Reviews and Comments

This fascinating thriller takes its name from a forest featured in Shakespeare’s play McBeth. Like that famous play, this novel is populated with flawed individuals whose ambitions prove hard to balance with their morals. Accidents, deceptions, and cross purposes make for a complex, exciting plot.

In Eleanor Catton’s new novel, Birnam Wood is the name of a small nonprofit organization that seeks to plant crops in unused spaces, sometimes with permission, and sometimes not. There is certainly some lawlessness and trespassing going on, but the group’s members see it as a necessary evil in their mission to help those in need and to work for a more fair society. Before I read this, I was not aware of guerilla gardening.

There are four main characters in this book, plus two important supporting roles. Mira and Shelley are prominent members of Birnam Wood, and their relationship is complicated. They’ve been close for a long time, but at this juncture, Shelley is beginning to feel that it’s time for her to move on, and Mira is aware of this, and dreading it. To this end, Mira is striving towards her goal to prove that Birnam Wood can make a go of it, and eventually start paying the staff. However, for Shelley, this is not the only ambition. Shelley would also like to move out of Mira’s shadow.

A third important character is Tony, an aspiring journalist who is returning to the Birnam Wood fold after being abroad for a few years. Since he’s been away, and not experienced the hard work and frustrations of the past, he is appalled at the group’s newest venture, which he believes goes against all their principles.

This new venture involves a billionaire named Robert Lemoine, a middle-aged man who is buying a large swath of land to build a doomsday bunker–or so he says. Robert is a fascinating character. We don’t know how he got so rich, or exactly how he acquired his particular skill set. He meets Mira by accident, and immediately gives her permission to farm part of the land he is buying. Furthermore, he philanthropically gives her a lot of money, immediately.

The two other characters in this story of Sir Darvish and his wife, Lady (Jill) Darvish. It’s their land that is being sold. They have a good marriage, and Lady Darvish is proud of her beknighted husband, though she’s the smarter, more capable one.

When Mira reports back to the group about Robert’s proposal, everyone is impressed with her find, except Tony. He leaves the group, and it becomes his ambition to find out as much as he Birnam Wood sets up a camping site, and gets to work. Robert charms and wins over these new young friends. Tony googles, makes phone calls, and spies on them. Meanwhile, Sir Darvish becomes curious and pays a visit.

At this point, there are a couple plot twists, and things happen quickly. Both thought-provoking and riveting, this novel would make for an excellent discussion about both morals and the characters involved.

Bravo! I would recommend this to anyone.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for this wonderful experience.

This fascinating thriller takes its name from a forest featured in Shakespeare’s play McBeth. Like that famous play, this novel is populated with flawed individuals whose ambitions prove hard to balance with their morals. Accidents, deceptions, and cross purposes make for a complex, exciting plot.

In Eleanor Catton’s new novel, Birnam Wood is the name of a small nonprofit organization that seeks to plant crops in unused spaces, sometimes with permission, and sometimes not. There is certainly some lawlessness and trespassing going on, but the group’s members see it as a necessary evil in their mission to help those in need and to work for a more fair society. Before I read this, I was not aware of guerilla gardening.

There are four main characters in this book, plus two important supporting roles. Mira and Shelley are prominent members of Birnam Wood, and their relationship is complicated. They’ve been close for a long time, but at this juncture, Shelley is beginning to feel that it’s time for her to move on, and Mira is aware of this, and dreading it. To this end, Mira is striving towards her goal to prove that Birnam Wood can make a go of it, and eventually start paying the staff. However, for Shelley, this is not the only ambition. Shelley would also like to move out of Mira’s shadow.

A third important character is Tony, an aspiring journalist who is returning to the Birnam Wood fold after being abroad for a few years. Since he’s been away, and not experienced the hard work and frustrations of the past, he is appalled at the group’s newest venture, which he believes goes against all their principles.

This new venture involves a billionaire named Robert Lemoine, a middle-aged man who is buying a large swath of land to build a doomsday bunker–or so he says. Robert is a fascinating character. We don’t know how he got so rich, or exactly how he acquired his particular skill set. He meets Mira by accident, and immediately gives her permission to farm part of the land he is buying. Furthermore, he philanthropically gives her a lot of money, immediately.

The two other characters in this story of Sir Darvish and his wife, Lady (Jill) Darvish. It’s their land that is being sold. They have a good marriage, and Lady Darvish is proud of her beknighted husband, though she’s the smarter, more capable one.

When Mira reports back to the group about Robert’s proposal, everyone is impressed with her find, except Tony. He leaves the group, and it becomes his ambition to find out as much as he Birnam Wood sets up a camping site, and gets to work. Robert charms and wins over these new young friends. Tony googles, makes phone calls, and spies on them. Meanwhile, Sir Darvish becomes curious and pays a visit.

At this point, there are a couple plot twists, and things happen quickly. Both thought-provoking and riveting, this novel would make for an excellent discussion about both morals and the characters involved.

Bravo! I would recommend this to anyone.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for this wonderful experience.

Westward with Giraffes is an historic novel, based on a well-researched, true event about a pair of giraffes who survived a hurricane at sea and then a road trip across the country, from New York City to San Diego, California. It is also a tumultuous coming of age story for one young man named Woodrow Wilson Nickel, or Woody Nickel for short. The year is 1938, a time when this country is still recovering from The Great Depression and Hitler is threatening war in Europe.

Woody, all of seventeen years old, has already suffered loss and trauma, but we the readers never get a sense of exactly what Woody has lost: I’d like to know more about his time with his mother and sister. Were there any good times at all, bittersweet memories of life before the dust bowl?

Also, the story is supposed to be told by Woody when he is aged 105, written in longhand by pencil. That might be too much for me to picture, but it’s not a huge point. And if I wasn’t completely comfortable with the writing style, perhaps it’s because an old man wrote it, in a hurry, before dying.

And once again, Woody is all alone. To whom is he writing this long missive? We don’t learn that until the end, and it’s yet another tragedy that he never gets to know its effect. Woody has multiple people in his memories, but has had precious few moments with them, or so it would seem, since there is very little information about what happens during his life between WWII and the present.

Woody Nickel certainly has his adventures driving a rig hauling two giraffes long distance, beside his employer, an old man in a fedora who loves animals and tall tales. There is also a mysterious young woman, nicknamed Red, who is determined to follow them with her camera and dreams of being a photographer for Life Magazine. They get into some precarious positions, but are always lucky enough to survive them.

This was an easy, interesting novel to read, though somehow I didn’t find it moving. There were aspects about driving across country during that time period that were an education, and I am glad to have read this.

John Irving’s much awaited new novel is a treasure chest of the memorable characters and backstories I love him for, and it is probably twice the length of Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville. I mention this because another thing I enjoy about Irving’s work is that he always shines a light on other works of fiction that have factored into his life.

This tome focuses on Adam Brewster and his formative years in Exeter, New Hampshire, amongst relatives with diverse world views and lives. The reader can count on encountering some zaniness, here.

Adam has been born out of wedlock to Rachel “Little Ray” Brewster, an expert skier and former serious competitor. Since Ray spends part of the year as a ski instructor in another location, Adam spends plenty of time missing his mother. In her absence, Adam’s early experiences involve hearing his insufferable maternal aunts moralize about his mother’s situation, seeing ghosts in his attic bedroom, and having his grandmother read to him from Moby-Dick. He also becomes close to Nora, an older cousin. She and her girlfriend Em become important people in his life. Another wonderful, important character is Elliot Barlow, yet another adult who will act as a lodestar in Adam’s life. Additionally, his mother’s girlfriend, Molly, is also there for Adam, at times helping him to better understand Little Ray. All the while, though, Adam has burning questions about his father, who his mother will not talk about.

As the years pass, Irving reminds us of plenty of history, especially concerning sexual politics. The outside world’s opinions and laws affect the lives of Irving’s characters in profound ways, and their reactions are a vital part of the plot. Another part of Adam’s saga is aging, and the loss of these special souls in his life, and how they all stay with him, in various ways.

Bits of this book seem to be autobiographical. For instance, Irving’s biological father was indeed a mystery to him, so he let his imagination run with that. Irving even communicates, through Adam, that “biography isn’t good or bad enough to work as fiction,” at least in itself. It’s been an important ingredient in his novels, but not the most important one.

The characters Irving invents are memorably unusual and for the most part endearing. I certainly haven’t mentioned them all! Some parts of this saga would work well as short stories, and that brings me to my only criticism. This novel could have and should have been more thoroughly edited. There was some repetition at times, which would have been needed if it had been split into smaller segments, but altogether, it was too much.

I am honored to have been given this opportunity to read this marvelous novel as an early reviewer. Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster.

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Note: since I forgot to add the book here at first, I have no idea how long it took me to finish. It was awhile...

John Irving’s much awaited new novel is a treasure chest of the memorable characters and backstories I love him for, and it is probably twice the length of Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville. I mention this because another thing I enjoy about Irving’s work is that he always shines a light on other works of fiction that have factored into his life.

This tome focuses on Adam Brewster and his formative years in Exeter, New Hampshire, amongst relatives with diverse world views and lives. The reader can count on encountering some zaniness, here.

Adam has been born out of wedlock to Rachel “Little Ray” Brewster, an expert skier and former serious competitor. Since Ray spends part of the year as a ski instructor in another location, Adam spends plenty of time missing his mother. In her absence, Adam’s early experiences involve hearing his insufferable maternal aunts moralize about his mother’s situation, seeing ghosts in his attic bedroom, and having his grandmother read to him from Moby-Dick. He also becomes close to Nora, an older cousin. She and her girlfriend Em become important people in his life. Another wonderful, important character is Elliot Barlow, yet another adult who will act as a lodestar in Adam’s life. Additionally, his mother’s girlfriend, Molly, is also there for Adam, at times helping him to better understand Little Ray. All the while, though, Adam has burning questions about his father, who his mother will not talk about.

As the years pass, Irving reminds us of plenty of history, especially concerning sexual politics. The outside world’s opinions and laws affect the lives of Irving’s characters in profound ways, and their reactions are a vital part of the plot. Another part of Adam’s saga is aging, and the loss of these special souls in his life, and how they all stay with him, in various ways.

Bits of this book seem to be autobiographical. For instance, Irving’s biological father was indeed a mystery to him, so he let his imagination run with that. Irving even communicates, through Adam, that “biography isn’t good or bad enough to work as fiction,” at least in itself. It’s been an important ingredient in his novels, but not the most important one.

The characters Irving invents are memorably unusual and for the most part endearing. I certainly haven’t mentioned them all! Some parts of this saga would work well as short stories, and that brings me to my only criticism. This novel could have and should have been more thoroughly edited. There was some repetition at times, which would have been needed if it had been split into smaller segments, but altogether, it was too much.

I am honored to have read been given this opportunity to read this marvelous novel as an early reviewer. Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster.

The real star of any Elizabeth Strout novel is her voice. Her sentences are simple, clean, and elegant.. Her main character, Lucy Barton, is always, eventually, able to examine her feelings until she can express them with a rare eloquence. We spend time with Lucy and her thoughts, while not a lot happens around her, and yet there is a story here that does not drag.

This is a pandemic story. The world is going into lockdown before Lucy can absorb what is happening. Luckily for Lucy, her ex-husband, William, comes to her aid, insisting that she evacuate New York City with him, to a place on the coast of Maine. He also makes arrangements for their two daughters.

When life suddenly becomes unrecognizable to her, Lucy expresses how alone and adrift she feels, bereft for her late husband, her apartment, and her purpose. Lucy feels like she is losing her mind, and can’t concentrate on reading or writing. As time goes on, she makes some friends in Maine, and settles into this house with her ex-husband.

Strout’s prior books have shed more light on the love and friendship between Lucy and William. It’s complicated, and within these pages, their relationship does take a different turn. Has Lucy been so wrapped up in her daughters’ marital issues that she doesn’t see the possible problems ahead, for herself? That door is obviously left open, to be continued.

I loved the backdrop of this installment of Lucy Barton’s history, the little house perched atop a hill overlooking a turbulent sea. It can reflect and foreshadow so many things…

Lucy by the Sea is another beautiful novel by Elizabeth Strout, I enjoyed it immensely, and thank Random House books and Netgalley for giving me the special opportunity to read this and write a review!

This is a beautifully told story about love and friendship, and how those two terms can both describe a single relationship. Love, work, and love of work are central themes.

The story focuses on Sam and Sadie, who meet as kids, by accident. They are a couple of brilliant introverts with a common interest in video games. Years later, they run into each other again, by chance, and it is Sam who is determined to stay in touch, with the specific hope of making games with Sadie. Eventually, they do just that, and by this time, there are other people in both of their lives, especially Marx, Sam’s college roommate, foil, and protector. Marx is an extroverted thespian into Shakespeare who coaxes Sam into bonding with him.

Sam has known trauma and adversity, is awkward socially, and is also self-conscious about a physical disability. Sadie must navigate the challenges of being the only woman in a room of gamers and struggles to be taken seriously in her career. She is also preyed upon by an important college professor.

After Sadie and Sam take a semester off school to produce a game that is ready for prime time, they launch their own company, called Unfair Games. Marx becomes their producer, a role for which he is perfectly suited.

Though Sadie and Sam are extremely close, their pasts and their insecurities will inform how they perceive each other over time. Misunderstandings, missed opportunities, along with their different perspectives make for a very unusual and rocky love story. And, through it all, Marx has an ever changing relationship with each one of them. He is the calm, happy one, providing support to them and keeping the company running.

The story of Sadie and Sam involves a tragic turn, to which they each react very much according to their characters. And author Gabrielle Zevin cleverly relates the games they play to the journey and choices make in real life.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Netgalley for this amazing experience.