reading multiple novels by the same author, so I was excited when I picked up this novel by the author of “All the Light We Cannot See”. Although the plot of this new novel could hardly be more different from the first, there are still themes and motifs that carry through.
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Category: Reading: 4 Stars
Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler
As the adage goes: be careful what you wish for. After finishing Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig on September 1 I was wishing for a novel that was more plausible. Well I got that wish with Saint Maybe which is so realistic that at times it borders on grim. Bee Bedloe looks at her family through rose colored glasses:
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The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
Red Orm is is abducted from his Danish home by the Vikings in the 10th century AD. Luckily for us, and him, he is not killed in the skirmish surrounding his capture.
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Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
Like her novel Early Morning Riser, this book centers on a relationship between a man, his ex wife and his new wife (or girlfriend). This novel is told from the man’s perspective – Graham. In addition, each story has a vulnerable person. In Early Morning Riser, it is Duncan’s employee who is mentally challenged. In Standard Deviation, it is their son Matthew, who has Asperger’s syndrome. The title comes partially from an interview with a psychologist who tells Graham and Audra that some of Matthew’s social interactions are a standard deviation from normal.
Leaving Cheyenne by Larry McMurtry
When Larry McMurtry died earlier this year I decided to re-read some of his earlier works. Leaving Cheyenne is his second novel and I was struck by two things: 1) I remembered very little about the story. I thought I knew the plot but as I read it it struck me that I only recalled about the first third from my first reading over 40 years ago. 2) This story is another telling of the classic Larry McMurtry theme of a strong-willed woman and a strong-willed man (think Augustus McCrae and Clara Allen in Lonesome Dove.)
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