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.