Summer Fiction Review

Here are some of the highlights of my very ambitious summer of reading:

A Sudden Country
by Karen Fisher

This book was amazing - beautifully written, well researched, with full-bodied, complex characters. Impressively, this book was the first effort of a 40ish old woman who I believe is a ranchhand of some sort. Must mention that describes an adulterous relationship that is very painful to read about. But what a powerful storytelling gift this woman has - you could see and feel the way the characters moved. Probably the best example of this that I have ever read. I have so many vivid pictures still in my mind when I think of this book.

The English Patient
By Michael Ondaatje

Another book full of interesting characters and situations. I enjoyed it, but again, the dark, destructive thread of adultry running all through it.

The Mermaid Chair
By Sue Monk Kidd

This is the author of Secret Life of Bees, a book I liked more than this one. Still written in the same engaging, beach-read style, but the characters get caught up in redefining themselves through adultry. The offenders are a depressive housewife/artist with a suicidal mother and a monk. No kidding.

East of Eden
John Steinbeck

This man sure knows how to weave an intergenerational web. How can so much of a story live in a mind. Again, a dark read that I don't know I would recommend. Starts out all innocent (i.e. Eden) and spirals down until you loathe the sinful nature.

The Stone Diaries
by Carol Shields

A Canadian author. I picked up this author because K. Fisher noted her as an influence. Starts out with a very overweight lady who thinks she is dying but really is pregnant. Would not read this book again, or recommend it.

Sunflower and the Secret Fan
by ?

A coworker gave me this book with glowing praise. The plot was pretty bad, and the characters not very full, but the research that went into it was interesting. It took place in China and followed the lives of two young girls on their path through footbinding and into marriage. Some interesting aspects of Chinese culture shown.