Run by Ann Patchett (spoilers)

I am finding this novel quite hard to review. I generally enjoyed it, it was a quite gentle read with some good characters and plot twists, and I love Patchett’s writing style, but at the same time I found myself feeling quite dissatisfied with a few aspects, maybe this was because I enjoyed State of Wonder so much and found this paler in comparison.

The novel explores family relationships between Bernard Doyle and his three sons (Sullivan, who is his biological son and his two adopted sons Tip and Teddy) and Tennessee and her daughter Kenya, and what happens when Tennessee and Tip are involved in an accident. Although Tip, Teddy, Tennessee and Kenya are black, I would argue that the novel doesn’t go into race issues in any depth. The fact that Tennessee and Kenya live in a housing project and she is too poor to afford medical insurance is glossed over, as are Bernard’s previous political aspirations and life as a mayor. This would have been interesting to explore in more depth. 

 I can’t say that I felt particularly engaged with the characters, perhaps this was due to the number which meant that their stories were spread quite thin.   I agree with Leah Hagen Cohen’s  remark in her review in the New York Times suggesting that the characters ‘ultimately feel less real than symbolic, as wooden as the Virgin’s statue’ (September 30^th 2007). The problem seems to be that there is a sense that they are defined by few characteristics, particularly ‘sweet’ Teddy and ‘clever’ Tip. Father Sullivan and his namesake, Sullivan are more interesting characters in comparison, but again, Father Sullivan’s apparent healing of two women is not really explored, it’s sometimes as if she’s thrown everything in but not really found time to explore it or tie it together. 

The final issue was the clunky anaesthesia-induced reunion of Tennessee and her friend Tennessee Alice Moser. I understand why she did it (to reveal a secret to the reader that the rest of the characters weren’t supposed to ever learn), but I found it a bit of a cheesy plot device.

 In comparison, I thought the motif of the statue of the Virgin Mary was handled nicely and the ending was quite satisfying; it gave the novel a nice kind of symmetry and a sense of progression. Overall, I liked the plot as well.  I feel as if I’ve mostly written about the negative aspects, even though I didn’t feel that negatively towards it when I was reading it. Overall, it’s an uplifting, entertaining book, and I am probably judging it too harshly for what it isn’t rather than what it is. 

References

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/books/review/Cohen-t.html

Update and all that

So, blogger is telling me that it’s been a whole three weeks since I’ve last written a post, which isn’t very good, as I certainly haven’t stopped reading. I could get bogged-down with writing reviews of books I read a while ago, but I think for the sake of my sanity and to give me time to get onto books I should be reading I’m going to keep it brief. Glad I reviewed the Go-Between when I did though. Spoiler warning for some of the books reviewed. Anyway, here’s where I am up to as of today on my Goodreads shelf:

I am extremely behind on the Proust, having hoped to have finished Swann’s Way by now. Some of this has been due to a bad cold and being busy, some of this has been due to not really fancying reading it and getting a bit too bogged down with Swann’s obsession with Odette. Proust is great and all that but sometimes I just want him to stop circling around and get to the plot. Anyway, I am aiming to finish by the time I go back to work if I can, although I have to say that there are other books I’ve never read calling to me, particularly Hilary Mantel. ARLTP suddenly seems like even more of a big commitment than I was expecting, so I’d better get down to it.

I have finished the Imogen Robertson books, although I am aware that there is another one out that I haven’t found in the library yet. Overall, an entertaining series of novels with some good characters and historical detail. 

Anne of Green Gables. Haven’t read them since I was a teenager and they are pure comfort reading, reminding me of blissful summers swapping them when I was around twelve. Probably the first love stories I read. I still love them, although I did find Paul a bit annoying in Anne of Avonlea. Surprised of how little there was of Gilbert too, she’s always talking about how they were old school chums, but he doesn’t pop up that much until book three. 

I’m currently reading A Storm of Swords having finally finished A Clash of Kings which took a while to get going. Number three is moving along at a cracking pace in comparison, with more action, less politics and more of the characters I’m interested in. I’m already around 40% in. I can see why fans are on at George though, that guy spends far too much time farting around blogging. Get on with the next book, already!

Seeds of Greatness was pretty funny and one of my favourite books so far this year.

I had mixed feelings about The Black Dahlia. I don’t always enjoy books that are gruesome, although the LA Quartet has been on my ‘to read’ list for a while, and I think it’s a good challenge. I haven’t got that far into The Big Nowhere yet and it’s not even made the ‘currently reading’ list, although I am intending to try and read it. I think that although I admire it for its noir qualities, period details and it is an excellent example of its genre, it’s not really a genre I will ever get into. I prefer historical mysteries and gothic mansions hiding secrets to thuggish detectives investigating tortured women. 

Shadow of Night took ages and didn’t thrill me as much as A Discovery of Witches. Far too much time describing her integrating into Elizabethan society and getting married. It started to remind me too much of Twilight for middle-aged university graduates, with the amazing ability to suddenly become pregnant and the no sex before marriage thing. The whole reason I liked the first one was that the heroine and hero seemed different; here she left her hard-one equality behind and let him take her blood to discover all her secrets because he didn’t trust her. Shades of Eddie Cullen. I don’t mind people messing about with established vampire-lore, but it does get my goat when the writer makes the heroine ‘special’ so they can circumnavigate the difficult aspects of their other half being a vampire like the lack of procreation in a conventional way. There should be a downside to it, in my humble opinion. Hopefully we can get back on track to the mysterious manuscript bit next book, and being back in modern times will allow her to tell Mr. Controlly where to go.

The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch came and went. Alas, I was unable to concentrate on it when I read it. It was okay, but a bit too deep for reading half of it, leaving it a few weeks then finishing it in a rush to return to the library. Beautiful style though.

The Pirates! in an Adventure with Romantics delivered what it promised and I liked what he did with the Romantics.  I’ve read and enjoyed all the Pirates! novels and they are wonderfully silly and enjoyable to read.

I wasn’t so keen on Death Comes to Pemberley, although I did try to like it. The Austen-y bit of it was okay, the style was fine and the use of characters was fine. I don’t think it really worked as a murder mystery though. Mr. D did a little bit of surface investigation, there was a great chunk of stuff about the legal system at the time then it was all revealed at the trial. The bit between the murder and the trial was hard going. Still, she was experimenting. If you can’t write what you want when you are an immensely successful 90 something novelist when can you? She didn’t force anyone at gunpoint to read it either. 

So, that’s the books I’ve been reading. Overall, with the Goodreads reading challenge I was 15 books ahead and have changed the challenge to 100 books in a year. Ambitious, but I didn’t really realise that joining Goodreads would change my attitude to books. I’m reading more and it keeps me focussed. There are less books going unfinished, I am trying new things and trying to read good quality books, even ones with a ‘hard’ reputation (although I also try not to be too ‘snobby’ about books too). Really should be getting on with the Proust.