june books

collages, ranked+rated and would/would not recommend

1. Hidden Pictures by Meg Wolitzer

Rating: 4.3
Would I recommend: No, but I liked it
Would I re-read: No

A story about an indifferent woman divorcing a man and falling in love with another woman.

I am biased. I love Meg Wolitzer - I remember reading her for the first time in high school and then always checking to see if her other books were available at the library. I love how she writes complicated women characters and her pondering writing style. I love her tendency to thread a feminist theme in and how distinct each of her books are. Her work consistently is a mix of contemplative characters and interesting storylines. I don’t understand why her book rating average is a 3.6 or lower (this book included) on Goodreads. I don’t know if it is because she is positioned as a ‘women fiction’ writer rather than a literary fiction writer or if it just reached the wrong audience but I will always be an avid reader of hers.

I don’t think you were supposed to like the characters. They were self-reflective which made up for their lack of relatability. A compelling but very minor detail was what they did for a living. The woman was a magazine illustrator and would hide drawings within a drawing for readers to find (—> hence ‘Hidden Pictures’). The man was a pediatrician. I honestly wish she dug deeper in how he felt being a new parent and a doctor. He had a terminally ill patient and his mind would wander to his own child’s safety, well-being, and future because how could it not. I could easily read a novel on the tangled emotions of doctors and the blurred lines of bringing your work home and your home to work.

Hidden Pictures is about discovering what love is and falling in love while trying to balance being a good parent and authenticity. It was written and based in the 80s which makes me curious if some of the stereotypes during that time line up with how she wrote them or if she had her own dated conventions. I would want to see how things really were, how they evolved, but most importantly (and sadly) how they didn’t change.

Long story short, it’s a plotless fiction that’s slow, quiet, but moving. It was an absorbing book that I really enjoyed but would not recommend or re-read - oops!🤷🏻‍♀️

2. Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

Rating: 4.1
Would I recommend: Yes, a thoughtful story which provides a different perspective on present day Palestine
Would I re-read: Yes

An actress, Sonia visiting her sister and ends up starring in a production of Hamlet in the West Bank.

This is a book about family, identity, and questions if art is a necessity or luxury during times of hopelessness. Most importantly, it is about resiliency and the everyday reality that Palestinians face. I loved the opening of the book, especially the scene where Sonia has just arrived and goes to a pier where she watches men diving into the ocean. She envisions her herself violently plunging in - her pants ballooning, her body skidding on the rocks. I find myself imagining this scene often typically bored at work.

Sonia is running away from an affair (the affair provided little to no significance to the plot or to her character dev imo) and is visiting her sister in Haifa. I loved the sister dynamic. It is unpredictable, moody, and so realistic. It is missed phone calls, withheld information, apologies, and confusion. It is not understanding why they do the things they do but trying to understand anyways which is truly the essence of sisterhood.

I liked getting to know each of the actors personalities and their own motivations. I appreciated the resentment, the jealousy, the tension, and the conflict the cast had. I loved the added element of romance. It made it more theatrical and the dynamic of the troupe real. I also really liked learning about the story of Hamlet and I surprisingly enjoyed the rehearsal scenes where they (artfully) read like theatre scripts. I typically don’t like back and forth dialogue like this but the descriptions made it sharp and more vivid. This being said, there were so many storylines and memories to follow which kept it interesting but at the same time made a lot of the parts lose its significance.

“Haneen once compared Palestine to an exposed part of an electronic network, where someone has cut the rubber coating with a knife to show the wires and currents underneath. She probably didn’t say that exactly, but that was the image she had brought into my mind. That this place revealed something about the whole world.”

3. Brotherless Nights by V. V. Ganeshananthan

Rating: 3.8
Would I recommend: Yes, to understand the inhumanity of war
Would I re-read: No

This book is about a young woman growing up with four brothers who is becoming a doctor during the Sri Lankan civil war.

I really liked the first half of the book which showed the intricate bond that she has with each of her brothers. I can cry just thinking about one of her brother’s drawing her whole family and how he slips it in a book for her to later find. I really appreciated that the book did not skimp on providing the history, politics, and the context of the civil war. By showing all the complexities, it helped me better understand the reactions and the retaliations of the government, revolutionaries, and differing parties. It also exposed how it all became convoluted and spiraled into a 30 year war. The disappearances, violent displacements, family division, and the senseless killings was devastating to read and knowing it is our current reality abroad is sickening.

Nearer to the end of the book I found it hard to focus. Some scenes were too drawn out and I got frustrated by the main character. Her innermost thoughts, morals, and values were inconsistent in her actions and honestly her lack of action.

“Evil is not limited by what you personally can imagine.”

4. You Are Here by David Nicholls

Rating: 3.2
Would I recommend: Maybe, but only to people that love Hallmark movies and being called nice
Would I re-read: No, unless I crave cringing

Two introverts are forced on a multi-day coast to coast walk with a group of people and unsurprisingly fall in love.

I have little to say about this book. The banter between the main characters was trying to be quirky but just came off very corny. However, I did enjoy the inner monologue of excuses they both made not to socialize as well as the little nuggets on introversion and loneliness. I also liked the idea of a book about walking, the coziness, and the English-ness of the story. Like any romance novel the storyline was very predictable and cynically, I do imagine them breaking up eventually. They were too different, she annoyed me lol, and their interactions seemed strained. Weirdly, it has a high rating in Goodreads.

“There is who we want to be, she thought, and there is who we are. As we get older the former gives way to the latter, and maybe this is who I am now, someone better off by themselves. Not happier, but better off.”