30. Easter Everywhere

Easter Everywhere (Darcey Steinke, 2007)

I'm not sure how I feel about Easter Everywhere. The first two thirds of the book were really interesting, but the end seemed to drag for me. It feels weird to criticize a book when it's somebody's life story. Steinke is a lovely writer and she tells her story without explaining the backstory or interpreting its meaning. Very unusual. Her relationship with religion is central to the book, but I thought it got a bit tiresome in the end. I'm sure that's my own bias creeping in. I read part one during lunch, then finished it off when I got home this evening, so it definitely held my attention for the most part.

I haven't read any of Steinke's novels and know of her only from her magazine work, which I've always enjoyed. Perhaps I'd have a better understanding or appreciation for her memoir if I had checked out her longer fiction first. I'm definitely intrigued enough to try.

29. Sunstroke

Sunstroke (Jesse Kellerman, 2006)

I had heard about Jesse Kellerman's debut a while back, but only picked this up when I was at the newsstand and wanted something to read over lunch yesterday. Everything--from the blurbs I've read to the cover art--advertises Sunstroke as a mystery/thriller. Dress this up in trade paper instead of mass market and change the cover art, and I bet reviewers would start discussing its merits as a literary novel instead of in terms of the mystery.

It took me a while to warm up to Gloria because I hated her passivity. I was also annoyed that the author began the book with a serving of the standard cliches about single women filling their lives with cats and other "evidence of their solitude." It was the missing Carl who interested me. I wanted to know what happened to him and as his story slowly unfolded, I was hooked. Kellerman's descriptive passages are beautifully written, but subtly so and I think that's what drew me in. The first chapter of his next book was included here as a teaser, and it hooked me.