Review of Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

Author: Markus Zusak

Release Date: October 9, 2018

Publisher: Knopf

Pages: 544

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“In the beginning there was one murderer, one mule and one boy, but this isn’t the beginning . . . Yes, always for us there was a brother, and he was the one—the one of us amongst five of us—who took all of it on his shoulders.”

The five Dunbar brothers are living with their menagerie of pets in the perfect chaos of a house made by their own rules. Today, the father who walked out on them long ago walks back in. And so, the life of Clay, the quiet one with a harrowing secret, is about to change forever. He is the one who will build a bridge, for greatness, for his sins. A miracle and nothing less. From a grandfather, whose parents’ passion for the ancient Greeks still lights up their lives, to a mother and father who fell in love over a mislaid piano, to the present day, where five sons laugh and fight and reckon with the adult word.

Bridge of Clay is an extraordinarily brilliant but tragically poignant tale of family secrets and how one boy risks everything to save it all. New York Times bestselling author Markus Zusak makes his much-anticipated return with this powerful and deeply genuine story. He is the author of six novels including The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger. 

“Let me tell you about our brother. The fourth Dunbar boy named Clay. Everything happened to him. We were all of us changed through him.”

Bridge of Clay is an enormously ambitious undertaking and Zusak’s views about the power of love are refreshing and inspiring. A novel of contrasts, it shows a world that is both kind and loving but also cruel and hateful. The character development is intricate and extraordinary, allowing for a deep understanding of all that is possible within the realm of the human spirit—an animated and heartfelt journey that is filled with moving descriptions of family and loss and the quest for a miracle.

Be advised this novel is not an easy book to read and takes a tremendous amount of effort and stamina, but the completion is phenomenally rewarding. Interwoven with touches of romance and wit: it is obvious that Zusak was bound and determined to celebrate the quirks and idiosyncrasies of flawed people living in an imperfect world. Beautifully written and thought provoking, Bridge of Clay will tug at your heart strings; and at the essential core of the novel is the delightfully uplifting message that life tends to find a way to make things right in the end.

Michael Thomas Barry is a staff reviewer for the New York Journal of Books and the award winning author of eight nonfiction books.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on October 19, 2018 - https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/bridge-clay

Review of The Other Sister by Sarah Zettel

Author: Sarah Zettel

Release date: August 28, 2018

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Pages: 380

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“There’s a misconception that the woods are the destination in a fairy tale. The woods are just something to get through. Scary, yes. Necessary, of course. But it’s when you finally get to the castle that the real trouble starts.”

Geraldine Monroe is the bad sister. Reckless and troubled, she ran away shortly after the mysterious death of their mother 20 years ago. Marie, on the other hand, has always been the good sister. She is the obedient daughter and a loving mother to her son.

Now Geraldine has come home, for good it seems, and no one, not the aunts or uncles or cousins really knows why. The most suspicious of all is Martin Monroe, the father who rules the extended family and their small town with a toxic combination of money and cold-heartedness. But even he doesn't realize what the truth is: that the sisters have become allies in a plot to murder him.

Bound by blood and a need to right the past, Geraldine and Marie set their plan in motion. When old secrets and new fears clash, everyone is pushed to the breaking point . . . and the sisters will learn that they can't trust anyone, not even each other.

The Other Sister by Sarah Zettel is a quasi-fairy tale type murder mystery that features two sisters—one perceived as good, one bad. Geraldine Monroe is the bad sister, an irresponsible and troubled soul. While Marie Monroe is the good sister, always the obedient daughter and responsible mother, she stayed in the family home and cared for their father.

Zettel is the critically acclaimed author of more than 18 novels and many short stories, spanning the full range of genre fiction. Her debut novel, Reclamation (1996, Aspect Books), won the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Her second release, Fool’s War (1997, Aspect Books), was a 1997 New York Times Notable Book.

Now 25 years later, Geraldine has apparently come home for good and no one knows why. The most suspicious of all is her father, a manipulative and controlling man who might have been responsible for his wife’s death and possibly others. When Geraldine and Marie set their plan into motion dark secrets begin to emerge that call into question their sisterly bonds and push everyone to the breaking point.

“Fairy tales are not big on second chances. The wicked sister never gets to turn and say, you know, that thing where I tried to kill you and marry your husband? That was a mistake. I have reconsidered my life choices. In the stories, redemption can only come from the hand of God, and God is a tight-fisted old bastard.”

In this often disturbing and distressing tale of family loyalty and deceit, Zettel does an adequate job of mixing humor and wit into an unsettling plotline that alternates between the past and present viewpoints of narrators Marie and Geraldine. Unfortunately these switches are often hard to follow and tend to confuse the story.

But if the reader is able to stick it out despite these pitfalls they will be rewarded with an excellent psychological thriller that’s filled with dark family secrets and plenty of intrigue.

Michael Thomas Barry is a staff reviewer for the New York Journal of Books and the author of eight nonfiction books.

This review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on August 28, 2018 - https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/other-sister

Review of The Pisces by Melissa Broder

Author: Melissa Broder

Release Date: May 1, 2018

Publisher: Hogarth

Pages: 224

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For nine years Lucy has been working as a part-time librarian at a small Arizona university and struggling to complete a Ph.D. program in classic literature. She’s fraught with complexities and doubts and persistently contemplates the meaning of life, which she calls “the greater nothingness—the void.”

After a dramatic break-up with her handsome geologist boyfriend, Lucy is depressed and facing a mini-existential crisis. Her sister, Annika, invites her spend the summer in Los Angeles, dog watching and house sitting at their posh Venice beach house. But Lucy finds little relief from her depression and anxiety—not in the love addiction therapy group, not in her frequent Tinder excursions, not even in the unconditional love of her sister’s dog.

“Gods, please help me to be happy. Let me do the will of the universe and be willing to do the will of the universe, whatever that even is . . . I never asked to exist. But I am here now so could you maybe at least try and help me enjoy my life?”

Everything changes one evening, while strolling alone along the beach she encounters a mysterious swimmer. Lucy is immediately infatuated and mesmerized by Theo’s charming demeanor and rugged good looks. But when she learns the truth about the stranger’s identity, their relationship—and Lucy’s distorted understanding of what sex and love should look like—takes an unexpected turn.

The Pisces is the debut novel by award winning poet, essayist, and columnist Melissa Broder. In this bizarre novel, Broder fuses existential malaise and destructive love with a heavy dose of sexual fantasy. The characters are remarkably complex, but be warned the storyline is extremely graphic in its sexual portrayals and accounts. The explicit descriptions of these carnal encounters are somewhat disturbing and gratuitous in their titillation. 

The fact that one of the characters is a merman comes across as less pointless than first imagined, and more like an acknowledgment of the absurdity of his existence. Broder’s mixture of straightforward bluntness is unsettling at times but curiously compelling. Her use of darkly humorous realism gives true voice to the depiction of those who are battling depression and suicide.

Putting the silliness of the merman storyline aside, Broder’s writing style cleverly explores the realities of both disappointing casual trysts and meaningful sexual encounters. Comically explicit, contemplative, and sometimes depressingly blunt, the author does an excellent job of exploring everyday human experience. This novel is filled with sincere reflections that ponder the existential question of whether we are destined to always desire what we can’t have?

Often unsettling, peculiar, sexually graphic, unapologetically explicit, but fascinatingly gripping, The Pisces does an adequate job of exploring the fundamental human need for both physical satisfaction and emotional desire, while connecting the frustrating ways that they are almost always mutually exclusive.

Michael Thomas Barry is a staff reviewer for the New York Journal of book. The review first appeared at the New York Journal of Book on April 30, 2018 - https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/pisces

Review of American by Day by Derek B. Miller

Author: Derek B. Miller

Release date: April 3, 2018

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Pages: 352

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Sigrid is in a tough place. A star investigator in Oslo, she’s been cleared of any wrongdoing after a confrontation with Kosovan immigrant turned deadly—but reading the neat report that plainly states she took the appropriate course of action only disturbs Sigrid more. She’s ready for some quiet introspection on her family farm, but upon arrival it’s clear her father has other plans for her.

In fact, he’s purchased her a ticket to America: her elder brother Marcus has dropped off the map in upstate New York, and she’s been dispatched, somewhat reluctantly, to find him. It doesn’t take her much time upon arrival to reach her first conclusion: America is weird.

But soon she discovers more to dig into: that Marcus’s disappearance seems inextricably linked to the death of the woman he loved, an African American professor named Lydia Jones. Moreover, this conclusion—and Marcus—are now the focus of an investigation led by irreverent, cowboy-boot-wearing, utterly American local sheriff Irving Wylie.

While initially their divergent investigation methods seem bound to clash, it becomes clear that they must work together: that each sees parts of the case through a glass darkly, as Wylie puts it—but by looking together, they just might be able to find answers.

Derek B. Miller’s American by Day takes a suspenseful and engaging look at police brutality and race relations within the American justice system. Miller tackles this explosive topic in a refreshingly thought provoking manner. Miller is the award-winning author of several novels that include Norwegian by Night (2013) and The Girl in Green (2017). He lives in Norway with his family and has worked on international peace and security for think tanks, diplomatic missions, and the United Nations.

In his novels, Miller’s characters are appealing and far from stereotypical. They suffer through all sorts of issues and definitely have passionate opinions on a wide variety of incendiary topics. Protagonist, Chief Inspector Sigrid Ødegård was first introduced to readers in Miller’s debut novel, Norwegian by Night. She and Irving Wiley provide plenty of entertaining and clever dialogue that represents opinions on individualism versus collaboration. Sigrid’s observations about America, men, and life in general are intuitive and humorous.

“She is angry at men. All men. For their stupidity, their lies, their egotism, their irrelevant words, their aggressive personalities and hairy backs. She is angry at them for what they did and didn’t do. For what they say and leave unsaid. For the timber of their voices and the length of their strides, the ease by which they open jars and their inexplicable incapacity to return even the smallest objects to their rightful locations. She is tired of investing in them without dividend . . . to solve everything herself.”

Overall, American by Day is a fascinating crime novel and the use of unorthodox characters, stinging observations, and lack of stereotypes is refreshing. A quick read and highly recommended, the plot develops into a thoughtful but grim exposé on societal challenges of inequality and the brutality of racism that are running rampant in modern America.

Michael Thomas Barry is a staff reviewer at New York Journal of Books.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on April 3, 2018 - https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/american-day

Review of Three Days and a Life by Pierre Lemaitre

Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Release date: November 7, 2017
Publisher: Maclehose Press
Pages: 208
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In 1999, in the small provincial town of Beauval, France, 12-year-old Antoine Courtin accidently kills a young boy in the woods near his home. Panicked, he conceals the body and to his relief and ongoing shame, he is never suspected of any connection to the child’s disappearance. But the boy’s death continues to haunt him, shaping his life in unseen ways.

More than a decade later, Antoine is living in Paris, now a young doctor with a fiancée and a promising future. On a rare trip home to the town he hates and fears, Antoine thoughtlessly sleeps with a beautiful young woman from his past. She shows up pregnant at his doorstep in Paris a few months later, insisting that they marry, but Antoine refuses.

Meanwhile, the newly discovered body of Antoine’s childhood victim means that the case has been reopened, and all of his old fears rush back. Then the young woman’s father threatens Antoine with a paternity test—which would almost certainly match the DNA found on the dead child’s body. Will Antoine finally be forced to confront his crime? And what is he prepared to do to keep his secrets buried in the past?

Pierre Lemaitre’s new novel Three Days and a Life is a captivating and disturbing Hitchcockian thriller with plenty of twists and turns. The prolific French novelist and screenwriter is internationally known for crime novels and has won numerous literary awards that include the prestigious Prix Goncourt and Crime Writers’ Association International Dagger awards.

Three Days and a Life is a psychological roller coaster, and discussing this novel without revealing too much of the plot is a very difficult task. “The branch has fallen from his hands. He looks down at the child’s sprawled body. There is something strange about the posture that Antoine cannot quite place, a helplessness . . . What have I done? And what do I do now?”

The crime he committed when he was 12 was a crime of passion. It was in a fit of anger over the death of his beloved dog. After he disposes of the body he is “overcome with the sheer scale of the tragedy” and spends the next few days agonizing over his actions, expecting to be caught. “In a sickening spasm, the tidal wave in his stomach ripped through his whole body, burned through his belly, and exploded into his throat with a jolt that literally lifted him off the bed.”

This never happens, and others are accused and arrested for the crime. Flash forward twelve years and Antoine has attempted to move on with his life, but guilt is always “intensely present and terribly remote.” The narrative returns to the town and explores the ongoing effects of the crime. “His mind dragged him back to the most harrowing period of his life, one that had come to entirely define his childhood. They would find the body. The investigation would be reopened.”

Yet despite Antoine’s clear guilt, Lemaitre is expertly able to generate just enough compassion for him to draw the reader into an uncertain place where even though they might wish to see justice served they don’t want him to feel any more pain. Overall, Lemaitre magnificently manipulates the readers’ compassions and succeeds in dropping several remarkable plot twists that surprisingly help alter the initial events. Three Days and a Life is a heartbreaking and darkly disturbing psychological page-turner written with simplicity and creativity. A thoroughly captivating suspense-filled read that will not disappoint any devoted thriller enthusiast.

Michael Thomas Barry's most recent book is In the Company of Evil: Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950–1980. He is the author of six other nonfiction books and is a columnist for CrimeMagazine.com.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on November 7, 2017 - http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/three-days