The Son
I love epic novels of the American West because I have a hope that every one of them will be Lonesome Dove. If you haven't read Lonesome Dove, please stop reading this and go add Lonesome Dove to your library list. Or order it from Amazon. Or if you live close to me, text and ask if you can borrow it. If you've seen the miniseries, that doesn't count. You need to read it and fall in love with Gus and Call. I don't care if you don't like novels of the American West. Lonesome Dove is different. It has 630 reviews on Amazon and FIVE stars. See? The people agree with me.
Anyway, back to The Son. It, of course, wasn't Lonesome Dove because nothing is, but it was still good in its own right. It was definitely an epic saga, one that swept through multi-generations. From Eli, who was stolen in a Comanche raid and then integrated into Comanche life and spends the rest of his life straddling both worlds, not knowing quite where he fits in; to his son Peter, who is disappointing for not meeting the family's vision and for falling in love with a woman from Mexico; and Eli's great-granddaughter Jeanne, a tough woman, struggling to keep the family's empire afloat and gain respect as a woman in a changing Texas. This is not a novel where you will fall in love with the characters. Many of them are flawed and broken and make huge mistakes, but they're real. While it's also a big book (500+ pages), it's action packed and I was so engaged in each story that I wanted to keep reading and find out what happened next.
Snapper
I loved this book. The author is from Indiana, it's mostly set in Indiana and it makes fun of Indiana in a way that only people from Indiana can do, without it being offensive... because they're from Indiana. The main character Nathan studies birds for a living and spends his day meandering around one national forest or another, writing down the habits of the birds he's watching. In the process, we're treated to vignettes from his childhood and his day-to-day life, some sad, some funny. Overall, I really enjoyed the tone and voice of this book.
What are you reading?
3 comments:
Still reading the same book - A Discovery of Witches. It reminds me a little of Twilight...however, it is a novel for adults, so not so juvenile, and the writing is much better as well. So far I'm enjoying it - I just wish I read as fast as you. :)
Ummmm... I've never read Lonesome Dove.
Last week I finished Twelve Tribes of Hattie - it was a bit of a downer and very dysfunctional. Then I read The Woman Upstairs and didn't like it much because it felt so very angry and bitter. Though I did like the unreliable narrator angle. Then I read Where You Once Belonged by Kent Haruf and it sort of read like a short story but was a little rough around the edges. Now I'm reading Plainsong and would like to stop working and go finish it RIGHT NOW.
P.S. I love that you added an asterisk to your post title.
I'm reading Isle of Palms by Dorothea Benton Frank. It's pretty funny.
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