A Long Way Down

Title: A Long Way Down

Author: Nick Hornby
Genre: fiction
Rating:

What they said: Links to reviews

What I say:

I'll admit to you right off the bat, that I loved High Fidelity. What I loved most about it was that it had a pretty ending, and unless you've read the book and not simply seen the hollywoodised version, you think it's a happily-ever-after deal. Nick Hornby doesn't seem to go in for happily-ever-afters.

A tale told in four voices, A Long Way Down initially struck me as schizophrenic. All the narrators flipping back and forth like that made my head spin at first. Then finally I got to know them well enough to recognize their voices. Which meant I knew them well enough to care. Which meant I was sunk. Which also meant this was a very well-written book.

I cannot synopsize this novel without making it sound ridiculous, trite, or pappy. So I won't. Let it simply be said that four desperate strangers poised to do a desperate thing, don't.

You will roll your eyes. You'll laugh, both at and with them. You will hate each of them at one point or another. But you will not leave them, like they will not leave each other. And there will be no hollywood ending, but there will be hope.

~a m i~

How we are hungry

Title: How We Are Hungry

Author: David Eggers
Genre: fiction - short stories
Rating:

What they said: Links to reviews

What I say:
Damn. I can't believe I did it again. I got suckered into reading yet another David Eggers book.

The first time this happened, I succumbed to a title: A heartbreaking work of staggering genius. I laughed and cried for the first few chapters, then, as Eggers promised in his prologue, the book fell apart. And man, did it ever get old fast.

The second time was You shall know our velocity. Again with the captivating title. Again with the engaging first few chapters. Again with the disappointment!

So why did I let this happen again? How we are hungry is a book of short stories. They can't fall apart, right? They can't sucker me in, then disappoint after the first 200 pages. But they can just suck outright.

The entire book is not without merit. "There are some things he should keep to himself" was delightful. Five pages, gloriously free of any of Eggers's writing. It's unfortunate that he resorts to such gimmickry. But that is ungenerous of me. That one is not the only story I loved. Despite myself, I enjoyed "Up the mountain coming down slowly," and "When they learned to yelp" left a lump in my throat that has yet to go away.

This anthology of short stories truly is a mixed bag. When it is good, Eggers manages to whisper stories that touch life both violently and intimately. But when he starts to shout, all I read is noise.

Be patient with him. Don't read too quickly. You just might like it.

~a m i~

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Title: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
Genre: fiction
Rating:

What they said: Links to reviews

What I say:

Have you ever loved a book so much that you were afraid to read another? Foer's first novel, Everything is Illuminated, was that book for me. Cracking the cover of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close brought both excitement and trepidation: Would it be as good? Could it be? Extremely & Incredibly, this book made me laugh even while tearing me to pieces.

There is a secret. And there is a key. A key without a lock. Young Oskar sets out to find the door that holds the lock that fits the key, and in so doing opens hearts, tales, truths that had been long sealed. And the secret is kept and released, guarded and set free.

This is one of the first few books written along the post-9/11 theme -- bold, beautiful and scary.
The author approaches tragedy with a child's eyes, and tries to find understandable answers to questions that can't ever be phrased. He seeks to find a home for our insecurities and neuroticisms by exposing those of others. He evokes sympathy for eccentricities and proves the strangeness of normalcy.

As in his first novel, Foer's characters are poignantly flawed, tragically human, and wrapped in poetry. They radiate fragility and resiliance, are breaking, broken, and also mending themselves and each other.

Everything is Illuminated

Title: Everything is Illuminated
Author: Jonathan Safran Foer

Genre: fiction
What they said: Links to reviews

Rating:


What I say:

As I read it I wanted to sink. From the chair to the floor to beneath the desk to flat against the tile. I wanted to be without clothing but I couldn't even take off my shoes. I wanted to be swallowed whole while my heart broke. My whole heart. I wanted to be in love, to be loved, to make love to reaffirm my ability to live, to remind myself that life begets life that it is not always - though so often - that death begets death, to shine some coital light of my own
to drown
I drank it like so much water, undoing a miracle that may or may never have happened
This All Happened

I needed someone something to wrap it/him/herself around me to couple with me as we can only do when the earth swallows us whole and breaks our entire communal heart.

I needed to reach for life before death reached me
the cracking sound
my heart made
when it broke in two
Something so violent - so silent
unable to withstand this, unable to contain it. The presure on my heart's walls that came from within and without.

The depth of this -- proves
the depth of the soul

~a m i~

Book Swap

Remember back in grade school you had to write those silly little book reports every once in a while?
Remember in high school they called them essays and made them 5 paragraphs long?
Remember in university the same little book reports were 5 to 20 pages long, and were called term papers, or theses?

Tell me about what you're reading. Take a paragraph or a page to tell me how you feel about it. Try to follow these guidelines:

1. Title and Author of book
2. Link to website of author, Link to website of book
3. Image of cover
3. Genre
4. Rate it: 5 stars is max.
5. Tell me anything else about it you'd like

Submit your review by emailing me.

If the book you want to review has already been reviewed, please add your comments!