Just Some Good Fiction Suggestions
YWR #94
Real talk: every cat owner knows the eye-opening exercise of buying cute cat toys shaped like sushi or Easter eggs only to once again discover an inconvenient truth: the cat just wants to play with the stray strip of packaging and then yell at you for dinner when it is CLEARLY only 2:30 PM Greenwich Mean Time and it’s NOT DINNER TIME FOR CATS. Your effort does not fulfill the cat’s needs.
This is your humble writer’s reality this week; despite spending my one wild and precious life crafting intricate themes for past newsletters (Wizard of Oz non-fiction, anyone?) - when I asked, you, the People, just want some good ol’ fiction suggestions.
Oh, it’s … to be clear, that’s all you … so you’re saying I should just, like, tell you the books I liked without some elaborate and tortured thematic introductory song and dance? Just give you the information? This is a revelation! This is game changing!
Very well, then this week I am deeply happy to introduce you to a few interesting/delightful/provoking fiction suggestions, below. Because above all else, I want you to be happy. Even if I return next week with some ridiculous theme.
Fine. Above all else I want to stop the global slide into authoritarianism and climate collapse. I also want some perfectly salted French fries. But AFTER THAT I want you to be happy.
Following fast on last week’s very popular five-lamber, welcome to another joyful and bighearted charmer: Lessons in Chemistry.
Power summary: Over the course of the 1960s, Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant scientist, an unapologetic coworker, an unlikely partner, and an unemployed single mother who refuses to pander or compromise. As the circumstances of her life change, she creates change in the world around her.
I thought this was laugh-out-loud funny, smarter than a lot of comedies, had characters that were both familiar but skewed enough to be fresh and irresistible, and managed to pack in a lot of emotion. It’s a love story but it’s not (only) a romance. And also, I don’t care if it’s puerile, I’m a complete sucker for an absurdly sentient companion animal, which this has. This was great fun.
Postscript 1: What’s a five-lamber or a lamb of any number? Decode my Gentle Lamb Ratings(TM) here.
Postscript 2: this reminded me a lot of the show Julia about Julia Child. Fun to watch and always good to see the divine Bebe Neuwirth. Would recommend!
If you enjoyed Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage (and you should), you’ll probably also enjoy her subsequent book, Silver Sparrow, which has many of the same moving elements.
Power summary: Dana grows up knowing that she and her mother are her father’s second, secret family, and that he has a wife and another daughter, Chaunisse, who live across town. When a chance encounter brings the two girls together, Dana is irresistibly drawn to Chaunisse and her life, even while we see the reality of Chaunisse’s life is not what Dana thinks.
There’s a lot to love about this book, starting with the deeply skilled writing that’s observant, sharp, and deeply empathetic. Every detail makes for a richer scene. And while the first half of the book is told from Dana’s point of view, in the second half of the book, we also hear from Chaunisse, creating a more complicated view of everyone involved. In this story, no one is blameless, no one is perfect, but everyone is believable. I did find the distinction between the two voices of Dana and Chaunisse to be a bit too subtle and would have liked more narrative contrast, but then, it’s not my book now is it?
What even IS Cult Classic, anyway? Is it suspense? Is it a meditation on the challenges of modern love, dating and marriage? Is it a satirical look at tech, media, and belonging culture? Is it magical realism? Is it bigger than a breadbox? I’ll leave it for you to decide, but it is thought-provoking.
Power summary: Recently engaged Lola is out one night with some old co-workers when she runs into one of her exes. And then soon, she runs into another until she can’t go anywhere without seeing the men from her past. Over the course of a few weeks, she’s forced to reckon with the state of her current relationship, what she really wants, and whether her former co-workers have drawn her into a dangerous web.
Warning: do not read this if you’re questioning a relationship or have cold feet about marriage. (Or do, maybe it’s just what you need.) I didn’t think this was perfect - the plot felt a little rushed and uneven - but where the book really excels is in capturing the tiresome vignettes of dating life and being a young woman navigating late-stage capitalism in a big city. (Not surprisingly, because the author is best known for her essays, and this feels like a bunch of essays linked together, in a mostly successful way.) The witty, exhausted tone covers over most of the flaws, and for me, it was an intriguing, thought-provoking, frustrating and compelling read. If you’ve read it, let me know what you think.
Confession: I Didn’t Get It
I’m perhaps the last carbon life form to read a Colleen Hoover book, so I tried Verity to see what all the hoopla was about.
Reader, it was not for me. I know a lot of people loved it, and I agree that the premise - a writer is brought in to complete an incapacitated best-seller’s series, but discovers more than she bargains for - is very intriguing.
For me, it was all plot and zero believable characterization or distinctive voice. (In a book about writers.) And even the plot was like - wait, what? I can get behind an easy thriller, but I can’t in good conscience recommend this.
But based on one New York Times profile she seems like a nice person, and maybe I’m wrong! Leave a comment if you, like the rest of the reading public, love Verity or the rest of her books.
Are you still reading this far? If you are, I’ll confess that I can’t quite get into The Marriage Portrait even though I LOVED Hamnet by the same author. Is it the book or is it my monkey brain that just wants escapism? Stay tuned.
Reminder: all links go to Bookshop.org which supports independent bookstores. You can also find and buy most of my past suggestions there or see them in the archive in all their contextual glory.