Rhythm and Books

What is Left the Daughter

Despite previously insisting that this is the summer of the long read, we recently encountered a short novel, What is Left the Daughter, that has the long view and emotional impact of larger works.  It's one of our favorite books of the summer, most likely the year as well, and we couldn't be more pleased that the esteemed author, Howard Norman, visits us to sign and read this Thursday, July 29.

The novel takes the form of a long letter from a forty-something Nova Scotia man to his estranged daughter.  "I am writing because I refuse any longer to have my life defined by what I haven't told you," he writes her.  His secret, borne out of unlikely circumstances, is revealed in a heartbreaking moment  halfway through the book.  The scene moved at least one reader here to tears on an airplane, alarming the stranger in the seat next to her, who had never actually seen anyone cry from reading a book. 

Norman is an expert at this quiet devastation, though his book is not sunk in sadness or remorse.  His narrator spends the book paying dearly for his lack of assertiveness, but he is neither a mope nor a tortured soul.  As a young man he loses his parents, both to separate suicides, and moves in with his aunt and uncle and their adopted daughter, with whom he falls in love and ultimately conceives the daughter in question, though not before a great ordeal.  This is during World War II, and though the war seems half a world away, it finds its way to them and inspires the tragedy on which this story pivots.

And while it is most definitely tragic, there is an equal amount of light and wisdom and peculiarity in Norman's book to keep it from being mired in sadness.  His depiction of life in Nova Scotia, like the works of several other fine authors (Annie Proulx, Alastair MacLeod, David Adams Richards), paints it as a mythical land of toil and beauty — the kind of place where great literature flourishes.

We're told that the author is excited about his first literary tour through Mississippi, a sure sign of his penchant for far-flung, storied places.  Likewise we've anxiously awaited meeting him, having admired his popular 1994 novel The Bird Artist, and especially since our friend Howard Frank Mosher, who is never demure about his passions, was such a big advocate for this book.  His blurb, in fact, adorns the jacket:  "What is Left the Daughter is the best story of love in the time of war I've ever read. And yes, that includes Cold Mountain and A Farewell to Arms."

Please join us Thursday (7/29) at 5:30 p.m., and if you can't make it, reserve your signed copy.

Long Summer, or Dostoevsky on the Beach

Last summer we proposed that readers and customers join us on an odyssey through the bountiful selection of great short fiction we'd been reading.  Short stories were making a triumphant comeback thanks to a flurry of releases, including collections by Wells Tower, Skip Horack and even John Grisham — all among our favorites last year.

This summer we find ourselves drawn to longer works.  Much longer.  Maybe it's to escape the ungodly television feed.  Maybe writers have more to say or maybe publishers aren't editing them as much.  At any rate, it seems like every other book we pick up these days is a project.  Some of our favorite books this year have topped off around 600 pages.  And here we thought the world was speeding up, that brevity reigned.

Recently we came across an old article by Newsweek's Malcolm Jones, reviewing a 900-page Vikram Chandra novel and confessing that he stopped 100 pages in.  The first 100 pages were good, not great, Jones wrote.  So why go on when there were a hundred other things he could be reading, seeing, doing?  "If you're going to write 900-plus-page novels, you'd better be as good as Dickens, or I … or I'm going to read Dickens."

Good point.  But if you're addicted to the rush of plowing through a mound of pages, summer vacation is the time.  There's something to be said for eschewing the toss-away thriller for something meatier over a modest to lengthy vacation.  One staff member swears by long beach-reads, from his rain-soaked, condo-bound vacation with Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides to his daiquiri-fueled, seaside reading of Michel Faber's 850-page novel about Victorian-era prostitution, The Crimson Petal and the White.  And we'll never forget our friend David Hicks calling from a Miami swimming pool, immersed in Dostoevsky as curious onlookers bought him beers.

The It-Book of this summer appears to be The Passage by Justin Cronin.  Our own champions of this book have admitted inhaling the book in huge gasps, while customers who have finished the book in days reveal a similar compulsion.  "It didn't feel like an 800-page book," said one reader, "but I can't imagine reading two more that size if this is truly the first in a trilogy."  Hey don't forget about Harry Potter.

We've been amazed at the reception to Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn, a 592-page book about combat soldiers in Vietnam.  It's one of the more unlikely successes of the year.  There's no switching back and forth between men of war and civilians dealing with their own domestic battles, told over many years, recalling previous generations.  This is all about the thrills and lulls and first-hand specifics of war, told almost in real-time.  One reader went in full-bore over a weekend and came out wild-eyed.  "Unforgettable," he said.  "Dude spent 30 years writing it, I read it in 30 hours.  Just couldn't put it down."  Other survivors have admitted that same rare feeling that only comes from finishing long, heavy books — a sense of accomplishment.

There is also Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist, a 600-plus page novel from the spring we loved and have not praised near enough on the blog.  (Hey, we've been busy reading.)  Udall is a first-rate storyteller who chronicles the modern polygamist family in this beefy, story-driven novel about a man, his four wives and their 28 children.  Big laughs and brisk storytelling keep this book moving.  Udall is also one of the best writers of child characters we've read in ages.  We still have signed copies.

And we just finished Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Freedom, his next Corrections-sized family saga due out at the end of summer.  Again, Franzen explores the zeitgeist through the individual lives of an eccentric family coping with modern travails, destined toward an explosive reunion.  Any good reader will find a character he or she can identify with in this well-told modern saga.

Even though we're on the backside of summer, it's not too late to start a project.  We've adorned Turnrow's display wall at the foot of the stairs with some of our favorite hefty tomes, testing the integrity of our shelves and the mettle of our customers.  No surprise, they've been flying off the shelf ... and not always due to gravity.  Come in and choose, have us hoist one for you, then go make a long weekend for yourself.

Hey Kids, Have Lunch with John Grisham

John Grisham paid us another visit last week, signing copies of his new book for young readers, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer.  He was running a bit late this year as the publication of this new book was fighting with a deadline for the next, The Confession, a thriller due this fall that may be one of his longest novels yet.  The Confession follows a killer as he watches the court try an innocent man for the murder he committed.  (We first heard Grisham speak about his new thriller at Book Expo America, on a panel with Condoleezza Rice and Mary Roach, moderated by Jon Stewart. You can view the program in its entirety on BookTV's website.  Grisham is about mid-way through the hour-long presentation, but be sure and catch Stewart's hilarious opening monologue and Q&A session at the end.)

John promised to return in the fall to sign The Confession, and at this time he'll sit down to lunch with the winner of our Theodore Boone Story Contest, open to kids 14 and under who purchase their signed copy of Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer at Turnrow. Deadline for submissions is September 17, 2010.

The novel's title character is the 13-year-old son of two lawyers, and he quickly finds himself in a great predicament:  he finds a secret witness to the murder at the center of a sensational courtroom trial in his hometown.  How can he serve justice while protecting the identity of his secret source?  Boone finds an unlikely ally to help him maneuver the legal and ethical byways in this fast-paced and compelling mystery story — the first, Grisham assured us, in a series.

The idea for our contest is to have kids write their own mystery story (2-5 pages) in which they cast themselves as the hero, solving the case using their own unique talents and interests, whether they be athletic, academic, musical, scientific, or otherwise. 

To help get the creative juices flowing, we've enlisted our pal Deborah Wiles (Love, Ruby Lavender and Each Little Bird That Sings among others) to host a creative writing workshop for young writers at Turnrow on August 24.  We just read her excellent new book, Countdown, and were reminded why she's one of the best writers of children's literature out there.  We're so lucky to have her come in and guide young writers through the basics of creative storytelling.

Entry forms for the contest are available at Turnrow when you purchase a copy of Theodore Boone.  If you order online, make a notation that you'd like to enter and we'll see that you get a form.  For questions, call or write.

Big Brother Groove

Last year, when Dan Auerbach released his solo album, Keep It Hid, we pretty much assumed it was the end of the Black Keys.  And it should be said that there was much discussion in favor of that.  We've loved the Black Keys since their early Fat Possum days, banging out Junior Kimbrough covers and reviving basement rock.  But recently we feared they'd run their course.  Thankfully, we were wrong.

The Black Keys are Auerbach and Patrick Carney, a small band with a big sound from Akron, Ohio.  Their music has always been a sonic representation of the industrial roots of their city — once known as "the Rubber Capital of the World" — but it is also revolutionary in these days of slick, over-produced, studio-fabricated pop.  Their albums are rampant with unique guitar timbres which, along with some heavy drumming, create a seriously thick, powerful sound.

Every Black Keys album is full of groove and guitar trickery, but in recent years, this has become their Achilles heel.  Listening to their more recent albums, one senses the band's desire to break out of their simple rock structure, but they've found little purchase in their meandering experiments, making it difficult to discern which track belongs to which album.  Brothers, their newest release, has solved this problem.

The solo efforts of Auerbach and Carney, as well as their sessions with New York City's' rap coterie (Mos Def, Raekwon, Q-Tip, and RZA) on last fall's Blakroc, must have expanded the Black Keys' dynamic and tonal palate, helping them create an album that is simultaneously innovative and unmistakably the Black Keys.  As an aural experience, it is a triumph.  Gone are the harsh, overpowering dynamics of previous efforts and in their place are more subtle but effective musical developments.  The foundation of Brothers is great mature melodies combined with creative instrumentation.  And plenty of honest, rejuvenated soul.

For this project, the duo plumbed their own dark funk in Alabama's famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio where such artists as Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, and Wilson Pickett have gone to get their rocks off.  The aural experience of this album fully achieves what they've been grasping to create.  They've produced some of their most memorable grooves, and stories, on this album, demonstrating that the Black Keys do not have to dip into the same well but can continue to be a cutting edge musical institution.

It should also be said that this album is packaged with equal care.  From the stark but effective cover to the color-changing disc, one can tell this album is not a place-holder for the Black Keys, but one that proves the band will live on.  If, like us, your faith in the Keys has begun to waver, Brothers will be your salvation, and if you are new to the band, this is the perfect album to begin your journey.

Enjoy this sample from their soulful dark odyssey....