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"Maybe I just want to know you again," Ryan said finally. "You're my father. I'm your son. It seems as if we should be closer than we are."
Title: Ryan's Return
Author: Barbara Freethy
ISBN: 978-0380785315
Publisher: Avon/2006
Pages: 374
It is return of the prodigal son to Serenity Spring. A famous photo-journalist now, Ryan Hunter is invited for the Centennial Celebration. He had left behind his father and a brother he had betrayed. Now when he returns, he finds his father still the same, his brother who detests him and a young boy who looks like him.
With no love lost between them, Ryan knows he has to somehow face his past if he wants to moves in present and future. His father,who never stopped loving him, that young daughter of Kara has so much faith on him. So he just can't leave it all behind.
The interaction between father and son, between the two brothers and that of the young girl with Ryan and also a love affair of Andrew, his brother. These all make the book very readable. It is in no way a heavy book, but it does make us sad at many levels. It has those comic moments, especially when the two brothers are locked up in jail.
I found this novel utterly sweet and extremely readable. The romance element is sweet and doesn't take over the story. That is how it should be, in a novel that speaks of family relations.
You can download the kindle edition for FREE here!
"Henry appears, doing up his cuff links. He's wet, dirty, and unshaven. He looks about forty. But he's here, and he gives me a triumphant smile as he walks through the doors of the church and down the aisle." ~~Page 102, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Title: The Time Traveler's Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
ISBN: 978-0156029438
Publisher: Vintage Books
Pages: 615
The Time Traveler’s Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger is an unconventional love story story, between Henry and Clare. Henry is a Time Traveler who has no control over it. He travels in and out of any of his chronological age. But Clare is a normal person. They meet unconventionally and the decision is already made for them that they will marry, which they do. Henry waits for Clare to grow up before he can even think of having a relationship with her. Clare does seem impatient at times, to have a physical relationship with the man she fell in love when she was only a child.
Henry De Tamble is suffering from a rare genetic disorder called Chrono Displacement. This is what makes him time travel and he meets his future wife in one of those travels. From there, their love story starts. Clare is aware that Henry can't be there for her always. But she loves him and they do manage to live an amazing life. They do have problems but love is so strong that they survive.
It is written as short diary entries, going back and forth, which can a bit confusing initially but falls into place after a while. One might find it a little confusing in the beginning but soon the pieces fit together, and it is easy to get lost in the world of Henry and Clare.
This is not a novel which goes from one point to other. It takes off tangentially. And everything fits together well. Not a novel to be taken lightly. And not for everyone. Those who like different kind of novel, will love it. As I did.
Eggsnake is more longer than all around Room, we’ve been making him since I was three, he lives in Under Bed all coiled up keeping us safe. Most of his eggs are brown but sometimes there’s a white, some have patterns on from pencils or crayons or Pen or bits stuck on with flour glue, a foil crown and a yellow ribbon belt and threads and bits of tissue for hairs.
~Page 21
Title: Room
Author: Emma Donoghue
ISBN: 9780330519021
Publisher: Picador/2011
Pages: 401
The novel opens with the 5th birthday of Jack, a bright, babbling boy, who is looking forward to his birthday. He knows his Ma will make things for him, spoil him and be very good to him. But the reader does not that they are living a small space, cut off from the world. Their whole world is that room. Jack does not anything that is outside. Outside for him is in TV. And inside is what it is. Ma and Jack are friends with every inanimate object they have. Al there is the room is shared by both. Nothing belongs to just one of them.
How did they come about into that room? Ma, (she has no name) was kidnapped from her college campus by a psychopath when she was 19. And she has been held captive in a soundproof room, hidden from the world. Jack is born in that tiny space. The man who kidnapped her is known as "Old Nick". And when he visits Ma, Jack is sent into the wardrobe where Ma keeps him hidden. She doesn't want "old Nick" to see him, interact with him, although the boy is obviously a result of his visits.
Jack is very bright, intelligent and knowledgeable. Ma tries to teach him as much as she can, fully well knowing their situation. She knows that they have to escape somehow and plants ideas about their escape in Jack's mind. And the escape is on Easter.
The Outside is not all hunky-dory for Jack. He wants to go back. When his Ma is rescued too, he wishes for both to be back in that room. Ma has a tough time to adjust too.
The novel alludes to many real and allegory things. It is not an easy read but once you start, you can't put it down. One loves Jack instantaneously. The novel speaks about a mother's love for her child and to protect him at any cost. We do see Ma getting lost into herself completely and Jack somehow understands that. The novel is not explicit. It touches a very serious crime yet it is so beautiful. Made more so by Jack and his Ma, their relationship. I say, a must read!
One of the best books I read. Thanks to Aisle B. for my copy.
I opened our front door and found my mother hanging from the rafters. I'm sorry, I said, and I stepped back and closed the door.
~Page 1, Caribou Island by David Vann
Title: Caribou Island
Author: David Vann
ISBN: 978-0061875724
Publisher:Harper/2011
Pages:304
Based in wilds Alaska, we see Gary trying to build a cabin from scratch in Caribou Island. There is nothing, no plan, no clear cut vision, but just the compelling need to build a cabin in the middle of nowhere. His wife, Irene is against it. But she is helpless in a way. She thinks if she does not do as Gary wants, he will leave her. She has mysterious headaches. Dsspite tests, nothing comes up.
Gary is one of those people who always regrets what he has done. He is most of the times thinking, what if. He has many regrets, yet he goes on to his next ventures, with a single mindedness.
Meanwhile, their daughter Rhonda is thinking about settling down with Jim, a dentist. She tries to hold her family together. She is very worried about her parents, knows hat the cabin is a foolhardy decision but she can't do anything about it. Her brother Mark is not to bothered.
Caribou Island speaks of the conflicts in our mind. One which we can't vocalize but are very much affected by those. Irene has never recovered from her mother's suicide. And fears abandonment from Gary. She is a terrible situation of not loving him and yet can't live if he leaves her. Raw, stark and bleak feelings take her over.
Caribou Island is dark. It tells us how love can go wrong. After a while hope has no place. We do lose the thread once in a while but we can't let go of the novel. The building of the cabin is a metaphor of everything going wrong.
"This one? He was barely a child. They’d said he was three, but Len hadn’t . . . were three-year-olds that tiny? Len had expected something along the lines of a good-sized calf, seventy pounds or so, take a little muscle to roll— but this kid would have a tough time toe- to- toe with the goose that patrolled the ragged edges of Len’s yard. Did geese hurt children?"
~~~Page 1, Wrecker by Summer Wood
Title: Wrecker
Author: Summer Wood
ISBN: 9781608192809
Publisher: Bloomsbury/2011
Pages: 287
The title makes one think of destruction, disharmony and chaos. But it is not true. Wrecker is about a boy, and about Melody, Ruth, Willow, Johnny Appleseed, Len and Meg. And also about Lisa Fey, Wrecker's mother. When three year old Wrecker enters Len's life, he (Len) does not know what to do with this small boy. Wrecker's mother has been sent to jail for 15 years and Len is related to her by being married to Meg, Lisa Fey's sister. Meg is not quite okay in the head due to an infection.
After only a day, Len decides to send that boy away from him. He goes to Bow Farm asking them to look after the little boy while he sets the ball rolling. Ruth is only too happy to look after the boy and Melody, Willow and Johnny Appleseed accept her decision. However, for one reason or the other Wrecker lives with them for 6 months before Len takes him away to send him back.
The little boy, the troublesome little boy, has already made inroads into everyone's heart, especially Melody. All of them want him back, including Len, who decides to adopt Wrecker. However, Wrecker is brought by everyone at Bow Farm...Ruth, Melody, Willow and Johnny. None of them are related, not a family unit but they have love and affection for each other and the boy.
Melody becomes his "mother" and other love him just the same. Wrecker comes to love all of them. He is an unconventional boy, a high-spirited one, who misses his real mother Lisa Fey but with time he accepts these people as his own. Including Len and Meg. He comes to love each one of them. Meanwhile Lisa Fey waits for her release to be united with her son. She never had a good life but Wrecker is the best think that happened to her.
With wild California as its backdrop, Wrecker is a novel which makes an impact, the boy makes our heart ache for him, his mother makes us cry, and Melody is so full of love that one can't believe that she is not his mother. Ruth , Willow, Johnny are equally important part in Wrecker's life.
Summer Wood has written a novel, which stays long after we finish it. We keep thinking of Wrecker, Lisa Fey, Melody and Len, along with the others. It is about an extraordinary boy, and other people who are not a family unit as we know but nevertheless a family, and most important, they are Wrecker's family. He gets them all when he needs them most. Love has no boundaries. Especially a mother's love. And it does not have to be tied by blood.....the ending touches us deeply....
This is going to be one of my best books of 2011....
