Review of Room by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue's latest novel, Room, has been getting a lot of press, and deservedly so. The book was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

Room is told from the viewpoint of a five-year-old boy named Jack. This would be remarkable on its own. What makes it even more remarkable is that Jack and his mother-- known only as "Ma" throughout the book-- are hidden away in a shed. Ma was kidnapped when she was in college and has been living in one room since that time. Her kidnapper/attacker, Old Nick, regularly shows up to bring food and other necessary items-- and, of course, to rape her. Jack is the product of one such incident, but at age 5, doesn't know that.

Jack and Ma's entire world is in this one room. They are not permitted to go outside. There is no computer or phone. They are entirely dependent on Old Nick for survival, and that puts Ma in an extremely difficult position. She must appease her attacker and care for a young child. She tries to placate Old Nick. She does the best she can with Jack, establishing routines, playing games, teaching him.

Ultimately, Ma and Jack escape from the room and re-enter the outside world. It is startling to Jack, whose only contact with other human beings has been with his mother (Ma, with her strong maternal instincts, hid him away whenever Old Nick appeared). Jack has never seen the sun or ridden in a car or gone to a playground. His entire life has been spent in the confines of this room, which his mother has made as bearable as humanly possible.

Watching Ma re-enter the world is difficult. Watching Jack see the world for the first time is fascinating. How they cope and how they now see the world after such trauma is incredibly interesting.

Just One Pink gives Room a 9.

Review of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

First and foremost, Helen Simonson's novel, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, is a story of good manners and breeding. Major Ernest Pettigrew, the protagonist, is a proper British gentleman living in a small English village. He is a widower, a retired military man, and the father of a grown son. We meet him right when he is digesting the news of his older brother's death. And as we meet him during this difficult time, we are also introduced to Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper in the village. Mrs. Ali is a widow and has taken over her husband's shop. She and the Major strike up an unlikely friendship that we can see is careening toward love.

But there are all sorts of obstacles in the way, including the Major's greedy son, Roger; Mrs. Ali's semi-fanatic nephew, Abdul Wahid; the gossiping men and women of the small village; the Major's conniving sister-in-law and niece; and a set of highly valuable guns.

Simonson, who grew up in a small village in England, clearly knows of what she writes. She shows the gossipy side of a small town, with everyone butting in on everyone else's business. And she shows how those who are not white are never really considered English and are forever put on the sidelines.

There are some very funny moments in the novel and it is, in the end, a love story between two very different (on the outside) people.

Just One Pink gives Major Pettigrew's Last Stand an 8.

Review of Father of the Rain by Lily King

I picked up Father of the Rain because I had read a number of glowing reviews. But I was disappointed in Lily King's latest novel.

Father of the Rain follows the life of Daley, who we first meet as a young girl in the 1970s. She and her family live in fictional Ashling, Massachusetts, a ritzy town. Her parents-- a do-gooder mother and an alcoholic, WASP-y father-- are at odds and end up divorcing. Daley moves in with her mother and sees her father on weekends. I thought this portion of the book, which covered her childhood, was the best part of the book and was the reason I kept reading. Her father is a raging drunk, who is mean and inappropriate towards his children. It's hard to see any redeeming quality in him, though Daley tries. She has a fierce attachment to this man, though he is utterly unlikeable.

The second portion of the book details Daley's life when she's in her late 20s, finishing up graduate school and deciding on her next steps. After hearing that her father's second wife has walked out on him, she ups and leaves her home in Michigan and stays with her father-- this derails her plan to start teaching at Berkeley and to move in with the love of her life, Jonathan. Daley tries and tries to make her father better, driving him to AA meetings, teaching him to cook. She is doing everything she can to rescue her father from himself while she re-lives much of her youth in Ashling, connecting with childhood friends.

I won't reveal how the novel ends, but I will reiterate that I was disappointed in this novel. There were a lot of interesting threads in this book, but I found that how they were handled was somewhat cliched. For example, I wasn't surprised when Daley ends up having a black boyfriend-- her father is racist and anti-Semitic and hates Democrats.

All in all, this book was slightly above average, but I wouldn't recommend it. Just One Pink gives Father of the Rain a 7.

Review of More of This World or Maybe Another by Barb Johnson

Barb Johnson's first collection of linked short stories, More of This World or Maybe Another, is good. Very good. In the nine stories, we meet several friends who live in New Orleans. How their lives meet and diverge is a large part of the collection. We see many of them in childhood or adolescence and then follow them over the course of a number of years. What these stories all have in common is a sense of sadness, desperation, and loneliness.

In the title story, we meet Delia, who figures prominently throughout the book. She is in high school, hanging out at a dance, thinking about her future, and feeling the first stirrings of attraction that she will deal with later on in the book. In "Killer Heart," we meet Dooley, Delia's younger brother, and follow him through a turbulent time in his marriage. In "Titty Baby," we meet Pudge, a friend of Delia's, who grapples with being teased for being heavy and who deals with a rough family situation.

I was blown away by this collection. It's well written, touching, and very real. Johnson worked as a carpenter for 20 years before going back to school to get her MFA. I hope she keeps writing.

Just One Pink gives More of This World or Maybe Another a 9.

Review of Open by Andre Agassi

Andre Agassi hates tennis. That's the most important piece of information we get in his autobiography, Open. The book, of course, is the story of his life-- so far. We read about his overbearing and demanding father, his tenure at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, the beginning and ending of his tennis career, and his personal life.

Open is the story of a champion athlete, who never really aspired to be one. A tennis racket was put in his hand at a very young age, and he displayed amazing talent. Agassi tells us again and again how much he dislikes tennis. He hates being at the Bollettieri Academy. He doesn't like being on the road for matches.

Agassi also writes about his relationships, both personal or professional. Agassi's first wife, Brooke Shields , comes off looking like an insensitive princess. His second wife, Steffi Graf, comes across as an angel. How he goes from Shields to Graf is an interesting story in and of itself. Agassi also writes about his difficult relationship with his father, his fraught relationship with Bollettieri, and his close relationships with one of his brothers, a friend, a trainer, and a coach. And he writes about his matches. A lot of matches.

After reading Open, I got the sense that Agassi is human, something that didn't necessarily come across during his playing days. He has family issues, relationship problems, and insecurities just like the rest of us. They just happen to come in the guise of a professional athlete.

Just One Pink gives Open a 7.5.

Review of One Day by David Nicholls

One Day, the latest novel by David Nicholls, follows the friendship of Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley, who have met on the day of their college graduation in Edinburgh. After a semi-romantic interlude, the two go their separate ways, but promise to stay in touch. The novel checks in on them on July 15 of almost every year, beginning in 1988, when they have just graduated, and ends in 2007.

Dexter, who can come across as a bit of a cad, becomes a fairly well-known television presenter. Emma, on the other hand, toils away in a Mexican restaurant and ends up getting her teaching certificate. She's insecure and a little preachy. Each has romantic interests, but they always come back to each other. It's clear that no matter what is going on in their lives, they care deeply about each other, even if they're not entirely ready to admit it. There are many awkward moments between them, and there is an undercurrent that neither one will fully recognize.

I was a bit taken aback by the turn of the events at the end of the novel and am still not quite sure how I feel about Nicholls's choices.

I did think, though, that this was a fairly honest representation of a friendship between a man and a woman that stands up to the test of time, to lovers and spouses, to friends, to career changes, to rough patches.

Just One Pink gives One Day an 8.

Review of I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

We've all heard about Nigerian email scams. In Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's novel, I Do Not Come to You by Chance, she tackles the issue-- but from the side of the scammer.

Kingsley Ibe, the narrator, is an engineering graduate, but is having trouble finding a decent job. When things take a turn for the worse in his family, he decides to work for his rich uncle, Boniface, known as "Cash Daddy." Cash Daddy has made lots of money through 419 schemes, those Nigerian email scams most everyone is familiar with.

Kingsley is a sensitive guy who pines for his ex-girlfriend, Ola, worries about his aging mother, and struggles to take care of her and his brothers and sister. Education has always been important in the Ibe family, so working for his shady, uneducated uncle is not what was expected of Kingsley. But he gets used to it-- and the money, women, status, and luxuries that come along with scamming "mugus" (suckers).

Nwaubani's novel is incredibly entertaining and gives us a glimpse into the life of a struggling young Nigerian man who does what he has to in order to survive. There are some very poignant moments in here, but there are also some very funny ones. I found myself rooting for Kingsley even though I shouldn't have, given his line of work.

Just One Pink gives I Do Not Come to You by Chance an 8.

Review of The Adderall Diaries by Stephen Elliott

Stephen Elliott's memoir, The Adderall Diaries, isn't just a memoir. It's also the story of a murder.

Elliott weaves his own personal story of family problems, group homes, drug addiction, sado-masochism, and mental illess with the story of a murder that happened in northern California. He knows some of the individuals involved in the murder, so has a different perspective, I'm guessing, than other observers.

The murder story gets some attention, but I think Elliott would have done better writing two separate books. His life story merits its own book. His mother died when he was a child, leaving him with an abusive father. Elliott ended up in group homes in Chicago and made his way to college. He floated around afterwards and ended up in San Francisco, where he took Adderall, was dominated by numerous women, wrote, and drifted in and out of depression. It's clear that Elliott has had a tough life, but I also found him a bit self-indulgent on occasion, a hazard of memoirs. I think if his life story had been fleshed out more, that wouldn't have happened.

As for the murder story, we don't get all the details here, either. I would have liked to get more background on all the characters involved in it. There's a love triangle, an off-kilter computer scientist, a mail-order bride, all the makings of a great true crime story. But again, Elliott doesn't give us enough information.

I also found the jumping back and forth from his life story to the murder story to be jarring at times. Sometimes, one paragraph in a chapter would be about him and the next would be about the murder with no transition at all. This book could have used better editing in my opinion.

All in all, I felt like I got a brief glimpse of both Elliott's life and the murder story, but didn't get anything in-depth. I would have liked to.

Just One Pink gives The Adderall Diaries a 7.

Review of Call It What You Want by Keith Lee Morris

Disaffected and disillusioned men are the characters in Keith Lee Morris's collection of short stories, Call It What You Want.

In straightforward, clear, and honest prose, Morris writes about the lives of men across a range of ages, from early 20s to middle age. Most of these men live in Idaho or come from that part of the country and end up living somewhere else. They are introspective men who haven't had the easiest lives, be it with work, family, friends. The word "hardscrabble" comes to mind when I think about many of the characters.

I thought the first half of the book was much stronger than the second half. Among my favorite stories was "Camel Light," in which a married man with two children tries to enjoy a day off-- and alone-- only to be derailed by finding a cigarette stub in his kitchen. Another of my favorites was "Guests," in which a twentysomething man, recently graduated from college, works in a hotel in New Orleans with one of his buddies. An older and very beautiful woman is a guest at the hotel and offers him a glimpse of the life he could have. I also really liked "Ayudame,"which tells the story of a roofer who witnesses a terrible accident.

"A Desert Island Romance" was less successful and didn't seem to fit with the rest of the collection. I also thought "The Culvert," a story of a man who loses a son in a flash flood, wasn't as good as the other stories.

The majority of the stories were excellent, and a number of them have stuck with me. I will remember them for a long time. For this reason, I give Call It What You Want an 8.5.

Review of I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson

I Curse the River of Time is a beautiful book. In clear and precise prose, Per Petterson tells the story of Arvid Jansen, a 37-year-old man in the midst of a divorce, who also happens to have a very complicated relationship with his mother.

To put it bluntly, Arvid is not a happy man. He drops out of college to follow his Communist ideals. He has had "issues" with his mother for his entire life. And now his mother is dying.

The book takes place both in Norway and in Denmark, where Arvid's mother is originally from. It moves up and back in time, tracing Arvid's youth and young adulthood, and touches on the brother he lost. It's easy to see that Arvid's mother is a complicated woman, full of dreams and regrets. The two never really argue, but the tension is always gurgling beneath the surface.

The writing was lovely. At times, the novel seemed to have a conversational tone, and I think this worked well. And there were definitely many dark and contemplative moments throughout the book.

Petterson's descriptions of Scandinavia were excellent, and his observations were spot on. Not that much happens in I Curse the River of Time, but action is not the point.

Just One Pink gives I Curse the River of Time an 8.5.

Review of A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan's latest novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, is not your typical novel. And that was fine with me. In many ways, the novel reminded me of movies like Babel and Crash. Various people become interconnected and their lives collide, creating a complicated tapestry.

The book follows the lives of two main characters-- Bennie, a musician turned music executive, and his former assistant Sasha. We get glimpses of their lives as children, as teenagers, and as full-fledged adults. We often get these glimpses into their lives from the viewpoints of others who come into contact with them. We read about Alex, who dated Sasha, and later ends up connected to Bennie. We read about Ted, Sasha's uncle, who hunts her down in Italy. We read about Stephanie, Bennie's wife (for awhile) and a PR executive. These stories cover the past, present, and the future. The stories happen in California, New York, Italy, an unnamed foreign country. One chapter of the novel is done in Powerpoint by Sasha's 12-year-old daughter.

What Egan does well is capture the sadness and sometimes the desperation of people's lives. Identity, a theme in her writing, shows up again here. Who we are, she seems to say, is an amalgam of what people think we are.

Egan is one of my favorite contemporary writers. I highly recommend A Visit from the Goon Squad. For another excellent book by Egan, check out Look at Me, which is also about image and identity.

Just One Pink gives A Visit from the Goon Squad a 9.

Review of Alone With You by Marisa Silver

Alone With You, the latest book of short stories by Marisa Silver, was a quick read. The book is made up of 10 stories. Isolation, illness and parental issues, sometimes all at once, pervade Alone With You. Overall, I thought the stories were uneven. Some of them were sparkling, and others fell flat. I did find that the further I got in to the book, the more I liked it.

"Temporary," the first story, is about a small-town girl who goes to Los Angeles and moves in with a dramatic young woman. This story really didn't work for me-- it didn't seem to go anywhere. I didn't like "Three Girls," either. It's the story of three sisters with problematic parents and an unexpected knock at the door on a cold night.

But there were stories I did like. In the title story, a woman goes to the Sahara to ride camels with her husband, her son, and the son's girlfriend while on a quest to figure out who and where she should be. In "Night Train to Frankfurt," a 30-something woman with career and relationship problems travels to Germany with her cancer-stricken mother to visit a clinic. In "In the New World," a Polish immigrant to California grapples with an Americanized teenage son.

As for the writing style, sometimes I was in awe, and other times, I thought the language didn't work at all.

Just One Pink gives Alone With You a 7.5.

Review of The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

Brady Udall 's latest novel, The Lonely Polygamist, weighs in at almost 600 pages. As the title suggests, it's the story of a polygamist living out west and how he deals-- or doesn't deal-- with his four wives and twenty-plus children. He's also working on a construction project in Nevada which requires him to be away from home for extended periods of time. He tells everyone he's working on building a senior center. Brothel, senior center, those are pretty much the same, right? No wonder the book is 599 pages. That's a lot of ground to cover.

Udall knows of what he writes. The Udall family is one of the most well known Mormon families in the U.S., and one of the most prominent in the western part of the country.

Golden Richards, the main character in the book, ends up becoming a Mormon-- and a polygamist-- through a series of events. His four wives, of course, play a prominent role in the book. Each one is very different from the next. Beverly, the first wife, is strict and severe. Nola and Rose-of-Sharon are sisters. And Trish, the fourth and youngest wife, has a backbone, not what we'd expect in a polygamist household. Add in nearly 30 children and there is major bedlam all the time.

Golden also looks back on the several children he's lost, and those parts of the book were the most poignant for me. What also struck me were the sections on Rusty, one of Golden's sons. Rusty is ignored by everyone in the family and desperately wants to be noticed. I have no idea what it's like to be a "plyg kid" as Udall calls them, but I got a good sense from reading about Rusty.

Large chunks of the book take place in Nevada, where Golden is working. While there, he has to contend with a boss from hell and his love for another woman, who happens to be said boss's wife. Toss in some other characters--thugs, wayward Mormons, religious Mormons-- and you have a book which is bursting at the seams.

In the course of the book, Golden never seems to make a real decision. Things just "happen" to him. And it was interesting to follow the course of his life-- and the lives of his family-- to see where they would end up.

This book is dense and descriptive. It's funny and sad. It gets to the core of human nature. It seemed like it was trying to be the "Great American Novel-- Polygamist Version." In many ways, it succeeded, but there were some threads that I couldn't quite grab on to.

Just One Pink gives The Lonely Polygamist an 8.

Review of The Theory of Light & Matter by Andrew Porter

Simply put, The Theory of Light & Matter is one of the best books of short stories I have ever read. Andrew Porter's collection is made up of 10 stories that take place across the U.S. Several of the stories feature an adult narrator looking back on an incident that occurred in childhood/adolescence or early adulthood. Siblings play a big role in this book-- brothers and sisters can often be confidantes and downfalls at the same time.

The first story in the book, "Hole," features a 20-something narrator who looks back on a childhood summer when he lost a close friend in an accident. The title story, one of the strongest, follows a woman's two love interests, who couldn't be more different, and her choice between them. "Merkin" is about a man who pretends to be his neighbor's boyfriend to spare her father the truth about her sexuality, but there are real feelings lurking beneath the surface.

The writing is spare, clear, and lyrical and incredibly evocative. Porter won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction for this book. These short stories are incredible, and I hope to read more from Porter.

Here is an excerpt from "The Theory of Light & Matter": Later that evening, when I returned from Robert's apartment, Colin was waiting in the hallway outside my dorm room. He was wearing his swim team sweat suit and reading a book. When he saw me approaching the door, he stood up and smiled. I could see in his eyes that he was concerned about where I had been, and when he took my hand without a word and kissed me against the wall, I realized the full extent of both his fear and his love for me.

Just One Pink gives The Theory of Light & Matter a 9.8 (because nothing is perfect...).

Review of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

Truth is stranger than fiction, the saying goes. And Rhoda Janzen, in her memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, proves that. Soon after turning 40, Janzen, a poet who teaches at Hope College, has major gynecological surgery. And not long after that, Janzen's husband, Nick, leaves her for a man. The same week Nick leaves her, Janzen is injured in a serious car accident. It sounds like a soap opera, but it's true.

Janzen decides to take a well-deserved breather at her parents' home in California. The kicker is that her parents are Mennonites, a faith she has tried to distance herself from for years. Her mother is always upbeat, while her father is more austere. They welcome her home with open arms, and Janzen does her best to try to heal.

This memoir is not just the story of Janzen looking back on her childhood and the Mennonite religion. It's also the story of her failed marriage to a man who was bipolar and bisexual-- that's a lot of bi. And her memoir is also about coming to grips with the life that she has chosen. An academic, Janzen strays from her upbringing, where too much education is considered a bad thing.

The tone of this memoir is light. Too light. I know that Janzen wanted to have a light-hearted tone, but in some places, this works against her. This is serious stuff she's tackling-- surgery, faith, divorce, mental illness. And yes, she can find humor in it, which is great. But all of this is deserving of a more serious tone on occasion.

All in all, though, I enjoyed the book, especially Janzen's interactions with her mother-- an always cheerful woman who suggests her daughter date a cousin-- and the various Mennonites in her orbit. I also found it interesting to read about Janzen's relationship with her siblings-- her brothers continue to follow the Mennonite religion, but her sister does not.

I admire Janzen for bouncing back from such adversity and for being so honest about everything that has happened to her.

Just One Pink gives Mennonite in a Little Black Dress a 7.5.

Review of The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

If there is one word that comes to mind after reading Aryn Kyle's novel, it is "hushed." The God of Animals is the story of a young girl, Alice Winston, growing up on a horse farm in Colorado. Alice's life is far from easy-- her older sister has run off and gotten married, her depressed mother stays upstairs in her bedroom, and her father tries to keep money coming in and his home and business in order.

Alice is an unusually observant and smart girl. The novel opens with her recollection of a classmate's death. How she spins this death to her advantage was an interesting part of the book. It was also interesting to see how she dealt with social issues that came up at her school, how she tried to deal with her mother's illness, and how she tried to soldier on in light of so many troubles at home.

The quietness of this novel was one of its strong points, but I thought it moved too slowly. I would have liked to see a bit more action-- most of it came in the form of horse riding and training.

Kyle is a lyrical writer, and I thought the novel flowed nicely. She created an utterly believable narrator in Alice Winston and clearly has first-hand knowledge of life on a ranch.

Just One Pink gives The God of Animals a 7.5.

Review of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

We've seen an explosion of Indian literature over the past few years, but we haven't seen much Pakistani literature. Daniyal Mueenuddin's book of short stories, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, has changed that.

Mueenuddin's linked short stories tackle class issues in Pakistan. We see the viewpoints of the rich, poor, and those who used to be rich and are now poor. We meet an electrician who struggles to support his large family, a servant who uses sex to gain favor, an embittered Lahore judge, a spoiled and wealthy young woman who marries and moves to the countryside, among others. I found myself feeling empathy for all the characters, no small feat when many of them were manipulative and dishonest. Though I have never been to Pakistan, I got a good sense of the country from reading Mueenuddin's stories.

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders was a finalist for the National Book Award last year. This book was one of the best books of short stories I have read in years, and I highly recommend it.

Here is an excerpt from the story "About a Burning Girl": I am a sessions judge in the Lahore High Court. I should tell you at the start, so that you understand my position regarding these events, that despite my profession I don't believe in justice, am no longer consumed by a desire to be what in law school we called "a sword of the Lord"; nor do I pretend to have perfectly clean hands, so am not in a position to view the judicial system with anything except a degree of tolerance. I render decisions based on the relative pressures brought to bear on me.

Just One Pink gives In Other Rooms, Other Wonders a 9.5.

Review of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Is that testosterone that I smell? Yes. Yes, it is, and the odor is coming from Anthony Bourdain's book, Kitchen Confidential. Again, I'm behind the curve-- this book about Bourdain's life as a chef throughout the East Coast came out years ago. Most recently, I think, Bourdain was the chef at New York's Les Halles.

Bourdain's book details his life in the restaurant business and all the good, bad and ugly that transpired. He mostly concentrates on the bad and ugly, which, of course, is much more interesting than the good. Bourdain has a bad boy reputation and freely admits to using heroin and cocaine, among a bunch of other drugs. He talks about bouncing from restaurant to restaurant, plucking the best sous-chefs and other kitchen staff along the way. Bourdain descibes what actually goes on inside a kitchen-- this includes a lot of banter, insults, booze, yelling, and hook-ups. He also discusses how he came to be a chef, that the restaurant business seems to attract people who could not function in "regular" jobs. His tales of sex, alcohol and deceit are definitely entertaining, but he does provide the lay reader with practical information about eating out-- a bonus of the book, I thought.

So if you are looking for an entertaining and frolicking (why this word jumps out at me, I don't know) read about a frenzied chef in New York City and the world he orbits, definitely pick up this book.

Just One Pink gives Kitchen Confidential an 8.

Review of Famous Fathers & Other Stories by Pia Z. Ehrhardt

Women are the main characters in all the stories in Pia Z. Ehrhardt's book, Famous Fathers & Other Stories. And all of these women are struggling with issues of fidelity and love, both familial and romantic. The stories take place in and around New Orleans, which serves as a great backdrop-- it is a city that is recovering, as are most of the characters in some way. Ehrhardt's writing is spare and clear, and I liked that. What I didn't like so much was that each female protagonist seemed to be similar to the next-- I started thinking that all the characters were interchangeable. For example, in the first story in the collection, "Running the Room," the narrator thinks about starting an affair at the same time she is housing her mother-- who is actually having an affair. In "Tell Me in Italian," the divorced narrator is having a torrid affair with a married man and finds out a lot of information about her own father's affair with his grad student. All of the women have considered affairs, are having affairs, or are dealing with heartbreak, which is fine, but I would have liked the narrators to be more distinct.

One of the strongest stories in the collection, "Intermediate Goals," tells the story of a woman named Carrie, who is reeling from her recent divorce. She's at loose ends and spends her time hanging out at bars and visiting a local prison. I also thought "Driveway" was very good. A married woman considers having an affair and thinks about the boredom in the daily life of a wife and mother.

Here is an excerpt from "Intermediate Goals": There's something wrong with my train of thought. Pat and I are at Shoney's, drinking coffee and arguing about money, but I switch off and start to admire his eyebrows, his nose, his analog watch, the new orange shirt he's wearing. I watch him like he's someone else's problem, and I start thinking: wouldn't it be nice if he were mine.

Just One Pink gives Famous Fathers & Other Stories a 7.

Review of Everything Asian by Sung J. Woo

Sung J. Woo's book Everything Asian tells the story of a Korean boy who immigrates to New Jersey with his family in the 1980's. His father had arrived in the U.S. years before, leaving Dae Joon, his sister and mother behind in Korea while he established himself. Dae Joon-- soon to be David-- is not only grappling with a foreign culture, but also with a father he barely remembers.

David does his best to navigate the strange surroundings of New Jersey. His parents run East Meets West, a store that sells "everything Asian" and David spends a lot of time there and in Peddlers Town, the strip mall that houses the store. There are a lot of other characters who add flavor to the novel, including the only other Korean shopkeepers at Peddlers Town, the Hongs; the fiery Russian owner of a stereo store; and a detective who sets up a storefront agency.

As if adjusting to life in the U.S. weren't enough, David is also contending with parents who aren't so happy in general or with each other in particular, and a moody older sister.

Everything Asian is a coming of age novel and an immigrant novel.

Here is an excerpt: My sister had chosen this day, my twelfth birthday, to try to kill herself. Looking back on that day now, I can see it was merely a stunt to gain attention, and even then I think I knew she was bluffing, but still, I couldn't ignore the blue dish and the paring knife sitting on top of the toilet seat, its tip pointing toward the bathtub like a compass needle. On the dish, a pile of white pills sat like an offering. I put the dish and the knife on the floor and flipped the seat up. As I peed into the bowl, I stared down at the silver edge of the blade, wondering how close it had come to my sister's wrists.

Just One Pink gives Everything Asian an 8.

Review of Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

Amsterdam is a disturbing and well-written book. Ostensibly about the death of Molly Lane, a woman in her 40s who dies of a degenerative disease, Amsterdam revolves around the lives of several of her former lovers: Vernon, a newspaper editor; Clive, a composer; and Julian, a politician. Also in the mix is George, Molly's much older husband, who is also connected in some way to these men.

The book opens with Vernon and Clive meeting outside Molly's funeral on a dreary February day in London. Vernon and Clive are good friends, and much of the book focuses on their friendship, which one day can be combative and the next heartfelt. These two men also have connections to George and Julian.

How all of these characters' lives and decisions-- both personal and professional-- intertwine is the thrust of this book. Major moral issues come in to play and Ian McEwan weaves them all together in a tightly-knit way.

I wouldn't say Amsterdam is my favorite of the books I have read by McEwan, but I will say that it is one of the most intricately plotted.

Just One Pink gives Amsterdam a 7.5.