Review: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

Buzbee spent many years as a bookseller and publisher's sales rep so he would appear to be uniquely suited to writing a book about bookstores labelled both a memoir and a history. Unfortunately, the latter overwhelms the former at almost every turn so instead of a history peppered with personal anecdotes about working in a bookstore, especially the colorful independents where Buzbee spent so much time, this is instead mostly a timeline of the emergence and growth of the bookstore, from the beginnings of libraries with their illuminated manuscripts to scribes to the printing press to stall holders and onward. While this could be interesting itself, it wasn't really enough to sustain the book. As a former bookstore employee myself, I know just how much Buzbee missed mining in a very fertile field when he chose to make this less personal and more generic. And while there were a few chosen bits about his obsessive love of reading and words here, overall, it was a much drier and slower read than I had anticipated. In poking around the internet, I seem to be in a minority in my feelings on this book but I just didn't see the charm and delight that other reviewers felt in reading this. Mostly I found it lackluster and was disappointed that I already knew all of the history that it presented.

Review: Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon

After losing his job and having his marriage crumble, Least Heat Moon sets off on a journey around the country, traveling slowly, along blue highways (state and local routes marked in blue on his maps), meeting the people and examining the small, forgotten places along these back roads. He drives around in a converted van he names Ghost Dancer but rather than have adventures, there's a sort of dreamy, wandering pace to his travels and his narrative. He never mocks the people he meets, listening to their thoughts and opinions respectfully, chronicalling a fast disappearing way of life.

The narrative, as would seem appropriate, is loaded with descriptions of the areas in which he is driving so the reader sees the shift in the physical landscape as Least Heat Moon loops around the country. There is also very much a personal, introspective theme running through the pages. Least Heat Moon interweaves his own Native American heritage and beliefs throughout his chronicle as well as calling attention periodically to history, both recent (at least recent at the time of his journey--1970's) and centuries past. The writing is as meandering as the trip and if the reader is in the proper frame of mind, this works. But be forewarned that only the trip itself, both physical and of self-discovery unite the various chapters. This is a quiet, contemplative sort of book but it resonates deeply long after the last page has been turned.

Review: 100 Shades of White by Preethi Nair

A novel with alternating narration, this is the story of Nalini and her children, Maya and Satchin, reluctant Indian immigrants to England. Starting with Maya's recall of their life in India before her handsome and charming father moved them to London, the novel progresses through the death of Maya's beloved Achan. Or at least her understanding of his death as created by Nalini in order to spare her children from the devastating knowledge that he has abandoned them, leaving them to fend for themselves without money in this foreign land. Because when Nalini takes over the narration, she admits that she has created out of whole cloth the story of his death, thinking this white lie is less terrible than the truth. And this is just the first of the shades of grey that teem through the pages of this novel.

Adrift and penniless in London, the family is taken in by the older sister of the young man/boy who delivered spices to Nalini in better times. And so they move to the East End of London, amongst so many other immigrants, while Nalini tries to eke out an existence for the three of them. And in time she not only finds her calling, in cooking spicy pickles to cure the problems people might not even know they possess, but she also falls in love again. But the white lie she has told her children still lurks in the background, lying in wait for the right moment to reveal itself.

There is much about families, families by blood and families created, and the sacrifices we each make for others, including the un- and under-appreciated sacrifices, in this novel. But the overarching theme, is, of course, that of honesty and the need for truth. Nalini's secrets, Maggie's secrets, and so many other secrets coursing through the narrative ultimately cause pain. But they also highlight the fact that life isn't lived in black and white and that intention is just as important in the telling of stories as the truth. Most importantly of all, regardless of the actual truth, it is most important to know the truth of yourself and who you are, as Maya finally comes to know in the end.

The novel is much less cheerful than the cover would indicate and far less about the differences between East and West but once you adjust your expectations accordingly, there is still much enjoyment to be found between these pages, especially for those who enjoy reading about the immigrant experience. There is some difficulty in separating the voices of Maya and Nalini, especially in the beginning of the novel but that becomes easier as the novel progresses. And it is well handled when the truth of Nalini's fib comes out, with each of the characters acting in character. Overall, this had a few problems structurally but I did enjoy it and would recommend it to those interested in Indian diaspora writing.

Review: Pink Slip Party by Cara Lockwood

Jane is having an incredibly bad day losing both her job and her boyfriend on the same day. It is even more undignified that her boss is actually a company VP for the office products company firing her and had personally signed off on her termination. The resumes that Jane sends out throughout the story are the most entertaining bit as she's quite creative and unafraid of stretching the truth. But she is only half-heartedly invested in finding a new job. Really she's more focused on figuring out how to borrow money to stay in her apartment, avoiding her successful and fairly know-it-all overbearing older brother's condemnation of her life, and keeping her slacker ex-boyfriend out of her life.

Jane's father loses his job and her mother gets a job, despite his 1950's attitude towards wives working. So while Jane is trying to play mediator between her parents, she invites a woman, also fired from Jane's company to move in with her and share the rent. Inviting Missy into the mix will send everything spiralling out of control as Missy plots to get back at the company, taking Jane and another former co-worker along for the ride. When things go horribly pear-shaped, Jane will turn to Kyle, her brother's cute best friend, for help.

Lockwood tosses many balls in the air with this novel and because they are lighter than air, she manages to keep juggling them. She has multiple plot lines twirling past each other at all times. Her characters are frequently not as fleshed out as the reader might like, perhaps because there are so many of them, all of whom are fairly significant to the story. But Jane does start to grow up and act her 28 years, instead of coming across, as she did in the beginning, as a college-aged woman incapable of facing her own life.

Overall, this was a fun, frothy read. Watching as the characters plan their caper was entertaining and a good way to spend an afternoon. Ultimately the plot and the characters weren't terribly memorable and the writing, while competent, doesn't sing so this is recommended for those who enjoy a bit of chick lit fluff or who want a generally cheery, but potentially forgettable read.

Sunday Salon: Review: The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble

I like Margaret Drabble's work. I know next to nothing about Korean history. And I have a ridiculous fascination with royalty. So Drabble's The Red Queen easily caught my interest with only the barest minimum of jacket copy. Taking a fairly unknown, at least in the West, account written by a Crown Princess in eighteenth century Korea and weaving it into a novel, Drabble has written a completely engrossing story in three sections. The first section, narrated by the Crown Princess' ghost, tells the outline of her life. She married the Crown Prince as a child, long before his later mental illness became not only evident but increasingly dangerous and uncontrollable. She tells of her everyday life, sequestered in the palace, surrounded by political enemies and a few friends. Her account of a priviledged woman's life would be interesting enough without her marriage to the Crown Prince but the manueverings that his illness caused the court and his father the King to emply were also terribly interesting. The second section of the book, once the Western reader is conversant in the Crown Princess' life, focuses on Barbara Halliwell, an English academic travelling to South Korea for a conference, and the chosen "emissary" for the Crown Princess' story. Babs reads the princess' diary on her way to the conference and her interest is so piqued that she spends much of her down time (and a bit of the conference time as well) exploring the places connected to the princess. She is accompanied by a Korean doctor she meets and the pre-eminent speaker from her conference, with whom she embarks on a brief affair. The third section shows Babs after the conference is over and all the momentous events of it are long concluded and it details how the Crown Princess' story will be passed along into the future because it is a story that deserves to be told. There is a neat convention that strikes me as particularly Drabble-esque in this last part of the book but you'll have to read it yourself to see what it is. As always in Drabble's novels, the writing is precise and tight and very well done. The links between the three sections are strong and pull the reader along happily. I am thoroughly glad I took the time to read this one last month and recommend it to others who like depth and thoughtful reading in their lives.