February 24, 2024
Though we get an extra day this month (thanks to the leap year), folklore suggests February 29th is bad luck. The characters in these four novels and an affecting memoir have had their share—many also facing overwhelming odds and tragic circumstances. But what binds them all is a sense of hope and love, displaying a range of literary gifts by writers who expand the limits of tragedy and comedy.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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Wandering Stars
By Tommy Orange
Published by Knopf
Orange’s blistering new novel begins in the 1860s after the Sand Creek Massacre and revisits characters from his award-winning debut (There There). Jude Star, who renamed himself after the Book of Jude for the verse about wandering stars, and other vivid, nomadic characters comprise the dynasty of native Cheyenne who end up in Oakland, CA. Over 150 years, they experience the violent racism, the ravages of addiction, the difficulties of sustaining a living, and plain old bad luck. Their unbreakable bonds are passed down from the families of the Stars, the Bear Shields, and the Red Feathers, held together by the women. A triumphant story of love laced with pain.
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Old Crimes
By Jill McCorkle
Published by Algonquin
A North Carolina Literary Hall of Famer, McCorkle has been publishing fiction for forty years. “Why do you always see the worst possibility?” Cal asks Lynn in the title story. They have come to a cutesy New Hampshire country inn with mediocre food, and Lynn feels their tenuous bond slipping. And in “The Lineman,” a man facing his second divorce ponders the ways in which lines get crossed so easily in communication, let alone the lines he works for in the county (as in the Glen Campbell song). These and other tales showcase McCorkle’s uncanny powers of psychological observation. The quiet undercurrent of disturbances in these dozen short stories impels one to reread paragraphs and marvel at the worlds McCorkle creates in such brief, intimate fiction.
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My Beloved Life
By Amitava Kumar
Published by MCD
Kumar’s 2018 novel, Immigrant, Montana placed an Indian immigrant in post-Reagan America. Here Kumar weaves a tale of one man, creating an affecting, old-fashioned narrative tracing the life of Jadu from a modest Indian village in 1935 through his death in 2020, and his relationship with his daughter, Jugnu. “I am, by profession, poor,” he told his college friends, feeling “an instinctive affinity with Gandhi.” But Jadu is rich in love. Kumar creates the arc of an entire existence through great historical moments and little precious ones. If you are in the mood for a big-hearted saga, it is the perfect book for you—a rare find.
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Green Dot
By Madeleine Gray
Published by Henry Holt & Co.
Waiting for the Instagram green dot is a state of mind for Hera, a twenty-something woman who has fallen for an older married man at work. This delicious novel is both Bridget Jones in Sydney (the drinking, the obsessions, the banal jobs, and the obligatory wise friends—“Sarah knows that I am smart but she also knows that for all intents and purposes I am an idiot.”) and a highly entertaining coming of age. The dialogue is snappy, and you resist, as does her posse, the burning urge to say to Hera, “this will surely end in tears.” On old plot made very fresh by this talented debut novelist.
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Grief Is for People
By Sloane Crosley
Published by FSG
“All burglaries are alike but every burglary is uninsured in its own way.” This is a different book altogether from Crosley’s recent satirical novel, Cult Classic. It’s a memoir of excruciating loss opening with this robbery scene which sets the tone for her book of mourning. The theft of her difficult grandmother’s jewels (“she was no picnic…”) launches a month ending in the unbearable death by suicide of her best friend, Russell, with whom she shared so much including their travails in the world of publishing. Crosley read many grief books to seek solace. Her poignant personal account, combining heartbreak and humor, will surely inspire others going through similar pain.
