RidgewayGirl's Year of Whim and Inclination -- Fourth Quarter

This is a continuation of the topic RidgewayGirl's Year of Whim and Inclination -- Third Quarter.

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RidgewayGirl's Year of Whim and Inclination -- Fourth Quarter

1RidgewayGirl
Edited: Oct 17, 11:31 am

Welcome to the last three months of 2023. The picture this time is Simpatía (La rabia del gato) by Spanish artist Remedios Varo. Her art is wild and imaginative and full of mysterious wonders. It has stuck in my mind since I saw the exhibition of her work at the Art Institute in August.



Here's a brief article about her: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/science-fictions-remedios-var...

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5RidgewayGirl
Edited: Oct 17, 11:32 am

8RidgewayGirl
Edited: Oct 13, 6:09 pm

USA
Julia Bartz (The Writing Retreat)
Elif Batuman (The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them)
Jen Beagin (Big Swiss)
Lou Berney (Dark Ride)
Angeline Boulley (The Firekeeper's Daughter)
Delia Cai (Central Places)
Elaine Hsieh Chou (Disorientation)
Emma Cline (The Guest)
Sean Doolittle (Device Free Weekend)
Kim Edwards (The Memory Keeper's Daughter)
Louise Erdrich (LaRose)
Daisy Alpert Florin (My Last Innocent Year)
Tess Gunty (The Rabbit Hutch)
Paul Harding (This Other Eden)
Jake Hinkson (Find Him)
Jenny Jackson (Pineapple Street)
Stephen Graham Jones (Don't Fear the Reaper)
Ken Kalfus (2 A.M. in Little America)
Mary Karr (Cherry)
Lydia Kiesling (Mobility)
Dana Kollmann (Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI)
William Kent Krueger (The Devil's Bed)
Catherine Lacey (Biography of X)
Kelly Link (Black Dog White Cat: Stories)
Laura Lippman (Prom Mom)
Bojan Louis (Sinking Bell: Stories)
Anthony Marra (Mercury Pictures Presents)
Elizabeth McKenzie (The Dog of the North)
Clémence Michallon (The Quiet Tenant)
Madeline Miller (Circe)
Maggie Millner (Couplets)
Richard Mirabella (Brother & Sister Enter the Forest)
Lorrie Moore (I am Homeless if This is Not My Home)
Melinda Moustakis (Homestead)
Dwyer Murphy (An Honest Living)
Joyce Carol Oates (48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister)
Ivy Pochoda (Sing Her Down)
Lori Rader-Day (Death at Greenway)
Shannon Sanders (Company: Stories)
Laura Sims (How Can I Help You)
Curtis Sittenfeld (Romantic Comedy)
Brendan Slocumb (The Violin Conspiracy)
Jade Song (Chlorine)
Lynne Steger Strong (Flight)
Neil Steinberg (You Were Never in Chicago)
Luis Alberto Urrea (Good Night, Irene)
Katie Williams (My Murder)
Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow)

9RidgewayGirl
Oct 2, 10:07 pm

Welcome. Come in and tell me what art has delighted you lately.

10RidgewayGirl
Oct 4, 11:18 am



A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry is a sizable book, and by the time I finished it, I was reading more slowly, reluctant to say good-bye to this remarkable novel. I would have happily read a few hundred more pages about Om and Ishvar, Dina, and Maneck.

Set in India during the National Emergency of 1975, which imposed regulations and tight enforcement in ways that hit the poorest citizens the hardest, the story follows four people from three different economic and social classes as they come together in the apartment of Dina, a widow who takes in a university student as a lodger and hires two tailors to sew for her as a way of keeping her independence despite pressure from both her brother and her landlord to vacate her home. They are all very different people and the strictures of caste keep them wary of each other, but proximity, need and good natures prevail to make a community out of this odd group of people.

There's something to be said for a novel that takes its time and builds each relationship slowly. Mistry allows for both the callous brutality of the regime's actions as well as the intense poverty of so many of the characters to be laid bare, but also left room for small acts of grace and hope. This is an immersive read that left me feeling bereft at the end. An utterly remarkable story that I am sorry to have finished.

11arubabookwoman
Oct 4, 11:23 am

Great review! It captures the feel of the book. I liked it just as much on my reread as the first time I read it (though some of the coincidences stood out a bit more the second time around). The characters are so endearing, as they faced one adversity after another, but just kept going on.

12RidgewayGirl
Oct 4, 1:04 pm

>11 arubabookwoman: The resilience and optimism of the characters really offsets the grimness of their circumstances. This is a remarkable book and certainly one worth rereading.

13dchaikin
Oct 4, 1:19 pm

>10 RidgewayGirl: sounds really good. I have a copy. It weighs a ridiculous amount of pounds.

14RidgewayGirl
Oct 4, 1:24 pm

>13 dchaikin: Which is why it took me a few years to pull it off the shelf and finally read it. It's really good, Dan.

15baswood
Oct 4, 2:18 pm

A Fine Balance is a book to immerse yourself in. I enjoyed when I read it some ten years ago.

16RidgewayGirl
Oct 4, 5:50 pm

>15 baswood: It really was an immersive experience. I spent so much time thinking about the book when I wasn't reading it. And the ending hit hard.

17chlorine
Oct 5, 1:46 am

>10 RidgewayGirl: I read this book many years ago, at a time when I was starting to pick up books based on reviews read on the Web rather than based on whatever looked good in the bookstore, and it convinced me that I could find great books in this way that I would never have read otherwise. :)

18LolaWalser
Oct 5, 1:50 am

>1 RidgewayGirl:

Remedios Varo is outstanding. I think I first heard of her reading about Benjamin Péret, and then with the last two decades or so of the revival of Leonora Carrington's work she became mentioned more and more. There is a book I meant to read about their friendship and that of a third woman refugee in Mexico, Kati Horna. You've probably seen this photo of Varo, by Horna, in a mask made by Carrington:

https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/135587

19rachbxl
Oct 5, 4:35 am

>10 RidgewayGirl: Ah, A Fine Balance. I read it 20 years ago when a friend lent it to me. I remember being put off by the length of it, but once I started I couldn’t put it down. I too felt bereft when I finished it, I remember that - I would have stayed in it for ever.

20labfs39
Oct 5, 9:51 am

Wow, all the love for A Fine Balance is making me realize I need to move it closer to the TBR. It's been on my shelves forever.

21RidgewayGirl
Oct 6, 2:33 pm

>17 chlorine: That would convince me! I'd heard of A Fine Balance, of course, and considered it one of the very large number of books I should read someday. I don't think I ever read a review though.

>18 LolaWalser: Lola, I read a novel based on Carrington's life a few years ago. The exhibition catalog was sold out when I was there, but it later was back in stock and I received it a few days ago. Flipping through it, I did see that picture. And the reproductions in it are superb. The show closes at the end of November, so I probably won't get up to Chicago to see it again.

>19 rachbxl: I'm often put off by length, too, but have found that the longer books are the ones I love the most.

>20 labfs39: Lisa, I'm glad I'm not the last person to read it. It is a tremendously engrossing book.

22markon
Oct 7, 11:54 am

Thanks for the photo & link to the article of Remedios Varo. I hadn't heard of her, and like what I'm seeing on the web a lot.

Count me in as one who hasn't read A fine balance yet as well.

23lisapeet
Oct 7, 1:59 pm

I'm another who's had A Fine Balance for years. That looks like it would be a good off-the-shelf read... maybe 2024 is the year.

I love the Remedios Varo painting. I was in Chicago a month too early to catch that show—otherwise I would have—and won't be back before it closes. Maybe it'll come through NY... And yes, I definitely see the Leonora Carrington link. My book club just read The Hearing Trumpet in September and we all did dives into her work.

24dchaikin
Oct 7, 2:06 pm

If we had only all known we needed A Fine Balance group read. 🙂 Maybe 2024?

25lisapeet
Oct 7, 2:09 pm

>24 dchaikin: I'd do it. I'm thinking maybe 2024 is my year of long unread long books... my book club wants to do The Golden Notebook, which I'm absolutely all in for, and I've had my copy of Emily Wilson's The Odyssey on my bedside table for a year and a half now, and look at it longingly all the time.

26dchaikin
Oct 7, 4:24 pm

>25 lisapeet: I once checked out a copy of The Golden Notebook when she won the Nobel, another extra-gigantic book. I read a few pages and was both entertained and overwhelmed. Then I returned it to the library. I would be interested in trying again.

27RidgewayGirl
Oct 7, 4:55 pm

It's good to see all the love for my new favorite novel. I was in my local bookstore when I was halfway through A Fine Balance and I found a used copy of Such a Long Journey. I'm eager to read his other work.

28RidgewayGirl
Oct 7, 7:22 pm



Some mornings, she woke and felt that she might be on the cusp of something great. Other mornings, she was simply hungover and in a stranger's bed.

Kate Atkinson has written a collection of short stories called Normal Rules Don't Apply and it is a delightful romp with a decidedly fairy tale feel. A few stories feature fairy tales explicitly but most use elements sparingly; an occasional talking animal or fortune teller used in unexpected ways. While each story stands on its own, the characters often appear in other stories, or see their earlier narratives turned upside down in another. Atkinson is a talented writer who knows how to spin an intricate plot and to create complex characters. Here, the format of the short story frees her to unleash her imagination in wild and wonderful ways. This collection will please anyone who loves Kelly Link's short stories.

29cindydavid4
Oct 7, 8:02 pm

I just started that! enjoying it as well

30chlorine
Oct 8, 3:24 am

>28 RidgewayGirl: I keep seeing Atkinson's name pop up but have never read anything by her. I didn't know she had written short stories and this collection seems quite interesting. I also have her Life after life on my wishlist.

31RidgewayGirl
Oct 8, 12:24 pm

>29 cindydavid4: It's fun watching her play with ideas and use fantastical elements.

>30 chlorine: Life After Life is her greatest novel. It took me a while to get into it, but it really packs a punch.

32chlorine
Oct 8, 12:40 pm

>31 RidgewayGirl: Thanks for your feedback on Life After Life! This made me move it a my wishlist a bit. :)

33BLBera
Oct 8, 1:15 pm

I'm another who has had A Fine Balance on my shelf for years. Maybe next year?

I love Atkinson and am happy to see this collection from her.

34RidgewayGirl
Oct 8, 5:35 pm



Almost two years ago, I moved to the middle of Illinois, making Chicago my nearest big city (unless you want to count Indianapolis and, friends, I do not). I've managed three trips there, of various lengths, and I've enjoyed it immensely, from the way different neighborhoods feel, to the easy public transportation to the way there's this giant city populated by midwesterners. So I grabbed this memoir and story of one man's life in Chicago, You Were Never in Chicago by Neil Steinberg, a longtime reporter and columnist with the Chicago Sun Times, as a way of learning more about this city.

This book does a good job of covering a vast swath of topics, from Chicago's founding, to how the political machine works, to ordinary stories of how people ended up here. Steinberg has spent his professional life covering human interest stories for his column and breaking news as a reporter. He's witnessed the way the city has changed over the years, with small manufacturers closing down to the slow contraction of the news industry.

Whether this book appeals to you depends on how much you prefer storytelling and learning about one guy's experience to a more methodical approach. I enjoyed his stories, although the strongest part of the book were the opening chapters explaining Chicago's history. Steinberg is adept at explaining why Chicago boomed how and when it did. He also had some insights into current issues, despite this book having been first published a decade ago.

35cindydavid4
Edited: Oct 9, 12:16 pm

>30 chlorine: id start from the beginning with her behing the scenes at the museum I read every one since then. Im not a big fan of mysteries, but I liked her. She reminds me a lot of Maggie OFarrell.I had trouble with Life after Life, possibly because it sounded like a copy of another book ursula under but I ultimately read and liked it

36chlorine
Oct 9, 1:36 am

>35 cindydavid4: Thanks for the advice! :)

37dchaikin
Oct 9, 1:06 pm

>34 RidgewayGirl: sounds terrific. I’m intrigued by the Indianapolis comment. I don’t know anything about (except that I think it’s politically pretty red for a city. But actually i don’t that that’s true.)

38labfs39
Oct 9, 5:46 pm

>34 RidgewayGirl: >37 dchaikin: I lived in Bloomington, Indiana for almost eight years back in the 90s, and found trips outside of that southern enclave sometimes unpleasant. I only went to Indianapolis to get to the airport.

39RidgewayGirl
Oct 9, 6:23 pm

>37 dchaikin: My crack at Indianapolis is based entirely on a few drives through on the freeway and a bit of resentment for Indiana having given us the gift of Mike Pence. But, as with all cities, I'm sure it has some delightful neighborhoods and lots of wonderful people. I do think Chicago is a far more important and interesting city than Indianapolis, even as I do want to go see the Kurt Vonnegut museum and library there.

https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org

>38 labfs39: Have you read People from Bloomington by Budi Darma?

40RidgewayGirl
Oct 9, 8:55 pm



"Think of those horror films where a group of kids goes on a retreat for a weekend in a house at the edge of the forest, and at a certain point, at night, while they're all sleeping, monsters arrive?" said the other writer. "Except that in this case the monsters arrive not from the outside but from within, they come from the obscure depths of those kids."

The City of the Living is work of non-fiction by Italian author Nicola Lagioia, who is known for his crime novels, using the brutal 2016 murder of a young man named Luca Varani by two other young men to explore Roman society more broadly, but also diving deeply into the lives of all three men and their families, as well as his own experiences as he investigates this crime that fascinated all of Italy.

Lagioia is doing something more substantial here than just writing true crime, although that is the easiest description of what this is. It is similar to Emmanuel Carrère's The Adversary, although Lagioia makes this not about his interactions with the two murderers but about their motivations, or more exactly, their attempts to explain their motivations even to themselves. As an American reader, it was startling to see how easily members of the press got access to confidential information like police interviews. While a lot of space is given to the timeline of the crime, the description of the actual murder isn't graphic.

Another focus is the city of Rome, a city that Lagioia portrays as a decaying and corrupt corpse, yet when he and his wife make the decision to leave, they recognize quickly that they made a mistake and for all its faults, they don't want to live anywhere else.

This is a fascinating look at something we are used to over here (true crime narratives) from a different angle, as well as being a glimpse into what life is like in Rome. I will note that this book is often described as fiction, or in one case as "true crime fiction," but whether that is due to the author's reputation as a novelist or the publisher being well known for literary fiction, this book is non-fiction.

41dchaikin
Oct 9, 9:05 pm

>39 RidgewayGirl: yeah, Pence. Blech. That about sums up my knowledge of the city.

>40 RidgewayGirl: you made this sound very interesting.

42labfs39
Oct 11, 7:54 am

>39 RidgewayGirl: No, I have not read People from Bloomington, is it good? From what I read about it, I think my experience was very different from his. I found it a friendly, vibrant oasis in the middle of a rather alien landscape (for this liberal Northeasterner).

43RidgewayGirl
Oct 11, 2:45 pm

>42 labfs39: I haven't read it yet, but I recently picked up a copy, entirely because of the title. And I'm in a Bloomington one state over, another university town, and am finding it likewise friendly and vibrant.

44baswood
Oct 11, 6:34 pm

>34 RidgewayGirl: I wonder if Steinberg's book is anything like nelson Algren's Chicago; City on the make Chicago isn't so much a city as it is a drafty hustlers junction in which to hustle awhile and move on out of the draft.

45RidgewayGirl
Oct 11, 8:01 pm

>44 baswood: Steinberg is in love with Chicago and it shows. But I've added another book to my list of Chicago books to look for.

46lisapeet
Oct 13, 11:35 am

>34 RidgewayGirl: That looks interesting. Chicago is at the top of cities I feel like I could live in if I ever left New York, based on a handful of visits over the years and the people I know there. I was also born there, but left too soon to have any impression of it from that time.

>40 RidgewayGirl: I like the city theme here. I have a galley of this one, which I picked up for the same factors you liked about it.

47RidgewayGirl
Oct 13, 5:27 pm



Paul Harding's Booker Prize-nominated novel, This Other Eden, tells the story of the residents of a small island who have lived for generations, keeping to themselves, until it was decided on the mainland that something had to be done. The islanders are a diverse group, which further awakens the concerns of the mainlanders. Set in 1917, when eugenics was the new, exciting science that would result in a healthier population, when people deemed to be substandard were quietly sent to live in asylums where the could be prevented from procreating, the denizens of Apple Island subsist on foraging and taking in laundry or small jobs on the mainland. They live in poverty, but what that means for each household is different. Various municipal groups visit and decisions are made, utterly without any input from the islanders themselves, who view the visitors as an intrusion to be borne.

The story eventually focuses on one teenage boy with a skill for drawing. When the plans are being discussed to clear the island, the teacher manages to find a place for Ethan Honey on the mainland, where he can prepare to enter art school. His experiences away from home include meeting an Irish housemaid.

The characters in this book are certainly colorful and Harding juxtaposes the good and bad parts of this community. His narrative covers a relatively short span of time and is told in a straightforward style, and the writing is lovely. I liked this quiet novel, but it's inclusion on the Booker shortlist puzzles me.

48RidgewayGirl
Oct 13, 6:04 pm

>46 lisapeet: Unfortunately, my city theme ends there. I have recently picked up several novels by midwestern writers, so that might be a theme later. And I also think that I could live happily in Chicago, although Berlin and Munich are higher on that list. I am, however, married to a guy who likes the idea of living miles from any sort of civilization, so compromise I must and live in a small city.

49RidgewayGirl
Oct 16, 5:01 pm



I go back inside. I need to locate someone, immediately, who is suited to handle this situation. Because I am definitely not someone suited to handle this situation. I have no special skills or talents, and nobody, ever, has put me in charge of anything.

Hardy "Hardly" Reed is a pretty happy guy. He's still paying off the few semesters of college he managed, but he's living comfortably in his landlord's garage and spends his free time, when he's not out earning minimum wage working at a failing amusement park, getting stoned with his two best friends. Then, one day when he's getting a postponement on a traffic ticket, he sees two little kids sitting alone and, approaching them, he sees signs that they are being abused. Hardly has no idea what he should do, he just knows that something has to be done.

Lou Berney writes excellent noir-style crime novels and his protagonists are what one would expect; world-weary private eyes or hit men with a conscience. Hardly is barely an adult and has never been someone anyone has ever depended on. And he has no idea of what to do. But Hardly knows he may be the only person interested in helping the two children and so he starts to figure out what he can do, and along the way he finds some help from a former private detective turned realtor, a goth girl working at the dmv, and a loud and awkward teenage co-worker.

With Dark Ride, Berney has written the kind of thriller that usually features someone like Jack Reacher as the main character, someone enormously competent and able to knock heads and use a weapon. Hardly's last claim to bravery was years earlier, when he saw his older foster brother being beat up and so went over and joined him in getting beat up. Hardly what anyone would call help. Now, up against a dangerous and violent criminal with employees who are willing to kill, Hardly may be facing daunting odds, but the thing is, for the first time in his life, he is thinking things through, making plans and doing his best. That doesn't mean that he will succeed.

50rocketjk
Oct 17, 8:53 am

>47 RidgewayGirl: That sounds like a novel I would like a lot, thanks!

Re: Chicago/Indanapolis: I know nothing of the latter, but it doesn't sound like much fun. I have been to Chicago three or four times and had a good time on each visit. I'm aware that, like any American city, it's had (and has) its share of racial inequities. But on the other hand, it is, from what I've seen, a beautiful, vibrant city.

51RidgewayGirl
Oct 17, 11:17 am

>50 rocketjk: Jerry, I've heard that Tinkers is also excellent.

Regarding This Other Eden -- the actions of the local authorities in this book were familiar to me because of a children's book I read as a teenager, the sequel to Jean Webster's Daddy-Long-Legs, called Dear Enemy. In it, the ideas of that time regarding disabilities, which they called "feeblemindedness," and were thought to be inherited, leading all these high-minded reformers quickly into eugenics, are laid out. There's a book that was heavily relied on at the time, about a family known as the Kallikaks, that is quite obviously nonsense to us now, especially the obviously retouched photographs of the "bad" line of the family. It's quite a rabbit hole to wander down.

https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/kallikak-family-study-heredity-feeble-mindedness-19...

52FlorenceArt
Oct 17, 11:20 am

>49 RidgewayGirl: Interesting take. I don’t read thrillers because I hate being scared, but I’m intrigued.

53labfs39
Yesterday, 8:27 am

>49 RidgewayGirl: Intriguing review. Like Florence, I rarely read thrillers, but you've made me want to know what happens to Hardy and the kids.

>51 RidgewayGirl: I too really enjoyed This Other Eden. I was unfamiliar with the Kallikak family study, but clearly Harding wasn't. Not surprisingly the study starts with the assumption that the married woman's descendants form the good line and the unmarried mother the bad one. Thanks for sharing the article.

54lisapeet
Yesterday, 8:35 am

>51 RidgewayGirl: Oof, rabbit hole indeed. No matter how many accounts I read of how intellectual disability used to be viewed, I'm still always stunned by that casual lack of humanity on the clinical side.

And yes, Tinkers is a wonderful book.

55RidgewayGirl
Yesterday, 3:58 pm

>52 FlorenceArt: Are you allowed to be French and not like crime novels? I'm joking, of course. Berney's novels are set in Oklahoma City and give a real feel for that part of the US, which is another point in their favor. However, the idea that the children are in danger and are currently being abused is one that runs through this novel, so be warned.

>53 labfs39: Our predecessors were nothing if not predictable. Of course the "good" family was the one with the marriage certificate.

>54 lisapeet: Yes, sorry about that. It's quite the sinkhole.