Book Review- Rebecca Dinerstein's The Sunlit Night

Confession, I can be swayed to read a book based on a good jacket quote from an author that I admire. I pick books by their covers. Rebecca Dinerstein's debut novel, The Sunlit Night scored an intriguing quote from Jonathan Safran Foer and it caught my attention. Thank you to Bloomsbury USA for an advanced copy of Dinerstein's novel in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- Frances has just been dumped by her boyfriend and she learns that her parents are getting a divorce. In her early twenties, she has not yet begun to live life on her own and she finds herself rootless. She accepts an art internship on a small island in Norway, as a short term solution to her living situation. 

Yasha immigrated from Russia to America with his father as a small child. He has not heard from his mother in years, but she shows up in the weeks prior to his high school graduation. She wants a formal divorce from her husband and to reconnect with her son. Yasha's father plans a trip to Russia as a surprise for his son's graduation. On the trip, his father dies of a heart attack. Feeling alone, Yasha contacts his mother and they travel with the body to Norway, to where his father had wanted to be buried.

The art institute where Frances is working, handles the details of the burial. Yasha and Frances meet and realize that they are two kindred souls, two kids adrift and struggling to transition into adulthood.

LIKE- The Sunlit Night starts off very strong, with chapters alternatively showing Frances and Yasha's lives in New York City. Dinerstein has created compelling and well rounded characters, especially both sets of parents of the main characters. Both Frances and Yasha are loved by their parents, but their parents also hand them a heavy load of baggage with regard to their own dysfunction. Frances and Yasha carry their parent's dysfunction as they struggle to make their own way in the world and develop their own relationships. Dinerstein is a talented writer with a keen sensibility for understanding and writing family dynamics.

I like how the setting shifts from busy New York City to the quiet of an archipelago in the North Sea. If I had not read about the setting in the blurb, I would have never expected to encounter such disparate locals in the same story. I like how it took the characters out of their element and shook them up.

DISLIKE - The story crumbled for me in the last third. The pacing slowed and I'm not sure that I believed the chemistry between Frances and Yasha. I believed that they could connect with their situations and similarities, but I did not believe a romantic connection between them. I raced through the first two-thirds of the novel, reading it in less than a day, but the last third took me over a week to finish and it was a chore. 

RECOMMEND- Maybe. I'm curious to see what other readers think of the last part of the book. The first part was so strong, that I will seek out future stories by Dinerstein. She writes beautiful phrases and creates intriguing characters. I can see her becoming a favorite author of mine, despite my disappointment with the ending of The Sunlit Night. 

Book Review- Jess Riley's All the Lonely People

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Every once in a blue moon, I read a book and think, "I really wish that I had written this myself". Jess Riley's novel, All the Lonely People, falls right into that category.

Riley's novel centers around Jaime and Erik, a middle-aged, childless couple who are struggling with their definition of family. The novel starts slightly over a year after Jaime's mother has died and Jaime is left fighting with her distant and dysfunction siblings. Her husband, Erik, is an only child, whose only relative is his elderly father who lives in an nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer's. 

Christmas is approaching and Jaime decides to advertise on Craigslist for a new family.  It turns out that there are plenty of isolated people in need of new relatives and willing to take a chance on a stranger.

Riley is just a fantastic writer. The sense of humor that she infuses into her characters and their situations is razor sharp, a bit wicked and often completely hilarious. However, what I love most about her writing, is that she balances the humor with a sensitivity towards painful subjects (grieving over a loved one, family resentment, personal heartache) and creates a story that is truly touching. 

On many levels, I found this book to be affecting and ridiculously relatable. I rarely cry when reading a book, but this one got to me. It feels real, because not everything was neatly resolved and although most of the characters were endearing, they all had a plethora of flaws.

The theme of family and what constitutes a family is of great interest to me. Does blood relation really matter? Is a childless couple just as valid of a family as those with children? What happens when you are left without family or left with a family whose actions are unacceptable? Riley doesn't give broad answers to these social questions. Each of her characters struggles with their own ideas and ultimately the reader is left to draw their own conclusions. This book gets personal. 

All The Lonely People is so loaded with discussion topics that it would be an excellent choice for a book group!

This was my first book by Riley and I can't wait to read her others. I obviously really loved this book and highly recommend it!

Book Review- Marisa Silver's The God of War

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I picked up Marisa Silver's, The God of War, at a Goodreads book exchange several years ago. I just grabbed it on a hunch and it has been sitting on my bookshelf. I am very happy to have picked it up and to have finally read it, because it is a fantastic book.

Set by the desolate Salton Sea in California and told through the eyes of twelve year old Ares Ramirez, The God Of War, is a disturbing coming of age story about a kid trying to navigate adolescence in the shadow of a highly dysfunctional family. 

The Salton Sea and surrounding shanty towns are as big of a character as any in the story. Having visited the Salton Sea for the first time (and hopefully only time) last Spring, I can completely appreciate the truth of the world that Silver has created. I've never visited somewhere so depressing. The smell of rotten fish permeates and walking on crunching fish bones along the shore was memorable. Even though the book is set in the 70's, the town that she describes is exactly what you will see if you were to visit it today. Having lush Palm Springs just a short drive away, really makes the area extra depressing.  

Half a boat in the front year of one of the trailers by the Salton Sea.

Dan and I at The Salton Sea.

Standing on a putrid beach of fish bones.

The abandoned Salton Sea Marina.

This is a community that lives on the fringe, holding tight to their privacy. Ares and his mentally handicapped brother, Malcolm, live with their neglectful mother in a trailer. The thing that is heartbreaking is the mother isn't purposefully negligent, she sincerely loves her family and feels that she is raising her boys in the best manner possible. Ares sees an alternate life with stability, when a librarian from the school intervenes to tutor Malcolm. 

The entire story has Ares crying out for love and attention in a variety of ways, sometimes negatively. The sad truth of the entire situation is even when adults intervene, they have to do so at a distance to respect the mother and blood family unit. This is such a pervasive problem in our society and this novel only highlights it through Ares and Malcolm's struggle. Many people see a problem, but nobody steps up in a long-term, meaningful way.

Ares is a kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders, both real and imagined responsibilities. His struggle is a heartbreak to read. Silver gives an authentic and emotive voice to her narrator and tells a compelling story.

I highly recommend The God of War and look forward to reading more novels by Silver.