I usually don't like to read so many books by the same author so close together, but I was 9 months pregnant, perhaps a little grumpy, and the idea of another gothic-style mystery cheered me up.
Like the other two novels of hers that I read, this book takes place in a few time periods. In one, a young girl witnesses her mother commit an act of violence. Fifty years later, she is at her mother's deathbed and decides to investigate that incident from her childhood - which takes the reader back to London - WWII. As she unravels the intrigue behind her mother's first love and famous neighbor, she uncovers family secrets and a dramatic story.
I liked this book a lot. There were some good plot twists, interesting characters, and a great job of moving between the different stories. There are ways in which Morton's books share similarities, but they never fail to keep me engaged, and I never guess the twists that she puts in the stories.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
Meredith recommended this to me and then it was also a NY Times Notable book for 2012. (That Meredith, she is always ahead of the game!)
The book is about a group of soldiers who are home - briefly - from Iraq as war heroes. They have a little time with their families and a little time touring, parading, at the White House, and at an NFL game. Billy (the title character) struggles with whether he feels like a hero or not, and how he feels about his imminent return to Iraq.
The situations the soldiers are in while they are home creates a very satirical look at how we recognize and reward armed service. There are characters in the book - caricatures really - who exalt the soldiers without really understanding what their sacrifices and hard work are. Fountain creates some really cool word images in the book to represent these conversations.
I liked this book, and appreciated reading it while it was relevant to current events. It did a good job of satirizing not war itself, but the inadequate yet overblown responses that many of those at home have towards soldiers.
The book is about a group of soldiers who are home - briefly - from Iraq as war heroes. They have a little time with their families and a little time touring, parading, at the White House, and at an NFL game. Billy (the title character) struggles with whether he feels like a hero or not, and how he feels about his imminent return to Iraq.
The situations the soldiers are in while they are home creates a very satirical look at how we recognize and reward armed service. There are characters in the book - caricatures really - who exalt the soldiers without really understanding what their sacrifices and hard work are. Fountain creates some really cool word images in the book to represent these conversations.
I liked this book, and appreciated reading it while it was relevant to current events. It did a good job of satirizing not war itself, but the inadequate yet overblown responses that many of those at home have towards soldiers.
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