Beach Reading
We are having a bit of a heat wave here in Southern California, so take your reading to the beach! I have six new recommendations, all fiction this time, all highly recommended. I hope you enjoy!
Flashlight, Susan Choi
This book begins with the disappearance, and presumed death, of Serk, a Korean man who grew up as a boy in Japan when his parents were forced into servitude following Japan’s conquest of Korea in the 1930s. The only witness to his disappearance is his 10-year-old daughter, Louisa. The novel then goes back in time, to Serk’s childhood in Japan, his college days and subsequent life in the United States as a professor. Serk’s original family is lured back to (North) Korea with promises of an ideal life, but then all communication with them is shut off. Serk marries Anne, who had given her son, Tobias, to his father to raise, a secret that is kept from Louisa until she discovers letters between him and Anne. Louisa and Tobias do eventually bond over their shared history. Flashlight is a family tragedy, heart-wrenching and poignant, where identity is complicated, where the relationships are universally drawn, and how we are connected to each other. A beautiful work by a master author.
The Correspondent, Virginia Evans
Sybil is a retired law clerk living on Chesapeake Bay. Her legal career was hindered by the prejudices against her gender, but she became an equal partner with a prominent judge and ultimately had a fulfilling career. Unfortunately, that career came at the expense of her marriage and her relationship with her daughter and a tragic incident with her young son. The novel gives us glimpses into her personal life, her relationships with family members and even two suitors in her advanced years, and does so entirely through letters that she writes and receives. It’s a remarkable achievement to draw these characters in such rich detail entirely through these letters. We come to understand Sybil as witty and acerbic, smart and tenacious, but ultimately deeply flawed.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
This is the debut novel by Mark Haddon from 20 years ago, and it is a wonderfully funny, original murder-mystery. The deceased is a dog, and the sleuth is an autistic boy, a mathematical savant, incapable of understanding anything except at face value, which makes the behavior and phrases of everyone around him indecipherable. He is warned off investigating this murder because it ultimately has to do with his parents’ separation. But he persists, and this is his adventure.
The Director, Daniel Kehlmann
G.W. Pabst was one of Germany’s most prominent film directors of the 1920s and 30s, and this is the fictionalized account of his life. Success in Germany brought him to Hollywood, where he struggled with the language and navigating the politics of the studios. When his ailing mother in Austria sends word that she is dying, Pabst, his wife and young son travel there just as World War Two breaks out. Pabst cannot leave, and the Nazis force him to make films, not directly propaganda, but they tout his work as evidence of the superiority of German culture. Pabst himself is portrayed as an unwilling participant, but was he really a victim, or merely a coward, or even an opportunist? We can argue for all three, and Kehlmann uses his life to pose these existential questions about our behavior in the face of great difficulties.
Buckeye, Patrick Ryan
Two couples find their lives intertwined in small-town Ohio when an extramarital affair results in the birth of a boy. The identity of the father is kept hidden from the other adults and their respective children. This is all complicated by World War Two, when one husband is presumed dead, but is later rescued and returns home. This infidelity is neither condemned nor condoned, but the consequences become complicated when the boy is sent off to Vietnam. The families become estranged, both to each other and within themselves, as they struggle to reconcile and atone. Love and forgiveness is only partially achieved in this rich, emotional and beautiful story.
Flesh, David Szalay
A rages-to-riches-to-rags story of István, a Hungarian delinquent without any prospects. He joins the army, becomes a strip club bouncer, and then a chauffeur. A rich, elderly Englishman hires him as a chauffeur in London, where he has an on-going affair with his employer’s younger, attractive wife. István speaks little, and then mostly in monosyllables; he simply goes along with whatever life presents to him, without expectation or complaint. He really is devoid of emotion, or perhaps just incapable of articulating any, but this stoicism only serves to highlight the artificiality of the wealthy class he encounters. The one-dimensional character of István is the lens through which we see the struggles and absence of meaning in the lives of both rich and poor.
