In the Woods by Tana French

If you have not read the book, read it now before you read this "review". One of the better books I have read in a long time. I still don’t know what happened in the woods. For awhile I thought he had killed his friends; I’d almost believe it except there is no explanation for what happened to their bodies. Was there some sort of evilness in the woods that killed them and then left? Besides the actual what happened interest of the story, the characters were also really well written. Rosalind is one of the more terrifying characters I have ever met in between the pages of a book. There are many characters and moments in this story that will stay with me. Rob and Cassie, of course but also Jonathan, Katy’s Dad and especially the ballet teacher Simone. In one of the last pages Rob meets with Simone to talk about the journal of Katy’s that she had found. That scene is so devastating and so well written.

Ok, side note on Rosalind and crazy offspring in general. I have often wondered how does a parent handle it if they have a kid like Rosalind? I saw The Good Son, years ago and in that movie the Mom dropped her evil child off a cliff. But in other stories a kid kills someone and the parents destroy their own lives in an attempt to protect them. I guess in this case the parents went both ways. Jonathan was concerned with his other kids and innocent bystanders and the Mom couldn’t believe anything bad about her daughter. Yikes, scary stuff because it does happen. I think if you created this monster, it’s on you to destroy it. Ha. Obviously I don’t have any kids and maybe I read too many books. Back to the book review; seriously good writing, I was brought into their world. I’m not usually a fan of murder mysteries or police drama but this far surpassed any genre. I have Irish friends so I enjoyed the use of Irish phrases and words. Unfortunately she didn’t use “kicks like a whore” my favorite of the Irish sayings but hey, there’s always the next book.

This was a really excellent book; I will have to re-read it in a year or so and see if I get any more insight into what the hell happened in the woods!

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Wow, boring. I have seen this book everywhere over the last year or so. Reviews here, bestseller lists there and every time I’m in the airport there it is. It’s at the movies too! I bought it at Goodwill so at least I did not pay full price for it. It’s the story of a guy named Gogol born outside of Boston to parents from India and his boring, average life where little of consequence and nothing of difficulty seems to happen. Even the things that might have been interesting are told in the drabbest most boring manner possible. Conclusion: Jhumpa is a shite writer.

This book was written to be a movie, there is almost zero inner dialogue. It is simply a listing of happenings in Gogol’s life. Gogol is born, Gogol hangs out in Massachusetts being a toddler with his Mom, Gogol goes to story hour, Gogol goes to kindergarten. His parents attempt to give him a public name, interesting? Nope, still boring. Gogol is a good student, Gogol sometimes does not connect with his parents, Gogol’s parents have parties where they serve Indian food and invite other immigrant Bengali’s.

This is similar to my life, my friend’s lives and every other middle class person who grew up on the east coast and you know what? It’s Boring!

Specific annoyances:

I got the version of the book that has the movie cover, so for the entirety of the book I kept picturing the Indian guy from “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle”. Did that make it better or worse, I don’t know but I’d rather picture characters as their authors write them rather than as they are casted.

Maxine and her family; really are there people like this? People who when their daughters lover moves in with them apparently get offended because his Mom called (two times, scandal!). This could have been his insecurities seeing Maxine’s family as being offended by his Mom calling but I read it as them expecting him to appear into his life with no past, no baggage.

Was this meant to be a story about the struggles immigrant children face growing up in American society? Gogol did not seem to struggle. He went about living his life, becoming an architect, living in NYC, just living life without a care in the world. “Oh no, we had an Indian wedding” but at no point did he or his wife seemed to be fired up to have a traditional American wedding so why the questions after? Even his wife cheating on him, she was as self absorbed as he and neither of them seemed to have any enlightenment on how their actions might affect their lives. Damn, I would have cheated on him too, even with the guy who groped me on the bus while he maybe thought I was sleeping. Gross.

Finally, all the trips to Calcutta but almost nothing demonstrating any sort of culture shock. We went to Calcutta, we came home, we went to the mall, we came home. These characters are cardboard cutouts. Snooze.

Not recommended

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett wrote Bel Canto which I really liked so when a friend offered me up this one I was excited to check it out. I did enjoy this book but what kept me from loving it was that the main character, Rose, is such a damn, selfish bitch. I mean maybe there are reasons for running off on your husband but what she did to her Mom and eventually to her daughter just sucked. Sure, they had other support in their lives, not just Rose but something like that does long term damage (in real life, books sometimes not so much). If, you are going to run off on someone can’t you lie and tell them you have yellow fever and are taking yourself off to the sanitarium to die or some such nonsense? This reminded me of how I felt about some of the characters in The House of Sand and Fog. I hated them so much, I wanted to jump into the pages and slap them. Rose wasn’t that nuts but still. Although the people suck, I guess it means the writers are good because they are creating such believable characters. The good thing about The Patron Saint of Liars is that Rose was the only sucky character in the book. I liked Rose’s Mom and Sister Evangeline was a really great character. Son was ok, kinda lame but ultimately at least a good person although the original Cecelia seems like an awful person too so maybe there were two “bad” people. This is definitely a good read, but it will not leave you as satisfied as a more “happy ending” book with all the loose ends neatly tied up.