Help! I'm in Need of my Next Great Read

I was planning on putting out an APB begging readers for a novel recommendation, something I can sink my teeth into after a couple of disappointments. But not a moment too soon, I found an advanced copy of Russell Banks’ “Foregone” on my kindle, fired it up a couple of hours ago, and did not want to break for lunch. I told my sister only a few weeks ago that, though I love Banks and have reviewed several of his novels for Library Journal, this latest book didn’t sound like it would be up my alley. I think I was wrong. Will let you know how I progress.

Meanwhile, I was SO sure I would love Lisa Scottoline’s break out historical fiction attempt, a three-person love affair during the rise of Mussolini’s Fascist government in Rome in the late 1930’s, but “Eternal” did not live up to the hype. Sandro, Marco, and Elizabetta, the young people who had been friends since they could walk, were not fully fleshed out characters and their conversations were stilted to the point of caricature. These faults in the writing made it difficult for me to become invested in their plight. Other readers have raved, however.

 Perhaps I have been spoiled by the phenomenal writing and depth of “Un Village Francais,” (Frederic Krevine) a seven-season film on Amazon prime that has had Don and I mesmerized for weeks. Covering the same period, 1937 – 1945, in France, this outstanding series addresses the extremely complicated workings of a small village just north of the demarcation line between Vichy France and the occupied north, as Germans, collaborators, communists, and resisters all vie for control. We were a bit depressed when the series ended as we had come to care for each of the characters with all their strengths and weaknesses.

Andrea Lee’s “Red Island House” is another recently read novel that left me deeply dissatisfied even though, upon reflection, it might lend itself to a great discussion. The story of a magnificent home built by Senna, an Italian businessman whose source of income is rarely alluded to, on a glorious, spare piece of beachfront land in Madagascar, is laden with magical realism tropes. He and his young wife, African American college professor Shay, seem to morph into different personalities when they inhabit the house and local black magic potions are used and then cast aside, never to appear again, whetting our appetite for an updated version of “House of the Spirits”, then letting us down with just another bad marriage gone sour story.

Lee does write beautifully, painting a vivid picture of Madagascar, an island that readers may not be too familiar with. She also does a great job of pointing out the class distinctions that are particularly difficult for Shay to navigate as a Black woman overseeing her Black employees. Added to the difficulty is Senna’s insistence that they hire a disreputable, rather sinister property manager who spends their money profligately and who deeply resents Shay.

What have you been reading? Any fabulous books you’d like to share with me. I would love to hear from you. I still have plenty of titles to tell you about, gleaned from all the Zoom conferences I’ve been participating in lately. So many publishers, so many titles, but ferreting out the gems? Ah, that’s another matter!