And When She Was Good, by Laura Lippman

The story of Helen/Heloise Lewis, a rather secret person who leads a very complicated life. Helen is a young woman with an abusive father who leaves home with a young man who is no better. Later in life we find Heloise, nee Helen, running a successful "escort service." She has, along the way, made some questionable decisions and involved herself with some very dangerous people. All of this is beginning to come together as we enter this captivating novel. I read this in a weekend, it was just great.

The Other, by David Guterson

An audio book.

The narrator is an English teacher named Neil Countryman, who had a friend from high-school age named John William Barry. John William came from a very wealthy, if dysfunctional family.

Countryman and Barry shared a love for back country hiking. At one point, Barry arranges, with Countryman's help, to disappear into the Ho Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula.

According to the blurb on the CD case, there is a "revelation" near the end of the story, but I'm damned if I know what they mean. Perhaps this clip from the NYT review linked below covers it:

There’s a deus ex machina at the end of this new one that, a little disappointingly, plants guilt for John William’s struggles at the feet of a certain suspect. But the voice of Neil Countryman is that of a good, thoughtful man coming into middle-class, middle-aged fullness, and his recollections of life in Seattle have a wonderful richness and texture.

Set in Western Washington, as are other Guterson works, there is a lot of poetry in this book, but it does go on. And on.


New York Times review

The Lonely Polygamist, by Brady Udall

So, this has to have some kind of praise for a catchy title. Brady Udall is the author of  The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, which I read recently. Having enjoyed Edgar quite a bit, I was looking forward to another book by Udall, and this was not disappointing.

One one level, this is the story of a man with four wives and twenty-eight children. On another, it may be about what it's like to be human, imperfect, and unlucky. There are a lot of people here that want to be loved. Instead of being a work of propaganda in favor of or against the practice of polygamy, Udall uses this unusual life, however we feel about it, to describe how people get along, in whatever situation they find themselves.

New York Times Book Review

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, by Barry Udall

Edgar Mint is a young boy living on an Indian reservation in Arizona. At the beginning of this book, his head is run over by the tire of a Postal Service Jeep. As a result, he spends quite a long time in a hospital, recovering (miraculously, it would seem) from his injuries. In the hospital, he meets some people who figure prominently in his life for many years.

This story is oddly captivating. I found the book one of those that I wished would go on when it was over. Edgar's naive view of the world, the lot of his fellow Native Americans, his disabilities, the Western characters who are both cruel and kind to him in this story, are all beautifully drawn. I cared about Edgar to the last period on the last page.

Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald

From the PC Library. MacDonald is a Canadian author. This is her first novel.

I must be on an unintentional first-novel gothic kick.

Another fabulous, escapist page-turner, also with a twin theme (I know!). I thoroughly enjoyed this very entertaining book.

Publisher's Weekly review.

The story just goes on and on. If it wasn't obvious by the number of pages remaining, a reader would think the novel had ended several times long before the end. This was not a bad thing, as I was happy to read more of MacDonald's terrific writing.