GOOD KINGS BAD KINGS by Susan Nussbaum

Good Kings, Bad Kings is the winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction - and deservedly so.

This novel tells the stories, in a series of alternating voices, of the residents and staff of the Illinois Learning and Life Skills Centre - an institution for juveniles with disabilities in Chicago. They are stories of hopes and dreams, of desire for love, for independence, for respect; they are stories of friendship, love and caring despite the odds.
Whether the perspective was from a 'resident' or from a 'staffer' - those feelings are the same. It is also a story of life in a nursing home and the truly horrible conditions that people are forced to endure when desire for profit outweighs desire for caring.

The author uses the book as a platform to shed light onto the challenges faced daily by kids like these. She provides us with some hope in the form of caring staff members, but she does not sugar-coat the dim reality that is faced by disabled youth who have no one to care for them.

Susan Nussbaum succeeds in raising questions of institutionalization by giving a voice to those who are themselves institutionalized.

Since I put this book down I find myself thinking about it often. I would most certainly recommend it and would happily read more by this author.

THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt

The Secret History mimics a Greek tragedy.  Richard Papen, who is studying the Classics is an outsider at a prestigious American college.  He manages to become the sixth student in an Ancient Greek class, whose charismatic teacher normally allows only five students to enrol each year.  The other five students who have been studying together for some time come from a background of wealth and privilege - not at all like Richard's hard-scrabble upbringing. The murder of one of the members of the group is revealed on the first page.  The first half of the book deals with the events leading up to the murder and the murder itself.  In the second half, the remainder of the group must deal with the aftermath of the act.  Their tightly-knit group swiftly declines into fear, recrimination and remorse.

This book could best be described as a psychological thriller.  The unravelling of the group is suspenseful and Donna Tartt is such a good writer that I actually found myself caring about people who would normally cause me to raise my eyebrows at their arrogance and entitlement.  My only complaint?  I would have liked to find out more about their teacher.  There are plenty of hints about his control over his students but ultimately he manages to remain at arms-length and walk away from the situation.

This is a first novel for the author who goes on to become a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist.  I'm not surprised - she is brilliant!

THE WEIGHT OF WATER by Anita Shreve

I am generally ambivalent about Anita Shreve's books.  Usually, I really like parts of them but other parts - not so much.  The Weight of Water is the same for me.  Jean is a photojournalist on assignment to cover a 100 year old murder mystery that occurred on Smuttynose - an island off the coat of Maine.  (I looked it up - this murder really occurred)  Accompanying her are her husband, their small daughter, her brother-in-law and his girlfriend.  Five people, occupying space on a small boat for an extended period of time - it magnifies any marital strain, any jealousy, any petty remarks.  A storm is brewing.

The novel bounces back and forth between Jean and her life and the occupants of a very small home on the island of Smuttynose.  Maren and her husband are Norwegian immigrants who, 100 years ago, shared their home with his brother and sister-in-law, her sister and the occassional long-term boarder.  Five people, occupying space in a very small home for an extended period of time - it magnifies any marital strain, any jealousy, any petty remarks. A storm is brewing.  Because of the weather, the men who earn their living on the sea are unable to return home for the night.  Jean discovers a document written by Maren on her deathbed detailing the accounts of the night when an axe murderer entered the house and brutally killed Maren's sister and her sister-in-law while Maren hid in a cave outside the house.

The part of the book about the Norwegian settlers and the murders was extremely interesting.  There has been speculation for the last 100 years whether the convicted murderer was indeed guilty.  Shreve tells a compelling story in which she presents her version of the events leading up to the murders and what she feels happened.  She paints a grim picture of the isolation of these women and the hardships of their daily lives.  She also gives the women character and personality and I was interested in how they coped with their daily lives.

Unfortunately, I did not feel the same way about the modern group.  I did not find that any of these characters had been fleshed out to the point where I cared whether their lives were grim or glamorous.  The book is worth reading, however, for the 'historical' portion of it.

CLOSE YOUR EYES, HOLD HANDS by Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian has written a heartbreaking story in “Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands”.  Emily Shepherd's world has collapsed after the nuclear power plant where both her parents work experiences a meltdown.  People die (including her parents), homes and families are torn apart and the finger pointing begins.  And who better to blame than people who are no longer around to defend themselves?  Emily runs away from the temporary evacuation site and finds herself living on the street.

As has been the case in a number of his other books (Midwives, for example), Bohjalian writes convincingly in the voice of a teenaged girl.  The book is written as if it is Emily's journal - the people who help her along the way and those whom she befriends and helps are well fleshed out;  she speaks of the perils of living on the street and the tricks used to enable a person to survive that experience.

I really liked this book (I am a fan of this author).  Bohjalian puts a sentence together beautifully.  He tells a believable story.  Emily Shepard is a character you can care about.