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FAMILY FANG by Kevin Wilson

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

When I heard FAMILY FANG being compared to THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, I knew I had to read it.  I love quirky books. Especially when they deal with quirky families. Performance artists Camille and Caleb Fang have sacrificed their family at the altar of Art.  Having been told by their mentor that children destroy art, Camille and Caleb are determined to find a way to have both.  They start incorporating their children into their performace art stunts as babies and the family quickly becomes known throughout the art world for their daring and provocative performances.  Annie and Buster Fang (more commonly known as Child A and Child B) receive all of the fall-out from these experiments. They spend their childhood as often unwilling participants in their parents' "art" and constantly live in a state of expectation as they never know exactly what their parents are planning and how they will be involved. As adults, the dysfunction of their family continues to affect both Annie and Buster.  Annie becomes an actress who can't seem to find her authentic self and seems unable to stop herself from doing in appropriate things.  Buster is a one-hit wonder author who is drifting aimlessly as a freelance journalist trying to figure out what he is going to do with his life.  When Annie and Buster's parents disappear, the children come together to discover the truth about their parents and make choices about how they will live ultimately live their lives.

This is a truly quirky book and I love the descriptions of the Fangs' performance art pieces. Camille and Caleb are such interesting people.  Annie and Buster are slightly less so.  They have been damaged by the chaos that their parents constantly drew them into.  While many readers found this book hilarious, I have to disagree. I found it sad.  Caleb and Camille have chosen Art about everything else...including their family.  They have placed their children in dangerous situations and taken advantage of their vulnerability in countless ways in the name of Art.  Annie and Buster's struggles as adults make it clear exactly how their eccentric upbringing affected them.  They drift about trying to disentangle their identities from that of their parents.  My reaction upon finishing the book was one of sadness for these lost children.

BOTTOM LINE:  Recommended. This is an unusual story with clever characters but it is not the comic novel I thought it would be.  It is a very well-rendered view of a severely dysfunctional family.  But not like any dysfunctional family you have ever seen before.

AMONG THE WONDERFUL by Stacy Carlson

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

The theme of the moment seems to be the circus life.  Not long ago, we had THE TRANSFORMATION OF BARTHOLOMEW FORTUNO.  Recently, there has been THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB and the upcoming NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern.  Stacy Carlson's brings us inside the walls of P.T. Barnum's museum with AMONG THE WONDERFUL.

AMONG THE WONDERFUL follows the lives of two of Barnum's employees, a taxidermist named Emile Guillaudeu left over from the Scudder museum who is having difficulty adapting to his new life under Barnum and a professional giantess named Ana Swift.  Guillaudeu was proud of his role as taxidermist inside of the venerable Scudder Museum of Natural History. When Scudder sells the museum to Barnum and Barnum begins to displace science in the name of entertainment, Emile begins to question his role within the museum.  One of the entertainers is Ana.  Ana is a professional giantess who claims to be the only giantess in the world.  She is plagued by chronic pain and has become jaded and lonely after a life on the road.  Both Emile and Ana are seeking something more.  The two of them struggle separately to figure out how their lives are going to evolve against the backdrop of Barnum's unusual museum.

I think Carlson came up with a wonderful character in Ana Swift.  She is sad and complex and frustrating.  One moment the reader feels sympathy for her and the next the reader wants to shake her in her misanthropy.  I think her story is the most compelling.  Emile provides an interesting contrast as he is the victim of the paradigm shift between a museum of knowledge and preservation and one of entertainment.  While Emile's struggles are interesting, his story is not nearly as compelling as Ana's and the story seems to drag every time he shows up. I think Carlson succeeded in creating a multi-layered story where Bryson's BARTHOLOMEW FORTUNO failed.  Bryson's book focused more on the sensational while Carlson makes a real attempt at getting inside the characters' heads and showing the dystopia within Barnum's walls.

BOTTOM LINE:  Recommended.  An interesting look inside the flawed world of Barnum's museum.  The story is very very slow in the chapters focusing on Emile's story but his story is necessary to provide a contrast to Ana's.  If you can get past the "stop and start" quality of the book, you will find some interesting perspective on the evolution of two people within a very unusual context.

Picture Book Pause--DREAM AWAY by Julia Durango & Katie Belle Trupiano

We're going to take a break from our regularly scheduled contemporary adult literature book reviews to stop and ponder a new picture book.  Today's book is DREAM AWAY by Julia Durango and Katie Belle Trupiano with wonderful illustrations by Robert Goldstrom.

This lovely bedtime story is told by a father to his son.  They imagine floating off to the sky in a paper boat where they encounter such wonders as a winged horse and a wandering knight and they envision the moon as a big yellow balloon.  The illustrations are lovely and the sentiment is very sweet.  It isn't often that you find a bedtime story especially for fathers to read to their children.

My only complaint is that some of the words are too advanced for the target audience.  Most children will not recognize the words "cur" or "hare" or understand some of the sailing terminology. Still, this is a very minor thing and it is always nice to expand a child's vocabulary.

A sweet story with wonderful dreamy illustrations of the night sky.  I loved the image of the moon as a balloon.  A wonderful addition to anyone's collection of bedtime stories.

(I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.)

IRON HOUSE by John Hart

At first glance, IRON HOUSE looked like the type of run-of-the-mill thriller that I tend to stay away from.  I expected it to be filled with a lot of action and very little else. I was pleasantly surprised.

Michael has been a member of an organized crime group since he was a teenager and he is ready to get out.  He has finally found some peace with a woman named Elena who is carrying his child and he wants to shield them both from the world he is a part of.  Quitting the mob life is easier said than done and it doesn't appear that his former co-workers will let him go without a fight.  When Michael and Elena are forced to flee, they head to the place Michael was born.  The place where he was separated from his brother many years ago. As family secrets are dredged up and the mobsters are closing in, Michael must face truths what really happened at the Iron Mountain Home for Boys and the reality of how he and his brother ended up there.

At first glance, this book appears to be an organized crime suspense novel. It definitely has plenty of action and violence. However, the heart of the novel lies in the relationships within the story.  There is a great deal of familial conflict and drama that prove to be the most interesting parts of the book. I was happy to see Hart develop the "family secrets" side of the story.  Long-time readers know that hidden family secrets are always a favorite of mine. The story is complex and interesting and deal with many different themes such as mother/son relationships, sibling relationships, the reinvention of self and the burden of hidden truth. All the elements work together really well to make a story that has something for almost everyone.

BOTTOM LINE:  Highly recommended. A real surprise for me.  I enjoyed this book a great deal.  I thought the story was interesting and complex and different from your average thriller.  A good vacation read.

THE HYPNOTIST by Lars Kepler

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

Another contender in the "next Stieg Larsson" contest, THE HYPNOTIST begins with the murder of three members of a family.  Only one teenaged boy and his missing elder sister survived.  Dr. Erik Maria Bark is called in to hypnotize the the boy in an attempt to gain information about the murder and, perhaps, prevent the missing sister from being murdered as well.  When Bark practiced hypnotism many years ago on victimes of extreme psychological and physical trauma, something went terribly wrong and his career almost ended permanently.  At the time, he vowed never to practice hypnotism again. Inspector Joona Linna convinces Bark that it is a matter of life and death. When Bark finally hypnotized the boy, it sets off an unexpected and possibly lethal chain of events.

I thought this book had a clever premise.  I liked the idea of throwing hypnosis into a thriller as a method of detection in crime cases and it was interesting to see what hidden "truths" that hypnosis could bring up in the different characters. However,  the book itself was structured in a bizarre way. The book begins with one story that is really exciting and intriguing but then this storyline gets derailed about 1/3 of the way through the book. The last 2/3 of the book are a completely different story.  There are lots of good ideas in the book but they never seem to go anywhere.  Just when I started to get interested in a storyline, the authors switched to something else.  It just didn't work.

BOTTOM LINE: Not recommended. While there are some good ideas here, the book isn't well executed. I felt as if it tried to go in too many different directions.  There are too many good thrillers out right now to justify spending time on this one.

THE LANTERN by Deborah Lawrenson

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

THE LANTERN was one of my most highly anticipated books this year.  When I heard Lawrenson being compared to Kate Morton and Diane Setterfield, I couldn't wait to get my hands on her book.  I should have remembered all those books I have read recently that claim to be "the next Stieg Larsson." 

THE LANTERN claims to be a modern gothic tale set in Provence.  Eve falls in love with Dom when she meets him by chance touring a garden in Switzerland. After a whirlwind romance, the two relocate to an abandoned house called  Les Genevriers in the South of France. They set about restoring their new home in a manner reminiscent of UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN as they enjoy exploring all the nooks and crannies and hidden chambers. Their new home is rich with history.  As their enchanted Summer draws to a close and Fall sets in, Eve notices a change in Dom. He becomes more withdrawn and secretive and she begins to have doubts about him.  She knows he has a painful failed marriage in his past but he will not talk about it.  His refusal to reveal any information about his ex-wife Rachel makes Eve obsessed to find out more. She starts investigating his past and becomes more and more concerned with what she finds.  When a mysterious lantern starts showing up on the property, Eve begins to think the house is haunted.

The other half of the novel is the story of Benedicte Lincel who grew up in Les Genevriers and believed the house to be haunted by her family.  Benedicte is plagued by difficult memories and family secrets.  Her brother was a brutal and cruel person. Her blind sister, Marthe, became a famous perfume-maker but inexplicably broke off contact with Benedicte in her late forties.  Benedicte is left alone in her decrepit childhood home with her ghosts and her memories.

Lawrenson moves back and forth between the two stories slowly revealing hidden truths and secrets.  As Eve slowly uncovers clues about Dom's past, the two storylines begin to intertwine.  Long-held secrets of the past could provide clues to the truth about the present.

I have to admit I was really disappointed with this book.  I think Lawrenson does a superb job with setting.  This book made me want to run off to Provence.  Her description of Les Genevriers was wonderful.  However, the story felt forced.  It was a little too heavy-handed.  I wish she had chosen to concentrate solely on the story of Benedicte and left out the Eve storyline altogether.  Having two storylines was an attempt to create drama and intrigue and it didn't work.  I think the secrets that Lawrenson reveals are clever but they do nothing to move the modern-day plot forward.  The significance of the lantern even got lost in the shuffle and it's the title of the book! 

BOTTOM LINE: Recommended with reservations. In spite of its flaws, the book is still a pretty good read.  It was just something of a disappointment. There is so much unfulfilled potential here!

RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

They say you can't judge a book by its cover. It's true. However, the cover is what immediately drew me in when I got this book.  Set in New York City circa 1938, RULES OF CIVILITY follows the lives of three friends--Katey, Eve and Tinker.  When the three meet by chance on New Year's Eve, a chain of events is set into motion that will change all of their lives.  The story follows the three friends throughout the year of 1938. Tinker lives within the world of the wealthy while Katey and Eve are two career girls trying to scrape by in the Big City.  As Katey and Eve are drawn into Tinker's world, they must confront truths about themselves and what they believe.  Katey is the narrator of the story and she is a truly interesting and compelling character.  She gets all the snappy dialogue and is the one character who always seems to be true to herself.  The novel's title comes from a work by a teenaged George Washington who attempted to set out a list of rules for navigating for polite society.  Each character in the book attempts to define his/her own rules and figure out exactly who they want to be in this rarefied NYC world.

As I was reading this book, I was reminded a great deal of THE GREAT GATSBY.  I think similar issues are at play and Katey acts as a sort of Nick Carraway character although she is more engaged and affected by the action.  Towles' doesn't fall into the trap of making strict black and white moral judgements about the different characters.  There are both good and bad, moral and immoral characters in all stratas of New York society. The characters are all extremely well-drawn and interesting and Towles' keeps you guessing about their motivations and their choices.  Ultimately, this is not just a social commentary about society in a certain place and time. It is also a look at how spontaneous choices can affect and change our lives forever.  This book is a wonderfully well-written freshman effort by Towles and definitely left me wanting more.

BOTTOM LINE:  Highly recommended.  Well-written and compelling.  Interesting characters and an intriguing look into New York society during the late 1930's.  One of the best books I have read this year.

5 a Day Book Challenge

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THE LAST WEREWOLF by Glen Duncan

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

There is a lot of hype surrounding this book. Many people are claiming that THE LAST WEREWOLF will do for werewolves with the TWILIGHT series did for vampires. Maybe.

At the beginning of the book, 200-year-old werewolf Jake receives a phone call from his closest human friend.  Another werewolf has been killed by a secret society whose mission is to wipe out all werewolves.  now, Jake is the last one.  He now knows he only has until the next full moon before the society comes for him.  And it doesn't bother him.  Jakes is suffering from profound depression and ennui.  He is ready to die.   His deep loneliness has taken its toll and he cannot find solace anywhere.  Jake begins to prepare for the end by getting his affairs in order and makes peace with what is going to happen. Until an unexpected event takes place that will change everything.

The werewolves in this book are not pretty. They don't turn into sleek lovely wolves.  They turn into ugly 9 ft hybrids whose only desire is to kill and eat humans. In this state, they feel no remorse or conscience of any kind. Their sole purpose is sex and killing. Werewolves can only procreate by biting a human.  If the human survives the attack, he or she becomes a werewolf. No new werewolves have been made in 100 years, however.  There seems to be some sort of virus preventing the transformation so that now Jake is the very last one.  The werewolf hunters are about to put themselves out of business.

What surprised me about this book was how well written it is.  Duncan is an excellent writer.  This may be the first really literary werewolf novel.  However, the book is also extremely explicit in sex, violence and language. This may be off-putting for some readers. It is somewhat amusing at first to read about a werewolf having an existential crisis but I thought it was a clever take on this genre and made the book more interesting.  The twist that comes halfway through the book was also clever although not quite as successful. The book became a little bit silly and the ending was very predictable.  Still, for fans of the horror genre, there is much to like here. Duncan's take on werewolves is definitely original.

BOTTOM LINE: Recommended with reservations.  I really appreciated Duncan's writing style. Very well written. He lost me sometimes with the explicit nature of the story and some of his plot choices.  I was really disappointed with the ending. Still, this book could revive the whole werewolf genre.  Not for the faint of heart!