Review: "Oh William!" by Elizabeth Strout, 2021

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Oh William!" by Elizabeth Strout, 2021

The compact novel packs mesmerizing prose and a richly layered narrative of marriage and divorce, grief and sadness, and strength and fragility borne of the human condition. Strout's constant weaving of new threads alongside the story's main fabric was so elegant and natural that it was easy to follow. 

"Oh William!" is a quiet, character-driven novel. Ultimately the story is a reflection on the very nature of our existence and the subtle forces that hold us together.

Initially thinking I might find the story unrelatable, I was surprised to learn there are some parallels. I'm happy I gave this book a chance, and I look forward to reading other works by Pulitzer Prize winner Strout.

I rate this book 4.5 stars out of 5 stars.

Plot (Non-Spoilery)

In Oh William! Lucy, now 64, is mourning the death of her beloved second husband, a cellist named David Abramson. She finds some welcome distraction in revisiting her relationship with her first husband, William Gerhardt, the philandering father of her two grown daughters.

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Review: The Candy House

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Candy House, Jennifer Egan, 2022

The novel is a sequel of sorts to the 2011 Pulitzer prize-winning "A Visit from the Goon Squad." While it's not necessary to have read the former to understand the latter, there may be some benefit in doing so if you want a fuller set of details for some of the characters appearing later in the book.

It's hard to describe this book as a whole other than a collection of loosely connected short stories centering around a Black-Mirror-ish world where human memories are recorded and, at times, reviewed. "Own Your Consciousness" is a technology that allows people to upload a life's worth of memories — even long-forgotten ones — share them in a collective archive and access others'.-- kind of like all the social media apps integrated into one and pumped up on super steroids.

There are so many characters that it may have made sense to take notes to make it easier to see the connections to the other stories in the book. Some characters were exciting and memorable, while others were forgettable. The same applies to the set of stories-- in fact, it may be better to describe them as vignettes were it not for the fact there were time jumps, location jumps, and sometimes both.

I dare hazard that I understand what the author is trying to do as a whole with the book, but the moirée of stories was just too jarring going from one to the next. Don't get me wrong, the book was written well and a pleasure to read, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if the stories weren't so seemingly disconnected by the order in which they were placed.

Lulu, the spy, was my favorite story, followed by the story of the heroin-addicted woman.

I rate the book 3.25 out of 5 stars.

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Review: Train Dreams

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a sad and beautifully told story of a rugged and rough life in the American Northwest during the first quarter of the 1900s. Fundamentally ahistorical fiction, elements of magical surrealism adds to the depth of and emotions conveyed in Train Dreams. The novella is a Pulitzer Prize nominee for 2012.

The language and prose is evocative of the brutality of nature entwined with human life from days gone by. It's hard to fathom in our current times how Americans used to live about a hundred years ago- or at least a lifestyle that is considered outside of the mainstream in early 1900s.

I've read somewhere a book reviewer describing the book as "imagine Toni Morrison flirting with Paul Bunyan" with how the Denis Johnson uses magical surrealism "as a means of melding humans and 

animals into a single life-force that animates the mountains and valleys." I would have to agree.

I rate this book 4.25 out of 5 stars.

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