Book Review- Ashley Prentice Norton's The Chocolate Money

There are a lot of books about dysfunctional families, but Ashley Prentice Norton's The Chocolate Money, might just be the most dysfunctional of them all. Half of the time, I couldn't even believe what I was reading and yet, I was throughly hooked on the story.

The Chocolate Money is narrated by Bettina, the awkward daughter of Babs, an eccentric and abusive heiress of a chocolate company. The story follows Bettina from when she is a young child until she is in her mid-twenties. Bettina grows up in a luxury apartment in Chicago, where she is exposed to lavish parties and her mother's sexual exploits. Babs' idea of being a mother is limited to passing along adult information to Bettina at a young age, including how to please a man in bed. Babs treats Bettina like a ward that she cares for out of obligation and she doles out inappropriate advice when she is in a good mood. When she's in a bad mood, Babs lashes out at Bettina, inflicting both physical and mental wounds.

The cruelty and manipulation that Babs shows towards Bettina and in turn, Bettina uses as she grows up, is jaw-dropping. Norton has written such well developed characters that even though they go to extremes, it all remains plausible. Thankfully, there is no one in my life like these characters, but Norton writes them in a way that I believe such people can exist.

One of my favorite chapters detailed Babs' lavish theme party that she titled the "Hangover-Brunch Cruise". Babs thinks that cruises, hangovers and brunches are all inherently tacky, so she combines them into a party where the guests are to wear slutty cruise attire and come already hung-over. Babs even includes mini-liquor bottles with the invitation, which she makes Bettina hand-deliver while chauffeured by their limo driver around Chicago. It's completely outlandish, but also completely in line with the character. Norton nailed it.

Although more character driven, than plot driven, The Chocolate Money has a solid plot as Bettina attempts to find out who her father was and to find a male role model. The story has a good twist at the end, as various minor characters intersect and Babs' motives for the way she raised Bettina become more clear.

Norton's story is definitely not for everyone. It's brash, salacious and often shocking. I found it utterly compelling and impossible to put down.

Book Review- Jess Walter's We Live in Water: Stories

I often give five-star reviews to books that I thought were great for their genre, even if they would not necessarily make my favorites list.

Jess Walter's collection of short stories, We Live In Water, not only deserves five-stars, but it makes it to my highly selective favorite books list.

Walter's collection is absolutely fantastic and I cannot believe that this is the first time that I have encountered his writing. A big THANK YOU to Amazon for putting, We Live in Water on their Kindle discount list a few months ago. It often pays to take a chance on a new-to-you author.

Walter's prose is often beautiful, but the stories in this collection are the polar opposite. Walter takes us to dark places filled with damaged characters. His stories are gritty, stark and haunting. You will feel uncomfortable reading this collection.

Pretty much none of his characters are like myself or people that I know. However, Walter's talent as a writer shines with his ability to make even the more difficult characters human and relatable. Every story felt like embarking on a different adventure into hell and I wanted a ticket for the ride.

I was most taken by his story Don't Eat Cat about a dystopian society where some of the citizens have decided that their lives would be better if they took a drug that turns them into zombies. This story is different from the rest in the collection. It is the only one that dips into the realm of fantasy. It features zombies, but not in a way that is conventional or like anything else I've seen in pop-culture. The story is overwhelmingly sad and unforgettable. In all of his stories, there a twist and an unexpected angle. I loved this constant element of surprise. Walters is a writer with a unique perspective.

Another stand-out was the very last story in the collection, Statistical Abstract for My Hometown of Spokane, Washington. I finished this story, unsure of whether or not it was fiction. It felt very much like a personal reveal of the author, who is from Spokane, a city that very much influences his writing. Many of the stories are set in or make mention of Spokane. Whether or not it's fiction, this last story is a hard one to read. It has amazing pacing, where it grows in steam and intensity. It's a listing of facts that read like a monologue in a play. It's so powerful.

It's safe to say that I'm now going to read everything that has ever been written by Walters. He completely blew me away.

Book Review- J. Courtney Sullivan's The Engagements

I received a copy of J. Courtney Sullivan's The Engagement for my 36th birthday and in a case of excellent timing, I became engaged just a few weeks later!

Unfortunately, The Engagements was also a victim with regard to timing. I started the novel prior to heading to the UK for six weeks. I read 3/4 of the book before my trip, but didn't take it with me, because I didn't have room for a giant hardback. It's frustrating to take a long gap when reading a book, as it creates a loss of momentum. I also forgot some of the characters and plot points. Luckily the book was so enjoyable, that I managed to get back in the swing of it within a chapter, although I felt the way I read it was an injustice to the book.

Sullivan's novel is broad, with several story arcs taking place in different eras. The common theme is engagement rings. The first chapter introduces us to Mary Frances Gererty, the real-life copywriter who coined the phrase "A Diamond is Forever" for De Beers in 1947. Sullivan does a clever thing by using chapters involving Gererty as bridges to link the chapters with her fictional characters. Make sure to read the afterward regarding Gererty.

Each character arc set in a different era is a short story in it's own right. They could exist independent of the story as a whole. Sullivan writes of a married French woman who runs off to America with her lover, a paramedic who makes a bad choice when getting his wife a new ring, a family torn up over their son's divorce and a woman struggling with the concept of weddings in light of a very lavish wedding of her gay cousin. Each story stands on it's own, but Sullivan cleverly ties them together in the final chapters.

Sullivan has created characters with strong personalities. In particular, I really liked the moral dilemmas presented in the chapter about the paramedic who is struggling to make ends meet. His story is intense and gut wrenching. I also liked the story of Delphine, a woman trying to adjust to living in a new country while wracked with guilt over cheating on her husband. Delphine is a richly developed character with a strong backstory.

I finished reading The Engagements and was left feeling eager to read Sullivan's other novels. If Sullivan's other novels are as good as The Engagements, I think that she will be a strong voice in modern fiction.