Man Booker Long List Announced

Today, the prestigious Man Booker Award Long List was announced.  This is one of my favorite prizes, in part, because first the long list is announced, in early September the shortlist of six is announced and then in October the winner is announced.  It creates an interesting and diverse reading list.  To be a candidate for the prize, the book must have been first published in the former UK Commonwealth.  Last year's winner was Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question.  The downside is that nearly all of these books (other than Pigeon English) are not available in the U.S. yet.  For the ambitious, you can order most of these books through www.abebooks.com or www.amazon.co.uk.

Drum roll please...and the Long List for the 2011 Man Booker Prize is:

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)
Sebastian Barry On Canaan's Side (Faber)
Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie (Canongate Books)
Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent's Tail - Profile)
Yvvette Edwards A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)
Alan Hollinghurst The Stranger's Child (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
Patrick McGuinness The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)
A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)
Alison Pick Far to Go (Headline Review)
Jane Rogers The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)
D.J. Taylor Derby Day (Chatto & Windus - Random House)

Happy reading.  I'll keep you posted.

The Map of Time by Felix Palma

As a kid, I loved time travel. One of my favorite shows was Voyagers! (see clip below), and, of course, there was blockbuster movie, Back to the Future.  Add to time travel Victorian London, Jack the Ripper, H.G. Wells, a few other literary luminaries and a good old fashion murder mystery and you have Felix Palma's The Map of Time.  Originally written in Spanish, this is a fun, well-plotted mystery with many twists and turns.

The book opens with Andrew Harrington preparing to commit suicide because his lover was the latest victim of Jack the Ripper.  Separately, a new business, Murray's Time Travel, has recently opened and provides  customers with the opportunity (for a large fee) to travel to the year 2000 to witness man's climatic battle against the automatons.   In a third plot line, H.G. Wells (a central character in the novel) is England's most famous author, having recently published The Time Machine.  In another strand of the story, there is also Claire Haggerty, a young, independent woman constricted by the norms of Victorian society.  There are several other plot lines to the story and supporting characters (the Elephant Man, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Henry James, to name a few).  To avoid any spoilers, I'll won't reveal any more.  I enjoyed this book.

The book is 600+ pages.  It reads very quickly.  I could not put it down.  The prose is good although wordy at times; I assume Palma is mimicking the Victorian writing style.  Palma has fun with the issues presented by time travel (alternative worlds, altering the course of history, meeting a former iteration of yourself, creating time travel loops etc.).  Palma laces the novel with several surprises.  When I thought I had figured out where Palma was taking me, he surprised me again.


The Map of Time is a fun and exciting book.  If you are like me and find time travel and Victorian London interesting, you'll enjoy this book.

When I looked back at the Voyagers!, I found the closing tag line to each episode to be particularly apt to this blog (especially with the demise of the large bookstores):

"Take a Voyage down to your public library, it's all in books!"

Voyagers! clip

Back to the Future clip:

Conflict of Interest by Adam Mitzner

A Conflict of Interest is a first novel by Adam Mitzner.  It is a well-written legal thriller.  Reviewers have compared Mitzner to Scott Turow and John Grisham.  My friends at the Mysterious Bookshop got behind this one, and as is often the case, they got this one right.

The novel's protagonist, Alex Miller, works in a prestigious criminal defense firm.  Shortly after Alex's father passes away, a close friend of his father asks Alex to defend him in a securities fraud criminal case.  Alex accepts the representation.  In the course of that representation, Alex learns about his father, his client and himself through personal and professional tests.  From there, the action takes off.

This well-paced novel has plenty of twists and turns and well developed  characters.  The dialogue is real, the plot is believable and even the lawyering is credible.   (Mitzner is an attorney, which comes across.)  Even though this is a legal thriller (and the legal procedures appear generally right), Mitzner does not bog down the plot with too much lawyering.  This first novel is page-turner and a perfect summer read.

A video of the author discussing the book:

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

State of Wonder in the newest novel by prize winning author Ann Patchett.  It is one of the "big" novels of the year.  It does not disappoint.

When a pharmaceutical researcher, Dr. Anneck Swenson, fails to keep her employer informed from the Amazon about her research into a drug that ensures everlasting fertility for women, the corporation sends another researcher to find out what is going on.  Instead of receiving a status report, the president of the company receives a short note from Dr. Swenson stating that the emissary died and was buried. The emissary's widow demands answers and the president of the corporation wants to know the timetable for the research.  The president sends the novel's protagonist and his love interest, Dr. Marin Singh, to find out what happened to his first emissary and what is going on with Dr. Swenson's research.  Singh reluctantly goes.

Dr. Swenson is tough, curt and yet clear-headed and sharp.  She was Dr. Singh's teacher years before and, although she heavily impacted Singh's career, does not recall Singh.  She also has no patience for the corporation's interference in her work.  The novel opens with Singh's trip to the Amazon and her adventures there.  Singh first must overcome the obstacles Swenson puts in her path to find out what happened and then must tackle the Amazon itself.

State of Wonder opens with a bang and begins like a page turning medical thriller.  After grabbing the reader's attention, it develops into a beautifully crafted novel.  Patchett's characters are multi-dimensional, including the silent character that permeates the novel, the Amazon jungle.  By stripping her characters of their possessions and placing them in the jungle, Patchett tests and pushes her characters to their extremes.

This is a worthy addition to any reading list.

Interview with Patchett:

The Prime Ministers by Yehuda Avner and The Revolt by Menachem Begin

The Prime Ministers by Yehuda Avner (2010) and The Revolt by Menachem Begin (1950) together are a powerful, close-up rendering of modern Israeli history from the vantage point of two primary actors.

Menachem Begin was the leader of the underground movement, the Irgun, that fought for Israeli independence in the 1940s.  Begin led an extraordinary life.  He was born in 1913 in Brest-Litovsk.  He became a follower of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of the militant, nationalist Zionist movement.  During WWII, he was exiled by the Soviets.  Begin found his way to Palestine while serving in the Polish army.  After arriving in Palestine, he became one of the leaders of the Irgun.  The Revolt is Begin's story before and during Israel's War for Independence.  Begin was an unapologetic fighter for the creation of a free, Jewish state.  Begin's Irgun battled not only with the English but also with the predecessor to the Israeli Army, the Haganah.  Once Israel declared its independence, Begin joined forces with the Haganah and avoided a power struggle and civil war.  That is where Begin's memoirs end and  Yehuda Avner's begin.

Yehuda Avner grew up in England and just before the War of Independence, he moved to Israel.  He fought in the war and, a few years later, became an advisor and writer for Prime Minister Levi Eshkol.  He continued on as an advisor to Eshkol's successors, Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin through the 1960s and 1970s.  Eshkol, Meir and Rabin were members of the Labor party, as was Avner.  In 1977, after many years in government, Menachem Begin, the leader of the right-leaning Likud party, became Israel's first non-Labor Prime Minister.  Avner went to pack his belongings.  Begin called him to his office and asked him to serve as his advisor.  In a poignant moment, Avner consults his mentor, Rabin, who says that when the leader of your country asks you to serve, you serve.  Rapidly, Begin becomes Avner's spiritual guide.  Avner shares his first hand account of the background to the historic peace treaty between Isarel and Egypt, including Anwar El Sadat's visit to Jerusalem, and the crushing personal blow to Begin when his former enemy and then friend, Sadat, was assassinated.

The Prime Ministers is Avner's first hand account of serving four Israeli Prime Ministers.  It is a revealing, readable and intelligent review of his perspective of some of the most momentous moments in Israeli history. 

If you are a history, political or biography buff, I would highly recommend both of these works.  The Prime Ministers is available as a hard cover or an e-book.  To find The Revolt, you'll need to go to a used book site (e.g., www.abebooks.com)

Interview with Avner:

A piece about Begin and Sadat:

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks has written a fantastic new novel, Caleb's Crossing, that is one of the better novels of 2011. 

The novel is set in the late 1600s on Martha's Vineyard.  It is the story of Caleb Cheeshah-teaumuck, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College.  In the story, Caleb is befriended by Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of an English proselytizing minister. Like Caleb, Bethia, an exceptionally bright, young woman, searches for knowledge and must find a way to access it.  They build a lifelong bond.

The title of the book is a bit misleading.  The story, which is Bethia's diary from different phases of her life, is really about Bethia struggling in a male-dominated world to overcome the blind obedience demanded of women.  Bethia first must take on her deceased mother's obligations, which include tending to the home and raising her infant sibling.  Then, she is indentured as a housekeeper (i.e., looks a whole lot like slavery) to support her brother.  Throughout her life, Bethia thirsts and searches for worldly knowledge.  While listening to Bethia's quest through her diary, we watch Caleb cross from his Native American culture to the Christian culture and the costs he must bear. 

The root of the story is true. There was a Caleb Cheeshah-teaumuck who graduated from Harvard.  However, very little is known about his story.  Brooks creates a gorgeous story and hangs it on this narrow historical framework.

I would add Caleb's Crossing to my list of top books for the year so far.  It is an excellent book for discussion.  The writing is gripping.  Brooks writes the story in the language of the 1600s.  Much like Twain's classics, once you adjust to the difference in language, the story flows. This book should have broad appeal. Brooks also paints a lively picture of Martha's Vineyard.



The Snowman by Jo Nesbø

If you liked Stieg Larsson (one of my favorites), Henning Mankell (the PBS Mystery TV Series is outstanding) or Roslund and Hellstrom (Box 21 and Three Seconds), you will love Jo Nesbø .  His first US book, The Snowman, is a classic Scandinavian thriller: well-plotted, dark and fast-paced with political tones.  In short, it is a terrific book.

The Snowman features Nesbø's series detective, Harry Hole.  The story opens when an unexpected snowman appears outside a family home, which coincides with the disappearance of the mother.  As Hole and his team search for clues, new victims are served up.  Hole recently completed a course of study and serial killers and is certain he is facing one.  Others on the force think he is willing a conclusion.  Hole is plagued by personal flaws (alcoholism, difficulties with relationships) that Nesbø explores and exploits.  To avoid any spoilers, I am going to avoid more of a plot summary.

The characters are well developed.  Even more important for a book of this genre, the plot, twists, tension and timing  are excellent.  Nesbø tosses in several unexpected, but plausible, twists and turns that keep you engaged.  The Snowman is intricately plotted.

Booksellers and publishers are trying to ride the popularity of the The Millennium Trilogy series by labeling any quality Scandinavian writer as the next Stieg Larsson.  I don't know if this is the next big thing and I don't know if and when we'll see the next Stieg Larsson book (excellent NYT Magazine article here), read the Snowman.  It is a great summer read.

A book/movie trailer:

Nesbø talks about the book:

Orientation by Daniel Orozco

Orientation is a collection of nine short stories by Daniel Orozco.  Although he has been widely published in several respected literary publications (McSweeney's, Harper's and Best American Short Stories), this is Orozco's first book.  He is not widely known.  Amazon selected this book as one of its best of May 2011.  His fame should change with this book.

The title story, Orientation (available here), is a first person plural story about the first day in the office.  It is funny and biting and brings to mind a novel about office life told in the first person plural by Jonathan Ferris, Then We Came to the End.  Another story, The Bridge, is about the life of bridge painters and their role in talking people off the edge of the bridge.  Temporary Stories tells the story of a woman's temporary employment in three jobs.  Hunger Tales is series of stories about eating and the emotions of several characters.  Officer's Weep was incredibly creative.  It is the love story of two police officers told through a police reports.  Highly creative, readable and fun.

Each story has a perfect narrative tension, which grips the reader's attention throughout.  Each word in the story is carefully selected.  Each character comes across with a unique voice.

My recommendation is simple: read this collection.  It is worth it.  Enjoy it.

The story, Officer's Weep, reminded my of the story told through an inbox.  See below (original link here).  Read from the bottom up.

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht Wins the Orange Prize

Téa Obreht, the 25 year old novelist whose first novel, The Tiger's Wife, was published this year, won the prestigious 2011 Orange Prize.  The Organe Prize was launched in 1996 to celebrate "excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world."  Obreht is the youngest winner ever.  Previously, she was chosen by the New Yorker as one of the 20 best writers under 40, and that was before she published her first novel. 

This is likely the first of several prizes I expect Obreht to win this year.  My review of her novel is here.  If you haven't read it, this is one of the best novels of 2011 so far.

Pulse by Julian Barnes

Pulse, by Julian Barnes, is a collection of 14 short stories about "longing and loss, [and] friendship and love".  Barnes is a quintessential British writer who has been short-listed for the Man Booker prize three times. 

This collection of short stories starts with a terrific opener, "East Wind", in which an Englishman courts a Eastern European waitress and tries to uncover the root of her unusual behavior.  Suddenly, the Englishman and the reader are jarred with the waitress's story.  Four of the stories, entitled "At Phil and Joanna's", form a single narrative in parts.  It is essentially a drunken conversation among four friends ranging from sex to politics (very left wing) to loss.  One story, "Sleeping with John Updike" is a funny (and sad) story about the relationship between two female writers who did not quite make it to the top of the literary world.  Two of the stories are set a few centuries ago.  A few of the stories read more like essays than short stories.

Barnes captures conversation beautifully.  For example, the "At Phil and Joanna's" cycle of stories is just a long conversation between four characters.  There are few indications of who is actually speaking but it feels very real.  While the writing was magnificent, the point of that cycle of stories was lost on me.

Some of the stories were simply amazing.  Others, such as Phil and Joanna's and one or two of the essays, were well written but didn't capture me.  Based on the reviews I've read of his other works, this is not his strongest book.  Barnes is obviously an excellent writer but this is not his finest piece.  If you want to give him a try, I would start with one of his Man Booker finalists: Flaubert's Parrot, England, England or Arthur & George (a fictional story about Sherlock Holmes' creator).  The last one is on my "to be read" list.

The Paris Review interview with Barnes here.

Barnes talking about how the business of publicity for writers works.

22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson

22 Britannia Road, by Amanda Hodgkinson, is a first novel about the struggle of two-Polish ex-patriots readjusting to life after WWII in England.  In this ambitious novel, Janusz, Silvana and their son Aurek are split up during the war while Janusz goes to fight and Silvana and Aurek try to survive.  It is a good (not great), readable, sentimental novel. 

The novel proceeds with three story lines -- Janusz's experience fighting against the Nazis; Silvana's struggle to take care of her infant; and their attempt to reconstruct a family and rebuild a life in England after the war.   At the outset, Janusz goes to battle and ends up joining the English military.  He has difficult war experiences.  Silvana and Aurek flee Warsaw and survive in the forests and on the benevolence of peasants.  When the family is reunited in England after the war, Aurek, who grew up in the forest, must learn to cope in civilization (a slight hint of Room by Emma Donaghue here).  Silvana, who is fiercely protective of her son, must rebuild a relationship with her husband across the chasm of horrific experiences and choices they each have made.

Hodgkinson develops the main characters reasonably well (the supporting characters are very stereotypical) and delivers a few interesting plot twists.  That said, Silvana's development is a bit predictable and while Janusz has hard experiences, he does not make hard choices.  While the novel is a very good debut, the story does not hit it out of the park. 

There have been several highly favorable reviews.  Waterstones (the Barnes & Noble of Britain) picked this as one of their favorites of 2011.  Amazon picked it as a Best of the Month Selection.  Several bloggers have gotten behind this book (see Lemuria Bookstore Blog here, Gillian Hamer here and Burton Books here). 

If you liked Major Petrigrew's Last Stand (my review here), The Invisible Bridge, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society or other similar books, you probably will enjoy this one. If those are not quite for you, you should pass on it.

The book's promotion site is here.

Author interview here.  Sorry, I couldn't find any videos with the author.

The Great Frustration by Seth Fried

Seth Fried's short story collection, The Great Frustration, is funny, well-written and extremely difficult to put down.  With this collection, Fried displays his imagination and skill.

In the first story, “Loeka Discovered,” a group of scientists discover a prehistoric man, whose release from a deep freeze unfreezes emotions among the scientists.  As the narrative of the prehistoric man's life changes based on further discoveries, the scientists' moods swing wildly, creating entertaining results.  If you want to read this story on the web and get a flavor of Fried's writing, click here.   In the second story, my favorite, “Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre,” a town wonders aloud why everyone attends an annual picnic that year after year ends with a massacre.  In a third story, "Life in the Harem," an unattractive male clerk shares his tale of living in a sultan's harem.  (A preview clip for this story is below).

Each story is creative, credible and engaging.  This book (under 200 pages) is difficult to put down and will make you laugh out loud.

Fried has been published in several prominent literary journals (McSweeney's, Tin House etc.) and is the selection this month for the online book club, http://www.andrewsbookclub.com/.  You can get a taste of Fried's humor on his blog http://sethfried.blogspot.com/.

Read The Great Frustration, laugh and enjoy.

"Interview" with Seth Fried:

Preview for one of the short stories, "Life in the Harem":

The Dewey Decimal System by Nathan Larson

The Dewey Decimal System is a fun, noir murder mystery by first time novelist Nathan Larson.

Sometime in the not too distant future, New York has suffered from another terrorist attack, 2/14 as it is called, and a total collapse.  The protagonist,  Dewey Decimal, has taken up residence in the New York City Public Library.  He is a germ freak, is obsessed with Purell TM, has a "system" (he must travel according to specific algorithms), appears to be a former soldier (his memory seems to have been erased) and lives "off the grid."  Decimal is assigned by the New York District Attorney to hunt down a man.  Rapidly, Decimal finds himself caught in a violent conflict between the DA, the FBI and former Eastern European thugs.  Alliances shift, people die and Decimal tries to stay faithful to his internal ethical compass.  Throughout, Decimal whirls through post-apocalyptic New York

The narration is strong, allowing Decimal to come across clearly.  The narrative style reminded me of Ken Bruen's mystery series.  While it is clear that "bad things" happened in New York, Larson never conveys exactly what happened.  It is effective to keep the reader engaged and avoids the author from artificially entering the story with an explanation.  Larson has a firm grasp of New York City, which ends up being one of the key supporting characters in the story.  My only critique is that Decimal has a significant surgery early in the book and has a miraculous (and not plausible) recovery.  Aside from this slip, the book worked.

I came across this novel because my friends at the Mysterious Bookshop got behind this author and printed a special edition of the book.  If you are looking for something light and engaging, this is a good choice.  Be aware, like books of this genre, it is appropriately violent.

I couldn't find an author interview video but came across Cookie Monster in the Library and it made me smile.

Bright Before Us by Katie Arnold-Ratliff

Bright Before Us is a first novel by Katie Arnold-Ratliff, published by the literary house, Tin House.  With this novel, Arnold-Ratliff, an assistant editor at O, The Oprah Magazine, forcefully enters the literary world.

The novel's narrator, Francis Mason, is a twenty-something, progressive second grade teacher in San Francisco.  On a field trip to the beach with his class, Mason discovers the body of a suicide victim.  The trauma of the experience unravels Mason, who becomes lost in memories of his childhood love, Nora, who lost her parents in a car accident, and forces him to contend with marital unhappiness and anxieties about his wife's pregnancy.  Mason rapidly unhinges and becomes slightly paranoid, mixing reality and fantasy, while he contends with choices and understandings about love and loss.  Mason ends up on a road trip (see a cool map documenting the trip that Arnold-Ratliff put together here) and addresses his fears.

While Arnold-Ratliff uses simple and approachable language, there is nothing simplistic about this novel.  Arnold-Ratliff paints a vivid and believable portrait of San Francisco (an excellent choice of back drop for this novel) and paranoia.  At one point, Mason's paranoia becomes so intense that the novel begins to feel more like a murder mystery than a literary novel.  Arnold-Ratliff effectively switches narrational approaches in each chapter as a way of marking two separate but interlinked story lines.  The risk with a novel that explore the inner-psyche of its characters is that the plot stagnates (if there is one at all).  Throughout the novel, Arnold-Ratliff maintains authorial command and convincingly propels the narrative forward. 

I approached this novel with an open mind, was immediately engaged and could not put it down.  I was pleasantly surprised by how caught up in Mason's character I was.  Bright Before Us is a thoughtful and worthwhile book, which I would recommend reading.

For an author interview, click here.

If you happen to collect books (and not just read them), Powell's terrific IndieSpensable program is featuring this title in a special printing as its current installment.  Click here for details. (No promotional consideration received for this endorsement).

Boxer Beetle by Ned Beauman

If you like Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policemen's Union) or Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction (see clip below) among others), you'll enjoy the debut novel by Ned Beauman, Boxer Beetle (available in the US in August 2011; available from the UK now at this link).  It is a fun, eccentric and well-executed novel with a wild cast of characters.

First, there is Kevin "Fishy" Broom, a modern day dealer in Nazi memorabilia, who suffers from from trimethylaminuria: a rare condition that means he smells of rotting fish.  Fishy stays at home and traffics in Nazi items over the internet.  Then, there is Philip Erksine, a 1930s fascist and entomologist, who is trying to apply eugenics first to his study of beetles and then to humans.  There is also Sinner Roach, a five foot tall, nine-toed, Jewish, homosexual boxer, who Eriskine determines is a perfect subject for his studies.

The novel moves between two story lines.  The first plot line leads Fishy to a crime-scene and then a hunt for rare Nazi items and a murderer.  The second plot line is in the 1930s (the bulk of the book), in which Erksine pursues his eugenics experiments and Roach.

The book is witty, fun and well written.  Like Chabon's works, the book has a comic book feel but is excellent and well-paced literature.  Beauman was recently selected by the Guardian newspaper as one of Britain's 12 best new novelists.

A key document from the book:

A clip with Beauman:

Another review from Paperback Reader.
Pulp Fiction Clip:

 

To The End The Land by David Grossman

If there was ever a compelling story to be told with authority, this should have been it.  David Grossman, one of Israel's premier literary writers, suffered the horrific tragedy of losing his 20 year-old son who was serving in the Israeli army during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.  At that time, Grossman was engaged in writing his latest novel, To The End Of The Land, which explored the psyche of an Israeli mother, Ora, whose son reenlisted to serve in the army for a major offensive action just as he completed his three years of service.  This should have been a great book.  It was a disappointment.

Ora had planned a celebratory hike with her son to mark his return to civilian life.  She was shattered by his decision to reenlist and could not keep it together.  After leaving her son, Ora fled her home so the "notifiers" (i.e., the military officials charged with notifying families of deaths) will not be able to let her know if her son dies, thus prolonging his life.  She forces her former lover, Avram, a psychologically damaged war veteran, to go on the hike she was to have taken with her son.  While Ora and Avram are hiking, we learn about Avram, Ora's estranged husband, Ora's family and Ora. 

I could not finish the book.  It is nearly 600 pages, and it was just too much.  I knew of Grossman's reputation and loss before reading the book and was eager to read it. The book became too difficult to wade through, and I set it aside.  Grossman needed a more aggressive editor to hack away at the surplus, which made the beautifully written prose cumbersome and difficult to tackle.  I have no doubt that Grossman was pouring out his own grief in these pages, which makes not liking this novel difficult.  As a work of literature, I did not enjoy the novel.

After writing this review, I attended a discussion about this book led by an outstanding presenter.  She identified some of the significant themes Grossman tackles: immortality, the effect of a constant war on the psyche of the warrior and shifting reality, to name a few.  She also shared some of the significant plot developments that happened deep into the book.  While she agreed that the book needed a lot of editing, the themes of the book she identified may make tackling this book worthwhile for the truly persistent, dogged and determined.  For me, I was just satisfied with a great discussion and moving on to another book.

Other reviews: Boston Bibliophile (far more positive).

The novel was a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award as well.  (Goon Squad won that award).

A discussion with Grossman:

Goon Squad Wins Again!

While I was away on vacation (excuse the break in posting), the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was announced -- the winner was Jennifer Egan's A Visit From The Goon Squad.  It is now available in softcover (click here).  I picked this as one of my favorite books for 2010.  The NYT's picked it as one of the five best fiction works of the year.  If you have not read this book, I would highly recommend it.

Egan talks about winning the Pulitzer Prize below.



If you want to see the technically interesting PowerPoint chapter Egan created as a chapter in the book, Amazon has a cool presentation of it here, including musical interludes.

The finalists for the fiction prize were:

The Privileges by Jonathan Dee, a contemporary, wide ranging tale about an elite Manhattan family, moral bankruptcy and the long reach of wealth.

The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee, a haunting and often heartbreaking epic whose characters explore the deep reverberations of love, devotion and war.

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht, a 25 year old, first time novelist, is one of the most anticipated books of 2011.  Ms. Obreht was included as one of the New Yorker's 20 Under 40 last spring without having published any novels or short story collections.  (Seems a bit like President Obama winning the Novel Peace Prize shortly after being elected to office.)  Talk about pressure. 

The Tiger's Wife justifies the pre-release attention Obreht garnered.  The novel is a stunning debut and is the launching point of a career to watch.  While the book is not perfect (I'm not sure of one that is), it is a sensuous read and worthy of staying up to read.

The story revolves around Natlia and her grandfather both before and after the disintegration of Yugoslavia (although the country is unnamed in the book).  Natlia's grandfather passes away far from home while Natlia, a doctor, is on a humanitarian mission to provide services to orphans.  Natlia tries to find answers about her grandfather's death while keeping secrets from her grandmother about what she knew and when she knew it. 

In parallel, Obreht takes us back to the grandfather's childhood in the 1940s.  During the war, a tiger escapes from the zoo and seemingly develops a relationship with a deaf-mute woman, who has abused by her butcher-husband.  During the grandfather's life, he meets the "deathless man," a symbol for death, who crosses paths with the grandfather and Natalia over the years.  The tiger's wife and the deathless man are fables that intersect with life and test the characters.

The first pages of the novel lulled me into thinking this would be a literary book that develops slowly.  Suddenly, Obreht throws in rapid action; and the novel unfolds.  My critiques, minor as they are: the book has multiple plot lines that have to be tracked carefully.  After the dramatic opening, the novel slows down a bit and takes a while for it to pick up again. 

Obreht's writing is rich and breathtaking. She juxtaposes beauty with devastation and companionship with loss. Obreht draws on her formative years in Belgrade and uses the novel to cope with her loss of her grandfather.  It is a magnificent work.

Read Obreht.  She deserves the accolades.  I would be surprised if this is not the winner of a prize or two this year.  The reviews have been deservedly glowing.

Other reviews: NYT, The Magic Lasso, The Devourer of Books (they all loved it).

The Eichmann Trial by Deborah Lipstadt

There have been two significant judicial trials related to the Holocaust -- the trial of Adolf Eichmann for crimes against humanity and, just a few years ago, the trial of historian Deborah Lipstadt for her "libel" of Holocaust denier, David Irving.  Who better than Profeesor Lipstadt to write a popular and approachable book about the first and foremost trial of the Holocaust.  The Eichmann Trial is worth reading.

After World War II, Adolf Eichmann, the chief operating officer of the destruction of millions of Jews, fled to Argentina where he hid for several years.  In the late 1950s, the Israeli security forces became aware of his  whereabouts but did not act on the information. Before the capture was authorized, Ben-Gurion, the Prime Minister of Israel at the time, made a critical decision: rather than simply killing Eichmann in Argentina and leaving him in a ditch, he was brought to Israel and put on trial.  In 1960, the Israelis captured Eichmann and transported him to Israel to stand trial for his crimes.  Ben-Gurion walked into the Knesset (the Israeli legislature) and announced, "Eichmann bi'yadenu," Eichmann is in our hands.  It was a dramatic and powerful moment.

Immediately, the Israelis were questioned by the world, including by American Jews: how could a state that did not exist during the Holocaust try Eichmann?  Could the Israelis conduct a fair trial?  Wasn't Eichmann illegally abducted?  Would the victims and survivors have a voice in the trial (they had none at Nuremberg)?  Where would the trial be held (no court house at the time was equipped for such a trial)?  Who would defend Eichmann?

To fully appreciate the magnitude of the trial, Lipstadt reminds us that in the 1950s and 1960s, there were no Holocaust memorials and while the fact of the Holocaust was known, people were still focused on returning to  life and fighting the Cold War.  Also, Israel was still in its relative infancy.  Although it miraculously defended itself in two wars, it had not as powerful as it would become in 1967.  Without this context, it is hard to fully appreciate the importance of this trial.  Lipstadt expertly sets the context  and walks through the critical decisions (and mistakes) made in conducting the trial.  Having sat through a highly publicized trial herself, Lipstadt adds an extra dimension to her recounting of the tale.

The Jewish Encounters series, of which this is the most recent addition, is intended to present Jewish subjects "in a lively, intelligent and popular manner."  The Eichmann Trail  is not an academic piece, yet, it is written by a woman with impeccable credentials on the subject.  Lipstadt masterly narrates the story.  But, the story does not end with the trial.  After the trial, the New Yorker ran a series of articles by Hannah Ardent, a Jew who fled Germany.  She argued that the trial was unfairly conducted and that Eichmann essentially followed orders and was not an anti-Semite.  Who better than Lipstadt to examine this?

The only thing that I did not love about the book was the author's interruption of the narrative with references to her own trial.  The comparison of Eichmann's trial and Lipstadt's trial should have been in an epilogue.  That distraction is easily overcome.

The book is short (200 pages) and reads like a well written New Yorker or New York Times Magazine piece.  It is easily accessible and requires no background.  In reading this book, you will understand how this trial became precedent for how many future trials would be conducted.


Hear Lipstadt talk about her book here:

Deborah Lipstadt on The Eichmann Trial from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

The Free World by David Bezmozgis

Many books have been written about the immigrant experience: the need to leave a land, the difficulty of assimilating into a new culture and the challenge of preserving identity.  David Bezmogis, a New Yorker 20 Under 40, uses his new and first novel, The Free World, to tackle the story of the Soviet Jews. 

The Soviet Jews that were released in the 1960s and 1970s could not travel directly to Israel or the US.  Often, they stopped over in Vienna or Rome en route to the free world.  The stop over could take days, weeks and even months.  (For a fantastic non-fiction book on Soviet Jewry, click here.) 

Bezmozgis' story opens in 1978 with the arrival of the Krasnansky family in Rome.  The familial patriarch, Samuil, is an old Communist and Red Army veteran, who reluctantly leaves his home and life.  His wife, Emma, reconnected with her spiritual heritage in the Soviet Union.  Although she is only a supporting character, she displays a sharp understanding of her family and their problems.  Their eldest and pragmatic son, Karl, arrives with his wife and two boys.  His muscled physique and opportunistic outlook lead him into the underworld of Rome.  The younger son, Alec, a bon vivant and womanizer, arrives in Rome, with his new, scandalously acquired bride, Polina.

The family tries to find its way through the maddening bureaucratic maze of Rome, while struggling to survive and understand why they left.  On the way, they find other former Soviet Jews and develop interesting connections.  Throughout the novel, Bezmozgis takes us back into the characters' colorful histories, developing who they are and why they left. 

Bezmozgis was born in Latvia. Like Gary Shteyngart (Super Sad True Love Story and Absuridstan), Bezmozgis's writing is biting and sharp witted.  His use of the English language is shaped by the rhythm of the English as it translates into Russian.  As he said in an interview:

I usually thought about what the conversation would be like in Russian and then would translate it into English. If there was something ungainly about it, then I’d try to correct for it. There are certain words where, if I had a choice between that and some other English synonym, I’d consciously use the one that’s more Russian. My belief is that it will be transparent enough for an English speaker, but if you’re a Russian–speaking reader and you can translate backwards, there are certain nuances that will come through.  Full Paris Review interview here.

The novel has a great rhythm and pace to it.  Bezmogis intersperses humor and tragedy through the book, while meaningfully and thoughtfully exploring his characters.  It is a beautifully written book.  My only critique is that he drops in several dialogues in Italian, which are distracting.  Otherwise, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.  If you liked Shteyngart, you should read Bezmozgis.  Both deserved their New Yorker 20 Under 40 status.

Other reviews: Largehearted Boy, NYT and The Millions.



Review -- When They Come For Us We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry

In 1987, I travelled with about 250,000 others to Washington DC for the rally to demand that Gorbachev release the Jews held in the Soviet Union, the Refuseniks.  For decades, Jews in the USSR were not permitted to practice their religion or to leave the country.  The process of obtaining an exit visa was expensive, oppressive and often a dead end.  Instead, when Jews asked for the right to leave, they often lost their jobs immediately and cut off from society.  Within the Soviet Union, they formed an underground community of Refuseniks, protesting their oppression.

In the 1980s, my brother, like many Jewish kids at the time, had a "twin" for his bar mitzvah, a Refusenik who became part of the ceremony that day.  Many of us wore metal bands on our wrists with the name of a Refusenik.  It was all an effort to raise awareness about these prisoners of conscience.

Until I read Gal Beckerman's new book, When They Come For Us We'll Be Gone, I had no idea about the depth of the history of this important movement.  The Soviet Jewry movement was in many ways a response by American Jews to their failure to act in the face of the German atrocities of the 1930s and 1940s.  It was the embodiment of "Never Again."  Starting in the 1960s, a small group of activists in Cleveland began raising awareness about the plight of the Soviet Jews.  It was the first time American Jews flexed their political muscle in the United States.  And, it was a very difficult issue because it was intertwined with the foreign policy issue of the day -- the Soviet Union, the United State's opponent in the Cold War.  Different forces within the Jewish community fought to find a way -- quiet diplomacy, peaceful protests, attacks on Soviet targets.  Beckerman's study addresses many of the key moments and players in the history of the movement, from Rabbi Meir Kahane to Natan Sharansky to Senator Jackson.  The efforts of the Jewish community ultimately found key supporters in the US governement and for the first time in US foreign policy history, the Cold War politics of detente bent to address a question of human rights.

Gal Beckerman, a writer for the Forward, has written a carefully researched, detail laden book, which is beautifully narrated and highly readable.  For his efforts, Beckerman won the 2010 National Jewish Book Award.  This is an important study and well worth reading.

Radio interview with Beckerman here.

Tournament of Books - Goon Squad Wins!

In a very close final match up, Goon Squad upset Freedom in a 9-8 decision to win this year's Tournament of Books' crown.  As those of you that have followed the tournament, in an earlier match up, these two titans faced off and Franzen's Freedom won.  Congratulations, Jennifer Egan!

These were the two titans of the tournament and, in my opinion, two of the very best books of 2010.  Both Egan and Franzen have produced memorable and worthwhile books.  If you haven't read them, I highly recommend both.

The Tournament restarts in March 2012.  Meanwhile, find a great book and enjoy it.

Tournament of Books: The Finals Are Coming

What a week of ups and downs. 

In the first knock down semifinal match, Freedom defeated Goon Squad., my pick to win the whole tournament.  I thought my many NCAA bracket losses exemplified my lack of basketball knowledge.  It seems that I'm just not good at tournament picks (or else I don't know as much about books as I thought I did). So it goes.  Franzen's Freedom is a formidable foe and a worthy opponent.

In the second semifinal match up, Lemon Cake beat Next.  While I thought Lemon Cake was a fine book, there was no way it could withstand the blows Freedom has been dealing out to its foes.

Then came the Zombie round.  In the zombie round, the winner of each semi-final round squares off with another contestant that lost earlier in the contest.  The zombies were Room and Goon Squad.  Freedom dealt a decisive blow to Room to enter the finals and Good Squad squarely defeated Lemon Cake. My pick is back!

On Monday, the finals are played out with a rematch of Freedom and Goon Squad.  I'm still hoping for Goon Squad to pull off an upset of the seemingly unstoppable Freedom.  What makes this round different than the earlier match up between these titans is that every judge votes in the finals.  In earlier rounds, it is a single judge making the call.  While I enjoyed Freedom a lot, I'm sticking with Egan's Goon Squad to win it all.  Stay tuned.



Tournament of Books - Round 2 Recap

Round 2 is now complete.  In the biggest match up of the Tournament so far, Freedom beat Room.  Although I enjoyed both books, I thought Room was far more compelling and original.  The judge disagreed, finding Room's five year old narrator confining and narrow.  That was the point of the book, wasn't it?  The story is about confinement and creating a world within that tight space.  I guess we disagree.

In the other three quarterfinal rounds, Goon Squad beat Finkler, Next beat Nox and Lemon Cake beat Model Home.  I'm surprised Lemon Cake made it this far.  It was a very good book but was not as strong as Super Sad True Love Story or Lord of Misrule.  Perhaps one of those books (or Skippy Dies) will make a run for it in the zombie round.  (For those unfamiliar with the Tournament, the winners of the semifinal rounds must face off the two most popular books that were eliminated in the Tournament before advancing to the finals.)

The semifinals are set -- Freedom versus Goon Squad and Next versus Lemon Cake.  I'm sticking with Goon Squad to win the whole Tournament.  While I enjoyed Freedom, Goon Squad is original, diverse and beautifully executed.  The semifinal and the zombie rounds start on Monday.  Stay tuned!

Start-up Nation by Den Senor & Saul Singer

Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, attempts to answer the question: how did a small, besieged country without natural resources or local trading partners become a world player in high-tech?  Israel is a country of about 7 million people and just over 60 years old; yet, it produces more start-up companies than countries like Japan, China and India.  It attracts, per capita, more than twice the venture capital investments than the US and thirty times more than Europe.  Aside from the US, Israel has more companies listed on NASDAQ than any other country.  What explains Israel's success?

Senor and Singer argue that the Israeli military is one key to Israel's success. In Israel, military service is mandatory. Young conscripted soldiers are empowered quickly to make hard decisions and improvise in difficult, unpredictable situations. The soldiers that stand out are selected by the elite military units for intensive training. The military also demands thoughtful and thorough debriefings of failed and successful missions alike.  Outcomes alone are not sufficient.  Every exercise and engagement is treated as a learning opportunity.  In the debriefs, senior soldiers challenge junior soldiers and vice-versa.  Hierarchy, tradition and the status quo are not accepted as roadblocks to finding the best solution.

The military's values help create a culture that empowers and nurtures entrepreneurism.  A failed venture is not a failure; it is an opportunity to learn for the next one.  Challenging existing technologies and business models is endorsed. 

Israel also creates breeding grounds for ideas--tight clusters of universities, firms and start-ups, coupled with strategic government support.  Together, these clusters foster innovation.  (See Steven Johnson's book, Where Good Ideas Come From for why clusters matter--video clip below.)

The strength of the book is the examples Senor and Singer share.  Whether it is the story of Shimon Peres and a young entrepreneur approaching senior auto executives about the electric grid for cars or the story of the unwillingness of one plant to allow the 1991 Persian Gulf War to interfere with its on-time shipments, it becomes clear why Israel is a unique story.

Recommendation: For the business person, there are lessons to be learned about how to run an organization successfully.  For the supporters of Israel, the book generates a sense of pride that Warren Buffet (who never buys non-US companies), Google, Cisco, Intel and many other high-tech companies look to Israel for innovative development.

Author interview:

Where Great Ideas Come From:

Tournament of Books 2011 - Round 1 Recap

Round 1 of the Tournament of Books is now complete.  The results from the last three match ups were:

So Much For That lost to Next
Super Sad True Love Story lost to Model Home
Lemon Cake beat Bloodroot

I didn't read Model Home but I'm really surprised that it beat Super Sad, which was a fantastic book and one of my favorites for 2010.

I went five for eight on correct calls.  The next round, which starts next week, should be fun.  The left bracket (Freedom vs Room and Finkler vs Goon) are huge battles.  The right bracket has a lot of wild cards (Nox, Next, Model Home and Lemon Cake). 

I'm sticking with my original call that Room beats Freedom and Goon beats Finkler and then wins the whole thing.  The left half of my bracket is in disarray.

The action restarts next week.  Stay tuned.

Heresy by S.J. Parris

Heresy, An Historical Thriller, by S.J. Parris, is the first novel in a new mystery series set in 1583 in Oxford, England.  At the center of the novel is Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk excommunicated by the Roman Catholic church.  Bruno, a street smart philosopher, finds his way to England and seeks refuge there to spread his more tolerant religious thinking.  Bruno is invited to speak at Oxford.  En route, he is recruited as a spy by Protestant Queen Elizabeth's secretary of state to report on underground Catholic activities in Oxford.  As an excommunicated Catholic, the Queen can trust him; but as a Catholic, he has access to people and meetings that Protestants will never manage.  At Oxford, several people die and Bruno, the outsider, is thrust into the role of detective. Parris loosely bases her protagonist on the real monk and philosopher, Giordano Bruno. 

The historical novelist faces two challenges: creating a believable setting and telling a good story in that setting.  Parris succeeded at creating a realistic and detailed back drop with characters that have real flaws.  Although the story shows terrific promise and generates intrigue and tension, it ends a too melodramatically and fizzes out by the end.

Recommendation:  If you want the very best in historical thrillers, I'd first recommend CJ Sansom and David Liss.  Parris is an up-and-comer with good potential.  Her newest novel, Prophecy, is due out in the U.S. in early May.


Other reviews: From the TBR Pile and S Krishna's Books.  Both are lukewarm.  
 

Author interview:

Tournament of Books 2011 Update

Round 1 of the Tournament of Books started last week and continues through this week.  One upset so far.  The summary to date:

Freedom vs. Kapitol -- Freedom, a favorite and 2010 heavyweight won .

Room vs. Bad Marie -- Room, another fan and critic favorite won decisively.  Room takes on Freedom in the next round.  Expect a titanic clash.

Savages vs. Finkler Question -- Finkler (the Man Booker winner) won.

A Visit from the Goon Squad vs. Skippy Dies -- close, but Goon Squad won and next faces off with Finkler

The winner of today's match up, Lord of Misrule vs. Nox, was announced this morning.  In a dramatic upset, Nox won.

Three match ups left this week to close out the opening round.  My calls for those are So Much For That beats out Next; Super Sad True Love Story defeats Model Home and even odds on Lemon Cake versus Bloodroot.

Book Review - The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

Hannah Pittard's first novel, The Fates Will Find Their Way, is a fascinating concept novel.  Pittard is an accomplished short story writer.  In this novel, she creates a well-paced narrative and effectively uses interesting storytelling techniques.

On Halloween night in a mid-Atlantic state, sixteen-year-old Nora Lindell disappears.  This is how the novel assertively opens: "Some things were certain; they were undeniable, inarguable.  Nora Lindell was gone, for one thing.  There was no doubt about it."

The story then develops into a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, spinning out possible narratives of what might have happened to Nora.  (She probably did this, she might have done that.)  The possibilities of what might have happened to Nora are told and then retold, carrying the novel forward.  While the grammatical form is a little unfamiliar in a novel, Pittard manages it very well.  In parallel, Pittard tells the story of what actually did happen to Nora's sister and father and the community in which they all lived. 

What makes the novel even more interesting is that it is written in the first person plural.  The narrator is a group of boys who were Nora's classmates.  The "we" are intrigued by Nora's teenage sexuality and, for the rest of their lives, the boys wander aimlessly through marriages, divorces, crimes and death still in the clutches of Nora and what might have been.  Pittard nailed the group voice.  If the first person plural is of interest to you, you should also read  Joshua Ferris' hysterical (and yet sad) examination of office life in Then We Came to the End.

Recommendation: The mix of the first person plural voice and the choose-your-own-adventure approach to the novel makes it a refreshing and inventive book.  Pittard expertly develops the story like a carefully crafted kaleidoscope.

Other reviews: Book Lady's Blog, Devourer of Books, Shelf Love and Book Sake.

Interview with Pittard here.

The publisher's discussion of the book: