Book Review - Telegraph Avenue

I'd like to share with all of you a real knockout read that I finished recently -- namely, Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon. Chabon may be best known for his 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a book "about" the golden age of comic books during the World War II. It was a jam-packed book with a full cast of characters, and Telegraph Avenue is no different on that front. Telegraph covers the lives of several paired characters (primarily record store owners Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe, their wives and midwifery practitioners Gwen and Aviva, and a pair of young sons, Julie Jaffe and Titus Joyner, Archy's surprise, long-lost son), but the story itself is as much informed by its setting as it is by its people. Telegraph Avenue represents a melting pot neighborhood that joins the traditionally white Berkely with traditional black Oakland. Chabon masterfully encapsulates the major issues of race relations and the survival of tightly-knit communities by infusing them into the world of the story and the daily life of his characters, rather than subjecting us to a full rant. He invokes the spirit of this neighborhood and paints such unique and stunning portraits of its denizens that the book makes for quite an absorbing read, with plenty of pay-off at the end. It is good to know that an author can lay out so many characters and subplots and still weave them together by the novel's end.

Keep reading,
Chris

Of Newsletters and New Selections

The library is back to business and has sent out the latest newsletter this morning! Check your mail (or e-mail) boxes for library news, event dates, and reviews. If you haven't joined our online mailing list, you can sign up to receive the library newsletter by email. Just contact us at glibrary@bellsouth.net and put "Newsletter" in the subject of the email.

As for the latest word in "Book News," autumn brings book awards season, and the finalists for the National Book Award have just been announced. The fiction list has packed in some heavy hitters this year, several of which have made the front pages of the New York Times Book Review, from Pulitzer Prize Winner Junot Diaz to debut novelist Kevin Powers. I'm rooting for Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain. This one's a beautifully written and true-to-life story of a squad of Iraq War soldiers who have returned home briefly for a wild, highly publicized "Victory Tour." Nonfiction contenders include the much-talked-about Behind the Beautiful Forevers (the story of a makeshift town built in the shadow of a Mumbai airport) and Robert A. Caro's latest installment in his biography of Lyndon Johnson, covering the Johnson's transition from Vice President to President. Both of these have been listed on Amazon.com's list of the Best Books of the Year So Far . For a full list of the nominees in each category, check out the National Book Foundation's website. And you can always check these books out for yourself at the library. We have a display set up near the front desk. If the book you're looking for is already checked out, be sure to put your name on the reserve list at the front desk! Before the winners are announced on November 14th, why not go through the contenders and make your own picks?

Until next time,
Chris