Review: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow

The winner of the Bellwether Prize for fiction, this novel is a gripping look at identity, racism, class structure, and fitting in. Rachel is the daughter of a Danish woman and an African-American GI. After moving to the US, the family's mixed racial heritage comes into play in ways that it never did before. For Mor, Rachel's Danish mother, life in the US is incredibly tough and ultimately she makes the unfathomable decision to lead her children to the roof of their apartment building in order to jump. Rachel is the sole survivor of this terrible tragedy and after her recovery, she moves from Chicago to Portland, OR to live with her paternal grandmother, in a community that presses her to choose to be either black or white but not both.

Rachel narrates the majority of the book as she searches for her identity as a bi-racial girl and then young woman but others contribute to the narrative too: her late mother's employer, her father, the young boy who witnessed the family's flight through the sky, and even her late mother through the medium of her diary. Offering secondary characters the chance to narrate allows Rachel's story a more complete telling and a fullness that her own single point of view would not have contributed even as she reveals more than perhaps even she understands, navigating life and coming to be comfortable in her own skin, whichever color she thinks that skin is.

The writing style leaves the reader thinking that something is being held back, something just under the surface, necessary to the story. This elusiveness threads through the characterization as well, as if the characters aren't completely revealed somehow. The unconventionality of the prose is not reflected in the story itself though as the secrets haunting Rachel's family come to light. The ending is fairly abrupt and certainly doesn't offer closure but it reflects reality so although it might feel a bit unsatisfactory to a reader, it is not unacceptable. While there are some problems with the novel, on the whole it is a good tale and one that should appeal to readers and book clubs interested in social issues and coming of age novels.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Review: Openly Bob by Bob Smith

Smith was the first openly gay comic to appear on The Tonight Show. Given that I am long asleep before the show comes on, I did not see him on there and had few expectations of this book beyond hearing from a friend years ago that it was hilarious. And you know what? It absolutely was hilarious. This is a memoir of sorts in the form of essays that Smith has written dealing with being gay and being a grown-up. He takes on all sorts of topics like needing couples counseling, coming out to his parents, taking his boyfriend home to meet his quirky family, working as a comic, auditioning for roles as the stereotypical gay man, and so much more. The tone throughout these connected essays is humorous and amusing and while a few pieces have bits that might date them, it is also instructive that some of his politically relevant jibes are still, unfortunately, relevant, 12 years after this book won a Lambda Literary Award. Smith has a biting humor and a sharp wit and those who enjoy word play, will find much to admire here. Although the essays were certainly polished over time, it is clear that Smith must be a pretty darn funny stand-up comic off the cuff as well. He's insightful and observant and quirky and the book stands as an entertaining testament to the ups and downs in one gay man's slightly offbeat life. Read this one when you want to laugh, a lot.

Review: This Lovely Life by Vicki Forman

Vicki Forman's twins Ellie and Evan were born at only 23 weeks and weighed just over a pound a piece when they were born. Knowing as she did, the terrible odds stacked against her babies, Forman begged doctors to let them go at birth instead of using heroic measures to keep them alive. But doctors didn't listen and the babies were whisked off to the NICU to start the fight to live. Ellie died four days later. Evan faced almost every medical challenge possible but he lived. This devastating memoir is the story of Evan's survival, the long road both emotionally and medically that the entire Forman family faced, having lost one baby and having another with multiple permanent disabilities. It is harrowing and open and anger and guilt-fueled but it is also the story of a powerful love both for the baby who died and the baby who didn't. It is primarily a memoir of motherhood, or as the subtitle says, premature motherhood, although Forman does touch on some of her husband's grief and way of coping with the overwhelming uncertainty and dread and on how they as a couple found the strength to continue on together in the face of the enormous obstacles facing Evan.

This story will leave the reader drained but impressed with the empowerment and advocacy that Forman grew into in the unexpected years of mothering her disabled but no less perfect for that boy. The winner of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bakeless Prize, this is exquisitely written and deeply felt. It takes the reader on the roller coaster ride that parents with medically fragile children face every day. And it gives a glimpse of the unrelentingly different sense of normal experienced by families with ex-micropreemies or multiply disabled children. Much of the memoir focuses on the first two years of Evan's life and how Forman became the mother he needed. But it also deals with the way she bottled her grief for the loss of Ellie because of Evan's daily struggle. And while there's no miracle ending here, there is still a sense of the miraculous and the beautiful. Life and death are so intimately intertwined here, ethical and moral questions abound but ultimately there's an all pervading mother love, strongly and unstintingly stated. It feels strange to say that a story so shattering can be hopeful and affirmative and yes, even enjoyable, but it is. Just be prepared to weep yourself dry when you read this incredibly worthwhile memoir.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy of the book.

Book Awards IV Challenge

I have played along with the Book Awards Challenge the past couple of years and since it helps remind me to read the books that have been judged the best of the best for any given year, I will be joining in again this year. This year we are being asked to read 10 books from 10 different awards. Should be interesting indeed! The remainder of the list I've been using the past couple of years should be able to fulfill this but I might just mosey on around the internet and see what all I have on my shelves that can be added to my potential list. ;-) As it is, here's what I know I have to choose from:

2006 Dublin IMPAC Colm Toibin The Master
2000 Dublin IMPAC Nicola Barker Wide Open
1998 Newbery Karen Hesse Out of the Dust
2002 Newbery Linda Sue Park A Single Shard
1988 NBCC Bharati Mukherjee The Middleman and Other Stories
1995 NBCC Stanley Elkin Mrs. Ted Bliss
2003 NBCC & 2004 Pulitzer & 2005 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Edward P. Jones The Known World
1977 National Book Award The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
1980 National Book Award Birdy (1st Novel Award) by William Wharton
1984 National Book Award Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist
1989 National Book Award Spartina by John Casey
1991 National Book Award Mating by Norman Rush
1978 Booker The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch
1996 Booker Last Orders by Graham Swift
1985 Pulitzer Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
1997 Pulitzer Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Stephen Millhauser
2001 Pulitzer The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
2005 ABA Award (nonfiction) Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
2002 National Outdoor Book Awards Rowing to Latitude by Jill Fredston
1974 Guardian Fiction Prize The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge
2000 Orange Prize for Fiction When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant
1996 LA Times Book Prize & 1995 Giller Prize A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
2002 LA Times Book Prize for First Fiction Prague by Arthur Phillips
2001 Kiriyama Prize for Nonfiction River Town by Peter Hessler
2002 Kiriyama Prize for Fiction Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
2005 Giller Prize The Time In Between by David Bergen
2001 Giller Prize Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright
2000 Whitbread English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
1999 Whitbread Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
1976 Whitbread The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor
1986 Betty Trask Award Anita and Me by Meera Syal
2003 Booksense Non-Fiction Book of the Year Alexandra Fuller Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
1959 Strega Prize Guiseppe di Lampedusa The Leopard
2008 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Jhumpa Lahiri Unaccustomed Earth