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The International Herald Tribune, France
April 13, 2013 Saturday
Briefly: Books
by SUSANNAH MEADOWS
ABSTRACT
As compiled by editors of the International Herald Tribune.
FULL TEXT
All the Light There Was
By Nancy Kricorian. 279 pages. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $24. Love
blooms just as war tears two people apart. Not a new idea, certainly,
but Ms. Kricorian's solid rendering makes good on its promise of
drama. Having already survived mass killing, an Armenian family
decides to tough it out in Nazi-occupied Paris. Maral is 15 when she
discovers that the long looks she gets from Zaven, her brother's best
friend, are a terrific distraction from her fear. But war filters in
soon enough, and Zaven disappears into the Resistance. Ms. Kricorian
doesn't always write the most spirited prose (''My mother was
panic-stricken about Missak's whereabouts and safety''), but her
heroine's resilience is exciting. Maral eventually charts a second act
to her own love story.
What the Family Needed
By Steven Amsterdam. 262 pages. Riverhead Books. $26.95. Mr. Amsterdam
writes with an air of defiance in his debut novel. He endows his
characters, members of a normal, troubled family, with superpowers and
offers no explanation why, except at the very end, but not really even
then. In the opening chapter Giordana wants to disappear when her
mother leaves her father, taking the children with her. Unlike other
miserable teenagers, she actually acquires the ability to make herself
invisible. The trick is a useful storytelling tool; as she eavesdrops
on her mother and spies on her brother when he's with a girl, she
learns more about her family than she could if she were seen. The
device can feel facile, though, when Giordana's unfulfilled brother
learns to fly or her cousin, who flees commitment himself, suddenly
has Cupid's touch.
A Map of Tulsa
By Benjamin Lytal. 256 pages. Penguin Books. $15. ''Tell me a story,''
Adrienne says to Jim, a boy from her high school who is home from
college for the summer. When he asks what kind, she answers, ''A story
that's sacred to you.'' Who talks like that? Only a young woman
working very hard to cultivate a certain mystique. The summer romance
at the center of this coming-of-age debut would be less annoying if it
were clear that Mr. Lytal was in on the joke. But there's a more
charming love story in the book - between Jim and that wallflower he's
noticing for the first time, his hometown, Tulsa. Thanks to Adrienne,
who never left, he is introduced to its dance halls, its openness, its
middle-of-the-night hush. Mr. Lytal, a Tulsa native, gets the push and
pull of home just right.
Falling to Earth
By Kate Southwood. 264 pages. Europa Editions. $16. In March 1925 a
tornado whipped across the Midwest, leaving hundreds dead. But as Ms.
Southwood writes in this elegiac first novel, the storm's work was not
yet done. She focuses on the Graveses, the only family in the
devastated town of Marah that was spared any loss, and shows the
destructive force of their survivors' guilt. ''Standing there in the
yard,'' Ms. Southwood writes, ''they'd been like figures glued inside
a snow globe with the remains of their neighbors' shredded possessions
drifting down around them.'' Although she dwells a little heavily on
the townspeople's resentment, subtlety usually prevails. Paul Graves
worries about cleaning up the debris in his yard, fearing that the
neighbors will see it as preening. The family starts staying inside
more, and Paul's wife, Mae, retreats further into herself. Having
everything turns out to be too much.
From: A. Papazian
April 13, 2013 Saturday
Briefly: Books
by SUSANNAH MEADOWS
ABSTRACT
As compiled by editors of the International Herald Tribune.
FULL TEXT
All the Light There Was
By Nancy Kricorian. 279 pages. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $24. Love
blooms just as war tears two people apart. Not a new idea, certainly,
but Ms. Kricorian's solid rendering makes good on its promise of
drama. Having already survived mass killing, an Armenian family
decides to tough it out in Nazi-occupied Paris. Maral is 15 when she
discovers that the long looks she gets from Zaven, her brother's best
friend, are a terrific distraction from her fear. But war filters in
soon enough, and Zaven disappears into the Resistance. Ms. Kricorian
doesn't always write the most spirited prose (''My mother was
panic-stricken about Missak's whereabouts and safety''), but her
heroine's resilience is exciting. Maral eventually charts a second act
to her own love story.
What the Family Needed
By Steven Amsterdam. 262 pages. Riverhead Books. $26.95. Mr. Amsterdam
writes with an air of defiance in his debut novel. He endows his
characters, members of a normal, troubled family, with superpowers and
offers no explanation why, except at the very end, but not really even
then. In the opening chapter Giordana wants to disappear when her
mother leaves her father, taking the children with her. Unlike other
miserable teenagers, she actually acquires the ability to make herself
invisible. The trick is a useful storytelling tool; as she eavesdrops
on her mother and spies on her brother when he's with a girl, she
learns more about her family than she could if she were seen. The
device can feel facile, though, when Giordana's unfulfilled brother
learns to fly or her cousin, who flees commitment himself, suddenly
has Cupid's touch.
A Map of Tulsa
By Benjamin Lytal. 256 pages. Penguin Books. $15. ''Tell me a story,''
Adrienne says to Jim, a boy from her high school who is home from
college for the summer. When he asks what kind, she answers, ''A story
that's sacred to you.'' Who talks like that? Only a young woman
working very hard to cultivate a certain mystique. The summer romance
at the center of this coming-of-age debut would be less annoying if it
were clear that Mr. Lytal was in on the joke. But there's a more
charming love story in the book - between Jim and that wallflower he's
noticing for the first time, his hometown, Tulsa. Thanks to Adrienne,
who never left, he is introduced to its dance halls, its openness, its
middle-of-the-night hush. Mr. Lytal, a Tulsa native, gets the push and
pull of home just right.
Falling to Earth
By Kate Southwood. 264 pages. Europa Editions. $16. In March 1925 a
tornado whipped across the Midwest, leaving hundreds dead. But as Ms.
Southwood writes in this elegiac first novel, the storm's work was not
yet done. She focuses on the Graveses, the only family in the
devastated town of Marah that was spared any loss, and shows the
destructive force of their survivors' guilt. ''Standing there in the
yard,'' Ms. Southwood writes, ''they'd been like figures glued inside
a snow globe with the remains of their neighbors' shredded possessions
drifting down around them.'' Although she dwells a little heavily on
the townspeople's resentment, subtlety usually prevails. Paul Graves
worries about cleaning up the debris in his yard, fearing that the
neighbors will see it as preening. The family starts staying inside
more, and Paul's wife, Mae, retreats further into herself. Having
everything turns out to be too much.
From: A. Papazian