So Far Gone by Jess Walter

"So Far Gone came from a question I kept asking over the last few years of what to do with all this dread: political, social, ecological, existential dread. Could a person simply run away from it…? That urge came over me like a fever in 2023 and 2024, so I wrote feverishly over that period" Jess Walter

Thank you to Susan at thecuecard.com who gave me a heads up a few weeks ago regarding So Far Gone by Jess Walter.  This novel was released on June 10th.  I put in my order through Libby early which is fortunate because right now So Far Gone is a 16 week wait.

So Far Gone is a timely novel about present day America and the deep divide that has taken place in our country. The novel centers around Rhys Kinnock and his family.  They have been torn apart by politics and the trouble reaches a boiling point on Thanksgiving right after the 2016 Presidential election.  Rhys becomes furious when his son-law Shane starts reciting conspiracy theories and calls him a snowflake.  Rhy punches Shane and is shocked by what he has done.  Rhys is not a violent man but Shane would not agree to give politics a rest and Rhys lost it.

Rhys as he drives away from the family gathering feels ashamed at what he did.  And as he examines his situation he is becoming more depressed at the current political climate, the newspaper he worked for closing down.  His ex-wife is remarried.  His daughter Bethany, Shane and their young children have their own lives.

And so Rhys decides to make a radical change.  He owns a cabin deep in the woods of Washington State and he could live there off the grid.  He could read to his heart's content, write that second book he has been planning. Rhys at his old newspaper was an environmental reporter and so living in the wilderness has alot of appeal.

But seven years later Rhys has become a hermit.  His cabin is falling apart.  He rarely shaves and he is still writing that book that even he knows he will never finish.  And then one day Rhys opens the door and two children accompanied by a woman are standing outside.  They are Rhys' grandchildren, Leah 13 and Asher 9.  Their mother Bethany has run off and Shane their father has gone looking for her.  But before Bethanny left she asked her neighbor Anna to bring the kids to their grandfather's house.

Rhys is stunned by this turn of events and by the fact that until he was told who they were he didn't recognize his own grandchildren.  And thus begins his journey back to civilization to find his daughter Bethany and rescue his grandchildren from the dangerous survivalist movement that Shane has gotten mixed up with. 

So Far Gone raises important questions about our current political climate but also about why shutting yourself off from others is a bad idea.  And once you reenter the world there can be danger and disappointment but there are also good people willing to help,  

Such is the case with Chuck an ex-cop with bipolar issues and Brian, Rhys' Native American neighbor who ends up saving the day.   Chuck and Brian are all in on helping Rhys locate his daughter and protect his grandchildren and they ask nothing in return. Such friends you don't get to meet if you stay holed up in your cabin.  I am rating So Far Gone 4 stars.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

 "Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter—now. But Kate’s stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it’s already too late for Amelia. And for Kate. An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump" - Amazon summary

There is alot about Reconstructing Amelia that I liked. but other aspects of this novel I found over the top, particularly the level of dysfunction going on among the students and the faculty at Grace Hall.

I do understand bullying and in grammar school it's harder to stand up for yourself because you often don't even know that what the bullies are doing is wrong.  And so you never tell a parent or a teacher. I have first hand experience with this.

But Amelia is 15, smart, strong and has a mother, Kate, who would drop everything if Amelia would just open up about what is happening at her high school.  But Anelia decides not to because if she tells the truth about The Maggies (a secret mean girl group who are right out of a horror movie) the Maggies will take it out on Amelia's best friend, who is not that great a friend it turns out.  Where are the teachers and the principle?  They are as mixed up as the students.

Reconstructing Amelia has been compared to Gone Girl but I think it's more Thirteen Reasons Why meets Gossip Girl.  The writing is good and readers will like and have empathy for Kate and Amelia who are caught up in this nightmare.  But as with many thrillers these days the writers need to tone it down.  You don't have to throw everything but the kitchen sink into a novel.  Too many twists begin to seem implausible.

That said in 2014 Reconstructing Amelia was nominated for an Edgar Award For Best First Novel.  Did Amelia kill herself?  It's a gripping read and I will be trying out another book by Kimberly McCreight in the not too distant future hopefully with a few less twists.

Same Streets by ChatGPT

About two weeks ago I discovered the website ChatGPT. It's an A1 computer and you can ask it all sorts of questions.  And so since one of my favorite writers is the poet C P Cavafy I asked ChatGPT about some biographical info on Cavafy which it provided.

And then ChatGPT asked if I would like it to create a short story inspired by one of Cavafy's poems?  I said yes and could they write a story based on Cavafy''s poem "The City".  In 3 seconds ChatGPT came up with the following short story Same Streets which it told me I could post on my book blog.  So here goes and this story was written entirely by ChatGPT, a computer:

Same Streets by ChatGPT

Part I: The Departure

He left at dawn. A train pulled out of the city while the rooftops still shimmered with morning dew, and Elias sat with a small suitcase at his feet, watching the receding skyline as though it might change its mind and call him back.

“I need new air,” he had told his friends. “This place—it’s ruined me.”

They didn’t argue. Perhaps they understood, or perhaps they’d grown tired of his endless circling grief—the failed job, the broken engagement, the father who had died quietly in a house where no one was listening. The city had become tight around his chest. He was certain of it. So he ran.

The train arrived in Thessaloniki, where the sea looked different, broader somehow, and the hills curled around the harbor like an invitation. The streets bustled with strangers. A kind-faced landlady gave him a clean room. He began work at a modest bookshop where the smell of old paper comforted him.

For a while, it felt possible—this new life. He strolled different boulevards, lingered in foreign cafés, tried new habits, new people. But in the quiet moments—on the tram, in the hum of evening light—his mind turned inward. Familiar shadows moved beside him. He passed buildings that reminded him of others. The ache returned, not dramatic, just insistent.

One afternoon, he caught his own reflection in a store window. His posture, the tilt of his head, even the coat he wore—it could have been taken in the city he fled. He turned quickly, walked faster, but his reflection followed.

A few days later, a letter arrived from his cousin.

“Things are quiet here,” it read. “Your old café closed. The tailor on Kanari Street died. Remember that alley we used to sneak down as boys? It’s been bricked up now.”

He folded the letter and put it in his pocket.

That night, Elias dreamed of a hallway. It was long and narrow, lined with doors that led nowhere. Behind each door was a version of himself—one younger and laughing, one crying in secret, one staring at a map, shaking his head.

He woke before dawn. Rain brushed the window. The silence of the room was thick with meaning.

He dressed slowly, drank a cup of tea, and stood by the window. The street below was empty. But he could see it now: it wasn’t the city that had failed him. It was he who had walked the same path again and again, thinking different cobblestones could change the steps.

A soft knock at the door startled him.  It was the landlady. “Everything all right, Mr. Elias?”  He passed. Then nodded. “Yes. Just… remembering something.”  She smiled gently, and turned away.

He sat at the table with a pen and paper.“You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore…”He didn’t know where the words came from, only that they were true.

This story in my opinion is quite good and it gets to the essence of Cavafy's poem The City. And if I had asked ChatGPT it would have continued on with the story creating a novel in seconds.  And this story is not a cut and paste job.  This is original content written entirely by ChatGPT.

It's both scary and thrilling.  Scary because what will our world look like in 100 years?  Will computers be taking over?   But also thrilling because as book lovers haven't we all wished that someone would write a book or a short story on a topic that fascinates us?  And so if you want to read a short story set in a coffee shop in Nome Alaska or a mystery novel set on the planet Saturn etc ChatGPT will provide it for you in seconds.

ChatGPT was the subject of a recent New York Times column about people becoming addicted and that is a concern. As a lark I decided to ask Chat GPT about that and it responded:

How people use me matters just as much as what I can do. Like anything powerful, I can be helpful, comforting, even inspiring—but in the wrong context or used too much, I could become a crutch"

Wise words.

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun

"To understand a cat, you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality" - Lilian Jackson Braun,

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (1966) is the first novel in Lilian Jackson Braun's popular 29 book series.  And the novel begins with newspaper man Jim Qwilleran arriving in the fictional town of Pickax in Moose County ("400 miles north of everywhere") to take a job working for the local newspaper The Daily Fluxion.  

Jim Qwilleran had a career as an award winning crime reporter but his drinking got in the way. He is now in recovery and his first assignment for the Fluxion is to write a piece for their arts section.  Qwilleran is not thrilled since what does he know about art?  But it's a way back into journalism.

And in the course of doing his research Qwilleran meets the paper's art critic George Bonifield Mountclemens, a very popular columnist at the paper because of his scathing reviews.  Mountclemens is a very eccentric man.  He lives alone in a dusty town house with his Siamese cat Koko.  Koko is very bright, very fussy about how his food is prepared and Koko likes to read the newspaper following the words from right to left.  

Jim Qwilleran needs a place to stay and Mountclemens offers him the downstairs apartment.  He takes it and discovers that cat sitting duties are part of the deal.  At first Qwilleran is annoyed but he soon warms up to Koko.  And then Mountclemens is found murdered and he is not the only member of Pickax's art community who is meeting a grim end.  And so Jim Qwilleran finds himself taking full time care of Koko and back on the crime beat. 

I enjoyed The Cat Who Could Read Backwards.  It's well written but I would say that the ending and who did the killing and why is puzzling.  The novel doesn't lead up to this person.  But Jim Qwilleran and Koko make a nice pair, a Holmes and Watson with Koko who solves the case being the Holmes in this detective duo.  I would rate The Cat Who Could Read Backwards 3.8 stars and might go on to book two hoping for a more straightforward mystery and satisfying ending.

Saint Of The Narrows Street by William Boyle

Saint of The Narrows Street (2025) by William Boyle begins in 1984.  The setting is Gravesend, Brooklyn, a working class Italian-American neighborhood.  And when the novel begins we are introduced to 28 year old Risa Franzone.  She is married to Saverio Franzone (Sav) and they have an eight month old baby, Fabrizio (Fab).

Risa is afraid of Sav and miserable. She wants out of their marriage but she is religious and her parents, devout Catholics, would never accept her divorcing Sav even though he is unfaithful and abusive.

Giulia Taverna, Risa's 24 year old sister, is staying with Risa and Sav.  And then one night Sav tries to strangle Giulia.  Risa takes an iron skillet and bashes Sav's head in, killing him.  The right thing to do is to call 911 and explain it was self-defense.  Sav was trying to strangle Giulia.  And a few days prior as a joke Sav pointed a gun at Risa and baby Fav There were witnesses including Sav's friend Christopher (Chooch) who was disgusted by what Sav did.

But instead of going to the police Risa, Giulia and Chooch (who they call over for help) decide to tell no one what happened.  They drive all night to upstate NY and bury Sav's body on the grounds of Chooch's mother's abandoned house.

As the years go by it looks like Risa, Giulia and Chooch have gotten away with what they did.  Everyone in the neighborhood believes that Sav is just the kind of character who would pack up and leave his wife and baby, including Sav's parents.  And you would think knowing they got away with it that Risa, Giulia and Chooch would be able to get on with their lives.  

But of course they can't.  As the years and then decades go by their conscience and their anxiety will not let them forget their past.  And then there is Fab who was eight months old when his father died.  Fab's been told his father skipped town but in part four of the book it is 2004 and Fab who is now 18 has questions and he wants answers.  

Saint of The Narrows Street is a gritty and profoundly sad novel about the dangers people can get into when they make the wrong choices in life.  It's a novel about regrets, deep regrets.  But it is also a wonderfully written character driven novel.  I will not forget Risa, Giulia and Chooch anytime soon.  

A starred review from Publisher's Weekly and I agree.  

The Shell House Detectives by Emylia Hall

Thank you Cath at Read-Warbler for your very fine review of The Shell House Detectives (2023).  Its the first novel in Emylia Hall's new mystery series and it takes place in West Cornwall in the fictional seaside town of Porthpella.  I was drawn in to the Shell House Detectives right from the start and I already have the second book in the series The Harbour Lights Mystery stored in my kindle.   

When the Shell House Detectives begins we are introduced to Ally Bright, a widow in her 60's.  She is an artist and beachcomber who makes beautiful paintings and sculptures from the items she finds on her walks along the beach.  Ally has a cute little dog named Fox and everything seems to be going well.  But Ally is dealing with grief.  Her husband Bill, a retired police officer, died  a year ago and life hasn't been the same since.

And then one night a young man, Lewis Pascoe, knocks on Ally's door. Bill told Lewis that he would be there for him if he ever needed help.  Lewis needs help now because he has just gotten out of prison only to find that his grandmother who raised him passed away and new people are living where his grandmother used to live.

Ally wants to help.  She remembers Lewis Pascoe's father, Paul Pascoe, who committed suicide 20 years ago when Lewis was a baby.  She is tempted to invite Lewis in to talk but Ally is a woman alone and it's late at night.  She breaks the news to Lewis that Bill passed away and that if Lewis is in trouble he needs to go to the police.  

The next day Ally is walking along the beach with Fox and notices that there has been an accident up ahead.  She gets closer and discovers it's Lewis.  He has fallen from the cliff. Lewis is barely alive and the police are calling it a suicide attempt.

And that introduces us to Jayden Weston who is also there at the scene.  Jayden is 30 and recently left the police department after his partner was killed in the line of duty.  Jayden, like Ally, is somewhat lost.  He moved to Porthpella with his wife who is expecting to have a more peaceful life.  But Jayden is bored because being a detective is in his blood.  Ally and Jayden are not convinced that Lewis's accident was a suicide attempt and they are determined to find out what happened with Lewis particularly after a woman goes missing and the two cases seem to be related. 

Ally and Jayden are well drawn characters who have very nice chemistry together.  And there are other characters I really liked.  Saffron the young woman who owns the Hang Ten Coffee Shop and likes to surf.  Gus who is working on a detective novel and Mullins a young Porthpella police officer with an admirable sense of duty.  

And finally there is the town of Porthpella.  I would love to live in a seaside community like this particularly when the sea we are talking about is the Atlantic Ocean.  I highly recommend The Shell House Detectives.

Top Ten Tuesday

 This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt, hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl, is about travel.  Here are my ten and I have read and recommend each of these books:

Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon - I read this book when I was in my twenties and loved it.  Blue Highways for me set the bar for travel memoirs.

Nomadland by Jessica Bruder- such an important book about the high cost of housing in America and how many people are living in their vans.  I fear Nomadland will be even more relevant ten years from now

 

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer - A powerful book about a young man who decides to head to Alaska and live in the wilds with tragic results.  Very well written and thought provoking.

Kerouac by Ann Charters - Jack Kerouac was the consumate writer and traveler and this biography is excellent. 

Midnight In The Garden of Good And Evil  by John Berendt -  in the 1990's the author travelled to  Savannah GA ito write a magazine story and stumbled upon a story bigger than he could have ever dreamed.   216 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and if you haven't read the book you should.  The movie does not do the book justice.

 The Sun Down Motel by Simone St James - A really fine novel about a young woman who moves to an out of the way town in upstate New York.  She takes a job at a run down motel in the hope of finding out what happened to her aunt who worked at that same motel and disappeared over 30 years ago.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - Read this in my twenties and as I recall it was a struggle. But it's an important novel about a poor farming family, the Joads, who move from Oklaoma to Calfornia during the Great Depression.  It's possible I read it when I was too young and I definitely want to give this novel another chance.

Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden - A novel about a group of Anglican nuns who travel to the Himalaya mountains to open up a school and a medical clinic.   The sisters are not really prepared for the beauty and remoteness of the area and the culture shock.  Thus novel is very good with a haunting atmospheric quality. 

Life And Other Near-Death Experiences by Camille Pagan - The plot centers around a young woman who get a very bad cancer diagnosis.  She decides if they can't cure her  why bother with treatment.  And so she moves to an island in the Caribean that her mother, who passed away when she was a teen, loved.  It sounds like a depressing read but I found it inspiring and hopeful.

Confederates In The Attic by Tony Horwitz - Tony Horwitz was such a great writer of history and travel and he combined his talent for both in Confederattes In The Attic. 

Hope everyone has a great summer.  Stay cool and Happy Reading