Book Review - True Grit (Brunswick's Big Read 2014)

True Grit is THE BIG READ for 2014

by Charles Portis

In the years following the Civil War, the American West, specifically Fort Smith, Arkansas, was a place of savagery and chaos. Hangings were public. Beyond Fort Smith was the expansive Indian Territory where those who wanted to avoid the law did so with little effort. Growing up came quickly, brutally and without sentimentality. 

The 3 major characters of True Grit were part of that environment. First, we meet Mattie Ross, age 14, of Dardanelle, Arkansas.  Mattie leaves her home to go to Fort Smith with the mission of finding Roger Chaney who shot her unarmed father. Mattie hires Rooster Cogburn to apprehend Chaney. Her plan is complicated by the appearance of Texan LeBoeuf who is also tracking Chaney for a shooting involving a judge. Cogburn and LeBewoulf finally accept Mattie’s determination to find Roger Chaney. Together, this unlikely trio, enter the Indian Territory where true grit is survival. 

It is the tension between Mattie, a supremely confident teen-ager, and the older, male characters which provides humor in the book. Mattie is naive but smart enough to realize she needs the experience and true grit found in Rooster Cogburn. Her straight forward no-nonsense talk leaves no doubt of her intentions or her feelings. Both male characters must deal with this fearless and focused young whippersnapper who reminds them more than once who she is and from where she comes.

There is a reason True Grit was on the New York Times best seller list for 22 weeks. It is part history, part coming-of-age, and part comedy. It is just good reading.

Book Review - The Madonnas of Leningrad

By Debra Dean

In the fall of 1941, the German army begins what would become the 900 day siege of Leningrad, Russia. Leningrad, also known as St. Petersburg, is home of the Hermitage Museum. It is up to staff members of the Museum, such as a young Marina, to save the numerous masterpieces from the Nazi forces. She, along with thousands of other workers, endure incessant German bombing, constant hunger, frigid temperatures, and daily exhaustion to successfully resist Hitler’s directive No. 1601 ordering that “St. Petersburg must be erased from the face of the Earth.” 
 

Fast forward to some sixty years later when Marina is attending  her granddaughter’s wedding. Marina is confused as to the present but “Her distant past is preserved, better than preserved. Moments that occurred in Leningrad sixty-some years ago reappear, vivid, plump, and perfumed.”
 

How Marina remembers the paintings of the Madonnas of Leningrad is an integral part of the book. The juxtaposition of Marina’s confusion to the present and Marina’ vivid memory of the past is another important aspect of the book. Debra Dean’s meticulous research allows the reader to see the Hermitage’s paintings in great detail. The author’s depiction of those with Alzheimer’s is told with beauty and with unexpected humor.
 

In the end, The Madonnas of Leningrad, is a book about how we remember and how those memories serve us. Her words remind us that memory is precious and can make us cry and laugh in ways we might never predict.

Now in Paperback - January 2014

Life After Life

by Kate Atkinson

"One of the best novels I've read this century. Kate Atkinson is a marvel. There aren't enough breathless adjectives to describe LIFE AFTER LIFE: Dazzling, witty, moving, joyful, mournful, profound." Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

Love Water Memory

by Jennie Shortridge

"A wonderful book; lovely....just perfect."

Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

A Tale for the Time Being

by Ruth Ozeki

“Nao, a suicidal Japanese girl, postpones her death as she grows closer to her 104-year-old great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun. Ruth, an American author with writer's block, discovers a diary washed ashore on her remote island in the Pacific Northwest. Ruth becomes obsessed with Nao and her diary, and readers will be drawn in as their stories intertwine. Ozeki's creatively constructed novel, complete with footnotes, Japanese characters, and appendices, will have readers marveling at the leaps in time and connection that bring the two women together in this witty, daring, and thoughtful novel.” Cheryl Krocker McKeon, Book Passage, San Francisco, CA

Tenth of December

by George Saunders

“Saunders' stories stretch the boundaries of reality, but his characters are often defined by their limits. He is a master satirist in top form with this collection, but his occasionally outlandish settings never overshadow the humanity of the men, women, and children struggling through each tale. These stories do all the things we hope good fiction will do: blow your mind and break your heart, make you laugh and make you think. They are the kind of stories I feel grateful for, that stick in my head and heart and make me want to be a better person.”  Jessica Stockton Bagnulo, Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY