The Lowland

If you have never read anything by Jhumpa Lahiri, do yourself a favor and pick up one of her books. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that she is one of the greatest living writers. Her prose is beautiful, direct, and powerful, she creates interesting characters, and as one reviewer said she handles their lives "with both objectivity and compassion." Her latest novel The Lowland is certainly no exception. It is on the long list for both the Man Booker Prize and National Book Award and is deserving of either (or both).

The Lowland is definitely Lahiri's most ambitious work. It is an inter-generational tale set in both India and America. It begins with the friendship of two brothers. Subhash, the eldest, goes to America but returns to India when he learns what has happened to his brother. In the interest of not ruining the story's suspense and letting it unfold as it is meant to, I will say no more about the plotline. I was of course hypnotized by the writing but worried that I wouldn't love the novel when I began and it focused solely on the male characters. Lahiri creates such rich female characters and I worried that the novel was only about these two men. (It's not and she includes great female characters as well.) The novel begins slowly but picks up once Subhash returns to India. At times I couldn't put the book down, though as I neared the end I found myself almost not wanting to finish it so that I could stay with these characters a little longer. The novel has a very satisfying ending and I definitely recommend this beautiful novel.

The Help

I've read Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help a couple times, most recently aloud to my thirteen year old son. He had wanted to see the movie and I had suggested we try to read the book first. I told him if he didn't like it we'd just watch the movie but by the end of the first chapter he was hooked. It's been a long time since I read a book to him, mostly because he hasn't seemed to enjoy it. But with The Help, he was asking if we could read. It was nice to see him so excited about a book.

Most people have at least heard of The Help if not read it. It's immense popularity only intensified when the movie came out. The novel is narrated by three women in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s-- a white woman and two black maids. The three women eventually come together in an attempt to change the ill treatment of blacks. There is good reason for the book's popularity, the novel is readable and tells a great heartwarming/ wrenching story. Yet it's also received some (deserved) criticism. One of the complaints I had heard against the book was the horrible dialect that it's written in. As I read the book aloud I found myself cringing at the way that Stockett wrote the black women's chapters and juxtaposed next to (white) Skeeter's chapters it is a wonder that an editor didn't pick that up. I couldn't read the dialect because it was so uncomfortable to me, the way it seemed stereotypical, even a little racist. I changed words to make it sound more like Skeeter's chapters were written. All and all though it is a good story and I'm glad I thought to read it to Isaac since he is now saying that it's his favorite book.

Telegraph Avenue

I have a bit of a love/hate thing going with Michael Chabon's work. He is a talented writer, no doubt, and tells great stories. He also strikes me pretentious as hell the way he throws around big words, some that aren't even in the dictionary. (And the two novels I've read of his could use a strong dose of editing.) Still I was interested in checking out his latest novel Telegraph Avenue when I read what it was about--there are two couples (one black, one white) and both the women and both the men work together, the men running a record shop, the themes of the novel being marriage, race, and friendship... it sounded like my kind of book. I picked it up after it came out but only got a couple pages in before putting it down. I was not in the mood for his writing.

Then after finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane for some reason I felt like giving the novel another try. At first I was freakishly captivated by the novel--the characters, setting, the tone, the prose (which I annoyingly read aloud sentences that struck me as especially great).  I loved how vivid the characters became, particularly the women.  I loved that the two female characters were midwives and the description of births. But the book grew slightly tedious after a while, the prose's strength seemed to fade as the book went on and there were times that I felt uncomfortable with things that seemed to perpetuate stereotypes. I didn't care so much for the climax, but the ending satisfied me nonetheless. Overall I liked the novel. (But probably won't pick up another Chabon book for a while.)

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I saw Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane on Goodreads and decided to check it out. I've always enjoyed everything that I've read by Gaiman, but never been blown away by any of his novels. My feelings on this novel were in line with everything that I read by him: the prose is excellent, the concept is interesting, but it lacks any deep character development which stops me from loving it.

The novel is about a man who goes back to his childhood home and begins to recall memories of a girl that he knew when he was seven, Lettie Hempstock along with her mother and grandmother. The memory of what happened begins to unravel and a frightening story unfolds. It's a good story and is told beautifully, but never quite grabbed me. The novel is relatively short so it's definitely worth checking out. Fans of Gaiman's are likely to be satisfied with this quick read.