Naples Writers' Workshop Missive 034

I read four books in July, which once again ran the gamut. Here’s what I thought of each.

Starlight Pass by Tom Gill

My sister bought this book for me because it’s written by a guy who shares our late grandfather’s name. Published in 1935, it’s all about this mysterious man who shows up in a small logging town in Wyoming and slowly befriends the locals. He starts working for the forest service but it turns out he knows this girl in town who’s dating the town bully. And then it turns out that the town bully is setting fires to get back at the forest service for telling him where he can and can’t log. While much of this plot felt sort of unbelievable — including a ridiculous twist at the end — it was a true Western in the sense that the good guys and bad guys were made clear and the good guys won. Much of the writing was also gorgeous, especially in describing scenery. But the dialogue was painful, and the writer had an odd habit of referring to characters by first name, first and last name, and then later by their nickname ALL IN THE SAME SENTENCE. Super confusing. Would I recommend this book? No. Am I glad I read it? Yes.

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Thrifted this one because I knew I should read it, given it’s one of those classics. I knew the premise going into it and the fact that Lewis was a sort of born-again Christian who was trying to make a point. Written as a series of one-sided letters from a demon to his nephew demon who is training as an agent of Satan, it was kinda fun at first. But the format grew tiresome, and at 134-pages (for my copy at least) it definitely ended at the right time. Plus, like a lot of satire, I felt this might have been stronger had it been much shorter — maybe a single letter the length of a long essay. Once you realize that the entire premise is to understand how Satan turns men away from God, the jig is up and the writing is less affecting and clever than it is cutesy and obvious. I wanted to relieve Lewis of the work of finishing the book by telling him on page 15 that I understood and he could stop. The Narnia books were better, according to 12-year-old me.

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Another thrift find. I picked this one up because I’d been told that Reid’s debut novel Such a Fun Age was really well done. This was my favorite read of the month. It’s a character-driven story about several college girls, exploring class and race. It was an uncomfortable read, watching these young girls make bad choices and face the consequences. And I thought Reid did an excellent job of getting into each of their psyches with a third-person narrator. I don’t usually enjoy books told from multiple points of view, but this one had a good balance, and I found myself marveling at these really insightful turns of phrase on nearly every page. I tore through this book, and I plan to read her others.

Talk to Me by T.C. Boyle

I picked this one up at — you guessed it — the thrift store. I recognized the author from one of the very first short stories we featured on our podcast called The Lie. Like that short story, this one is full of unlikeable characters making bad choices with a car-wreck of a plot. Of course the premise was wild, too. It’s about a professor raising a chimpanzee from birth so he can teach it sign language as part of a big research project. But chimps grow up and become unruly, so he enlists college girls to help care for him. And then once the chimp gets too old for the program (ie, he becomes too strong and hormonal and wild) he has to be returned to the lab where he first came from so he can become a medical test subject as planned. Of course the chimp’s college girl caretaker ends up treating him like her child and intervenes. This one was a page turner, mostly for the insane plot. And from what I’d seen in The Lie, I knew this would be one of those books that “went there,” meaning it sort of expects you to suspend belief in a lot of ways and just go with it. That becomes super necessary when you realize that a third of the book is told in first person from the chimp. Really enjoyed this one.

— Kristine