The 5 Best Books I Read in 2010!

And the winners are...


1.  Bloodroot, by Amy Greene

This debut novel by Appalachian writer Amy Greene is an epic, incandescent, hard-hitting story that moved me more than any other book I read this year.  The violence is shattering, as is the experience of reading the book, but alongside the harshness is beautiful writing and an unforgettable story.

2.  Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun explodes off the page with the passion of its characters and the anguish of the Biafran War in Nigeria.  Adichie excels at capturing the emotional landscape of the country as well as the nuances between the characters.  

3.  Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates

Please see my recent post.  Bottom line - I couldn't put it down.  

4.  Invisible, by Paul Auster

Of the four Auster novels that I read this year, Invisible was my favorite.  Some words that come to mind - disturbing, shocking, intriguing, and full of surprises.  I read it in two sittings.  Auster may be too, well, austere for some readers, but his lack of warmth is made up for the sheer pleasure of never knowing what path the story will take.

5.  Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder

I've been a long-time fan of Tracy Kidder.  Strength in What Remains tells the true story of a young man named Deo from Burundi who flees the genocide in his country and lands in NYC with $200 in his pocket and little else.  Through his determination and persistence, as well as the kindness of strangers, Deo gets a degree at Columbia University and goes on to medical school.  Other great books by Kidder include Mountains Beyond Mountains (which tells the story of Paul Farmer) and Hometown (about Northampton, MA).  

Man vs. The Mundane

Sometimes I read two books back to back at random, not expecting to draw any particular parallels.  I was surprised and intrigued by the similar struggles that the protagonists in Yates' Revolutionary Road and Percy's The Moviegoer face.  Published within a year of each other (1961 and 1960 respectively), both works deal with what Yates calls the "hopeless emptiness of everything in this country" and what Percy calls being "sunk in the everydayness."  Both protagonists, men at the beginning of their careers, are successful and lead a prescribed life, yet both rage against this normalcy and ease and search for something more meaningful.

In Revolutionary Road, April and Frank Wheeler seem to be on the way to having it all - two kids, success, and a nice house.  April having tried her hand at acting, and Frank being an intellectual with big ideas when they first met, they give up their big ambitions and settle into day-to-day family life.  April comes up with the idea that the family up and move to Paris so that Frank can do some soul searching while she gets an embassy job.  The arguing is incessant, the characters unlikeable, and the end is utterly depressing, yet I truly loved this book - one of the top 5 best books I've read this year, because every sentence crafted by Yates is perfection in its vivid imagery and smart, impassioned dialogue.  Also, while this book takes place in the 1950s, substitute a "swell" and a "sore" for more current language and the novel would be just as relevant today as it was fifty years ago.  Don't be dissuaded by the movie - this is an amazing book.  Hard to put down.

In The Moveigoer, Binx Bolling is a successful stockbroker with a nice house in Gentilly, a suburb of New Orleans.  He lives a life of working, dating, and moviegoing.  He attempts to be "Gregory Peck-ish" so as to charm women who have, for example, "Sarah Lawrence solemnity."  While this book is considered a classic, I found the writing too flat, and it dragged toward the end.

Both book raise the question of how we can live a rich life - do we need to search beyond what we already have?  Should we prescribe to what society says is "the good life" or should we follow our desires and throw caution to the wind (if we have the means and the risk tolerance to do so)?  How do we find meaning in the "everydayness?"  Onward, we ponder.

2010 Holiday Gift Guide!

There is something about giving a book as a gift - the intention that went behind it as the selection was carefully tailored to please the recipient, the heft of a new book in one's hands, the pleasure of discovering a new author or topic of interest. Thus, I present to you the 2010 Holiday Gift Guide:

For the escapist:  The beloved Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl has recently released Book Lust to Go, with books recommended for "travelers, vagabonds, and dreamers."  This would be a great reference guide for any book lover, with both fiction and non-fiction categories.  The Atlas of Remote Islands, by Judith Schalansky, is a beautiful book I stumbled upon recently.  Featuring fifty islands, you learn a bit about the history of each island, just enough to awaken the romantic in each of us.  Rebecca Solnit's colorful Infinite City is a must for any lover of maps, urban history, or San Francisco.  It strikes me as the perfect coffee table book that you would want to flip through again and again.  It features all different kinds of maps of San Francisco with different themes, and tells you the history about the city's many neighborhoods.  

For the chef:  What better wintertime activity is there than eating a hot loaf of bread that you've made with your own bare hands?  I present to you two bread making books - one old, one new.  I recently had a friend visit and, a San Francisco local said to her, "have you been to Tartine at 5 o'clock yet?"  The reason, of course, is that this is the hour that Tartine's breads are ready.  I remember a cold night in San Francisco in which I had Tartine bread in a paper bag, clutched to my chest, and it kept me warm all the way home.


Tartine Bread, written by Chad Robertson (co-owner of the famous Tartine Bakery and Bar Tartine), is a book featuring many different types of bread for both the home chef and the professional bread-maker. An old-school option is A World of Breads, by Dolores Casella.  I've had both the corn bread and the country wheat bread and they are not only impossible to screw up, but also very delicious.  No need for a bread-making machine any more - this is the real deal!

For the budding Buddhist:  Pema Chodron is an American Buddhist nun and teacher.  The Pocket Pema Chodron features short passages from her best-selling titles, and is designed for when you need that bit of extra inspiration or inner quietness to get you through the day.  Taking the Leap explores the patterns that we find ourselves in, and provides tools for breaking them.  While some of Chodron's books go heavily into explanations of Buddhist concepts and practices, these two are easily accessible to those with no knowledge of Buddhism.  These are not to be labeled as "self-help."  Rather, these are wise writings from one of the foremost Buddhist thinkers today, helping us navigate through our fears, challenges, and destructive patterns.

For the magazine reader:  The Sun, published in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, features essays, short stories, photography, interviews, poetry, and my favorite section, one in which readers write in each month about a different topic.  The Sun is also independent and free of ads.  What I like most about this magazine is that the stories are raw, intimate, and powerful.  

Orion explores the intersection of nature, culture and place,  It is published in Great Barrington, MA, and is also free of ads.  Orion has an impressive list of advisors, including Wendell Berry, Jane Goodall, Van Jones, Winona LaDuke, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Bill McKibben, and Terry Tempett Williams.  It is a beautiful magazine, in both its design and its contents.  Orion was the winner of the 2010 Utne Independent Press Award for General Excellence.  


I recently visited my local magazine store and asked for some suggestions.  In this way, I learned of Cultural Survival Quarterly (CSQ), published in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a satellite office in Guatemala.  CSQ was founded in 1972 and covers indigenous rights issues. All of the writers are indigenous or work closely with indigenous groups.  CSQ features essays, interviews, and photographs.  

  

For the classicist:  I've recently taken to reading more classics, and what a treasure they are.  While friends or family may have read these titles long ago, they may enjoy having a fresh copy or getting a chance to finally re-read one of their favorite books of yesteryear.  For classics, consider consulting the Modern Library website for their list of the "100 Best Novels" (which is not to say that I agree with this list, but it is a good starting point), or visit the NYRB Classics website, to see a list of classics that may be more obscure but nonetheless important and good reads.  Some author ideas - McCullers, Capote, Yates, Baldwin, London, and Maugham. 


http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/
http://www.nybooks.com/books/

  

For the anthology enthusiast:  The Poets Laureate Anthology, the first anthology every published that features all forty-three American poet laureates, would be a great gift for anyone who loves poetry or has been curious to read poetry but doesn't know where to start.  Featuring a sampling of our great poets, this book pays homage to some of the finest poets not only in the U.S., but in the world.  New Stories from the South (2010) features stories from some of the best Southern writers today - Ron Rash, Rick Bass, Tim Gautreaux, and Dorothy Allison, to name a few.  There is something wonderful about Southern writing, going back to such classic Southern writers as Faulkner, O'Connor, Capote, and McCullers.  This anthology follows in that tradition, and allows the reader to be exposed to writers both prominent and lesser known.

For the crafter:  I'm not a crafter, but I think Amy Sedaris is one of the funniest people around.  Her ideas are off-the-wall, and with her new book Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People, she combines frugality, kitsch, and DIY home projects bound to keep you entertained for hours on end.  

  

For those seeking rays of light in dark times:  Tracy Kidder is one of my absolute favorite authors of non-fiction.  I particularly enjoyed Hometown (about an eccentric array of people living in Northampton) and Mountains Beyond Mountains (about Paul Farmer's work in health care around the world), and his newest book, which is entitled Strength in What Remains.  This book tells the true story of Deo, who fled Burundi in 1994 due to genocide in his country and landed in New York City with $200 in his pocket and no contacts.  From sleeping on park benches to becoming a student at both Columbia University and then medical school at Dartmouth, this is a story of triumph against the odds, the kindness of strangers, and one young man's humility and persistence.  A deeply inspiring and moving book.  I haven't yet read Edwidge Danticat's Create Dangerously, but it has been getting rave reviews.  Danticat, a Haitian American known for her evocative novels (and one of this year's New Yorker's "20 under 40"), has written a non-fiction work about Haiti.  For a review by Julia Alvarez on NPR's website, please visit:  


http://www.npr.org/2010/09/15/129880022/-create-dangerously-the-heart-and-healing-of-haiti

Happy reading, and happy holidays!

Two Brooklyn Backdrops, Two Different Eras

Brooklyn is one of my favorite places.  I can't resist the tree-lined streets, brownstones, and charming neighborhoods.  For me, it is a place to enjoy a vacation, but for the characters that inhabit these books, it is a place fraught with struggle and facing the unknown, but also of expansive possibility.


In Colm Toibin's Brooklyn, we follow Eilis Lacey on her journey across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1950s from Ireland to Brooklyn to forge a new life for herself, independent of her sister and mother whom she left behind.  Working in a department store by day and taking bookkeeping classes at night, she starts to carve out a life for herself and becomes further rooted in Brooklyn when she meets the love of her life there.  But a tragic event pulls her back home, raising the question of whether her new life in Brooklyn was the start of something new and permanent, or just a short-lived attempt to redefine herself.  This was a very readable book that can be read in just a few sittings, and the love story and the theme of the pull our past has over our future make for an intriguing story.


Paul Auster's Oracle Night is classic Auster - story lines within story lines, a very normal day quickly turning into a sinister or extraordinary one, the power of the imagination to help shape one's everyday life, and a sense of never knowing where the story might end up.  Oracle Night takes place in the 1980s and tells the story of Sidney Orr, who is recovering from a mysterious illness and nursing himself back to health by writing, though a quick trip to the neighborhood stationery store sets into motion a series of unnerving events.  Now that I have read three Auster novels, I can say that his inventive and engaging writing is among the best I have read in a long time.  Furthermore, his books are concise but not sparse. Rather, they are rich with emotion, intensity, and downright great storytelling.  

Paying it forward

Last weekend I was in a bookstore and saw a free book, a new novel called Rut, by Scott Phillips.  I immediately assumed there was a catch.  I went home and googled the Concord Free Press (CFP), and was intrigued with their concept, which they call their "generosity-based approach to publishing."  CFP publishes one book at a time, which can be obtained at participating bookstores or sending a request via their website.  


There is a catch, but a good one.  CFP asks that rather than paying money toward the book, that you instead make a donation or give to someone in need and that you subsequently chart that donation on their website, and then pass the book along so that the next reader can do the same.


To read more about their business model or order Rut, check out their website:
http://www.concordfreepress.com/

Finally, a bildungsroman!

 

Truman Capote published Other Voices Other Rooms in 1948, at the age of 23.   A classic bildungsroman (aka "coming of age story"), Capote tells the story of Joel Knox, a boy who is sent to live with his father in Noon City, a small town in the American South.  While Joel tells his friend that he and his father "will hunt possum and eat possum stew" come wintertime, Joel finds out shortly after arriving that his father is severely disabled.  Watched over by the ambiguously gendered Randolph, in cahoots with Zoo, the hired help, and befriended by rowdy Idabel, Joel is left to his own devices and takes to exploring the world around him.

Capote was a true literary talent, with an ability to write boldly and pen some very beautiful passages such as this one:  "Before birth; yes, what time was it then?  A time like now, and when they were dead, it would be still like now:  these trees, that sky, this earth, those acorn seeds, sun and wind, all the same, while they, with dust-turned heart, change only."  This is a classic book that deserves its place in the canon of great American literature.  While not as dense and gripping as In Cold Blood, the fact that it was written by a young prodigy makes it ever the more impressive.

I am left with one question - why have both Southern books I have read this past month had possum references?! 

Review: How to Read the Air

This past July, Mengestu was chosen as one of The New Yorker's "20 under 40" writers.  Mengestu, born in Ethiopia and raised in Illinois, tells the story of four main characters in their search for a sense of ease and comfort though their histories make this difficult to attain.  Jonas Woldemariam lives in Brooklyn and teaches at an Upper West Side private school.  He is faced with his own troubled marriage which is intertwined with the story line of his parents' even more troubled and violent union. A passage that I feel captures Mengestu's voice as well as the rootlessness and isolation that it seems to me many of us feel but don't want to expose for fear of appearing vulnerable or weak is as follows:  "...I had begun to sense that my place in the world was rapidly shrinking, that this was not an age for idle drifters or starry-eyed dreamers who spoke wonderfully but did little.  A time would come soon, I was convinced, when I would be politely asked to step off board the ship that was ferrying the rest of the population, and in particular my generation, forward.  If I didn't latch on to something soon, I'd find myself thrown overboard, completely adrift, bobbing out to sea with nothing, not even so much as a life vest of companionship to hold onto."  

Mengestu captures life as it often really is, for example by featuring characters who feel numbness when society expects us to be wracked with emotion, and by not shying away from the messiness of marriage and the difficulty in finding a space in the world that one can occupy comfortably.  Really wonderful writing which will leave you unmoored, like the characters in the novel.

Auster this World: Another Great Read

"Reading was my escape, my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head," writes Auster in The Brooklyn Follies.  What I realized about Auster is that you ever know what to expect in his stories from one page to the next, or whose backstory he will choose to focus on as he tends to shift protagonists.  This is what makes his books nearly impossible to put down.  There are so many interesting characters and subplots in this book.  So as not to give anything away, I'll just say that this is a story about an ordinary man named Nathan Glass who decides to live out his retirement years in Brooklyn.  Yet, everything that happens to Nathan once he makes this decision is far from ordinary, from the people he meets, to the places he travels, to the range of emotions he feels and the memories he conjures up.  I highly recommend Auster, and The Brooklyn Follies in particular.  

Just Another Macabre Monday (almost)

   

Earlier this year, The Library of America released an edition of Shirley Jackson's (pictured above) work, including novels and short stories.  I decided to re-read one of her most famous and controversial works, The Lottery.  This eerie short story was published to acclaim, shock, and uproar in the New Yorker in 1948.  The magazine received an influx of angry letters and many readers canceled their subscriptions.  Shirley Jackson (1916-1965), was a housewife and a mother to four children, and lived most of her life in Vermont.  This background would not necessarily appear to lend itself to the dark themes of her work.  Yet Jackson's stories are precise, measured, and chilling.  


The Lottery tells the story of a small village that has an annual ritual wherein all the townsfolk put their names in a black box.  One name is called and that person is doomed to a horrific fate.  While there have been many interpretations of this story, it seems to me it is about what defines a society, who is in power, and how to escape (or not be able to escape) the confines of oppressive and unjust social systems.  It reminded me of the premise of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games and also of Ursula LeGuin's short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.  


In 2007, The Shirley Jackson Awards were established to pay homage to Jackson's unique and memorable writing, thus permanently securing her work in the American canon.  This literary award is given to authors who have written stand-out "literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic." 


Over this weekend, I also read Barbara Comyns' Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, an oddball allegorical tale published in 1955 about a river that floods a small English village and the literal madness that ensues (possibly as a result of the baker's rye bread).  Comyns was not only a writer but also a breeder of poodles and a renovator of pianos!  In this work, she explores the nuances of a motley family of three generations all living under the same roof.  The matriarchal and domineering Grandmother Willoweed attempts to rule the house as well as the village.  I imagine that these villagers may be similar to the ones that exist in Jackson's The Lottery.  Comyns writes "The madness, the madness, you couldn't get away from it." Each day in the lives of the Willoweeds is stranger than the next, with such occurrences including a day in which "Plates where thrown across the luncheon table and a tortoise through the window."  The tone of this book reminds me of the documentary "Grey Gardens," as there is something repulsive and tragic about many of the characters.  


Neither of these books provide comfort or uplift the spirits, but they are both compelling and likely like nothing you've ever read before.  

Ron Rash's Writing Burns Bright, Indeed

I learned of Ron Rash from reading the McLean and Eakin bookstore staff recommendations - thank you Jessilynn!  Rash does not disappoint.  In Saints at the River, a young girl drowns in a river in South Carolina, stirring up local debate about how to recover her body.  As an environmentally protected river, the law states that the riverbed shall not be altered in any way.  The possibility of erecting a temporary dam is proposed by the girl's family.  Maggie Glenn, a photographer who grew up in the area, is assigned to cover the story alongside journalist Allen Hemphill.  As Maggie returns to her hometown, she must confront her troubled relationship with her father.   Throughout the book, the river rushes forward and is impossible to tame, proving that there are some things that are better left wild and unbridled.  

Burning Bright is a collection of stories that focuses on the hardscrabble life in Appalachia.  Straight out of the gate, Rash's first story is shocking in its starkness and depiction of the depths of poverty.  Some of his stories are merely ten pages long, yet still he packs a punch and engages you in the characters' lives from the first few sentences.  

Neither of these books were uplifting with tidy endings.  But the honest, unflinching look at the maelstrom of human emotion, desperation, conviction, and struggle is captured in deceptively simple and beautiful language in both works.

  

Review: The Imperfectionists

Tom Rachman's debut novel The Imperfectionists was a page-turning, witty, smart book told in vignettes.  Each chapter centers around someone involved with an international English-language newspaper published in Rome.  From the feisty editor-in-chief, to the enamored business reporter, to the gullible stringer, each story stands alone though some of the characters from other vignettes weave in and out of the chapters.  While nothing deeply profound happens, the snippets of the day-to-day lives that we are privy to are entertaining and unique.  This is a book that can be read in just a few sittings.  While not necessarily a memorable or stand-out novel, I appreciated the humorous dialogue and motley cast of characters.

A Southern Classic: The Optimist's Daughter

Eudora Welty is one of the most admired writers who wrote about the American South.  The Optimist's Daughter won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.  This short novel tells the story of Laura McKelva Hand who grows up in the South but then leaves to pursue a career in Chicago.  Her ailing father Judge McKelva is suffering from an eye "disturbance," so she comes to be by his side in New Orleans.  After an outrageous display of behavior by Laura's exasperating stepmother Fay (who comments upon learning of the Judge's ailments, "I don't see why this had to happen to me"), Judge McKelva passes away.  Laura then returns to her childhood home in Mississippi for the funeral.  While there, she comes to a deeper understanding of her family and her upbringing.  


The dialogue is, at times, quite funny.  Perhaps my favorite line is when Dr. Courtland, a good friend of the Judge's who performed the eye operation, comments that while it may seem like the Judge is asleep, "he's just possuming."  The novel takes a more serious and contemplative turn when Laurel returns home and eventually confronts Fay.  I enjoyed this novel, but not enough to read more of Welty's books in the immediate.  However, I am going to seek out more novels featuring the South.

Review: The Quickening

"What I wanted felt like a hunger, rising from my ribs, my throat, starved for something immense, golden," writes Michelle Hoover in The Quickening.  Hoover's debut novel is a beautiful written book that follows the lives of Mary and Enidina who live on neighboring farms during the early 1900s.   As with most books I've read this year, this is a book with both tragedy and heartbreak.  Hoover's writing reminded me of Marilynne Robinson, but with grittier detail and a more character-driven story line.  


Hoover's narrative voice is distinctive and she writes with a subtle smolder.  Some of the sentences are crafted to perfection.  Nonetheless, if I were to recommend books about hardscrabble farm life, I would give Amy Greene's Bloodroot and Kent Haruf's Plainsong even higher praise.   

Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is a science fiction novel for young adults and adults alike.  It tells the story of a post-apocalyptic country known as Panem, which has a central, ruling Capitol and twelve outlying districts.  The districts exist mainly to provide their goods to the wealthy Capitol.  Each year, as penance for an unsuccessful rebellion by a district against the Capitol and as a reminder to attempt nothing of the sort again, the powers that be hold the annual Hunger Games.  A boy and a girl from each district (known as "tributes") are selected at random to fight to the death, until they are the last one standing.  The only rule for the annual games is, simply, to stay alive.  Katniss Everdeen is this year's district 12 girl tribute and in many ways the odds are against her.  She is from the poorest district in the country, and isn't as big or well-fed as the other tributes.  But having grown up as the provider for her family after her father died in a mining accident, she has honed her survival skills.  The tributes must battle against each other, but the deeper battle is to not allow the Capitol to take away one's humanity and kindness.  


I found this to be a disturbing and gruesome tale.  It was interesting to read about how the tributes handled this unfathomable situation, and of course, to learn the outcome.  I also appreciated a strong and resourceful female protagonist, as these are not often found in young adult novels.  While The Hunger Games was page-turning and inventive, as well as an unabashed social commentary, I found it too bleak to want to read the subsequent books in the trilogy.  

An Allendean Tale: Island Beneath the Sea

  

I remember the first time I read an Allende novel - The House of the Spirits.  I loved that book for its sweeping story line and multitude of characters couched within the style of magic realism.

It is interesting to have read The House of the Spirits, Allende's first novel written in 1982, and now Island Beneath the Sea, written over 25 years later.  Both books are written in Allende's trademark style characterized by lush descriptions, epic timeframes, a focus on history and place, and even a requisite "madwoman."

Island Beneath the Sea marks a departure for Allende, as a work of historical fiction set in Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti) and New Orleans in the late 18th century.  The novel tells the story of Zarite (known as Tete), a biracial slave who is purchased by Toulouse Valmorain, a French plantation owner.  

Ultimately, I appreciate Allende's work, as many of her stories feature female protagonists, thus giving voice to perspectives that have often gone unspoken or unheard.  In this book, I found the descriptions to be too flowery and long, and I found myself skimming over some sections.  I also did not feel that the historical information was woven seamlessly into the novel.

Allende is a treasure, but I would recommend her earlier works instead of her latest novel.  Try The House of the Spirits or Daughter of Fortune.

Singing Doig's Praises

"The most precipitous chapter of life always begins before we quite know it is under way," writes Doig in his winning new novel Work Song.  The story takes place in Butte, Montana in 1919.  Morris Morgan ("Morrie") steps off the train in Butte, known at the time as the copper capital of the world, to begin a new chapter of his life.  Morgan is featured in Doig's earlier work The Whistling Season, though it is not necessary to read this work beforehand.   

The charming and multi-talented Morrie quickly finds his skills needed, and so becomes integral to the town's library and the local union's struggle against the Anaconda mining company and the radical Wobbly agitators.  Doig excels at creating memorable characters with such motley names as Rabrab, Hoop, and Russian Famine.  This Western tale was quite an enjoyable read.  One down, twelve more Doig books to go!

SF Big Book Sale!

Come on down to support the San Francisco Public Library!    Touted as the largest book sale on the West Coast, all proceeds go to the library system.  With an anticipated 100,000 books on hand and all books only $1 on the last day of the sale, this is surely an event not to be missed if you are in the Bay Area.  

Author spotlight: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

   

This year I have had the pleasure of reading all three of Adichie's books - Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus and most recently, the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck.  Adichie has received many accolades, including winning the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007 and being named one of the New Yorker magazine's "20 under 40," this past summer.  At just 33 years old, Adichie is a literary hotshot, but if you watch her on YouTube you'll likely be impressed with her humility. 


I enjoyed all of her books, but my favorite was Half of a Yellow Sun, a story about two sisters and what happens to them around the time of the Biafran War in Nigeria.  This is a book that is bursting with vivid detail and impassioned characters.  Be forewarned that there is civil unrest and violence described in the narrative.


Adichie masterfully captures both quiet moments and loud ones, the dynamics of political movements and the dynamics of family.  Her books are fresh, bold, and written with a gracefulness that belies the effort it must take to write such wonderful stories.