A survey of new books for fiction lovers!

There has been some good buzz for fiction as of late and what better time to grab a book, get outdoors and lose yourself in a novel?  These six are an eclectic mix of debuts, returns by award winners and some nice solid entries by established authors.


Benediction by Kent Haruf (2013)

In this novel of small town America, rich with characters we get to know and appreciate, a place becomes real and problems recognizable because family is not always without drama.  A man is diagnosed with terminal cancer and one of his grown children returns home to be with her parents and tie up loose ends.  Along with them, we watch and we wait.

The community rallies round to support the family and throughout we learn more about the dying man, the town and the other players.  More than one family has trials of their own and each family is drawn with care by Haruf.

Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi (2013)

This strong debut by Selasi is set in Boston and then Ghana as four children reconvene to mourn the death of their renowned surgeon father.

We are told the stories of Kweku Sai, the surgeon, his first wife, and the lives of his 4 children.  We come to know them and the substance of these people as a family.  These are not just Africans.  They are people with strengths, weaknesses, skills, talents and flaws.  They happen to have a rich heritage.

Stylistically, the writing takes twists and turns so it is unclear when time changes and to whom the narration refers.  This is the one shortfall of the novel.  It was a distraction interrupting the flow of the story which was intriguing until you had to work hard to absorb it.  That said, it was worthwhile.

Harvard Square: A Novel by Andre Aciman (2013)

Told as a flashback, a lively immigrant Tunisian cabbie meets a culturally Jewish Harvard PhD candidate and they form a strange but symbiotic friendship in late 70s Cambridge.  Reminiscent of The Stranger (Camus), perhaps only because we have two Francophiles with ties to Northern Africa and their hangout, Cafe Algiers, they have a relationship that does not cross all facets of each others' lives.  Likely due to embarrassment, the nameless narrator keeps Kalaj, his taxi-driving friend, compartmentalized from his upper class student experience...   until he can no longer.

Their lives become entwined, one knowing how to play the games of the social and academic world, the other brash and obstreperous with professionals and women alike.  In the end, does the value of the friendship override the shame held because a poor immigrant is inferior to the hopeful professor?

Elders by Ryan McIlvain (2013)

Two young men with pressed shirts and name tags are serving their mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Brazil.  Or as the book reminds us, we know them as Mormons.  But the main thrust of this story is not to sell or demonize proselytizing or comment on the LDS as a people.  Interestingly, the focus is on the relationship between the two young men, the two 'elders' on their mission.

One is having a crisis of faith and the other is a ladder climber who wants to do what he must to ascend the ranks of Mormon leadership, no matter the cost.  Things are not aways what they seem and this story, written by a former LDS member, offers a bird's eye view into a life experience that most see only from the other side of their doors.

Amity and Sorrow by Peggy Riley (2013)

A mother escapes a fundamentalist cult with her two adolescent daughters who are ignorant to the ways of the world and brainwashed beyond reason.  How did it happen and why?  Why are the two girls bound at the wrist?  Will the escape ultimately lead to freedom?

This novel is unique in that the fundamentalist cult story popular now, usually told while the family is intact and living their polygamous lifestyle, is here told from the perspective of three who escaped.  And not all three wanted to leave.

Sorrow, the older sister fiercely believes that her father, bound to 50 wives, was going to lead them all to heaven.  Convinced that the world outside is evil, she tried to end their suffering and have them returned to their compound or end the world so they can be saved in the Rapture.

The Humanity Project: A novel by Jean Thompson (2013)

Author of the NYT bestselling, The Year We Left Home returns with another page-turner.  Admittedly, this one has many storylines that even an avowed bookworm can have trouble following.  The book is chock full of misfits who need a hand.  The ties that bind them are not evidenced until you get quite deep into the book.

One teen is left to care for his father, who is losing their house, rather than go to college.  Another teen is the victim of a broken home and a school shooting and tries to start over with her estranged father.  A nurse becomes engrossed in the project of a wealthy, elderly patient.

But the book asks, can people be paid to be good?  And I don't think this is the real premise nor do I think it's actually answered.  So, if it was addressed, for it does give food for thought, and if it was somehow answered by the novel, I would praise this far more.

Humanity Project  was certainly a skillfully told story that keeps your interest and worth the time it takes to read as well as the time you devote to pondering its questions.  However, you think it raises certain issues, will go in one direction and then it goes in quite another.

the lowercase b,
I read, therefore I am