Zoe Sharp, SECOND SHOT

I went to see Zoe Sharp speak at Poison Pen in Scottsdale. She's very engaging, self-deprecating, with that dry "British" sense of humor. Book was fun, a slowish start, faster ending. I'd probably read another by her if it came my way.
My only gripe is the way that Charlie Fox (the protagonist/heroine/ex-military/bodyguard with a PAST) so quickly loves her little charge, Ella, age five or so, who actually seems sort of dull and spoiled, coy and giggly. But I must confess ... I don't always like other people's children in real life either. (Grin)

Jenna Blum, THOSE WHO SAVE US

This is a first novel, and it's pretty well written. Like a lot of novels I'm seeing lately, it's told bouncing between points of view, which I happen to like. In this case it's past/present. But this is a Novel With A Purpose. Not saying it's not a valid purpose. The premise is that Trudy, whose mother was the German mistress of a Nazi officer and an assistant in a bakery in Weimar, is a college professor interested in hearing and videotaping stories from average Germans during the war. Naturally she encounters some horrid Germans who still hate Jews; some decent Germans who helped hide Jews; and one man who is Jewish and reads a blistering prepared document for Trudy's camera.
The tough part, narratively speaking, is that the last interview is with a man who just Happens to be from Weimer and just Happened to see Trudy's mother delivering bread one day and just Happened to have met a man named Max in the Buchenwald camp, and just Happened to know that Max was in love with Trudy's mother and had a child with her out of wedlock. OH MY GOODNESS! Trudy thinks. You mean, I'm not the daughter of a horrible Nazi officer? I'm the daughter of a Jewish doctor? And the book ends. The good thing is that Anna, Trudy's mother, refuses to acknowledge the truth of what this man says. That feels psychologically real to me, and saves the book from being a melodrama. Worth a read. I give it a B.

Chris Cleave, LITTLE BEE

Astonishing. Probably one of the best books I've read all year. I'm certainly not the first to say so, and I don't have much to add to all the praise that's out there for this book with its bright orange and black cover.

First line: "Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl. Everyone would be pleased to see me coming. Maybe I would visit with you for the weekend ..."

This book delicately suggests its entire self (plot and metaphors) in these first lines. By the end of the book, Little Bee has only managed to visit with Sarah and her son Charlie for a bit more than a weekend. She cannot transform herself into a British anything, despite learning proper English language and trying to learn the idioms. (She knows just how important language is; but when she calls the taxi driver a "cock," thinking--based upon her experiences and close attention to language--that she is giving him a compliment--well, this episode suggests from the beginning that she will not ever be able to transform herself successfully.) Charlie choosing to play hide-and-seek at the wrong moment brings down the police; and although Sarah and Charlie try to help Little Bee by gathering her story as one of hundreds, adding weight (pounds?) to hers, in the end their whiteness (Britishness) betrays her on yet another African beach.

One of the things that's interesting is that this is the third book I've read this month which alternates among/between points of view. Here, it is Little Bee and Sarah; POSTMISTRESS has several; 19th WIFE bounces between two stories, present-day and 1870s. It seems to be the new strategy for adding complexity to stories. (Weirdly, I find myself on this wave without knowing there was a wave; my YA Victorian trainwreck manuscript bounces between Elizabeth and Mr. Wilcox.) Is anyone else finding any other books that use two voices or two points-of-view?

Sarah Blake, THE POSTMISTRESS

So a few weeks ago, I was paging through the NY Times Book Review and I find a half-page color ad for Sarah Blake's The Postmistress. Sarah Blake, I muse, Sarah Blake. Why do I know her name? Suddenly I remember ... we crossed paths very briefly at NYU. She was finishing her Ph.D. in English literature when I was just beginning. So I went online and googled her name. After scrolling through dozens of listings about Sarah Blake, the porn star (who, apparently, has quite a following), I found Sarah Blake, author. I went out, bought her book (in hardcover, as that is what is currently available and I have discovered from another writer friend that they "count" toward an author's sales) and read it in two days.

The book is not, strictly speaking, about the postmistress--a woman named Iris James. I'd say Blake's novel concerns three women: a radio girl named Frankie Bard, who goes to France in search of "the story" of the war; Iris James, the postal worker who listens to Frankie's broadcasts in Franklin Massachusetts; and Emma Fitch, also in Franklin, who listens to the broadcasts as well, knows that her husband is in London as it's being bombed, and may never return. The similarity of all these names and words--Frankie, France, Franklin, Fitch, Frankness (and the shadow of Anne Frank, who was one of the most compelling voices to come out of WWII)--hints at Blake's underlying concern about connections.

Blake's novel poses some serious questions. This isn't to say that the book isn't enjoyable. The characters are well-drawn and the plot compelling. But I think, as with many strong novels, at bottom is a philosophical concern: the ways the world is connected, through voices on the radio, and through letters, and how an undelivered letter--that is, what's left out of a narrative--is just as important as what's included. In either case, the choices about what is included and what isn't should be made consciously and after much reflection.