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I just finished my book club selection for this month, Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road.

It is a small novel, set in ancient times, and is the story of two buddies/conspirators/men and their adventures in "Khazaria".

This is my first Chabon book and he describes this as unlike any of his others, which I gather are detective stories. The prose is nicely structured, almost poetic at times, and very good at developing its characters. A well crafted book, imo.

Gentlemen and Whisper are on my B&N.com wish list.

I found Markus Zusak's The Book Thief absolutely wonderful—as close to I-couldn't-put-it-down as I ever get. Narrated by Death, The Book Thief tells the story of 11-to-16-year-old Liesel Meminger and her experiences in Germany during World War II. I smiled frequently, laughed occasionally and was crying real tears at its conclusion. I dog-eared many pages and know I'll quote and comment on the ending passage, but, before I do so, let me check the other marked passages.

1) Death frequently comments on the human, as well as the Liesel, condition. And so the story of Liesel in Germany in World War II begins. Typing the sentence, I know that I could not right now reread The Book Thief. I know what will happen in the story, and that knowledge would make reading it too painful. Someday, however, I may read it again. It is a book I will keep.

2) As Liesel is drawn to watch a book burning, Death comments, "I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate." (page 109) You better believe it. Death camps. Iraq. Kenya.

3) Liesel is, of course, the book thief. But she has her problem under control, as is shown when she turns down a book a woman offers to give her. "If there was one thing about Liesel Meminger, her thieving was not gratuitous. She only stole books on what she felt was a need-to-have basis. Currently, she had enough." (page 146)

4) Death picks up a youthful soul. The writer expresses Death's thoughts with an interesting turn of phrase. "The last thing I wanted was to look down at the stranded face of my teenager. A pretty girl. Her whole death was now ahead of her." (page 337)

5) Liesel urges Papa to take his accordion with him as they go to hide in a bomb shelter during an air raid. He refuses. "'I didn't take it last time,' he explained, 'and we survived.' War clearly blurred the distinction between logic and superstition." (page 380) As do many other stressful events.

6) "Certainly war meant dying, but it always shifted the ground beneath a person's feet when it was someone who had once lived and breathed in close proximity." (page 457) I've been spared that moment for the most part, but I do remember how I felt when I heard that a Hiram graduate whom I knew only slightly had been killed in Vietnam. He had "hired" me to proof and edit a term paper he had written. How unimportant his concern about that paper seemed when I heard of his death. I can only imagine how the ground must shift when the victim is someone truly close. Or maybe I can't imagine it. That's even scarier.

7) A young man's brother is killed in battle. He says, "Why do I want to live? I shouldn't want to, but I do." (page 467) And later he hangs "himself for wanting to live." (page 503) I can't imagine the pain. Or I won't imagine the pain.

8) Death concludes the book when he collects Liesel's soul after she has lived a long life. And, finally, to wrap things up:

******A LAST NOTE FROM YOUR REVIEWER******
I am haunted by this book.
Thank you, Mellowlicious.

You are so welcome, Martha, and I'm really pleased you loved it as much as I did. It was given to me by a dear friend; his ability to pick books for me is phenomenal.

I didn't much like Phillip Roth's Exit Ghost. Granted there were interesting scenes: for example, his narrator goes to watch the 2004 presidential race results with some NYC yuppies. And there were interesting questions raised: for example, was Nathaniel Hawthorne really rumored to have had an incestuous relationship with his sister? That I'll be checking out.

Mostly though, Exit Ghost is long paragraphs that explain things. Actual scenes are few and far between. Particularly annoying are the dialogues between HE and SHE where the narrator tries to start a relationship with a young and married woman.

All in all, I think I like the idea of Roth as a writer better than I like reading his books.

Although I didn't fall in love with Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher, I did enjoy it—thoroughly. The main character, Ruth, is a high school sex education teacher in a community recently taken over by uber-moralistic Christians. Her description: "A small evangelical church—The Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth—led by a fiery young preacher known as Pastor Dennis, had begun a crusade to cleanse Stonewood Heights of all manner of godlessness and moral decay, as if this sleepy bedroom community was an abomination unto the Lord, Sodom with good schools and a twenty-four-hour supermarket." (pages 12-13) In other words, a novel based on events happening all across our country today. And a really cool analogy.

Analogy aside, I think the immediacy of Tom Perrotta's novels is why I like him. A few years ago I read his Joe College and liked it enough to go back and read his earlier works. A little over a year ago he made it into my writers-to-be-bought-in-hardback category with Little Children. I like The Abstinence Teacher better than the earlier works, probably because of the subject matter. A minor problem might be that beyond Ruth, Tim—a now-saved but used-to-be druggie, alcoholic, womanizer—and a gay couple, the characters aren't terribly dimensional. But maybe they don't need to be. They represent different issues at which the novel pokes fun, and if they were more fully developed, humor would be lost—IMHO.

Of course there are dog-eared pages. I'm always amazed at how writers can express some thoughts so well.

1) School starts for the year, and Ruth, forced to follow the dictates of the new powers that be, writes "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SAFE SEX" on the blackboard. She then mentally makes a comparison. "There was no such thing as risk-free automobile travel, either, but we didn't teach our kids to stay out of cars. We taught them defensive driving skills and told them a million times to wear their seat belts, because driving was an important of life, and everyone needed to learn how to do it as safely as possible." (page 153) It's a good analogy IMHO. If pro sex education folk haven't used it, they should.

2) Ruth attends one of her daughters' soccer games where Tim, in an impulsive moment, leads the team in prayer after a victory. "Until she'd seen those girls, those beautiful young athletes, sitting on the grass in the sunshine, being coerced by adults they trusted into praying to the God of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and the Republican Party—the God of War and Abstinence and Shame and Willful Ignorance, the God Who Loved Everyone Except the Homosexuals, Who Sent Good People to Hell if They Didn't Believe in Him, and Let Murderers and Child Rapists into Heaven if They Did, the God Who Made Women as an Afterthought, and Then Cursed Them with the Pain of Childbirth, the God Who Would Have Never Let Girls Play Soccer in the First Place if It Had Been up to Him …" (page 161) James Spader on Boston Legal couldn't have said it better—and Tom Perrotta got to use all those Neat Capital Letters for Emphasis.

3) Ruth ruminates on the fact that due to the diet preferences of her daughters, dinner always wound up being grilled chicken, a vegetable, and a salad with Paul Newman dressing. She was tired of it. "Even Paul Newman was starting to get on her nerves, the smug way he grinned at her from the bottle, as if he knew all too well that he was the only man at the dinner table." (page 173) Made me smile.

4) Tim decides not to go into a bar called the Brew-Ha-Ha, and that made me wonder about writers' imaginations. Did Perrotta make up that name or is there somewhere a bar so named? I've used a bar called Mable's Chain Saw Repair and Beauty Shop, and it gets a laugh—but I didn't make it up. A friend told me he stops in MCSRABS when he visits Birmingham. Part of me really hopes Perrotta didn't make up Brew-Ha-Ha. It's perfect, IMHO, and if coming up with such a clever name for a place is a test for a writer, I'll never pass.

A final thought: this one sort of reminded me of Charles Dickens's novels, not in the length or detail (let's face it; writers are no longer paid by the word) but in the groups of characters who mingle, crossing in and out of the groups to which they belong. The book had a "Dicksonian" feel.

Oddly enough, I just read this book two or three weeks ago. It was enjoyable enough but as you noted, not particularly deep. I had hoped for more, somehow - a reasonable discussion of positions would have been nice.

Given your opinion of him, I might try another of his books - but if you say this one is better than the others, maybe he's just not to my taste.

Perrotta's pretty light in all of them. I like his style. This one's the first where the subject held my interest throughout. And he doesn't last. I had to check his bio for the title of the first one I read, and now I only remember liking it; I remember nothing about the story or characters.

That is indeed the thought pattern that I will incorporate about the subject.

Thanks for sharing, Martha!

Kathy

Those of the types of books that I seem to be reading of late -- those that don't have enough significance to stick in the memory.

I hope I will get over this "phase" before "the final phase" when I can no longer read and enjoy!!!

Kathy