Book Review: My Name is Leon

My Name is Leon, by Kit De Waal

This is an excellent book. Almost perfect. Except for the ending.

SPOILER ALERT: 

The problem with the ending is that is just ends. No resolution. No happy ending. No sad ending. Just the book ends.

END SPOILER ALERT.

Ok. Sorry about that. Hope you can read around it, or I hope the spoiler doesn't wreck the book for you. Because it's a great book. I really, really liked it.

It's DeWaal's first novel, and it's a dozy. The British writer, of Irish and Kittian descent, introduces us to an array of characters, including Leon, a 9-year-old boy of mixed race. That is important because when his mother gives birth to a second child, and experiences severe postpartum depression, children's services swoops in and puts both children in foster care. Soon, the infant white boy is adopted, but Leon is left in care of his foster mother, where everyone correctly assume he will stay.

Except for Leon. In the less-than-a-year that he lived with -- and took care of -- his baby brother, he grew to love him. He wants to reunite with his mother and brother, and sets out to do so, despite the long odds against him.

Along the way, he meets people who want to help and hurt him. He learns the difficulties in being a black boy in white Britain -- which seems very much like being  black boy in white America. But he also bonds with a group of black men from the West Indies, who seem very much like the father he knows.

Review: Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves

Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves, by Carolyn Chute

This is a tough book to read, partly because of its writing style, and partly because of its subject matter.

But first off, I have to say I enjoy Chute's work. She is an excellent writer -- vividly descriptive, with enticing characters and wonderful dialogue. She know her subject matter: the white working class of rural Maine, who work and live in poverty, but on their own terms. It's a unique perspective she gives, often from the inside, as it's a culture and lifestyle she daily surrounds herself with.

So what make it difficult to read? Well, first off, it's the book's structure -- divided into three parts, with each a separate story line that somehow intertwines with other parts of the book. It's the writing style, with various stories told from the multiple perspectives of those who are involved, sometimes intimately, sometimes from a distance of space and time. It's her fondness for description, often redundant, but with the result of deep knowledge of those who populate the book.

Overall, it's a long and sometimes densely written novel, with one main character but many side characters who come and go. But I am glad I read it, as it gave me a lot to think about.

Generally, the book is about Gordon St. Onge, a charismatic fellow who runs a settlement outside of Egypt, Maine. A local reporter -- a punkish, hippie-type, young woman with a sarcastic bent -- decides she will somehow look into reports/rumors/tips of child abuse, multiple marriages, militias, and other problems inside the camp. The second parts delves more inside the camp, with a young artist named Bree, and with the impact she has. The third part is about a militia -- or perhaps multiple militias? -- that are a part of and/or outside the group. (I told you it's a bit confusing. Things happen seemingly at random. Story lines pop up and disappear, and are sometimes resolved. Or not.)

But through all of this, Chute writes sympathetically about the characters and their lives. Often, such people are treated with disdain or as mere stereotypes. But Chute flushes out the people and their issues, and gives us characters with strengths and flaws and thoughts that often are untold.

It's by no means a perfect book, and it'll take a while to get through it -- it's nearly 700 pages, it's neither not quick nor light reading -- but it's worth the effort.