October/November, 2006

Sorry to sound pretentious, but reading The Echo Maker by Richard Powers was a profound experience. I was moved by the way Powers flies in and out of the basic story and into explorations of ecology, consciousness, natural history, love, and family. These odysseys connect to the narrative, but also lift it into something unique and meaningful.

In 1990, Marine sniper Anthony Swofford, was sent to Saudi Arabia, where he waited for war, an experience he recounts in Jarhead, a smart, gritty, tightly written memoir, reminiscent of Chickenhawk, Robert Mason's great chronicle of his years as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War. Jarhead and Chickenhawk are also contrasts: Mason fought in a war that seemed like it would never end. Swoffords's memoir is about a trained assassin, who waits for a war that never arrives,

 Half a Yellow Sun, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie, is the best kind of historical novel—one that seamlessly integrates the history into the narrative. Forty years ago the Nigerian Civil War resulted in both the formation and demise of Biafra. Adichie, born in Nigeria, and whose family was involved in and affected by the war, recounts those years through the lives of an extended family. It brought to mind Acts of Faith, Philip Caputo's excellent epic novel about civil war in Sudan.

 Palace of Desire, Volume II of Naguib Mahfouz's extraordinary Cairo Trilogy, (See September) continues the intricate domestic drama of the Abd al-Jawad family.

Closer to home, 1901 Buffalo, New York, is the setting of City of Light, Lauren Belfer's terrific historical saga, wherein the development of hydroelectric power via Niagara Falls is the catalyst for political intrigue, murder, and romance.

I couldn't pass up a book titled How Nancy Drew Saved My Life, and thoroughly enjoyed Lauren Baratz Logsted's so-named novel, a charming mystery featuring a young, literature-loving nanny who channels Nancy Drew.

The Brambles, by Eliza Minot is a lovely contemporary family drama, particularly evocative, via Minot's gift for detail, of the daily life of a mother and her young children.

I re-read Ernest J. Gaines's magnificent A Lesson Before Dying, the story of a young black man on death row in 1940's Louisiana. The austere beauty of the prose knocks me out. How can something so plain be so powerful?

As I prepare to write my third novel, I re-read several strong contemporary novels whose intensity and vivid characters I wanted to re-visit: White Oleander by Janet Fitch, A Mother's Love by Mary Morris, The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, In the Lake of the Woods, by Tim O'Brian, and Alice McDermott's, That Night.

Finally, I highly recommend The Best American Sports Writing, 2006, edited by Michael Lewis, a collection of beautifully written and moving essays that will be enjoyed even by readers who aren't sports fans. Reading about the super-sizing of the NFL, Texas cheerleaders, deep sea divers, a post-Katrina high school football team, a gay rodeo stars,  girl boxers, and more, reminds me of the "sports as a metaphor for life" adage. This book is not just a collection of sports stories; it is also a mesmerizing panorama of American life.