Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com.
“The Berry Pickers,” byAmanda Peters(Catapult, 2023)
Maine, 1962: A 4-year-old girl goes missing as her Native family is harvesting blueberries. Told in alternating chapters by the missing girl and one of her brothers, we learn she is only one child that is “lost” in this book–there are other losses as well, reverberating through generations. This story kept my interest although I didn’t feel deeply connected to the characters. We suspect the family will be reunited, and the gradual resolution is generally well-written (barring a few clunky similes and occasional mangled syntax). This is a quiet book with definite plot holes, but the story held together well enough to keep me reading. I would have appreciated a stronger sense of Mi’kmaw culture. — 2 stars (out of 4);Neva Gronert,Parker
“The Noise of Time,” by Julian Barnes (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016)
If you’ve ever been curious about the Kafkaesque machinations of life in Stalinist Russia, this novel is a good place to start. It fictionalizes the true tribulations of musician Dmitri Shostakovich. Despite public denunciations, fear for his family’s safety, indeed fear for his own life, and even professional ostracization, Shostakovich stayed in Russia and continued to compose music in the face of extreme governmental control, which permitted him ever fewer artistic themes or styles for his works. Why, you might ask, does Shostakovich stay and submit to degradation after degradation? You might as well ask why we breathe air, Barnes seems to suggest. Was it all for his art? And what was the nature of that compromised art? Indeed, what is the nature of any art? Heady questions to ponder in the context of a tenuous existence within an authoritarian regime. Yet, Barnes (and Shostakovich) take you there. — (2 1/2 stars out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
“Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows,” by Balli Kaur Jaswal (William Morrow, 2017)
East meets West in this genre-smashing, romance-thriller-cultural expose, with dollops of soft erotica. That’s India and Great Britain, not the US. Take a fascinating tour with first-generation Muslim Nikki, who’s thoroughly modern and distains the traditional arranged marriage as she carves a niche as an English lit teacher to women immigrants. Widowed women still trying to rebuild their lives are students, and they’re more interested in sexually titillating stories than grammar. As they begin to become a true community, they’re endangered by the nontraditional activity when a fundamentalist fanatic threatens. Friendship yields understanding and support in this comic, tragic, thought-provoking tale. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune, Denver (bonniemccune.com)
“Beyond This Harbor: Adventurous Tales of the Heart,” by Rose Styron (Knopf, 2023)
Born 95 years ago, Rose Styron has led a privileged and active life. Married to author William Styron, she is a poet and was active for much of her life in Amnesty International. Her volunteer work for AI took her all over the world and into some of the most internationally sensitive events of her time. She interacted with and befriended well-known leaders in the arts and letters, politics, and governments. An engaging memoir, Rose also reflects on how the expectations of women in marriage have changed during her lifetime. This is a fascinating read of life at its fullest. —4 stars (out of 4); Susan Tracy, Denver
