When the World Was Young

When the World Was Young Elizabeth Gaffney 3.5 / 5	Published 2006 First Sentence "The children rejoiced."
Publisher's Description: Wally Baker is no ordinary girl. Living in her grandparents’ Brooklyn Heights brownstone, she doesn’t like dresses, needlepoint, or manners. Her love of Wonder Woman comics and ants makes her feel like a misfit—especially in the shadow of her dazzling but unstable mother, Stella. Acclaimed author Elizabeth Gaffney’s irresistible novel captures postwar Brooklyn through Wally’s eyes, opening on V-J day, as she grows up with the rest of America. Reeling from her own unexpected wartime tragedy and navigating an increasingly fraught landscape, Wally is forced to confront painful truths about the world—its sorrows, its prejudices, its conflicts, its limitations. But Wally also finds hope and strength in the unlikeliest places. With an unforgettable cast of characters, including the increasingly distant and distracted Stella; Loretta, the family’s black maid and Wally’s second mother; Ham, Loretta’s son, who shares Wally’s enthusiasm for ants and exploration; Rudy, Wally’s father, a naval officer, away serving in the Pacific; and Mr. Niederman, the family’s boarder, who never seems to answer Wally’s questions—and who she suspects may have something to hide—Elizabeth Gaffney crafts an immersive, beautifully realized novel about the truths that divide and the love that keeps us together.
Dear Reader, I enjoyed this little diversion of a book. It was a nice, lighter read compared to a bunch of denser classics I've been working on lately. I selected this because it is one of many books I am behind on reading for Netgalley, so I am making an intentional push to get through more of my backlog! This book was published way back in August of 2014 (actually, it was first published in 2006!). So I clearly missed my window of opportunity. But I am glad I finally got around to it. It told a quaint story of a young girl growing up in just-postwar Brooklyn. She struggles to find her own path in life, haunted by the decisions made by her parents. Wally was an enjoyable and unique character who loves bugs - something certainly unexpected for a girl in the 1940s. She was lucky enough to be able to pursue this passion, however. It was nice to see a strong female character succeeding in a STEM field, especially in that time period. I felt that some of the characters and relationships fell a bit flat in this book; I had a hard time buying the passion that supposedly drove several of them. Everyone seemed a bit too detached, unemotional, about the love that propelled the direction of their lives. I note that other reviewers felt that the book just lacked a certain something, and I have to agree with them there. While it had such a fantastic premise, it just didn't truly deliver anything of substance. It left me feeling unemotional, one way or another. I think this could be a great light read to take along while traveling, or to audiobook while on a long drive. There's a good story there. Yours, Arianna

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A Little Life

A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 5/5	Published March 10th, 2015 First Sentence "The eleventh apartment had only one closet, but it did have a sliding glass door that opened onto a small balcony, from which he could see a man sitting across the way, outdoors in only a T-shirt and shorts even though it was October, smoking."
Publisher's Description: Brace yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably breaks through into the light. When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever. In rich and resplendent prose, Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and transcendent hymn to brotherly love, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance.
Dear Reader, Is it too much to say this book is one of my all time favorites? Ever!? Well too bad! I'm going to stick by this statement. I haven't read a book that made me cry so hard in a LONG time. A Little Life is tragic, emotional, heartbreaking but beautiful, loving and warm at the same time. Right from the start, we are introduced to this close knit group of friends that intertwine in so many ways but all the lines end with Jude. Jude is the private, quiet but sentimental sweet one. He is also looked out for by the group due to a disability. You don't have to try very hard to love Jude, I guarantee you'll be as head over heals with him as I was within the second/third chapter. Not to say that all the other characters don't have as much to give, because they each have a great personality and story to tell. Malcolm; the ambitious architect, JB; the talented addicted artist, Willem; the theater boy turned famous actor, and Jude; the tortured lawyer. The list of amazing characters doesn't even end there though, we have Harold; the kind old man who mentors Jude and Adam; the overcaring doctor that tends to Jude at whatever day or time is needed. When I first read the description of this book, I have to admit I did an eye roll... ayep. I'm so OVER the friendship stories that span a lifetime, yes... they speak to me and I can relate to them BUT enough of them already! Boy, I was in for a treat. I had read Yanagihara's first book, "The People in the Trees" and really enjoyed it and if it wasn't for that, I probably would have missed out on this excellent piece of literature. I would like to kiss Yanagihara's feet for this book (and I HATE feet). Some parts of this book had that brilliance that we got to see in her first book, like when Harold drones on and on about law, but ultimately, this dribble of a speech is fascinating. Who would have thunk!? Yanagihara, thank you so much for coming into my life! I need more books, please! Let me gift you with a few glorious parts I had to save for later: "Fairness is for happy people, for people who have been lucky enough to have lived a life defined more by certainties than by ambiguities." "His persistent nostalgia depressed him, aged him, and yet he couldn't stop feeling that the most glorious years, the years when everything seemed drawn in fluorescents were gone. Everyone had been so much more entertaining then. What had happened?" "Relationships never provide you with everything. They provide you with some things... don't you see it's a trap? If you keep trying to find everything, you'll wind up with nothing." I think what brought me so close to this book and Jude is that I can completely relate to the way he deals with problems (no, not cutting). Those parts that describe memories like hyenas snapping and hungry, clawing at the door, wanting to break free. I know exactly what that is like, and being able to relate to that brought me very close to Jude. In no way is my life even close to being as messed up but I think anyone who knows what suppressing bad memories is like, will be able to relate to this character. Yanagihara can clearly paint a picture of someones life, I can only imagine she knows what suppressing bad memories feels like (there is no way she did it so clearly without that experience). I have SO much more to say but it would go beyond what is acceptable to talk about in a review. I want this book to be a little surprise to everyone... so before you read this, do what I did and roll your eyes and say, "not again!" Trust me, you'll be in for a big surprise! Happy Reading, AmberBug

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The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen Michael Cunningham 4.5 / 5	Published 2014 First Sentence "A celestial light appeared to Barrett Meeks in the sky over Central Park, four days after Barrett had been mauled, once again, by love."
Publisher's Description: Michael Cunningham’s luminous novel begins with a vision. It’s November 2004. Barrett Meeks, having lost love yet again, is walking through Central Park when he is inspired to look up at the sky; there he sees a pale, translucent light that seems to regard him in a distinctly godlike way. Barrett doesn’t believe in visions—or in God—but he can’t deny what he’s seen. At the same time, in the not-quite-gentrified Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, Tyler, Barrett’s older brother, a struggling musician, is trying—and failing—to write a wedding song for Beth, his wife-to-be, who is seriously ill. Tyler is determined to write a song that will not be merely a sentimental ballad but an enduring expression of love.  Barrett, haunted by the light, turns unexpectedly to religion. Tyler grows increasingly convinced that only drugs can release his creative powers. Beth tries to face mortality with as much courage as she can summon. Cunningham follows the Meeks brothers as each travels down a different path in his search for transcendence. In subtle, lucid prose, he demonstrates a profound empathy for his conflicted characters and a singular understanding of what lies at the core of the human soul. The Snow Queen, beautiful and heartbreaking, comic and tragic, proves again that Cunningham is one of the great novelists of his generation.
Dear Reader, I don't know why this book didn't review very well on Goodreads; I really loved it. And it was gorgeously written. I have not read anything else by Cunningham, despite having The Hours on my to-read list since I don't know when, but I am okay that I started with this one - it makes me eager to want to read more. He is an amazing writer. His word choices, his imagery, and his characters all really drew me into this book. The premise is interesting enough - two brothers who couldn't be more different, both in the thrall of "the snow queen", who materializes in the form of Tyler's sickly wife, Beth. The brothers' lives dance around Beth while her illness waxes and wanes, and the whole story is tied, ultimately, to this fragile creature. However, there is so much more to this book: Barrett's embracing of religion (in a very detached way) because he experiences a vision after having been dumped unceremoniously by his latest boyfriend; his boss' own complicated love stories with younger men; and the way Tyler comes to terms with his wife's illness and how he sees himself in relation to her. Tyler, especially, intrigued me: he had spent so long being Beth's caretaker that he could use that as his excuse not to create the music that he was born to make, and couldn't define himself as anything other than Beth's husband. I enjoyed watching his evolution through the book. There's really not much to tell that won't ruin what little story there is (that wasn't meant to be a disparaging remark; it's just that this book is more of a character study than a plot!). I loved the Snow Queen's constant presence in the book - either as a bright light experienced in a blizzard, a flake falling on a lonely man's tongue, a frail and terminal angel, or even as the strong and determined woman you see at the end of the book. Would Barrett even have considered himself a "Snow Queen," as a gay man who experienced a vision on a snowy night? Perhaps even his inability to maintain a relationship would lead some to accuse him of being distant, "snowy."  Ah, that's probably a stretch. I'll just say that I'd definitely recommend this one. Reminds me in a lot of ways of the feel of books & movies that came out in the 1990s: I have to admit I was recalling Reality Bites and Our Noise and Angels in America after reading this. Perhaps it was that tragically lonely feel of a group of twenty-somethings. Whatever it was, I really loved it. Yours, Arianna

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