Emily, Alone
Stewart O’Nan
Publication Year: 2010
Source: Gift from Kai
I picked up Emily, Alone because it’s not often that I read a book that features an elderly main character, which is something that I didn’t realize until I was halfway through the book. After her sister-in-law has a small stroke, Emily has to face life and do things for herself again. What comes next is an interesting
What I like about the book is that O’Nan does a great job of having Emily look back on certain aspects of her life with regret, joy, or even a new sense of wonder. Emily has never gotten along with her daughter Margaret and wishes she was closer to both Margaret and Margaret’s adult children. Her husband, parents, and best friend are all gone, and there aren’t many people Emily would call part of her inner circle. You see the day-to-day details of someone who is almost on her own. While reading the book, I often wondered how I would look back on my life if and when I become elderly.
More than halfway through the book Emily has a rant or two about politics and our current president. There were also a few lines about his race. I could look at it as someone who is looking at a newer generation and not understanding it but by the end of Emily’s rant on what she felt was wrong with American politics, I was turned off to reading more about Emily. So instead of getting a rating of 4 or 5 out of 5, Emily, Alone gets a rating of 2 ½ out of 5 stars.
Hard Times Require Furious Dancing
Alice Walker
210 pages
Publication Year: 2010
Publisher: New World Library
Source: Public Library
I first fell in love with Alice Walker’s poetry more than a decade ago when I discovered her poetry collection, Her Blue Body Everything We Know. It’s a wonderful volume of poetry so when I saw that Walker recently published a new collection, I didn’t hesitate to check this out from my public library. I was less than one hundred pages into the book, when I decided to just make it a DNF (do not finish). Among the subjects that Walker writes about includes stopping wars, holding on to anger, and learning lessons which sound somewhat passionate but this collection lacks emotion for me. I couldn’t find a reason to keep reading so I stopped. Out of all the pages I read, I only found two poems worth mentioning: “Sometimes” and “Watching You Hold Your Hatred”.
Lost At Sea
Bryan Lee O’Malley
172 pages
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication Year: 2005
Source: Public Library
I have a lot on my mind and not a lot to do so it’s going to come out, all of it, and then, then , it may begin to make a sort of sense. . .
I love love love the work of Bryan Lee O’Malley. He’s the genius behind one of my favorite new-to-me graphic novel series, Scott Pilgrim. I had no idea that he wrote anything else so I was ecstatic to find more of his work. Lost at Sea is the story of Raleigh, an eighteen year old who thinks she doesn’t have a soul. It sounds weird, right? But it’s not. She’s the only child of divorced parents, friendless, and with no clue on what to do with herself or her life. By chance she ends up going on a cross-country road trip with three classmates. Raleigh’s already a loner and kind of awkward around other people, but maybe these three can get her out of her shell.
Lost at Sea perfectly captures the loneliness and confusion of life. This is a book I can see myself handing to a teenager or an adult. O’Malley’s black and white drawings compliment the story nicely while taking a back seat to let everything develop. I think Craig Thompson’s brilliant and beautiful graphic novel, Blankets, would go nicely with this book. Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Courtesy of William Brawley
