Tag Archives: Coming of Age

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King (Dark Tower, Book 4.5)

American Literature April 27, 2012 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: On their way to Calla Bryn Sturgis, Roland and his ka-tet take shelter from a starkblast, and Roland tells the story of his first quest after killing his mother, and within it tells a fairy tale about a brave boy who tangles with a demonic trickster. Review: Oh, my, and it was good to hear Roland’s voice again, you say true and I say thankya. With the series complete, King didn’t need to add to his Dark Tower saga, but The Wind Through the…

The Adults by Alison Espach

American Literature October 15, 2011 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: After witnessing an awful tragedy, a young woman becomes obsessed with a teacher at her school and never quite gets her life where she thinks it needs to be. Review: Listen, you don’t pick up a book like The Adults because of the plot synopsis. You pick it up because you’re hoping that the author has figured out a new way to say old things. And in the case of Alison Espach, you would be absolutely correct. The title is a deliberately misleading one.…

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

American Literature August 27, 2011 Superfast Reader 3 Comments

Synopsis: Plucked from Brooklyn to attend an elite college for magicians, Quentin hopes that his life will be an adventure like those he read about as a kid, but the drama of real life and his own penchant for melancholia keep getting in the way. Review: The Magicians was almost crazy-making thanks to Lev Grossman’s unmatched talent for letting emotional suspense simmer behind the already awesome plot. I was so caught up in the drama of Quentin’s love life and friendships that I wanted as…

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

American Literature August 13, 2011 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: A coming of age story about a girl growing up in Williamsburg in the first half of the 20th Century. Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of the most wonderful books of all time. It’s almost too perfect in its humor, poignancy, and wisdom. I’ve read it countless times since I was a bookish kid like Francie Nolan, wishing I could buy penny candy and sleep in the front room on a cool fall night. My heart broke for her all over…

Try to Remember by Iris Gomez

American Literature May 5, 2010 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: When her father’s behavior begins to deteriorate, Colombian immigrant Gabriela tries to hold her family together as best she can. Review: Try to Remember has a lot going for it. Gabi is an appealing protagonist caught in a intense situation, afraid that her father’s increasingly erratic behavior will get them all deported. Iris Gomez’s sharp observations of culture and psychology didn’t go unnoticed by, even though ultimately I never totally engaged with this story. I kind of feel guilty that I got bored with…

Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card (Tales of Alvin Maker)

American Literature February 25, 2010 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: As Alvin Maker heads out for his apprenticeship, the French conspire to rouse the Reds against the Whites for a war that will win all of an alternate America for Napoleon. Review: I am a big fan of how Orson Scott Card has created an American history that encompasses just enough of our reality to feel authentic, but then skewed to include magic and mysticism. In Red Prophet, Card turns Tecumseh into Ta-Kumsaw, and gives him a brother named Lolla-Wossiky whose transformation will affect…

My Father’s Moon by Elizabeth Jolley

Australian Literature February 23, 2010 Superfast Reader 2 Comments

Synopsis: An unwed mother tries working in an impoverished boarding school and finds herself yearning for the nurse she fell in love with back when both were working in a military hospital in England during WWII. Review: My Father’s Moon is the first of three books in The Vera Wright Trilogy, an autobiographical series that has long been out-of-print. Highly praised in its time, Elizabeth Jolley‘s work wasn’t widely known outside of her native Australia until now. Based on My Father’s Moon, I daresay Ms.…

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman

American Literature February 5, 2010 Superfast Reader 6 Comments

Synopsis: Two college friends decide to circumnavigate the globe in 1986, starting in Communist China, unaware that one is on the brink of mental collapse. Review: I generally find memoirs to be self-indulgent, solipsistic, and narcissistic. Very rarely do the people with good stories also end up with the writing skills to engage the reader beyond the titillating details that sold the book proposal and turn their personal story into something that has actual resonance, meaning and importance. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven…

Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan

American Literature October 29, 2009 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: A quartet of unlikely best friends deal with a post-feminist, post-grad life out of Smith College. Review: The appeal of Commencement is in its depiction of Smith College, caught between poles of conservative femininity and radical lesbianism. Each of the four protagonists deals with life issues that have something to do with the plight of the modern women. Their struggles are portrayed with nuance and pathos, but I wondered if the story would have resonated had it been set in a less idiosyncratic place.…

Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines

American Literature October 12, 2009 Superfast Reader 6 Comments

Synopsis: After the death of her mother’s seventh husband in the gladiatorial arena, a teenage girl finds herself betrothed to his killer–unless she can fight her way out of it. Review: When I first picked up Girl in the Arena, I was expecting some kind of Hunger Games ripoff. That’s not a bad thing, per se–I love those kinds of books. But my expectations weren’t that high, and so I was more than pleasantly surprised when I discovered how original, complex, and downright literary Girl…

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