What to read next?

For years, every time I read a heavy book, I'd need to read something light and fluffy to counterbalance. For the past nine years, as I've been attempting to keep up with book club reads (many months, I've been trying to read with three book clubs), I haven't had the luxury of time to follow that pattern.

After finishing Waking Lions this morning, I realized that I most definitely need a light read now. Yet when I started browsing what's available from the library, most of the light books feel just too light. I took out Lonely Planet's book on Canada since I'm traveling there next month. But that's not a book to sit down and read, cover to cover, especially since I'm only going as far as the suburbs of Toronto. I'm so torn.

I'm too old for most chick lit. Fantasies and mysteries are not my genres. Romance hasn't been my thing since I graduated from college. Stay tuned to see what I select next.

Waking Lions

Often, after finishing a book, I need to take a moment... or a few hours... or even a few days to think about what I've read and to process it. I suppose the same is for Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. Except for the fact that as I was finishing the book, my head was exploding. What a story!

Waking Lions was suggested for our Jewish book club because it is set in Israel, (originally written in Hebrew), and because the story is so current and universal.

Dr. Eitan Green takes a detour on his way home from a shift at the hospital. He needs to burn off some steam. When he's finally ready to go home, he hits an African migrant in the road with his Suv. He  believes the man is beyond salvation and continues on his way home. He wonders how he, who has spent his adult life saving lives, is able to just drive away. The next day, the wife of the dead man who witnessed the accident (because it was an accident) shows up at Eitan's house and as if the accident hadn't changed the course of his life already, her showing up and making demands of him brings him into a world that he never could have imagined. Ever.

Titan's wife, Liat, is a detective. She is tasked with finding the killer of the African migrant, not knowing that she is sleeping with him on the nights that he comes home to sleep.

The book is about the "immigration crisis" in Israel but could easily take place almost anywhere else in the industrialized world right now.  It could easily be a story taking place in today's United States. The book is about race relations and the invisibility of the underclass. The book is about moral decision making and choices. It's about introspection. It's about knowing another person. The book is about testing the true character of individuals.

Gunnar-Goshen knows how to create a compelling storyline, full of twists and turns. Just when you as the reader think you understand a character and his or her motivations, some new information is revealed that makes you question what you know. Towards the end of the book, you are compelled forward to complete the book, wanting the know how the author will bring this to conclusion.

I'm not sure how I feel about the ending of the book. I won't go as far as saying that it was a surprise ending, but it was not an ending I would have predicted. Now, I can't imagine it ending any other way.

I really look forward to discussing this book with my Jewish book club or with anyone who wants to discuss it. There is so much to talk about.

As an aside, when I looked for an e-book in one of my libraries, I saw that they also had the original Hebrew language version. I took that one out, too. My Hebrew was never great, but I was surprised at how many of the words I did understand. Of course, the words didn't combine into sentences that made sense. I do wonder, though, how true the translation is. I think that translator tried to mimic the author's lyrical language. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes I think that it did not. I still have the Hebrew novel on my iPad and might look at it again to see if it makes anymore sense now.

There There

Tommy Orange's words are poetic and full of emotion. In snippets, I loved his writing. But as the whole, I was troubled by it.

There There is a dark novel about the urban Native American experience. It might be particular to Oakland, California - where it takes place - but I don't think so. It's about individuals with disabilities, physical ailments, addictions, lack of connections. It's about people who are tethered to their past and to those who are completely untethered. The plot is raw.

At the beginning of this debut novel, it seems as though it's simply a collection of short stories. It took awhile for the stories to intersect, to move the plot towards something happening.

As a result of Orange's writing style and the construction of the novel, I had a hard time keeping track of all the different characters in the book. Maybe had I taken notes, I would have been able to keep them straight. By having them just be a (literal) mess of mostly young men, I found the ending of the novel very confusing. The ending was intended to be unsettling, and it was.

In the interview with the author at the end of the book, he talks about how he ultimately decided to write a sequel. I wonder if that will clarify things.

This was a book for community book club. Unfortunately, it's another book club meeting that I won't be able to attend. I think this is the type of book that I'd like a little bit better after speaking to others about it.

Postscript: Maybe I'm glad I missed this book club meeting. I've heard from several people about how the meeting fell apart when the ugliness of racism reared its head. I thought there was so much to discuss here... about the book. I'm so sad to hear that a small minority wouldn't let go of their disparaging of "those people." I'm both shocked and sad... and a little bit angry.