Very Different Mystery

Finished April 15
Go With Me by Castle Freeman Jr.
This is a very odd, but engaging book. It is short, only 160 pages, filled with dark humour, and gave me a sense of the existential. Set in the New England backwoods, it begins with a young woman asleep in her car, armed with a paring knife, waiting for the sheriff to arrive at work.
She is being stalked by a local man, and is afraid for her life. The sheriff tells her that he can't help her, but directs her to a group of men who congregate at a nearby factory. There, she is joined by two men, one young and one old in her uncertain cause. As the three roam the area searching for her victimizer, we move back and forth between the three searchers and the men at the factory. The odd, disjointed conversations and reminiscences of the men add to the strange atmosphere present throughout the tale. The actions and attitudes of Lester and Nate, the two men who are searching for Blackway are both offhand and deliberate. This book is different from any other book I can think of, but I couldn't put it down!

Fictional Memoir

Finished April 14
A Partisan's Daughter by Louis de Bernieres
This is a wonderful little book about the relationship between two people who encounter each other on the street and begin meeting to talk. Over the period of time that they meet, Chris imagines that he falls in love with Roza, but is not completely sure. Roza, in turn, grows fond of Chris as well.
When Chris, bored and feeling estranged from his wife, spots Roza standing on the street, he thinks she is a hooker and propositions her. Roza corrects him on his impression, but gets in his car anyway and asks for a lift home.
As they meet repeatedly, sitting in the kitchen of Roza's dilapadated home, Roza tells Chris the stories that lead to her present life. The point of view goes back and forth between the two, but the reader is never sure whether Roza is telling the truth or not. Chris gullibly believes it all, and makes the stories part of his own memory. They come to depend on each other more than they realize and, as with so many relationships based on stories, create their own images of each other.
I found it an engrossing story with lots of human interest and two very interesting characters.

Poetry Anthology

Finished April 11
101 Poems that could save your life: an anthology of emotional first aid
edited by Daisy Goodwin
This is a small collection of poems organized by theme for those life moments when we can all use a lift, a laugh, or a step back. Topics include everythings from Bad Hair Day to When You Lose Your Pet, and many things in between.
I found several old friends and made some new ones.

Second in a Series

Finished April 11
Crazy School by Cornelia Read
This is the second book featuring Madeline Dare. Madeline and her husband Dean have left Syracuse for a town in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. When the job that Dean came to do was delayed, Madeline took a job at a school for troubled youth. The rules surrounding both faculty and students at the school are bizarre, and Madeline finds the staff more troubling than the students. When Madeline tries to help the students in ways that are not necessarily those of the school, she finds herself targeted.
Given some of the stories in the news recently around private boarding schools, this plotline doesn't seem that much of a stretch. I loved the Madeline Dare character in her first book and continue to be a fan. She has an interesting background and a strong relationship with her husband and yet is very human.
I look forward to seeing more of her.

Children's Fiction

Finished April 11
100 Days and 99 Nights by Alan Madison
This novel features Esme a second-grader whose father is a career soldier. The title refers to the length of a tour of duty, which Esme's father goes away on for a good portion of the book. Esme is a cute little girl, with the usual sibling issues with her younger brother Ike, a good attitude about school and friends and a zoo of stuffed animals.
The chapters are named for the stuffed animals alphabetically and include the story of how each was added to her collection. The book gives a glimpse of the life of a armed forces child and shows positive family situations.

Short Fiction

Finished April 10
Salt River by James Sallis
This lovely piece of fiction reads like poetry to me. So much is intimated at rather than spoken and yet is understood. The genre label on the back says this is mystery, but I would not describe it as such. There are some things that happen that the main character, Turner, feels are linked, and he is able to show how by the end, but that never seems to be the main focus of the book. I loved the nature that pervades the book and yet it was definitely not a gentle presence here. There is much loss here and yet despite all the 'getting over things' that the characters have to do, the book is hopeful. As one of the characters says at the book's end, "I am crying because the world is so beautiful".

Nobel Prize winner

Finished April 9
Detective Story by Imre Kertesz, translated from the Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson
This is a short but chilling piece of fiction by an extremely talented writer.
The story is told by Martens, a man in prison. Martens was previously an inspector (aka torturer) in the secret police of a recently overturned dictatorship. He tells the story of a particular case: the surveillance, arrest, torture, and assassination of Federigo and Enrique Salinas, father and son. The voice of Martens is very neutral, except for those moments when he excuses his actions or inactions by saying he was the 'new boy' at the time. It appears to be his way of distancing himself from his role. I could see, in the final pages, the obvious reference to the present. It is a warning of where the path could lead.

Short Stories

Finished April 9
The People on Privilege Hill and other stories by Jane Gardam
I've loved Jane Gardam as a writer since I was first introduced to her at the age of sixteen, by a cousin I was visiting. This story collection is no exception.
I think her characters are all very realistic and I can connect to them easily. Here the title story has characters from her last novel, Old Filth, which was an unexpected delight.
The stories range wildly in situation, characters and setting, but all have a casual tone to them, a bit of the everyday even when something in the story changes lives.
I think one of my favourites in this collection is Snap, in which a woman, married thirty years to the only man she's ever had sex with, breaks her ankle in the ensuite bathroom of a hotel she stays at with her lover. Gardam has many great stories here though and I plan to revisit them soon.

To Be Canadian

Finished April 7
The Unfinished Canadian: The People We Are by Andrew Cohen
This is one of the shortlisted books for the Evergreen award. Cohen is a well-known journalist and he has researched his topic well. He looks at the Canadian identity: historical, mythical and realistic and makes suggestions for the future.
He draws on the writing of many others who have looked at this perpetual question, both Canadians and observers of Canada. He discusses our dismaying lack of knowledge of our own history, and how little we are required to learn of it.
He talks about our relationship with our neighbour to the south and how we like to deny the similarities we have. Yes, we do have differences, but we also are more similar to them than we are to any other nation. He includes our reputation for doing good, but also shows that, as a country we have done and could do much better. There is much to think about here, and a challenge for use to improve for the future.
We are, as he says, yet unfinished and have so much potential.

IMPAC Dublin Book Awards

The short list has been announced:

The Speed of Light by Javier Cercas (Spanish)
The Sweet and Simple Kind by Yasmine Gooneratne (Sri Lankan)
de Niro's Game by Rawi Hage (Lebanese Canadian)
Dreams of Speaking by Gail Jones (Australian)
Let It Be Morning by Sayed Kashua (Israeli)
The Attack by Yasmina Khadra (Algerian) [I've read this]
The Woman Who Waited by Andrei Makine (Russian)
Winterwood by Patrick McCabe (Irish)

I've read only one of them so far, so the list grows again.