Book Review- Banana Yoshimoto's The Lake

Banana Yoshimoto has been a long time favorite author of mine and her latest novella, The Lake, doesn't disappoint. The story is first person, told from the point of view of Chihiro, a young woman who has just lost her mother and is feeling rootless. She encounters a needy and usual man named Nakajima, who has also lost his parents and this commonality seals their bond. They carve out a life together that is stunted emotionally and is hovered by a dark secret.

Much of the story has a hint of something not quite right and potentially sinister. Yoshimoto does a great job creating a slow build to a shocking reveal in the end. The story is just plain creepy and left me feeling out of sorts.

The reason I love Yoshimoto so much, is she has a talent for writing simply. She is direct, but in a way that doesn't sacrifice the subtext. She creates complex characters with intense motivations. I also love how her books are always exactly the right length to tell the story. I never feel that her stories could have benefitted from ruthless editing. She knows what to add and what to cut, something that I think is difficult for even the most gifted writers and editors.

On a personal level, I connected to many of the emotions that the characters feel in the book, with particular regard to rootlessness and loss of parents. These characters are in an intense period of transition and feeling uncertainty and panic. Yoshimoto captures this perfectly.

Book Review- Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job

This is my second Christopher Moore novel, the first being Fluke, which I didn't really like, and I am glad that I gave him a second chance. Moore writes the quirky. Occasionally, it's nearly too quirky, but I found that with A Dirty Job, that just going along for the ride, makes for a fun read.

Charlie Asher is a lovable dork who unwittingly becomes a death merchant and must protect his unborn daughter from the rise of the underworld, which is about to occur in a mega showdown in his hometown on San Francisco. Moore's talent lies in creating memorable characters. Each character is nearly more bizarre than the very strange things that are happening around them. I love, love, love Audrey and her squirrel people. Best characters ever! Especially Bob with his spork.

I laughed out loud many times while reading this book and even had to read my boyfriend paragraphs that I thought were so well written. Moore is great with phrasing and writing comedy.I was mostly very entertained, which is why I gave this book a four star rating.

The bits that I thought were super dull were everything with the Morrigans, the central evil characters of the book. I found myself skimming through these parts just to get back to Charlie. I wish that a lot of it had been cut out and that the characters were kept more mysterious. It was tedious to read.

Also a bit tiresome was the picking up of vessels. At first, it was intriguing, but it went on too long.He kept having another name in his book and another person to track down. I felt that this book could have benefited from tighter editing. Maybe a few sections cut would have made a sharper story. A few of the scenarios were extraneous and didn't really drive the plot or character development.

Overall, I would recommend it and I look forward to reading another Moore novel. He has an interesting take on the world and is a unique author.

Book Review- The Diary of an American Au Pair

I was given this book over four years ago at a Bookcrossing meet up ( a really fun one at Bob's Big Boy in Burbank) and it has sat on my bookshelf ever since. I've been battling a terrible virus and decided that I needed a light read, so I plucked it off the shelf.

I rated Marjorie Leet Ford's The Dairy of an American Au Pair: A Novel four out of five stars, not because it's a great book, but I think for it's genre (definitely pulpy chick-lit) it was decent. It's a quick, fun read.

The story is told from the POV of Melissa, a twenty-something American, who loses her job and decides to take a position as an Au Pair to an English Couple. Melissa sets off to England with high hopes of finding herself and seeing a new country/ cultural immersion. She quickly learns that the family she is working for is a bit nutty and has different expectations for her time in England. Ultimately the book is about the relationships that she develops, in particular with the youngest daughter Claire and the old former nanny whom has worked for the family for years. I bought into most of the book, with the exception of Melissa's romantic encounters, which just didn't work for me and I thought held little relevance to the story. They should have been edited out.

I am dating a Brit, so I think that made me a bit partial to this story, as I found some of Melissa's cultural confusion to ring true. Two things that my boyfriend says, Melissa also encounters in the book. First, "what's for tea?". It took me forever to realize that tea means dinner and not actually having a cup of tea. The second, also related, "what's for pudding?". Pudding doesn't always mean Jello, it means dessert in a generic sense. This cracked me up when I read it in the book. The weird thing is, I have begun to think in terms of Tea and Pudding, because I hear my boyfriend say it every day.

This is a good beach read. It's mostly fluff, with a few insightful and serious chapters. Enjoyable.

Last note, I like the quote on the cover by one of my favorite authors, Alexander McCall Smith - "Nannies and au pairs are the new anthropologists. Employers : beware of those amongst you taking notes. They might produce something as funny and observant as this book."