GingerbreadMan's American adventure

ForumFifty States Fiction (or Nonfiction) Challenge

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GingerbreadMan's American adventure

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1GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Aug. 18, 2009, 4:37 pm

USA is usually number three on my list when I sum up what countries I've been reading books from the past year (after my native Sweden and the UK), but at a rate of about ten-fifteen titles a year, I'm suspecting this challenge will take me a gooood while.

But it sounds like fun, and I'm always up for fun!

I'll start counting from mid-august 2009, without backtracking, and will probably read almost all fiction. For roadmovies and stories set in several states, I will use my good sense. I will count stories that give me a good sense of place.

3GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Jun. 23, 2010, 6:25 pm

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California - Öster om Eden/East of Eden by John Steinbeck (finished 21/6 2010)
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware

4GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Apr. 18, 2013, 5:09 am

Florida - Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (finished 17/3 2012)
Georgia
Hawaii - Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (finished 25/4 2012)
Idaho - Girl imagined by chance by Lance Olesen (fininshed 13/1 2013)
Illinois - Divergent by Veronica roth (finished april 2nd 2013)
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas - In cold blood by Truman Capote (finished 31/7 2010)

5GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Apr. 2, 2012, 5:03 pm

Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts - Mannen i mina drömmar / The man of my dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld (finished 6/10 2009)
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi - Den lille vännen / The little friend by Donna Tartt (finished 2/4 2012)

6GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Aug. 28, 2012, 5:21 pm

Missouri
Montana - Lonesome dove by Larry McMurtry (finished 28/8 2012)
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey - Oscar Waos korta förunderliga liv / The brief wonderous life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (finished 15/9 2009)
New Mexico
New York - Jazz by Toni Morrison (re-read, finished 16/7 2010)

7GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Aug. 20, 2009, 4:32 pm

North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island - Jag minns att jag sprang /The memory of running by Ron McLarty (finished 20/8 2009)
South Carolina

8GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Jul. 5, 2012, 6:55 am

South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas - Blodets meridian /Blood meridian by Cormac McCarthy (finished 28/6 2012)
Utah
Vermont - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (finished 27/4 2010)
Virginia
Washington - Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (finished 10/1 2010)
West Virginia - Sarah by JT LeRoy (Re-read, finished 1/9 2009)
Wisconsin
Wyoming - Fine just the way it is by Annie Proulx (finished 8/12 2011)

9RidgewayGirl
Aug. 18, 2009, 8:08 pm

Welcome! It will be valuable to get a non-American's take on things.

10GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Aug. 20, 2009, 4:29 am

I will actually make a little bit of an effort to also find books that describes parts of America from an outsider's position. I think. In the end, when it comes to places like Arkansas or Nebraska, I'll probably just be happy to stumble across something set there :)

11GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Aug. 20, 2009, 5:11 pm

Okay, I got my first state down! And I'm pretty proud it's not one of the most obvious ones:

Jag minns att jag sprang (The memory of running) by Ron McLarty, representing Rhode Island. Rated it 4 stars.

Half of this book is a roadmovie as Smithy Ade, in an accidental journey of self-discovery, rides a bike across America. But half of it is about the past, set in and around Providence.

I liked this book. It's told by Smithy in a slightly clumsy, awkward and hesitant way that gives it a distinct flavour of it's own. And while being very sad, especially in it's description of the family looming under the shadow that is Smithy's sister Bethany's mental illness, which just gets worse and worse, there is also a lot of hope and beauty in here. The balance between suspicion, violence and everyday goodness that Smithy encounters on his travels feels like the very definition of "bittersweet".

12cbl_tn
Aug. 20, 2009, 7:58 pm

Yay! Rhode Island is a hard one. I can't remember ever reading a book set in Rhode Island before.

13GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Aug. 21, 2009, 4:59 am

Yay indeed! At the moment I'm visiting planet Helliconia, and next up is a finnish book, so no more states added here for the couple of weeks (at least). But I suspect New Jersey might be nest.

14lindapanzo
Aug. 31, 2009, 2:13 pm

#11--Thanks GingerbreadMan, for the Rhode Island book suggestion. I'll have to add The Memory of Running to my list.

15GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Sept. 1, 2009, 7:54 am

I just reread Sarah by JT LeRoy that made a big impact on me back in 2002, with some hesitation. Since I last read this jet black fairytale of child prostitution, (told in a starry eyed manner as if it were a trip to the wrong Oz) LeRoy has been unveiled as a literary persona. Which made me worried that the book, with it's autobiographical claim, would feel all speculative and leave a bad taste in my mouth. But it remains fascinating, moving, horrible and unlike anything I've ever read. I rated it 4 stars and recommend it, but it's not for the faint of heart.

It's not a flattering description, but to me this book gives a strong image of (one aspect of) West Virginia. The nature plays a big part, as does River Cheat. As for the landscape of highways and truck stops, I guess those are more or less the same, a world of their own anywhere...

16GingerbreadMan
Sept. 15, 2009, 5:08 pm

My third state down is New Jersey. About half of The brief wonderous life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz is set in the latino dominated Paterson, peppered with references to places, stores and slang. The other half is set in the Dominican Republic, both in the present and in the past überdictatorship of Trujillo.

This is the tale of a fukú, a curse affecting a family for several generations, but also the tale of a fairly nerdy young man and his quest for love. Unfortunately, the story's present is just not strong enough to match the past, making the book feel thematically unbalanced and loose. While the horrible events from the Trujillo era are thrilling, scary and fascinating, Oscar himself just seems to get vaguer and vaguer. His sister Lola even more so. And the book's narrator Yunior, whom we learn virutally nothing about but who is ever present, is vague bordering on irritating.

All in all, a bit of a disappointment for me. Which is a shame, because there's so much good stuff in this book. With just a little more consideration to arcs and orchestration, this could have been much more than just OK. I gave the book a 3.

17GingerbreadMan
Sept. 15, 2009, 5:09 pm

Diese Nachricht wurde vom Autor gelöscht.

18countrylife
Sept. 16, 2009, 7:46 am

That book has never crossed my horizon before, and can't say that its my cup of tea. But, I found your review interesting and gave it a thumbs up. By the way, it looks like you have a misspelling in your review that you may want to edit, as its an important word to the story. In your posted review, it says: ' tale of a fukú, a cure '.

19GingerbreadMan
Sept. 16, 2009, 8:09 am

Oops. Thanks!

20GingerbreadMan
Sept. 16, 2009, 3:45 pm

18 I'm not surprised a book I've read is not your cup of tea: I just checked out your profile. Between your 1600 listed books, and my 800, we don't have a single title in common! That has to be some sort of achievement in itself :) Talk about different reading tastes!

21GingerbreadMan
Okt. 6, 2009, 4:12 pm

I stuck on the east coast it seems! My 4th book for this challenge is Mannen i mina drömmar (The man of my dreams) by Curtis Sittenfeld.

I really liked Sittenfeld's debut Prep, a very clever take on coming of age and class set in a fancy private high school. This has the same strong sense of identification, but is unfortunately not nearly as good.

The story of Hannah and her longing for love is told in episodes, that are often interesting in themselves, but form too loose a context. The jumping ahead, a year or sometimes several years between chapters help to form a pattern, but on the expense of a story. And the coclusion "Yes, you can live without a man" seems to me to be kicking in doors wide open enough to be called gaping holes instead.

Sense of place then? Not overwhelming, but there are quite a few references to places and adresses in Boston, a few trips to Cape Cod and lots of college life. I wouldn't go to Massachusetts to seek out it's environments, though.

This is a fun and quick read. It's often full of insight, it's smart but never too smart for it's own good. (And it's not chick lit, no matter how hard the swedish publisher tries...) I gave it 3,5 stars, and felt generous doing it.

22RidgewayGirl
Okt. 6, 2009, 4:32 pm

I have just gotten a copy of American Wife. I'm hoping that it's as good as prep was.

23GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Okt. 6, 2009, 5:21 pm

22: Reading it for this challenge?

24RidgewayGirl
Okt. 6, 2009, 5:50 pm

As long as most of it stays in Wisconsin, maybe.

25arubabookwoman
Okt. 8, 2009, 2:57 pm

I counted it for Wisconsin.

26GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Jan. 10, 2010, 6:35 am

Finally made it back to the states, for the first time in months!

5. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Washington)

Steampunk, pirates in air ships, a mad scientist AND zombies! This was one of those books I just knew I had to read when I started seeing it's title pop up in various LT threads. Add the fact that it's an incredibly good looking book (brown letters on sepia paper, even!) and it's no wonder it quickly wandered to the top of my TBR mountain range.

This is perhaps not the likeliest of titles for this challenge. "Boneshaker" is set in 1880 in a warped Seattle, a town that began to swell rapidly as a result of the Klondike craze but -here- was brought to a sudden and pretty definite halt. Genious inventor Leviticus Blue was appointed by the Russians to build a huge machine, a drilling and mining device to investigate the Klondike mountains under the permaforst. On it's first testrun, however, the Boneshaker got out of control, caving in half of Seattle downtown. Worse: it managed to release a poisonous underground gas, the Blight, which turns people into "rotters", living dead, when inhaled. Seattle was sealed off behind giant walls, it's inhabitants now huddling in miserable existance on the outskirts, while the Blight-ridden town is infested with rotters.

The premise is improbable (this is steampunk, people!), but Priest builds a neat and well-designed world. She uses Seattle landmarks for her own purposes and seems to know the city very well, probably adding to the experience for a reader with local knowledge. I really like the fact that she keeps the setting small-scale: these are events happening in a backwater, not even a state yet. I've not read much zombie literature, but the scenes with the rotters work really well for me, suspenseful escapes through dark streets with a band of slobbering undead on your heels.

Overall, the storytelling is fast, actionpacked and exciting. But unfortunately, when Priest is going to bring the whole book together, she falls into some sad clichés. I would happily have done without the villain in a mask and flowing cape snarling things like "Ignorant fool! I would have given you everything!", and the book's conclusion seems like a little bit of an anticlimax.

Still, a recommended and high-paced read - if this is your cup of tea. I gave it 3 1/2 stars.

27GingerbreadMan
Bearbeitet: Apr. 27, 2010, 5:44 pm

6. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (Vermont)

Don’t you just love that rare feeling when you read your first book by a writer, and just know: “I’m going to have to read every single thing she’s ever written”? That feeling of giddy richness, from having a whole authorship waiting? Only about thirty pages into We Have Always Lived in the Castle it hits me with full force.

It's never explicitly stated in the book, but apparently the village and landscape where it's set, vividly described, is North Bennington, Vermont where Shirley Jackson herself lived. Not the happiest of places, it seems.

This wonderfully balanced, delightfully disturbed and gently weird little gem of a book is about Merricat and her sister Constance, who live together with their dying uncle and a cat in an ancient mansion. They are the only remaining scraps of the Blackwood family, after a poisoned dinner killed everybody else. Constance was tried for mass murder but acquitted, and now the three live in isolation. Only Merricat ever leaves the house, when she ventures into the village twice a week to shop, where she’s faced with the villagers open fear, scorn and mockery. The rest of the time Merricat spends in the forest, with rituals, protective talismans and home-spun magic. Which doesn’t work as it supposed to. One day Cousin Charles bangs the door, ready to tear Merricat’s carefully constructed rules into pieces.

Jackson does a splendid job in letting us see the world slightly twisted through Merricat’s eyes, and uses the few elements and devices of this simple tale to perfection. Here nothing is introduced without having a significance for the story. The twists of the plot might not be all that surprising, but is presented with such care and elegance they still give me goosebumps.

It’s one of those books where you anxiously check the page numbers, hoping there is more left than it seems. For heaven’s sake, don’t miss this! 5 stars!

(If you do read an edition with Jonathan Lethem’s introduction though, I would consider saving that until AFTER you read the book. It kinda gives away the whole plot.)

28nans
Mai 17, 2010, 6:20 pm

well, you sold me on We Have Always Lived in the Castle... of course, it's pretty easy to sell me on books

29GingerbreadMan
Mai 20, 2010, 6:14 pm

Hope it blows you away like it did me :)

30Copperskye
Mai 20, 2010, 10:07 pm

I recently read We Have Always Lived in the Castle and loved it. It was so creepy!

31GingerbreadMan
Mai 21, 2010, 6:42 pm

Yes! And in such an elegant way!

32GingerbreadMan
Jun. 23, 2010, 6:24 pm

It's strange. I'm reading American writers like never before, and none of them seem to write about the US. Can't exactly say I'm making swift progress here, but I'm ticking off the corners at least :)

7. Öster om Eden (East of Eden) by John Steinbeck (California)

Soon to begin my 36th year on this planet, I’m mending one of the more flagrant holes in my “reasonably well read” persona. This was (beat) my first Steinbeck.

It’s not that I’ve avoided him. I’ve certainly had supporters in my near surroundings, who’s taste I generally trust, and a strong hunch I’ll probably like his work. It’s just that Steinbeck has never seemed a PRIORITY, you know? Four or five books, picked up at various flea markets, have lingered on my shelves for well over ten years, never even quite making it to the “well, maybe this summer” batch.

This is, I’m sure you’ll all agree, where LT challenges are at their best. I put East of Eden in my “Books everybody but me have read” category, and finally got round to reading it.

And I liked it, more or less in the way I expected to. A well-crafted, well told story, told straight in a captivating fashion. Good literature, in the no nonsense sense of the word. Cleverly using, but not overusing, the myth of Cain and Abel, Steinbeck weaves a tapestry about good and evil in people (and people’s notions of good and evil), heritage and the freedom to choose our destiny. The story focuses on Adam Trask, his long time Chinese servant Li, his two sons Caleb and Aron and their runaway mother, running a house of ill repute in the next town, but mixes in a hefty cast of memorable secondary characters (even introducing a comic relief nurse in the last few pages) and manages to twist and turn it’s main themes in many interesting ways, telling more than one good story on it’s way. Often understated (I love for instance how the reader gets to put two and two together when it comes to what torments Abra’s father, without Steinbeck ever putting it in words) and un-loomingly philosophical, this is a very readable modern classic.

The Californian setting is detailed and rich without getting heavy. You really get the feeling Steinbeck knows his Salinas Valley – even putting himself as a child in a little cameo part!

It loses a little bit of momentum in it’s last quarter, and the ending feels rather stressed. And for better and for worse, it’s “just” a good straight story. All in all though, well worth waiting for, and absolutely not my last Steinbeck. 4 stars.

33GingerbreadMan
Jul. 16, 2010, 6:04 pm

8. Jazz by Toni Morrison (New York)

When I was twenty, I had a short but massive Toni Morrison period. Introduced by my girlfriend at the time I read every novel she had ever written in about six months. I thought she was incredibly cool and I loved how her books made me feel intelligent – there were always gaps left to the reader, but they were never cryptic. (She also came in my way at a time when I, in my budding feminism, was beginning to realise that I was reading almost all male authors.)

Since then I’ve reread a few of my favourites – Beloved and Song of Solomon – and liked them a lot the second time around too. On the other hand I’ve stopped picking up Morrison’s new books after struggling for half an eternity with Paradise and not finding it worth it in the end. Jazz wasn’t one of the titles that left the strongest impression on me when I was twenty, and I didn’t remember much about it.

Violet is Joe Trace’s woman, but she is battling the other Violet who lives inside her, the one who wants to steal babies and say weird things. Joe Trace, almost to his surprise, starts up a relationship with eighteen year old Dorcas, and shoots her when she leaves her. Violet loses her mind at the funeral, attacking the coffin and trying to slice the corpse’s face. Yes, it sounds violent, and it is, a bit, but more than anything Jazz is a book about what shapes a person, about redemption, passion and love. Set in the first decades of the last century it slides back and forth between now, then and long ago, in a writing style that uses jazz music’s restless variations around themes. New York, just referred to as City, is very present, almost a character in itself. Not least is the contrast between it and Joe’s and Violet’s rural upbringing central. An almost gentle anger flavours the pages throughout.

It’s cleverly and organically done, but I lack some sort of core here. Too many threads are left hanging, and I have a strong feeling that I won’t remember too much about this novel the second time around either. It’s not often I say this, but I think this one might have actually benefited from being a hundred pages longer.3 stars.

34LovingLit
Jul. 29, 2010, 2:06 am

Hello- I'm new to this group and having a look through- I'm guessing that my eventual list will be similar to how you said yours might be ("taking me a goooood while"!). I've been hearing a lot about Boneshaker too- its out of my usual range but am wondering if I should go there- broaden my horizons and all! Looks like you're going well so far!

35GingerbreadMan
Jul. 29, 2010, 9:45 am

Well, slowly but surely... Thank you for stopping by! Hope you like Boneshaker - if nothing else it's a good way to sample some popular genres all at once :)

36GingerbreadMan
Jul. 31, 2010, 6:22 pm

9. In cold blood by Truman Capote (Kansas).

I got this after seeing the film Capote a few years back. I’ve been eyeing it often since, picking it off the shelf and pondering it, but have always chosen something else. I was under the impression that it would be meticulous and somewhat slow-going, and have never quite felt in the mood for documentary fiction.

When I finally decided to read it (ignoring the slight resistance I felt), it only took me a few pages to be completely engrossed. Capote’s account of the brutal killings of a wealthy farmer and his family, the investigation, the killers’ roaming the Midwest after the deed, the trial and aftermath IS meticulous and somewhat slow-going. But more than that it’s haunting, beautifully written and full of sharp observations of human behaviour. Capote carefully paints moods and scenarios, from the impact on the small village after a horrible crime nobody has yet been arrested for, over vivid descriptions of the vast landscape of West Kansas itself to sharp character sketches that, while made with a few strokes, still feel very authentic. And the portraits of the young killers themselves, both frightening enigmas and very very human, will surely stay with me for a long time.

Disturbing, intelligent, crisp and empathic, this was both a true page-turner and food for thought. And, since Capote takes great care not to appear himself in the book anywhere (indeed, he even refers to the person conducting the interviews with the murderers on Death Row as ‘a journalist’), having seen the film Capote becomes something of an added value, an interesting meta level to ponder at will.

Easily one of the best reads of the years for me. 5 stars!

37mariesansone
Aug. 5, 2010, 9:53 pm

Ditto! I put off reading In Cold Blood for years, read it for my Kansas tour, and it was terrific. One of the best books, if not the best one, that I have read for this challenge. Your review is spot-on.

38GingerbreadMan
Aug. 6, 2010, 3:27 am

Wow, thank you very much :)

39cbl_tn
Aug. 7, 2010, 9:24 pm

I had intended to read In Cold Blood as my Kansas selection for this challenge, but then I won an ER book set in Kansas. In Cold Blood is still on my wishlist, but hasn't been as high a priority since I don't need it for Kansas now. Your review makes me think I need to bump it up a bit higher on the list!

40Copperskye
Aug. 28, 2010, 1:45 am

I also enjoyed your review of In Cold Blood. I read the book ages ago and although I thought it was great, but so chilling, I don't think I could ever read it again. It really is a must-read.

41RidgewayGirl
Sept. 8, 2010, 5:37 pm

I read In Cold Blood one summer when I was juggling two full-time jobs to pay for the next semester of college. One was a very respectable bookstore job but the other was the night shift at a convenience store/gas station. It gave me a few hours to read between the drunks going home and people going to work and I chose In Cold Blood and freaked myself out a little.

42GingerbreadMan
Sept. 17, 2010, 11:33 am

Very cool, those reads you always remember, not just for the book but for when and where you read it too.

43GingerbreadMan
Okt. 20, 2010, 1:46 pm

10. Darkly dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (Florida)

Not only am I the last person in the world reading this, I also haven’t seen a single minute of the TV series. Not that I don’t think I’d like it. It’s just been the DVD box after the next one after the next one for a long time. And as such, I’ve also quickly zapped when Dexter has shown up on my TV screen, looming on some crime scene with “Season three spoiler” written in splashed blood all over it.

That being said, I haven’t been unaware of the “serial killer killing serial killers” premise. I don’t live under a rock after all. And premise is a lot of what it’s about here. The fact that we see the world through our narrator’s…um, slightly distorted eyes is a lot of what makes this book tick. Lindsay is no Mark Haddon, and at times Dexter is one very annoying compulsively witty serial killer indeed, but his voice and his world are entertaining and feel real enough. Also, Lindsay has managed to create a nice balance in this character, where Dexter is strangely likeable at the same time as the reader is never allowed to forget the darkness he harbours inside.

The other characters are perhaps not necessarily that nicely balanced. There is a cartoony quality here that is sort of hit and miss. Seen as incomprehensible creatures through Dexter’s eyes, his sister Deb and his girlfriend Rita work. Sexy Latina cop LaGuerta or doughnut-munching colleague Vince…well, maybe not so much. The Miami backdrop is nicely painted though, and with a strong visual imagery, it’s easy to see how this became a TV series.

I didn’t particularily like the blunt and steep ending. Way too much deus ex machina for my taste, and not very well executed (pun intended). But the whodunnit in itself isn’t really in focus here of course. The voice telling the story is, and even though there are about twelve references to inner emptiness too many here, I look forward to reading some more about this loveable psychopath. 3½ stars.

44LovingLit
Nov. 9, 2010, 12:55 am

>36 GingerbreadMan:, it's great when a book surprises you like that isnt it, Ill have to look out for it

45GingerbreadMan
Nov. 17, 2010, 5:56 pm

44 Do check it out! It's one of those books more or less anybody will like, I think.

46GingerbreadMan
Dez. 9, 2011, 12:15 pm

Not making very impressive progress with this challenge, but I have no intention of quitting. Come 2025 I'll cross the finish line, just you wait and see :)

11. Fine just the way it is by Annie Proulx (Wyoming)

I’ve heard much raving about Annie Proulx over the years, but I must admit my main reason for picking up this collection of short stories was to finally make some progress on this challenge. I’m glad I did. Proulx feels like a solid acquaintance, creating wonderfully dense short stories, often epic in scope despite their limited format. Wyoming’s open and sparsely populated landscape, poverty and harsh history forms a backdrop to most of these, and creates an ambience that’s consistent whether the topic is Native Americans driving buffalo off a cliff thousands of years ago or an angry woman having a scary accident while hiking on an abandoned trail in the present. Proulx is at her best when writing about the days when Wyoming was still a territory, I think, in a sort of brutal historical fiction bordering on Western.

Really, all of these stories are on the bleak side, and there are a few moments, especially in the concluding Tits-up in a ditch, where I feel she’s coming close to being heartless in her kicking around the poor main character. But she manages to keep on the right side, I think, and the emotional impact of these stories is hard to deny.

Two lame-ass stories starring the devil and delivering the blunt satire that usually follows with the tired concept “The Hoofed one decides to modernize Hell” are totally expendable and drags this collection down at least half a notch. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed my first literary trip to the vast plains of Wyoming, and will look for more Proulx in the future. 4 stars.

47GingerbreadMan
Mrz. 20, 2012, 6:09 pm

Swapping my Florida book for one with an even better sense of place!

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Florida)

Swamplandia! is an alligator wrestling theme park situated in the Florida swamps, invented by thirteen year old Ava Bigtree’s parents: the Chief, an Ohio coalminer who made up an Indian past for himself, and Hilola, the greatest female alligator wrestler of all time. Now Hilola is dead from cancer, and the tourist are abandoning Swamplandia! for the new World of Darkness, a hell-themed theme park (entered through a slide down Leviathan’s throat). The Chief, obsessed with his ideas of Carnival Darwinism, leaves to scout out new attractions. Kiwi, Ava’s big brother, runs away to find his own way of making money to save the park. The only ones left on the island are Ava, her big sister Ossie, a flea bitten bear called Judy Garland and a hundred gators. And this is when Ossie decides to take her spiritist interests to next level and begin dating ghosts. Before Ava has even decided if she believes in ghosts or not, Ossie has eloped into the swamp to marry Louis Thanksgiving, who died in an attack by buzzards over a hundred years ago. And, obviously, needs saving.

Continuing one of the stories from Russell’s spectacular debut collection, Swamplandia! is a novel with a flavor all of its own. Following mainly Ava’s struggle to keep her family together somehow, and Kiwi’s coming of age story trying to get to term with mainland ways, it blends the weird, the creepy and the gently tender. Russell does a great job of depicting the blue collar madness of a work place like The World of Darkness (admittedly with more than a little nod to George Saunders), and creates nail biting tension and chills with Ava’s eerie rescue venture into the swamps together with the mysterious Bird Man. And the Florida swamplands, both as landscape and as a state of mind, are beautifully captured. It feels like I’m there among the sawgrass, the man made shell islands and the abandoned villages on stilts.

Sometimes Russell lets her abundance of ideas and her feeling for quirky detail bog the story down a little bit. This is not a really quick read. But for any lover of, say Kelly Link or the aforementioned George Saunders, this is really a must. And Russell, still not even thirty years old, will probably only get better and better with each book. 4 stars!

48GingerbreadMan
Apr. 2, 2012, 5:02 pm

Den lille vännen (The little friend) by Donna Tartt (Mississippi)

The Cleves are Old Money. Now the money is gone and the family estate sold, but the family, led by a quartet of old sisters, still hold a high social status is County Alexandria, Mississippi. Only really, things haven’t been right for a long time. Twelve years ago Charlotte’s nine year old son Robin was murdered, hung from a tree branch is his own garden, and the culprit was never found. Now thirteen year old Harriet, a tough strange kid, lives in the shadow of her dead sibling. Her sister is etheric, her mum is a complete wreck ever since that horrid day and hardly leaves her bed. Harriet’s security is the four old ladies, and above all the housemaid Ida, as close to a real mother as she’s ever had. But when Harriet stumbles over who the murderer might be, she is bent on revenge, of the real kind. Her friend Hely might think it an exciting game, but for Harriet this is no joke. The enemies she’s going up against are the most dangerous around, and step by step she’s getting closer to lines that can’t be un-crossed again.

There’s a lot to like in this brick. The characters are colorful, and Tartt’s painting in fading hues of a Mississippi a few decades ago, full of everyday racism, poverty and abandoned property is vivid. I also like how she gradually lets games and phantasies become real and threatening, how careless words get real and tragic consequences and how Hely’s naivety goes from being annoying to really dangerous. But there’s still something about this book that doesn’t feel quite right. It’s like it kicks in too late, and spend too much time fumbling for some sort of core. It’s only the last 200 pages or so it becomes the page turner “The secret history” was, and even then it falls into some dumb Enid Blyton-esque traps. I have a hunch this could have been a much better book. There are sparkles of greatness in here. 3 stars..

49GingerbreadMan
Apr. 26, 2012, 2:33 am

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (Hawaii)

It’s slightly daunting sitting down to write a review of this brilliant book. Just trying to describe the structure and how the six stories that make up this whole are intertwined is quite a task. Still, I’m sure most of you know the basic idea already: Cloud Atlas starts out as a travel diary from a 19th century voyage to the Chatham Islands. This is then interrupted (mid-sentence!) and is presented as a book read by the main character in the next part, which are letters written by an obnoxious musical genius exiled in Belgium in the 30ies. Said letters are keepsakes of one of the main characters in the next story, set in the San Fransisco area in the 1970ies. And so on. Cloud Atlas is a maruschka doll of a book, working it’s way inwards and through time, to a central story, a haunting post-apocalypic redemption tale – and then out again. The six stories are very different, in style, tone and genre. And they are all really good, so good I have a hard time picking out favorites.

But there’s still more to this book. Apart from the fact that each story makes cameo appearances in the next one (often, but not always, being significant to the main character of it – in one instance it’s the last wish of a character to find out how it ends) there are also things that connects them. Someone recognizes a piece of music. Settings recur. Names recur. A birthmark shaped like a comet makes many appearances. And strong themes of freedom and slavery, human dignity and imprisonment create a red thread through time and space. I’m sure one could feel that stronger links between the stories could have been created, making the weave seem more intricate. For me, these touchstones and hints are perfect the way they are.

The central piece is set in future Big Island, Hawaii, where most most of civilization has been wiped out. It's vividly painted, with many places and living descriptions of places. I can only imagine how exciting this setting would be if I had a bit of local knowledge. What's a ruin, what's a small settlement, where is humankind still clinging on? But even for me, who've never been there, the environment really stands out. Also, 19th century Honolulu makes an appearance in the end of the book. All in all, even if only a portion of this brick is set there, Hawaii plays a central enough role for me not to hesitiate in appointing this my read for that state.

This is a funny book, a thrilling one, a tear-jerker and a taste of places and histories new to me (must learn more about the Moriori!). It’s a page turner like you wouldn’t believe, and one of those rare books where I kept hoping there was more pages left than it seemed. A truly wonderful read. 5 stars!

50GingerbreadMan
Jul. 4, 2012, 6:35 pm

Blood meridian by Cormac McCarthy (Texas)

A nameless youth, on the run away from home, joins Glanton’s band of scalp hunters, operating in the borderlands between Texas and Mexico. It’s the middle of the 19th century, and the borderlands are a frontier, a sinister, vast and unmapped landscape. Glanton’s band, a grotesque gallery of toothless, smelly, crazy, human-ear-necklace wearing murderers, are under contract to kill (or rather exterminate) warring apaches. But pretty soon they are killing peaceful Indians, farmers, Mexican soldiers, and more or less everyone they meet. At the reins of the events is the luciferan judge Holden, a hairless giant of a man, with a keen interest for geography and human weakness and with an umbrella made from human skin and bone as just one of his attributes. And as they travel deeper into the unknown, events are gradually turning more and more surreal.

This is an exhausting read. McCarthy paints an utterly nihilistic world, where almost every event is random violence. Paired with a lazy, detached language where everything from describing a cactus to killing an infant is given equal weight, this creates a dense, distorted and extremely disturbing reading experience.

I can totally see why many call this a masterpiece. The slow, sly gliding into strangeness and madness is really remarkable writing. But for me, it’s like McCarthy’s constant need to bring up horrid examples to remind me that this is a world completely without moral, dulls me down a little. I miss the sliver of light that was present in The Road. Still, I wouldn’t want to be without this powerful read. Recommended, but only if you have the stomach for it; and don’t expect a story per se.3 ½ stars.

51GingerbreadMan
Aug. 28, 2012, 5:19 pm

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Montana)

McGrae and Call are retired Texas Rangers, now owning a small cattle outfit in Lonesome Dove, close to the Mexican border. Cattle is stolen back and forth across Rio Grande, but otherwise life is slow. The duo has a strange dynamic. McGrae is full of talk, laziness and mischief, loves booze and women and has a hard time taking things seriously. Call, on the other hand, is all about work and duty – a man completely void of humour and imagination. It’s safe to say they get on each other’s nerves, and the quiet life together isn’t really suiting any of them. So when their old partner Jake Spoon suddenly returns, due to a misunderstanding with the law in Arkansas, and tells of the magnificent pastures in untouched Montana, it’s more boredom than the wish to get rich that causes Call to start planning for driving a herd of cattle up there. Before anyone really understands how, the drive is a reality, and it’s a journey that will change a lot of lives forever. Not least that of Lorena, the only prostitute in Lonesome Dove, a life-weary young girl who is swept away by Jake Spoon’s light promises to take her to the coast. But who instead finds both horror, loyalty and perhaps even love.

The blurb on the back of this book calls it an account of “the west as it truly was”. I have my doubts. There are a few too many tropes here – beautiful whores, a freaky piano player, a Mexican cook, star eyed youngsters, stoic Indians, über evil outlaws and manly banter between clenched teeth. But as a tall tale which still feels genuine, grounded and authentic, it doesn’t get better than this.

McMurtry juggles a large cast of wonderfully flawed characters, shifting perspectives effortlessly. You come to know and care for them all, even when they are bastards – and there are truly some bastards in here. It came close to annoy me at times that virtually all females in this book are relying on men, depending on looks and sexuality to get by. But McMurtry goes beyond the hooker and victim clichés and finds people, and the female characters – Lorena, Clara, Janey, Elmira – are among the most memorable of the bunch.

Forget about any aversion you might feel about the western as a genre. Oh sure, this long drive all across the young nation is an adventure, of course. There’s tons of bad weather, gunfights, indian conflict (, grizzly bears and rattle snakes. But the real suspense and excitement here are in the small dramas of real people: love, secrets, betrayal, guilt, prejudice, longing and heart-break. Expect nailbiting tension, tears and sleepless nights. Don’t miss this epic for anything. 5 stars.

This book is set in several states, and could easily be a pick for Texas or Nebraska as well. I choose it as my Montana book, however, as that's the goal of the journey and the setting for the book's climax.

52mariesansone
Okt. 1, 2012, 11:20 pm

McMurtry at his best! Makes you just wish you could set off on grand adventures with Gus, Call, and Pete.

53GingerbreadMan
Jan. 13, 2013, 12:24 pm

Girl imagined by chance by Lance Olsen (Idaho)

Lance Olsen wrote a cool entry for Dr Thackery T. Lambshead’s Pocket guide to eccentric and discredited diseases, and I ordered this book shortly afterwards. But when it arrived it intimidated me. The back blurb talked about “critifiction”, “the media-ization of the consciousness” and “as protean and unknowable as the future”, it was written in second person (gah), and opening it randomly I’d encounter passages like:

The sound haze of different languages on the streets of a foreign country.
It of course felt slightly desperate.
Desperate and thrilling.
You could only inhabit so many channels, so you had to choose which ones to start inhabiting right now.
To choose being to change.


In short, it felt just like the kind of book where I could get bogged down for precious weeks, duty reading all the way. It stood on my shelves for two and a half years.

As it turns out, I shouldn’t have worried. Quite the opposite. This is a very readable book, tender and gentle rather than cerebral and clever, pretty funny at times, often heart-breaking, and full of interesting ideas. Sure, it does have a strong style that takes a few pages to get used to. Olsen’s narrator often follows several thoughts at once, bouncing back and forth between memory, thought and what’s happening right now. But once you relax into it, it flows very well and is virtually never confusing. Even the second person ploy quickly feels natural.

A successful east coast couple, who long ago decided not to have children (indeed eliminating the possibility through surgery) now find all of their friends in the process of building families. They find themselves hanging out with younger and younger people by necessity, none of them need to be physically at their offices. They decide to do something radical, and move to a big house in rural Idaho, outside the tiny town Moscow. They quickly fall in love with their new environment. Life makes sense again.

But back east is one important person left: Angie’s old grandma, the only relative with which she has a strong bond. And Grannam is scared of them moving away, feeling she will lose them. Without really thinking it through, the couple makes up something to make Grannam happy. They tell her they are expecting a baby. Grannam spreads the word among the relatives like wildfire, and word gets to their old friends back east. Pretty soon this imaginary fetus, then baby, then child, plays a central role in the couple’s lives. They do research. They manufacture photos. They practice baby talk to perform in the background of phone calls. They spend lots of time with the children of their new Idaho friends (to whom they are the childless couple, soon too old to have any). And Grannam keeps sending checks, begging them to come visit. One day Angie caves in and accepts, and a date is set. Now what?

This book is a thoughtful, sad and funny look at what defines us as people, about childhood and parenthood, about the nature of sorrow and photography. All played against a backdrop of the rural landscape and people of Idaho, beautifully captured. It touched me deeply. 4 ½ stars!

54GingerbreadMan
Apr. 18, 2013, 5:08 am

Divergent by Veronica Roth (Illinois)

If you wanted to be petty about it, you could say that this is the 500 page version of the Sorting Hat ceremony at Hogwart’s.

But in all fairness there’s more to this book. In a post-apocalyptic Chicago (rather vaguely rendered) the remains of humanity have divided themselves into factions, revering different traits the lack of which they feel was to blame for the collapse of the world before. Tris grows up in Abnegation, the faction that stresses selflessness as an ideal, and which due to their humbleness are in charge of the wobbly administration of the factions. Tris herself feels she doesn’t belong there, and when at sixteen she takes her Aptitude test to determine which faction she should belong to, her suspicion is confirmed.

Instead she says goodbye to her family to join the Dauntless, the faction that worships bravery. A tough initiation awaits her – one that will leave many of the aspirants factionless and shunned. Soon she becomes aware of an inner conflict within the Dauntless, and the even darker secrets that lurk behind it. But most of all, she’s beginning to get to know who she herself really is.

Right. Hmm. This is a driven, well-told story, taking on a rather complicated inner turmoil, and managing it pretty well. Tris is a rather interesting heroine with interesting dilemmas (in which I don’t necessarily include the fuzzy love story), and her journey of self-discovery is well worth following. Unfortunately, she’s backed up by mostly cutouts, including about five teenage characters who are evil purely for the sake of being evil. And the plot, while starting out promising, goes on to be more and more constructed as it deepens – as well as being pretty predictable. By the end, a few things step into real silly-land.

Also, I wish Roth would have taken a bigger interest in the world building. Why are there trains constantly going back and forth in the city – surely not only because the Dauntless need something to jump on and off of at speed? Why are the people even choosing to live in a bombed out Chicago at all, when the technology they have is way more advanced than anything that exists now, and nothing seems to be lacking?

I’m ranting a bit. And the flaws of this book do annoy me. But the identity theme is boldly handled, and the pages fly by. It's an alright read. I can see myself picking up the sequel at some point. Beware however: this is as YA as it gets. If you have issues with young heroines coming to terms with their destiny, not to mention romance driven by constant misunderstandings, sulking and buckets of palm sweat, this is not for you. As for sense of place, it isn't overwhelming as I already said. Indeed, we don't even get to know why Chicago is ruined. But since my progress in this challenge isn't exactly swift, I'll let it be my illinois book for now. 3 stars.

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