BOOK CLUB CLASSICS!

The Art of Fielding: A Novel

2011 / 528 pp.

Synopsis: At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.  As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths.

Review: After seeing Chad Harbach’s novel land atop so many “best of 2011″ lists, and especially hearing it was about a baseball team in Wisconsin, I requested it from the library and lugged all 512 pages of hardcover glory to the beach over the holidays.

I found Fielding’s writing thoroughly engaging and enjoyable.  The characters are likeable and authentic, even when not entirely believable at times.  Owen was a bit too perfect as an adolescent aesthete and Mike a bit too much of an old soul.  The resolution at the end was a bit too convenient and the last act of closure too impractical.

But a bit of a heavy hand is not rare with “baseball art” and none of these minor complaints deterred my enjoyment in the least.  I loved getting to know each member of the team and the one female character and enjoyed spending my vacation with their trials and tribulations on the beach.

So, while I’m not sure Fielding’s debut would top my personal “best of” list, I would recommend it to readers who enjoy hero journeys, baseball, college literature, or character-based fiction.

Anyone else read this yet?

photo credit: jenny downing

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The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen

Release date: 2012 / 352 pages

Synopsis (from Amazon): More than two decades after moving to Saudi Arabia and marrying powerful Abdullah Baylani, American-born Rosalie learns that her husband has taken a second wife. That discovery plunges their family into chaos as Rosalie grapples with leaving Saudi Arabia, her life, and her family behind. Meanwhile, Abdullah and Rosalie’s consuming personal entanglements blind them to the crisis approaching their sixteen-year-old son, Faisal, whose deepening resentment toward their lifestyle has led to his involvement with a controversial sheikh. When Faisal makes a choice that could destroy everything his embattled family holds dear, all must confront difficult truths as they fight to preserve what remains of their world.

Review: What a fortuitous start to my reading year — first I enjoyed The Art of Fielding (review coming next Sunday) about the world of boys becoming men, caring too much about the glorious but insubstantial world of baseball — and then followed that with another debut novel about another world of men, in Saudi Arabia, caring too little about what is most important: love and validation.

I was drawn to The Ruins of Us due to a friendship with a woman from Texas who spent part of her childhood on an American oil base in Saudia Arabia.  She has often spoken with deep longing about returning to this country — which I cannot fathom as an American woman who cannot unlock the mysteries of a culture who imprison others due to that which they cannot control — gender.  I have often wondered how my friend, a fiesty independent sprite who always speaks her mind and swears like a sailor, could even entertain the thought of bringing her daughter into The Kingdom.  So, when I saw that Keija Parssinen had spent 12 years of her childhood as my friend had, I was intrigued.

The Ruins of Us is luminous, terrifying, beautiful, and entertaining.  Parssinen has somehow embraced and channeled the contradictions of Saudi Arabia into a gripping tale of suspense that is impossible to put aside. The protagonist, Rosalie, is a strong-willed Texan who falls in love with Abdullah while both attend college in Texas, eventually returning to Saudi Arabia as his wife, and starting a family.  Rosalie had spent part of her childhood in Saudi Arabia and had missed it deeply after returning to the States, so marrying a Saudi Arabian felt like going home.

The events of the novel unfold many years later, when Rosalie discovers that her beloved husband secretly married a Palestinian woman two years ago, and who now lives down the street.  While this discovery propels the early events, the heart of this novel is about the universal loss of betrayed love.  Abdullah’s act, legal in The Kingdom, sets up a chain of events involving the entire family and forces them to confront what happens when a son is left without a role model in a country seething with feverish contradictions.

Each character is fully realized and sympathetic and the tempestuous backdrop of Saudi Arabia, a country that allows few options for women and only narrowly-defined ones for men, lends an urgency and sense of foreboding that is palpable.  Parssinen’s own love for this country keeps the male characters from becoming two-dimensional and her writing is lovely, too — bringing to life the harsh, relentless beauty of the desert.

I strongly recommend this novel to book clubs — so many thematic points for discussion!  I’m afraid I cannot give away my copy this time — I already did!

Tuesday, January 17th: Book Hooked Blog

Wednesday, January 18th: Take Me Away

Thursday, January 19th: Broken Teepee

Friday, January 20th: Bibliosue

Monday, January 23rd: Book Club Classics!

Tuesday, January 24th: Wandering Thoughts of a Scientific Housewife

Thursday, January 26th: Peeking Between the Pages

Tuesday, January 31st: Col Reads

Wednesday, February 1st: The House of the Seven Tails

Thursday, February 2nd: Raging Bibliomania

Monday, February 6th: Library of Clean Reads

Tuesday, February 7th: Man of La Book

Wednesday, February 8th: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore

Release date: 2011 / 372  pages

Synopsis (from Amazon.com): Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods; both hung out on street corners with their crews; both ran into trouble with the police. How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence? Wes Moore, the author of this fascinating book, sets out to answer this profound question. In alternating narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

Review: Sometimes the books I recommend are great reads, but not necessarily great for book club discussion.  Happily, The Other Wes Moore is both.

I saw the author on Oprah and was fascinated by the story of two strangers — contemporaries who share the same name, hometown, and single mother upbringing — who’s lives turned out vastly different: one Wes Moore became a Rhodes scholar and spoke at the Democratic convention while the other will spend his life in prison for his involvement in a robbery and killing of a police officer. So, when my husband bought me his book for Christmas I was curious to see if Moore was able to turn what could be simply a coincidence into an engaging book.

Since both Moores are African-American males, raised in a beleagured part of Baltimore without fathers, yet have taken such different paths, I imagined a socio-economic commentary was most likely going to color much of the telling.  Fortunately, the author spent a lot of time interviewing and getting to know his counter-part and both men are quite likeable.  Moore the author is self-depreciating, humble, and incredibly grateful that his circumstances changed at the right time.  He is well aware that this is in part due to serendipity (in the form of a military school) and is grateful of the individuals who never gave up on him and were willing to make sacrifices so that his life was not.

The other Wes Moore has found a sense of peace through embracing Islam in prison, so although his life is tragic in many ways, the ultimate message of this work is more hopeful than critical.  The Other Wes Moore was impossible to put down, and when I turned the last page I immediately passed it on to my in-laws (who I was spending the holidays with) and believe it would be a great choice for book clubs, too.