An Update and Two Reviews: Five Stars for Girl Through Glass (Wilson), Three and a Half for The Ex (Burke)

I confess....falling back on the little device I used in this blog's early days is appropriate when I'm so hopelessly behind in my book reviews.  I also continue to have so many other things I want to write about, but intention and action aren't the same thing.

Offering an explanation, not an excuse, for those interested (feel free to skip ahead, my beloved bullet-points should help set off the actual reviews) I'm at an odd juncture healthwise.  In some ways, I am much better than I was and I have worked hard FN1 to reduce my pain medication.FN2  I think this has helped me speed up my reading.  However, I still tire very fast and writing, which remains a passion, can be hard.  Some days, I feel like the words are flowing like they once did, but more often it takes me several times longer to write a piece than it would have before pain took over my life.  Word finding issues still pop up frequently, including both in speaking and in writing  I prioritize the paid piecework I do, including four weekly posts I'd have polished off in a single day but still take double, triple, even quadruple the usual time.  I do still love to write, especially about books and health matters (e.g., chronic pain, fitness, body image), but it is hard to sit back down at the keyboard after I finish my day's "must do"s.

Anyway, that's the background.  On to a few reviews:

• Girl Through Glass by Sari Wilson

I usually write reviews chronologically, but I feel compelled to review this one first because it is without question one of the best books I read in 2015.  To be clear upfront, this is a great novel but it is often an unpleasant one and the topic(s) will turn off some readers.  It is far from identical...this is much broader, focused on a different player, and involves a very different relationship...but I couldn't help but think of Lolita, a beautiful telling of a disturbing tale and a reference made by the author herself in interviews about the book.

The book is told from two viewpoints, young Mira's and adult Kate's.  We meet Mira at eleven when she is rising in the world of ballet from a talented child to a true star.  She pushes ever harder, struggling for the perfection in her art that she lacks in her home life.  Mira meets Maurice, a man obsessed with her dancing and a vision of her a the perfect ballerina, developing a relationship we know from the start can't be "right."  Although we know where its headed, parts of their story still come as a surprise and the story still manages to shock the reader who has been waiting for it all along.  Meanwhile, middle-aged Kate struggles in her professional life as a college instructor while trying to make peace with her past life as a young dancer.

There is a lot here.  For me, the book is largely about "the gaze," about performance, about watching and being watched.  Wilson explores what an intense gaze does to the watcher and the watched,.  She explores how the gaze turns person into object and what that does to the mind, especially when the watched is just a child.  An attentive reader can't help but notice her own role as watcher as the story unfolds.  Maurice's relationship with Mira is central to this story, but far from the book's only theme.  We see a crumbling marriage, the impact of dysfunctional parents on an attentive child, the sacrifice artists make for art, the internal struggle for perfection, and the complex relationship between our adult selves and our child pasts.  Ballet plays a role in this book, but I'd hesitate to call it a book about ballet.

This book, in language and theme, is mesmerizing and beautiful.  It isn't for everyone, but readers willing to delve into often uncomfortable territory will find beauty in the language (that parallels beauty in performance).  It is a book that makes you think and makes you feel.  The reader anticipates certain scenes, knowing they must be coming while still hoping somehow they won't.  Five stars.

This review is based on an advance reader's copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

• The Ex by Alafair Burke

I don't read a lot of detective fiction or legal thrillers, but sometimes I like a little break from my norm.  The protagonist here is Olivia, a skilled defense lawyer called to the aid of a man from her past.  Jack Harris lost his wife in a shooting spree and has since focused on raising his daughter while continuing a successful career as a novelist.  Now, Jack stands accused of being the perpetrator of another shooting spree.  Olivia feels compelled to help because she is convinced Jack could not have committed the crime, an opinion informed by her complex history as Jack's college sweetheart and her guilt about how that relationship ended.  As the evidence piles up, Olivia is forced to examine her personal bias and consider whether she truly knew the man she once loved.

I didn't have much trouble figuring out the whodunit side of this book.  Still, it kept me reading, largely to understand the complex web of relationships and love among the many players in the tale.  As a "recovering lawyer," I was also interested in Olivia's professional career and her transition from a large law firm to the very different world of criminal defense.  This book didn't really stand out for me, but I wasn't bored either.  I'd categorize it as "airport fiction," a book you'd pick up to read during a flight when you want an enjoyable diversion but know the environment won't support a book that requires deep focus.  Three and a half stars (rounded down to a three star "I like it [but don't love it]" rating on sites that don't support half star ratings).

This review is based on an advance reader's copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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FN1: I do not regret my pain med use which was always under expert supervision.  I needed occasional pep talks from the clinical pharmacist who helped me remember that these meds are more than okay for those who need them, even for people like me who need somewhat high doses.  I continue to work hard and I am committed to seeing where I am when I'm pain med free.  It''ll be a few weeks or even a couple of months after I finish the taper and stop all meds before I can really evaluate things since the withdrawal can mess with the brain and cause extra pain.  Also, he probably won't see this but apologies to my husband for the tough-to-describe tingling that kicks in around 6 or 7 AM at this pintleads to semi-involuntary shakes and has me tossing and turning enough to impact him even with a fancy mattress

FN2: I'd feel remiss if I didn't note that pain meds, even the "biggies," have an important place and are critical for people who truly need them.  Abuse dominates the headlines but, and I could go on for eons about this but will control that impulse, there is a proper use and even those who use them for the right reasons and as directed by specialized experts experience the physical dependence that I'm battling now.

A Saga, a Tour, and a Tour Guide: A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk

I have a couple of other reviews to write, but those are for a book I reread and one I bought, so I'm prioritizing and posting this one first...

• A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk

Going into this book, provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review, I was both intrigued and apprehensive.  I've read Pamuk's works before and found them both a thing of beauty and quite a bit of work.  Luckily, in this case the beauty wins out.

The words "epic" and "saga" both leap to mind as descriptors and not solely because of the book's hefty size.  This is the story of a life.  Melvut is many things.  He is the son of a man who can never quite reach financial success and who holds a grudge against his brother (Melvut is a nephew caught in between) for a business slight.  Melvut is a husband who sent many beautiful letters to a woman he met for an instant and whom he steals away with the help of his cousin.  He is, briefly, a soldier serving out a required stint in the military.  He is a doting father.  And Melvut is a business-man who, despite dabbling in many arenas, is always most at home selling a traditional drink on the nighttime streets.

This is also, on a deeper level, the story of Istanbul.  We see the city and its surroundings evolve from an early land grab to a modern metropolis.  We see power and politics, both mixed with religion and regional loyalty.  The city is almost a second protagonist and it grows up right alongside Melvut.

This is a book that takes commitment, but also rewards it.  The reading isn't as hard as some of Pamuk's other works, at least as I remember them.  There are a LOT of characters, but a family tree and even an index can help (the index is off in the advance version and even in that form it helped by linking names to other characters, issues, and events).  I tend to like books about characters, but this felt much more like a book about place developed through a main character.  Although I certainly wouldn't call Melvut the man irrelevant, he felt more like an entryway into a world and a set of eyes for the reader to borrow.

Readers need to be prepared to dive in and pay attention.  This isn't an airplane read (meaning distractions should be minimal), but it doesn't feel like homework either.  A solid four stars, perhaps even 4.5 of 5.

Two Works About Art: The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto (Alborn) and The Improbability of Love (Rothschild)

...and two more books added to my shelves....oddly, given that they came from two different publishers, both focused on the power of art to impact artists and audiences...

• The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Alborn

This is a difficult book to describe.  It is set at the funeral of Frankie Presto, a gifted musician whose life begins in a tucked-away room of a burning church and continues to be marked by the extraordinary despite Frankie's desire to be left to be more ordinary and simply revel in his musical gift.  Music is the primary narrator, although the book also has "interviews" with numerous people, both real (but fictionalized) and not-so-real. Through Music and the others, we learn Frankie's life story, a journey marked by a powerful love for both Music and a woman he meets when she's just a young girl in a tree.  Frankie also possesses six magical guitar strings that allow him to make a profound impact on six lives.

Portions of this book are almost heart-breakingly beautiful.  In particular, I loved the image of various talents surrounding babies as colorful lights; the baby grabs at a particular light and is gifted with that talent for life.  I liked that Frankie's life included missteps and also miracles, creating a rounded and real character amid a tale of magic strings.  I'd never read Alborn (he wrote Tuesdays With Morrie and many other bestsellers, often weaving in a philosophy of life) and was a bit uncertain about whether he'd be a good fit.  I didn't find this drippingly sentimental but it was very much an emotional journey.

Still, I wasn't really drawn to Alborn's decision to weave numerous real figures into fictional Frankie's journey.  It was a distraction for me, particularly since I'm not really a music person so I'd often spend time wondering if a given name was real or fictional.  There were also a few plotlines that didn't work for me like the Woodstock scene that unravels in several chapters or some of the moments involving the physical guitar played by Frankie.

Four stars.  I think this book would be best-enjoyed by someone who has a deep connection to Music and could truly appreciated how Frankie relates to his gift.  A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

• The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild

Annie is nursing a broken heart and stalled career when she stumbles upon a small painting in a thrift shop.  While the reader knows from the start, it takes much longer for Annie to realize the painting is a lost, important work by a famous artist.  The opening scene, which in the novel's timeline occurs after much of the rest of the book, shows the preparations for an auction featuring the painting and introduces several heavy hitters expected to lead the bidding.  In addition to chapters narrated in the first-person by the painting, other chapters focus on Annie, a love interest who happens to be in the art world, Annie's boss (who is one of those heavy hitters), and several other characters.  

There are too many story-lines to identify them all here, but they include: Annie's relationship with her alcoholic mother; Annie's endeavors as a high-dollar chef with an interest in elaborate theme events; Efforts by more than one person to track down the painting; and A WWII story involving family, lies, and Hitler's art squad.  Characters range from a flamboyant and extravagant man who makes helping people rise socially a business and an art; the smitten love interest, Jesse; a wealthy woman brought up in the art world; and, of course, the painting.  Oh, and there's a lot about art, food, and, as the title promises, love.

There's so much here that it's hard to start...and perhaps that's where I can start.  There's a LOT in this book and not entirely in a bad way.  It keeps the reader alert and engaged and gives backstories to many of the players, although it does go a smidgen too far into "throw it all in the pot" realm (common for first-time novelists like Rothschild).  It took me quite a while to get a handle on all the names (tip: flag the descriptions in the intro chapter for help!).  However, I enjoyed the range of players even despite this struggle which says a lot about the author's talent for crafting characters.  I wouldn't say they are perfectly fleshed out, some are pretty one-dimensional, but there's talent in the crafting.  I got a bit tired of the gushing over the painting and its depiction of love, but I still wanted to pick the book up every night.

All in, this is a solid novel but not a favorite book.  I think it falls at the upper ends of my 3.5 star range (of 5).  I'll round up to 4 when ranking systems require it without hesitation, but it just isn't quite a "true" four for me.  I'm not a follower of art (although the novel certainly suggests there is value in even lay opinions on art) and imagine it might read differently to an aficionado.  There are clear viewpoints presented, a clear underlying belief in the power of art and love.  I found characters and plotlines that I really liked and others that felt too thrown in.  I loved the food scenes, but they seemed superfluous (another see-saw-like opinion...).  There are too many coincidences for my taste but (yet another teeter-totter) it bothered me much less than it would in other hands.  This can't be called an easy novel given the attention it demands if the reader wants to keep track of all the plots and characters, but the writing is smooth and inviting.  I wanted to read it, but I didn't feel the need to slow down to avoid leaving it behind (a hallmark of a great novel, in my opinion).  

Who might enjoy this book?  I think it needs to be someone who enjoys some form of art, be it painting or writing, and believes it can be transformative.  I can't say what having a background in painting and visual arts in general would impact the read.  At the risk of abusing two overused categories, the book is a good middle ground between "chick lit" and "serious literature" and it worked well as pre-bed reading that was more serious than easy-to-interrupt airplane fare and books where the reader needs to work to parse each line.

A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.