Another read from my 20 Books of Summer 2024 project! Cathy from 746 Books has been running 20 Books of Summer since 2014, and I’ve been taking part since 2015 (see all my lists and links here). I received this one as a gift from Matthew who bought it at the San Diego Public Library library sale on a work trip: when questioned, he said he liked the title and the cover, which is fair enough. Out of the nine books I acquired in March 2023, I’ve read and reviewed all of them apart from the two Three Investigators books in Spanish, which represent more of a pipe-dream than an actual reading plan. This of course also accounts for one of my 2024 TBR project reads.
Alice Mattison – “The Book Borrower”
(6 March 2023, from Matthew)
I know you love me. But all the same, sometimes I’m at the lowr limit of what you can stand. (p. 146)
First off, there’s one book that’s borrowed, by one person, and in this experimental and I’d say literary fiction work, we get to read a lot of the book that was borrowed, interspersed with real (fictional) life, to quite surprising effect at the beginning when one of two central characters reads sentences from it while pushing her baby in his pram and, indeed, dropping him out of his pram (he’s OK, as are any dogs we become attached to).
The novel is about a long and somewhat fraught at times friendship between two women who meet in a New York City playground, and we follow their lives over two decades, some episodes almost repeating, and the subject of the book oddly reappearing in different places in their lives.
It’s made a bit odd by the incursions of this other book, but is certainly readable; there’s also something a bit shocking which disrupts it. I’d not heard of this author before, although she appears to have written a few novels, and would read something else by her.
Well-chosen, Matthew, both as a gift and as a 20Books title (I’m almost back on track now as I had a slow work day last week and managed to read this in one day!).
A Bookish Beck Serendipity moment: in this and “Northern Boy“, the central character in a scene complains of the coldness of the house they’re visiting.
This is Book 3 in my 20 Books of Summer 2024.
This is Book 37 in my 2024 TBR project – 104 to go!
Jun 19, 2024 @ 08:52:56
Oh, this sounds good Liz – I like things which are a bit experimental. And yes, the cover is very evocative so I can see why this would attract!
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Jun 19, 2024 @ 16:39:11
Matthew did well with this one! I’ll see if Ali wants to read it then she/I can send it on if you’d like?
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Jun 19, 2024 @ 19:02:17
Oh, that’s kind Liz – thank you!!
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Jun 19, 2024 @ 10:57:28
I’m intrigued by this one too. And I really like the cover. I have not heard of this author but have made a note of this one. Thank you!
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Jun 19, 2024 @ 16:39:37
I’m rather glad it’s not just me and everyone knows her and all her novels!
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Jun 19, 2024 @ 17:27:10
Ha ha! I feel like that sometimes when I read book bloggers posts and realize everyone else has already heard of and read a certain author’s work!
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Jun 20, 2024 @ 12:41:08
Like Matthew, I originally bought this because I liked the cover! But, since then, Mattison’s quietly made my MustReadEverything list, although her books aren’t easy to find anymore. She’s considered more of a “writer’s writer” here in North America…is that a term used in Britain? Meaning she steadily writes and has a long list of publications (many of them being short story collections) and toils away at her craft without widespread publicity or bestseller-list success. Cynthia Ozick describes being a “writer’s writer” as being synonymous with obscurity. (She’s probably been called that a lot, too!)
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Jun 23, 2024 @ 07:41:16
Oh, that’s really interesting, nice to find someone who knows her work, and yes, I understand the concept of “A writers’ writer” though of course can’t think of any UK examples right now.
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Jun 21, 2024 @ 11:41:35
Good work with keeping up with the 20 Books! This sounds much odder and more interesting than I’d have expected from the title and cover (not to impugn Matthew’s taste in titles/covers!)
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Jun 23, 2024 @ 07:42:25
Ha, no, of course not – it was quite different to the description on the back cover, I certainly hadn’t expected it to be so experimental! I’m going great guns with my 20 Books now, already on Book 7, my last planned one for this month (but have three quite substantial review books to deal with).
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Jun 21, 2024 @ 15:29:04
This sounds intriguing. Thank you Liz. I often seem to complain about the coldness of houses I visit because I’m usually cold!
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Jun 23, 2024 @ 07:43:04
It was! And I often feel cold in my own house, which is tall and hard to heat, the ones I visit most often are cosier!
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Jun 25, 2024 @ 14:10:09
I don’t think this is for me, but the premise sounds intriguing. Well done, Matthew – I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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Jun 25, 2024 @ 17:54:54
Yes, he’s done well, hasn’t he. It is a literary novel, it’s very interestingly done, but hard to get hold of here anyway I think!
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