Category Archives: fiction

“Mom, I don’t know who to trust!”

Posted on December 28, 2022 by Kate Stover

Elizabeth Strout’s new novel — a Christmas gift of the first order – is her most enigmatic. Reviewers have drawn wildly different conclusions about the book’s message. For me, the book explores what happens when you don’t know who you … Continue reading →

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“For what could be more peculiar than a crowd of grown-up people . . . discussing scholarly niceties that meant nothing to most of the world?”

Posted on November 22, 2022 by Kate Stover

One of the things that I love about Barbara Pym’s novels is that her characters never set out to impress anyone. They acknowledge that their choices – for example, attending an academic conference as treatment for a broken heart – … Continue reading →

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“I felt there was a lot more I could say about the subject of danger.”

Posted on November 11, 2022 by Kate Stover

In Half Broke Horses, Lily Smith faces many dangers, from flash floods in rural Texas, to bankruptcy during the Great Depression, to medical emergencies that didn’t always end well. This convincing, unprettified narration doesn’t glorify “grit” – rather, it shows … Continue reading →

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“Thorny people. They don’t always follow the etiquette.”

Posted on April 8, 2022 by Kate Stover

What do you think a story about a thorny family would include? If it’s by Anne Tyler, and if it covers a period of sixty years, you can expect to see that things don’t always work out. For example, the … Continue reading →

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“When his wife had been alive, he had hardly noticed Jessie Morrow; indeed, if possible, he had noticed her even less than he had noticed his wife.”

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Kate Stover

In a 1978 BBC radio program, Barbara Pym said, “Perhaps I’ve been influenced by something I was once told about Proust – that he was said to go over all his characters and make them worse.” I laughed when I … Continue reading →

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“I have thought about this a lot, and I would like to know – I really would like to – when does a person actually choose anything?”

Posted on December 22, 2021 by Kate Stover

In an interview, Elizabeth Strout said that she once met an advisor in the Obama administration who said that he was there to help make choices. It turned out, however, that most often the best course of action was so … Continue reading →

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“He was committing the beginner’s error of inserting his own agenda into the poem, instead of drawing elements out of the poem and then cautiously blowing on them until they started to flame.”

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Kate Stover

This sentence made me stop to wonder if Knausgaard was telling his readers they shouldn’t come to his novel with an agenda for what it should be like. If so, that’s a good start. I would go further, though, and … Continue reading →

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“To cause paralyzing anxiety, is the dream of power. . .”

Posted on November 5, 2021 by Kate Stover

Is this true?  To have power, do you need to make everyone feel anxious?  According to the author of this essay about Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the answer is “Absolutely.”  The play is about an exiled Duke who wants to return … Continue reading →

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“It’s the kind of room that makes me hate the world.”

Posted on September 20, 2021 by Kate Stover

What an experiment — a novel with no plot, about a woman whose name we don’t know, set in an unidentified location. It’s a collection of descriptions of how the protagonist responds to her surroundings. NPR compared the book to … Continue reading →

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“She felt that surely she hadn’t done every single thing wrong.”

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Kate Stover

Of course, this character – Astrid – had not done every single thing wrong. But, after watching someone she had known for 40 years get hit by a bus (literally), she suddenly faced the fact that she had made plenty … Continue reading →

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“Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Kate Stover

What makes this book a bestseller? Clearly, the sad “if only I had…..” theme of the book resonates with many people during a year when mental health issues are skyrocketing.  Perhaps more importantly, the novel is written by someone who … Continue reading →

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“No way those girls could have turned out halfway normal.”

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Kate Stover

“Those girls” are the Vignes twins, who at a very young age, saw five white men lynching their black father. The neighbors predicted that the girls couldn’t be “right” afterwards, and indeed, both girls went on to make many questionable … Continue reading →

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“Wasn’t it dreadful? I almost hoped somebody might stand up at the back of the church and forbid the marriage – like in Jane Eyre…”

Posted on April 12, 2021 by Kate Stover

The vicar’s wife continues, “…and expose John as an imposter. I wanted it to happen, and not only for Ianthe’s good.” Wow! What a confession! The vicar’s wife – who we thought should be friends with Ianthe – disapproved of … Continue reading →

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Best 2020 Book Prescriptions

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Kate Stover

If 2020 was a great year for you, stop reading.  This blog post is not for you.  If, however, 2020 presented you with some real challenges, and you are looking for some prescriptions in the form of book recommendations, here … Continue reading →

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“Wasn’t memory, that bully and oppressor, supposed to become soft and spongy?”

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Kate Stover

What if you found out that many of your memories were either wrong or incomplete? Maybe you would have the same disconcerted feeling that I had when I first saw the cover of this book.  It’s a picture of someone … Continue reading →

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