Every week, we gather together a small pile of newly released titles that we agree should be on everyone's radar. We deem these titles our New Favorites (check out our recent picks here). Now that the year is winding down, we thought we'd take a look back at some of the standouts, in case you [...]
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JacketFlap tags: Mo Willems, Jeff VanderMeer, Willy Vlautin, Jeff Kinney, Carson Ellis, Naomi Klein, David Mitchell, Marilynne Robinson, Haruki Murakami, Michael Lewis, John Skewes, Ransom Riggs, Amy Bloom, Colin Meloy, Anthony Doerr, Elizabeth Warren, Edan Lepucki, New Favorites, Brian Doyle, Andy Weir, Michel Faber, John Darnielle, Peter Stark, Leslie Jamison, Daniel James Brown, Teagan White, Elizabeth Kolbert, Wendy C. Ortiz, Walter Mischel, B.J. Novak, Add a tag
Blog: Perpetually Adolescent (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Books, dreams, fiction, war, soldiers, America, Willy Vlautin, wounded, Book Reviews - Fiction, The Free, war veterans, Add a tag
I have always meant to read Willy Vlautin. My old sales rep practically begged me for years to read him (I still have two books in my to read pile). One of my favourite authors, George Pelecanos, ranks him as one of his favourite writers (which should have been enough for me). But what finally got to me read Willy Vlautin was the Ann Patchett quote (alongs side a Pelecanos) quote on the front of his new novel, because quite frankly Ann Patchett has done me no wrong lately.
This is not a war novel but it does deal with the aftereffects of war. It is not a political novel but it does look at health care in America. It is a novel about the wounded. Those wounded by what life throws at them and what they do with those wounds. It is a dazzling original novel, profound and full of hope. And it will stay with you long after you finish reading it.
The Free reminded me of two things. The first was one of the best books I’ve read about war, Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien. O’Brien is best known for his Vietnam War novel The Things They Carried. Going After Cacciato was very different. It was experimental, it played with the boundaries of reality and went to that place inside a soldier’s head where he tries to hide from the horrors of war. Willy Vlautin takes this even further with the character of Leroy Kervin.
Leroy is a wounded veteran of Iraq. He has suffered a horrific brain injury and has spent years in a home for the disabled, barely functional. As the book opens Leroy has a moment of clarity and tries to take his own life. We then follow Leroy as he dips in and out of consciousness and into the dream world he creates to escape to somewhere better, to come to terms to what has happened to him.
Around these dreams we meet the people around Leroy; his mother who sits by his bedside reading science fiction novels to him, his girlfriend Jeanette who is also a huge part of Leroy’s dreamscape. Leroy’s dream world reminded me a lot of George Saunders’ short stories. Influenced by the books Leroy used to read, and now listens to, his dreams take on a slight science fiction bend. But as hard as Leroy tries he can’t out run his own consciousness and he wounds and memories creep into his dreams.
We also follow Pauline, the nurse who cares for Leroy in the hospital and Freddy, the caretaker at the home who found Leroy. These are the other wounded, the ones who soldier on. Who bare the brunt of a hard and uncompromising world. Freddy is drowning in debt trying to pay off a huge hospital bill. He works two jobs and as a consequence his wife and kids have left him. Pauline looks after her mentally ill father while at the same time trying to care for her patients at the hospital. But both Pauline and Leroy find hope in their lives and this drives them toward something better.
Willy Vlautin is an amazing writer who I should have read long before now and I can’t wait to get stuck into his previous books I have sitting in my pile.
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This round of Required Reading is dedicated to the place we at Powell's Books call home: the great Pacific Northwest. Whether you're from the area or you simply appreciate the region for its beauty, history, temperament, or legendary bookstore, these titles will give you a more nuanced understanding of this peculiar corner of the U.S. [...]
Blog: PowellsBooks.BLOG (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: David Guterson, Sherman Alexie, Willy Vlautin, Required Reading, Chuck Palahniuk, Miranda July, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robin Cody, Ken Kesey, Matt Love, Gretchen Mcneil, Cherie Priest, Peter Rock, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Yasmine Galenorn, Chelsea Cain, Jerry Thompson, Ken Babbs, Madeline Ashby, Don Carpenter, Charles Burns, Brian Doyle, Tom Robbins, Alexis Smith, Molly Gloss, Robert Michael Pyle, Katherine Dunn, rene denfeld, Brent Walth, Benjamin Hoff, Opal Whiteley, J. D. Chandler, Tobias Wolff, G. M. Ford, david james duncan, Don Berry, Kent Anderson, Richard Brautigan, S M Stirling, Stewart Hall Holbrook, Add a tag
This round of Required Reading is dedicated to the place we at Powell's Books call home: the great Pacific Northwest. Whether you're from the area or you simply appreciate the region for its beauty, history, temperament, or legendary bookstore, these titles will give you a more nuanced understanding of this peculiar corner of the U.S. [...]
Blog: Children's Illustration (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: cute or sad, cute, dogs, Add a tag