YOU DON'T LOVE ME YET by Jonathan Lethem

This novel is no Motherless Brooklyn.  It’s a lot of froth and not much substance.  That said, I still enjoyed it, and the writing is excellent.  The main character is Lucinda, who mans a complaint line for an ex-lover as part of a conceptual artistic work.  She becomes infatuated with a frequent caller named Carl, after breaking up with charismatic Matthew for the umpteenth time and fortunately before he kidnaps an unhappy kangaroo and keeps him in the bathtub.  (How can that possibly lift the kangaroo’s spirits??)  Lucinda (bass player) and Matthew (lead singer) are half the membership of an alt rock band that also includes Denise (drummer) and Bedwin (guitar).  Bedwin is the band’s highly introverted but very talented songwriter, to whom Lucinda imparts some catchy phrases that she has picked up from Carl.  Bedwin turns Carl’s words into the band’s mot appealing songs, without knowing that Lucinda has pilfered the lyrics from Carl.  Obviously, the plot is pretty lightweight, and, although Lucinda is the soul of the book, Carl is the most elusive and most intriguing character.  He could probably carry his own novel, but then too much of his mystery would be revealed.  Just his slogans alone could make such a book worthwhile.  “Pour love on the broken places,” indeed.

THE REIVERS by William Faulkner

My brother and I saw the movie THE REIVERS about fifty years ago when we were teenagers.  Obviously, I don’t remember it all that well, but I know that we both loved it, and reading the book has jogged loose a few memories about the movie.  Steve McQueen bears no physical resemblance to his character Boon Hogganbeck, as described in the book.  Nevertheless, as I was reading I still pictured Boon in my mind as Steve McQueen.  This novel is much more accessible than most of Faulkner’s stuff, but, even so, there were passages with incredibly long sentences that left me scratching my head.  It takes place in the early 1900s and involves the trade of a “borrowed” automobile for a stolen racehorse.  Narrated by 11-year-old Lucius, who experiences the adventure of a lifetime at the hands of the aforementioned Boon Hogganbeck, this is a coming-of-age story in the truest sense.  Lucius learns more in a few days than in all the years leading up to this adventure.  He has a strong sense of what it means to be courageous and honest, and his young life up to this point has been one of integrity and good behavior.  Now he is challenged by what he calls non-Virtue and discovers how to bring his moral character to bear on a situation that is decidedly non-virtuous.  As always, Faulkner’s writing is mostly a delight, when you can decipher it.  For example, how clever is this sentence?  “He simply drove us up to the door and put us out and drove away, pausing only long enough to give Everbe one hard jeering leer and Boon one hard leering jeer….”  Love it!

THEN SHE WAS GONE by Lisa Jewell

I don’t know exactly how to categorize this book.  It’s not a thriller, psychological or otherwise, because all of the mysteries are revealed piecemeal throughout the book.  Laurel and Paul’s daughter Ellie disappeared when she was a teenager, dissolving Laurel and Paul’s marriage and leaving Laurel grief-stricken and unable to give her other children the mother they deserved.  This novel is really the story of a mother’s struggle to move on.  Laurel meets a man whose company she enjoys and, more tellingly, who has a young daughter, Poppy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ellie.  At first I just wondered if Laurel sees Ellie in every young girl, but I soon came to realize that this resemblance is more than a coincidence.  This book is a fast read, but it’s not really a page-turner.  I enjoyed the plot and the writing style, but the storyline is not gripping or particularly moving.  Some reviewers have described this book as disturbing, and I would agree with that assessment, but the author sort of glosses over the disturbing events.  She doesn’t dwell on the process but focuses more on the outcome and its effect on loved ones.  In fact, the events in this book are mild compared to some of the real crimes we read about in the news.  Once character in the book claims to have a “sixth sense” about people, and I felt that her foreshadowing was unnecessary and added a bit of the supernatural that was inconsistent with the rest of the book.

THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean

I just wish that every book I read were written half as well as this one.   Susan Orlean has educated us here not only about the 1986 Los Angeles Central Library fire but about libraries in general and how their mission and repositories have changed over time.  The LA library houses vast collections of everything from maps to patent documents and serves as a haven for homeless people.  Orlean also weaves in the story of Harry Peak, a pathological liar who told friends that he had torched the library.  His claims alternated between confession and alibi, and authorities were never able to ascertain with certainty that the fire was the work of an arsonist; faulty wiring could have been the culprit.  Ironically, the fire itself got limited news coverage when it happened, because the news of another disaster—Chernobyl--overshadowed it.  The fire may be the central event in the book, but the true everyday heroes are the librarians and staff.  They answer questions that are as diverse as the people who ask them.  They ship gazillions of books to and from the branches and catalog all nature of materials.  I can’t begin to list all of the functions that the library performs that I had never before considered.  This book is truly an eye-opener that will cause me to look at my local branch librarians with a lot more appreciation.