SOUTH OF BROAD by Pat Conroy ++++

A good read, tho not as good as Prince of Tides.

This novel takes a bit of time to get going and you need to 'suspend disbelief' a bit (accept Conroy's premises), but if you can, it's enjoyable with Conroy's usual good descriptive writing, this time about Charleston, SC.

Put it on you list; tho it doesn't need to be at the top of it.

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206 BONES by Kathy Reichs ***1/2

Although I gather Kathy Reichs, author of "206 Bones," has a dedicated following and has written numerous books with Tempe Brennan as a forensic anthropologist, this book was my first contact with Reichs and with Brennan.

I came to the book after hearing an interview with Reichs which I found fascinating and also seeing some positive references to the book.

What I enjoyed most was what I learned about this field and how much a good medical examiner can learn by a careful study of our 206 (or a portion thereof) bones after we die.

The story itself was reasonably involving, tho more for what you learn about this field than for the mysterious nature of the novel, which was only partially successful.

Still, I'll probably read at least one more of Reichs' books based on my enjoyment of this one.

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OLIVE  KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout ****1/2

These are 13 stories woven around the character of a retired school teacher, Olive Kitteridge, and her small New England town of Crosby, ME.

Although I struggled a bit with the form of this ‘novel,’ I found myself increasingly drawn to the characters, particularly Kitteridge, who by the conclusion of Strout’s book, had grown on me to the point that I will remember both Kitteridge and Strout long after I’ve forgotten the other novels in this collection of reviews.

Additionally, I was surprised to learn that my 26+ year old daughter and her book club all ‘loved the book’ as I had mistakenly supposed the middle and elderly aged characters in these stories would not particularly appeal to a younger generation.

Ah, another example of how little I really know.

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LETTERS TO MY FATHER by William Styron, James L.W., III West (Editor) ***1/2

Styron is one of my favorite writers, and, as such, I read not only what he wrote but a good deal about him also.

This small volume is a recently released group of letters he wrote to his father over a period of approximately 10 years, most of the letters during the time he was struggling to write and complete his first successful book, Lie Down in Darkness.

The early letters in this volume consist of his requests for financial support from his dad as well as reports on his progress, or lack of progress, on this novel.

I enjoyed following Styron’s development from an unsure, young author through the publication and success of his first novel.

With the publication and success of Lie Down in Darkness, his letters show a growth in confidence as well as his coming of age as he explores that success and his European travels.

There are only three letters from his father back to him, but between Styron’s letters to his dad and these three replies, it’s quite clear that the support of his father (financially and morally) were of great importance to Styron and to Styron’s success.

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A HAPPY MARRIAGE by Rafael Yeglesias ***

I had high hopes for this book after I heard an interview with the author and even (foolishly) gave a copy of it to my father as it was portrayed as a husband and wife’s struggle with her ending years and her final days as she dies of cancer.

The title is misleading, I think, as the book largely alternates between the first year of Enrique’s marriage to Margaret (Yeglesias’s wife real name) and the last several years of their life together.  But while the writing is often rich, especially about the two ends of their marriage, it never seems to answer the question implied in the title.

Or if it did, I missed it.

It’s a curious book in many ways. It’s presented as a novel, tho it is largely taken from the author’s experience with his own marriage. Why he chose to present this in novel form is not entirely clear; tho I suspect he was not really ready or able to put himself and his marriage on stage, so to speak.

Yet that is what he does. Mostly writing about himself, Yeglesias does present his struggle with her end of life as well as his unfaithfulness to her in the middle years of their marriage.

Most reviews have been quite positive about A Happy Marriage, and I would be curious to know what any of you think about the book.