When The Killings Done, TCBoyle

Usually I love T.C. Boyle's novels, but this one left me a little flat. There is the usual skillful weaving of all the characters together, and the final catastrophic event, but I guess I got tired of the theme-should nature be allowed to take care of the islands off the coast of California, or should people help control the populations of native animals. Maybe it's too familiar, or too close to home.

Mudbound, Hillary Jordan

Mudbound is the book chosen this year as Pasadena's One City One Book. It is a first novel by a woman whose grandparents had a farm in Arkansas, just after the second words war, and she grew up hearing stories about it. It won the 2006 Bellwether Prize for Fiction, awarded biennially to a debut novel that addresses issues of social justice.

It was a primitive place, without running water, electricity, but full of the racism of the deep south. The story is told in six voices; Laura the wife/mother on the farm, Henry, her husband, Jaime, his brother who had been a pilot in the war, Florence, the black negro midwife, and housekeeper, Ronsel, Florence son, and a former soldier, and Hap.

There is a section of q and a's in the back, with the author, but I hope I get to attend the meeting in Pasadena.