Good and varied fiction today, as we contemplate where we’re going to put spring/summer books on our shelves.
“Albert Park: A Memoir in Lies”: by Susan Koefod (Calumet Editions, $19.99)
I was deposited in Albert Park as an infant, a quivering, pink piece of flesh, wrapped in a foreign language newspaper. It was in front of the plaque and below the flagpole where the people who took me in found me. — From “Albert Park”
Susan Koefod (Courtesy of Calumet Editions)
In the beginning of Koefod’s thought-provoking new novel the
(Courtesy of Calumet Editions)
narrator tells of being found at Albert Park, the tiny triangle of streets in West St. Paul that features a 30-foot-high obelisk. The narrator is named Albert Park because, he tells us, “I had no name, no past, no one I belonged to… I will tell my story because I must piece together each jagged bit and see for myself the shattered image I have become.” Or, he’s just a liar.
In the first and most surreal section, subtitled “Lies of Omission,” Park stands in a cemetery contemplating headstones commemorating Mary and Brian, her son. Park doesn’t want to be in the cemetery but he’s mandated to do so by the court. This portion tells of his foster years with a pastor and his wife and their son. It was a dark childhood that ended in a horrific way.
In the second section, “Living a Lie,” Albert Park has “died” and become wealthy, well-connected Albert Parque, who today we’d call a life coach. Parque thinks Albert Park’s problem was that he didn’t know what he wanted in life. But Parque does, and is successful at it. This story of greed is the lightest of Albert’s three stories. In the final section he is a neurosurgeon who meets a sick woman he calls Forget-Me-Not.
Throughout Park’s reincarnations (or memories?) he meets a variety of intriguing women and in all of the sections Mary and Brian show up
This novel is so readable because it raises issues of self-worth, memory, living an ethical life and the masks we wear, all wrapped in fine writing. Koefed, who lives near the real Albert Park, is the author of three books in the Arvo Thorson mystery series and a young adult novel, “Naming the Stars.”
(Courtesy of Counterpoint Press)
“Passing Through a Prairie Country”: by Dennis E. Staples (Counter Point Press, $27)
The first ghost is an older woman with a black wool coat over a cashmere sweater, long silver curls that fall just past her ears, and big, round glasses with thick, coffee-colored lenses. Unlike Frog-legs, she’s not ethereal; she looks like a normal old lady who just happened to sneak into my car. — From “Passing Through a Prairie Country”
Staples is an Ojibwe author from Bemidji and a member of the Red Lake Nation. In this novel he smoothly combines a ghost story with life on the reservation and Indian-owned casinos in a lively and a-lot-of-fun story set among all the flashing lights, bells and whistles in a busy casino in northern Minnesota.
Marion Lafournier is a 20-something Ojibwe who drives a car full of spirits at the request of his cousins, Marion and Alana, security guards at the casino. The women are the last members of the Bullhead clan, and Alana’s Seven Fire Sights help her understand the danger of the dark force known only as a “sandman” who feeds off the dreams and ambitions of the casino’s patrons. Among them is Glenn Nielan, a documentary filmmaker just out of the closet, who wants to film paranormal activities on the reservation. What none of them realize is the power of the sandman.
Staples, who holds an MFA in fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts, gives us a creepy and fast-paced story that details the workings of a well-run casino and the spirits of those who have been there in life. A great summer read.
Also worth reading
“FangssS” by Marlin Bree: (Marlor Press/Breeze Books, No price listed)
Minnesotan Bree has written more than 20 books, most of them about boats and sailing, He enters a different genre with this thriller about what climate change could bring. And it isn’t good. Set in the Black Hills of South Dakota, not far from the real-life dinosaur digs, Rick King accidentally falls into a deep cave where he sees … something alive. More exploration awakens a monster from another time. Holed up in an old building, Rick and his friends must fight off a fanged creature that should not be alive and could overcome humanity. This quick read is the first in Bree’s Climate Crisis Chronicles of action-adventure-disaster books. Although it’s not marketed as Young Adult, this book would be excellent for at-risk readers.
“True Failure”: by Alex Higley (Coffee House Press, $18)
Higley lives near Chicago but his publisher is based in Minneapolis. His meaty, interesting novel is about people who lie. Ben lost his job but won’t tell his wife, Tara, who runs a small daycare center and makes up fake journal entries about the kids. The couple meets Marcy, the dynamic brains behind a TV reality show like “Shark Tank.” Ben is obsessed with getting on the show, even though he has nothing to pitch, but Tara doesn’t like the idea. Will Ben get on the show? Will Tara agree? Will Marcy use Ben as a way to get out of the job she no longer wants? It’s all about people trying to reinvent themselves in the chaotic 21st century..
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