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NYC once proposed a deal in which private citizens would get a stipend for providing shelter for immigrants. In this novel, Shriver takes this concept and runs with it, introducing us to well-meaning Gloria who has a big house in Brooklyn. She takes in dynamic Martine from Honduras. At first, it seems like a match made in heaven, as Martine is good company and very helpful around the house. But then Martine's taciturn, somewhat mysterious "brother" moves in. His "colleagues" arrive a bit later and it starts to feel like a scary invasion. Gloria's son Nico, who's been languishing since graduate school, gets a crash course in the real world. Shriver is known for going right to the heart of controversial issues, and she does it here with vigor and wit.
In this eye-opening memoir, Hamilton introduces us to her unusual (to say the least) family. Both parents pursued their self-absorbed lives and let their five offspring fend for themselves. Their mother eventually retreated to back-to-the -land Vermont, and their charming father made a sporadic living designing for the theater. The dark center of the book is the suicide of brother Jeffrey, who hung himself after spells of mental illness. Hamilton, whose marvelous memoir, "Blood, Bones & Butter," tells of her self-made triumph in the culinary world, describes the complex interactions with an amazing combination of detachment and engagement, and not a touch of the rancor you'd might expect.
In art school, young protagonist Christine's professor, Richard, singles her out and then seduces her. That's the end of art for her, and she turns to writing, producing a novel that plays wickedly with the material. Take that, Richard! On her book tour, Richard, old and sick, starts tracking her, and she ends up at his isolated house in Maine for a come-uppance of sorts and some healing for her. Some chapters explore paintings that influenced her. The book's title is telling: no matter how hard one drives oneself, trauma blocks creative flow until it's dealt with head-on.
Polly's small book club has only one rule: they never read the actual book. But they talk frankly about everything else, especially Polly's struggles to get pregnant. Her husband, a vet at the Bronx Zoo, is very supportive. She visits her father frequently in the toney facility where he's diminishing with dementia. She teaches high school English and loves her work. Via a DNA test she comes upon mysterious relatives and uncovers a family secret. And her best friend is dying from metastatic cancer. All the stuff of life, in Quinlen's skilled hands, makes for an absorbing read.
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