The “It’s Not You, It’s Me” phrase is more true this month than almost any other. My head space is so messed up by living in a construction zone with the ear-shattering noise, frequent questions, and now, mistakes being made on a renovation that is 20 days behind schedule means my attention span is shot to hell. The only place I’m finding mental peace these days is floating in a pool after a long swim.
It’s fitting then, that the novels below are all well-written, they simply didn’t work for me.
The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson
Published by Harper
Publication date: March 3rd 2015
It’s 1962 and Kitty Miller owns a bookshop with her friend Frieda. She is single but lives a life she finds fulfilling. Or so she thinks until she starts dreaming about herself with a different name in a different life. She is Katharyn Andersson, happily married and with two children. Kitty and her dream-self Katharyn are the protagonists in Cynthia Swanson’s The Bookseller.
Swanson uses the dream device adeptly. As Kitty’s life begins to change in ways that are not positive she longs for sleep when she can go back to a world that, while much more traditional than she ever thought she wanted, offers a sense of security. The Bookseller weaves this premise through the story and layers in the mystery of the gaps and inconsistencies between the two worlds. One of the greatest is that Kitty’s lifelong friendship with Frieda no longer exists. As the Kitty/Katharyn tries to reconcile her lives the differences between the two become more obvious and painful.
There is a lot to recommend The Bookseller especially how carefully Swanson tracks the two worlds. The novel did not so much fall short for me but went a direction that left me a little sad. And that’s all I have to say about that.
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, Simon Pare
Published by Crown
Publication date: June 23rd 2015
The Little Paris Bookshop has all the components to make readers swoony: Paris, a bookstore, and lost love. Monsieur Perdu owns a barge on the Seine called the Literary Apothecary. He named it this because
I wanted to treat feelings that are not recognized as afflictions and are never diagnosed by doctors. All those little feelings and emotions no therapist is interested in, because they are apparently too minor and intangible.
Instead of drugs, he is able to intuit the moods of his customers and then sells them books to suit those moods. Outwardly, he is a quiet, composed man but inside he has his own heartache yearns for a love he lost decades ago. When he discovers, via an unopened letter he finally reads, that his love may still be his, he embarks on his boat to find her. That he does so with a neurotic young author as a co-captain and no money, provisions, or directions takes what starts as a charming love story and mystery and turns it into a farce.
This may be what I think of as mood reading in that it could possibly appeal to the right person at the right time. The author’s prose is often lovely and evocative, if a bit flowery. Perdu’s plight is compelling but pages of his introspection started to wear on me and I had to jump ship.
The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis
Published by Knopf
Publication date: July 7th 2015
Carolina De Robertis brings Buenos Aires in the early 1900s to life in all its raw, passionate chaos in The Gods of Tango. Leda is a young immigrant who arrives to meet her husband, only to be told he is dead. Left alone and almost penniless, Leda decides that rather than return to Italy she is going to make her way in this crowded, brutal environment. Unfortunately, job opportunities are limited for single women and the danger is high. Leda’s passion is playing the violin so she cuts off all her hair, abandons her dresses, takes her husband’s clothes and re-emerges into the city as a man.
The focus of The Gods of Tango is, wait for it…the tango, a dance known to Argentinians but foreign to the numerous new cultures arriving in Buenos Aires. It is this music that Leda wants to play. De Robertis’ prose evokes its vibrancy and the variations of the music of tango culture and the times around it. What she didn’t do was capture my attention—after Leda’s choice to live as a man the plot lost its power and my interest. It may just have been the wrong novel at the wrong time, but I was able to put it down and not pick it up again.
Have you read any of these It’s Not You, It’s Me books? If so, please leave your thoughts!
I have not read any of these titles, but I LOVE this post. All to often we don’t want to “write anything bad” or take time to write about what we didn’t get about a book, but I think it’s important. Not every book is for every body. I like differences of opinion, different takes, it helps me to think more deeply about a book whether I think the same as you did or 180 degrees differently. Also, reading all glowing reviews is tiresome. I want to know what bothered you about a book, even if you loved it. Please keep these coming! I’m trying to do more of it with my two-cent reviews and also have one coming on a book I just did not get. And I do it in the hopes that someone will shine a light on what I missed or didn’t get. That’s what I love about the Salon. Great stuff!
Thank you so much! I think we all worry about being too negative but I feel the same- I don’t trust someone who writes nothing but rainbow reviews. I think if it’s done with respect and not a personal attack on the author then saying you didn’t like the book is art of the job.
Exactly. If I really hated something, there’s usually not much I want to write about. It’s those tweeners that make me curious and want to hash through things. Writing about a DNF is hard, and you did a great job of setting out your reasons while allowing people to recognize what about these books might appeal to them despite your DNF.
(I don’t trust the rainbows either.)
I could see how The Gods of Tango would start with a really interesting premise and then lose traction if it focused much more on the dance than the characters. And it looks like books about books are not having a great year!
No, Shannon, it’s not and I think I may have to let go of that love! Too much disappointment.
I am with you in the having the right head space for certain books right now. Some are sticking nicely and some are falling by the wayside. We are going through a house “thing” right now too and it’s consuming my every thought and emotion. I find it even difficult to get a blog post in. Good luck with the house reno!!
SO, you get it!! I am desperate to have my house back, to the point of telling them to leave everything unfinished. I hope things improve quickly for you!
We posted mini-reviews on the same day! 🙂
I felt about the same about The Bookseller.
Oh, sad The Bookseller didn’t do it for you. I hope your renovations catch up – so frustrating.
It wasn’t the writing or anything like that, Jennine, I wanted it to end differently. You read it so you probably know what I mean but I didn’t want to put a spoiler in my review!
My “It’s Not You, It’s Me” review is In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume. I wanted to like this novel so much I even started keeping my own chart of how the characters knew each other. Something I had to do to keep the 20 POV characters straight. In the end, it was too much work that it wasn’t enjoyable. But that’s just me. 🙂
You did better than I did with that one. I wanted to like it so much but could not even think of it working for anyone else. I was very disappointed. And you’re right about the characters- too many with formatting that did not help.