GOING HOME: Tom Lamont

   Take an aging man, Vic Erskine, with a Parkinsonian-type degenerative disease, and two thirty-somethings, one of whom, Vic's son Teo, has fled the suburbs for a slick single life in London, and the other, Ben Mossam, who has stayed in town where he lives luxuriously in a mansion and does nothing because he doesn't need to do anything. Add to this, Lia, former lover of Teo's, and single mother of a toddler, (father unknown) and finally, a very unOrthodox rabbi, and you have the humorous and heartbreaking mix that is GOING HOME.
   One weekend, when Teo's visiting his father and friends, he agrees to babysit Lia's toddler, Joel. He does so the next day and while he is out with Joel, Lia commits suicide, apparently leaving Joel in Teo's permanent care, since no plans or arrangements were made.          
   The novel spins around the three men and the rabbi as they attempt to keep Joel out of foster care. Vic is eager to raise the boy, but his declining health makes this unrealistic. There is no room for a small boy in the life Teo's made for himself in London, and Ben is generous and charming and financially able, but totally unreliable.
   This is actually a novel about three boys—one only a few years old and the other two in their thirties. With all the good will in the world, neither of the boy-men comprehend what it means to grow up.
   Tom Lamont writes beautifully, with humor, charm and compassion. This situation could easily have lent itself to slapstick or sentimentality, but Lamont avoids both. The characters, including little Joel, are three-dimensional and complicated, and tagging along with them on their bumpy road is a pleasure.
    I would definitely recommend this book.

Isaac Dahl has indeed had a long life with enough strange—or at least unusual—episodes to justify the book's title, and at ninety-six, the former. journalist, decides to write a memoir. He tells his story in a series of single days set years apart, days when he experiences both natural disasters—an avalanche, a tornado, an earthquake,—man-made disasters—the Dust Bowl, WWII at sea, Nuclear Tests in the Pacific, Civil Rights violence in Mississippi, AIDS—and more personal moments with his beloved twin sister and their best friend, his nieces and nephews, and the often painful drama of a gay man making his way through the twentieth century. Through it all, the author manages to weave together the personal and the historical so well that what emerges entertains, gives historical perspective to the century and also gives the reader a very human, warm and relatable story. I really enjoyed traveling through the twentieth century with Isaac and would recommend the book.

Ben Fountain's Devil Makes Three is a large book in every sense: large-hearted, large in sweep, large in memorable characters and stories, large in meaning (and physically large at 531 pp.). It's the story of an American and his Haitian partner whose diving business is appropriated by the state, and who turn to diving for buried treasure ships with horrifying results. It's the story of the Haitian's sister, a Ph.D. Philosophy candidate at Brown who instead winds up working in a desperately underfunded Haitian hospital. It's the story of an U.S. aid worker whose actual work in no way resembles her title. It's the story of voodoo. It's the story of a U.S. sponsored coup in the 90's, which removed Aristide, the democratically-elected president.

It's about the poverty in Haiti, the chaos, the drug-running, the corruption, the beauty, the resilience of its people. In truth, the main character is Haiti itself, and Ben Fountain embraces all of it—takes the reader right into its heart, lets us feel its pulse. There is so much going on here, the scope is so wide that although every part of it is compelling, it sometimes becomes too much of a good thing and makes the going difficult. But overall, Devil Makes Three is a beautifully written, unique and powerful novel that changed how I look at Haiti, at history, and at my government.

Kerri Maher's novel is loosely based on an actual underground feminist group called "Jane" that provided safe, inexpensive abortions when they were illegal, in the 1970s. Jane's members were always in danger of imprisonment and in fact were arrested and only escaped harsh sentences because Roe v. Wade became the law while the women were awaiting trial.

Maher's novel closely follows three women but includes a host of secondary characters as well. The reader has a clear sense of how intricate the secret network was, of the pressures on it and of the need for it. Each woman has her own reason for being dedicated to Jane, and the many stories are interesting although it is sometimes difficult to keep all the strands clear. Other than that one issue and despite the novel's serious concerns, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CALL is a fast-moving, enjoyable and thought-provoking read. And despite its events taking place half a century ago, given the Dobbs decision, its concerns are definitely relevant again.

Recommended!

Paper Names is a novel that asks--in engaging, absorbing and entertaining ways--big questions. Who are we and what shapes us? Is it our family heritage, or is it the world we move through, be it familiar or new? Are we the title of our jobs? What is justice? This may make the novel sound like heavy lifting, but it is anything but. Susie Luo writes so gracefully that it is surprising to learn this is her first novel.
The story is told through three points of view. Tony Zhang, once an engineer in China who sought a better life for his family, is now a doorman in New York. His daughter Tammy, whom we follow from age nine to adulthood, deals with her family's old world ways and her own new world hopes. The third story is Oliver Wright's. He's a charming lawyer with everything going for him except a dark family secret. A vicious street crime brings all three people and stories together.
There are no saints or true villains in these pages, only complicated, real people trying to find their way and sometimes tripping up.
I heartily recommend this book and will definitely read whatever Susie Luo decides to write next.