Double Fault, Lionel Shriver
Willy Novinsky is a born tennis player. Playing since five, she has dominated the sport, beating out first her father and sister, and then going on to trounce all other opponents so badly that no one will play her. A mid-ranked professional player with minimal income, she is determined to make it to the top. Though her family is unsupportive, Willy scrapes together money to pay for her own racquets and top of the line training with Max Upchurch, the best coach on the East Coast. All goes according to plan until she meets Eric Oberdorff. Eric is a low ranked, up-and-coming tennis player beneath. Willy is reluctantly smitten. Though love blooms, it also changes everything.
Lionel Shriver is such a smart writer. I love reading what she has to say about issues because whether it’s ambivalence about motherhood cultivating a killer child, or dual careers in a sport leading to the cruel undermining of identity and career and a marriage, she always communicates a riveting and well-considered position in her novels. Her books make great discussion pieces for book clubs, and while this one was no exception in that regard, this probably won’t ever be my favorite of her books.
Reading Double Fault was excruciating - like watching trains on a collision course and being completely helpless to stop either one. Shriver has some interesting things to say about competition within a marriage and how much a woman’s identity can be in jeopardy when she has to make choices that will be beneficial to the marriage, while they were costly for her own needs and sense of self. I think the biggest thing that made this such a hard read was the relationship between the supremely flawed main characters, Willy and Eric. These two operated at such a high level of dysfunction that it was hard to believe that the couple they presented contained two people who were crazy about each other.
I spent most of the book not believing that they truly loved each other, so while I understood as a whole where the author was going and the points she was exploring via their relationship, I was exasperated with the characters because I didn’t understand how they were together and thought they loved each other in the first place. Since I had such a hard time with this, it made reading the book feel pointless. Double Fault is heavy on the tennis references and delves deeply into game play and terminology without explaining much about it to the reader. It made getting into the book difficult and went a long way toward distancing me from the story and the characters. Tennis lovers should also note that Shriver admits to taking liberties with the game and the way that it is played. I don’t know enough about tennis to know if this is such a big deal, but I guess she did enough that she thought it was worth mentioning, so keep that in mind.
Well written and thought-provoking, as I have come to expect from Shriver, Double Fault was tough for me to read. I think I needed to like at least one person in the book a little more than I did. I found most all of the characters to be unrelentingly horrid, and the story, bleak. There were some moments that I felt for Willy, but they were definitely very few and mostly at the end. While I liked the discussion that I had about it on Twenty Minute Book Club, this is probably not a book I would have read knowing what I know about it now. But I haven’t given up on Shriver. I am still looking forward to reading The Post Birthday World.
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I am an Amazon Associate. This book is a part of my personal library collection.
Arcadia Falls, by Carol Goodman – Book Review
Meg Rosenthal and her daughter Sally have sold their home to move Arcadia Falls where Meg has obtained a teaching position at the town’s boarding school of the arts. It’s a hard time for both as they try to adjust to life in the absence of Meg’s husband, and Sally’s father, Jude. Sally is angry and withdrawn, and Meg struggles to do the right thing by her daughter as they adjust to their new life in reduced circumstances.
Though the dean of the school, the enigmatic Ivy St. Clare, had promised comfortable lodgings, the cabin that they are assigned is old and in disrepair. It also harbors secrets that could prove dangerous to both Meg and her daughter Sally. Then a young student dies tragically at a school sponsored pagan festival, leaving Meg to wonder if it’s somehow related to The Changeling fairytale and the myth of the White Witch, and more importantly if she should just take her daughter and run.
I so enjoy reading Carol Goodman’s novels. Being a big fan of fairytales, mythology, and stories within other stories, I am never disappointed by that aspect of her work. I wasn’t disappointed this time around either. She has crafted another intriguing novel that makes use of myth and fairytale to reach out and grab hold over everyone at Arcadia; Meg and her daughter, the students at the schools, the local sheriff, Callum Reade, on whom Meg might have a little crush, and also the reader!
I had compassion for Meg trying to raise a moody and resentful teenager, while teaching, rediscovering the art she’d abandoned when she had a child, and her anger at her husband for leaving her in the situation that he did. There were plenty of times when I wanted her to be stronger with her daughter, and as a character she is often upstaged by the school’s wealthy founder Vera and her talented companion Lily, whom she comes to know through letters and diaries that she explores while completing the thesis that has too long gone unfinished.
Lily and Vera started the school first as a summer retreat, and mainly as a place where women could help each other nurture their talents and art without the distractions of men. Vera champions the notion that women’s art suffers when they become nurturers of their husband careers and talents. In addition to that, having a child completely destroys a woman’ career as an artist. One of the major themes of the novel is the high cost that women have to pay in order to be creative people, and several characters explore how to balance the roles necessary to create fulfilling lives to mixed and sometimes disastrous results.
I love sinking into Goodman’s rich prose, and felt transported into her fairytales and to the school that she has created in the haunted environs of Upstate New York. In the past I have found that some of her work ended too abruptly and was a little rushed, but the timing of the events throughout this novel left me feeling satisfied throughout.
I am an Amazon Associate. This book was sent to me for review by the publisher.
How Do You Like Your Classics?
Tasha from Heidenkind’s Hideaway and Meghan at Medieval Bookworm have decided that they need to read more classics this month, so that is exactly what they are doing for the month of March. They have each decided to read at least four apiece. Today I am hanging out at Meghan’s blog and giving my .02 on the books that have the trifecta of what I look for in a classic novel. Head on over to see what I look for in a classic and which ones are my faves, and chime in on which ones work for you!
The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake – Book Review
Emma is a new bride who comes to town when she marries the young doctor, Will Fitch. Frankie Bard is one of the first female journalists assigned to covering the war overseas, and though she is supposed to be dispassionate, sometimes the gravity of events creeps into her voice anyway. Iris James is the new Postmaster, single in a mostly paired off small town, intensely dedicated to ensuring that the mail runs like clockwork. The story hinges upon and unfolds around them as a commonality they share is affected by war.
The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake is a beautiful tale that examines the weighty and confusing issue of truth – when it needs to be told, under what circumstances, and who deserves to hear it. Thoughtful observations on people and the singular events which cause them to take action, and the complex situations and the atrocities of war abound- I learned quite a bit even as I was deeply touched by this novel.
I almost missed the boat on this one because I was so turned around when I started reading that I almost put it down. There are numerous characters whose stories we follow in this novel, and Blake introduces them in rapid succession with little to signal that she has moved from one person to the next. It was disconcerting because for quite some time I had no definitive idea of the stories that matched each character, and I did a lot of flipping back and forth in the book trying to figure things out until I was grounded in each character and their story.
Characterization in this novel is not only intricate but finely shaded, and my responses to the characters and their actions were mixed. I was often troubled and constantly flip-flopping on what I thought was the correct response to the moral and ethical dilemmas each of these women faced. Even now, I’m still not sure of what the right thing was to do, and what I would have done if in the same situation, but I thorough enjoyed contemplating all the angles in this gorgeous read.
Challenges: The Amy Einhorn Challenge
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Watching the Wire: Episodes 3 & 4
Elizabeth, Amy and I having been trying to watch episodes of The Wire every week. Last week was a miss, but we’re back this wee with our thoughts on Episodes 3 & 4. We lost Amy for this round, but she’ll be back next week. We hope!
First things first. Are you into it more after watching the next few episodes?
Elizabeth: Absolutely. People are starting to have personalities, and I can (mostly) remember character names, which helps. But mostly I’m starting to catch glimpses of the feelings and motivations behind some of the actions, and that makes it much more interesting for me. For example, I really didn’t care about McNulty at ALL in the first two episodes, but now I’m beginning to see that he might actually be an interesting character.
Nicole: It really is starting to click. I totally agree with you Elizabeth about McNulty. He was probably the character that I felt the least about throughout the first two episode. I didn’t get what his motivation was at all and it seemed like he was just doing things. I was just as annoyed with him as everyone else was. All of the characters were a blur before and now I am having a much easier time recognizing who they are and what the agenda is in all the goings on in the different offices and apartments. I am definitely getting to the point where I am looking forward to the next episode so that I can see what is going on next with all the characters. Elizabeth is Kima still your favorite character?
Elizabeth: Yep, Kima is still my favorite. I really appreciate when writers can write female characters who don’t just let things happen TO them – do you know what I mean? She is an active participant in the workings of the case – really, she is the best officer they have, and she knows how to get things done. I just love strong female leads, and she hasn’t disappointed me yet. I also am starting to like D’Angelo quite a bit.
Elizabeth: I LOVED D’Angelo’s speech comparing gang life to chess. I thought that was brilliant, and the analogy completely worked. I’m also getting very interested in the officer with the glasses (Hmm, guess I don’t quite have all the names down as well as I thought!), who found the poster of Barksdale for them. I think the relationship between him & McNulty shows a lot of potential. Mostly, I’m just getting excited to see how the relationships start to deepen.
Elizabeth: Well, I’m usually the LAST person to pick up on foreshadowing, so predictably I haven’t noticed any of that yet. I have definitely noticed the way that they seem to portray every department as having some good guys and some bad guys – this doesn’t seem to be the type of show that portrays “the cops as heroes” or something like that. There are some cops who are really good cops – McNulty and Kima come to mind – but there are also some who clearly just want to skate along and don’t care if they actually get anything accomplished. There are some members of the drug gang who are really BAD guys, and some who are just caught up in a situation they don’t really know how to handle. It’s interesting that they seem to be setting things up to blur the lines between the “good guys” and the “bad guys”, and I think that will be one of the things that makes me like the show a lot.
Elizabeth: Oh, I know what you mean! It seems like he pops up everywhere! When he took the undercover cop in to buy drugs, and then they left and walked up to the van to talk to Kima, I thought for sure someone would see them. I definitely have a bad feeling for him.
Watching The Wire? What do you think?
Reading With Amy: An Informal Read-A-Long of Gone With The Wind & The Wind Done Gone
Amy had tweeted about wanting to read Gone With The Wind, a book that I haven’t read since probably high school, and I was thinking that it might be interesting to also read The Wind Done Gone.
The Wind Done Gone was the subject of much controversy when it first came out because Margaret Mitchell’s estate sued author Alice Randall, and her publisher Houghton Mifflin when it deemed the book too closely resembled Gone With The Wind and infringed upon its copyright. The case was dropped when the publisher made a contribution in an undisclosed amount to Morehouse College, a historically African-American College.
The Wind Done Gone is the story of Scarlett’s black and slave half-sister, Cyanara, who is also involved with Scarlett’s husband, Captain Rhett Butler, and brings to light some of the issues that were *ahem* glossed over in Gone With The Wind.
Amy has proposed this reading schedule, and I will struggle valiantly to keep up. I have to redeem myself after only managing to read 6 pages for the East of Eden read-a-long.
March 7: Chapters 1-9
March 14: Chapters 10-18
March 21: Chapters 19-27
March 28: Chapters 28-36
April 4: Chapters 37-45
April 11: Chapters 46-54
April 18: Chapters 54-63
April 25: The Wind Done Gone
We’ll be posting our thoughts on the above dates so please visit us in the comments or write your own posts if you have thoughts that you’d like to share.
Old or New? Comparing Re-Reads and First Reads: A Shelf Discovery Mini Challenge
Aren’t you sad? We are going into the last few months of the Shelf Discovery Challenge, hosted by Julie of Booking Mama. I have had a ton of fun going back and re-visiting these old classics, and I am finding that a few of them still resonate with me and are some of my favorite books even now.
One of the things that I have been really curious about in reading these books is how I am interacting with re-reads in comparison to my response to books that I am reading for the very first time. Do I like them more if I had read them in the past, and do they seem to be as realistic or does nostalgia give them a bit of a boost in that department? Am I harder on books that I am just now reading for the first time? More critical? Less accepting of the reality that is presented to me? How are you finding that the reading experiences of books that you have read for the first time as opposed to re-reads compare to each other?
To enter this mini-challenge you have to be a registered participant of The Shelf Discovery Challenge, so if this sounds like fun and you’re not registered, head on over to Julie’s blog to sign up. You can either leave a comment here exploring some of the questions that I have posed or you can write a post on your own blog exploring some of these questions about the books that you have read and leave a link in the comments.
Each entry is in the running to win a $10 gift certificate to Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble or any other bookseller that will allow me to send you a gift certificate online. You have until Tax Day, April 15th, to enter. I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say!
Happy reading & enjoy the rest of the challenge!
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith – Book Review
Shortest book synopsis ever on Linus’s Blanket, if you don’t count this sentence, which you can’t. Abraham Lincoln is a vampire hunter! There, all done.
I really liked this book. The most absurd thing about it is the premise, and I found myself reacting to the fact that I was indeed reading a book about Abraham Lincoln as the Buffy of his time. That is a little bit disconcerting, but when I put that aside I was really being treated to a biography of Abraham Lincoln which cleverly uses vampires as an overarching metaphor of the slippery slope involved once any group of people decides that they should enslave others.
If Grahame-Smith ever wants to become a historian, then I am pretty sure he will be able to find the work that he desires. After a very clever set-up that left me chuckling, the book read like a history of Abraham Lincoln- spending time on his childhood, the host of ways that he made money , his law practice , and his forays into government leading up to the presidency. Lincoln’s vampire hunting is woven into the plot of his life, making use of issues that heavily attributed to the shaping of his character such as the death of his mother, his estrangement from his father, the loss of his first sweetheart, and recurring bouts with depression. All are linked in surprising ways to his choice of career as a vampire hunter.
Grahame-Smith doesn’t ignore the history of the times, and he does tackle the origins of Lincoln’s personal views on slavery- likely stemming in part from the beliefs of his religious father. Lincoln is often troubled by the presence of slaves in his life, but mostly accepts it until escalating situations lead him to become more involved. The “league of vampires” dynamic was very interesting to me as the author related the bloodsucking vampires and their unnatural needs to the similarly draining institution of slavery and its inherent threat to the fabric of the nation and all free people.
This is an action based book even though it heavily draws from Lincoln’s journal and other period references. I was introduced to lots of names and faces of the people populating Lincoln’s life but there was little in the way of character development beyond the facts of the circumstances. Toward the end of the book I did start to tire a bit of the vampire references if only because I was so involved with the history, and some of the vampire episodes made very awkward placements in terms of how they connected to history- but they did make me think, and I was on the whole entertained and captured by this book all the way through.
FTC Disclosure – I received this copy for review from the publisher, but I was as surprised as anyone by how much I liked it.
May 2010
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