Ron Nicholson

I was engrossed by this book, drawn into a world that is very foreign to me. I learned a lot about modern-day twenty somethings, some of it scary (the casual sex and drug use) and some of it sweet, such has their acceptance and ability to forgive. I was really deflated when the book just ended with no real denouement. I wanted closure , a come to Jesus moment. But maybe that isn’t realistic. There were too many editing errors for a major book.

This is a very readable book with an interesting plot, relatable, likable characters, and some food for thought. It has its issues (a few too many modern slang terms stick out and some improbable coincidences) but I recommend it.

I do not read science fiction or dystopian novels as a rule, but I bought into the hype of The Great Transition, so I tried it and found the idea timely and interesting, stirring up conversations we should be having about how we are destroying our planet. But I couldn’t make myself like any of these characters. Kristina comes off as a self-righteous bore, Larch doesn’t ever gel as a person, as a personality, and Emi is a total buzz kill. Thus, I didn’t find myself all that invested in their drama. I always struggle with time hopping, here more than usual. But despite all of this I am glad I read it. It certainly makes me think about the environmental morass we face today.

I’m so conflicted about Lessons. I wanted to love it like I did Atonement, which is brilliant. But Lessons is complicated, deep, and meaningful while also managing to be boring, confusing, and frustrating. I just don’t like Roland, the protagonist. I can’t muster sympathy for him and I feel like we should. He is seriously shafted in life via terrible parents, a horrible wife (being a genius writer does not excuse one from basic human duty), and a lack of professional belonging and success. Rather than learn from these “lessons”, he wallows in his misfortune, rarely able to put on his big boy pants and, to borrow the current vernacular, adult. I confess to skipping sections where McEwan rambles on and on about historical events. I detest time-hopping without justification, so the author’s jumbled time frame frustrated me. Then there were moments of brilliance, of excellent, masterful writing that made me forgive the novel’s weaknesses. I didn’t enjoy Lessons, but I’m better for having read it.

Where There Was Fire certainly has moments of poetic beauty and sections in which the reader can feel engrossed in this family’s tragedies. But so many pages are muddled, forced, and focused on style over substance. I found myself longing for more specifics about the dangers of imperialism, a plot I could better follow, and a better sense of time. Can someone please write a good novel without the whiplash flashback trope?

French Braid is a sensitive, realistic look at families and how they can drive us mad and save us at the same time. These characters are real, from Robin with his grocery store anniversary cake to Lily’s multiple marriages and from Eddie’s secret to Candle’s fateful train ride with Gramma Mercy, these characters are people in my family. And yours. And we are all just trying to muddle through, dealing with exasperating relatives the whole ride. Could the plot have been tighter? Perhaps. But maybe the lack of plot perfectly captures family life, which is generally a hot mess.