“How was it possible to miss something you no longer wanted?” (Adichie, 7-8) asks our protagonist, Ifemelu, of herself in the opening pages of the (brilliant) Americanah by Chimanada Ngozi Adichie (also author of the brilliant Half of a Yellow Sun). In asking the question Ifemelu sets up the parallel plot threads that cycle through the story: love lost-found-lost-found-lost and immigration arrival-settle-resettle-departure-arrival-settle-resettle. More specifically she’s asking the question about a recent breakup – a question that – for this reader at least – resonates. In any case, throughout the story we witness Ifemelu grapple with determining what she wants, where she wants to be, what she wants to be doing, who she wants to be – and the ways she can, and cannot, make these decisions (and the ways these decisions are restricted by overt forces/characters or by the less direct, but no less powerful, figures (because they do often have personified characters) of race, class and gender. Continue reading
Category Archives: Erin’s Favourite Books
Us Conductors: Beautiful writing, extraordinary narration
You will want to read Sean Michaels’ *Us Conductors* as soon as you can (in April of 2014) both because it is a brilliant novel and because everyone will be talking about it and you’re going to want to be hip and have already read the latest ‘hot’ book. Continue reading
The Things They Carried: Spectacular
I read *The Things They Carried* about a month ago. I got a concussion (sigh) and so couldn’t read or write or post here about what I’d read pre-concussion, so my memory of the book is a bit hazy.
Not so hazy that I don’t remember that I *loved* it. A brilliant exploration of why we read, why we write stories, the purpose of stories in our personal and collective lives, the peculiarities of memory, the ways stories allow us to get a better sense of the “truth” of historical events.
All the questions unfold in a memoir-like return to the Vietnam War, but it feels inadequate to say the book is about a soldier’s experience in Vietnam because it’s really a book about why and how we remember through stories. And it’s brilliant. Brilliant!
I didn’t think I’d like it because I’m not fond of Vietnam stories (as 10-10-12 proved) nor am I particularly keen (okay, I’m adverse) to non-fiction. But this reads like a novel, a beautiful, poetic, brilliant novel. And Vietnam *is* there, and not simply as a backdrop for these bigger questions – it has a character in its own right – but I do think that the meditations on story, history and self surpass that of the plot/character elements. Go read it!
Filed under American literature, Erin's Favourite Books, Prize Winner
The Round House: Doing (it) Justice
I made the mistake of reading three books at the cottage without immediately blogging and *The Round House* was the first, so my “penetrating insights” will be somewhat dulled by the intermediary reads and days. With that said I found *The Round House* to be exceptionally good. Best I’ve read in 2013. Continue reading
Filed under American literature, Erin's Favourite Books, Fiction, Prize Winner
Literary Vice 