The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

Posted on November 2, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I have a lovely book to tell you about today. I’m sorry I took so long to read The Story of Beautiful Girl.

We follow three characters for the course of the book. Lynnie is a beautiful young woman at the beginning, living at “the School” (that is, the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded in Pennsylvania) because she is mentally retarded. No one knows that Number Forty-Two’s name is actually Homan; he is deaf and no one around him understands his brand of sign language, so he has landed at the School as well (he thinks of it as the Snare). And Martha is in her seventies, widowed and living alone in the opening scene in which all three lives coincide.

Martha opens the door in a rainstorm to find Lynnie and Homan standing on her stoop cradling a new-born babe. As Lynnie and her baby are both white and Homan is black, Martha assumes he is not its father; but while these questions of race are clear at a glance, it takes her a little longer to observe that her guests are differently abled. She clothes them and they hide their small charge in her attic just as the authorities arrive; Lynnie is tied up and taken back to the School, and Homan disappears into the woods.

Now we follow the three as they lead independent lives. Martha had a baby many years ago who turned out to be “defective” – we never learn the details – and never left the hospital with her; now she gets to start fresh with the newborn that has been entrusted to her. Lynnie goes back to a miserable institution. Homan runs, intending to return and rescue Lynnie but being thwarted, victimized, blown around the country like a leaf; being unable to communicate cripples him at least as surely as any physical disability. Martha leaves her home to hide the baby whose provenance she can’t explain; she moves around, fleeing the possibility of discovery. Eventually she takes on the identity of grandmother to the child she names Julia, and eventually she is able to start a new life and find new joy and happiness with Julia’s help. She finds a way to turn a spotlight on Lynnie’s plight, and the School is closed down. Lynnie gradually grows as a person; with the help of a School caretaker who becomes and remains a friends, she learns to speak again, learns to read and write and carry on a life. But she always looks for Homan, who never stops thinking of her either – his Beautiful Girl.

This is a beautiful love story, and a story of families and parents trying their best. Several relationships are rekindled after years apart (romantic and otherwise). There is also an exposé of institutions like the School, which is heartbreaking and true-to-life. Simon’s bestselling memoir, Riding the Bus with My Sister, chronicles her experience reconnecting with her sister Beth, a mentally retarded woman as well, and her Author’s Note explains her connection to the subject matter and how she went about her research. I enjoyed this brief look into the process.

This is a lovely book. Sad, yes, but also redemptive. I recommend it highly. (And, it fulfills Pennsylvania for me in the ever-present-these-days Where Are You Reading? Challenge. :))

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Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

Posted on October 31, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Winesburg, Ohio is a collection of short stories that is more than the sum of its parts; the short stories are connected, all being set in the fictional town of Winesburg and concerning overlapping characters. We are most interested in George Willard, a town native who we most often see as a young man working as a reporter at the town paper (or, “the” reporter). Several of the stories give us Willard’s experiences (always in third person), but a number of them concern other inhabitants of the town. These men and women usually have some small personal tragedy that has thrown off the rhythm or intentions of their lives.

The work as a whole has a very quiet, contemplative tone and mood. Very little of great import goes on; but simple, sad lives are carried out, and hearts are broken quietly. It is moving. Anderson excels at bringing a character to life for a brief moment; and then he moves on.

I came to this book through Hemingway’s recommendation (and was finally motivated to get it off the bookshelf for the Where Are You Reading? Challenge‘s Ohio requirement). It has been a little while since I’ve read a biography of Hemingway so I’m a little rusty on the details, but I recall that Anderson played a role in his early writing career – encouraged him to write, gave him tips, maybe recommended him for publication. I think he pushed Hem to move to Paris as a youngster, which he did with his first wife Hadley, with results that I think we can safely say influenced his career as a writer. Anderson definitely influenced his style; I got this out of Malcolm Cowley’s excellent introduction, but it’s readily evident even without that clue. The same short, simple sentences that say so much with so few words are recognizable in Anderson’s stories; see my book beginnings post, or:

The Presbyterian Church held itself somewhat aloof from the other churches of Winesburg. It was larger and more imposing and its minister was better paid. He even had a carriage of his own and on summer evenings sometimes drove about town with his wife. Through Main Street and up and down Buckeye Street he went, bowing gravely to the people, while his wife, afire with secret pride, looked at him out of the corners of her eyes and worried lest the horse become frightened and run away.

This quotation comes from “The Strength of God,” one of my favorite stories.

As character sketches, these short stories are outstanding. As a whole, though, this book failed to grasp me the way I’d hoped – certainly it failed to grasp me the way Hemingway does. While I saw Papa on these pages, unmistakably, I was also constantly reminded of Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street, another quiet, subdued story about everyday, small-town life and its quiet tragedies. Perhaps it is the repetition of that phrase, “Main Street,” that got me, but I kept seeing Lewis’s work in this one, and frankly Main Street is a more memorable book. Like happens to me sometime when I fail to deeply appreciate one of the “classics” (ahem The Picture of Dorian Gray), I worry that it’s me, not the book, that I’ve missed something beautiful that would be obvious to someone with just a little higher IQ. I have to shrug this off, though. This collection does have value; I don’t want to give an impression otherwise, it just might not be *my* ideal cup. Almost every story builds a character who is real and often sympathetic. The tone is unique and if nothing else, the view into small-town life of a certain era is fairly unique. We can’t all love the same books, and life is more colorful for it.

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The Affair by Lee Child (audio)

Posted on October 30, 2011 by pagesofjulia

The brand-newest Reacher, just out a few weeks now, is another flashback or prequel: it’s 1997, and Reacher is still in the army. He is sent out to Carter Crossing, Mississippi to do damage control on a murder case that threatens the army’s good reputation. There’s a lot of politics involved: the local army base is sending companies secretly into Kosovo, and one of the captains in question is the son of a senator in the Armed Services Committee. It develops that this very captain has some connections to the murdered woman – or maybe his father the senator does. Reacher breezes into town intending to remain under cover while investigating the case parallel to the above-board MP working from the base; but his cover is immediately blown by the local sheriff, a former Marine MP herself. The one murdered woman turns out to be the third in a series of similar killings – the first two having been ignored apparently because they were black. And then more people start dying. What exactly is going on here? And who can Reacher trust? He’s inclined to trust Elizabeth Devereaux, the sheriff, but he’s getting conflicting messages from various sources at the army.

The Affair is in several ways a standard Reacher production, and in several ways not. Reacher does his investigating; he’s a smart guy and he figures things out; he eventually will get the bad guy(s), no doubt about that. There is rather less ass-kicking in this book, though. Husband was disappointed, and I was just flat-out surprised at how easily and relatively bloodlessly the hooligans were taken down. There is rather more sex – Reacher does tend to get laid in many of the books, but the sex got a little more attention in this one. It was well done – I’m not complaining – but I was a little confused at the shifting focus. I wonder if Child has figured out that he has a number of female fans swooning over Reacher and decided to play up to them (us)? As a swooning Reacher fan myself, let me say: more ass-kicking please! I don’t begrudge him the sex but that was never the primary focus, and I’d rather stick with the classic model of ass-kicking with sex on the side, rather than the other way around.

This bit is very slightly spoilery… I had some trouble suspending disbelief as we discovered all the mistakes made by the illustrious Elizabeth Devereaux in investigating the murders before Reacher’s arrival. If she’s such a veteran hotshot MP herself, how did she miss that there was no blood on the white collar of the woman who had her THROAT CUT? Etc. She beats Neagley at the mind game at which the latter supposedly excels but makes all kinds of amateurish mistakes in the murder investigation. It just didn’t ring true for me. End spoiler. But hey, maybe I’m just mad at the whole Reacher camp right now because… have you heard? They’ve cast Tom Cruise, of all people, to play him in the movie they’re making of One Shot! Blasphemy, says I. Reacher is supposed to be 6’3″ and 230+ pounds, muscular, and blonde. Sigh. And I’m not alone – you should see the Reacher fans raising hell over at the facebook page.

But all in all, this was another satisfying edition of the Reacher adventure. I liked it. It just wasn’t my favorite. I wonder where Child is going to take Reacher from here? It occurs to me that he’s getting older (possibly a reason to keep writing prequels!) – but Child came up with another possible plot thread here: the younger version of Reacher, named Duncan Monroe, just a bit earlier in his career and otherwise apparently a spitting image. I guess we could always revisit Monroe as Reacher ages. What do you do with an aging hero? Realistically we could see him forced to accept some realities and calm down a bit; but action/adventure/thriller/hero/mysteries don’t always take the realistic route! At any rate I’m still hooked in. What’s next, Reacher?

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The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Posted on October 29, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I came into this book with a vague notion that it is a classic that was taught in schools more commonly before my day, and that it was popular with boy-children, also mostly before my time. It is a Civil War story. “The youth,” as we mostly know him, Henry Fleming, signs up against his mother’s wishes to go fight for the Union, and the book follows his war experience.

The bulk of this story is taken up not with events but with the turmoil inside Henry’s head. He is fascinated by war and wants to participate; it takes a certain amount of internal argument before he signs up, and then he thinks he’ll make his mother proud. Then after much waiting in camp, when it appears that he might actually see battle, he becomes petrified with the fear that he’ll run. He meets battle, stands and fights at first, wondering at his nonchalant courage; and then turns and runs. While a fugitive deserter in the woods on his own, he convinces himself that running was in fact the wise and respectable decision; then upon encountering the army again he comes filled with self-loathing. He watches a friend die. He rejoins his regiment with an excuse for his absence and becomes confident again. And on and on – you get the idea. It’s the story of a young boy’s difficulty with the concept of fighting and, most centrally (as in the title), the concept of courage. I’m not sure we ever learn the age of “the youth,” which I regret; I kept wondering how old he was, but maybe the point was that we’re unclear on that question. There is more fighting; our youth stays and fights; there is a victory. (Perhaps it is The Victory; I’m not sure.) At the end of the story, Henry has found a peace and a confidence in himself; the war seems to have helped him grow up.

I kept track, off and on, of the uses of the color red in this book. Aside from the obvious red of blood, war is repeatedly characterized as a red animal, and the flag is a red and white woman who demands and inspires Henry’s courage. And red is not the only color to receive repetitive attention. Yellow is cowardice and men’s pale, sickly, frightened or wounded faces. (Henry’s mother threw a yellow light on the color of Henry’s ambition, by opposing his wish to join the army.) Purple is twilight; blue is the Union uniform as well as the sky, and rage is variously red, black, and purple.

I like this passage; note all the colors used:

He was being looked at by a dead man who was seated with his back against a columnlike tree. The corpse was dressed in a uniform that had once been blue, but was now faded to a melancholy shade of green. The eyes, staring at the youth, had changed to the dull hue to be seen on the side of a dead fish. The mouth was open. Its red had changed to an appalling yellow. Over the gray skin of the face ran little ants. One was trundling some sort of bundle along the upper lip.

Honestly, though, I was not particularly taken with The Red Badge of Courage. It had its moments of colorful imagery that I found charming; and at times Henry’s turmoil felt very human and sympathetic. But for the most part I was a little bit bored. Relatively little action takes place; mostly we hear about Henry’s anguish. I hate to be callous about his struggles – this is war, he is but a “youth,” war is terrible – but it felt to me like rather much circling around the same emotions. It wasn’t as evocative, at least for me, as it could have been. Books about the war experience should twist the knife deeper than this one did.

I also found a few aspects of Crane’s treatment of war a little surprising. For one thing, we almost never heard about the enemy; aside from being dressed in gray and being the antagonist of the battle scenes, the Confederates aren’t developed at all. Many war stories, and especially Civil War stories, paint the opposing army as tragically familiar, thus illustrating the futility and ultimate tragedy of war. This book seemed to take a pass on any such message, which left me feeling a little hollow.

As I sum up my experience reading this book, I have to say I didn’t find it very moving. I would love to hear from someone else who did, though. Any fans of The Red Badge of Courage out there?

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One Book…

Posted on October 28, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Hey Simon, look at you with your successful meme! 🙂 Thanks for doing this one again. I agree with you that is was great last time around (Simon’s post; my post) and I can’t resist playing along, again.

Simon from Stuck in a Book has posted another round of One Book, Two Book, Three Book, Four… and Five, in which he lists his current reading, with pictures. Go check him out. And, here’s mine:

The book I’m currently reading is Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine. This was a recommendation from my aunt Laura several years ago. I bet she thought I forgot, but I didn’t! It’s been on my shelf and I have finally picked it up, prompted by the Where Are You Reading? Challenge. It’s set in North Dakota, and it’s about an extended family of Native Americans. I’m enjoying it.

And, on audio, I’m currently “reading” Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood. It’s fairly thought-provoking. I’m glad to be revisiting Atwood; she’s so talented and always makes me think. This one is a bit creepy but oh so delightful, too. It’s speculative fiction set in some unknown future, after the “waterless flood” which has wiped most of the population off the earth, it seems, combined with flashbacks into a dystopic world ruled by corporations.

The last book I finished was The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon, and it was so beautiful. (My review should be up next week.) I highly recommend it.

The next book I want to read is definitely We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I’ve been hearing about this one for so long! And I finally got my hands on a copy! I don’t usually participate in the reading of spooky books for Halloween, but just by coincidence, I have this one packed in my bag for our weekend trip. (I’m very excited: we’re off to a 6-hour mountain bike race near Dallas, leaving tonight!)

And along the same lines, I’ve picked out a few audiobooks for the drive, including James Lee Burke’s Bitterroot (love Burke, haven’t read this one yet), Grisham’s The Appeal (why not, Grisham is solid if predictable), and Ken Follett’s Hornet Flight (have never read him, this will be a first try) but – back to the spooky theme – also including Stephen King’s Stationary Bike. There is a joke in there somewhere about the bike being the evil force in this story, and us driving towards a bike race. 🙂 This will be only my second Stephen King experience, the first being From a Buick 8, in which the car was the bad guy. Is this a coincidence? Or is Stephen King all about transportation-as-evil?

The last book I bought was, oh heck, I don’t buy books very often (working in a library is the best!). I think the last books I purchased were the four memoirs relating to Hemingway that I mentioned here. They were: Papa: A Personal Memoir by his son Gregory (Gigi), With Hemingway by Arnold Samuelson (“the Maestro”), Papa Hemingway by longtime friend A.E. Hotchner, and Running with the Bulls: My Years with the Hemingways by Valerie Hemingway, Gregory’s ex-wife (who was originally a secretary or assistant to Papa).

The last book I was given would also be a list of several, and as usual came from my good buddy Fil. (Fil, you’re a doll. They’re still on the shelf.) I’ll Gather My Geese by Hallie Crawford Stillwell is a memoir of a young woman in the early 1900’s who left home to travel west, into deep west Texas desert of Big Bend country, and had all kinds of adventures. Fil knows and shares my interest in and love of this area, which I’ve mentioned before.

He also brought my The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (I should have read this already! but I haven’t) and The Road to Wellville by T.C. Boyle. And, he brought the Husband Spokesongs: Bicycle Adventures on Three Continents by Willie Weir, about bicycle touring. We’re interested in doing some touring – particularly, in Husband’s case, off-road touring, and self-supported. So far my experience is mostly supported, or just 2-3 days self-supported, but in fact next weekend we’ll be riding out to camp at a state park near the coast, so there you go. 🙂

Thanks, Fil! And thanks, Simon, for putting this together again!

EDIT: And oh heck, I just remembered, I have been gifted a book since those (but I’m leaving them up for your perusal!): my parents came home from France with some delicious delectable macaroons for us, and a copy of Hemingway on Paris for me. Yum, and yum. 🙂 Thanks, parents!

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Play With Fire by Dana Stabenow

Posted on October 27, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I picked up this Kate Shugak mystery just to satisfy my need for an Alaska-set book, for the Where Are You Reading? Challenge. (This is becoming an issue around here.) But unlike some I have picked up just for their settings, this book was worth the time.

Kate Shugak was a police detective in Alaska but is now retired; she is also an Aleut (one kind of native Alaskan), with an interesting background. In Play With Fire, a forest fire the fall before has caused an extraordinary crop of morel mushrooms to pop up in the backcountry, and Kate is picking them to sell to an enthusiastic international market when she discovers a decomposing corpse. The same day, a young boy named Matthew shows up with some crumpled bills and hires her to search for his missing father. If this sounds awfully much like a coincidence, you are correct.

The mystery takes Kate into a small town with a very creepy religious tyrant and undertones of Jerry Falwell. Stabenow shares some details of the natural environment, flora and fauna, especially mushroom trivia. For me, the best part was learning about Shugak’s experience as a young “native” in Alaska, with snippets of cultural information and language; I would go back to this series for more of the same. I really enjoy a strong sense of place in my mystery novels, and this one has it. I would also return for more of Kate’s romance with Jack Morgan. So far he’s rather typical-romance-novel-hero by which I mean, perfect – but I’m not sick of him yet. Not a new favorite, but noteworthy.

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The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman

Posted on October 26, 2011 by pagesofjulia

The three Halloran brothers, Tim, Sean and Go-Go (Gordon), and two neighbor girls, Mickey and Gwen, were inseparable for a short time in childhood. During that period, they played in the enormous wooded Leakin Park behind their neighborhood, did normal childhood things, learned about some adult things, and maybe did some bad things. At the start of this book, the adult Go-Go dies. The other four – but mostly Gwen – look back at their childhood, consider guilt and responsibility, and wonder how well their secrets have been kept over the years.

Lippman handles family relationships, and friendships, and neighborhood whisperings fairly well. I felt that the most effective moments, the most evocative and emotional scenes, are the ones dealing with secrets and relationships. I feel for Tim in his desire to befriend his three daughters, and his feeling that his all-female family overwhelms him. Sean’s fear that his own son is gay is less sympathetic, but still feels very real. I thought Mickey was a pretty interesting character, both as a child and in adulthood. And the parents – Tim Sr. and Doris, Rita and Rick (and her various other men), and Tally and Dr. Robison – were very well drawn; they came across as real people to me.

The suspense was well done in that I had to keep coming back and opening the book; I was drawn along, I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The parent-child dynamics, and the development of them – Gwen’s observations of her adopted daughter, for instance – were engaging.

But the plot was weak, in my opinion. The mystery of what happened in the woods, after all the questions and all the intrigue, wasn’t as outrageous or shocking as it should have been; the big reveal was something of a let-down for me. I regretted not getting to know Go-Go better. The mystery of Go-Go was sort of the mystery of the book – that we didn’t know him was the point – but still, I missed more knowledge in that area; I think it might have improved my experience. Considering how well Lippman draws characters, relationships, and emotional impacts, I think she could have done a lot with him.

So while this book was engaging and entertaining during the reading – I couldn’t put it down for a day or two, and enjoyed it during those hours – I didn’t take much away from it. I fear I will forget it quickly. (I read Lippman’s earlier novel, I’d Know You Anywhere, and it kind of went the same way. My memory of it is vague; another similar book I read around the same time, Chevy Stevens’s Still Missing, made a far greater impression.) I can’t get all that excited about Lippman, although I do read rave reviews, so I know some people do.

I read this book to cover Maryland for the Where Are You Reading? Challenge, and it did its job. Although, here’s another minor beef: I love a strong sense of place in a mystery novel. If I’m reading about a place I’m familiar with, it’s great fun with to get a sense of familiarity. If I’m reading about a place I’m not familiar with – like Baltimore – I enjoy learning about a new place without actually traveling there. But Lippman’s Baltimore didn’t come alive; it didn’t make an impression on me as a city with personality. (Maybe Baltimore really doesn’t have a personality. But I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. Most cities do.) So, this book didn’t do too much more for me than fulfill my need for a Maryland-set story. I think I’m about done with Lippman.

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guest review: In Session by MJ Rose, from Mom

Posted on October 22, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I posted my review of In Session a few days ago; now here’s my mother with a very different impression of it. For fairness’ sake. 🙂

In Session is a short but sweet introduction to the work of M. J. Rose and her character Dr. Morgan Snow, a sex therapist. I’ve never read her, but I will be looking for more of her work. The premise of this short story is that she manages to make contact with three fictional characters and involve them in her work. She makes a very satisfactory connection with Reacher, Lee Child’s hero, and the only one I have any experience with.

The first session (as in therapy session) is with Cotton Malone, who’s the creation of Steve Berry. Dr. Snow finds a way into his antiquarian bookstore to look at an erotic book from the 15th century. Discussion of the book leads to some discussion of his personal hang-ups, and a point is scored in favor of reflecting on and starting a resolution of these issues.

Calling this work erotic seems a bit of a stretch; there is certainly a lot more explicitness in many romance novels, I think. Perhaps in a full-length work, there’s more opportunity for a theme to blossom. In these sessions with the doctor, the issue of a sexual nature in couples’ lives is strong, but, as it should be, it’s also mixed with other aspects of people’s needs, such as dominance and trust. Eroticism is not the focus of the doctor’s work, but rather an important part in human nature that’s her area of expertise.

In the next two sessions, she meets with Reacher and Barry Eisler’s John Rain. I have to presume that she gives them accurate characterization, as all three authors have approved – and applauded – the work. The meetings are not contrived, but arranged so that the sexual issues can be raised with men who would never have consented to any kind of therapy. This book is just a taste of Rose, but I see lots of promise in her character and style.

I read a digital galley from NetGalley.

Thanks Mom! I’m glad you liked it.

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Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

Posted on October 20, 2011 by pagesofjulia

This was a sad and fascinating book. I read it in a day – not unheard of, but fairly rare considering that it was a regular work day. Started on my lunch break and finished before bedtime. It was absorbing and unique. A murder-mystery, yes, but also sort of a psychological thriller. The unique framing element of the book is this:

Dr. Jennifer White is sixty-four, and has dementia. When the book opens, she’s in the early-to-mid stages of the disease, living at home with a full-time, live-in caretaker. Her best friend of several decades, who is also her three-doors-down neighbor and godmother to her daughter, has been murdered, several fingers cleanly amputated. Dr. White (whose specialty was hand surgery, ahem) is a suspect, and doesn’t know herself whether she did it or not. Her story is told in first-person; we read snippets from the notebook she keeps, hear conversations, and listen to her private thoughts as she struggles with the questions. The questions are only rarely about Amanda’s murder. In reading about this book I thought the murder case was the main focus, but it’s not. Dr. White is only occasionally aware of the question of her friend’s death, because she’s only occasionally aware that her friend is dead. Her disease and its progression, her confusion, the attempts by her adult children to shape her future, and her eventual fate are the book’s main concern – because we see through Dr. White’s eyes.

The mystery of who killed Amanda is different from the usual mystery we encounter, because we don’t see a murderer trying to cover his or her tracks. Dr. White’s children, and the lawyer they hire, work to protect her from an investigation that may damage her fragile mental health. At one point it is decided that she did kill her friend, but the legal system of course won’t take its normal course even in that event. (I’m not giving it away; there are still twists and turns.) And again, the mystery is not the primary focus of the book. As Dr. White’s story unfolds – backwards, in snippets, jumping around chronologically, and never reliably – talk about an unreliable narrator – we learn more about her husband, Amanda, Amanda’s husband, and Dr. White’s two children, as well as the hired caretaker and even the primary police investigator. Of course, no one’s story is simple or unblemished.

A fascinating and engrossing mystery is only part of the attraction of this book. It’s an exploration into the head of an Alzheimer’s sufferer, engaging and overwhelming and sad and riveting. Make no mistake: this is a terribly sad story. Being young myself, and having parents in excellent health and with plenty of youth and life left, I hadn’t thought much about nursing homes, but this book’s portrayal terrified me. If you can steel yourself for the tragedy, though, this is a beautiful story, communicated in a unique format, gripping and sensitive. I recommend it highly.

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In Session by MJ Rose

Posted on October 19, 2011 by pagesofjulia

In Session involves a sex therapist named Dr. Morgan Snow (MJ Rose’s serial character), who undertakes to treat three heroes of serial fiction: Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone, Barry Eisler’s John Rain, and finally Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. Those of you who follow this blog will recognize which of these guys brought me to Dr. Snow’s office – I’ve never read any Berry or Eisler, but Reacher is my fictional main squeeze these days. That said, my brief glimpses of Rain and Malone weren’t bad; maybe I’ll check them out one day, too.

Rose apparently challenged the three authors’ heroes to sex therapy sessions, and they told her if Dr. Snow could wrangle the guys she could treat them. So this book consists of three episodes in which the good doctor meets each of the three men, outside of a standard doctor’s office/therapy setting, and chats with them – to some effect.

I had no history with MJ Rose and didn’t know what to expect. The blurb my mother got from NetGalley referred to Rose (or this book? it wasn’t exactly clear) as… Erotica, Health, Mind & Body, Literature & Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers, Romance. Wowza! What the heck have I gotten myself into? Well, I think these genres must refer to Rose’s work in total, because they don’t all apply to In Session. One sex scene is described in minimal detail; it doesn’t qualify as Erotica. Health, Mind & Body must refer to the therapist character; but her work isn’t covered in any depth. Literature & Fiction? I don’t think so (more in a minute). Mystery & Thrillers is the most likely candidate, just based on the home environments of the three male leads, although there’s not much mystery & thriller in their stories here. And not much Romance, either.

I wasn’t very impressed. Dr. Snow approaches one man under false pretenses and sneaks him some therapy while he wasn’t looking. The next she approaches with an appeal to his services, and they both learn from their interaction. And the third stumbles upon her in a time of need, and he ends up telling her (upon her repeated demands) about a particular sexual experience. In each case, the characters are completely lacking in development and dimension. The therapy is pitifully simplistic and straightforward. Dr. Snow repeats a few lines to several “patients.” The therapy – the growth, the learning about oneself and making progress as a sexual or emotional being – is too facile to feel real. Would it help if I came in with a familiarity with all three male heroes, rather than just one? Maybe; but the Reacher scene wasn’t really any more satisfying than the others. His voice didn’t sound like Reacher to me. Perhaps these tales were just too short. I read them in about an hour (total); there wasn’t time for the characters to develop or for there to really be a problem, a solution, a catharsis, a resolution, any meaningful change. But that reasoning isn’t fair to the short story format, because we all know that there are plenty of artists who paint beautiful pictures in brief snippets. It’s certainly possible to develop a character and, well, tell a story in the short story format. It’s just not done here.

I think the appeal of these three stories is in seeing your favorite hero in a different light, maybe getting into a different aspect of his character. It was a fun concept in theory; it got me: I wanted to see Reacher on the sex-therapy couch. But I was disappointed.

Anybody else check this one out? Any positive impressions? I think my mother liked it and maybe she’ll tell us about it here. How about any fans of Rain or Malone??

I read a digital galley from NetGalley.

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