Just One Pink

Review of The Taliban Shuffle by Kim Barker

2011-04-17T16:45:00.005-04:00

Kim Barker has a sense of humor, which is desperately needed when reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan. In her book The Taliban Shuffle, the former Chicago Tribune reporter and fellow Northwestern alum recounts her experience doing the "Taliban shuffle," moving between and reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan over the course of several years. Barker, who has worked for newspapers around the country, didn't have a passport when she offered to cover the conflicts in these two countries. She did have a thirst for adventure and a willingness to learn. And so she became a foreign correspondent, writing about the daily lives of the Afghan and Pakistani people, dissecting the politics, and navigating a world completely different from her own. Through it all, Barker tries to maintain a social life and keep things in perspective. That is not easy in a war zone. But Barker does the best she can to chase stories, acclimate to new cultures, and learn about herself. Both her sense of humor and work ethic are evident. Barker admits that she gets "addicted" to the lifestyle of a foreign correspondent, with the constant threat of danger and the always changing political landscape. But she also realizes when it's time to come home. And that is the strength of this book-- seriousness and levity in pretty equal doses. Barker reveals what's going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan in a completely understandable manner. She also lets us in on her own life over there, which is also interesting (FYI, dating in Kabul seems a bit more difficult than dating in Chicago). All in all, this was an informative, enjoyable, and funny read. Just One Pink gives The Taliban Shuffle a 9.5.

Review of Room by Emma Donoghue

2010-10-27T15:08:00.002-04:00

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

2010-10-18T08:24:00.002-04:00

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

2010-09-20T15:03:00.002-04:00

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

2010-09-15T09:59:00.002-04:00

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

2010-08-26T12:59:00.003-04:00

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

2010-08-18T08:35:00.002-04:00

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

2010-08-16T09:34:00.002-04:00

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

2010-08-09T10:09:00.003-04:00

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

2010-07-30T09:24:00.002-04:00

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

2010-07-06T18:34:00.002-04:00

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

2010-06-25T12:35:00.002-04:00

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

2010-06-13T12:51:00.002-04:00

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

2010-05-22T08:11:00.006-04:00

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

2010-04-26T08:46:00.002-04:00

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

2010-04-21T07:45:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-08T13:42:00.002-04:00

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

2010-03-31T08:39:00.004-04:00

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

2010-03-20T07:50:00.002-04:00

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

2010-03-10T08:20:00.003-05:00

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

2010-02-23T11:31:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-13T09:36:00.002-05:00

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.

Review of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

2009-12-30T10:31:00.005-05:00

Eat, Pray, Love. Don't. Read. It.

Elizabeth Gilbert's book was one of the most self-indulgent memoirs I have ever read. We learn that she has gone through a divorce, but don't get much back story on what happened. And because we don't get this information, I had a hard time mustering up any empathy for her. She came across as whiny, entitled, and annoying-- not the makings of a narrator I can get on board with. I was more curious to hear her husband's side of the story about their failed marriage than I was to hear about Gilbert traipsing all over the world to re-discover herself. (Note: Her ex apparently has his own memoir coming out one of these days).

In theory, this was a great idea for a book-- a newly divorced woman takes off on her own to experience life in its grandest forms. If this woman had been likeable, fun, and not so completely self-centered, I probably would have enjoyed her book.

Yes, some of the writing about her travels in Italy, India, and Indonesia was interesting. But I could not get past the whininess that seemed to permeate the book.

Rarely do I keep reading a book that I so dislike. I guess I kept hoping that Gilbert would somehow redeem herself at the end. She didn't.

Memoirs by nature can be self-indulgent, and it can be hard to stike a balance in them. We want to understand the narrator, get to know her and her life. We need to feel like we are on their side.

For a well-crafted memoir, where we actually get to know the narrator, like her, and root for her, pick up The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells or Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres.

Just One Pink gives Eat, Pray, Love a 4.

Review of American Pastoral by Philip Roth

2009-12-16T10:30:00.002-05:00

Who am I to review Philip Roth, one of the greatest writers in the world? I had never read Roth before, and American Pastoral had been recommended to me by several people. So I took the plunge, bought the book, and started reading.

After reading the first 50 or so pages, I kept wondering what the big deal was. The beginning of American Pastoral was tedious-- it seemed to be a long-winded account of some old Jewish guy named Zuckerman who was recounting his childhood days in Newark, New Jersey. I almost stopped reading, unsure of what was so great about this book. But I was told to hang in there, that the book picks up.

So I hung in there, and the book did indeed pick up. And it turned out to be one of the best books I have read in a long, long time.

American Pastoral tells the story of Seymour "Swede" Levov, a man who seems to be blessed in every way-- with looks, money, athleticism, a beautiful wife, a lovely daughter, a booming business. It's the 1960s in New Jersey, and the Swede lives with his wife, a former Miss New Jersey, and their daughter in a bucolic town in New Jersey. He runs a successful glove business started by his father. But his charmed existence comes crashing down when his teenage daughter, Merry, begins to protest the Vietnam War, commits a heinous crime and goes into hiding. And this changes the life of the Swede forever.

The characterizations in this book were among the best I have ever read. Roth described each of the characters so well and with such precision that I could almost see them. I could picture so many of the scenes. And I could sympathize with most of the characters. I finished the book and was in awe at the picture Roth had drawn. I get what the big deal is.

Just One Pink gives American Pastoral a 9.5-- I could have done without the very beginning of the book.

Review of The Suicide Index by Joan Wickersham

2009-11-23T09:59:00.002-05:00

The Suicide Index is Joan Wickersham's memoir about the aftermath of her father's suicide. Instead of "regular" chapters, there are categories, like "Suicide: act of, bare bones account" and "Suicide: items found in my husband's closet and." The book is a pretty linear account of what happened, but Wickersham used an index in which to frame the book. This, we can guess, is to try to make logical a horrible act that is completely illogical to those who survive.

Wickersham's book, a finalist for the National Book Award in 2008, can be very difficult to read at certain points. There were definitely moments when I felt like a voyeur and didn't want to know certain details of her family history. But there were more moments when I could see the love Wickersham had for her father and how his suicide upended her life, not just in the years after his death, but forever.

Wickersham traces her father's life from an abusive childhood in Europe and the U.S. to numerous business failures as an adult. She discusses her mother's reaction to finding him dead in the study of their house. She talks about how the death of her father affected her own marriage.

This book is not only about suicide, but also about loss, love and the human condition. It's clear that Wickersham will never fully recover-- how could anyone?-- but we see that, with this book, she tries to understand.

Here's an excerpt:
This is what my father did. He got up, showered, shaved, and dressed for work. He went downstairs and made a pot of coffee, and while it was brewing he went outside and walked the long driveway to pick up the newspaper. He left the newspaper folded on the kitchen table, poured a cup of coffee, carried it upstairs, and put it on my mother's bedside table. She was still in bed, sleeping. Then he went into his study, closed the door, and shot himself.

Just One Pink gives The Suicide Index an 8.

Review of Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock

2009-11-11T12:36:00.003-05:00

Donald Ray Pollock's book of short stories takes place in Knockemstiff, Ohio, in the southern part of the state. It's not too far distance-wise from where I grew up, but is worlds away from that leafy suburban city. There really is a Knockemstiff. Pollock grew up there and still lives in Ohio.

This book is about the people who live in Knockemstiff, an assortment of oddballs who exhibit the full range of human emotions. Some love living in "the holler" as Pollock calls it, while others can't think of anything else other than escaping from it. Knockemstiff itself seemed like a recurrent character. The city, if it can even be called that, has its own quirks and issues. The language is anything but delicate, but that's what makes the stories ring true and what makes them utterly readable.

One of my favorite stories in the collection, "Real Life," is about a young boy and the not-so-great lessons his somewhat violent father teaches him. Another of my favorites is "Discipline," about a road trip to West Virginia to get steroids.

Here's an excerpt from "I Start Over:"
Take me, for example, Big Bernie Givens. I'm fifty-six years old and sloppy fat and stuck in southern Ohio like the smile on a dead clown's ass. My wife shudders every time I mention the sex act. My grown son eats the dead stuff that collects on windowsills. I must watch that damn commercial twenty times a day. I dream about it at night, about starting over. I wake up with that background music knocking holes in my heart. Like I said, it's bullshit.

Just One Pink gives Knockemstiff a 9.

Review of The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

2009-11-10T11:09:00.003-05:00

The Secret Scripture was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and I can see why. Sebastian Barry's novel takes place in Ireland and weaves the stories of patient and doctor. The patient, Roseanne McNulty, is around 100 years old and has been at the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital for longer than anyone can remember. One of her doctors is Dr. William Grene. His job is to assess whether Roseanne-- and a number of other patients-- can live in normal society once the hospital closes its doors.

The novel alternates between Roseanne's story and Dr. Grene's. We learn about the history of Ireland and the history of Roseanne through the information she tells us. Dr. Grene tries to unravel what exactly happened in Roseanne's life that has landed her in the institution. At the same time, he is struggling with his role as a doctor and personal failings in his own life.

The writing is poetic and lyrical, and the descriptions of Ireland are amazing.

Here is an excerpt:
It is always worth itemising happiness, there is so much of the other thing in a life, you had better put down the markers for happiness while you can. When I was in that state, everything looked beautiful to me, the rain slicing down looked like silver to me, everything was of interest to me, everyone seemed at ease with me, even those slit-eyed boys of Sligo, with the yellow fingers from the coffin nails they smoked, the yellow stain above their lips where the fag was stuck in permanent. Accents like bottles being smashed in a back lane.

Just One Pink gives The Secret Scripture a 9.

Review of How to Leave Hialeah by Jennine Capo Crucet

2009-10-30T09:10:00.003-04:00

In How to Leave Hialeah, Jennine Capo Crucet explores south Florida and the world of the Cuban immigrant. This book of short stories mainly takes place in Hialeah, a city in Miami-Dade county that is home to a very high percentage of Cubans. Almost every story has some sprinkling of Spanish in it, which adds to the flavor of the book.

The characters in these 11 stories tend to be young and observant, often struggling with the disconnect between their parents' generation, born in Cuba, and their own, born in the U.S. Family plays a huge role in this book. In the title story, one of the strongest, the narrator, a young Cuban-American woman, heads off to the Northeast for college, the first person in her family to leave the Miami area. In "The Next Move," a widower relates memories of his wife while dealing with some unruly grandchildren. "Men Who Punched Me in the Face," we again have a young female narrator, this time documenting the various boys and men who have been violent toward her. I thought "How to Leave Hialeah" and "Men" were among the two best in the collection.

This book won The John Simmons Short Fiction Award from the University of Iowa, and I can see why. The stories are complex as are the characters, but they are clearly written with love and affection and an understanding of Cuban-American culture in Miami.

Below is a passage from "Men Who Punched Me in the Face:"

My mother declared him the The Best Looking Guy To Ever Talk To Me three minutes after meeting him. He had the hard-line chin and perfect eyebrows that looked like a professional Hialeah beautician had sculpted them. He never got carded when he ordered beer at El Rey Pizza. He could grow a beard in two hours. After a game, he smelled so much like man sweat and dirt that I worried just smelling him would make me pregnant. He was light brown but close enough to white that my abuela didn't hate him.

Just One Pink gives How to Leave Hialeah an 8.5.

Review of Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg

2009-10-27T09:52:00.007-04:00

Writing about mental illness isn't easy. And I'm guessing that when that mental illness strikes your own child, it's that much harder. In Hurry Down Sunshine, Michael Greenberg takes on his daughter Sally's descent into manic depression. At age 15, Sally is "struck," as Greenberg puts it. She goes to a locked mental ward in Manhattan, where she is treated for almost a month. Greenberg writes about the hospital and several of its patients with care and respect, while at the same time trying to make sense of seeing his daughter, once so vibrant, so ill.

When Sally comes out, Greenberg does his best to help her back toward health. He and his wife Pat, who is Sally's stepmother, struggle to keep Sally safe and on her medication. His ex-wife Robin and son Aaron also appear on the scene, and the family works -- not always smoothly-- to keep the family together and to keep Sally healthy. At the same time all this is happening, Greenberg is caring for one of his brothers, who is also mentally ill.

Greenberg does an excellent job of detailing Sally's illness and the strain it places on his marriage and on him specifically. What is clear from this memoir is Greenberg's utmost love for his daughter and his willingness to do anything to help-- and save-- her. He even takes some of Sally's medication because he wants to see the world as she saw it.

I found this book incredibly compelling and sped through it. Greenberg was able to express his pain and explain both the loss and the hope he felt, and I'm presuming, continues to feel. The book gives us a very clear account of manic depression, a disease that is not completely understood and that, based on Greenberg's account, is extremely frightening.

I highly recommend this book, not only for those interested in mental illness, but also for those interested in memoir-writing.

Just One Pink gives Hurry Down Sunshine an 8.5.

Review of Girl Trouble by Holly Goddard Jones

2009-10-18T12:32:00.005-04:00

Girl Trouble is one of the best books of short stories I have read in a long time. Like any short story collection, there are some stories that are stronger than others, but overall, this is a very well-written and interesting collection.

All eight stories take place in the fictional town of Roma, Kentucky, a small town in western Kentucky. Holly Goddard Jones knows a lot about this area-- she grew up in Russellville, Kentucky, which I'm guessing Roma is modeled after. As the title of the book implies, there is girl trouble, not only in the typical sense of the phrase, but also in many others. Not every story is told by a female narrator or revolves around a female character, but many of them do. One of the strongest stories involves a divorced woman who has lost her daughter to a brutal crime and follows how she tries to cope with the aftermath-- and with the news that her ex-husband is getting re-married. Another of the strongest stories is the flip side of this woman's-- it's about the young man who was responsible for her daughter's death and what led him there. Another story is about a young girl who visits her neighbors' pool on a regular basis-- not the makings of an especially exciting story, you would think. But we get some good information about a girl beginning to recognize the power of her sexuality.

All in all, this was an excellent collection and one I would recommend to those who are interested in the craft of short fiction.

Here is a passage from the story "Parts:"
I knew when Art called three weeks ago that he had news for me. He only calls to hurt me with his happiness, and he always prefaces his announcements with, "I wanted you to know first." Like it's a gift he's offering me, a neat little package of despair: Dana, I'm selling the house. Dana, I met a woman. Dana, we're getting married.

Just One Pink gives Girl Trouble a 9.

Review of Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh

2009-10-05T13:23:00.005-04:00

Let me preface this post by saying that I read Mrs. Kimble awhile ago, and the fact that I still remember large parts of it speaks to the effect it had on me.

In theory, there is nothing novel (no pun intended) about the book. It is the story of Ken Kimble, a minister, and the three woman who play central roles in his life. A third of the book is devoted to his first wife, Birdie, a woman he eventually leaves. Another third is about his second wife, Joan, a wealthy-- and lonely-- woman. The last third revolves around Dinah, a woman he first met when she was a child and he was an adult, married to Birdie.

We learn about Ken through the eyes of Birdie, Joan and Dinah. We never get first person perspective from Ken, and I think this is what makes the book so interesting. We learn about Ken-- who he is, who he wanted to be, his faults, his strengths-- through the women in his life, each who has her own issues. Each of the women is complicated in her own way, adding another layer of complexity to the story.

Jennifer Haigh's book spans three decades, though the first few pages take place in the present-- and they were what drew me in. Here are the first few lines:

"The man died alone, in a baby blue Eldorado on Route A1A, waiting for the drawbridge to be lowered. As his heart seized, his foot lifted off the brake; the car crept forward and nudged the bumper of a lawn service truck. The driver of the truck radioed his office and waited for the ambulance to arrive. By the time it came, the man was already dead."

Just One Pink gives Mrs. Kimble a 9.

Review of The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

2009-09-21T10:38:00.006-04:00

Yes, I'm a little behind the curve. I just got around to reading this novel, which came out in 2003 or so.

The Fortress of Solitude tells the story of two boys-- one white, one black, both motherless-- growing up in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, in the 1970s. Having lived near this part of Brooklyn for many years, I found Jonathan Lethem's description of the area to be the most interesting part of the book. Boerum Hill, now a "hot" neighborhood, was a very different place in the '70s. Lethem's detail regarding the interaction between the kids on the street and surrounding neighborhoods was incredibly well done.

The friendship between the two boys, Mingus and Dylan, is the vein that runs throughout the book. Mingus, the black boy, serves as Dylan's protector. Dylan is a sensitive white boy, one of the few white kids in that area. Their relationship is both complicated and simple, and we follow them from boyhood to manhood.

The "supporting cast" in the book includes the fathers of both Mingus and Dylan, unhappy and lost men in their own right, as well as Mingus's grandfather, neighborhood kids and an occasional girlfriend.

I thought the book was overwritten-- poetic often, but overwritten. If there were one word I would use to describe this novel, it would be "dense."

Unlike most people who read it, I didn't love Fortress. I liked it, but didn't find it exceptional.

Just One Pink gives Fortress a 6.5

Review of Auto-Erotica, written by Stacia Saint Owens

2009-09-17T15:24:00.005-04:00

No, it's not porn.

It's a book of short stories that takes place in Los Angeles. The characters in Auto-Erotica are screwed up, which is nothing new in fiction. But they are screwed up in southern California, a place that attracts wannabe actors, screenwriters and various other artistic types.

This is not regular literary fiction. There is an edge to this book. By turns creepy, scary and disturbing, the book delves into the lives of newbies to L.A., hungry agents, college students turned ladies of the night, aspiring actors, rich kids. But this is also very much a book of place, and Los Angeles is on full display here.

Stacia Saint Owens's writing is solid and accessible. At times, it sounds like the author is speaking to you rather than writing a story.

A few of my favorite lines from the story Viv Thraves Goes Missing: "Our very first time. We've rehearsed for weeks. We're wearing short, tight green dresses that make us look like whores, but we're young enough to pull it off as UCLA girls who watch too much TV and don't know any better."

On a scale of 1 to 10, Just One Pink gives it a 7.5.

Welcome

2009-09-17T14:53:00.001-04:00

At the urging of several friends, I have decided to start this blog. It will consist, for the most part, of book reviews. And I hope to keep these short and sweet. Long book reviews bother me-- most people just want to know if the book is decent, what the writing is like, if they will enjoy it.

There will be, I'm assuming, an occasional aside or commentary on a non-book issue. I hope you find these asides entertaining.

If you have a book you would like to see reviewed, please let me know.

Again, welcome!

-Lesley