BOOKS

Amy Rosenberg is the new branch manager at the Dayton Memorial Library. Some readers may know her from her previous job as the Prescott Library branch supervisor. She moved to Dayton from Pendleton about a year and a half ago and she is working on her Masters of Library and Information Science degree through the University of Washington Information School’s on- line program. Although she doesn’t have a lot of time to read for pleasure during the school year, she is a constant, if not very discerning, reader in the summer.

“The Lacuna”, by Barbara Kingsolver.

A lacuna is a missing part, a cavity, an emptiness defined by the things that surround it. There are many lacunae in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, but perhaps the most appar- ent is its narrator, Harrison Shep- herd. We know f acts about him; like that he was born in the US and grew up in Mexi- co. He was a cook for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. He wrote torrid novels about Mexican history. But we find out who he is only peripher- ally, by what is unsaid and what he says about others.

But it is through Shepherd’s journals and letters, along with some real news- paper articles, that Kingsolver pieces together the story. It begins when Shepherd is a child, in a hacienda sur- rounded by howler monkeys on Isla Pixol in 1929. As the novel progresses Shep- herd becomes part of the lives of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky. Yet, in the tumultuous Rivera/ Kahlo household, Shepherd remains apart. He keeps his head down and his pen busy. After the assassina- tion of Trotsky, he moves to the US. There, he lives as a recluse until called before the House Un-American Activities Committee to give testimony about life among the Trotskyites.

Librarian and human action figure, Nancy Pearl, says that readers usually enter a book through one of four doorways, Character, Story (or plot), Setting or Language. Reading “The Lacuna” is like entering all four doorways at once. The characters are alive and richly painted. The story is fascinating, heartbreaking and complex. Despite its length (and it is long, folks) I read it in just a few days. The setting is lush and sensuous. The language is gorgeous. I’ve always been a big fan of Barbara Kingsolver’s and The Lacuna is, I think, her best work.

“Great House,” By Nicole Krauss

“Great House” is com- prised of four stories centered around an antique writing desk. The desk itself is “an enormous, foreboding thing that bore down on the oc- cupants of the room it inhabited, pretending to be inanimate but, like a Venus’ flytrap, ready to pounce on them and digest them via one of its many little terrible drawers.” One of which is forever locked. The desk is an omnipresent feature in the book and in the lives of the characters who live around it.

Nicole Krauss is spectacularly gifted at weaving together the threads of disparate narratives into a won- drous, heartbreaking whole. “Great House” is, in essence, a mystery. Like the desk with the locked drawer, it doesn’t give its secrets up easily. In the beginning, it’s unclear how these characters relate to one another. Gradually, as the connections between them become clear and as the mysteries slowly reveal themselves, we are left with a sense of having touched some- thing important.

Krauss is a young writer and “Great House” is her third b ook. Her second book, “History of Love,” is an amazing piece of fiction, one of my all-time favorites. She is an exceptionally tal- ented story teller, but it’s her descriptions and her use of the language that will break your heart. Then mend it, and break it again.

Did you know that there is another great resource for book recommendations for Columbia County and Walla Walla County Rural Library Patrons? “Novelist” is a da- tabase that has thousands of book reviews and recommen- dations. My favorite Novelist function is the “Read Alikes” feature. If there’s a book or author that you love, you can ask Novelist to help you find titles that are similar. Just go to your library’s webpage, click on “Databases” and find Novelist. All you need to access it is your library card number! And if you need help or want to know more about the databases that your library subscribes to, come in and see us. We are here to help! - Amy Rosenberg