If you like… Jonathan Safran Foer

I finished Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner on the bus to work this morning.  As I read the last few pages,  I was tearing up.  Okay, crying.  It was a mix of happy and sad, very similar to the feeling I had when I finished Extremely Loud and Incredible Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.    Some of the same themes are present as well (young protagonists, a search, emotional trauma). The Publisher’s Weekly review of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close said this:

“Unafraid to show his traumatized characters’ constant groping for emotional catharsis, Foer demonstrates once again that he is one of the few contemporary writers willing to risk sentimentalism in order to address great questions of truth, love and beauty.”

This sentence is where the similarity lies.  Vaclav and Lena takes risks to seek truth, love, and beauty.  Sentiment and catharsis play a role, as they usually do.  The result is lovely.  Highly, highly recommended.

 

(Want more reader’s advisory?  Previous “If you like…” installments: The Grapes of Wrath and Kurt Vonnegut.  More to come!)

What if?

Sum by David Eagleman

I have always enjoyed a good “What if?”, so I was eager to read David Eagleman’s new book of short stories exploring the possibilities of what happens after death.  I was not disappointed.  What if god is a married couple and we live as their children after we die?  What if…  The stories are brief but fascinating.
Right around the time that I read Sum, I happened to be catching up on old episodes of This American Life, including the 2008 episode entitled Poultry Slam in which Shalom Auslander reads a story from his book Beware of God in which God is a chicken.  What if you knew something that could make life easier for the people you love?  Would you tell them?  Would they believe you?  Not everyone is comfortable with these kinds of “What if?” questions dealing with god or the afterlife.  I remember a bit of controversy when Cynthia Rylant’s book of poetry about God exploring life on earth came out.   I loved it, by the way.  It was funny, insightful, and poignant.  Even to believers willing to stretch their minds open a bit.

The Garden by Elsie Aidinoff

I don’t remember a controversy when The Garden by Elsie Aidinoff came out, but I can’t imagine it was without any.  Quite frankly, I am surprised it was published as a teen novel considering the scene in which God encourages Adam to force himself upon Eve and a later sex scene involving the serpent.  It is now out of print.  Perhaps if it had been published as an adult novel, it would have reached an audience that would have appreciated or understood it.  Who could say?

The way things happened and the way they’ll turn out remain subjective and fodder for fiction to flesh out (Apologies for the alliteration. I couldn’t resist.) for those who are willing.