Book Review

A vicious predator waiting for a vulnerability in the under belly of a novel.
See: Fiction, Experimental - Novel - Observations, Literary

Fiction, Experimental

Gabe focuses on his art. His broken family stares at him, encouraging but uncomprehending. Elizabeth tries to be the woman she should have been, would have been, if suburbia and all it's tentacles hadn't clawed their way into her soul. Jackie has a world in her head far better than the world outside the window that stares out at the neat rows of houses. Lacey knows the truth, it has to be the truth. Thomas has a secret. A story has been told in paragraphs, vignettes, photographs. To be read in any order, all of it a circle of civilization in Long Island - A field guide to the North American family.

See Book Reviews - Fiction, Experimental - Hallberg, Garth Risk - Novels - Observations, Literary - Storytelling

Observations, Literary

A story told in a non-traditional method, by what could almost be called diary entries from an unknown observer. There is no defined plot, merely an unfolding of the situation of two next door neighbors who have their own dark secrets and their own coping mechanisms in a world that should be picture perfect but, like all lives, is messy and ugly and disturbing and difficult. This work turns you into a voyeur, is fun to look at, pretty to hold, but ultimately leaves you dissatisfied as the threads do not tie into knots and the heroes become anti-heroes that cannot inspire you.

See also - Book Reviews - Fiction, Experimental - Quirkiness - Short Novella - WTF?
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This is an illustrated fiction, which cab seem quite fragmentary. It's a look into the life of two Long Island families, the Harrisons and the Hungate. Chapters are headed by guide words, such as chemistry, grief, infidelity, intimacy, irony, maternal instinct, search for meaning, midlife crisis, nature vs. nurture. Each chapter has text on the left-side page and a photo or picture on the right. Some have a dream-like quality to them. ( )