ABOUT GRACE by Anthony Doerr

David Winkler’s dreams come true—literally.  However, sometimes they are nightmares, such as the one in which he fails to save his infant daughter from a flood.  Rather than place himself in a position in which that could happen, he abandons his wife Sandy and daughter Grace, and yes, the title is a double entendre.  He lands on an island in the Caribbean and manages to scrape together a life for 25 years, with the help of a couple who themselves are exiles from Chile.  Their daughter, Naaliyah, becomes somewhat of a surrogate for Grace, until she takes off for graduate school in Alaska—Winkler’s home state.  The central question is whether or not Grace survived the flood, which was in progress when David went AWOL.  He returns to the States with the hope of answering that question, after he realizes that the tragic outcomes predicted in some of his dreams are not inevitable.  Naaliyah and David are both scientists:  she studies insects, and he is a hydrologist whose main interest is snowflakes.  Many pages of this book are devoted to insects and snowflakes, and perhaps there is a metaphor here, but these pages drag the novel down a bit.  The enigma of David and his misadventures are sufficient to drive the book, along with the prophetic dreams, two of which involve drownings—no surprise for a scientist whose field is the study of water.  So much of this novel revolves around science that I found it ironic that something so unscientific as a prophetic dream is the main factor in altering the course of David’s life.

BEWILDERMENT by Richard Powers

Theo is an astrobiologist whose 9-year-old son Robin is prone to outbursts and may be on the autism spectrum.  Robin’s behavior has deteriorated since his mother died in a car accident, and Theo wants to avoid medicating him if at all possible.  When Robin injures a classmate by throwing a metal bottle at him, the only other option seems to be a type of neurofeedback in which Robin will try to calm himself by emulating his mother’s brain patterns, which were recorded prior to her death.  This therapy is highly successful, but other issues arise, as the U.S. government has become extremely right-wing; funding for Theo’s work projects as well as Robin’s treatment is in jeopardy.  More importantly, civilization is regressing, and humanity is on a path to destroying all forms of life.  This storyline is all well and good, although Theo, in my opinion, is an overly indulgent father to a petulant child.  However, this novel is also largely about the withering of Planet Earth, due to climate change.  The author is preaching to the choir here, as I would wager that global warming deniers are not reading this book.  I don’t mind being reminded that we need to be better custodians of our beautiful planet, but the author also sprinkles the narrative with scenarios of how life may have evolved elsewhere in the universe.  I found the first few of these simulations intriguing, but they soon became a frequent and annoying interruption.

ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS by Jami Attenberg

Victor Tuchman is dying, but none of his family members will miss this cruel and secretive man one bit.   In fact, their attitude is more one of good riddance.  Barbra, his abused wife, was an emotionally unavailable parent to both her daughter, Alex, and son, Gary, who are now grown with one daughter each and marital problems of their own.  Alex comes to New Orleans with a sense of duty and a mission to convince her mother to spill the beans about Victor’s life, particularly how he achieved his ill-gotten gains.  Barbra, however, is just as tight-lipped, distant and self-centered as ever and has no intention of sharing anything.  Gary books a flight but intentionally misses it.  In other words, no one will grieve when Victor dies, and the extent to which this is true becomes glaringly apparent at the end.  Another important character is Twyla, Gary’s wife, who has a secret of her own.  The chapter perspectives rotate among Gary, Barbra, Alex and Twyla, with a couple of chapters devoted to characters whose relationship to the Tuchman family is not apparent until the end.  I found this aspect of the book disconcerting, because, by the time their relevance was revealed, I had already forgotten their stories and had to backtrack.  Still, the author writes with clear-eyed objectivity about heinous acts that leave their mark on Victor’s family members, who struggle in their adult relationships, with varying degrees of success.  The fact that Alex’s and Gary’s daughters come through the family dysfunction relatively unscathed is a tribute to their parents.  Barbra managed to shield Alex from the brunt of Victor’s blows, but Gary’s childhood experience was quite different.  The fact that Barbra turned a blind eye is particularly maddening and almost as unforgivable as Victor’s viciousness.  In fact, I found Barbra to be the villain of this novel, allowing her mother to raise Barbra’s children and lamenting the fact that Victor struck other women as well.  Her own guilt in implicitly giving him permission to strike women in general is overshadowed by her jealousy that other women made him just as angry as she did.  That’s unsettling.

HORSE by Geraldine Brooks

It’s ironic that a book about a fast horse proceeds at a slow trot rather than a gallop.  It does gather speed in the home stretch but not enough.  Part of my problem is that I have zero interest in art and not much more in horses, although, granted, this novel has deeper themes at work as well.  Two timelines address the history of a real-life thoroughbred named Lexington who raced in the 1850s.  Jarret is the young slave whom the author conjures up as the only person whom Lexington really trusts.  In the modern-day story, Jess (a white woman) mistakes Theo (a black man) for a bike thief, but they eventually both become professionally interested in Lexington’s story and fall in love.  Racism figures largely in both timelines, and I have to admit that I was more drawn to Jess and Theo’s story, because I was so dreading that Jarret and Lexington’s would end tragically.  The nineteenth century timeline, however, is more seamless.  The 21^st century story tries to account for the whereabouts and ownership transfers of several paintings.  I could not keep the paintings straight, much less their convoluted history.  There is actually a minor third timeline in the 1950s that follows an art curator, and I felt that the author was trying to connect too many dots.  Geraldine Brooks is a terrific writer, but this book does not rank high on my list of her novels.  Putting it down was too easy, and picking it back up was not something I particularly looked forward to.

REAL LIFE by Brandon Taylor

Wallace is an overweight gay Black biochemistry grad student who feels like he is swimming upstream in an all-white world.  He describes himself as shy, but the dialog indicates otherwise, until it comes to defending himself against unjust accusations and racist remarks.  He feels that his suffering is basically a lost cause and that rising up against his tormentors will cause more problems than he already has.  He is smart and meticulous, and most of his friends are fellow lab researchers, but some of them are downright hostile and even sadistic.  No one goes out on a limb to stand up for him, although Brigit is a good friend who is Asian and therefore an outsider as well.  Wallace becomes involved with Miller, who has a violent streak and insists that he is not gay.  Uncertain about how this relationship is going to unfold, or if it even is a relationship, Wallace is lonely, depressed, and rudderless.  He is the only character that is fully developed, and his problems consume the entirety of this powerful novel that explores the plight of a Black man trying to make his mark in a society in which the deck is stacked against him.  His complaisance is so frustrating, and yet his dilemma is understandable, especially against the backdrop of sexual abuse he suffered as a child.  He knows he is a victim of circumstances that he cannot change.