The Drowning Tree - Goodman

The Drowning Tree

Carol Goodman

Juno McKay's life hasn't turned out exactly as she planned it, but that okay since she has her beautiful daughter Bea, and her best friend Christine to make up for all of the short coming. While at her 15th College reunion she witnesses Christine give a speech that shakes the ground that Penrose was built on. When Christine ends up missing Juno must investigate some of her outrageous claims and figure out were they enough to get her killed.

The Drowning Tree is the definition of mediocre. Juno's interesting, but not really interesting. She lives in a stained glass factory which she now also runs (+1 interesting point) but she's really overprotective of her daughter, doesn't really date and apparently hasn't done anything interesting since her ex-husband tried to kill her (-2 ). Since this is really all Juno is about she doesn't really have much spirit to carry the store, which is sad, because the plot doesn't really put in much effort either. In The Drowning Tree everything is about imagery. There are intense descriptions of settings, like the mental hospital Neil is in and the Penrose estates, as well as art and the river by the McKays.  While not a fault in itself, using beautiful descriptions to supplement the already overworked and barely functional plot isn't a huge selling point.

While I have several other issues with The Drowning Tree, the one that really sealed it's back of the bookshelf shame is the Penrose diary. Usually Goodman is fantastic at telling a story within a story, pacing them out so that the reader is interested in both and using a device that makes sense and is intriguing to the reader to tell said second story. The diary entries are short and not very insightful. They become more about Juno's assumptions than about the Penrose sisters reality. Not the best way to add in a story, especially when it is needed to make scenes of the entire rest of the book.

Clara & Mr. Tiffany - Vreeland

Clara & Mr. Tiffany

Susan Vreeland

Clara works for Mr. Louis Comfort Tiffany at his glass studio. What starts as just jobs in elegant stained glass windows turns into her own personal renaissance when she realizes they can take the same simple principles and make lamps. While Clara fights to establisher herself, and her department of female glass workers she must struggle against the conventions of the early 1900's and the rules Mr. Tiffany sets down. The foremost of which is that married women can not work for him.

Susan Vreeland does a fantastic job of bring Clara, the little know and rarely credited designer, to life. A fully formed character, Clara is eager to place, and to make a name for herself. While she craves love, she values her Independence even more. All of this makes her unique for a story set in turn of the century New York.  Clara is supported by a cast of artists, accountants and friends who can be two dimensional at times, they are endearing.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany is a great example of historical fiction. A New York on the verge of becoming a cultural hub is brought to life without being over worked. From boarding houses to the newly made subway, little snippets of history are tucked neatly into Vreelands pages.

Overall I enjoyed this book, even if at times it felt a bit long. If you're a fan of Vreeland, or similar authors you'll find yourself a reliable read here.

The Pope of Greenwich Village

The Pope of Greenwich Village

Vincent Patrick

I know what you're thinking, why is this girl reviewing a B movie with Mickey Rourke? Well, I'm not. For one of my classes this semester I was required to read the novel for Pope of Greenwich Village before we watch the movie in class next week. I wasn't really looking forward to starting this because it seemed so far out of my comfort zone. It turns out that that feeling was warranted. Pope of Greenwich Village follows a slew of characters around as they laugh at the ineffective police, do some petty crime, do some less petty crime and get involved in mob stuff. But mostly Patrick has us following the 5th cousins Paulie and Charlie.

I had a really hard time getting into this. I felt that about 95% of the characters being introduced were either pitiful or terrible. I guess I just didn't feel that any of the characters, aside from Charlie were even remotely likable. However my main problem wasn't how irritating these characters were, but instead with how randomly some of them were introduced. Each chapter would switch viewpoints, often to people, like random cops, who weren't really involved in the main story. Usually I don't mind several different perspectives but for some reason I didn't feel it worked well here.

I guess for being a New York crime/mafia/poor guy trying to get by it's not bad. This just wasn't the story for me. I'm interested to see how different the film is from the book. My teacher keeps telling me it's a good adaptation, so I guess I'll see next Tuesday.

  

I Loved, I Lost, I made Spaghetti

I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti

Giulia Melucci

I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti is 2 parts relationship memoir and 1 part cook book. Giulia gives her reader the rundown on her late blooming love life while associating all of her failures with men to her successes in her kitchen.

I got this for my birthday from a friend and was intrigued, as I had never heard of it. Within a few pages she had me sucked into her ever failing love life and my mouth watering with a recipe for amazing blueberry muffins. Giulia Melucci obviously writes from the heart. She is honest about her own downfalls as well as the men she has dated. These men make a colorful cast of characters from your typical commitmentphobe to two novelists with peter pan complexes, an alcoholic and a man twenty years her senior. 

The concept has been done before, but Melucci's love afair with food gives her story something special. Fellow foodies can relate to her love of fresh ingredients and finding the perfect new kitchen accessory. Her recipes are filled with as much heart as her search for love and leave your mouth watering.

I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti may not be for everyone, but for those who do enjoy it will find themselves laughing out loud and heading to the grocery story for pasta.

My Review
4/5

The Heights

The Heights

Peter Hedges

Tim Welch is a history teacher at a private school still working on his dissertation about loss. Kate Welch is a stay at home mom who loves taking care of her children. Everything changes when they meet Anna Brody. Tim takes a year off, Kate gets a job. New feelings appear. Told from several different perspectives, but mainly Tim and Kate you get to learn what life is like in the Heights.

Hedges, who wrote both the novel and screenplay for Whats Eating Gilbert Grape as well as several other screenplays has come up with one of the most over told stories ever. It's rare for an avid reader, such as myself to think "This would be better as a movie" but it's true. The story unfolds like some mediocre character driven drama. The book itself reads like an Oscar nominee, not an Oscar winner, one of those dry dramas where everyone makes bad choices and says terrible things and people rave about it for a few weeks and then when they think about it years latery they're all like 'yeah, that was kind of terrible'.

The characters themselves are contrived, Kate is endearing in the beginning before she becomes annoying. Tim is interesting before becoming pathetic. Anna Brody is always mysterious before you realize she is about to cause to most uneventful causal event ever.

There is obviously a demographic for novels like this, and with it being only 293 pages it's a little hard to justify putting it down.  Hedges, stick to writing for the screen. Love your movies, hated this novel.

My Rating
**