Prequels: The Ultimate Spoiler Alert

 

Narratives told out of chronological order are nothing new. After all, Sophocles wrote Antigone about twelve years before Oedipus Rex. C.S. Lewis' Narnia series was likewise written out of chronological order. So when I learned that David Wroblewski had written Familiaris, a prequel to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, one of my all-time favorite novels, I couldn't wait to read it, but I was concerned about knowing too much.

Familiaris is the story of Edgar's grandparents John and Mary Sawtelle, the original breeders of what become known as Sawtelle dogs. Like the earlier novel, this one is not only lengthy, but grand in scope. While the first novel was a modern retelling of Hamlet, this one does not seem to have such a direct literary origin. 

Wroblewski has assembled a big cast of characters--two childhood friends of John, who come with them to the farm they purchase after becomes across it while waiting on his car too cool off. Their quirks are endearing and surprising. Frank, who lost a leg and arm in the war, is justifiably curmudgeonly. The large and taciturn Elbow discovers his own talent with woodworking, but his charm is his shifting personas--the Man Who Agrees with Everything, the Man Who Questions Everything, and so on.

Throughout the narrative, the author weaves in subplots, the earliest, the man who first tamed wolves; the most significant to the plot, Walter Payne, and Ida, the newborn he discovers in a raging wildfire and takes to raise. The supernatural element of her strange gifts are a small but curious part of the plot.

I knew to anticipate the birth of John and Mary's sons, Gar and Claude, since they are major characters in Edgar's story. Wroblewski's characterization of Claude, in particular, allowed me to be cautiously sympathetic with the boy, despite knowing the role he plays in the future.

Familiaris, above all, is a beautiful love story--John and Mary, naturally, but also their love for the dogs they raise, extending long after sending them to new homes, and from beginning to end, the love under the surface of John, Elbow, and Frank. Wroblewski varies his narrative style from time to time, sometimes almost mythical, sometimes epistolary, but he beautifully captures human nature, particularly the pain of loss.

I suspect I'm going to be re-reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, if only to visit the dog Almondine one more time.

Prequels: The Ultimate Spoiler Alert

The 2024 Book Report: My Year of Reading

I plan to follow up with notes on some of my favorite reads this year, here is the list of books I read this year. A few I have to Google to remember their content; others will not leave me. As I read other people's list of favorite books--as well as the New York Times list of the best books of the century so far, my list of what to read next gets longer. Here are the 80 I read and remembered to record:

Books I Read in 2024

Carolyn Weber, Surprised by Oxford

Lee Smith, Silver Alert

Julie Whelan, Thank You for Listening

Elena Ferrante, The Lying Life of Adults

Fred Chappell, I Am One of You Forever

Daniel Mason, North Woods

Kari Gunter-Seymour, Dirt Songs

William Kent Kruger, The River We Remember

Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

Margo Jodyne Dills, The Nail Set

James McBride, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

Jill McCorkle, Old Crimes

Chris Bachelder & Jennifer Hebel, Dayswork

Gary Goldman, What I Meant to Say Was

Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Hummingbird’s Daughter

Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!

Mark Zwenitzer & Charles Hirschberg, Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?

Carla Jean Whitley, Muscle Shoals Sound Studios

Percival Everett, James

Angeline Boulley, A Firekeeper’s Daughter

Sarah Clarkson, Book Girl

David Grann, The Wager

Leif Enger, Peace Like a River

James Goodhand, Day Tripper

Erica Bauermeister, No Two Persons

Ben Groner, Dust Storms May Exist

David Platt, Something Needs to Change

Lucinda Williams, Don’t’ Tell Anyone the Secrets I Told You

Amor Towles, Table for Two

Marianne Worthington, Girl Singer

Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

Julia Alvarez, The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Colm Toibin, Long Island

John Cowan, Hold to a Dream

Tommy Orange, Wandering Star

Monica Wood, How to Read a Book

Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Luis Albert Urrea, Goodnight Irene

Anita Prose, The Mystery Guest

Sian Hughes, Pearl

Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

Amanda Skenandore, The Life of Mirielke West

Sean Dieterich, Kinfolk

Emilie Hart, Weyward

Barbara Martin Stephens, The People and the Music

Jodi Picoult, Wish You Were Here

Michelle Horton, Dear Sister

Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois

Joanna Quinn, The Whalebone Theatre

Elizabeth Berg, We All Are Welcome Here

Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Goo Omens

David Barry, Big Trouble

Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

Christina Dodd, Daughter of Fair Verona

Scott Owens, Augury of Birds

Adrian Rice, The Chances of Harm

Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist

--. Show. Your Work.

Paulette Giles, Chenneville

Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything

Ryan McGee, Welcome to the Circus of Baseball

Brian Fairchild, Willie, Waylon, and the Boys

Tyler Mahan Coe, Cocaine and Rhinestones

Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

Emily Critchley, One Puzzling Afternoon

Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

Chris Whitaker, All of the Colors of the Dark

Todd Snider, I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like

 Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers

Liz Moore, God of the Woods

Leah Weiss, If the Creek Don’t Rise

Ruth Thompson, Journey Bread

KB Ballentine, All the Way Through

John Thomas York, The Charge,

Claire Keegan, Foster

Desmond Tutu and Ngho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving

Thomas Fuller, The Boys of Riverside

Jonathan Haidt, Anxious Generation

Elizabeth Keating, The Essential Questions

 

 

The 2024 Book Report: My Year of Reading

Two Nonfictions Reads: A Heavy Load

 I have always considered myself a reader of fiction, but I recall years when I was fascinated by biographies and autobiographies. Among my recent reading selections, a couple of nonfiction selections have had a heavy impact. 

Matthew Perry's memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is the very definition of dramatic irony from the first page when he opens with "Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead."

This look into the tortured life of abuse of the actor known for his role as Chandler Bing on the long-running series Friends. Throughout his revelations about his experiences with addiction, "the big terrible thing" of the title, I was so overwhelmed by his sense of hope. 

He describes his may experiences in rehab, as well as his pride for helping others going through the same experiences. He had insight into his overwhelming sense of disconnection and abandonment (sent to fly alone when he was far too young to be on his own) and his sense that he was never enough. He describes breaking up with Julia Roberts before she left him. 

He also paints such a supportive picture of his co-stars on Friends, particularly noting David Schwimmer's generous insistence that they negotiate their salaries as a team, no individually. Most tragic is the sense that his fame and success led others to give him what he wanted, not what he needed, providing drugs until they caught up with them. The news will continue to play out the aftermath as his suppliers face serious charges in his death.

Another recent memoir also let me needing something light to read--as a palate cleanser. Michelle Horton shares her sister Nicole Addimando's story. Charged with murdering her partner and father of her children, after years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, Nikki was a test case of new laws to protect victims of abuse. The system failed her. 

Michelle, a single mother raising her son, took in Nikki's children and rallied support for her sister's legal case and then told her story. Her own guilt at overlooking signs of her sister's abuse, she joined forces with other supporters, wearing purple as a sign of solidarity and showing up time after time. 

If the story had been fiction, it would have been tough enough to read. As a true story, it was heartbreaking. I still think it was a story that needed to be told.

Two Nonfictions Reads: A Heavy Load

 One of my strongest-held beliefs is the power of fiction to increase our empathy as we inhabit others' lives. I'd go so far to say that reading fiction is, at least for now, the best way to time travel. Books have taken me to places I might eventually visit, but they have also taken me to other decades and centuries.

I read There, There, the earlier novel by Tommy Orange for which his latest, Wandering Stars, serves as both a prequel and sequel, when it first came out. Now I feel the urge to read it again, even though some parts of the novel are embedded in my brain. 

Wandering Stars starts after the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, with the story of Jude Star, ancestor to the characters that make up most of the narrative. Orange helps to fill out the complicated history of the country's attempt to "reeducate" Indigenous children, purportedly to "Kill the Indian, Save the Man." 

The stories of extreme abuse in these boarding schools where families were forced to send their children can be found in a number of other novels. Orange follows the family lineage, picking up after the shooting at the Oakland powwow chronicled in There, There. Orange picks up with story lines of some of the characters in that story, but focuses on Orville Red Feather, now dealing with addiction to pain meds after being shot there. His friend Sean, an adopted boy who has recently lost his mother to cancer, finds through a DNA test that while he always assumed he was Black, he has a percentage of Native American blood. 

The novel deals with addiction, while examining identify and family connections. What struck me as I read, particularly since I have read such a range of books this summer, was how beautifully Orange tells the story. Even the references to the wandering stars--literal and figurative--are woven in with such a subtle hand. The book is also a reminder of the power and the necessity of reading books that make the reader uncomfortable.

Summer Is for Reading

 Summer reading has so many connotations. While, for most adults, summer doesn't necessarily have more time for pleasure reading than any other time of the year, the idea of lazy days under a beach umbrella with a good book is still appealing. For those of who living on the academic calendar, summer means a break from boning up on required reading--and especially from reading stacks and stacks of student papers. 

My list of what I want to read next far extends the number of days and hours, but I have made a valiant effort to make the most of reading time. One of the best surprises for me so far has been Monica Wood's novel How to Read a Book, not to be confused with the nonfiction book of the same title by Mortimer Adler.)

This novel opens in a women's prison, where 23-year-old Violet Powell attends a book club while serving time. The narrative shifts perspectives between Violet, Harriet Larson, the retired English teacher who moderates the book club, and Frank Daigle, a retired machinist whose life is inextricably linked to Violet's. 

As a book clubber and English teacher, I loved Harriet's effort to find reading material that will appeal to her motley crew of woman. While the women bond over their supposed antipathy for the book selections, they are won over by poetry, particularly Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology. 

The book takes interesting turns, especially as Violet tries to start a new life "in the Outs." Wood's story affirms the power of forgiveness, friendship, and second chances. I was already recommending the story before I finished it, knowing I'd need to talk to someone about it as soon as I finished.

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister, one of the selections from Reese Witherspoon's Book Club, is a suspenseful novel that makes a perfect summer read. As the book opens, Jen Brotherhood is waiting for her 18-year-old son to get home by curfew. She sees him arrive as a man approaches. To her horror, she sees her son stab the man. She and her husband Kelly go through the nightmare of his arrest, forced to leave him in the jail cell. The next morning, she is shocked to see her son at home--until she sees on her calendar that she has over back to the prior day. 

I will admit that I am a sucker for time travel stories. In this story, Jen is moving backward, first a day at a time, and then with larger leaps. Is the butterfly effect in operation? She has to deal with the frustration of knowing that anything that happens, anything she tells anyone will have no impact as she moves backward. McAllister managed to keep me guessing through the entire story. 

I finally got to read the latest Kristin Hannah novel The Women that so many people have been talking about. To be honest, the writing is what one would expect from the romance genre--far too many coincidences, too predictable in places, and nothing so well worded I had to stop and make notes, BUT having lived through the Vietnam era and aftermath, I was interested in this story of the often overlooked women who served as military nurses in country. Frankie McGrath has grown up in wealth and comfort, but has always been haunted by the "hero's wall"--curated by her father who had not been able to serve. 

When Frankie, a trained nurse, joins the Army and volunteers for Vietnam, her parents react in shock. The description of the horrors, the friendships, even the music, the protests, and the inconsistent news reporting bring the historical period to life. Hannah has done her research. In the afterword, she says despite her interest in telling the story decades earlier, she had to wait until she was read to tell the story.

The novel is worth reading, even if only to discuss the era with others. I'm curious as to whether the recurring motifs of cheating death, chance encounters, and dishonest lovers was an obstacle to other readers. 

Summer Is for Reading

When a Book Needs a Playlist

 

I enjoy reading about music almost as much as I like writing about music; it always makes me want to listen to more music too. In recent days, I've picked up a variety of books related to music I enjoy. Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone, the story of the Carter Family had been on my bookshelf for quite awhile, but I took it back down after  Brian Oberlin, mandolinist for the bluegrass band Full Cord, mentioned reading the book while visiting Maces Springs and being inspired to write a song by that same for their current album Cambium.

While most fans of traditional country music know some of the Carter Family story, Zwonitzer and Hirschberg's book goes into such interesting narrative detail. There was much I didn't know about their interaction with other iconic performers. 

I also listened to Lucinda Williams' memoir Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You on a recent road trip. She narrates the book herself, and she includes the book, the bad, and the ugly. Someone told her to be sure to leave out the part about her childhood---advice she ignored. Williams first came across my radar with the 

release of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. I've seen her perform, twice since the stroke that left her singing from a stool while someone else accompanied on guitar. 

Her father, the poet Miller Williams, wrote some of my favorite poems. (Please read "The Curator" if you haven't. Then search the internet for photos inside the Hermitage Museum in WWII when the paintings had been removed from their frames for safekeeping.) The tensions resulting fro her mother's struggles and her father's remarriage are told in detail, but Williams draws clear lines between her personal life and the impact on her on singing and songwriting. 

Anyone familiar with her music will not be surprised by the book. Lucinda Williams in life and art doesn't flinch from telling her own secrets.

John Cowan's new book Hold to a Dream is part interview, part memoir. The origin of the book traces back to a series of interviews Cowan conduct

conducted for WSM radio several years ago--with some of his former bandmates in New Grass Revival (including Sam Bush and Bela Fleck, as well as other musicians he admired and respected. Some, such as Leon Russell (usually known as a reluctant interview subject, Loretta Lynn, Kris Kristofferson. However, he also interviews Gordon Stoker, tenor for the legendary backup group The Jordannaires, Californians such as Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon, and--tying back to the Carter Family--John Carter Cash, who has taken up the mantle of preserving his family's history.

Even more than the other two, Cowan's book calls for a play list. In fact, he occasionally adds footnotes advising readers to listen if you aren't familiar with certain recordings or performers. What struck me in this book was Cowan's acknowledgement that he came to music--and to these interviews--first as a fan. 

I should note that writer Jimmy Schwartz collaborated on the project, helping to turn the book into something more than a series of interviews, instead encouraging Cowan to weave in his own story and his connections to the people on whom he focuses. At their Parnassus Books launch, Schwartz encouraged readers to start with the Epilogue and then to read the book. I took him at his word.

When a Book Needs a Playlist

Three Books Suggestions for Three Different Kinds of Readers.

Nothing pleases me more than the chance to talk books with fellow bibliophiles. I realize, though, that when someone asks for reading suggestions, my answers are never one-size-fits-all. I read--and enjoy--such a variety of books, but what might suit one reader wouldn't suit another. That is part of the underlying message of Erica Bauermeister's novel No Two Persons.  The title refers to the saying, "No two persons read the same book." The book is called a novel, but could also be considered a series of interlocking short stories. 

The book opens with Alice Weir, the aspiring writing whose story finds her, in the character of Theo. Readers meet Lara, the young mother working through the slush pile, looking for the book that will establish her credibility--and it is Theo. Readers also meet the actor who turns to narrating audiobooks after a skin condition ends his career. The book publisher, a diver, an artist, and a high school student trying to keep her homelessness secret until she can graduate high school. Bauermeister creates a unified, satisfying whole. 

I was slow coming to Verghese's The Covenant of Water, even though I remember loving Cutting for Stone. I will admit that the length of the book led me to slide it down the stack--until I decided to take along the audiobook on a beach trip. This was. one of those books I wanted to recommend to other people before I even finished it. Spanning the first three quarters of the twentieth century, this story starts with the arranged married of a fourteen-year-old girl to a widower in his forties who needs a mother for his son.

While that scenario on its own could have gone so wrong, the marriage becomes a real one

The story is set in a village in India that is part of the community known as St. Thomas Christians, tracing their lineage to one of the twelve apostles believed to have made his way to the country. The narrative had me moving swiftly from laughing to weeping in short order. I also had to keep a pen and paper nearby to jot down some of the beautiful lines.

Verghese introduces interesting characters, including Digby Kilgour, a Scottish doctor who moves to India to practice medicine. The leper colony where he eventually lands is a rich part of the narrative. The title refers to a condition in the main family of the story. The young bride quickly recognizes her husband's unnatural avoidance of water, learning that "the condition" has been present in the family for generations. 

These characters face loss, betrayal, disease, accidents, and disappointments, but the story is one of redemption nonetheless. It was worth the more than thirty hours of listening.

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 James Goodhand's novel The Day Tripper, set in London, uses a similar plot device to Margarita Montimore's Oona Out of Order, which I read a year or so ago. The protagonist in this story Alex Dean is about to beat the odds, with acceptance to Cambridge offering escape from his life of poverty, never able to live up to his father's expectations. He has met a girl--a medical student--who seems the perfect match, when an encounter with an antagonist from his past leads to a fight--and he wakes up not only in another place, but another time. 

The pattern continues, with him waking each day in a different time and location. Sometimes he is at rock bottom; sometimes he has glimpses of hope. Every day he has to learn quickly from context. Then he meets a man--a high school teacher--who has some inkling of his situation. 

What begins as a frustrating tale turns into story of the fragile balance between fate and free will. Alex finds that he not only can but must pull against the weight of history. The dramatic irony is both nerve-wracking and great fun. I dare say the book is about hope.

Three Books Suggestions for Three Different Kinds of Readers.