Fiction | Book Chatter

Is This Tomorrow
By Caroline Leavitt
(Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Paperback, 9781616200541, May 2013, 384pp.)

The Short of It:

A compelling plot with imperfect, sometimes frustrating characters but the honesty in the writing won me over.

The Rest of It:

Caroline Leavitt is a “new to me” writer. I’ve seen her books around but it wasn’t until I started reading her posts on Facebook that I really became interested in her writing. First off, she is constantly writing. I respect that and what I respect most is that even though she is an accomplished author, she still works (really hard I might add) at what ends up on the page. The other thing to note, is that she can be pretty funny. I love a good sense of humor. When her new book, Is This Tomorrow showed up on NetGalley, I snatched it up.

In a Boston suburb during the mid-fifties, Ava Lark rents a house for her and her son Lewis. Recently divorced and working full-time, Ava struggles to find a balance between work and caring for her son. What makes it even more difficult is that she’s Jewish and the rest of the neighborhood already considers her an outcast. She works, dates around and isn’t home as often as she’d like. But the neighborhood is safe and the house is comfortable and even more important, affordable. Ava hopes to buy the house one day.

But something horrible happens. Jimmy, best friend to Lewis and Rose goes missing and leaves all of them, including Ava, questioning the safeness of the neighborhood. With all of the unknowns involved in his disappearance, Ava’s lifestyle is put under a microscope and Lewis and Rose find themselves completely lost without their childhood friend.

Missing children seem to be a popular subject for books these days. I thought this book would walk down the same path as some of the others I’ve read but there is more to this story than a missing child. For one, Ava’s wrecked marriage and her struggle to keep it together is enough to be a book on its own. But then you add this horrible thing and suddenly what you have is a snapshot of time that no one wants to revisit, but can’t seem to get away from. It’s compelling and to be honest, Ava is not likable. At least, she wasn’t likable to me. She is head-strong, kind at times but also a little selfish. She is one of those women that trouble tap-dances around. At the same time, some of the decisions she makes are ones that I’d expect a strong woman to make so I found myself conflicted over my feelings for her.

The kids. We don’t get to know Jimmy all that well before he goes missing, but we see the devastation in Lewis and Rose and that was enough for me to become one of those nervous readers, wringing my hands at the thought of him not turning up. But what goes on during this time, during this search for Jimmy is well… life. Life goes on and it’s sad to think that a neighborhood can move on, but it does and Leavitt captures this in the honest way she has with words. It’s not pretty, but did it feel real? Yes, yes it did.

There is one part that seemed a bit too convenient but I was okay with it because something good had to come out of all of this and I was happy with the direction the story took. It’s sad, but ultimately hopeful which is a bonus when reading a story like this. I can’t say that I liked Ava any better by the end of the book, but I can say that I understood her better. She’s not perfect and as a mom, I could relate to a lot of what she was going through. I guess what I am saying is that I appreciated that she wasn’t perfect and accepted her for who she was even though I had a harsh opinion of her mid-way through.

There is a little bit of everything here. The mystery surrounding the disappearance, the challenges of being a single parent and the effect that relationships, both past and present have on you.

Overall, well done and compelling.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher via NetGalley.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Panorama City
By Antoine Wilson
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Hardcover, 9780547875125, September 2012, 304pp.)

The Short of It:

Oppen Porter is probably one of my favorite protagonists since Owen Meany. In fact, you could say he’s a cross between Owen Meany and Forrest Gump. Witty, funny, brutally honest yet likable.

The Rest of It:

What a wonderful book. Where do I even start? You know it’s good when I can’t even formulate my thoughts.

After a mysterious accident, Oppen finds himself in a Madera hospital, in traction and on the verge of dying. Well, to HIM, the end is near which is why he is recording a letter to his unborn son, Juan George. The events of his 28-years are unremarkable in one sense, and spectacular in another. At 6’6″, he is a grown man and intelligent in his own way, but his simple curiosity allows him to befriend all sorts of strange characters. Riding everywhere on his bicycle, with a pair of binoculars around his neck, Oppen exists by asking the questions that no one else wants to ask. He’s blunt, far from innocent yet gullible, but even when people set out to take advantage of him, his goodness seems to rub off on them just a tiny bit. Enough to make you wonder if there is good in everyone.

From his hospital bed, Oppen tells his story.

When his father dies at home, Oppen takes it upon himself to fulfill his father’s wish, which is to be buried at home in his own backyard. This seems perfectly logical. Why would anyone have a problem with it? When the authorities catch wind of it, the body is exhumed and buried to code. Frustrated that he is unable to do the one thing his father requested, he suddenly finds himself living with his Aunt Liz in Panorama City, California. If you’ve ever visited the San Fernando Valley, you know how dry and boring Panorama City can be. It’s “strip mall” city, crowded, and eternally stuck in the 70’s (if you ask me).

Aunt Liz believes that what Oppen needs is a job to fix him right up, so she gets him a job at a local fast food joint. There, he is forced to interact and consider, those around him. Both customers and coworkers become objects for analysis. Oppen’s desire to please the customer could mean giving them the chosen fry, the one that’s a bit longer than the others just to see if they are paying attention but what it usually does is get him in trouble with whoever he’s trying to analyze at the time. But his fill-in-the-blank personality saves him, in that no one ever thinks he’s trying to be annoying on purpose; quite the opposite actually.

As Oppen moves through life in Panorama City, his time there becomes an Odyssey which lasts 40 days and 40 nights. He finds Christ through the Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, learns about fleeting youth from his freethinking friend, Paul Renfro and although many attempt to take advantage of him, in the end, Oppen seems to always come out on top.

I don’t run, because when you run people chase you. People and animals. Always better to extend your stride.

This is a charming read in many ways but what I found most charming, was Oppen himself and yes I’ll admit it, even Panorama City was a lot more interesting with Oppen in it. His ability to take it all in, distill whatever it is right down to its essence, and then regurgitate it back up for his unborn son’s benefit… priceless. To me, this book reminded me so, so much of A Prayer for Owen Meany, which is a book that I hold dear. So for me to even compare this one to Meany means that this one is pretty special.

I wanted to include some gems from the book but there are far too many to mention. I suggest you pick-up a copy and just read it for yourself. I, for one will be reading Wilson’s other book, The Interloper as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Audio Note: I listened to a portion of this on audio and it was just as fabulous on audio.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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