My Ex-Life

"4 Stars!"

"A ton of fun!"

"Utterly refreshing!"

Those aren't my reviews, but other reviews left on Good Reads of this book that I first found out about through the NPR Book Concierge.

My review:

"Meh."

And it wasn't just "meh" - it was 336 pages of meh. And, it started really strong, so my hopes were high. In the end, it just felt like too many interesting story lines and a plot that had promise, but the whole thing just really fell flat.

My Ex-Life is about a formerly married couple who split for pretty obvious reasons. For one, they lost a baby before it was born. Also, he's gay. But, circumstances in their lives decades later had them reaching out to each other. You kind of know where it's going all along, yet that isn't really what bothered me. What bothered me is that the very interesting subplots (his work as a college admissions specialist, working with his ex-wife's daughter; the daughter getting caught up in teenage drama, etc.) were never given the chance to develop into something worthwhile.

I felt myself SLOGGING through this thing. The writing was snappy and interesting, but the book could have been more interesting if it was about 150 pages shorter. And just when you think it was coming to its natural end, the author throws in an insane twist with the daughter that's more annoying and improperly handled than the rest of the book.

You can trust me on this (I gave it 2 stars) or the others who have reviewed it who gave it a strong 4 stars... For me, I just don't see this being an enjoyable journey for any reader.

The Incendiaries

"I drank more... I barely slept; I wanted every prize."

A book plot in a sentence, you'd think after reading the first few chapters of The Incendiaries. You feel like you're reading something more akin to Gatsby than a novel about belief and longing and a dangerous cult. But, for me, that's what made this such a fascinating, compelling novel. A slow burn that builds, hits its climax with remarkable subtlety, then nestles inside your bones after it's complete.

It feels at first like a typical college novel. People finding themselves, searching in others, looking for a meaning beyond what they had before. The novel focuses on a Korean-American student who was on track for greatness when tragedy changed her course. You know right away that Phoebe is chasing meaning in places that won't fulfill her - elaborate parties, bottles of liquor, late nights. Then, you watch through her boyfriend's eyes as she tumbles towards even greater tragedy, following a charismatic man with a questionable past towards an ending only she can't see coming.

Her boyfriend, Will, is searching for meaning, too. A one-time missionary who loses his faith - only to watch the woman he loves searching so desperately to find it. He's longing for her, she's longing for something else. And, they both make terrible mistakes in their quest.

This is a compact and complex novel with flawed characters, language that doesn't necessarily fit them and incongruous imagery of how most of us experienced our college years. Yet, it works.

And that slow burn? It heats up throughout, always leading you believe the whole thing is about to blow. When it does, quite literally, the author never strays from the simplicity with which she tells the rest of the story. The story itself is a roller coaster; the book, though, is steady and powerful.

This was a quick read. It took me just a couple of days and it kept me coming back for more. It's getting a ton of hype and it's worthy of that. Simple and powerful. Just enough to make it great.

Maid

I think what you would call this is a failure to connect.

I really wanted to like this book. To be moved by it. And, while the subject matter was certainly worthy of such a connection, such a stirring of emotion, the story itself simply fell flat.

Stephanie Land's journey is certainly compelling. A single mom, struggling to escape the cycle of poverty while raising her daughter in the shadows in western Washington. She cleans homes to make ends meet, all the while dreaming of the life she could lead. The people whose homes she cleans barely know her name - most have never seen her face - yet she finds herself learning of them through the patterns of their lives they unintentionally leave behind. She spends long days scrubbing, cleaning other people's messes, while unable to crawl out from a financial hole. She's somehow hopeful - and, in the end, prevails.

Seems compelling enough, right? And, people have likened this story to the one told in Educated. But, for me, it never got that deep. I can't even explain why. I never felt hopeful for her, I never felt despair. I just never really felt at all. The stories of frustration she told were clearly worth connecting to; hers is one of failed relationships, lack of family support and a frustrating system of state assistance. But, I didn't feel - and, I didn't learn anything about what can be done for others to overcome what is an unfortunately common story.

Was it the writing? Perhaps. Either way, I don't think it deserves to be named in the same breath as Educated. For me, a magazine article would have sufficed.