The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise: A Novel - Literary fiction

Author: Julia Stuart 

Publication Date: 2010  

Number of Pages: 304 (hardcover)   

Part of a Series: No

Subject Heading(s): 

• Bereavement in families 
• British humor 
• Child’s death 
• Conflict in Marriage 
• Healing 
• British history 
• Humorous stories 
• Literary Fiction 
• London, England 
• Love story 
• Loss 
• Zoo Keepers     

Geographical Setting: London, England   

Time Period: present day

Main Character(s): 

• Balthazar Jones- a history buff who enjoys giving tours as Beefeater of the London Tower, a grieving father, and a husband who tends to hold his emotions inside rather than share them with his wife
• Hebe Jones- an independent, hard working, grieving woman who is  the wife of Bathalzar Jones and works at the London Underground’s Lost Property Office
• Milo- the Jones’ son who passes away at the age of 11, but plays a big part in the novel through flashbacks and references to his life
• Mrs. Cook- the oldest tortoise in existence, family pet of the Jones’

Plot Summary:  Balthazar Jones and his wife Hebe live in the Tower of London. Balthazar is a Beefeater who provides tours of the historical tower. When the Queen decides to reintroduce the zoo on the Tower grounds, Balthazar is asked to become the zoo keeper. At first he is hesitant but soon he falls in love with the animals and the zoo becomes a hit among the tourists and the other residents of the Tower. However, not  all is perfect in Balthazar’s life as the grief from his young son’s death has slowly torn apart his marriage. In order to restore their relationship the Jones’ must work through their grief by learning to communicate more effectively and move on.

Appeal:   

• Tone: humorous but mixed with hints of seriousness in its themes 
• Characterization: told in 3^rd person but readers come to understand and get to know the original cast of characters through their thoughts and actions, secondary characters are important to the plot;  
• Story line: unique story plot but filled with themes of loss, love, and healing to which all readers will relate;  
• Style/Language: charming;  
• Frame/Setting: The Tower of London and the history surrounding this historical site is an important part of this novel and is weaved in throughout, history buffs will enjoy this aspect

Brief quote: “Balthazar Jones had been collecting rain for almost three years, a compulsion that had started shortly after the death of his only child. At first he thought that rain was simply an infuriating part of the job, which, along with the damp from their abominable lodgings, produced in all the Beefeaters a ruthless specimen of fungus that flourished on the backs of their knees.” (7)

Prizes or Awards: 

NY Times Bestseller (August 2010), 

highly recommended in Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly, 

Entertainment Weekly grade A review, 

People Magazine 4 out of 4 stars review

Similar Works:   

The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner by Giles Waterfield – humorous stories, takes place in London in a historical museum which is similar to the historical London Tower 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer- takes place in England, original story plot, unique characters, charming style and language (LibraryThing)

 

Reviewer’s Name: Taryn Kingery

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers= Advisory Service in the Public Library 2^nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.

After Dark (Afutadaku) - Literary fiction

Author: Haruki Murakami (trans. Jay Rubin) 

Publication Date:  2007 (original publication 2004) 

Number of Pages: 191   

Part of a Series: No.  

Subject Heading(s):

• Alienation (Social Psychology) 
  
• Interpersonal Relations     
• Japanese Fiction     
• Jazz 
• Literary Fiction      
• Magical Realism     
• Psychological Fiction  
• Sex Workers

Geographical Setting/ Time Period:  A city in modern-day Japan

Main Character(s):  

Us: Quiet, transparent, and intuitive, we the readers and the author narrate the story in our observance of it.

Mari Asai: A bookish, unambitious student of Chinese at the University of Foreign studies, who feels she has nothing to show for her individualism.

Eri Asai: A beautiful, shallow model who is in a deep sleep, and wakes up to her existential angst.

Kaoru: An ex-female-wrestler and current love hotel manager, who is not afraid of gangsters.

Takahashi: A talented, but not brilliant, trombonist and law student who does everything very slowly and is full of long stories.

Plot Summary: Over the course of a night, Mari Asai meets Takahashi, a boy she knew once in high school, and Kaoru, whom she assists in helping a Chinese prostitute, who’s been beaten and robbed in Kaoru’s love hotel.  Through their conversations, the reader comes to understand their inner lives and uncertainties.  While this is occurring Eri Asai, who has been in a deep sleep, wakes up to the horror that is her identity and existence, and the salaryman who attacked the prostitute finishes a hard night’s work.

Appeal: Written in a stream-of-consciousness style that plays off of the jazz riffs in Takashi’s beloved “Five Spot After Dark,” Murakami blends straightforward sentences with lyrical prose with scripted comedy routines.  The characters are flawed with deep lives of their own, into which the reader is given glimpses as they react to the plot at their own, steady pace.  The tone of the novel is gray and depersonalized, set a few paces back from the action, with bursts of humor.  This helps to set up the reader for some disconcerting elements, which feel horrifying in comparison to the dreamy undertone of the rest of the novel.  The familiar and solid setting of a Denny’s serves to emphasize the surreal nature of the inner lives of the characters.

Brief quote: pg. 3

In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creature—or more like a single collective entity created by many intertwining organisms.  Countless arteries stretch to the ends of its elusive body, circulating a continuous supply of fresh blood cells, sending out new data and collecting the old, sending out new consumables and collecting the old, sending out new contradictions and collecting the old.

Prizes or Awards: 

Nominee for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2008, which is sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and World Literature Today.  Haruki Murakami has received the Franz Kafka Prize from the Czech Republic in 2006 and the Jerusalem Prize in 2009.  In 2007 and 2008 he received honorary doctorates from the University of Liege and Princeton University, respectively.

Similar Works: From NoveList’s Author Read-Alikes

• Kobo Abe, The Woman in the Dunes, surrealist Japanese novel that explores themes of alienation and diverges sharply from traditional Japanese literature.
• David Mitchell, Ghostwritten: A Novel in Nine Parts, interweaves the stories of nine characters throughout the world and portrays the alienation and loneliness in modern life.

Reviewer’s Name: Natalie Garner

 

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers= Advisory Service in the Public Library 2^nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.

Everything is illuminated - Literary Fiction

Author: Jonathan Safran Foer

Publication Date: 2002 

Number of Pages: 276

Part of a Series: No

Subject Heading(s):

• Americans -- Ukraine – Fiction  
• Bildungsromane  
• Grandfather and child  
• Grandfathers -- Fiction  
• Guilt in men  
• Holocaust, Jewish (1933-1945)  
• Holocaust survivors  
• Humorous fiction  
• Jewish-Americans in Ukraine  
• Novelists -- Fiction  
• Novels within novels  
• Translators  
• World War II  
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Ukraine – Fiction  
• Young men -- Fiction  

Note: Bildungsromane: A novel mainly about the moral, psychological, and/or intellectual development of a protagonist, typically a young adult (see wiktionary.org)

Geographical Setting/ Time Period: United States and Ukraine; 1997

Main Character(s):

Jonathan Safran Foer- a young, Jewish-American college student who has a penchant for collecting strange items

Alex Perchov- a young Ukrainian translator, his knowledge of American culture is at least a decade out of date

Grandfather- Alex’s disgruntled grandfather, a taxi driver who claims to be blind and insists his “deranged seeing-eye bitch,” Sammie Davis Jr., Jr., go everywhere with him.

Plot Summary: Jonathan, a fictitious writer who happens to share the author’s name, goes to the Ukraine armed only with a photograph and a story in search of Augustine, the woman who saved Jonathan’s grandfather during the Nazi invasion of Ukraine. Jonathan’s translator, Alex, along with Alex’s grandfather guide Jonathan across the Ukrainian countryside in search of the lost story of his grandfather’s youth.

Appeal: The language style is unique. The story is told through both Jonathan and Alex, a young Ukrainian man who speaks in a combination of Ukrainian-taught broken English heavily influenced by American pop culture. The story unfolds slowly, interspersed with comedic moments that result from Alex’s use of English and the interactions between the three main characters. The characters themselves, even minor ones, are interesting, richly developed, and unique. While not suspenseful, the story Foer travels across the world to uncover is engaging. The frame, Ukraine from the 1700s to the present, and the details of Jewish life are essential to the story development. The emotions and experiences of the main characters will resonate with readers as they experience the truth unfold through Alex’s words and Jonathan’s retelling of his family history. The telling is very straightforward, so there are some references to sex and explicit descriptions of the human body. It is important to note that the ending is somewhat open and the narrative ends abruptly.

Brief quote: “But first I am burdened to recite my good appearance. I am unequivocally tall. I do not know any women who are taller than me. The women I know who are taller than me are lesbians, for whom 1969 was a very momentous year. I have handsome hairs, which are split in the middle. This is because Mother used to split them on the side when I was a boy, and to spleen her I split them in the middle.” (page 3-4)

Prizes or Awards: 

• 2002 National Jewish Book Award, 
• 2003 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
• The 2002 Guardian First Book Award. 
• Kirkus & Publishers Weekly starred reviews. 
• Movie adaptation released in 2005, starring Elijah Wood.

Similar Works: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Novels within novels; translators; Holocaust survivors)

Reviewer’s Name: Lori Chatman

 

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers= Advisory Service in the Public Library 2^nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.

People of the Book - Literary fiction

Author: Geraldine Brooks

Publication Date: 2008  

Number of Pages: 372

Part of a Series: no

Subject Heading(s):

• Books-conservation and restoration-fiction  
• Judaism-prayers and devotions-fiction  
• Rare books- fiction  
• Religious persecution  
• Toleration  
• Greed  
• Manuscripts  
• Religious liberty  
• Sacred books  
• Voyages and travel  

Geographical Setting/ Time Period: modern day- Bosnia, Australia, U.S., Israel and the past Spain, Italy, Austria, Bosnia  

Main Character(s): 

Hanna Heath- the Australian rare book conservator who tries to find the story behind the books she works on;  

Ozren Karaman- the brave librarian who saved the Haggadah during the bombing in Sarajevo  

Plot Summary: The Sarajevo Haggadah, an ancient illustrated Hebrew manuscript, has reappeared after the cease fire in Sarajevo. Hanna has been approved by the UN and the Bosnians to inspect the manuscript and restore it so it can be placed on display with other religious items that will showcase that various cultures and religions enrich each other. Thus begins a journey which takes the reader back to specific times in the manuscript’s history based on small items found during the restoration.

 

Appeal: This book has many stories within the main story. It delves into many issues concerning religion and some politics. It progresses at a fairly leisurely pace. This would appeal to many historical fiction readers as it is detailed and visits various places at different times in history. The characters are well written and strong. Note: This book has a map on the inside cover of the trip that the manuscript has taken.

Brief quote:  “Here in this museum in 1894, M. Martell had worked his soft cloth and his small brushes over the old and blackened pieces of metal until the silver once again gleamed in the light. For just a moment, the very dispassionate M. Martell had lost his head. ‘The clasps,’ he had written, ‘are extraordinarily beautiful.’” (page 104)

Prizes or Awards: Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year and Literary Fiction Book of the Year, Massachusetts Book Awards Fiction Award and School Library Journal’s Adult Books for High School Students 2008

 

Similar Works:  

Sarah’s Key by, Tatiana de Rosnay (NoveList- Jewish history, WWII) 

Kepler by John Banville (NoveList- intricate plot historical fiction, religious persecution)

Reviewer’s Name: Erin Bedford

 

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers= Advisory Service in the Public Library 2^nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.