Summer is winding down and there’s still time to get in some last minute summer reads.
There are two books with unique storytelling. In both Patmeena Sabit’s Good People and Bobby Palmer’s Main Characters, the stories are narrated not by the main characters but by people in their orbit, family and friends, as well as strangers.
Good People is told in the format of interviews done by police departments in Fairfax County, Virginia and Fulton County, New York.
The Sharaf family are refugees from Afghanistan who move to Virginia.The family came to America in 1998 and became part of a bigger Afghan community. Through hard work they became successful business owners, and were able to give their children, Omer and Zorah, everything that American teenagers wanted.
When Zorah became romantically involved with a young man who was not Afghan, she and her parents fought bitterly. Zorah went from a loving daughter and popular A student to a dropout.
On the way back from a family trip to Niagara Falls, a tragedy happens that changes the lives of the Sharaf family forever. What exactly happened is the subject of the police investigations.
Seeing the Sharaf family through the eyes of people who knew them well, and who only interacted with the briefly, makes the reader think more deeply about how well we know people in our own orbit.
Even though we don’t hear directly from the Sharaf family, their story is vividly told and left to the reader to decide what happened. I highly recommend it, and readers of Megha Majumdar’ A Burning will want to read Good People.
Bobby Palmer’s Main Characters tells the story of Clara and Seb as they meet and fall in love. Clara is an artist who wants to be a filmmaker. Seb has modeled, acted a bit, and plays in a band with his childhood friends.
While Clara has clear ambitions, Seb’s life goals are less defined. Clara becomes part of Seb’s close-knit friend group as well as his family. Watching them fall in love as seen by the people around them but not by Clara and Seb is a unique way to tell a love story.
Their story is told by friends, family, strangers sitting next to them at a restaurant. After reading this, you may think twice about conversations you have in public.
Like all love stories between two people who are different from each other and want different things in life, the road is rocky. Clara works hard to become a film director and it can consume her. Seb desires to start a family. Can they make a compromise that works for them or does one have to give up their dream?
Main Characters is romantic, honest, and heartbreaking at times. It took me awhile to get into the story but once I did, I was all in. I highly recommend it.
In Chris Bohjalian’s new novel The Amateur, eighteen year-old Mira is a golf phenom, ready to head off to college on a golf scholarship in 1978. She golfs at the country club near her home in Westchester and can frequently beat the older male golfers.
One day she is hitting golf balls into a practice net when her ball shoots through a hole in the net and strikes a young caddy in the head killing him instantly.
Mira is devastated, and from that day forward refuses to pick up a golf club. She declines her college scholarship, much to the consternation of her parents. It was accident, surely not her fault and she needs to move on with her life.
Soon is it revealed that Mira has been having an affair with a married man from the club since she was fifteen years old. Is it really an affair when a older married father pursues a teenage girl? The thoughts on consent in the late 1970s are markedly different than today.
Mira is decried as a homewrecker and becomes a pariah in her hometown and at the college she attends. To make matters worse, the caddy’s parents are suing the golf club and the net manufacturers, and Mira has to testify. Some people cast blame on Mira, accusing her of creating the hole in the net.
The story is told through Mira’s memoir (she has become a famous author), and fans of Chris Bohjalian will recognize that Mira’s novels hew closely to Bohjalian’s own previous novels- little “Easter eggs” for his faithful readers.
The Amateur shows how one moment in your life, one single act, can change everything. Fans of Bohjalian’s The Flight Attendant will enjoy this one as well. I recommend it.
Good People by Patmeena Samit- A+
Published by Crown
Hardcover, $29, 386 pages
Main Characters by Bobby Palmer-A+
Hardcover, $29, 410 pages
The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian- A
Published by Doubleday
Hardcover, $33, 319 pages
No comments:
Post a Comment