We come to know both Roland’s father, and his mother Rosalind, as their lives are unravelled over time.Įveryone has a complicated family, and the families of both Roland and Alissa involved fathers who were in charge, and women who looked after the needs of their husbands and raised the children. He misses Africa, his home and school, the place itself. Then Roland’s return to England, to boarding school, the shock of it all. In tandem with the present-day story, we read about the past and Roland’s youth, in North Africa with his parents, his father in the military. It is 1986, there is concern about the spread of radiation from the The Chernobyl disaster. Roland is not especially concerned, but the police certainly are. Alissa, mother of Lawrence, wife of Roland, has disappeared. We meet Roland Baines when he is 37 years old, the father of seven-month-old Lawrence. It is certainly a novel that reflects life as those of us now in our 70s have lived it, and are living it now. His most recent novel, Lessons, is perhaps one of his best. Ian McEwan is an author whose books I have read over all my adult life.
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Hi friends! I’m excited to be a participant in the Firsts blog tour. Funny, smart, and true-to-life, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn's Firsts is a one-of-a-kind young adult novel about growing up. When Mercedes' perfect system falls apart, she has to find a way to salvage her own reputation -and figure out where her heart really belongs in the process. But Mercedes doesn't bank on Angela's boyfriend finding out about her services and wanting a turn - or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in bed. Her mother isn't home nearly enough to know about Mercedes' extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend, Angela, won't even say the word "sex" until she gets married. Keeping what goes on in her bedroom a secret has been easy - so far. Mercedes lets the boys get their awkward fumbling first times over with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time-the kind Mercedes never had herself. Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin. In the vein of Easy A, an honest and refreshing young adult novel about sex, love, and high school. Genres: Young Adult, Social Issues, Dating & Sex, Love & Romance The first is written about a young man working at a highbrow New York magazine (McInerney himself worked for awhile at The New Yorker after being educated by such legends as Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff at Syracuse) and is one of the first novels brought up when discussions of ‘2 nd person narrative’ take place.ī. This winter I read/reread McInerney’s Bright Lights Big City and Model Behavior, and because of (sorry, Jay) certain undeniable narrative overlaps I decided to review them and Story of My Life together to shake loose some of the cocaine-infused cobwebs and move forward.Ģ. Bright Lights, Big City Model Behavior Story of My Life Both the Viper and the soldier think they’re calling the shots, but they’re not the only players moving the pieces. Then Esha’s and Kunal’s paths cross-and an unimaginable chain of events unfolds. His uncle, the general, has ensured that Kunal never strays from the path-even as a part of Kunal longs to join the outside world, which has been growing only more volatile. Kunal has been a soldier since childhood, training morning and night to uphold the power of King Vardaan. She’s devoted her life to avenging what she lost in the royal coup, and now she’s been tasked with her most important mission to date: taking down the ruthless General Hotha. It’s only in the shadows that she moonlights as the Viper, the rebels’ highly skilled assassin. A cat-and-mouse game that can only end in bloodshed.Įsha is a legend, but no one knows. |