Book Reviews #6 & #7

Since it has been a while since I posted, I owe you guys a couple of book reviews…

When I bought the book, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I thought it was another fiction book. As I started to read it though I realized it was actually an autobiography! It is an amazing read – truly fascinating – and what I enjoyed most was the author’s matter-of-fact sensibility. It reminded me of myself. My family was nowhere as dysfunctional as hers was but given similar awkward, tense situations she seemed to react to things the same way I did whereas outside parties might be shocked and appalled. As someone who typically does not pick up biographies, I was very happily surprised and quickly sucked into her story. Her writing style is a pleasure to read and I would not hesitate to pick up anything she might write in the future.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth is another type of book I don’t typically read – it is an alternate history novel. The book takes place during WWII but changes the time-line of events by making Charles Lindbergh beat Roosevelt out for the presidency. Historical events and text are weaved into a new alternative time-line. What makes it compelling is when you find out that there is well-documented evidence that Lindbergh sympathized with parts of the Nazi policy. Add to that the voice of a young Jewish boy coming of age in NJ as the narrator and you can see how things can get interesting. Overall I enjoyed the story but it took me a little longer than I would have liked to finish. The author gets a little bogged down by detail (details that no 7 year old would realistically point out) and with long chapters, I only read it when I knew I could sit with the story for more than 15 minutes. Still, the plot device and the unbeknown-to-me underlying history (an extensive appendix with the true facts of history included) has me interested in reading some of the author’s other novels.