Set in 1958 Australia, Ben’s Challenge is at its heart an historical coming-of-age story with a fair dose of mystery and intrigue thrown in. The story begins with news of thirteen-year-old Ben Kellerman’s father’s death in a hit and run. It’s an accident that remains unsolved until the end of the book and is the catalyst for Ben’s transition from childhood.
Category: Literary Fiction Reviews
A review of The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The writing is always very competent and sometimes even better than that. Lending interest is a symbolic element in the treatment of stamps (Philip collects them, they get printed with swastikas at least in his imagination, Lindbergh is an aviator who delivered air mail). There is humor, though more in individual passages than woven into the fabric of the writing (but given the nature of the story, that is perhaps understandable).
A review of Inherited by Amanda Curtin
Memory is critical in each of the stories, recycled into new experiences, and reworked into new memories, twisting, in and out of view, but never lost—nothing is ever lost. The setting brings history into the present day as modern characters uncover clues about the past that lead to self-awareness.
A review of Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
These “peculiars” are certainly fiction, right? Riggs adds another layer of “Are they or aren’t they real?” by building his story around a collection of vintage photographs included throughout the novel that show images of, well, peculiar people in peculiar poses doing peculiar things.
A review of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory
Loory often ends with an invisible higher power, who seems to approve the goings-on with laughter or, in the case of the balloon, “a faint, expected pop.” What’s eerie about a balloon breaking? Nothing, if you don’t think a child is attached to it as it rises above the Stories world.
A review of The Map of Time by Félix J Palma
Primarily, though, The Map of Time warns of the hazards of manipulating history; this could loosely be read as a modern commentary on the written records of history–records that now include an increasing magnitude of unreliable records located on the World Wide Web. To a lesser extent, Palma explores the familiar modern anxiety of privacy: time travel would ultimately establish ‘a world where privacy would no longer exist’ and an individual could no longer sustain control—or permanency—over their actions.
A review of The Devil in the Flesh by Raymond Radiguet
His life was brief, but Radiguet’s achievements were immense. With The Devil in the Flesh he created an extraordinary novel, complex and cruel, excoriating of self and society. And reading the novel as a portrait of alienated adolescence, only Chandler Brossard’s brilliant The Bold Saboteurs comes close.
A review of Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion by Johan Harstad
Buzz Aldrin himself and his trip through space is as evocative a backdrop to the story as Mattias’ hometown of Stavanger, Norway, and the moonlike Faroese Islands, where Mattias takes his own life-changing first steps. This is a lovely, delicately written novel whose power lies in the balance between Mattias’ awakening, and his acceptance that there are many kinds of glory, and many different ways to create meaning and leave footprints.
A review of Private Life by Jane Smiley
Though Private Life is far from a happy book, the subtle beauty of its perceptions and the richly drawn tapestry of the characters that revolve around Margaret and her intensely private life provide the reader with a powerful and utterly engrossing work.
A review of To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal
To Be Sung Underwater is a perfect example of a typical love story told in a unique and beautiful way, complete with an ending I certainly didn’t see coming. I can only imagine how much work it took Tom McNeal to produce writing that seems so effortless.