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Big Machine by Victor LaValle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Loved it! I didn’t expect this book to tackle so many stories and themes—race in America, cults, addiction, slavery, terrorism, and more—and remain increasingly compelling through to the end. The story: Ricky Rice, a janitor in his middle years, is recruited to a secretive organization that tells him little about his task and then sends him on a wild adventure to save the organization from imminent doom. Along the way we learn of Ricky’s childhood and adulthood, and what brought him to the moment where he made a silent promise that somehow, magnificently, he is being called to account for.

Fast-paced, intriguing, funny, truly frightening in parts, Big Machine takes in the whole world, churns it up, and delivers a story that is human and essential.

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Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Ferrante’s third Neapolitan novel, the divisions between Lenu and Lila grow sharper, and Lenu’s life seems more defined by circumstances that seem uniquely adult—the publication and success of her first book, her marriage and children, and distinguishing herself from her parents and siblings. The breakneck momentum of the first two books comes to a halt here, as Lenu takes stock of her life and finds so much of it lacking. She’s no longer inspired by her own writing, she misses the energy of her youth, she finds little desire in being a wife and mother.

I was struck by the power of a woman (Lenu) struggling to understand the ways in which men frame the entire existence of women, and how she can maneuver within this world. And then finding once again the great passion of her life, the feverish inspiration that can return her to her intelligence and her creativity. But everything feels poised on a precipice as this third book closes.

One narrative feature that stands out to me in Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay is Ferrante’s ability to write about the shape of something without writing about the content itself—a bit like describing the box without telling us what’s inside. In each of her books, but especially here, we find characters in conflict with one another, and that tension is narrated in such a way that we’re drawn to the effect of the argument rather than the content of it. Which, for me, allows the story to reach a tone of universality that transcends its time and place.

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As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Clever and fast-moving story of a relationship interrupted by the emergence of a universe. May sound strange, but the physics is a good metaphor (to my unscientific mind at least) for the variability of emotions and the attempt to hold someone close even while they’re trying to get away.

This novel had a kind of fealty to the world of White Noise, with its otherworldly phenomena and everyday concerns. I realized, also, that I really love the coziness of novels set on small college campuses, which also includes Wonder Boys.

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The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I feel conflicted here. It took me a long time to work my way into the ornate sentences and long, carefully-crafted thoughts; the story feels overstuffed. But once I finally did (a little over halfway through), I was into it and pulling fast toward the end. A student of history knows the basic outline of the Vietnam War, but Nguyen fills that in with a narrator who straddles many lines—birthright, ethnicity, South vs. North, American vs. Vietnamese. And The Sympathizer does most of its work in undermining the stories Americans have told themselves about our involvement there—from movies to books to college courses. A part of the pleasure of this novel is in having misconceptions stripped away, in being forced to acknowledge the full humanity of people it’s easier to stereotype. But the novel also turns an unflinching eye on the stories the narrator told himself about his cause and his people. The pleasure found in The Sympathizer is slim, but the effects run deep.

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The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty by Vendela Vida
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thoroughly engrossing story of a woman moving mercurially through Morocco. With only a bare plan to travel to Morocco on the heels of a personal crisis, the narrator quickly finds herself spiraling into a world where she’s nearly trapped by the half-truths she spins to stay one step ahead of a disaster kicked off by the theft of her luggage. The novel feels a little like a choose-your-adventure story, where Vida opens each door (no matter how unlikely) and boldly marches through with reader in hand. I loved it. I found the narrator’s courage and honesty both revealing and vulnerable, and the story that spins out is very enjoyable.

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The Infinite Tides by Christian Kiefer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An astronaut returns home to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, finding an unexpected solace and aggravant in the bland uniformity of the housing development where he and his ex-wife had purchased a home. Good characters, and a solid (if slightly expected) storyline.

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The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Engrossing, multigenerational tale of a manor house that served as the home for the wealthy Devohr family’s black-sheep daughter, an artist colony, the once-again home of the Devohr’s heirs, and then finally an artist colony once again. The revelations are buried as deep as family secrets, and the novel takes its time to unwind them all. Personally, I found the opening section (with Zee and Doug) much more interesting and liked the comedy and the emotional tension. I wish the novel had remained there to play out its many reveals. But the history of the house and the family that built it is interesting in its own way too. Sometimes the artists from the bygone colony felt a little stereotypically “artististic,” but that’s a mild complaint for a book is enjoyable as this one.

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