There, There by Tommy Orange

This is a best seller - Tommy Orange does not need my review. However, if I'm going to review lesser known and unknown authors, that should be done with a sound basis for comparison. So I'll be doing this kind of review, too.

The Prologue makes it clear this is a political novel about being Native American and drew me into the book with a native perspective of history. There is no table of contents, but as I read I realized each chapter is named for the primary character within it.

All through Part I: Remain, these are individuals with no discernible connection, though from the first chapter it is hinted that they will come together tragically in the end.

Part II: Reclaim introduces more characters and has a couple return. I started wanting a family tree sort of aide to keeping track of the connections between people.

Part III: Return introduces still more characters and I was really struggling to understand how they connected with the other characters, or if they did beyond the violence I was sure was coming.

Part IV: Powwow is the climatic ending first hinted at in the beginning.

While each chapter was well-written and brought me into the life of that character at that point in time, because of the number of characters and my confusion over how who was connected to whom, I was not truly emotionally invested in any of them beyond their chapter(s). That reduced the emotional impact of the ending.

However, that feeling of disconnection while longing for connection was shared with the characters, and may well have been the author's intent.

That makes the novel well worth reading.

Review: Fly Like a Bird

A small-town family drama stretching from the 1950s through the 1980s, with all kinds of secrets. Wonderful description of Iowa country living and the racial realities of that time and place. An example: "The early evening arrived sullen and moist, ushering in the period of the day when time slows down, and the earth relaxes." Not only does the protagonist grow through the course of the novel, so do most of the supporting characters, creating thick layers of story that make it an engaging read.

While this is strong women's fiction throughout, focusing on the development of the female protagonist, the last few paragraphs offer a deux ex machina happily-ever-after ending. That could have been handled much better, but the book is still a good read.

Note: I read a pre-publication copy in which there were minor flaws, which I relayed to the publisher. Hopefully they were corrected.

Review: The Good Neighbor by Cathryn Grant

Wow! A real page-turner with multiple twists and a great ending - happily ever after or chilling? The story is told in multiple voices, each having separate chapters so that's easy to follow. At first I was annoyed by the chapters in the voice of the nosy neighbor who seemed to think it was all about her when the new neighbor's daughter goes missing. However, as the suspense built, her role did indeed become essential to the story. Do NOT read the ending first!