In Through the Kitchen, Gone in the Dark
Staff Review Round-up, 3/27/2018
Welcome to Literati Bookstore’s round-up of recent staff favorites, and an occasional place for useful links and news from around the literary web regarding upcoming events at the store.
Recent Staff Favorites (in Hardcover)
Stray City, by Chelsey Johnson
Labels abound in Stray City: gay, straight, feminine, masculine, daughter, parent. But it is deeply recognizable characters who use those labels as both shields and solace that ground Chelsey Johnson’s captivating debut. Stray City reminds us how every label, every grasp toward identity, carries with it the possibility of individuality, but also group-think; of liberation, but also restriction. Thankfully, there seem to be no restrictions to Johnson’s talent: Stray City’s every page offers sly humor, spot-on detail, unceasing empathy. Reading this novel is not unlike the experience our narrator describes of playing a new album while lying on the floor: “you don’t just hear the music, you feel it. Your whole body listens.” — Sam
The Gunners, by Rebecca Kauffman
This book made me cry in a coffee shop three times in as many days. A deceptively deep tale of nostalgia and its effects on the human heart, The Gunners tells the story of five thirty-something friends who come back home to Buffalo for the funeral of the alienated sixth member of their group. We watch and revel as these characters dip into their pasts and uncover memories that have laid dormant for so many years. This book is full of lovely words, but it’s also full of silences: of things never said; loves never shared; all of the echoes of childhood and all of the spaces our little ghosts inhabit. I didn’t want to part with this book, but I had to, because we all have to eventually. Nevertheless, I will carry the heart of it with me.
But what was life if not a long series of scary and outlandish things you did and said and asked of your heart, so you could carry the wild and unreasonable hope that someday someone would hold your face and say, You are perfect. You can rest now. You were always perfect to me. Not because you were even remotely close to perfect, or brave, or strong or even very good, but because you had been very dear friends for a very long time.
— Claire
Death Comes in Through the Kitchen, by Teresa Dovalpage
“Fair Cuba sits enthroned in an ocean of light” — these were the lyrics to a popular song about the the island’s enchantment taught in grade schools before Castro’s time. (Yes, just like Puerto Rico, there’s an ocean between us..) I don’t remember reading a mystery that struck me with such a strong sense of place as does this novel about mostly impoverished Havana set in 2003. It makes me root for better relations with the US and Cuba — neither side has anything to lose and Cubans have much to gain. Yarmila, author of the blog “Yarmi Cooks Cuban” is found dead by her California journalist boyfriend. Matt has just come to Havana to propose despite having only visited her once before. The police, the Cuban secret service, and a Santeria diviner for hire all investigate The blog posts complete with recipes and her followers comments are a bittersweet highlight. You can do a lot with canned milk. — Carla
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara
One of the most passionate investigations of one of the darkest times in American History; I could not put this book down. The dedication found within these pages to follow leads that end up hitting walls gives the reader insight into how one faceless man and his actions can haunt not only the victims, but those that hunt for the clues that will one day lead to justice.
A book that will have you looking over your shoulder, and not quite able to sleep as peacefully as before you read it; but full of hope because: This book is the flash in the darkness that has shed light on the face of a killer. — Shannon
The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez
I’ll just tell you upfront: the dog doesn’t die. This is a book about grief, death, the loss of an old fiend and once-revered way of life, but the dog, a Great Dane named Apollo, remains out of danger’s way. Instead, Apollo shelters our narrator, who takes him in after his owner, a famous writer, as well as the narrator’s mentor and best friend, commits suicide. A problem — she lives in a no-dog apartment. A more existential problem — writers (like the narrator and her friend) might no longer be necessary. Nunez’s sentences sing with intelligence and humor, pathos and empathy. She is one of the most balanced writers I’ve encountered, and her paragraphs executed 90 degree turns with a smoothness that rivals the best race-car drivers. So strap in! This is a book you’ll start out wanting to finish in one go, and end wanting to save the last pages because you can’t bear to let it go. — Lillian
Recent Staff Favorites (in Paperback)
Jagannath, by Karin Tidbeck
Enter the singular world of Karin Tidbeck, where people fall in love with airship prototypes, phone operators connect calls from demonic beings, and something weird lurks around every corner. Translated from the Swedish by Tidbeck herself, this collection is so delightfully bizarre and written in language to deceptively simple that its many moments of loveliness will take you by surprise. For fans of Swedish weird fiction and, more importantly, those who don’t yet know that they love Swedish weird fiction. — Kelsey
