Book Review: "Ghost Town" by Tom Perrotta

I started thinking about this and can’t believe it. I’ve been reading Tom Perrotta’s books since 1994! (And no, I’m not interested in knowing how young you were in 1994, or hearing you weren’t born yet, lol.) Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the complimentary advance copy of his latest!

When Jimmy, a middle-aged writer and television producer, gets a letter from the mayor of his New Jersey hometown, he’s thrown for a loop. Apparently they’re naming the new municipal complex in memory of his father, and they’d love to have him attend. Jimmy hasn’t been back home since 1974 when he was 13, and he’s not sure he wants to return.

“Maybe all that stuff catches up to you in the end, the demons you think you’ve outrun, the bad memories you locked away in a metal box, and then you hid the box in a dark corner of the basement under a heap of dirty blankets, and then you moved far away and did your best to pretend you were someone else. But that box is always right there, right where you left it.”

Thinking about the invitation takes him back to 1974, the year that everything changed. His mother died of lung cancer, his hippie cousin and his wife moved in next door, and he was just trying to make sense of growing up and really see the world around him.

For the most part, the plot is composed of Jimmy’s reminiscences about losing his mother, befriending a local dirtbag, having a crush on a girl, feeling betrayed by his best friend, and watching everything fall apart. There’s also his desire to hold onto his mother’s memory, and perhaps see and feel her presence.

As always, Perrotta’s observations of New Jersey suburban life are dead-on. But for me, unfortunately, the rest of the book never felt complete. There’s some brief discussion of racial tensions—but not enough for Perrotta to give voice to them—and a weird, unfinished ghost story plot thread. Beyond that, nothing really was that interesting, not even Jimmy himself.

The book will publish 4/28.

Book Review: "Rock the Boat" by Beck Dorey-Stein

What song winds up in your head while reading this book (or even just seeing my review) is definitely a generational thing. Some (like me) hear the 70s song "Rock the Boat" by Hues Corporation; the hipper (read: younger) ones among us mostly hear Aaliyah's song of the same name.

This is a summery read about friendship, love, family, and figuring out what to do when your plans are derailed.

Kate has her life in NYC figured out, and a big part of that includes marriage to her longtime boyfriend Thomas. But when his marriage proposal doesn’t quite happen as she expects, she doesn’t go to Harvard Law like Elle in Legally Blonde (what, like it’s hard?), but she has to move out of their apartment. Licking her wounds, she moves back home to her Jersey Shore town of Sea Point and back in with her parents—but it’s only temporary.

Meanwhile, her best friend Ziggy, who has never left Sea Point, is dealing with his grief following his father’s death and trying to make sense of the financial status of the family plumbing business. He’s asked for the help of his childhood best friend Miles—the so-called “Prince of Sea Point,” who is also returning home in an effort to prove to his mother that he’s worthy of becoming the CEO of their family’s company.

The lives of Kate, Ziggy, and Miles intersect in many ways, and with all three of them in one place for the first time in a long time, there’s bound to be ups and downs. Memories will be held up to the light, old wounds will be reopened, secrets will be revealed, and each of them has to figure out what they really want.

I usually really love books like Rock the Boat, but I never warmed up to this one. While I want Ziggy to be my book boyfriend, I found Kate and Miles fairly irritating for a while. I did love the feelings they had about their hometown—whenever I visit mine I’m hit with a mixture of nostalgia, longing, and dread. But I know others have enjoyed this more, so if it sounds up your alley, give it a try!

I really enjoyed Beck Dorey-Stein’s memoir, From the Corner of the Oval, in which she recounted her years as a stenographer for the Obama administration, so I’d recommend that.

Book Review: "What I Had Before I Had You" by Sarah Cornwell

Sarah Cornwell's What I Had Before I Had You is a beautiful, poignant, and exquisitely written novel about the ripple effects mental illness causes on a family.

Olivia Reed was raised by her dynamic and manic mother, Myla, a practicing psychic, in the Jersey Shore town of Ocean Vista. Fiercely protective of Olivia one minute, and disappearing to leave her home alone for days on end the next, Myla taught her daughter to believe in the powers of the universe. She also taught Olivia to believe in the ghosts of her twin baby sisters, who died before Olivia was born. Myla kept the nursery a shrine to these babies that never lived, even going so far as keeping baby food and diapers in the house, and leaving food on their highchairs.

The summer that Olivia turned 15, she saw her sisters for the first time, as teenagers, and believed that this sighting signified she was coming into her own powers, much like her mother. But when Myla disputes this vision, Olivia is motivated for the first time to challenge her mother's constraints and begin living a carefree life, determined to find out the truth of her sisters. This journey of discovery teaches Olivia about friendship, love, and loss, but also uncovers some truths she never expected, truths which lead to an irreparable rift in her family and change the course of her life.

"I left my mother here when she was sick and sad and alone. When I was fifteen, someone lowered a rope into my well, and I climbed it and pulled it up after me. I like to think that if my mother had waited two or three more years than she did, I would have grown up enough to come home to her. But I can't be sure."

Years later, Olivia returns to Ocean Vista with her own teenage daughter, Carrie, and her nine-year-old son, Daniel, who has recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which served as the catalyst for the end of her marriage. Her return to her hometown sparks memories of that tumultuous summer, of how her life changed, and of the guilt she feels about her relationship with her mother. When Daniel suddenly disappears, the search for him forces her to examine the course her life has taken and how mental illness has shaped it, and the role her mother has played all along.

What I Had Before I Had You shifts back and forth between the present and that summer of 1987. It's a moving, emotional book that captures all too well the highs and lows, the challenges and surprises that mental illness brings to a family, and how even years later these issues still surface and shape the course of people's lives. It's also the story of the fragility of human relationships, the lies we tell each other and ourselves, and the randomness of memory.

"I've heard that each time you remember something, the memory is rewritten by the neurons in your brain; that the memories you summon frequently are molded and smoothed—clay on the potter's wheel of your mind—while memories you leave buried can bubble up with photographic precision."

Sarah Cornwell is a tremendously talented writer. Her use of language was almost lyrical, as you can see by just a few of the passages I chose to incorporate into this review. While I had a little trouble at the start trying to figure out what the whole ghost idea was about, I was quickly hooked on the book, and as with so many books I love, was torn between wanting to devour it in one or two sittings, or wanting to savor it. (I chose the former, and don't regret it.) I look forward to seeing what's next in Cornwell's career, because this book shows that she has exceptional talent and promise.

A love song for my home state...

After losing power for several days during the derecho this summer, we were prepared for much worse as Hurricane Sandy prepared to arrive. The media had warned us to ready for the possibility of 7-10 days without power and the potential of significant damage, so with a house full of non-perishable items, two cases of bottled water, and a store of batteries, we waited, nervously eyeing the large trees already drooping into our backyard from the adjacent lot.

When we awoke Tuesday morning, we were pleased to see we hadn't lost power or sustained any damage save a few tiles from a neighbor's roof blowing into the backyard. But I honestly wasn't prepared for the extent of the damage Sandy left in my home state of New Jersey, not to mention the destruction in New York City, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.

Like so many, my family and friends in New Jersey and New York were (and are still) without power. Some had to evacuate their homes or wait for the Coast Guard to rescue them. Some sustained damage to their homes and cars. But fortunately, all are safe and accounted for. It is upsetting to see so many you care about not have control over their situations and at the mercy of Mother Nature and the cleanup and utility companies, especially when you really live too far away to provide shelter or whatever assistance you can. But hopefully the good vibes and love we're constantly sending will do some good.

Equally as upsetting are the pictures of the destruction Sandy left in her wake. Beaches and places I used to visit when I was younger, like Point Pleasant, the Boardwalk at Seaside Heights (where we went the day after my high school junior prom and a friend's senior prom), even parts of the Atlantic City Boardwalk have sustained significant damage or been washed away.

But as they've done before, the people of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania will not only endure, but they'll come back stronger than ever. And as far as the Jersey shore is concerned, as our favorite native son sings in Jersey Girl, a song I slow danced to at nearly every Sweet 16 party I went to growing up:

'Cause down the shore everything's all right
You and your baby on a Saturday night

You can take the boy out of Jersey but you can never take all of Jersey out of the boy. Wishing all of my family and friends strength, warmth, sanity, patience, and lots and lots of love...