The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye

The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye
Published October 2012 by Unbridled Books
Source: this book courtesy of the publisher - thanks, Caitlin!

If you've followed this blog for long, you know that Peter Geye's Safe From The Sea was my favorite book of 2011. I passed it all around and it was a hit with everyone who read it. It will come as no surprise, then that when Caitlin (Unbridled Books) offered me an ARC of Geye's upcoming book The Lighthouse Road I even stop to consider if I had time to read it soon; I knew I would make time.

Geye travels back in time for The Lighthouse Road, telling the story of a mother and son. In 1896, a young Norwegian girl has settled into Gunflint in northern Minnesota, after arriving there alone and friendless. Twenty-four years later, Thea Eide's son, Odd, is every bit a man of the land, working hard to make enough money to reach his dream of making his own boat. But he has also fallen in love with the one woman in town he shouldn't and being with her is going to mean leaving the only home he has ever known, saying goodbye to friends and escaping the man who delivered and raised him, Hosea Grimm.

"Years later, whenever he tried to reconcile the defining moments of his childhood with the man he had become, he thought of that moment on the precipice as a divining one, when he became, for better or worse, the person he would always be."

While The Lighthouse Road and Safe From The Sea are, on the surface, completely different stories, there are themes that tie the two together, most notably family. The Lighthouse Road looks at what makes a group of people a family, it also revisits the relationship between a parent and a child and the idea that the land itself can help form those relationships.

Geye's characters and the land are interchangeable - the land very much a character in the book, the characters very much formed by the land. They are people who have adapted to the land but who seem, at the same time to belong nowhere else. The land is raw and brutal, the people are tough and brutal and Geye spares his readers nothing from a bear mauling, a wolf pack attack, and a botched surgery. The cold, the wind, the isolation are all palpable.

It took me some time to become attached to the characters, for better or for worse, as the story moves back and forth in time. Geye writes such strong characters that it wasn't long before I was deeply invested in them, struggling to understand their actions, holding out hope for them, sharing in their sadness. Several days after finishing the book, I find myself thinking about Hosea and his "daughter," Rebekah, two incredibly complex characters.

There are little treasures of surprises in the book but Geye saved the best of last in this one - the final paragraphs left me gaping. Kudos, Peter Geye; I love an ending I never saw coming!

This is a book I would recommend to men and women alike. I only wish you could read it sooner! The Lighthouse Road is not even published yet and I am already looking forward to Geye's next book. He has quickly become one of my favorite authors, a storyteller who does not disappoint, with the ability to tell more than one kind of story.

Thanks to Unbridled Books for allowing me to get this sneak peek of The Lighthouse Road.

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton
Published August 2010 by Unbridled Books
Source: the publisher

At 1:44 a.m. Carol Meitzner wakes up certain that her son, Jonas, is in trouble.  She and Jonas have always been close but now she hasn't talked to him in days.  His girlfriend, Vic, feels that she's losing Jonas because she, too, hasn't heard from him in days.  Neither Carol nor Vic can get Jonas to answer his phone and he's not at his apartment.

"This is the way mother-love works, she'd explain to him.  There's no controlling it, and there's nothing like it, not the way a cleric loves his God or a soldier his country or a man his wife. This baby emerges, and that's it - you're sucked into a maelstrom so profound you never get out and so you worry, you overreact sometimes, all you want is to protect your baby."

They have every right to be afraid.  Even as Carol begins to worry, Jonas is holed up in a safe house, readying himself for a suicide attack on the New York subway system.  He's been trained by Islamic fundamentalists, although he does not entirely buy into their dogma.  But Jonas is so distraught by the state of affairs that he sees no other way to make people wake up and see what is happening.  And, at this point, Jonas feels that he'll be killed regardless of whether or not he goes ahead with the plan.

"He felt suddenly extremely fatigued.  If he changed his mind now, they would probably kill him.  It sounded melodramatic, but he believed it.  It would be a pointless death then.  They might kill his parents, too."

Over the next thirty-one hours, as Jonas cleanses and mentally prepares himself for what he is planning on doing, his mother frantically tries to track him down.  His father, at first believing that Carol is overreacting, soon comes to believe her.  But will they be able to find Jonas in time to prevent him from carrying out his mission?

Hamilton looks at the story from a lot of different points of view: Sonny, the homeless panhandler who has an uncanny ability to read situations and has a feeling that something terrible is about to happen.; Mara, Vic's sister who has traveled by subway and is on her way home in an attempt to patch up her parent's marriage; Vic, who is marveling that her long friendship with Jonas has lead to a much more intimate relationship and Carol, who recalls the sensitive young Jonas who has the "ability to see the wizard behind the curtain."

For a mother of young men, I was pulled into this book immediately.  I could completely relate to the idea of a mother feeling so strongly that something was wrong and Hamilton, for the most part, does a good job of building the tension since she lets the reader in on what Jonas is planning early on.  But in trying to introduce the reader to all of the characters that will play into later events, Hamilton is forced to let up on the reader.  In fact, I found that the chapters involving Sonny really pulled me out of the story.

But the whole story was so believable, the characters so well-written that I could not put the book down.  It was so easy for me to put myself into Carol's position, so easy for me to imagine how a idealistic young person could be led astray.  I loved the ending of this book but it will not be one that everyone will like.

Once again, Unbridled Books has given me a book that is unique and thought-provoking.  Book clubs would have a lot to discuss with this book.

The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

The Singer's Gun by Emily Mandel
304 pages
Published May 2010 by Unbridled Books
Source: This copy courtesy of the publisher

I've been struggling with a synopsis for this one since I finished reading it. I didn't have much of an idea what it was about when I started reading it. I knew I wanted to read it because I had liked Mandel's "Last Night in Montreal," so I jumped at the chance to read this one. I thought maybe I'd just use the publisher's synopsis, and you're welcome to read it if you want to, but it gives away a far amount of what were, for me, the surprises that made this feel like a puzzle to me.

Anton Walker is the only son of parents that deal in salvage architecture and cousin to Aria, a person he is drawn to in ways that only lead to trouble. Anton has broken away from his family to start a new life for himself as a mid-level manager and has desperately been trying to marry his girlfriend, Sophie. When he finally manages to get her down the aisle, it turns out it is too late for them and Sophie leaves him on their honeymoon and returns home alone. And that's not the only thing that's gone wrong in Anton's life. He's been having an affair with his secretary, something strange is going on with his job, and he's been sucked into one last job for Aria that seems to be more dangerous than she is making it out to be.

There--that's all I want to tell you even though I took a printer page full of miniscule notes to keep track of what was going on. But I really want you to have the fun of turning the pages and having those "a-ha" moments which made this book such a page turner for me. Mandel has, once again, created a book loaded with usual characters and a plot unlike anything you have ever read before. And then there's her writing; Mandel also has an entirely unique voice.

"Anton resented the absence of a television, but there were things he read in books that took his breath away. His mother's collection of travel guides never moved him, but Kirkegaard's last words were Sweep me up. He read those three words when he was fifteen and his eyes filled inexplicably with tears."

"Come on, this can't possibly be it. I cannot possibly be expected to do something this awful day in and day out until the day I die. It's like a life sentence imposed in the absence of a crime."

"Every catastrophe has a last moment just before it: as last as eight forty-four A.M. on the morning of September 11, 2001, it was still only a perfect bright day in New York."

The first half of the novel moves along rapidly, introducing characters, dropping hints then later resolving them. The second half of the book is much slower as it takes all of that and sets up the conclusion and it did drag a bit in places. Just as she did in "Last Night in Montreal," Mandel left me with a satisfying ending--not a "happily ever after" ending but tidy enough to satisfy.

There's a lot here for a book club to discuss--fidelity, right vs. wrong, just how much do we owe our families. Both "Last Night In Montreal" and "The Singer's Gun" have been Indie Next Picks. As I finished this one, I was happy to know that Mandel is hard at work on a third novel so I shouldn't have long to wait. "The Singer's Gun" will be on blog tour beginning next week so be sure to check out for other opinions.

Tomorrow I'll be posting a giveaway for a copy of "The Singer's Gun" so be sure to check back then.

An Unfinished Score by Elise Blackwell

An Unfinished Score by Elise Blackwell
264 pages
Published April 2010 by Unbridled Books
Source: the publisher

One evening, as she is preparing dinner for her husband, roommate and best friend Petra, and Petra's daughter, Adele, Suzanne learns of the crash of an airliner. Among the passengers, is the well-known conductor Alex Elling--who also happens to be Suzanne's lover. Suzanne must deal with her grief all on her own because she has told no one of the affair, not even Petra, who relies on Suzanne to help raise Adele.

"Suzanne watches them, grateful that they are safe on the ground, yet also afraid of their emotional compasses, each tricky in its different way, each seeming to point at her, all the time as though she is true north."

Suzanne finds herself having a harder and harder time dealing with being everyone's true north as she struggles with her loss, complicated further when she begins receiving calls from a woman who tells Suzanne on the first call that Suzanne owes her "a great deal." Suzanne is convinced the calls are coming from Alex's wife, Olivia. When she receives a piece of musical score that is partially written in Alex's handwriting, she knows that she must confront Olivia and so she goes to Chicago to see exactly what Olivia wants. It turns out that Olivia has a viola concerto that Alex had begun composing for Suzanne (a concert violist) and Olivia blackmails Suzanne into helping her finish it. Suzanne soon finds it more difficult to carry on this new version of a double life than the version she was carrying on when Alex was alive as Olivia becomes more and more manipulative, as Suzanne becomes more and more lost in the work and as Petra's demands regarding Adele's deafness become more and more pressing.

I read Blackwell's The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish last fall and loved it. So I knew when I saw that An Unfinished Score was coming out that I would want to read it. It doesn't hurt that Unbridled Books is Blackwell's publisher and I know that when I pick up a book from Unbridled Books it will be unique and thoughtful. This book is no exception. Blackwell has packed this book with things for the reader to think about: infidelity, friendship, rivalry, grief, vengeance, the world of classical music and dealing with deafness in a world filled with sound.


And that was part of my problem with this novel--it sometimes felt like Blackwell may have tried to cover too much ground. The story can sometimes disappear under the weight of the discussion about classical composers, particular musical pieces and performances, cochlear implants and the debate over them.

All of this made it hard for me to become attached to the characters. Right off the bat, I was sure that I would feel sympathy for Suzanne. It was clear that she and her husband didn't have much of a marriage, that he was emotionally distant, and I could understand why she may have strayed from her marriage vows. Ben once said to Suzanne, "Don't turn into one of those women who go daffy on their dogs when they don't have a baby" because of Suzanne's interest in Adele (Suzanne having miscarried a child).

""Adele is not a dog," she said, but as is common with the most cutting of remakes, she not only hated him for its cruelty but believed in its accuracy.

Suzanne sometimes thinks that if Ben had not said that single sentence she would have forgiven everything else, endured the emotional distance that was there from the beginning, stayed more or less happily married, resisted Alex's gaze."

But then the story got lost a bit in explanations and it wasn't until sixty pages in that I really began to see Suzanne dealing with her grief and started to feel a bond with her and she struggled with that and Petra's demands.

"She does the things that have to be done. She attends rehearsals. She practices. She brings food home from the grocery store, helps with Adele, tidies the house, writes check to the water company and the phone company, buys stamps. She tries to keep up with her online life...Yet she notices things slipping through the cracks in her concentration. She cleans the bathroom but forgets the shower or the mirror."

Blackwell's prose did not disappoint and kept me wanting to read on. When Suzanne finally meets Olivia, the story really began to pick up for me and I enjoyed watching the two of them interact right from their first meeting at Olivia's front door. Suzanne finds Olivia to be intimidating from the moment she opens the door and is feeling disheveled and frizzy.

"As if to prove her unworthiness, Suzanne says, "You are not what I expected."

"It's funny you should say so, because you are precisely what I expected," Olivia pulls the door open wider..."

Publisher's Weekly called the writing "a big turn-off." I disagree completely. I find the writing to be the strength of the story. Newspages.com says this is "not a novel to get lost in. It is a tough novel, well-written, with major and minor themes coursing through it to carry the plot." And there I agree; you will not sit down with this one and plow through it in one reading. It takes work to get through it but, ultimately, the reader is rewarded.

I was thrilled to be asked to participate in Spotlight Series which is, this month, spotlighting books published by Unbridled Books. Spotlight Series aim is to spread the word on quality books published by small press publishers. Be sure to check out all of the reviews for this month and check back often to see what other publishers the series will be focusing on.

A Funny PSA from Unbridled Books

You may have noticed how fond I am of Unbridled Books (I've read at least four of their books in the past few months). They turn out high-quality, unique books time and again. Turns out they've also got a great sense of humor!


Unbridled Books P.S.A. from Unbridled Books on Vimeo.

Sometimes we're always real same-same by Mattow Roesch

Sometimes we're always real same-same by Mattox Roesch
320 pages
Published September 2009 by Unbridled Books
Source: Caitlin Hamilton Summie and  Unbridled Books

When Cesar's mother decides it's time to make a change, to get out of L.A. and away from her unreliable ex, her son who is in prison and the gang that Cesar has been running with, she takes the two of them to Alaska. Cesar's mom is from Alaska but hasn't been there in 20 years so neither one of them really fits in. As soon as they get there, Cesar is befriended by his cousin, Go-boy. Soon Cesar is wrapped up in the complicated world that is Go-boy's world and soon sees the beauty and hope that is the Alaskan village is finds himself in.

I always say that I love to read books about different cultures; generally when I'm saying this I'm thinking about different countries. Here's a story set in my own country but about a culture that I know almost nothing about. Roesch does a wonderful job of bringing the Eskimo culture to life and explaining how they have acclimated themselves to a world where they are combining the old and the new to a much greater extent than most of us do.

This book also takes a fascinating look at manic-depression as the story explores love, family, and friendship and what it takes to make your way in life. The book is every bit as quirky as the title would suggest but I enjoyed it very much. I'm hard to surprise as a reader, but this one literally made me gasp and drop the book. But in the end, it's a book that left me with hope that, if we work together, we can all make our way.

The Evolution of Shadows: A Novel by Jason Quinn Malott

The Evolution of Shadows by Jason Quinn Malott
253 pages
Published October 2009 by Unbridled Books
Acquired from: Unbridled Books

In July 1995, American photojournalist, Gray Banick, disappeared in the Bosnian war zone. The last person who knew him, his intrepreter, Emil, thought that he was also the last person to see him alive. Two years later, though, Emil has begun to wonder if Gray is still alive. He determines to search for proof of Gray's death or his survival. To help him, he recruits two other people who loved Gray: Jack MacKenzie, Gray's mentor and friend, and Lian Jiang, a former lover who Emil knows Gray was still deeply in love with.

Despite the war being over, nothing is easy yet in and around Sarajevo and with Emil, Jack and Lian all battling their own demons, the job they are undertaking is painful. Emil is struggling with the slaughter of his family, a cousin who is severely disabled and only wants to die, and a woman who wants to love him although he is has not even up the idea that the fiancee who was carried off by the Serbs might still be alive. Jack is struggling with the aftereffects of gunshot wounds to his legs, a raging case of alcoholism, an ex-wife who left him when he refused to stay home and a daughter who despises him. And Lian, a Chinese-American, is struggling with a marriage she is not happy in and unresolved feelings about Gray, whom she betrayed.

This sounds like a lot for any author to throw into a story and this is Malott's first novel. But it never seems like too much. Given the circumstances of all these three characters, all of these things seem entirely natural.

This from the first paragraph of the novel:

"She lies in the small bed the same way she did as a child, her arms crossed over her chest and the arches of her feet pressed together. It's the position of a corpse, and she once thought it would fool the ghosts into believing she was already dead."

Malott has written a very compelling, very real novel. I was immediately drawn into the book wondering first what had happened between Lian and Gray that would cause them to separate and wondering what had happened to Emil's family. Malott does travel back and form in time and this sometimes happened so quickly that I got confused and had to reread passages to put them back into the correct time sequence. The horrors of the Bosnian war and told without whitewash and I learned a lot about what happened during this time. Interestingly, the book frequently talks about the inability or unwillingness of the UN troops to help the Bosnians, a topic that my son and I had just discussed in a more general context right before I started to read the book.

When explaining why people take up smoking during war time:

"It's either that or go stir-crazy...And when someone can kill you at any moment, it doesn't make any kind of sense to worry about your health. Then there's the stench that comes with war. Dead bodies, blood, sh*^. A cigarette deadens your sense of smell."

I truly cared what would happen to each of these characters and continued to hold on to the hope that they would find Gray, even though there seemed to be no real hope that he could have survived, let alone that they would find any proof of it. This is book that's not for everyone. The squimish should avoid it and anyone who prefers a book where everyone lives happily ever after. This is a story that reads like real life.