My Favorite Book of the Fall is Out this Week!

And, no it is not Freedom by Jonathan Franzen but good guess. Nothing against his new book, a fellow Boswellian, Conrad really liked it and had this to say:

No one writes about dysfunctional families and individuals better than Jonathan Franzen. The struggle to achieve personal independence and identity-battling the constraints of family, friends, lovers, society, and the unrealistic expectations (both our own and other people's for us) that map our lives- is explored with hilarious results in this splendid new novel. If you liked The Corrections, you'll love this!--Conrad

While Franzen blew me away with all the frenzy and media surrounding it for yesterday's release, I was eagerly anticipating Paul Murray's Skippy Dies, which happened to come out on the same day as Franzen.

Skippy Dies starts out a bit depressing, because, well, Skippy Dies by page four. Then, Paul Murray hits the rewind button on his novel and starts the story at the beginning of a school year at Seabrook College and follows the many characters that have a hand in leading to Skippy's demise. The story revolves around Skippy and his friends, as they move through the school year, attempting to use String Theory to open up portals or to evade the local bully Carl. The conversations these kids have are often quite hilarious, and partly because I remember having pointless conversations myself back in high school. Paul Murray nails these conversations with ease, as if he is overhearing them as he writes, fluidly following the disjointed logic of youth. They have nicknames for their teachers, for instance their history teacher is Howard the Coward. Which Howard assumes is just because it rhymes, but secretly he knows that he is hiding out from real life and other secrets that tie him to Seabrook College.

Skippy Dies has many, many plot threads running throughout, and I leave you to discover them. Let's just say that the book is funny, sad, exhilarating, and exhausting all at the same time. It is a journey you will never regret, full of shocks and surprises. And, did I mention that it was long listed for the Man Booker Prize?

Live at the Sugar Maple, June 10th, Cronin & Chaon

Attention!! Boswell Book Company has a spectacular event this Thursday at the Sugar Maple, with two authors who have published some of the best that fiction has to offer. It starts at 7pm!

And the first author brought to you by Jocelyn:

If you missed Await Your Reply in hardcover, now is your chance to get it in paperback. And missing it would be a crime, because this novel is one of the best pieces of writing to come out in the previous year. Chaon first showed his craft as a short story writer, in the riveting collection Among the Missing. Even in the novel format, Chaon keeps that crucial attention to detail, giving us stories within stories.

Await Your Reply is rhythmic in its pacing, interweaving the strands of three main characters whose lives intersect and ricochet off the others. Even within each chapter, the story is cut down into brief passages, each one faceted and honed to its own small resolution, like little gems that make up a necklace. The result is like the cycle of breathing; every inhalation demands an exhalation. And like breathing, you absolutely can't stop, because Chaon propels the story forward relentlessly, revealing details with a maddening deliberation. The story itself is an exploration of identity, and of the importance we attach to it. What makes us who we are? Can we change? Can we become someone else? Can someone else become us? Those are the questions the characters pursue. Miles ponders them as he follows the shifting trail of his schizophrenic brother. Ryan clings to those questions as he chases down the truth of his parentage. Lucy wonders about them even as she runs away with her older lover.

As each character pursues the answers to those questions, they draw closer to each other, and to the realization of just how easily identity can be tossed off, shifted, and created…and that within that truth lays a great danger.It's tempting to call Dan Chaon a "writer's writer." After all, the attention to the craft of writing is evident throughout the novel. But that description is misleading. Chaon is a reader's writer. This is a breathtaking story that is pure enjoyment, even while it's breaking your heart. Do not miss it.

And the second author brought to you by Jason:

Coming out tomorrow is easily the most hyped about book of the year so far, The Passage by Justin Cronin. You may remember him from either Mary & O'Neil or the Pen/Hemingway award winning novel The Summer Guest. If so, then you are still not prepared for this gem of speculative fiction, as this is all new ground that Cronin is putting down for himself. I am not going to tell you too much about the book, it is mammoth at over 600 pages. Cronin outdoes himself, he keeps to his storytelling, literary roots from his earlier works and melds it together with page-turning compulsiveness of an epic story a la old-school Stephen King.

The book has two parts to it. In the first part, we meet Amy, the girl 'who lived a thousand years' and a whole cast of characters working on Project Noah. All you have to know about Project Noah, is that it ends the world. It unleashes the virals, a kind of vampire that replicates like the plague. Amy is at the center of it, the heart of it, and the key to it all. But, she is not ready for it, she is whisked away as the world comes to a violent, bloody end. In the second part, Cronin entrenches us into a self sufficient commune-like town. Where the lights never go off and the cast of characters dream of what the stars look like. They also dream of what the virals would do to them should the lights ever go out. When Amy re-enters, a mystery to all (who could survive outside without any lights at night!), the story splinters again into a long journey, where a group goes off in search of the origins of Project Noah.

This is the epic novel you should read, this is the one that everybody is talking about. Do not miss it, and do not miss Dan Chaon and Justin Cronin live at The Sugar Maple!

Ode to Dan Simmons

Back in high school, in my Junior year English class, we read Canterbury Tales. The stories were amazing; and just to point out how much of a dork I was, I acquired a copy of the book and read more than the assigned five stories. Every Friday in my English class, five students would give a report on a book that they were reading for leisure. Most of the time it was stuff I was not interested in--again, in high school I was reading a lot of science fiction/fantasy, dork all the way. My friend stood up one Friday and started to talk about a book he described as a 'dark Canterbury Tales.' Yep, you guessed it - Hyperion by Dan Simmons. From that day forward I have been a devoted follower to all things Dan Simmons, which really boils down to just his books.

His new book, Black Hills is out this week, and just like his last two novels, he has ventured more into the land of historical fiction, with a tweak of science fiction. In his new novel, a ten year old Sioux named Paha Sapa (translated as Black Hills) finds himself in the middle of the Battle of Little Big Horn. He is weaponless, but he spies Custer just before he dies and touches him to prove his courage. Custer's soul jumps up and enters Paha Sapa, and resides there for the next 60 years. Simmons style is amazing, as he bounces the narrative from Paha Sapa as a young boy, to Paha Sapa as an old man setting dynamite at Mount Rushmore. You also hear a bit of Custer's story as he tries to ascertain where he is; as you quickly find out, he believes he can not see because of some injury, but he is certain he is alive. It is a glorious story of the transformation that took place in our country at the time. Actually, Dan Simmons introduction to his novel is fantastic, you will find it here.

Also out this last week by Dan Simmons in paperback is Drood. It is the story of the last years of Charles Dickens life, told by his friend Wilkie Collins. There are creepy sections in this book that will give you chills. The London underground is dipicted through opium dens and a maze of tunnels that boats seem to disappear in. Now, this won't happen to everyone, but I did feel the need to read Dickens and Collins after I finished. Daniel had the brilliant idea to form a lunch time bookclub to discuss these epic novels (I don't think either one of them could write a short book). The last time I was ever so enticed to read books related to the subject material of another book was the Crook Factory. Not surprisingly, also by Dan Simmons. That time he hooked me on Hemingway.

It seems that every time a Dan Simmons book comes out, I end up reading other books that I never really would have thought about, or at least thinking about something I never would have. Even with the new book I realized I had never really read any history on that era. While there was nothing extremely obvious for me to read, my Penguin rep Joe Cain comes through to sell his summer list, and there it is. The new Nathanial Philbrick novel about Custer, entitled The Last Stand, which doesn't come out until May. I have not finished this one yet, but I don't think I would have started it so quickly if it was not for the amazing reading experience I had with the Black Hills.