books
Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, is the story of a midwestern family trying to find meaning after tragedy. Reuben Land is 11 years old when his older brother Davy is found guilty of killing two boys (for breaking and entering into their house and terrorizing their younger sister Swede), then escapes from prison. The family (Reuben, Swede, and their widower father) leave home in search of Davy, but also in search of God in the midst of crisis. It's been described as "midwestern literature," for it's tale of traveling across the plains states and terrible weather, but also for Reuben's father, a religious (even miraculous) and more than decent figure who loves his son but also wants to obey the law, the and for the story of the search for an outlaw mirrored in the wild west ballads Swede writes. It was a good slow read.
Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann, was suggested to us by Nick's parents after we watched Man on Wire. It's the (fictional) stories of several character's lives around the time of, and on the day of, Philippe Petit's walk across the Twin Towers in 1974. While it was a bit strange that (what seemed like) the first half of the book focused exclusively on one story, and that the rest seemed much smaller and shorter, it was interesting to see all these separate threads and different stories (an expat Irish priest, a group of Vietnam war mothers who lost sons, a streetwalker) so well told, and to see what the walk might have meant to so many different people.
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan, is essentially a book about not being able to escape your past. It tells the stories of what became of a group of friends (and their extended friends) a generation or two later; it feels like a collection of short stories at first, but then coalesces. It won the 2011 Pulitzer for Fiction. I wasn't a huge fan: it was ok, and certainly this type of story would have fallen apart with a lesser writer, but it didn't blow me away or really move me. I am planning on reading something else by Egan, as I'm curious to see if it was just this book or her writing in general: we'll see.