Written with all the hip-popping, hyper-hormonal intensity of teenage girls, Dare Me takes everything you’ve ever thought about cheerleaders and magnifies it tenfold. A group of girls, part of the most exclusive club in high school, basking in the spray tan glow of their fame, find they’ve just been ‘playing’ at cheerleading when a new, taut, ruthless coach takes over and ... Read More...
What I Need When I Read
When I read Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs I loved it. The protagonist was a middle-age, single woman who was angry about a lot of life. For some this anger was off-putting and there were reviewers who found the woman (Nora) disagreeable and depressing. I certainly felt sympathy for her situation but by and large, even when she made me uncomfortable, Nora was a character I ... Read More...
Happy Any Day Now
Happy Any Day Now begins with the approach of Judith Soo Jin Raphael’s fiftieth birthday and in addition to the normal aging nerves, she is dealing with the return of her college love (who dumped her because his blue-blood mother didn’t think she was good enough for their family), the return of her father (who left her and her mother when she was still a little girl), and ... Read More...
What the Nanny Saw
What the Nanny Saw is not the first book to look at the insular and dysfunctional world of nannies and the uber-rich but it may be the first to delve into that life as the employers are on their way down. Ali Sparrow is taking a year off from school to earn enough money to pay for her final year and has chosen the role of nanny as her job. She lands a plum assignment with ... Read More...
& Sons: A Novel
David Gilbert’s & Sons is one of the most complex books I’ve read in a long time. By this I mean the plot did not appear until just shy of page 200 and I found most of the main characters to be unsympathetic throughout. For those who must sympathize with literary characters (The Woman Upstairs drama), stop now. If brilliant prose (Reality, already taking on water, capsized ... Read More...
How Should a Person Be?
How Should a Person Be? is the new novel by author Sheila Heti, asking the same question. The novel’s Sheila is an aspiring playwright trying to find her place in the world. It’s her belief that everyone around her already knows how to be and so does not struggle the way she does. Initially, she believes fame is what she wants but on her own terms. By a simple life, I ... Read More...
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