Review: The Summer Guest

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book is about several people who are deeply involved in a summer camp in Maine. It covers generations. The book is told in alternative POVs between four people and culminates in a fifth voice, a child of one of the characters and provides a sort of epilogue.

One of the voices is the summer guest Harry, who is a very rich man. In the current time he comes this year to die at his favorite place. He also just bought the camp and left it in his will to a young man Jordan who works there, his voice is one of the POVs. This change of ownership, of course, causes some stirrings. The camp had been in the family for a very long time.

In addition, the book is also about the couple Lucy and Joe who own the camp and just sold it to Harry. Their daughter Kate is the final epilogue voice. Joe was drafted into the Vietnam war and his father who was wounded and disfigured from a previous war. He wanted, and perhaps forced, Joe not to go. Joe ends up being a draft dodger. There are consequences for this, and just as him and Lucy started being a couple.

The timeline for the book was back and forth, not linear. It took a bit to get settled into the story with the timeline and characters shifting. I listened to the audiobook version and there was a different narrator for each character, which helped to keep things straight.

The book was well done, but nothing spectacular. This also may have been his first novel.

Book rating: 3.5 stars

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Review: The Summer Guest

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book is about several people who are deeply involved in a summer camp in Maine. It covers generations. The book is told in alternative POVs between four people and culminates in a fifth voice, a child of one of the characters and provides a sort of epilogue.

One of the voices is the summer guest Harry, who is a very rich man. In the current time he comes this year to die at his favorite place. He also just bought the camp and left it in his will to a young man Jordan who works there, his voice is one of the POVs. This change of ownership, of course, causes some stirrings. The camp had been in the family for a very long time.

In addition, the book is also about the couple Lucy and Joe who own the camp and just sold it to Harry. Their daughter Kate is the final epilogue voice. Joe was drafted into the Vietnam war and his father who was wounded and disfigured from a previous war wanted and perhaps forced Joe not to go. Joe ends up being a draft dodger. There are consequences for this, and just as him and Lucy started being a couple.

The timeline for the book was back and forth, not linear. It took a bit to get settled into the story with the timeline and characters shifting. I listened to the audiobook version and there was a different narrator for each character, which helped to keep things straight.

The book was well done, but nothing spectacular. This also may have been his first novel.

Book rating: 3.5 stars


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Review: The Summer Guest

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Interpreter of Maladies

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a collection of nine short stories. I found it mixed, a few I really enjoyed, while others not so much.

The characters in these stories are in the United States from India or Bangladesh. The stories explore the cultural aspects of the people while living in a different type of society. There is the juxtaposition of the way things are done in America to how these characters were raised.
I enjoyed the last story, The Third and Final Continent.A young man needs temporary lodging while he waits for his new wife to come to American and join him. He finds a room with an elderly woman, and he is very surprised when he finds out she is over 100 years old.

In the second story, When Mr. Pirzada came to Dine, is narrated by a child. Mr. Pirzada is now from Pakistan as the story takes place during the time of India being ripped apart. The family should now dislike and separate themselves from him as their home countries, but of course they do not. I thought this was one of the better stories as well.


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Review: Interpreter of Maladies

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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