Tag Archives: T. Greenwood

This Glittering World by T. Greenwood

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Synopsis:
After the body of a badly beaten Navajo man is discovered in the snow outside his home, Ben Bailey takes the investigation into his own hands, with devastating consequences for his own disordered life.

Review:
With every book of hers I read, I become convinced that T. Greenwood is my favorite contemporary author. This Glittering World is one of her best yet, achieving the same level of intensity and feeling as her second novel (and my favorite) Nearer than the Sky.

Protagonist Ben Bailey’s life is at a crossroads. He may or may not be in love with his live-in girlfriend Sara. He teaches history at Northern Arizona University, and he’s supposed to want tenure, but prefers bartending instead. The only thing really knows for sure is that he loves the way the snowstorms cover Flagstaff in an instant, blanketing everything with the sweet, undeniable nothingness he craves for his own life.

The murder mystery at the heart of this novel is compelling for its off-screen brutality. Even while the details remain unknown, Ricky Begay’s end is heartbreakingly easy to imagine. Ben rediscovers his heart and his sense of justice trying to solve the crime–but his instant attraction to Ricky’s older sister Shadi complicates things intensely.

Greenwood brings Flagstaff to light in all its eccentricity. It reminded me of Austin, Texas, and I really want to visit there someday. Her characters are complicated times a million, and despite the sadness pervading the book’s every page, I was swept away by their story because I could connect with all of them on a deep level. In a literary culture where too many authors write to the book club, Greenwood is foisting her unique and compelling point of view on the world with no compromises. More please!

The Hungry Season by T. Greenwood

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Synopsis:
Stricken with writers’ block after the death of a loved one, a writer moves his family to a remote New England cabin to try to rebuild, while a fan makes her way across the country to realize her dream of being with him.

Review:
I’m a longtime fan of T. Greenwood‘s nuanced character portraits and sticky situations, and The Hungry Season is her best yet.

I really can’t say enough good things about this book, which takes an excruciating look at the breakup of a family. I desperately wanted Sam and Mena and Finn to figure it out and become a family again, and found myself turning pages as if I were reading a crime novel. The stalker plotline does add some external suspense–her books don’t usually have a ticking clock per se–but the emotional drama was what kept me so heavily invested.

I loved the bravery Greenwood showed in portraying her characters as flawed without reveling in their dysfunction. She invests everyone with a dignity and humanity that made me see a little bit of myself in each of them.

Highly recommending this one to anyone who wants a good, solid read that will keep you up at night without giving you indigestion.

Many thanks to Kensington and T. Greenwood for the review copy.

Two Rivers by T. Greenwood

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Synopsis:
Haunted by ghosts from his past and memories of his dead wife, Harper Montgomery finds his world thrown off its axis when a pregnant teenager whom he has never met shows up on his doorstep asking for a home.

Review:
I can only imagine what my fellow subway passengers must have thought of me, as I brushed the tears away from my eyes while popping Cheerios into my Ergo’ed daughter’s mouth as we hurtled through Brooklyn. T. Greenwood’s Two Rivers just about slew me, in the best possible way. She artfully assembles a cast of characters who feel like family, and sets them on an irrevocable course towards a salvific destruction. In lesser hands, the story would have turned maudlin or become buried in tedious metaphor. Greenwood employs plain yet evocative prose that heartbeats with experiences that are as real as any I’ve had myself.

I’ve been a fan of Greenwood’s ever since I read Nearer than the Sky back when it was published in 1999. I would love to see her find a wider audience. I imagine Two Rivers will whet readers’ appetites for much, much more. If you enjoy books by Anne Tyler or the more realistic works of Joyce Carol Oates, then T. Greenwood is an author you need to add to your shelf.

May I Introduce… (Booking Through Thursday)

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    1. How did you come across your favorite author(s)? Recommended by a friend? Stumbled across at a bookstore? A book given to you as a gift?
    2. Was it love at first sight? Or did the love affair evolve over a long acquaintance?

    You can find my favorite authors listed in the first sidebar column. Here’s a rundown of how I met them all:

    • CS Lewis–My father read the Chronicles of Narnia to me when was a little girl. For my 6th birthday, I had a cake featuring the old cover art from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In college, I attended a two-week symposium in Cambridge, England, sponsored by the CS Lewis Institute, and that’s where I fell in love with his non-fiction.
    • Edith Wharton–I hated Ethan Frome, but fell in lover with Age of Innocence in college. I tore through the rest of her books. Still don’t like Ethan Frome, though.
    • Flannery O’Connor love came from reading Wise Blood in high school.
    • Jane Austen–now that’s an interesting case. I had to read Pride and Prejudice in ninth grade and hated it. Just a few years ago, I decided to give her another chance, and read Sense and Sensibility. I adored it, and adored all the rest of her books… including Pride and Prejudice.
    • JRR Tolkien love grew from a lifelong adoration of Middle Earth from reading The Hobbit and watching the animated movies. On that same trip to Cambridge, I read The Lord of the Rings for the first time and my passion was sealed.
    • Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, and Barbara Vine were library reads. I had heard good things about them, and decided to take a chance.
    • Shirley Jackson I picked up while working in development for a film producer. We were looking for material and somebody suggested I check out her work. Ah, me! One taste and I was lost. I found a book scout in Canada who tracked down all her out of print books for me.
    • Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising was assigned reading in sixth grade. I immediately got my hands on the rest of the series, and have since reread it several times. I can’t wait to introduce them to Bean.
    • Walker Percy was yet another author I discovered in Cambridge. I read Lost in the Cosmos, then his fiction, then the rest of his non-fiction essays on semiotics. He played a big part in forming my identity in my early 20s.

    You may also notice I have a list of Author Sites I Love. Here’s how I met those folks:

    • Dan Allender was thanks to counseling with a former pastor.
    • David Bordwell from a grad school course on film narrative.
    • George RR Martin was a recommendation from my best friend from college.
    • Jeffrey Overstreet is a great blogger.
    • Laurie Halse Anderson wrote Speak, and there’s a whole story about me and that book that I’ll save for another day.
    • Libba Bray was recommended to me by an eighth grader at my old high school. I did a speaking engagement, and this girl was my mini-me–frizzy hair, socially awkward, and a huge bookworm.
    • Madeleine L’Engle I’ve blogged about before, in a post on books that evoked a strong emotional reaction in me.
    • Robin Hobb was a recommendation from the girlfriend of a college friend of my husband’s. This guy teases Melissa for reading what he calls “vampires in space” books. My husband likes to say, “How can you write a book about a dragon?” She and I hit it off immediately.
    • Save the Cat! is the site of a recent book on screenwriting that my manager made me read. I wish I had read it ages ago… it really does live up to its own hype.
    • Scott Westerfeld was discovered by me during a search to find young adult books that would make great movies. The Uglies series is being made into a movie, though not with me.
    • Stephen King saved my life freshman year in college, before I made friends and a life. I whiled away many a long boring night with one of his gazillions of books, checked out of the library.
    • T. Greenwood’s book Nearer than the Sky is quite special to me. A friend and I have an option on it and hope to turn it into a movie.

    And there you have it–wow, it’s amazing what I can do while the baby takes a nap!

    • Breathing Water by T. Greenwood

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    Synopsis:
    After learning of the death of her abusive ex-boyfriend, a woman returns to the home by the lake she once loved to build a new life and exorcise old ghosts.

    Review:
    I am a very big fan of T. Greenwood’s second novel, Nearer than the Sky, and I have no excuse for why it took me so long to read Breathing Water, her debut. Simply put, Greenwood is a beautiful prose stylist who isn’t afraid to explore dark and scary places with characters who feel like people you’ve known all your life. Continue reading →