Lost love, adventure, and party spirits

I recently finished Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena María Viramontes, which I came across skimming The Atlantic’s list of Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years. It’s a 20th century novel I had missed along my reading way, and it intrigued me.

I’d never even heard of Viramontes book, a story set on California farms about migrant fruit pickers. It was published 30 years ago, in 1995. I was so taken with its original voice, the visuals of the land, the hot weather, and the family at the heart of the story, notably the teenaged protagonists Estrella and her friend Alejo. Migrant workers are a present-day political concern; however, 30 years ago isn’t today, and that makes this book even more powerful for the uncomplicated insight it provides into a harsh world. The author brings it to life with stunning rhythm and beauty.

Meanwhile, I’m looking at these books, published this month.

Fresh, Green Life sounds like a delightful story. It’s about a young writer who attends a New Year’s Eve party hoping to reconnect with old classmates. The situation is 1) he’s been in self-imposed exile for a year since a health scare and 2) the party is being held by his former philosophy professor/mentor who mentions a girl the young writer secretly loved during college has been invited and 3) the young writer would’ve ignored the invitation if not for that. It’s described as “a blackly humorous tale set on a single snowy night” and “a meditation on literature, education, and philosophy, a trek through the past that forecasts a mediocre future, and a compact miracle of the fake-real.”

Described as “a worthy tribute,” A Remarkable Man: Dr. Shuntaro Hida from Hiroshima to Fukushima illustrates the life and efforts of a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima who devoted more than 60 years to understanding the effects of radiation on the human body and warning against nuclear power. From the description: “As a young doctor, Shuntaro Hida (1917–2017) played an essential role in the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing, which he witnessed firsthand only six kilometers from ground zero.” Author Marc Petitjean sources his material from interviews and “compelling reportage,” which gets my attention. I’m guessing much of this could come from the documentary he directed about Dr. Hida — Petitjean is a writer, filmmaker, and photographer.

If you’re looking for a captivating summer read, one with great characters, humor, tragedy, and a wild adventure, be sure to take a look at Jess Walter’s new novel So Far Gone. It tells the story of an ex-journalist who has gone off grid, unable to bear any longer the triumph of stupidity that surrounds him in his family and the world. He lives in a cabin in the woods north of Spokane where seven years later his two grandkids, Asher 9 and Leah 13, knock on the front door. They have a note from their mother Bethany asking their reclusive grandfather to take care of them. She’s gone to who knows where and their conspiracy-theorist, Apocaliptic Christian father is searching for her. He wants the kids looked after not by Kinnick but his church. So his friends are coming to get them. Jess Walter is best known for his novel Beautiful Ruins.

I loved reading The Age of Phillis, poetry Honorée Fanonne Jeffers wrote about the life of poet Phillis Wheatley Peters. So I’m anticipating her new book, her first nonfiction, said to combine memoir, history, academic writing, and poetry. “Jeffers explores the emotional and historical tensions in Black women’s public lives and her own private life,” the book’s description says, and while it goes on a bit more, I have a feeling the depth of Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings might be hard to capture in a few short paragraphs. An online sample drew me in because of Jeffers’ voice and arresting language. In their June 15 magazine (an interview with Jeffers) Kirkus Reviews says, in the book, Jeffers “moves between poems, essays, and letters, concluding with tender, reckoning journal entries about time spent with her dying mother.”

This slim novel takes place in an old farmhouse in a rugged mountain range of Catalonia where a woman is dying. While family and caretakers stop by, also present are women who have similarly lived and died in that house. They are waiting to throw the old woman a party once she joins them. I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness is described as “an audacious and entrancing novel in which the line between the dead and the living, past and present, story and history are blurred,” which sounds fascinating.