Tag: the rumpus book club

Categories
books and reading

The Glass Hotel

Title: The Glass Hotel

Author: Emily St. John Mandel

Genre: Financial thriller

I was introduced to Mandel back when I was a member of The Rumpus Book Club. You pay $35 a month and every month you get a book in the mail that hasn’t been released yet. They pick the books, of course, and you get to interact with the author at the end of the month (or at least that’s how it used to be). Through the club, I was introduced to some amazing authors: Tayari Jones, Cheryl Strayed, George Saunders, Emma Straub, and Mandel. What a group that is! I’ve since followed their careers and read more from most of them. And although I had mixed feelings about this one, I realize what a fantastic book this really is.

From Goodreads:

Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby’s glass wall: Why don’t you swallow broken glass. High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients’ accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan’s wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.

In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives

I am struggling to pinpoint what didn’t work for me in this book. Because the story and characters were interesting. I guess the back and forth timeline was frustrating. And the choppiness of how the story unfolded didn’t grab me. But I definitely wanted to see what happened and the writing was beautiful. I loved Station Eleven. I think about it a lot, honestly. As jumpy as the plot is, I was really interested in the “financial thriller” aspect. I think I’m in the minority of not loving this book. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, and I liked it. I was just hoping for something more.

Categories
books and reading

Leaving Atlanta

Back when I was a part of https://therumpus.net/bookclub/, I read Silver Sparrow by an unknown author named Tayari Jones. It was a great book, but I filed it in my “read” books and didn’t think much more about it until An American Marriage came out. That triggered my memory of reading her already, and because two of her books were great, I made a point to read more.

A friend recommended this one, and I bought it when it was on sale. I know a fair amount of the Atlanta Child Murders from various books and podcasts, and although this story is fictional, it’s still very powerful. The story follows three different children in Atlanta during the very horrifying time. They are all upper elementary age, fully aware of what’s happening in their town, but also trying to find some independence and happiness. Their parents are rightfully trying to keep them locked down, but the kids just really want to be kids.

In all her novels that I’ve read, Jones uses multiple perspectives to tell the story. Not all authors do this successfully, but she definitely does. You really get to know each side of the story in a way that other narration styles don’t offer. And although this story is tough and will break your heart at times, it’s important to read, especially given the world right now. Reading books by black authors is critical. Their voices need to be heard and acknowledged. I’m listening.

Categories
books and reading

An American Marriage

I read Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones a number of years ago when it was a selection of The Rumpus’s Book Club selection. I don’t remember much, but I gave it four stars on Goodreads, so I must have enjoyed it. I do remember that it shifted narrators, just like An American Marriage does. I found an ARC of AAM at my local library several months ago and bought it for $1. Turns out I had a signed copy and didn’t realize it until I sat down to read it.  I immediately placed it on a very high shelf never to be read and borrowed a copy from my library.

The story follows newlyweds Celestial and Roy through an all too real situation- the false imprisonment of an innocent man. Roy is found guilty of raping a woman, even though he didn’t do it and his wife testifies they were together. But the jury believes the victim, and Roy is sent away. Much of their story early on is told through prison letters. Each one a bit more heartbreaking than the last. Roy discovers a familial connection while in prison, which makes life a bit easier for him, while Celestial just misses her husband. But time passes and she moves on. She isn’t trying to, but it just happens. Her life is thriving with a small, successful business and her childhood best friend, Andre, becomes something more.

The trouble arrives when Roy is released early. Five years have gone by and he no longer has a wife. They are still legally married, but too much has changed for both of them. The cost of imprisonment, especially for an innocent person, is unmeasurable. Not only did the true perpetrator get away with a crime and justice isn’t truly served, but the lives of all those surrounding the innocent are ripped apart. To this day, 364 people have been cleared of false charges against them through the DNA findings of The Innocence Project. Celestial and Roy are only an example of the true horror of the falsely convicted in our country.