Review 123: The Fortress of Solitude

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I picked this book up due to the title…seemed appropriate for the times we are living through right now with social distancing, some people are holed up in solitude in their homes. I’m lucky to have another human with me.

The title of this book comes from the comic books, Superman and his Fortress. Comics are one of the underlying themes, as a young boy our main character Dylan Ebdus connects with other young neighbor boys with comics. When Dylan is slightly older he comes across a real life super-hero, who also is homeless and a drunk. He gives Dylan the ring that allowed him to fly as Aeroman.

Music is another theme throughout the book, with Dylan’s best friend Mingus Rude whose dad was a singer, Barrett Rude Junior. Music haunts Dylan when the song by Wild Cherry came out Play that funky music (white boy) came out. The backdrop is Dean Street, in Brooklyn that Ebdus is one of very few white families in the neighborhood. Being thrown into public school he was one of two or three white kids in each school he attended. Yes race is an important theme here too, how could it not. Later when Dylan is an adult he is a music critic.

There were a few quirks to the book, like the characters names were nearly always written out in full, each time. The separation from reality is where I always have difficulty with books. Without going into deep analysis of the book, why it was necessary, I’d like to say instead that it was not, that the book would be better without. Yet it did give the story momentum, occasional purpose, and the book title does call out to the superhero genre.

The book is long, yes overly long for me. I was relieved to finish reading it. There are good parts within, enough that it keep me going. Most of the book is taken with Dylan growing up, and when he became an adult it felt like the book was slipping, not quite as interesting. The final portion does help wrap up the story, closes a few loops. In the end, I'm just happy it's done and over.

READING PROGRESS

March 22, 2020 – Started Reading

March 23, 2020 – 

page 8

 

 1.57% "barely started. this book has been sitting around my bookshelves since 2004 and picked it up, finally, since the title seemed appropriate for the current situation right now. no idea what I'm getting into, other than it's a long book."

March 25, 2020 – 

page 54

 

 10.57%

March 27, 2020 – 

page 76

 

 14.87%

March 28, 2020 – 

page 96

 

 18.79%

March 30, 2020 – 

page 183

 

 35.81%

March 31, 2020 – 

page 197

 

 38.55%

April 1, 2020 – 

page 233

 

 45.6%

April 2, 2020 – 

page 275

 

 53.82%

April 3, 2020 – 

page 300

 

 58.71%

April 5, 2020 – 

page 321

 

 62.82%

April 6, 2020 – 

page 349

 

 68.3%

April 7, 2020 – 

page 366

 

 71.62% "now our main character is an adult, and my enjoyment of the book is lessening."

April 8, 2020 – 

page 393

 

 76.91%

April 9, 2020 – 

page 406

 

 79.45%

April 12, 2020 – 

page 426

 

 83.37%

April 13, 2020 – Finished Reading

Review 48: Rules of '48

Rules of '48 by Jack Cady
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's a brief seven weeks of summer when there seems to be an abundance of dead bodies showing up, during 1948 in Louisville. World War 2 is over and fresh in everyone's mind as so many are still dealing with the consequences. And attitudes are changing. This book shows a bit of how society starts to pivot. We see things like business and everyday activities happening on Sundays and how people of different backgrounds start to become accepted instead of separated. Although there certainly is plenty of racism of all kinds and anger towards the other in this book. How slowly things change, and they do.

The writing is very beautiful at times, wonderful sentences. Yet the whole book kept me somewhat at a distance. I'm not sure if it's just the time or feeling of the characters, or what exactly, but I wasn't fully involved.


Fun Note: Didn't plan that my blog post of review #48 would be a book with the title Rules of '48. Yet this coincidence makes me happy.
😃

Review 12: Virgil Wander

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Virgil Wander is the main character, who, as the book opens, is just recovering from an accident where his car flew off the road and into the freezing cold Lake Superior. By sheer good luck a friend saw the accident and dove in to save Virgil from certain death and instead only being concussed. Recovering from the concussion takes time, if not the rest of his life, one thing he was struggling with was the loss of adjectives, slowly some would come back.

The small town, Greenstone, Minnesota where Virgil lives is a unique place with bad luck. The people seems unique as well, for the most part, but not all. The book is quirky, lighthearted really but the situations that occur, death or possible death always looming is not light.

Virgil is the owner of the small run down theater that also runs in the red, so he works for the city as a clerk. One of the main people is Rune, an older man who loves to make and fly intricate kites. He came to Greenstone to find out about his son he recently found out he had, the mother had never told him and Rune only find out upon her death. Rune's son is a famous in a tragic way, a minor league baseball player turned neon sign makers, who disappeared in a small plane never to be heard of again. Since he had some fame the story was somewhat known.

Overall the book was well written. It took me a little while to get into the book, quite a while. It may have been easy to just put down and not get back to. The book is more about a character or characters, not plot driven. Yet it flowed along, more around mid-point than near the beginning where it's easier to keep you hooked to the story.


Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book, even though I ended up reading the print copy from the library where I work.

Review 7: Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance

Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance by Bill McKibben
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I took this with a grain of salt, gave into the humor aspect. I'm there was serious intentions behind the book, but I viewed it as purely fantasy. Although maybe I learned a little about what it's like to live in Vermont.

This is the first book I've read by Bill McKibben and he is known and an environmentalist and non-fiction writer. I started here since it was the last book he published. Also planning on attending an event where he is speaking and wanted to finally read something by the author.

Bill McKibben books read later:

• Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (NonFiction)
•  (3 stars)   May.2019 
• The Bill McKibben Reader: Pieces from an Active Life (NonFiction)
• (4 stars) Feb.-April.2019
• The End of Nature  (NonFiction)
•  (5 stars)   Jan-Feb.2019 

Review 5: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have no idea how or why this book came across my radar, but that's how books are sometimes. A glance or browsing, something peaks your interest. It gets on my to read list someday. Well this past week was the someday for this book.

It felt like a long, short book. Well it isn't very short, 358 pages in my copy, but it isn't a 600 page beast either. The book is written in a slow languid way. It takes place in the South so the slow pace is appropriate. The book came out just before WWII and there are pieces of that stewing, the stirrings of war. There are several things that surprise me about this book and one is the timeliness for when it was written and how much awareness of what was going outside this town that's the setting of the book.

All of the main characters are longing, lonely and have some restlessness about them. The first we meet is John Singer a deaf mute who desperately misses his fellow friend Antonapoulos. They used to live together, do everything together except work, until Antonapoulos went a little crazy and his relative had him committed, taken away. Since then Singer has been bereft and pines until he can go visit him on a short vacation.

There are four other main characters and they all go to Singer to talk and find something in him they cannot find in anyone else. They find Singer peaceful and so understanding, and all without knowing what Singer himself feels. There is a young teenage tom-boy girl Mick Kelley who is one of a large family that runs the boarding house where Singer now lives. Mick has music inside her so much it hurts. There is Jack Blount who is a drunk and communist, or close enough, who wants everyone to know about how the system is, how there shouldn't be the rich businesses taking all while the people go poor and hungry.

Another man who visits Singer is Biff Brannon, the owner of the New York Café. He reads and organizes the newspapers very carefully, and never throws one away. He is a hoarder on this aspect. He doesn't talk as much as the other three with Singer as he's more of an observer and tries to figure things out. When talking to Blount he will ask questions of him, such as why and what would you do. The other man who regularly visits Singer is a black doctor, Benedict Mady Copeland. He is the father of Portia who is the cook at the Kelley boarder house. He has four children and he had such ambitions for them once they were born but they went along with their mother and religion. Doctor Copeland has always had a "strong true purpose" and he tried to impart that on his children, and his race, but could never seem to succeed.

The struggles these characters go through are what sets them apart from everyone else. Even Blount and Doctor Copeland end up talking and realizing they want the same thing, but then how to succeed at getting people to the same place they differ and end up arguing. Interestingly Doctor Copeland has this idea that years years later Dr. Martin Luther King organizes and does, the March on Washington. How did this writer come up with this? Another place that amazed and surprised me.

The book is thick with characters and ideals, longings, but not much on plot. Perhaps there's a little one, but the book doesn't linger there. There were a few moments when I thought it was going on too long and I had to push on. It's worth reading, but it isn't a joyful experience, and parts are so painful. It's an incredible book. It's a good one to read and discuss with others, even now going on 80 years later.

Review 4: Restoration Heights

Restoration Heights by Wil Medearis
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

As a placeholder my short review said: this is not your typical mystery, but then again that isn't my go to genre so maybe I miss out on what's out there.

What I meant by not typical was the infusion of other social issues: gentrification, white and black, rich and poor. There's this whole part of the book where Reddick, the main character, is justifying who he is and how he fits into this Brooklyn neighborhood. He's white but grew up poor and around other blacks. He's been told his grandfather was half-black so he tells people this, to give himself street cred? The guys aren't buying it either. And Reddick hates how his neighborhood is changing. So many more white people are moving in, and the crux is around this new project called Restoration Heights.

The main story is around this white girl who hit on Reddick one night in his alley while taking out the trash. She was very drunk, and Reddick didn't take it any further, besides the party she was at came back into focus and she went back inside. The next day at his art handling job he finds out that same girl is missing. The way the boyfriend and family reacts is very odd to Reddick. To make things more bizarre the neighbor, also filthy rich, hires Reddick to find out about Hannah and what happened. Then Reddick becomes obsessed!

Despite nearly losing friends, being threatened, and knowing he's going down dangerous roads, he can't stop searching and asking. He asks very uncomfortable questions and does some very awkward things. And some of this is where the book falters. It is odd interviewing. I know the guy is an amateur, his supposed to be an artist, but really it doesn't read well.

Overall there is a lot to like in the book. I got caught up in trying to figure out what happened to Hannah. There's different intricacies and revelations that come up, as you might expect in a mystery/detective type story. But there's so much more. I loved the part about persistent pursuit of your passion, it just might lead you to success. Okay, the book didn't say in those exact words, but it was the sentiment. Hopefully that didn't give anything away.

Book rating: 3.5 stars

Thanks to Harlequin / Hanover Square Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.