Somewhere Towards the End

Spunky. Memoirs can lead readers to reflect on some of life’s big questions through a peek into an individual’s recollections of the paths taken. Diana Athill’s memoir, Somewhere Towards the End, was written by her at age 91, following fifty years as a literary editor. Her writing is clear and crisp, and she tackles those aspects of life many of us would prefer to avoid, ignore, or just wish would not happen to us. She covers relationships, sex, religion, and health with a dispatch and a way of talking about herself that does not preach to readers. The losses that come with the passage of time need not remove the spunk from life or diminish optimism. The fewer than two hundred pages of Somewhere Towards the End made me feel just fine about whatever the passage of time will bring to my life.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

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The Given Day

Loyalty. Fans of historical fiction can wallow with delight through the more than 700 pages of Dennis Lehane’s epic novel The Given Day. I lingered for months over these pages, taking a scene or two at a time, and letting the pleasure last longer. Set in the early part of the 20^th century, The Given Day uses two families as the springboard to explore all the social issues of the time: labor unrest, racism, influenza, anarchy and war. The Caughlin family of Boston represents the power of the Irish immigrants through their police service, and the power shifts with the formation of a police union, in which son Danny becomes an activist. Luther Lawrence leaves his family in Tulsa for Boston to get out from under the influence and retribution of a black crime boss. Luther and Danny find friendship of a sort as their lives connect and as each man tries to resolve where his loyalty lies. Babe Ruth plays a big role in The Given Day, as does Calvin Coolidge. Lehane brings this era and its issues to life on these pages, and creates memorable and complex characters who make choices that lead to dramatic results.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

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The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found

I reached as far as page 40 of this book, and despite the interesting photos and subject matter, my attention kept wandering, so I put it aside for weeks, and then for good.

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Strength in What Remains

Hope. The scale and abstractness of the inhumanity of mass violence and genocide can be so remote that those of us who have not experienced it first-hand cannot begin to imagine what it is like, let alone how we would behave if we faced such horror. Tracy Kidder makes this personal and human in his finely written new book, Strength in What Remains, in which he tells a two-part story. In the first part, he tells the story of Deogracias, a Tutsi from Burundi, who escaped Hutu violence, and eventually arrived in the United States. In the second part, Deo and Kidder return to Burundi, Rwanda, and New York, and conveys both the memories the visits trigger, and how Deo has responded to what happened. Deo’s story is packed with drama, loss, pain, and luck. At every turn, Deo move ahead, spurred on by hope. His significant response after becoming an American citizen was to return to the town in Burundi where his parents live and to build a medical clinic. Strength in What Remains is an inspiring story about an individual who displays the best of human nature that came as a response to the very worst human behavior. I came away from reading this book with renewed hope in the ability of a single individual to make a difference against any odds, and to overcome any loss to do something good for others.

Rating: Five-star (Outstanding: Read it Now)

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The Signal

Perils. Ron Carlson presents the character Mack as a 2009 Everyman in his short novel, The Signal. Set over six days in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, Mack is camping with his ex-wife, Vonnie, in the hope of restoring their relationship. He withholds from Vonnie a second reason for their trip: Mack is trying to make some money from crooks who want him to find a piece of military hardware that crashed in those mountains. The title refers to the transmission that Mack is trying to locate via a BlackBerry that will allow him to recover the missing hardware. Mack was recently released from jail, he’s losing the family farm, drinks too much and continues to make bad choices. Mack is also competent: he knows these mountains well, and even when he’s at his worst, he’s able to move forward. Like each of us, Mack has made mistakes, chosen poorly, and has worked in ways that make him skilled. Carlson wastes no words on the pages of The Signal: his prose includes vivid description, clear dialogue and ways of moving the plot forward efficiently.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

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