I recently got my hands on the ARC (advanced readers’ copy) of Michael Cunningham’s new novel, By Nightfall. I know, I know–eat your hearts out. Seriously, don’t despair; you won’t have to wait long as it will be in bookstores in October.

This is a very good book, thoroughly readable. What’s it about, you ask? Well, very quickly:

Rebecca and Peter are living in Manhattan. Of course they are, because Michael Cunningham’s descriptions of that city take the reader there to an extent that rivals Ian McEwan’s ability to transport the reader to (and through) London in Saturday. In my opinion, that’s an achievement.

Rebecca and Peter are middle-aged, or getting there, long-married with a daughter freshly flown from the coop, and are both working “in the arts”–she is a magazine editor; he owns an art gallery and dreams of one day discovering that historically important artist that will transcend time, place, and the mediocrity of life.

Ahh, the mediocrity of life. It looms ever greater as a final destination the more into “middle-age” one advances.

Rebecca’s brother, Ethan, aka the Mistake, or Mizzy, comes to visit. And there begins the tale…Although I cannot recall at the moment why Ethan’s family calls him the Mistake, what is more important is that he conjures for others their own. Mistakes, that is. In life. The takes and mis-takes that lead one to live an absolutely ordinary, mediocre life.

And thus, Peter finds himself at a crux. The effect Mizzy has on Peter (I won’t give away a huge part of the book right here–even though I saw it coming like a train entering a station) is life-altering. Should Peter go off to risk finding the extraordinary? Or should he settle for his everyday, pleasant, but let’s face it, hardly amazing life?

It strikes me that this book is like a coming-of-age novel, but for middle-agers–people who haven’t been innocent for quite a while, but who still harbor some notion of the existence, in themselves or others, of the ideal. And this book is about what happens when they realize that hey, that Paradise is just an illusion. You took a bite out of the apple a long time ago and this is the world that is yours. From a hopeful standpoint, though, that world, your life, although not ideal, can still be wonderful and full of beauty.

How about you? Are you still searching for an ideal life?

My goodness, I haven’t WHIRLed in ages! It isn’t for lack of reading, I assure you. Hmm…shall I blame World Cup Fever, still rampaging through my house? Yes, that must be it.

So, here I WHIRL, but you may be disappointed for the moment, because I have read so many wonderful books, books that I have on my shortlist for this season’s book groups, so I can’t tell you those titles yet.

For instance, there’s a book by one of my favorite American authors that I just loved, loved, loved! That will definitely be on my list.

Then the book by the author from Zimbabwe–I picked it up and read for two days straight without putting it down. Or so it seemed, anyway. You know, one of those great novels that you can’t pull yourself away from. I may be putting that one on my list.

Tinkers by Paul Harding. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize this year, so I was excited to read it. Hmm…not loving it. And this is the second time I have picked it up–I am somewhat determined to get through it. Somewhat. We’ll see.

The Appointment by Herta Muller. She was born in Romania and won the Nobel Prize, so I was really excited to read her. I am enjoying, not loving, this book, but I just don’t think I will subject my book groups to it. I think I’d meet too much resistance.

Another novel by a Man Booker Prize winner–an English author whom I had never read before. Glad I picked this one up–I think it will end up on my list.

Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare. Kadare is an Albanian author who has received numerous awards, one of which is the International Man Booker Prize, awarded every other year. Although I won’t be putting this book on my list, I am really enjoying it. The story is narrated by a young Albanian boy who is chronicling what is happening to his village during WWII. What I love about this book is the boy’s imagination, which of course hasn’t been squashed by any adult logic. It’s making me look at everything–stones and all–with a new eye.

I have never read any Joyce Carol Oates and I feel like I should! So I picked up Blackwater but got distracted, and then picked up another one, can’t remember the title right now, but then got distracted. Oates is seriously prolific and I know she is loved, but I need some guidance here. Have you read her and can you recommend a title I should read?

What about YOU? Are you ready to WHIRL?

It’s World Cup fever in my house. As I blog, New Zealand is on its way to a huge upset of Italy. Hard not to root for the underdog. Right, I may have to rethink this–as I glanced up from my laptop to the TV, the shot was on the crowd–about a dozen bare-chested, overweight New Zealand men, waving their shirts in the air. Not a pretty sight.

But I digress.

For a while we had basketball fever in my house as well. But then the Lakers wrapped it all up in the seventh (rather exciting) game against the Boston Celtics. With all the in-your-face technology available these days, the TV viewer was able to hear what the coaches were saying to the players at time-outs.

Doc Rivers told his team at one critical point that he didn’t want any heroes. That they should play together. As a team.

For some reason that resonated with me. I got to thinking about the question from Elyse, one of my book group members, our very first meeting. What makes a really good discussion?

Well, one thing that helps is when the group converses as a team. That sounds sort of strange, but if you think about it, it’s true. If someone shows up with the mindset of being a hero–of dominating the discussion with her opinion, of being “right” in her interpretation of the book, in short–if someone shows up with an open gob but a closed mind–then the conversation will suffer.

So arrive at your next meeting with an open and curious mind. Really listen to what others say before responding, and try to remark upon–and dig deeper into–what they are saying. This sounds simple but takes some practice. Many members just want to speak what’s on their minds rather than engage with what has been said by someone else. However, following one topic to it’s conclusion before moving on to another can result in a much more fruitful conversation for everyone.

So thanks, Coach Rivers, for the tip. The Lakers, coached by Phil Jackson, went on to take the championship, so let’s give a nod to Coach Jackson also. He has coached more championship teams than any other coach in sports. So, he must be doing something right. To find out more, log onto http://www.amazon.com and see the books he’s written. And if you read any of them, don’t forget to WHIRL!

There’s an interesting article in the New York Times today about The New Yorker‘s upcoming issue in which twenty fiction writers under the age of forty are named as “ones to watch.”

Here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/books/03under.html?hpw

According to the NY Times article, this is a big deal because it’s been over ten years since The New Yorker last named any “writers to watch.” So, looking at that list is pretty interesting. Jhumpa Lahiri was on it, one of my favorite authors. Have you read Interpreter of Maladies or The Namesake? How about Unaccustomed Earth? I have a very funny story about calling into NPR when Michael Krasny was interviewing Jhumpa on Forum. Remind me to tell it to you sometime.

Another fave on that list: Junot Diaz. We all loved The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but how about his collection of short stories, Drown? Have you read that?

Jeffrey Eugenides was on it (loved Middlesex!), as was Nathan Englander, one of my favorite short story authors.

I am going to take a close look at this year’s list–if the last list is anything to go by, The New Yorker knows what it’s talking about. Perhaps we’ll all read these “writers to watch” in our future Literary Masters book groups!

You know what I feel like doing? I feel like curling up with The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott, all 1926 pages of it, and reading it from one end to the other. I took it out of the library the other day, something I’ve meant to do ever since I watched The Jewel in the Crown, the British TV series that I was obsessed with–I had to watch every single episode (again, taken from my wonderful local library) right through from the beginning to the end of the series. I was so sad when it was over, and I wanted more!

Anyway, I was meandering among the fiction shelves and I saw it–The Raj Quartet. By page nine I was hooked. I felt like I was India. I could feel the heat, see the dust. Oh, what a wonderful way to spend a summer. I put it back on the shelf, though. I am being disciplined, as I have a lot of other reading to do. You all know by now that I am furiously reading award-winning books to choose my list for next season’s book groups.

SEE HOW MUCH I SACRIFICE FOR YOU?

The four books within the quartet are titled: The Jewel in the Crown, The Day of the Scorpion, The Towers of Silence, and A Division of the Spoils.

Oh, and if you haven’t yet seen the television series, RUN, do not walk, but RUN, knocking down everyone in your way, to your local library or video store to procure it. Or I guess you can Netflix it or some other less energetic way of getting your hands on it. Anyway, get it and watch it–you will thank me.

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz is truly a wonderful book. All my book groups enjoyed it, and the conversations were lively, opinionated, and everyone had something to say. It’s interesting how differently individuals reacted to this book. Some found it angry while others hadn’t seen that part of it. Some found it hilarious although tragic. Some found it depressing. Just about everyone found it to be an interesting read. A real page-turner.

I’ll highlight below some of the points that were made in the various groups. You may or may not agree with them:

This really isn’t Oscar’s story. It’s Yunior’s story. You can hear his voice change, grow, as he narrates the book, and you can watch him change and grow, too. He comes to terms with who he is as a Dominican man.

Although the men acted macho, this story just underscored that it was all an act, a role they were playing, a mask they were wearing. The women were the really strong characters in the story. They were the ones who, although severely restricted to a limited space by the patriarchal society in which they lived, took action when action was called for. The results weren’t always great, but at least they did something.

Lola took on her masks, “performing” to others’ expectations, until she figured out how to be true to herself. Oscar was the only one who didn’t wear a mask, who didn’t play a role, perhaps because he didn’t know how to.

The question of complicity came up. And destiny. How much control do we really have over our lives? How much control must we cede to others? We talked about how Trujillo was a brutal dictator, but the Dominicans helped elevate him to mythological status with their stories about him.

Speaking of stories, and histories, and TRUTH, we talked about the structure of the book, especially the narrator and how he mediated the voices of the other characters coming through him.

What stories do we tell our ourselves? We talked about this, and the reason we tell ourselves stories.

We were all interested in the Macombo (magical realism elements) versus McOndo (gritty, street-wise realism) that are opposed to each other yet work side-by-side in this novel.

Oh gosh, we talked about much more: themes of identity, belonging, the “space in between,” authority–I couldn’t help but view the book through the lens of post-colonialism. And we talked about the brilliance of Junot Diaz. One of my members blurted out that she just so wished she could speak to him–a bit ironic, I thought, as we were talking about authority and how we give it over to others!

Bottom line: Run, don’t walk, to read this book; it’s amazing.

Wow! April is flying by! And I’ve been neglecting my blog! I’m so sorry to all of you–how have you survived? Have you had to turn to other reading? Hmmm, read anything good lately? Hmmm, What Have I Read Lately?

Ask, by Sam Lipsyte. Last time I WHIRLED, I was mid-way through this novel. Well, I finished it, and I would recommend it, sort of. I’d give it say, a 7 out of 10.

Solar, by Ian McEwan. I know the critics have panned it, but I think this novel is the funniest book I have read since Portnoy’s Complaint. Run. Do not walk. Run to get your hands on this book.

Another book, an award-winner, the title of which I am not revealing because it was so good, I am using it for my next season of Literary Masters book groups. Join one of my groups if you want to know which book it is. 🙂

How about you? Are you ready to WHIRL? Let me know what you’ve been reading lately.