Donald Miller is a Christian writer, but the question that Miller asks with his latest memoir, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, is applicable to...
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Matt Prior's life is falling apart: he left the world of business journalism to start a website combining financial advice with poetry, but is quickly running out of money. He's behind on the mortgage, and his Alzheimer's-disabled father lives with him. Oh, and his wife is having an affair with her high-school sweetheart. But in this darkness, he finds an unlikely bright spot: becoming the town's marijuana dealer.
This novel's hilarious pathos reminded me of Wonder Boys. Grady Tripp and Matt Prior are the twin sons of different mothers, long may they reign.
Tomato Girl has all the elements of a good novel: a mentally ill mother, a tempted father and a little girl trying to hold everything together as her world is shattered, saved only by a wise old black woman. But first-time novelist Jayne Pupek fails to build an adequate story, randomly splashing out cardboard characters in clichéd situations and failing to provide even the most rudimentary conclusion. Other novelists – Kaye Gibbons, Jill McCorkle, Elizabeth Berg – have visited this basic premise with far more fruitful results. Pupek obviously hoped to ride their coattails – a wish surely shared by her editors at Algonquin – but she fails in every respect.
This is hawked as a loving memoir of motherhood on America’s last frontier, but emerges as a maudlin collection of essays penned by a martyr who relies on clichés. From her first-chapter anguish of being excluded from her college-bound son’s scrapbook to simmering anger at her oft-absent husband, Kaylene Johnson overlooks no insult or opportunity to whine, and her tendency to haul out God at every turn grows tiresome, especially when the reader hasn’t been warned of religious content. Johnson bears striking emotional resemblance to Sarah Palin, about whom she penned an admiring biography, and this shallowness erodes the collection of any significant meaning or value.
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When a one-night stand leaves Mary Pols pregnant, she reacts not with fear, but joy: she's finally having the child she's longed for, albeit in much different circumstances. She navigates a tricky relationship with the child's father, introduces her family to her new status, and embarks on a difficult but ultimately joyous journey: motherhood, which changes her far more than she could have anticipated, for the better. Especially touching is her decision to name her little boy for her father and grandmother, neither of whom have had a namesake.
None of the difficulty is glossed over, but the ecstacy is unvarnished as well. I consider it one of the best books ever published on modern parenthood.
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Brett and Layla Foster have been a couple since high school, so Brett’s decision to separate not only shocks everyone, but strains their family – because the Fosters are the only relations the parentless Layla has. What happens when a clan prefers an in-law to blood kin? And what happens to an extended family when its bedrock crumbles? Using alternating narrators, Caprice Crane deftly illustrates a tribe in crisis, and how they handle the hardest problems life dishes out.
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Madam Pince has commented on (53) products.
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
Madam Pince, November 13, 2009
Matt Prior's life is falling apart: he left the world of business journalism to start a website combining financial advice with poetry, but is quickly running out of money. He's behind on the mortgage, and his Alzheimer's-disabled father lives with him. Oh, and his wife is having an affair with her high-school sweetheart. But in this darkness, he finds an unlikely bright spot: becoming the town's marijuana dealer.This novel's hilarious pathos reminded me of Wonder Boys. Grady Tripp and Matt Prior are the twin sons of different mothers, long may they reign.
Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek
Madam Pince, November 13, 2009
Tomato Girl has all the elements of a good novel: a mentally ill mother, a tempted father and a little girl trying to hold everything together as her world is shattered, saved only by a wise old black woman. But first-time novelist Jayne Pupek fails to build an adequate story, randomly splashing out cardboard characters in clichéd situations and failing to provide even the most rudimentary conclusion. Other novelists – Kaye Gibbons, Jill McCorkle, Elizabeth Berg – have visited this basic premise with far more fruitful results. Pupek obviously hoped to ride their coattails – a wish surely shared by her editors at Algonquin – but she fails in every respect.Tender Distance: Raising My Sons in Alaska by Kaylene Johnson
Madam Pince, October 11, 2009
This is hawked as a loving memoir of motherhood on America’s last frontier, but emerges as a maudlin collection of essays penned by a martyr who relies on clichés. From her first-chapter anguish of being excluded from her college-bound son’s scrapbook to simmering anger at her oft-absent husband, Kaylene Johnson overlooks no insult or opportunity to whine, and her tendency to haul out God at every turn grows tiresome, especially when the reader hasn’t been warned of religious content. Johnson bears striking emotional resemblance to Sarah Palin, about whom she penned an admiring biography, and this shallowness erodes the collection of any significant meaning or value.(0 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
Accidentally on Purpose: The True Tale of a Happy Single Mother (P.S.) by Mary F. Pols
Madam Pince, August 31, 2009
When a one-night stand leaves Mary Pols pregnant, she reacts not with fear, but joy: she's finally having the child she's longed for, albeit in much different circumstances. She navigates a tricky relationship with the child's father, introduces her family to her new status, and embarks on a difficult but ultimately joyous journey: motherhood, which changes her far more than she could have anticipated, for the better. Especially touching is her decision to name her little boy for her father and grandmother, neither of whom have had a namesake.None of the difficulty is glossed over, but the ecstacy is unvarnished as well. I consider it one of the best books ever published on modern parenthood.
(0 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
Family Affair by Caprice Crane
Madam Pince, August 31, 2009
Brett and Layla Foster have been a couple since high school, so Brett’s decision to separate not only shocks everyone, but strains their family – because the Fosters are the only relations the parentless Layla has. What happens when a clan prefers an in-law to blood kin? And what happens to an extended family when its bedrock crumbles? Using alternating narrators, Caprice Crane deftly illustrates a tribe in crisis, and how they handle the hardest problems life dishes out.1-5 of 53next