Cluster Critiques

Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary is a fun syfy novel with gobs of futuristic technology, quantum physics and space aeronautics narrative, if you like that sort of thing, which I do, as long as it is science-based, logical and doesn’t exploit irrational human fears of  space monsters. Main character, Ryland Grace, a burned out subatomic particles researcher turned junior high science teacher, wakes up in a space ship with no idea how he got there or why. Eventually, he and we grow to understand he’s on a “hail Mary” mission to save the world from a bacteria that is consuming our sun’s energy. Weir is so precise in his science and clever in his plots and dialogue that we (well some of us anyway) love riding with him on his space adventures. Even if you didn’t read his other blockbuster novel, The Martian, I’ll bet you saw and enjoyed the movie. In Project Hail Mary, Ryland meets and befriends a spider-like robot from another civilization similarly devastated by the bacteria eating the sun, resulting in some incongruous, sweet relationship moments between Ryland and his new buddy “Rocky” the robot. I don’t read just any syfy, but Andy Weir is top gun in that genre in my opinion. So, if you’re syfy-curious, start with Project Hail Mary or The Martian.

 

A Question of Color, by  Sara Smith-Beattie

This book is an interesting and partly true late 19^th century saga of a young half-Black, half-White man, John, and his half-black half-American Indian wife, Susan, trying to make a life together in the rural south, just a decade past the abolition of slavery and when interracial marriage was still illegal. John poses as American Indian descent to avoid arrest for his marriage to Susan, and they wrestle daily with the challenges of their race, their deception, and another even more threatening secret (no spoiler). Written completely in Ebonics, I was intrigued and even charmed by the unfamiliar language. I was also reminded of how small-town country life, regardless of how different it feels superficially to my big city existence, still reflects the universal dynamics and politics of any society of any size, any place in the world - those being, "my religion and my culture are right, and yours are wrong, we are wise, you are ignorant, we are entitled you are not." The story told in this book is simple, the circumstances are absolutely not, but the human spirit is courageous and John and Susan’s love gets them through seemingly insurmountable challenges. This is not a life-changing or particularly cerebral or well written book, but for whatever reason it kept my attention and I’m glad I read it.

 

The Push: A Novel, by Ashley Audrain

Blyth, a new mom suspects from the beginning there’s something wrong with her young daughter Violet, and soon learns in the most painful way possible for a parent, that Violet is mentally unhinged, conniving, murderous, and brilliant at hiding her persona from everyone but her mom. Motherhood at best is tough. For Blyth, it was a never-ending nightmare of fear and self-doubt perpetrated by her precious little daughter Violet.

This is a well-written psychological thriller, which you’ll only enjoy if you have an exceptional capacity to separate reality from fantasy, to enable you to appreciate good writing and a provocative storyline. If not, you’ll want to skip this dark story. It occurs to me, as I see The Push reaching best-seller level, this book could potentially slow down the universal birth-rate, due to prospective parents, who after reading The Push, fear they might spawn another little Violet. Pretty creepy book, but I personally loved it.

We Need to Talk About Kevin: A Novel, by Lionel Shriver

Speaking of depressing, sad, and absolutely horrifying parenting, The Push is a day at the beach compared to We Need to Talk About Kevin. Furthermore, although Ashley Audrain’s writing was superb, Lionel Shriver’s writing is so piercing and mesmerizing, you almost, but not quite, forget how creepy the story is. Whereas Blyth in The Push was excited to start a family, Eva, the mom in We Need to Talk About Kevin, who tells her story through a series of letters to her clueless husband, really wasn’t, which makes one question whether Kevin, who is so incredibly evil, and like Violet, committed to making the mom’s life a living hell, was the victim of a “bad seed” or influenced by his mom’s disdain for parenting (the old nature/nurture debate). Did Kevin’s incredible evilness evolve because his mom never liked him, or did his mom never like him because he was so evil?  There seems no bottom nor limit of imagination in Kevin’s evil-ness – especially towards his mom. From a very young age he psychologically tortures his mom, even when she visits him when he is a teen serving a prison sentence for horrific crimes I’ll not mention here (no spoiler). Like a bloody wreck on the highway, I couldn’t look away, and the writing is exceptional.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals, by Caitlin Doughty

Well at this point you’re probably wondering if I have an obsession with the morose but actually I just have an insatiable curiosity, including things people tend to not talk about, like what happens to our body after we die. My favorite book on this topic is Stiff by Mary Roach. The difference between Stiff and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs is that Mary Roach is a highly respected researcher of many topics (sex, the afterlife, life on Mars, and the alimentary canal, I know bizarre stuff, right?), and Caitlin Doughty is a mortician with a wicked sense of humor and pretty good writing skills who likes to answer cute questions from elementary school children, like “Will my cat eat my eyeballs if I die in my house and no one is there?” This is a silly, simple but entertaining book that will reveal, in addition to the “eyeballs” question (yes, you can trust “Fluffy”), why the dead sometimes make weird noises, grow longer hair and fingernails, and other icky dead-people minutia. I can’t say run out and buy this book, but if you, like me, are obsessed with weird topics, read Mary Roach’s books instead. 

 

The Wreckage of My Presence: Essays, by Casey Wilson

One of my book club members recommended this as an easy, fun beach read, and it was. Casey Wilson, an American actress and screenwriter may be best known for spending a relatively brief stint on Saturday Night Live, but also starred as Penny Hartz in the ABC comedy series Happy Endings for which she was twice nominated to the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. I found her to be very readable, funny, entertaining and intelligent, and I enjoyed her book. If you want to read about Saturday Night Live, there are better books out there, like Live From New York, by James Andrew Miller, but Casey’s book is about much more than SNL. It’s about following your passion and dreams, overcoming adversity, living life on your terms when you can, and muddling through otherwise. If you like biographies, you’ll enjoy the wreckage of Casey Wilson’s presence.

 

While Justice Sleeps: A Novel, by Stacey Abrams

So many people recommended this book to me that I probably had too high expectations. But enjoying a book, food, music or just about anything is highly contingent upon your mental predisposition, so, maybe my mind just wasn’t a fertile field for While Justice Sleeps. I didn’t really like it. Author Stacey Abrams is a well-known former George state legislator and voting rights activist who is likely to run for governor of Georgia in 2022. She’s also a prolific writer of romance/spy-type novels, some of which have enjoyed success, such as Rules of Engagement. 

While Justice Sleeps is described as a “legal thriller about a Supreme Court justice whose descent into a coma plunges the court, and the country, into turmoil.” The plot includes a proposed  merger between a U.S. biotech company and an Indian genetics firm - both keen to dabble in sketchy genetic manipulation, and a Supreme Court poised to decide their fate, and a corrupt president, and one of the Justice's bazaar plot to use his law clerk to uncover the culprits. Although I found the core of the plot somewhat clever, and the writing good enough, I was put off by the author lumping all the characters into one of two roles, good or bad. People just aren’t all good or all bad and portraying them as such doesn’t feel authentic, so I’ll just say, if you want to read a pretty good international thriller and aren’t fussy about pigeonholed characters, you’ll probably like While Justice Sleeps. 

The Vanishing Half: A Novel, by Brit Bennett

When I read about the tension created when races and cultures clash, I can’t help but exclaim, “Why does it even matter,” and it angers and frustrates me. Of course it is all very complicated, but I think it ties back to our seemingly genetic obsession to be “right” - I’m right, you’re not, and of course fear and ignorance. I don’t think I have experienced the prejudice of race or color, but I have experienced the prejudice of culture, age, gender, education, and geographic origin, and I know what that does to your spirit. So I’m never very comfortable reading about how we judge anyone different than us. However, if reading about prejudice doesn’t agitate you like it does me, I think you will enjoy The Vanishing Half, which is about two very close sisters who grew up in a small Black community, but are considered different from their Black neighbors because of the paleness of their skin. Both sisters leave to pursue lives in the proverbial “anywhere but here,” but when they subsequently go their separate ways, one sister chooses to continue to live as a Black woman, and the other presents herself in her community and marriage family as White. When their paths cross again in an interesting but barely believable situation, a dynamic story line, rich with relatable characters unfolds. The Vanishing Half didn't rock my world. I just thought it was OK.