Bonita Avenue by Peter Buwalda: Complicated, in many ways. 3 stars

Bonita Avenue, by Peter Buwalda, translated from the Dutch by Jonathan Reeder is not an easy book.  None of the three main characters, who narrate the story, are reliable.  Siem Segerius, the math prodigy, near Olympian judoka heads a blended family of passionate, quirky and completely crazy characters.  (Even the “normal” characters are so well drawn that their appearance doesn’t give us much relief from the non-stop descent into the inevitable tragedy.) But Siem’s actions, though not rational, at least make logical sense.  Contrast his telling of the story with poor Aaron, the would be son-in-law, whose extreme jealousy over Joni, Siem’s step daughter push him completely over the edge, despite his eager participation in a scheme that actually pimps Joni out on an internet porn site.  And then there is Joni, who is beautiful, smart and quite likable, but for her extreme exhibitionist needs.

Once you get into the rhythm of the book, it is quite readable, though toward the end I really just wanted to look away.  My biggest problem with it was that the chronology was so “creative” that we actually got the end of the book, the most recent in time, midway through the book from the current stories of both Aaron and Joni. But it is Siems story that fuels the action, and we bounce around with his youthful backstory, to times after his death, to the crisis that ruins them all.

The writing is superb; the characters unforgettable and if you are patient, the complex plot unwinds to an artful and urgent finish.   Bonita Avenue is original, well drawn, but just a bit too much crazy for me, and not something I feel I can recommend to mainstream readers.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Sometimes I just want the magic.

On Monday, I went to a reading by Antonya Nelson and Deborah Eisenberg and our amazing reading series here in Houston.  I'd read Antonya before, but not Deborah.  Both are highly awarded teachers at top notch MFA programs.

It was interesting, but one thing they said has been tossing around my mostly empty brain, and that was that when they write a short story, they depend a lot on the elliptical paragraphs, letting the reader's imagination fill in what happens between scenes.  As a writer, that interests me, because one mistake that I often see is the "too much detail" blocking.  No reader wants to hear every little thing that happens. (and then she drank some coffee, and then she went to the bathroom, etc)

As a reader, I feel the opposite.  Both of these "literary" writers write fascinating stories but they almost always leave me feeling like the story isn't finished.  I know it is because I'm supposed to focus on the characters and the meaning and that the story is indeed finished, but as a reader I'm not satisfied. Chalk it up to cutting my teeth on romance novels I suppose, where everyone lives happily ever after.  Or mysteries where we always discover who did it and why.  But those are questions often left unanswered.  We instead go inside the brain of the perpetrator, and learn that he has a long held secret, or something that makes the story about that, but not the plot itself.

Then I was thinking about the play I have tickets for on Friday.  Anything Goes, just a simple musical with lots of music.  I thought about asking my old writing group friend, because he is very much "into" theater... directing, writing plays, etc.  And decided against it for the same reason... I don't want to go to a play with an expert to tell me what they did well, what they screwed up. 

Sometimes, I just want to be entertained. Sometimes, I want to fall into the story, whether it be written or performed, and lose myself.  I want to suspend my disbelief and quit worrying about the technique.  I just want the magic.

Day 5 of the 13 day solitary confinement.  I thought I'd go this weekend and hang out with my kids... two of them live here in the city with their spouses.  Both were gone last weekend, and surprise, they are all out of town this weekend too.  I feel like this is trial by fire.

The dogs are loving it though.  They are getting two walks a day, extra training with cheese (I'm very bored!) and all my attention.  I groan a little at the thought.  I'm becoming one of those women. Even the cat is enjoying the "rest"... here they are "watching football" last weekend.

Watching Football

Today, I have training to be a clerk for the Nov 4 election.  All i do is check id, give instructions, etc, but the Powers That Be think that requires two hours of training before every election.  I'm interested this time because the Texas Voter ID law got struck down last week.  In fact, Texas isn't doing so well in the Supreme court... They also suspended the mandate that ordered all abortion clinics closed and are on the wrong side of the gay marriage rulings.

let's do something!

The dogs got groomed after that shaggy shot, and are now saying, okay, we are bored too. How will we spend today?

August in Michigan

Doodles watching sunset, August 2014

Sunset worth watching. South Haven, August 2014

And then there was the whisky....

-->

Lickleyhead Castle

If you’ve been following along here, you may wonder whatever happened to the rest of the China trip?  And as often happens, I lost interest in transcribing the trip journal when it was time to pack for the next trip!  As summer progresses I’ll try to fill in some of the blanks, but after spending two weeks in the UK, enjoying the people of Wales, England and most especially Scotland, I fine I want to wallow in the memories of this wonderful, once in a lifetime, trip with all my kids.  Including the ones by marriage and “close association.”  Mothers will tell you that those are magical moments, and it probably doesn’t matter where they occur.  To have them together in magical Scotland, in a 15^th century castle with lovely tangled grounds all around was a fairy tale.  And then there was the whisky….

self explanatory

Strathisla