Happy New Year! I’ve read some wonderful books in the last month or so. Here they are.
A Guardian and a Thief, by Megha Majumdar
Majumdar is one of the finest storytellers of our time. Her first novel, A Burning, surprised me for its relentless march to death of a promising young woman over a social media post that seemingly cheered on terrorism.
This, her second novel, is similarly gripping: Ma, a shelter manager, has in her purse the passports and visas that will take her, toddler Mishti and father Dadu away from Kolkata, where the heat is oppressive and food is scarce. Complicating their exit is Boomba, a shelter resident who saw Ma steal a bag of eggs and follows her home. Late at night, Boomba breaks in, steals food — and Ma’s purse. Thinking they’re worthless blue pamphlets, he chucks the passports in a dump.
The tension in this book never lets up, and its ending is appropriately shocking. Highly recommend.
One of Us, by Dan Chaon
Echoing my first entry, Chaon is also among our best storytellers. I’ve been reading him for years ( short stories in the New Yorker, and earlier novels such as Await Your Reply.) In this, his latest, orphaned 13-year-old twins Bolt and Elizabeth are taken in by a traveling circus and hunted down by a con man who claims to be their uncle. The year is 1915, the place is the American Midwest. The circus becomes the twin’s family: there’s Mr. Jengling, who keeps it all together. There’s a three-legged lady, a giant, a clown with no nose, and a fortune teller — all well drawn and achingly human. Where will the twins fit in, as they grow apart?
Justice is served, by the end, in a satisfying spasm of violence. What a read!
The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai
I missed this when it was published in 2006, but picked it up after reading her newest book, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. This one feels like a prequel. It’s set in the Himalayas, where we meet a cranky old judge, his teenage granddaughter, and their cook Baju. Intertwined is the story of Baju’s son, Biju, who’s in New York City working restaurant jobs.
This is a story of displacement. The judge was educated in England; he’s too sophisticated for small-town India. Sai, his granddaughter, lived a convent life with nuns before her parents’ death in Moscow. She’s not of the place, either. In New York, Biju hustles but never quite makes it.
The remnants of colonialism persist, and civil unrest grows. Sai imagines a kind of life for herself elsewhere. Biju, tired of not succeeding, makes a perilous journey home to his father.
A rich, entrancing read.
Blue Angel, by Francine Prose
This is another one I missed when it was published, in 2000. Better late than never!
This is a smart page turner, set at a middling college in New England. There, Swenson teaches creative writing and seems to be happily married to Arlene, who runs the college’s health clinic. There’s a hippy vibe to their house and marriage, even though their college-age daughter, in school elsewhere, is not speaking to them.
More trouble arrives when student writer Angela Argo sends Swenson pages from her novel in progress. Urging her on, Angela in turn wants more from him, including a ride to a bigger city, where she can buy a new computer, so she can keep writing her story about a high school student’s involvement with her music teacher. Swenson wonders: is this love?
Swenson’s fall is swift and delicious.
Thanks for reading. ‘Til next tine.