Maw Books » published 2007

Bifocal by Deborah Ellis & Eric Walters

Natasha Maw — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:16:45 +0000

So first things first to get it out of the way. Yes, Bifocal by Deborah Ellis & Eric Walters has an awful cover. But on the other hand, it’s co-written by Deborah Ellis. That’s enough for me to look past the cover. Unfortunately, if kids aren’t familiar with how awesome Deborah Ellis, will kids pick this one up? I don’t think so. Definitely needs a cover redo. Not dynamic or interesting at all. Covers sell books and this cover is likely hindering what I thought was a good book.

I love Deborah Ellis and the synopsis of Bifocal had me itching at the bit to read it:

Haroon is a serious student devoted to his family; Jay is a rising football star devoted to his team. They may go to the same high school and walk the same hallways, but they are worlds apart. And that’s just the way it is.

One day the high school is put on lockdown, and the police arrest a Muslim student on suspicion of terrorist affiliations. Is the boy really guilty, or has he been singled out because of his race? Student loyalties quickly divide along racial lines, and Haroon and Jay will have to take sides with their own kins.

It’s not like they really have a choice.

A good look on what happens when we judge others unfairly and carry prejudices about others that we don’t understand nor feel as though we want to understand. The story was engaging and Haroon and Jay are characters who grow and change throughout the course of the novel. Not my favorite Deborah Ellis book (still reserving that for The Breadwinner series) but one well worth having on your radar. Stories like these are always important.

Links of interest: More book blogger reviews. Deborah Ellis books also reviewed by Maw Books: The Breadwinner, Mud City, Parvana’s Journey, Lunch with Lenin and Other Stories, The Heaven Shop.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Fitzhenry and Whiteside. October 15, 2007.
Hardcover, 240 pages. ISBN 155455036X
Source copy: Review copy at my request.
Bifocal is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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The Mistress’s Daughter by A.M. Homes

Natasha Maw — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:30:15 +0000

So in all honesty it’s been a while since I listened to The Mistress’s Daughter by A.M. Homes. I have discovered (and I suspected this would be true of me) that with two kids in the car it’s probably better for me to have read a book before listening to the audio. I’m just too distracted. I can’t pay attention. Plus, I got really impatient. I wanted to speed things up. Obviously, I can read faster than I can listen to a book and felt like it was taking way to long to get through the book. And again, being honest here, I don’t consider myself “well-listened” when it comes to audio books. Totally new territory for me. I’ve really only listened to the Harry Potter books, which I ADORED in audio. But I had read them previously. Thus enhancing my enjoyment I think. I had never read The Mistress’s Daughter but had it on my bookshelf and when going out of town and pursuing the library thought it would be perfect to listen to while in the car.

It took me weeks and weeks to listen to this very short memoir. I did not like the narrator at all and found myself wincing when I turned the audio back on. Annoyed. Very annoyed. That, of course, hampered my enjoyment. I really wish I had read this book in print instead of having listened to it. But even if I had read it, I suspect that I would have felt slightly annoyed with the book itself as well. I never really connected to A.M. Home’s story which is sad because it’s a memoir. I always hate when I don’t love a memoir because then it feels like I’m discounting the author’s story. It’s their life experience. And I don’t want to dismiss anybody’s life experience as being less than what it is. But it is what it is, and I never connected with her or her story.

In this memoir, author A.M. Homes recounts how she was given up for adoption before she was born. Her adoptive parents won’t tell her anything about her birth, her adoption, or her background. The Mistress’s Daughter is the story of how at the age of thirty, she reconnects with her birth parents and the road she travels in discovering how she is, who her family is and does that knowledge really change who she is? In her case, yes, the family narrative she discovers has a direct correlation with her sense of self.

All her life, she knew that there was some secrecy behind her birth. Her adoptive mother simply wouldn’t give her any answers. It was these answers that she would have to discover for herself. She becomes obsessed with genealogy work on both her biological and adoptive sides of the family. And when her birth mother dies, she hopes to figuratively find her mother in the box of personal effects that she left behind. And in doing so, she hopes to find herself as well.

I really wanted to love this book but found both her story and the narrator annoying enough that I couldn’t embrace it like I had hoped. I never understood the motives that drove the story. Sure, she explained the motives and I knew of them, but I just had a difficult time believing in them. I never felt convinced of the genuineness and truth of the story. And I HATE to say something like that particularly for a memoir because it is her truth. As for me, I simply kept shaking my head and saying, “Really? I just don’t get this.”

This one of those book reviews that I simply wonder if I would be singing a different tune had I not listened to the audio. Perhaps I would have been more apt to receive the story had I not been annoyed by the narrator every time I simply hit the play button. So, moral of the story? Skip the audio for this one and read the book. But even then, I was a bit leary. I’d be curious to hear what others think of it. As for me, The Mistress’s Daughter just didn’t do it for me.

Links of interest: A.M Homes website.
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Publisher: Viking Adult. April 5, 2007
Hardcover, 240 pages. ISBN 0670038385
The Mistress’s Daughter is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

Natasha Maw — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:36:01 +0000

Daniel Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant was born on January 31, 1979 (just 29 days after myself) which happened to be a Wednesday. And Wednesday’s are always blue. In fact, to Daniel, every number and letter manifests a different color and feel. This ability is called synaesthesia, a condition which I was unaware of.

But this is not the only limit of Daniel’s abilities. He has savant syndrome, which many of us are aware of through Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Charlie Babbitt in the movie Rain Man. Not only can Daniel Tammet calculate huge sums of numbers in his head but he also can recite the number of Pi up to 22,500 decimal places, and learn languages in mere weeks (he’s fluent in about nine). Daniel Tammet also has Asperger’s, a very high functioning form of autism which unlike Charlie Babbit, allows him to communicate and interact well. This was a skill that he learned to improve with time and practice. It’s this capability that he’s able to give us a glimpse into one of the most rare conditions in the world.

This memoir is a fascinating glimpse into such an extraordinary mind. Our brains are incredible and Daniel has opened himself up to science for study so we may better understand what we, as humans, are capable of. Daniel takes us on a journey through his childhood, his home, family and school life, to embarking out on his own, finding love and creating his own successful business. While the book is certainly factual in nature, a testament to how Daniel processes his surroundings, it was incredibly introspective and honest. I love coming to learn and understand people who are unlike myself, and if you are the same, this is a memoir that you won’t want to miss.

The following video is a 50 minute film, titled The Boy With The Incredible Brain, which is a documentary that he talks about in length in the book. If you don’t read the book, I’d at least watch the film. But I’d recommend both!

Links of interest: Daniel Tammet’s website, more book blogger reviews. Did you know April is National Autism Awareness Month? Check out all my book reviews that address autism.
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Publisher: Free Press. October 16, 2007
Paperback, 256 pages. ISBN 1416549013
Source copy: Own
Born on a Blue Day is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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Little Skink’s Tail by Janet Halfmann, Illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein

Natasha Maw — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:33:59 +0000

My boys and I laid in bed the other morning and read Little Skink’s Tail by Janet Halfmann and illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein. Seriously, nothing is better than lounging in bed before getting up while reading picture books aloud. Even better that the book was within arms reach of the bed thus not even having to get up to retrieve our morning reading material!

While eating ants for breakfast (yuk! said my boys), Little Skink is attacked by a crow. But she has a trick up her sleeve and that is to snap off her bright blue tail which keeps wiggling as she makes her escape. While Little Skink is very happy to be alive she desperately misses her blue tail. As she meets various animals in the forest that day she imagines what she would look like if she had their tail. But they are all too fluffy,too bushy, too stubby, too stinky, too prickly or too pointy. Will she find the perfect tail or will she be in for an even bigger surprise?

My four-year-old LOVES footprints and he really enjoyed a map activity found at the end of book where he matched the footprints to the different animals Little Skink encountered in the forest. There is also a matching game to identify the tails with the animals as well. As soon as we finished both activities, he turned to the beginning of the book and narrated the entire thing back to me. Of course, it was his own narration but he was pretty darn close!

Little Skink’s Tail is a welcome addition to our library and comes with our recommendation as it’s not often that my little guy will spend a good twenty minutes looking at a book on his own.

Links of interest: Janet Halfmann website, Laurie Allen Klein website, more book blogger reviews, posted in conjunction with Cari’s Purple Day Mini-Challenge.
Genre: Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Sylvan Dell. August 10, 2007.
Hardcover, 32 pages. ISBN 0976882388
Source copy: Review copy from author
Little Skink’s Tail is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué Rico! Americas’ Sproutings, Haiku by Pat Mora, Pictures by Rafael López

Natasha Maw — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:12:47 +0000

Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué Rico! Americas’ Sproutings is a fantastic collection of haiku by Pat Mora accompanied by illustrations from Rafael López.

Have you ever thought about where some of your favorite foods come from? This Thanksgiving as you sit down to pumpkin or pecan pie, mashed potatoes, corn, or cranberry sauce, think about if you know where these foods originated. Now, Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué Rico! Americas’ Sprouting isn’t about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and how did we come to eat these foods at the Thanksgiving dinner table but rather about the foods found native to the Americas before they were divided into countries.

Chocolate.

Fudge, cake, pie, cookies.
Brown magic melts on your tongue.
Happy, your eyes dance.

Pecan

We crack hard, brown shells,
family munching, story time,
crunchy taste of fall.

Pineapple
A stiff, spiky hat
on thick prickly skin, inside
hid syrupy rings.

Pumpkin

Under round luna,
scattered tumblings down the rows,
autumn’s orange face.

Each haiku is accompanied by a short paragraph that explains where the particular food comes from, as well as interesting facts about it. LIke tomatoes probably originated in Peru or Mexico and though it’s technically a fruit is eaten as a vegetable. Most of us know that but do you know why it’s considered a vegetable? In 1893, the United State Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes should be subject to the government’s tax on imported vegetables. I bet you didn’t know that did you?! (And in all honesty, I did know that, but I find it so interesting it was a Supreme Court ruling.) Potatoes are native to Andean mountains of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador in South America and the Aymara Indians of Bolivia developed more than two hundred varieties of potatoes alone. And in 1955 potatoes became the first vegetable grown in outer space.

The illustrations by Rafael López are fantastic and is heavily influenced by the work of Mexican muralists and I must admit that they make me really hungry. Dancing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Come on? You’ve got to love that.

A great book for a closer look into the food that are native to the America’s as well as a great introduction for children to haiku – seventeen-syllable poems of Japanese origin.

Do you write haiku (looking at you Amy!). I’d love to have you share your favorite Thanksgiving food in haiku, if you are up for it.

Links of interest: Pat Mora website, Rafael López website, Maw Books review of Gracias Thanks also by Pat Mora.
Genre: Fiction picture book. Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Lee & Low Books. October 31, 2007
Hardcover/Paperback # of pages. ISBN 1584302712
Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué Rico! Americas’ Sproutings is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf

Natasha Maw — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:06:24 +0000

Loved this book.

Loved it.

Read on . . .

One of my favorite types of books to read are books that take place around World War II and the Holocaust. There will never be a drought of stories to tell from this horrific part of history. But I was shocked when I picked up Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf. I had never read a book told from this particular perspective during the war. Completely and utterly fascinating to me. A true example of how a piece of historical fiction can open my eyes into a world that I knew nothing about. I could not put this book down. I carried it with me everywhere the day I read it.

Just a few short weeks after Milada’s eleventh birthday, Nazi’s storm every home in her town in Czechoslovakia and take everybody away. Milada, her mother and grandmother are immediately separated from her father and brother and taken to a gymnasium where she undergoes a physical and doctors measure her features. Milada and another classmate are torn again from their families, placed on a bus and sent to Poland. When they arrive in a new girls school, Milada realizes that each girl there shares two traits in common: blue eyes and blonde hair. In addition, each has exactly the right size head or nose.

It is at this school that their indoctrination to Germanization begins. She is renamed Eva and each girl is trained to forget everything about their past. They have no past. They only have futures of being the perfect German citizen and be raised up to be perfect German wifes. Eva struggles with her new identity, the new language and to remain true to her upbringing and background. She holds on to a pin from her grandmother to always remember who she is.

And then the impossible happens. Eva can no longer remember her true name. What did people use to call her? Can she recall it? She can’t remember her name. The Germans have taken everything from her.

After the intense period of training, each girl is adopted into a German family. With a new name, a new language, a new sister and a new mother and father, will Eva be able to remember who she really is? Or will she be lost forever?

Stunning. This story had me jaw dropping all over the place.

There is a seven page author’s note at the end of the book which really brought the whole thing home for me. Inspired by the true events that took place in the town of Lidice where Hitler had a personal vendetta for a particular officer there, Hitler ordered the entire town to be emptied and razed. The men and boys were shot immediately while the women and children spent three days in the Kladno school gym. Their heads were measured and their eye and hair colors examined to see if they matched Aryan standards. Children who were selected for “Germanization” and the very youngest were sent directly to orphanages where they were adopted by German citizens. Many children in the retraining program were literally kidnapped off of the streets. At the end of the war, these Lidice children were tracked down and returned back home to their families. And for the smallest children who remembered nothing of their former lives were traumatized when removed from their adoptive German parents.

Someone Named Eva introduced me to this horrific aspect of World War II. Eva’s story was beautifully told and I felt so drawn to her. Even to the very last page, I had no idea where Eva’s story would go. I’d love for more people to pick this book up. It deserves a wide audience. In fact, the more I think back on this book, the more I love it. An excellent book and I’d highly recommend it for readers of all ages.

(And by the way, the hardcover has a terrible cover. It’s the copy that I read. Thank goodness they improved the paperback.)

Links of interest: Joan M. Wolf website. More book blogger reviews.
Genre: Middle grade historical fiction. Approx ages 9-12.
Publisher: Clarion Books. July 16, 2007.
Hardcover, 208 pages. ISBN 0618535799
Someone Named Eva is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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Chess Rumble by G. Neri, Illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson

Natasha Maw — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:07:51 +0000

Chess Rumble by G. Neri and illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson is one of those books that I hope people don’t judge based on the cover. I don’t think it’s the best representation of the book. It’s a book that I would have walked by without a second glance. But then of course, I’m a thirty-year-old middle class white mother of two living in the suburbs of Salt Lake City. Obviously, this cover is trying to catch the attention of inner-city young and teen boys. Do you think it works? Doesn’t work? Would love to know what you think.

Marcus is having a hard time both at home and in school. Since the death of his sister, his father has moved out of the house and his mother is having a hard time just keeping it together. Marcus has begun to fight at school and is headed down a road that will get him kicked out of school and his house and one that will be difficult to travel back from.

While at the park, he is challenged to a game of chess from C.M., a nickname that stands for Chess Man, Check Mate and Chess Master. It is through their games together that Marcus begins to learn how to keep his own emotions in check and to always be looking at least three moves ahead – both on the chess board and in real life.

The dust jacket says, “Inspired by inner-city school chess enrichment programs, Chess Rumble explores the ways this strategic game empowers young people with the skills they need to anticipate and calculate their moves through life.” This is a statement that I would completley agree with. I do also agree with Ms. Yingling’s statement that the size and format (including page stock) of the book borders too closely of a picture book. I just can’t see a teenage boy feeling cool touting this book around, if you know what I mean.

Chess Rumble is also told in verse, a format which I always enjoy. Overall, I liked Chess Rumble and found it well worth the read. I just wonder if the same could be said of its intended audience.

Book trailer:

Links of interest: G. Neri website, follow on Twitter, more book blogger reviews,
Genre: Middle Grade Fiction, approx age 9-12.
Publisher: Lee and Low Books. November 8, 2007
Hardcover, 64 pages. ISBN 1584302798
Chess Rumble is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Natasha Maw — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:03:50 +0000

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a story of what’s and why’s. Why me? And what could I have done differently?

Clay comes home from school one day to find a package on his porch. Yay for packages! How exciting. It doesn’t say who it’s from, so he excitedly rips into it. Inside are thirteen cassette tapes. Weird. Who even uses cassette tapes anymore? After hunting a player down (harder than it would seem), he puts the first tape in. He’s shocked to hear the voice of Hannah Baker, a girl at school who had just committed suicide.

At the beginning of the tapes, Hannah explains that each tape represents a person. On each tape she will explain what that particular person did to help contribute to her suicide. Having received the tapes in the first place, Clay is obviously distraught, but to consider that his actions, unknowingly to him, played a role in her suicide is simply too much. As he listens to each tape, he learns more than he wants to know about his fellow classmates, but it’s with fear and trepidation that he knows the next tape could very well be him.

Thirteen Reasons Why is thought provoking and is the type of book that brings up a lot of discussion points. It’s the little things that we do that may seem like a huge deal to somebody else. Harmless gossip is not really harmless at all. But in the end, are we really responsible for somebody else’s actions?

Why did Hannah place the blame on others, especially when she had so many opportunities to reach out and get help? Who’s really responsible for the suicide? Hannah? Or the people listed on the tapes? I’m one to say that the suicide was ultimately Hannah’s decision. She obviously carried it out and I don’t think that it’s fair for the others to be held responsible for an action that wasn’t theirs. But what of the ripple effects? The little things that one does to wound the character of another. To so deeply affect them that they aren’t able to shake it. And what’s worse, to not even realize it. Thirteen Reasons Why makes us sit back and think before we talk or act.

Thirteen Reasons Why is told from the viewpoint of Clay as he listens to the tapes and alternates with Hannah’s side of the story on the tapes. I couldn’t help but think about the book Skeleton Creek which alternates between written text and videos that the reader watches online to get the whole story. I wonder how Thirteen Reasons Why would be in a similar format. The written text as Clay’s point of view and Hannah’s told not in written word, as it is now, but rather in audio. Wouldn’t that be cool? A book told in audio and text? This is the type of book that I think would be perfect for such a technique and would immerse the reader further into the story.

There was one small thing that bothered me throughout the book and I don’t know why I narrow in on it so specifically. When Clay received the tapes and realizes they are from Hannah, he wonders why she would send them to him. He thinks something along the lines of “Oh, the girl at school who committed suicide. Hannah and I hardly know each other. We are just acquaintances.” I would quote the line but I don’t have the book in my possession but this was the feeling that I got when reading it. Later in the book, we learn that Hannah and Clay had not only made out together at a party, but had had a heart-to-heart in depth conversation, which makes it more than just a “that girl” and “we hardly know each other.” I suppose that thinking that they didn’t know each other, I was surprised by the unfolding story where they did know each other. Although I’m sure I’m the only reader who feels this way, I don’t think the story was set up quite right because their relationship was not as explained.

I never felt sorry for Hannah, which as the character who killed herself because she felt bullied at school, I suppose I should have. She was not likable to me. There were so many times that she thought, “well, if this is what people think I’m already like, there is nothing I can do about it and I might as well act the part,” which is an attitude that made me want to throw the book across the room. But I think that’s probably the point. As a reader, I was so frustrated with her thought process that I’m sure that the people who found themselves the topic of each tape probably felt the same way. In retrospect, they wish that she had acted differently, thought differently, but there was nothing that they could do about it.

Thirteen Reasons Why is a great book for teens and adults that takes a good hard look at teens bullying teens, the warning signs of suicide, and suicide itself. As I read this book for book club it also makes for a great discussion. While it frustrated me to no end, I do think it’s worth the read and recommend it.

Links of interest: Jay Asher website and blog. More blogger reviews of Thirteen Reasons Why.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Razorbill. October 18, 2007
Hardcover, 320 pages. 320 pages.
Source: Library
Thirteen Reasons Why is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powells, and Amazon.

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On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck

Natasha Maw — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:00:20 +0000

On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck is a really wonderful book. Richard Peck is one of the most loved authors of our time and it’s certainly for good reason. I loved everything about this book. I was drawn into the story immediately with the first page:

Before the war . . .

. . . the evenings lingered longer, and it was always summer when it wasn’t Halloween, or Christmas. Long, lazy light reached between the houses, and the whole street played our version of hide-and-seek, called only by olly-olly-in-free and supper time. Before I could keep up, I rode my brother’s shoulder’s, hung in the crook of Dad’s good arm. I rode them across the long shadows of afternoon, high over hedges, heading for home base, when our street was the world,

before the war,
when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Doesn’t that just draw you in? If it was that great before the war than what about after the war? Is it not always summer? Does nobody play hide-and-seek anymore? Is it dark and stormy? I love how the first page gives you the promise of a great story to follow.

Davy Bowman has two heroes in his life: his father and his older brother. His dad is a grown up kid who could always be relied upon to play out on the street with all the other neighborhood kids and catch Halloween pranksters with pranks of his own. Davy never had to worry about saying something wrong in front of his Dad. But his father’s heart is breaking as his older brother, Bill, is in training flying B-17s and about to be shipped overseas to help with the war effort. With the war now invading the home front, Davy is finding that his childhood and his family is changing in ways that he never could have expected. With neighborhood wide blackouts, the kids no longer play out on the street. Instead they scrounge around for rubber and scrap metal to donate to the war effort. With teachers now short of hand, Miss Titus, an ancient woman, finally puts Davy’s classroom in order. She’s a fireball and easily one of my favorite characters in the book. Bill, finally overseas, has gone missing while on a flight mission and when Davy’s grandparents move in his mother goes to work so she can avoid sitting home all day and worrying.

What I loved most about On the Wings of Heroes was that weaved into this great story and memorable family was the little details that made this war feel so real and believable. Wouldn’t you know it? I was learning something! This is historical fiction at it’s best. If you want to know what it was like for a family and community to be on the home front during World War II then this book will take you right there.

I have been fortunate to hear Richard Peck speak not once but twice (which I still have photos and a post to share with you from months ago!) and I am fascinated with the passion that he has for research, writing, characters and great stories. With more than 40 books under his belt, I have a lot of back titles to go through. I’m looking forward to the task ahead of me.

Who is an author that once you get hooked, you have to go back through their entire backlist? For me it’s Richard Peck, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jacqueline Woodson and Anita Shreve. You?

Links of interest: Why oh why does Richard Peck not have a website? The Maw Books reviews of A Long Way from Chicago, A Year Down Yonder.
Genre: Juvenile, Historical Fiction. Ages 9-12
Publisher: Dial Books. February 15, 2007
Hardcover, 160 pages. ISBN: 0803730810
On the Wings of Heroes is available at your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese

Natasha Maw — Sun, 03 May 2009 05:59:52 +0000

Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese is a collection of short stories that has been languishing in my book pile for far too long and I was determined to read it during Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon. I have heard a lot of mixed reviews for this one, from people really loving it to others disliking it. So I was curious to figure out where I would land on that scale. Sadly, I’ve discovered that the more short stories I read, the more I just can’t get into them. (I’ll give Deborah Ellis’ Lunch With Lenin a pass though, I did like that one.) Maybe I’m just not reading the right short stories. I am really glad to have explored this genre a little bit this past year, but I’m not going to be jumping up and down to read any more in the very near future.

Thinking back on this book, I really can not remember any of the stories. I vaguely remember something about a man looking in a mirror while he’s shaving and reminiscing about his body. Another about two best friends and one who continually pushes the other away. All the stories are very dark and troubling and dive deep into a psychoanalysis of the characters. Which given that the author is a psychotherapist isn’t very surprising. The writing itself was very difficult for me to get into. Half the time, I kept asking myself, “what did I just read?”

For example, the following paragraph is found in the short story entitled, “I’ll Make It. I Think”

Once, when I was younger, I made up a fable about my life. It was my own nipple and I sucked it dry. It’s worth repeating. Trouble is I still don’t understand it all, but if feels right, true to what I know about me and my destiny (?).

Maybe I’m just not a savvy reader, but I have no idea what any of that means. And sucking your own nipple dry not only thoroughly confuses me, but scares me a little too.

But there were passages of very poetic writing as well, as seen in this passage in “Echo,”

That feeling of terror, of being lost on a beach on a sea of strange blankets and bare bodies, that dumbstruck horror of feeling very much alone and torn off or away, as if one is dislocated, a fragment in a cruel time or place, a mons pubis disjointedly staring out of an oven in Auschwitz is what it is all about. It is a ligament tear of the very soul, a lifelong inflammation that no medicine will cure; one dies hobbles.

It’s this type of writing that makes me step back and read really slowly, so I don’t miss anything. While I do like this particular passage, I have no clue what mons pubis really means but I can probably take a wild guess. (Just did the Wikipedia thing – who really uses that term in a conversation? AND I had no clue that this book review would go this direction. What in the world am I doing? I normally don’t talk about nipples and mons pubis’s!)

This wasn’t the book for me. If you like deep, dark, character driven short stories you may find it worth the read, but personally it’s not a book that I would recommend. The upside is that it only took about an hour or so to read.

I’m going to go ahead and pass on my copy of Down to a Sunless Sea to somebody else if they’d like to give it a try. Let me know if interested and I’ll choose a recipient.

Genre: Short stories
Published: Wheatmark Books, November 2007.
Paperback, 148 pages. ISBN: 9781587367335
Down to a Sunless Sea is available from independent bookstores, Powells and Amazon.
(Wondering what kind of info you’d like in this space, as I might start doing this. Consider this my test run.)

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