Month: April 2020

The Paris Hours

~ noveltherapy

Set in 1927 Paris, The Paris Hours follows four different characters through one day: Souren, who is an Armenian refugee and puppeteer; Camille, a French country girl who becomes secretary to Marcel Proust; Guillaume, a struggling painter hounded by a loan shark; and Jean-Paul, a journalist and war veteran who is trapped in his own sad story. Their seemingly separate stories weave together in the end.

While this could be categorized as historical fiction, it is not at all genre historical fiction. Rather, it is more of a literary novel with a historical setting. (Think: A Gentleman in Moscow.) George’s previous novel, Setting Free the Kites, was exceptional (highly recommend!) and while this one is very different, the writing is just as luminous.

I did think the novel was uneven at points, and the ending — crowded with historical figures, like Hemingway and Josephine Baker — seemed a bit contrived, but overall I was spellbound by the writing and captivated by the well-drawn cast of characters. I highly recommend The Paris Hours, and I can’t wait for Alex George’s next novel.

Writers & Lovers

~ noveltherapy

Writers & Lovers, by Lily King

I loved Lily King’s previous novel, Euphoria, so I was excited to read Writers & Lovers. Sadly, it didn’t live up to my (admittedly sky high) expectations.

The novel centers around Casey, a young woman who’s dealing with the sudden death of her mother and crushing financial problems, all while trying to finish her first novel (that she’s been working on for six years).

While I was interested enough in this novel to finish it, I didn’t love it, and at times I was annoyed by it. I think the main problem for me was that I didn’t much like the main character. Although Casey was grieving the loss of her mother, and did have other stressors in her life, she seemed incredibly self-involved. Her random panic attacks just did not make sense to me. I also did not understand why every man she came in contact with IMMEDIATELY wanted to date her. Honestly, the “lovers” part of the novel smacked of YA to me (Insta-love!).

Also, some of the descriptions in this novel were so weird (“he tasted like Europe” and “my heart felt like a mealy apple” as just two examples) that I would pause while reading and think, not, “Wow, what an interesting way to describe that,” but instead, “Wait, what now?” This happened multiple times, and became a recurring distraction. I don’t know if King was trying too hard to be “literary,” or what, but it fell flat for me.

So, all in all, I give this one a “meh.” It was fine, I just expected it to be exceptional.

The Dog Stars

~ noveltherapy

The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller

Who reads a novel about a deadly pandemic in the middle of a deadly pandemic? I do, I guess. I’m a big fan of dsytopian fiction, and also a big fan of Peter Heller’s most recent book, The River, so when I discovered that a few years back he’d written a dystopian novel, naturally I needed to read it.

The Dog Stars follows Hig, who has survived a flu pandemic that has killed most of the world’s population, including his wife and unborn child. He lives in an abandoned Colorado airfield with his dog and one other survivor, as they navigate the dangers of their new world. Hig deals with his grief and contemplates the value of living when so many have died.

I enjoyed this book a lot, though I found it uneven in parts. The stream of consciousness style of story-telling was not always easy to follow. Also, Heller does not use punctuation for dialogue — a choice that I find very annoying and unfortunately increasingly common — which sometimes confused me. It took me awhile to get into this novel, but I was much more engaged in the story by the last third of the book.

Recommended for fans of dystopian fiction and for fans of Peter Heller, who brings a literary approach to his novels regardless of the subject matter.

The Boy from the Woods

~ noveltherapy

Harlan Coben is a master at crafting well-written, gripping thrillers. I have not read all of his books, but have read the last few, and have found them enjoyable and hard to put down (exactly what you want in a thriller). So, I was looking forward to The Boy from the Woods — so much so that I bought it in hardcover.

In The Boy from the Woods, a man with a mysterious past races to find a kidnapped girl. Sounds promising, right?

Well, maybe not. Surprisingly, this was a Did Not Finish for me. I gave it 100 pages, and then gave up. I just didn’t care about the characters enough to keep reading. Maybe it’s my current mood (I am, admittedly, very easily distracted these days), or maybe this is a rare miss for Coben. Either way, I moved on.

The Book of Lost Friends

~ noveltherapy

The Book of Lost Friends, by Lisa Wingate

Thanks to Lisa Wingate, Random House-Ballantine, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of The Book of Lost Friends. Wingate’s last novel, Before We Were Yours, was wildly popular, so I was anxious to read her new work.

The concept of this book — former slaves placing ads in newspapers in order to try to find their relatives — was new to me, and was very interesting, yet heartbreaking. This novel switches between two settings: Civil War-era Louisiana and more modern day (1980’s) Louisiana. Wingate does an excellent job describing both settings with meticulous, realistic detail.

While I enjoyed much of the description and the characters in this book (which are very well developed!) the story itself moved more slowly than I would’ve liked, and I found my interest lagging. Still, I would recommend this novel for those who enjoy historical fiction and for those who loved Wingate’s previous novel, Before We Were Yours.