I’ve read just two from January’s second batch of paperbacks, beginning with one I had hoped would make it on to my books of the year list.
In Ainslie Hogarth’s Normal Women Dani has recently returned to her hometown, thanks to her husband’s promotion, and is now a fulltime mother. She slips into a routine with her old friend Anya, brunching with ‘mom friends’ to whom she persists in feeling superior until she’s hit with the realisation that she and her daughter are entirely financially dependent on Clark. A visit to the erstwhile red-light area, now gentrified, results in a discussion with the charismatic Renata. Then Renata disappears leaving Dani bereft and prey to ever more baroque theories as to what’s happened to this woman with whom she’s become obsessed. Written in the kind of waspish, snarky tone I enjoy, Hogarth’s novel is hugely entertaining for the most part but the plot woven around Renata’s disappearance peters out in rather implausible way.
Taking aim at the ubiquitous online store which has made itself indispensable to so many consumers while never naming it, Adelle Waldman’s Help Wanted sees the staff of the logistics department of a small town department store settle on a surprising and risky strategy when their popular boss is promoted leaving the field wide open for the incompetent, insensitive Meredith to replace him. Waldman’s empathetic novel engages our sympathy for the hard-pressed Movement staff on minimum wage with no benefits or medical insurance, exploring the consequences of twenty-first-century consumerism and its appetite for ever cheaper goods in an entertaining and engaging way while smartly bringing its readers up short now and again.
Susan Muaddi Darraj’s debut, Behind You Is the Sea, is about three Palestinian immigrant families who have settled in the US with varying experiences of welcome. The Ammars employ Maysoon Baladi to clean up the messes of their over-indulged teenagers while Marcus Salameh is intent on preserving his sister’s honour which entails an enlightening trip to Palestine. ‘Behind You Is the Sea faces stereotypes about Palestinian culture head-on, shifting perspectives to weave a complex social fabric replete with weddings, funerals, broken hearts, and devastating secrets’ says the blurb promisingly. Immigration is always a theme that interests me.
Award-winning translator Jennifer Croft made her debut as a novelist this year with The Extinction of Irena Rey
. Eight translators, commissioned to translate the eponymous author’s work, are alarmed when she disappears into the forest close to the Polish border with Belarus. They set off in search of her uncovering shocking secrets and deceptions while rivalries and differences further strain relationships within the group which is soon gripped by paranoia. ‘This hilarious, thought-provoking second outing by award-winning translator and author Jennifer Croft is a brilliant examination of art, celebrity, the natural world, and the power of language’ says the blurb promisingly. Very much like the sound of that.
January’s short story collection comes garlanded with praise from the likes of Donal Ryan and Lucy Caldwell. Comprising stories which range from two siblings watching their parents argue to a support group for the haunted, Jan Carson’s Children’s Children explores characters who are all falling apart in their own often peculiar ways. ‘Told in Jan Carson’s distinctive voice, her debut short story collection contains absurdist, darkly humorous and heartbreaking stories which explore the concept of legacy, and the impact of one generation upon the next’ says the blurb whetting my appetite nicely.
That’s it for January. A click on a title will take you either to my review or to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with part one it’s here. New fiction is here and here.
For those who celebrate it, I hope you have a brilliant Christmas, and for those who’ve slogged through the build-up in retail and hospitality who will likely be back to work sooner that most of us, I hope you grab some rest and relaxation. See you on the other side…
