Young hotel entrepreneur, Pasquale, hosts a beautiful American actress named Dee on hiatus from her filming of Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  As it turns out, Dee is pregnant with Burton's baby, and one Hollywood agent, Michael Deane, tries his best to keep that fact hidden from the world.  From this point onward, the novel moves seamlessly between the past and present day, weaving together the stories of these (and other) characters as they progress through their lives and their art.  Walter's writing is sharp, and his storytelling original.  Highly recommended.

NPR's Critics' Lists

Whatever your reading interests, you'll find something on National Public Radio's (NPR) Critics' Lists: Summer 2012.

Canada

Paced, subtle and thought-provoking, Richard Ford's newest epic novel, Canada, easily positions itself as a Pulitzer contender. 

The novel opens by revealing what appears to be the narrative climax:  the committing of a robbery, followed by a multiple murder.  In this sense, Ford sets up the story as a mystery, the details of which the novel slowly unfolds.  But what distinguishes this story from a traditional mystery is that our narrator, Dell, is ever-present as an innocent victim in both crimes.  Further, the initial robbery, committed by Dell's parents, serves as a catalyst for the circumstantial events that thereafter define his life--transforming this work into a sort of character autobiography.  Dell, a well-functioning adult, gathers the pieces of his memory, his mother's prison journals, and his own curiosity to recount the events from his childhood which ultimately lead to his tormented self-actualization.

Ignore the quiet, unassuming cover; Ford's storytelling, and his narrator's philosophizing, will stick with you.

Oprah's Reveal...

Oprah recently posted her list of 2012 beach reads:

O Summer Reading:  6 New Beach Reads to Blaze Through

11 Summer Beach Reads

Goodhousekeeping Magazine recently released its list for 11 Summer Beach Reads.  All are current titles. 

Garden & Green Beach Reads

The Huffington Post announced its "Best Beach Reads 2012:  Green Home & Gardening Books for the Summer" (May 30, 2012).

An Unexpected Guest

Anne Korkeakivi's first-time novel, An Unexpected Guest, is one of those great reads that confines itself to the parameters of a single day.

The novel's main character, American Clare Moorhouse, is wife to a British diplomat living in Paris.  The novel beings as her day does:  planning a dinner party critical to her husband's political career.  Literary readers may harken on Mrs. Dalloway, as Clare goes to great lengths to perfect all party details (she even buys the flowers herself).  And like Mrs. Dalloway, the novel turns from the surface, inward, as Clare's fears and insecurities from one particular, life-changing event begins to haunt her as she considers the implications of her past behavior on her husband's political future.

Unlike Mrs. Dalloway, however, Clare's world is contemporary; and her domestic realm includes dealing with her youngest wayward son, who becomes a force equally capable of destroying his father's career.  In many ways, the novel acts equally as domestic fiction and political thriller. Engaging and well-written.

Summer Reading

National Public Radio (NPR) got a jump-start this week on summer reading.  Check it out:  Nancy Pearl Unearths Great Summer Reads.

More summer reading lists forthcoming.