Saturday Book Review — for the grown-ups: “Olive Kitteridge,” by Elizabeth Strout; “Son of a Gun,” by Justin St. Germain; ” “Dreaming in Cuban,” by Cristina Garcia; “The Sum of Our Days,” by Isabel Allende
I’m late to the game for Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize winner, “Olive Kitteridge” (Random House, 2008, 270 pages). Thirteen stories = one amazing novel. Olive is a retired school teacher who lives in Crosby, Maine, with her husband, Henry. Olives weaves and dodges throughout the stories. The stories are heartbreaking, beautiful, stripped down, spare, lush and rich. It’s a lot, this book. I’ll finish it and I’ll start it again. It’s that kind of book. xo
If you’re looking for an extraordinary memoir to read, check out “Son of a Gun” by Justin St. Germain (Random House, 2013, 242 pages). It’s his story about the murder of his mother, Debbie St. Germain, and the fall-out in his life, before and after.
(Winter 2019, all photos by Nancy Ellen Row Rawley)
Just started “Dreaming in Cuban,” by Cristina Garcia (Alfred A. Knopf, 1992, 245 pages). This is one I missed when it was first released. It’s a magical book.
“The Sum of Our Days,” by Isabel Allende, (HarperCollins, 2008, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden, 301 pages) is the sequel to “Paula,” Allende’s memoir about the loss of her daughter. Just like all of Allende’s work, it’s brilliant.
Bon appetit, babies. Happy winter, happy reading.
WM
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