Fredrik Backman, author of "A Man Called Ove," is back with a tender story of a group of friends, the value of art, and the power of connection. "My FFredrik Backman, author of "A Man Called Ove," is back with a tender story of a group of friends, the value of art, and the power of connection. "My Friends" opens with Louisa, a teenager entering an art auction with a backpack full of spray paint. Her aim is not to vandalize priceless art but something much more simple. But within an hour her life is turned upside down after an encounter with an ailing artist.
At the center of the book is his painting, “The One of the Sea,� his first serious work, created when the artist was a teen himself. His small circle of friends had, at that point, thought of him simply as The Artist and encouraged him, even forced him to begin the painting. Joar is the wild one of their group, quick to fight and steal, but unexpectedly loving with friends and his mother whose abusive husband terrorizes them both. Ted is quiet, organized, nerdy, unexpectedly funny funny when he chooses to be.
The two of them are pictured in the painting, far out at the end of the pier with a third figure who might be the artist himself or perhaps someone else altogether. Their love and laughter is apparent from the body language of the figures, even in the distance. Now years later the painting is up for auction. The Artist is dying and relying on Ted to fulfill his plan, which leaves Ted with The Artist’s ashes and the painting itself, bequeathed unexpectedly to Louisa.
Over the course of a train journey with Ted who reluctantly allows her to accompany him, Louisa learns the story of their friendship and their struggles in a working class town that had little patience with young people trying to find their place in the world.
Louisa herself has been in foster homes for most of her life, her loneliness assuaged by the presence of her friend Fish. Newly turned eighteen, she is ready to strike out on her own, knowing that she’s not the easiest person to get along with. She talks too much, she’s impulsive, she asks inappropriate questions. She’s everything that drives Ted up the wall. His caution and self-containment drive her crazy, but when he comes out with what are essentially dad jokes, there’s also something weirdly appealing about him.
Within their stories and arguments are many, many ideas about art and what it does. These are worked in quite naturally and never feel forced, a tribute to the characters Backman has developed. Many are statements that begin with “Art is �.� I began highlighting them once I realized how often they appeared. A discussion of these would be a fascinating book club activity.
"My Friends" is a powerful story of love and connection across time. It took me a little while to become used to Backman’s sometimes quirky writing style, but once I got to know the characters, I was hooked to the point of not wanting the story to end. That’s always a happy way for a librarian to read, imagining our patrons getting to know and love these characters, just as we do.
"My Friends "will be published on May 6th. Thanks to NetGalley for sending a free galley in exchange for an honest review.
"Easter at the Three Coins Inn" is a follow-up to another of Sullivan's novels in what looks to be a series. Guests arrive at at the Three Coins Inn i"Easter at the Three Coins Inn" is a follow-up to another of Sullivan's novels in what looks to be a series. Guests arrive at at the Three Coins Inn in Umbria, Italy, some of whom find themselves there unexpectedly due to last minute changes of plans. Kaitlyn, a TV reporter who had enjoyed a fling with a coworker who she didn't realize was married ends up being gifted with the unhappily married couple's trip to Italy. Chris, a management consultant whose own marriage has tanked after he catches his wife in bed with his best friend, is there alone, having cancelled his straying spouse's ticket. Grace and her 12-year-old granddaughter Kathryn from Durham, England are taking the trip that her parents intended to take before choose to stay home to work on their own failing marriage. Heike of Vienna, Austria, is traveling solo for the first time after the death of her husband.
All the guests are dealing with weighty personal issues back home, and readers will enjoy seeing how their worries are soothed by the hospitality of the innkeepers and their staff. New friendships form among the guests and residents of the small Italian town. The tone of the book is mostly cozy and sweet, which makes the intrusion of some political talking points related to the story of Grace's granddaughter quite distracting. Her father, it seems, is a progressive professor at the university in Durham who insists that his athletic daughter may well be transgender in order to score political points.
The issue isn't explored in any great detail and isn't essential to the plot, so I read it as a naive way to generate some conflict by rehashing a particular talking point. But it felt ugly and negative, and I hope that the author will be more aware of the sensitivity of gender issues in the future because this felt discordant with the mood of the book overall.
Some of the plot points require low-grade suspensions of disbelief, such as Kaitlyn being sent on the trip to Europe that her erstwhile married boyfriend had intended to take with his wife, or a character being recruited to teach at a university just because he has a knack for drawing. But it's all in service of the story.
By the end of the book, each guest has found a path forward through their difficulties and has established new relationships. This is what I enjoy from a cozy read, though this was probably not the book for me. ...more
What would you do if you lost everything? Helen Chandler-Wilde experienced this situation in 2018. She had gone through a break-up with her boyfriend What would you do if you lost everything? Helen Chandler-Wilde experienced this situation in 2018. She had gone through a break-up with her boyfriend and moved back into her parents� home temporarily, packing up her own belongings into a storage building. She was stunned when her mother broke the sad news that the storage company that she’d rented space from had suffered a devastating fire. Her belongings were all gone.
Chandler-Wilde decided, once the initial shock wore off, to study the role things play in people’s lives. Her work as a journalist had given her the tools to ask questions, collect information, and draw conclusions. She wondered what makes us crave, shop, choose, collect. And how might we have a healthier relationship with our stuff?
This is a topic I’d long been interested in due to family circumstances. When I retired and moved to this area, it was because my parents and youngest brother were living in the house in Trion, Georgia, where my grandparents and great-grandmother had lived since the early 1950s. Generations of family members had brought their worldly goods to that home. And when people moved out, died, or just wandered off, their stuff remained. My mother resisted discarding anything, a position that hardened as she slipped further into dementia.
I had dreaded the day when, inevitably, the responsibility for cleaning it all out would fall to me. I’d read several books about decluttering and the psychology of hoarding in preparation for the great clean out. When the time came in spring of 2020, the pandemic actually simplified the whole process. We kept a little, threw away plenty, and gave lots of things away to people who could use them. It wasn’t easy but it was manageable.
Still I was curious about Lost & Found. The book sounded intriguing, but I wondered if it would be able to give me more insight than I already possessed. The author was much younger than me, and I suspected she enjoyed shopping much more than I did. Would this book be worth my time?
It was.
Chandler-Wilde’s journalistic skills pay off as she describes the sadness she experienced at losing her belongings and then explores cultural trends and research into how humans express inner longings through the things they choose to own. Each chapter begins with an item she lost in the fire and the questions it leads her to ask about possessions. The first chapter addresses her shopping habit, how it arose and how the dopamine hits her brain experienced when she purchased something new reinforced the drive to shop more. After all, the pleasure is in buying something new, not the possession itself. Which soon leads to another purchase and another.
Additional chapters discuss the need to understand that we are more than our possessions, something that’s increasing hard to grasp in a materialistic culture. Science shows that while the trappings of wealth and taste may impress people who don’t know us well, true happiness comes from the respect and friendship of the people who know us best. Being kind and competent, it turns out, make it much easier to earn respect, increasing our odds of living happier lives.
Although Chandler-Wilde dives into topics like commodity theory as a way of thinking about scarcity and how it influences choices, the book is never dry. The author takes the science and breaks it down into easy-to-digest pieces, always referencing the very human implications of the conclusions. At 242 pages, it’s a relatively quick read that is full of information and thoughtful reflections.
Lost & Found is an excellent read for anyone who would like to better understand how we gather things around us, while becoming more intentional about those possessions. Its publication date is December 31, 2024. It will soon after be available for check out at Moon Lake Library. Patrons can also place a hold on the digital copy I’ve ordered for Camellia Net, the ebook collection accessible with the Libby app. ...more
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