"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." So goes the great Anna Karenina quote by Tolstoy, and what lies at the center of the Cooke family unhappiness is as singular and surprising as it gets.
Narrator Rosemary Cooke reveals her extraordinary family secret in flashbacks interwoven with the present-day narrative. What elevated this book for me was the deep dive into the emotional life of Rosemary and her brother Lowell as they discover and then navigate the secret that destroyed their family.
The secret - which is the premise for this novel - is genius, but I won’t reveal it here as the shock is part of what makes the book stand out. Riveting, tragic, and wise - this is one of Karen Joy Fowler's best novels.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club introduces a middle-class American family that is ordinary in every way but one in this novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.
Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. “I was raised with a chimpanzee,” she explains. “I tell you Fern was a chimp and already you aren’t thinking of her as my sister. But until Fern’s expulsion...she was my twin, my funhouse…
A creative and contemporary
reimagining of King Lear, St Aubyn is as funny, biting, and devastating here as
in his Patrick Melrose trilogy.
Even though we all know the plot, the story of media mogul Henry Dunbar is darkly entertaining and, at times, reads like a thriller
as he navigates the web woven by his two corrupt daughters.
This novel is part
of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, which enlisted well-known authors to retell
the works of Shakespeare. Dunbar made me want to read them all.
From the author of the Patrick Melrose novels, now a major Sky Atlantic television series starring Benedict Cumberbatch
Henry Dunbar, the once all-powerful head of a global media corporation, is not having a good day. In his dotage he handed over care of the corporation to his two eldest daughters, Abby and Megan. But relations quickly soured, leaving him to doubt the wisdom of past decisions.
Now imprisoned in a care home in the Lake District with only a demented alcoholic comedian as company, Dunbar starts planning his escape. As he flees into the hills, his family is hot on…
I’ve been researching the history of
marriage in recent years for a work of nonfiction and read this book as part of
the project.
People don’t talk enough about how our patriarchal systems
function to separate people from each other, how they establish human
relationships based on power and dominance, and how they therefore prohibit a
genuine feeling of love from ever emerging and flourishing.
It’s no accident
that so many people in the US promote fierce individualism rather than
fostering a feeling of community. We are a communal species and thrive when we
love one another. I’m grateful that bell hooks took on this subject with
wisdom, insight, and hope.
"The word "love" is most often defined as a noun, yet...we would all love better if we used it as a verb," writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, the renowned scholar, cultural critic, and feminist skewers our view of love as romance. In its place she offers a proactive new ethic for a people and a society bereft with lovelessness. As bell hooks uses her incisive mind and razor-sharp pen to explore the question "What is love?" her answers strike at both the…
The Feminist's Guide to Raising a Little Princess: How to Raise a Girl Who's Authentic, Joyful, and Fearless--Even If She Refuses to Wear Anything but a Pink Tutu
What happens when a
three-year-old becomes consumed with pink, princesses, and all things girly?
Has she already learned that girls are judged by their appearance, that the
ideal female should be passive, and that girls require a man to come along and
save them?
The Feminist’s Guide
to Raising a Little Princess is an exploration into the phenomenon
of princess obsession among toddlers. After my daughter fell down this Disney
rabbit hole, I set out to find out the consequences for her and other girls who
are in the same fuchsia-colored, sparkly boat.
My research surprised, reassured
and entertained me, and I share it all, along with my story, in my book.
