nomadreader

The backstory: After loving The Lotus Eaters  ( my review ) and enjoying  The Forgetting Tree  ( my review ), Tatjana Soli's two previous novels, I was eager to read her most recent novel, The Last Good Paradise. The basics: Set on a small, isolated island in the South Pacific, The Last Good Paradise  is primarily the story of Ann and Richard, a couple from Los Angeles seeking respite from near financial ruin. Ann, an attorney who dreams of being an artist, and Richard, a chef with complicated issues around eating animals, escape to this island, where they encounter a quirky cast of characters. My thoughts: I tend to enjoy novels about people living in or visiting far away places (as my Internet moniker is nomadreader, after all.) And Soli offers a fascinating exploration of an unnamed island in the South Pacific in The Last Good Paradise . Admittedly, the thought of having the means and opportunity to leave reality behind sounds amazing to me, but I wouldn't o...

The backstory: After adoring Tatjana Soli's debut novel, The Lotus Eaters  ( my review ), I was eager to read her next novel. The basics: Claire and her husband Forster have lived on Forster's family citrus farm in Southern California since they were married. They now have three children. When their farm is attacked, the family is torn apart. My thoughts: Tatjana Soli does not shy away from the sadness of the human condition. Her writing is beautiful, but it's the way her characters come alive on the pages that most impresses me. I admit the description of this novel likely would not have convinced me to read this novel, but after loving The Lotus Eaters , I would gladly read anything else Soli writes, and Soli immediately pulled me into The Forgetting Tree . I read it compulsively as if it were a thriller rather than a grief-filled family saga. Claire is the heart and soul of this novel, and I appreciated each moment I spent with her. I remain fascinated by her pri...

The backstory: The Lotus Eaters  was a 2010 New York Times Notable Book . It is Tatjana Soli's first novel. The basics: Helen Adams is a photographer covering the Vietnam War. The novel opens in 1975, as Saigon is falling. Then the action returns to Helen's first days in Vietnam. My thoughts: The reader is instantly immersed in the chaos of the war's last days in Saigon, and it was initially a (and intentionally, I presume) jarring experience. I was intrigued and relieved when the action shifted back to the story's beginning shortly thereafter. Glimpsing the after provided a richness to the earlier events and instantly allowed the reader to see how much the characters and their relationships with one another changed during the war. Seeing the end at the beginning enriched the story immensely (it's a technique I appreciated in White Woman on the Green Bicycle -- one of my favorite reads of 2010 --too) and the novel still maintained suspense and intrigue. For ...