Literary | Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

Spotlight Review: ELLIPSES by Vanessa Lawrence

March 5, 2024

From the publisher:

Set in the glossy world of New York City media, this sharp and witty debut novel follows a young woman caught in a toxic mentorship with an older, powerful executive as she grapples with career, belonging, and the complexity of modern relationships in the digital age.

When cosmetics mogul Billie rolls down her town car window and offers Lily a ride home from a glitzy Manhattan gala, Lily figures this could be a useful professional connection. She’s heard of Billie’s storied rise as a business titan, the product of white New England privilege and one of the few queer women in a corner suite. Billie could be just the jolt Lily needs to manifest her next step.

A magazine writer, Lily interviews influencers, actresses, and fashion designers for her publication’s stylish pages, all while navigating office microaggressions. Stalled at work, she worries that her dream print career will soon succumb to the rise of social media. She is at a standstill, too, in her relationship with her girlfriend Alison. And Lily feels unable to voice her authenticity when others’ sliding perceptions of her mixed race and bisexual identity repeatedly drown her out.

Charming and hyperconfident, Billie seems invested in mentoring Lily out of her slump, from the screen of her phone. But their text exchanges and Billie’s relentless worldview begin to consume Lily’s life. Eager to impress her powerful guide, Lily is perpetually suspended in an ellipsis, waiting for those three gray dots to bloom into a new message from Billie.

Ellipses explores one woman’s struggle for wholeness, in a world shaped by digital half-lives and aspirational fantasies. In the end, this stunning debut novel reveals the rewards and challenges of forging an uncharted path on one’s own terms.
https://amzn.to/47l5yuF

There is a lot to parse here, from microaggressions to racism, misogyny, and workplace power plays, all told through the lens of a young woman clashing with a changing culture. This debut novel revolves around Lily, a queer, mixed-race writer at a women’s print magazine in New York City, writing about social media influencers and not exactly loving it. Lily spends her life trying to blend in, whether it is at work or at the social gatherings she covers for the magazine. The industry is moving to digital, but there is a certain snobbism to print that Lily can’t seem to shake off. She meets Billie, a powerful lesbian running a beauty empire who seems to want to mentor Lily via text messages, but Lily isn’t always too fond of her advice. Nonetheless, Lily becomes somewhat obsessed with Billie, putting her own relationship with her long-term girlfriend at risk while her career feels like it is plunging downhill. This mentorship is quite toxic, but it takes Lily way too long to figure that out, leading to a somewhat surprising ending.

Verdict: Readalikes for this original literary debut may include The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer or We Are Water by Wally Lamb.

©Library Journal, 2024

3/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

ELLIPSES by Vanessa Lawrence. Dutton (March 5, 2024). ISBN:‎ 978-0593472774. 288p.

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Spotlight Review: THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride

December 5, 2023

From the publisher:

THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.” —Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review

“We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.

“With this story, McBride brilliantly captures a rapidly changing country, as seen through the eyes of the recently arrived and the formerly enslaved . . . And through this evocation, McBride offers us a thorough reminder: Against seemingly impossible odds, even in the midst of humanity’s most wicked designs, love, community and action can save us.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is one of the best novels I’ve read this year. It pulls off the singular magic trick of being simultaneously flattening and uplifting.” —NPR
https://amzn.to/3N6OAch

My friend Judy recommended this book to me, and I put it off for a while – my mistake. This was a totally immersive read into a world of incredible characters wrapped in a mystery, and I loved it.

The book opens in the 1970s, with a skeleton found in an old well, along with a couple of trinkets. Almost immediately, it moves back to the Depression era in the small town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where European immigrants, Blacks, and Jews are all living together in near poverty on Chicken Hill, while the white folks live in town. Except for Moshe and Chona, a young Jewish couple who own the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. It was Chona’s father’s store, and she takes over running it while her husband Moshe, owns a music theater where he brings in all kinds of music, from Klezmer to jazz. The grocery loses money on the regular, as Chona is too kindhearted to make any of her poor customers pay, but the theater makes money. Moshe wants to move off of Chicken Hill, but Chona won’t budge. He is so in love with her, he’ll do anything she says.

Chona had polio and wears a special shoe to help her walk. She is sensitive to others with disabilities, so when Nate, a young Black man who is married to Chona’s best friend, Addie, asks her to help hide Dodo, his nephew, she immediately agrees. Dodo was orphaned when their stove blew up, killing his mother and leaving him blind and deaf. Eventually, he gets his sight back but not his hearing. He is an intelligent pre-teen boy and reads lips remarkably well, but the state wants to institutionalize him at their hospital of horrors, hence the reason he needs to be hidden.

The town doctor leads the Ku Klux Klan parade every year, so it is understandable why none of the people on Chicken Hill will go to him. He has lusted after Chona since they were in high school together, but she rejected him then and he has held a grudge ever since. All these characters and more are introduced in the first section of the book, so it would be slow going except they are all so interesting, and I couldn’t wait to see how they would all come together in this story.

By the time the mystery of the skeleton was solved at the end of the book, I had almost forgotten that was how it started. I was so drawn into this world that I didn’t want to leave it at the end. This was one of those books that will stay with me for years, and had a little bit of everything – mystery, romance, history, humor, pathos, drama – all rolled up into one terrific novel. Book groups will love it, and everyone should read it. Look for this book to top my best books of the year list!

12/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride. Riverhead Books (August 8, 2023). ISBN:‎ 978-0593422946. 400p.

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Spotlight Review: DEATH VALLEY by Melissa Broder

October 10, 2023

From the publisher:

The most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story.

In Melissa Broder’s astounding new novel, a woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike.

Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.

This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley.
https://amzn.to/3LALqvC

Melissa Broder (Milk Fed) has written a weird and wacky treatise on grief. The protagonist is an author trying to complete her newest novel while dealing with serious family issues. She hits the road, leaving Los Angeles, and heads to the desert, where she is delighted to find a room in her favorite hotel chain, Best Western. Her husband has been debilitating from an undiagnosed illness for years; her father was in a terrible car accident several months earlier but has cheated death twice while remaining mostly unresponsive in the ICU; her mother deals with it all by adhering to strict superstitions. Written in the first person, the novel’s first half details her journey to this point; the second half is a stream of consciousness of her visit to the desert, hallucinating an enormous cactus and going inside it; very much an escape from reality. The humor is bleak, the metaphors strong, and her grief is palpable. The meandering story finally arrives at a somewhat surprising, almost heartfelt ending. Buy for demand only.

Verdict: For the literary sophisticate – readalikes include novels by Banana Yoshimoto and Jeffrey Eugenides.

©Library Journal, 2023

10/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

DEATH VALLEY by Melissa Broder. Scribner (October 24, 2023). ISBN: 978-1668024843. 240p.

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Spotlight Review: AMAZING GRACE ADAMS by Fran Littlewood

September 5, 2023

From the publisher:

Bernadette, Eleanor Oliphant, Rosie, Ove . . . meet Amazing Grace Adams, the funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink―who finally pushes back.

Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled―the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she’s really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away.
Grace sets off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday. Because today is the day she’ll remind her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up again. Because Grace Adams used to be amazing. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them . . . and, most important, remind herself.
https://amzn.to/3NKW4lU

Tales of extraordinary women abound, but the title character of Littlewood’s debut novel is a seemingly relatable everywoman. The timeline bounces around between the Grace of her 20s, 30s, and 40s, and the story begins as Grace spends the day trying to deliver a birthday cake to Lotte, her estranged 16-year-old daughter. She abandons her car in gridlock and starts hoofing it, taking off on a deeply personal pilgrimage of sorts. Her journey takes her to the bakery where she ordered the overpriced cake to an incident with the police and other assorted encounters. Grace is obviously troubled, and her journey to her daughter is also one of insight into her own life. Perimenopause rears its ugly head, divorce seems imminent, and unemployment all contribute to what appears to be Grace’s break with reality, but it is all underscored by the worst tragedy a parent can face. Although the story seems inconsistent at times, it only enhances the surreality that is Grace’s life. Despite this, we can’t help but root for her.

Verdict: An utterly charming debut, sure to appeal to readers who loved Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.

©Library Journal, 2023

9/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

AMAZING GRACE ADAMS by Fran Littlewood. Henry Holt and Co.; International Edition (September 5, 2023). ISBN: 978-1250857019. 272p.

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Spotlight Review: REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt

August 15, 2023

From the publisher:

For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF SUMMER by: Chicago Tribune * The View * Southern Living * USA Today

“Remarkably Bright Creatures [is] an ultimately feel-good but deceptively sensitive debut. . . . Memorable and tender.” — Washington Post

“A debut novel about a woman who befriends an octopus is a charming, warmhearted read.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A unique and luminous book.” — Booklist (starred review)
https://amzn.to/3O7wmqB

What an incredible read! My friend Nora recommended this book to me while we were on a *mini-vacay, and I’m so happy she did! There are two main characters, Tova, an elderly woman who cleans the small town aquarium, and Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus.

Tova has had a hard life. She’s lost everyone she loves, including her husband and her son, but she keeps putting one foot in front of the other and keeps moving on. Marcellus has come to terms with his captivity, but he enjoys sneaking out of his tank after hours. Tova knows this but figures live and let live, and she doesn’t rat him out. In fact, she saves him one night after he becomes ensnarled in a bunch of cords beneath a table. Marcellus is quite bright, and his observations of the humans who enter his world are often thoughtful, snarky, and just delightful as the book meanders back and forth from his viewpoint to Tova’s.

When Tova’s son was lost at sea, it was assumed a suicide, but Tova never accepts that. Turns out Marcellus may have information that will help Tova only he has to figure out how to communicate this to her. When Tova has a nasty fall, she is put on bed rest and the aquarium hires a young man new to town to help fill in while she’s out. But she can’t stay away; as soon as she is somewhat mobile, she starts sneaking into the aquarium, helping out her replacement but keeping it all on the down low.

This was such a charming book, and I’m sure it will stay with me for a very long time. It is an incredible debut filled with memorable characters and an unusual yet believable storyline; Remarkably Bright Creatures is bound for my best books of 2023 list. Don’t miss it!

*mini-vacay: only visited two bookstores and no libraries (other than a Little Free Library)!

8/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt. Ecco (May 3, 2022). ISBN: 978-0063204157. 368p.

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TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin

August 26, 2022

From the publisher:

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A JIMMY FALLON BOOK CLUB PICK • In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

“Riveting… Zevin has written the book she was born to write, a love letter to every aspect of gaming…Zevin’s delight in her characters, their qualities, and their projects sprinkles a layer of fairy dust over the whole enterprise…Sure to enchant even those who have never played a video game in their lives, with instant cult status for those who have.” —Kirkus, starred

“Zevin creates beautifully flawed characters often caught between the real and gaming worlds, which are cleverly juxtaposed to highlight their similarities and differences. Both readers of love stories and gamers will enjoy. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal, starred

“Zevin… returns with an exhilarating epic of friendship, grief, and computer game development…. Zevin layers the narrative with her characters’ wrenching emotional wounds as their relationships wax and wane… Even more impressive are the visionary and transgressive games… This is a one-of-a-kind achievement.” —Publishers Weekly, starred
https://amzn.to/3cnF05v

Zevin’s book, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, was one of my favorite books, so I was happy to pick up this new one, even though it didn’t sound like something that would interest me. The book is about three friends who create video games. The closest I get to video games are Wordle, the NYT Spelling Bee & Crosswords, and Candy Crush. The video games serve as a backdrop to these characters, and at times, the games are front and center. Somehow I was drawn into their world and I didn’t want to leave.

This is a hard book to quantify; it probably is best slotted into the literary fiction genre (and boy, do they hate when literary fiction is called a genre!) All I can tell you is this is a tour de force and a mesmerizing read. I don’t want to give away anything, so if you like character-driven stories that are fast-paced and emotionally engaging, then this is your book. I loved it, and so did just about all the critics. Too much hype can sometimes backfire, but it is well deserved here.

8/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin. Knopf (July 5, 2022). ISBN:‎ 978-0593321201. 416p.

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THE CAVE DWELLERS by Christina McDowell

May 25, 2021

From the publisher:

A compulsively readable novel in the vein of The Bonfire of the Vanities—by way of The Nest—about what Washington, DC’s high society members do away from the Capitol building and behind the closed doors of their stately homes.

They are the families considered worthy of a listing in the exclusive Green Book—a discriminative diary created by the niece of Edith Roosevelt’s social secretary. Their aristocratic bloodlines are woven into the very fabric of Washington—generation after generation. Their old money and manner lurk through the cobblestone streets of Georgetown, Kalorama, and Capitol Hill. They only socialize within their inner circle, turning a blind eye to those who come and go on the political merry-go-round. These parents and their children live in gilded existences of power and privilege.

But what they have failed to understand is that the world is changing. And when the family of one of their own is held hostage and brutally murdered, everything about their legacy is called into question.

They’re called The Cave Dwellers.

McDowell’s debut novel (after her memoir, After Perfect) is a brutal, satirical look at life in Washington, D.C., and the author knows whereof she speaks; she grew up there. The catalyst for the story is the torture and brutal murder of a wealthy, power-wielding family, including their teenage daughter. One of her classmates is determined to get to some sort of understanding of what happened and why, and she goes to the jail to visit the young Black man who was arrested for the crime. It turns out his father was an employee of the family that was killed, and motive is quickly established. The wives of the most powerful families in the nation’s capital are all perturbed, but so are their children, the teenagers and private school classmates of the murdered girl. These are among the most privileged families in the country, and the satire here is deeply wounding; racism, misogyny, and class hierarchy are all fair game, and the irony is inescapable and delicious.

Verdict: A fascinating, gossipy glimpse into the lives of the 1% (with footnotes) that should appeal to readers who enjoyed The Assistants by Camille Perri or Capital Girls by Ella Monroe.

©Library Journal, 2021

5/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE CAVE DWELLERS by Christina McDowell. Gallery/Scout Press (May 25, 2021). ISBN 978-1982132781. 352 pages.

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THE NINE LIVES OF ROSE NAPOLITANO by Donna Freitas

April 6, 2021

From the publisher:

A deeply moving novel about a woman who thought she never wanted to be a mother–and the many ways that life can surprise us

In every woman there are many stories . . .

Rose Napolitano is fighting with her husband, Luke, about prenatal vitamins. She promised she’d take them, but didn’t. He promised before they got married that he’d never want children, but now he’s changed his mind. Their marriage has come to rest on this one question: Can Rose find it in herself to become a mother? Rose is a successful professor and academic. She’s never wanted to have a child. The fight ends, and with it their marriage.

But then, Rose has a fight with Luke about the vitamins–again. This time the fight goes slightly differently, and so does Rose’s future as she grapples with whether she can indeed give up the one thing she thought she knew about herself. Can she reimagine her life in a completely new way? That reimagining plays out again and again in each of Rose’s nine lives, just as it does for each of us as we grow into adulthood. What are the consequences of our biggest choices? How would life change if we let go of our preconceived ideas of ourselves and became someone completely new? Rose Napolitano’s experience of choosing and then choosing again shows us in an utterly compelling way what it means, literally, to reinvent a life and, sometimes, become a different kind of woman than we ever imagined.

A stunning novel about love, loss, betrayal, divorce, death, a woman’s career and her identity, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano is about finding one’s way into a future that wasn’t the future one planned, and the ways that fate intercedes when we least expect it.

After several young adult and nonfiction books (Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention,) Freitas debuts an extraordinary, multi-faceted novel for adults. Rose Napolitano is a young woman on the precipice of a life-changing decision: whether to have a child. A staunch feminist professor of sociology, Rose has never wanted children. She was explicit about that while dating her husband, Luke, and he proclaimed that he was of the same mind. But a few years into their seemingly happy marriage, his parents start exerting their influence in hopes of getting a grandchild. Luke caves, and eventually Rose agrees to start taking prenatal vitamins, and that is where the story starts. And starts again. Because this is no ordinary story of a young couple moving on to the next stage of familyhood; instead we get a glimpse into all the different lives Rose could have. Nine different lives, some more fully realized than others. Starting one morning in 2006, Rose and Luke fight over the prenatal vitamins, and the outcome of that fight changes depending on the life Rose chooses, from having a baby or not, to affairs or not, to the breakup of the marriage or not, until it ends in 2025.

Verdict: This is a serious yet fantastical look at relationships, family, and feminism told in a unique voice, and book groups should take note. The closest readalikes are Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and Replay by Ken Grimwood.

I’ve seen this compared to the movie Sliding Doors, (available on Amazon Prime, IMDB TV, & Hoopla,) so I watched it. The movie is a shallow comparison. Once again, Pamela Dorman Books comes through for me. Don’t miss it.

4/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE NINE LIVES OF ROSE NAPOLITANO by Donna Freitas. Pamela Dorman Books (April 6, 2021). ISBN 978-1984880598. 384 pages.

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THE ORCHARD by David Hopen

January 15, 2021

From the publisher:

A Recommended Book From:
The New York Times * Good Morning America * Entertainment Weekly * Electric Literature * The New York Post * Alma * The Millions * Book Riot

A commanding debut and a poignant coming-of-age story about a devout Jewish high school student whose plunge into the secularized world threatens everything he knows of himself

Ari Eden’s life has always been governed by strict rules. In ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, his days are dedicated to intense study and religious rituals, and adolescence feels profoundly lonely. So when his family announces that they are moving to a glitzy Miami suburb, Ari seizes his unexpected chance for reinvention.

Enrolling in an opulent Jewish academy, Ari is stunned by his peers’ dizzying wealth, ambition, and shameless pursuit of life’s pleasures. When the academy’s golden boy, Noah, takes Ari under his wing, Ari finds himself entangled in the school’s most exclusive and wayward group. These friends are magnetic and defiant—especially Evan, the brooding genius of the bunch, still living in the shadow of his mother’s death.

Influenced by their charismatic rabbi, the group begins testing their religion in unconventional ways. Soon Ari and his friends are pushing moral boundaries and careening toward a perilous future—one in which the traditions of their faith are repurposed to mysterious, tragic ends.

Mesmerizing and playful, heartrending and darkly romantic, The Orchard probes the conflicting forces that determine who we become: the heady relationships of youth, the allure of greatness, the doctrines we inherit, and our concealed desires.

I really wanted to like this book. It’s a debut novel written by a very bright young man. It’s set in my backyard, Miami, and is about an Orthodox Jewish family who moves from an Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn to a much less religious neighborhood in Miami. All things I usually find interesting.

It’s also a coming of age novel. The main character is Aryeh Eden, whose name quickly morphs to Ari in this new land. Ari’s mother was Jewish but not brought up religiously. She decided to become Orthodox, married, and had a son. Their Brooklyn neighborhood was filled with religious families like them. But Ari never really felt all that comfortable there. His mother, while acting frum (religiously observant) actually pushed Ari to read secular books, something that was frowned upon in their community. When his father, an accountant, loses his job in Brooklyn, he finds another job in Miami. Ari is happy to leave, even though he is in high school.

Their neighbors are more modern Orthodox, and Ari quickly makes friends in his new school. But he has never been around these types of students. They take secular classes, the school is co-ed, and they throw off their religious beliefs regularly, drinking, smoking, making out with girls. Yet as different as Ari feels, he also feels more like himself.

There is a lot of drama in this high school. I would think it too far-fetched but I suspect the author attended a similar type of school (write what you know?) There are a lot of firsts for Ari, and some of those firsts are quite disturbing. As a parent, I could not relate to his parents, who seemed fairly oblivious to what was going on around them.

There were many, many pages of philosophical discussions among these high school students, which I had a hard time grappling with, or believing of this age group, and worse, I found difficult to read. I found myself skimming pages at a time. The book dragged for me until I was about 75% of the way through. The last part of the book finally moved a little quicker as the denouement was reached.

I love finding new authors, especially ones like Hopen, who has such a unique voice. He reminds me most of a modern-day Chaim Potok, which is very high praise, or Gary Shteyngart. I don’t think he quite has his storytelling skills honed yet, but I also think this book is a promising start to what could well be a rewarding writing career. The author is at Yale Law School, so whether he follows that path or this, I’m sure he will be successful.

1/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE ORCHARD by David Hopen. Ecco (November 17, 2020). ISBN 978-0062974747. 480 pages.

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THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead

June 29, 2020

CLICK TO PURCHASE

From the publisher:

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Time, Esquire, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Slate, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vox, Variety, Christian Science Monitor, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, Literary Hub, BuzzFeed, The New York Public Library

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 10 BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE

WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2020

In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.

There is not a whole lot I can add to all the praises sung about this book because I totally agree. If you have not read Colson Whitehead, this is a fantastic place to start. This is a short book, only 224 pages, but they are powerful pages. There is not a wasted word.

I also loved The Underground Railroad, so if you like this book, definitely try that one. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Colson Whitehead has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for both of these books. Lest you think that is no big deal, let me point out that this is a very, very big deal. Only three other authors have ever won two Pulitzers for fiction: Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner, and John Updike. So not Hemingway, not Faulkner, not Steinbeck. And although my Bachelor’s degree is in English Literature, I’ve never read Tarkington and I’m really not familiar with his work, although a film was made of his 1919 win for The Magnificent Ambersons. But I digress.

With everything going on in this country right now, it is the perfect moment to read The Nickel Boys. It is a powerful, moving story – devastating is truly the right word. It is a novel, but it is based on a true story. Whitehead includes several references at the end of the book and it is worthwhile looking at them.

Even though it is a very short book, I took my time reading it. Some of the passages in the story are just heartbreaking, and I wanted to give it the consideration I felt it deserved. It is an emotional read for sure, with a shocking twist at the end. How can I love a book that tells such an overwhelmingly disturbing story? Because Whitehead is a superb storyteller, and he’s written an unforgettable book. Don’t miss it.

6/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead. Anchor; Reprint edition (June 30, 2020). ISBN 978-0345804341. 224 pages.