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Book Review :: Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood’s latest novel, takes the form a of diary — or a devotional, perhaps, as it does reveal a type of devotion — of an unnamed narrator who withdraws from the world. The narrator first comes to the convent as a way to escape the world, which has begun to seem overwhelming to her. Her husband has moved to take a new job, and the narrator thinks it’s obvious that the relationship is over. However, the main motivator seems to be her feeling that she can’t do any good in the world, which had been her career and focus.

She ran the Threatened Species Rescue Center, but she now feels she has done as much harm as she had good. Thus, she visits the convent to take some time to reboot. In the second section of the novel, however, she has become a participant in the community, though not quite on the path to become a nun. In fact, she doesn’t really have any faith in God, though she likes the idea of attention as a type of devotion. She left rather abruptly, as she references people from her previous life who feel betrayed by her quick departure, especially given that she didn’t notify them.

The convent is also near where the narrator grew up, and she seems to be mourning the relatively recent death of her mother — who had died before her first visit to the convent — who did good in the community in a quiet manner, unlike the narrator’s work. She interacts with a schoolmate from her childhood, Helen Parry, an activist nun who has come to the convent during the pandemic to deliver the bones of a nun who worked with her, but who began her time at this convent. The narrator admits that she and others bullied Helen when she was in school, though Helen doesn’t seem to concern herself with that part of her childhood, as she had a mother who struggled with mental illness and was abusive.

This novel is pared down to the essentials, much like the landscape that surrounds the convent, focusing on the narrator’s reflections on what it means to live a good life, mainly through the contrast between an ascetic life as a nun and that of a highly visible activist. Neither the narrator nor Wood attempt to provide an answer to that question, as they want readers to answer it for themselves.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood. Riverhead Books, February 2025.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels.

Book Review :: Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer

Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

On one level, the title of Pico Iyer’s latest book, Aflame, refers to the wildfires in California that have taken at least one of his family’s homes and threatens the Hermitage, a monastery he visits quite often for solitude. On another, though, it describes the monks and other seekers of solitude he meets at the Hermitage over the more than three decades he’s been visiting, as they are alive in a way he doesn’t see in many people.

Iyer’s work is not concerned with chronology, as he doesn’t provide the readers with specific dates or times of his visits. Instead, as one might expect from a meditation on silence and solitude, he isn’t concerned with the way the world moves outside of the Hermitage. In fact, he says little about his life when he’s traveling for work or home with his wife and children, referencing them from time to time, but centering his thoughts on the monastery and the interactions he has there.

He presents the monks and other seekers as human, not saints, all wanting only to learn from a retreat from the concerns of the world. Iyer himself spends much of his time reflecting on what he’s reading, but, also, somewhat ironically, talking with the other people who are there. He develops deep friendships, intimacy that develops from sharing the solitude as much from those conversations.

The Hermitage is always in danger of being destroyed or even lacking the funds to continue, but the monks don’t seem that concerned. They know, and Iyer learns, that the lessons they’ve all learned will follow them elsewhere, should they have to leave. Iyer ultimately understands that, while he needs solitude, he can see the world differently no matter where he is, if he only continues to pay attention.

Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer. Riverhead Books, January 2025.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. IG, Threads, and BlueSky: @kevinbrownwrites

Book Review :: The Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amherst

The Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amherst book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

The Boyhood of Cain, Michael Amherst’s debut novel, tells the story of Daniel, a middle-school-aged boy who is trying to understand his place in school, his family, and the world. Like his biblical namesake, Daniel feels like he is in a lion’s den, but it’s one he doesn’t understand, as he is not popular at school, and he has no respect for either of his parents. His father is the former head of the school he attended, but he mismanaged the finances and so left the school in disgrace. Daniel’s mother struggles with depression, eventually leading to a period of hospitalization.

Like the biblical Cain Amherst alludes to in the title, Daniel is an outcast at school, as his metaphorical offerings don’t live up to the quality of the other students, especially Philip, his friend and rival. Mr. Miller, an art teacher, initially takes Daniel into individual lessons, possibly because he sees potential in his art, but then he includes Philip, as well. Daniel goes from feeling like one of the chosen to being on the periphery again, where he has spent most of his school days. It’s clear to the reader that Mr. Miller is not a good person, but Daniel seeks his approval, as he doesn’t have any other part of life to provide him with that support.

The distance between Daniel and the reader is the strength of the book. Daniel’s narration is simple, given his age, but the reader often sees the reality of Daniel’s life in ways that he cannot. When Daniel talks about wanting to be special — even comparing himself to Jesus, at one point — the reader sees him as a typical child, solipsistic and narrow-minded. However, the reader also feels sympathy for Daniel, as most of us have had similar experiences as children, times when we didn’t understand ourselves or the world, but thought we knew more than anybody around us. Thus, while the narration is child-like, the emotions are as human as any most readers have experienced.

The Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amherst. Riverhead Books, February 2025.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. IG, Threads, and BlueSky: @kevinbrownwrites

Book Review :: Colored Television by Danzy Senna

Colored Television by Danzy Senna book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

Colored Television, Danzy Senna’s latest novel, follows Jane, an English professor working on her second novel—centered around the idea of the mulatto (Jane’s term; she is mixed-race)—for a decade. She now needs to complete that novel as her sabbatical is ending, and she needs the publication to earn tenure. She and her husband Lenny—an artist who only produces art he believes in, whether that earns him any money or not, and it’s more often not—along with their two children, have moved from one living situation to another over that time.

They begin this novel having moved into a fabulous house owned by Brett, one of Jane’s friends from graduate school, though Jane believes he has sold out by becoming a screenwriter and script doctor. Jane, however, begins to follow him down that path, as her novel draft, which she finally finishes, is a dead end, according to her publisher and agent. She emails Brett’s agent, who then puts her in touch with Hampton Ford, a television producer who is interested in producing diverse content.

Without telling Lenny, Jane begins meeting with Hampton to discuss a series that explores a family of mixed-race characters, much like Jane’s, in a sitcom setting. Jane is enamored of the life Brett has, and she consistently envisions her family living that life, as she believes she just needs one break to escape the supposed poverty she lives in.

While Senna is certainly exploring race in her novel, she equally critiques class, especially the greed that can drive one to ignore all that one already has in life, as Jane seeks to live a life that Lenny and the children have no interest in. While the ending of the novel is a bit pat, the questions that Senna raises are anything but.

Colored Television by Danzy Senna. Riverhead Books, September 2024.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. IG, Threads, and BlueSky: @kevinbrownwrite

Book Review :: The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes

The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

The Alternatives—Caoilinn Hughes’s third novel—begins with four chapters that follow four sisters going about their daily lives. Those lives are disrupted when Olwin, the eldest, leaves her family in the middle of the night and goes missing. The rest of the novel focuses on the three sisters finding Olwin and having conversations—or avoiding conversations—about who they are and what they value, often through accusations as much as confessions.

Their parents died when they were teenagers, a death that shaped them all in quite different ways, offering readers at least one meaning of Hughes’s title. Olwin raises them after their parents’ deaths, which is partly why her disappearance bothers the other sisters even more than one might expect. Rather than simply finding out that she is still alive and doing well, for example, they all converge on her to have a sort of intervention. It’s during those moments in the novel when the reader finds out more about their childhood and their parents’ deaths, as they each view that time in their life differently, yet another meaning of the title.

Hughes’s structure mirrors the dramatic stakes of the novel by literally shifting into dramatic form. When the sisters have found Olwin, Hughes twice shifts to writing the novel as if it were a play, as they discover more about each other as they are now and how they view their pasts. Such an approach doesn’t lose the characters’ interior thoughts, though, as Hughes allows those thoughts to appear in what one would typically see as stage directions. As with life, Hughes doesn’t leave her characters with closure; instead, they try to forge some semblance of a life out of the struggles they all face. As we all do, they will do the best they can.

The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes. Riverhead Books, April 2024.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite

Book Review of Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

Lisa Ko’s second novel follows three Asian-American women—Giselle, Ellen, and Jackie—who meet as teenagers, then remain close for the rest of their lives, though they see each other infrequently. Giselle becomes a performance artist, Ellen transforms a house she and others squatted into a type of communal living space, and Jackie revolutionizes the tech industry, careers and passions that seem far removed from one another.

However, they are all creators of some sort, even artists, though the world seems bent on preventing them from becoming so. They encounter sexism and misogyny, racism, and capitalist expectations, working together and separately to overcome (or simply thwart) those barriers and demands, to find success in their own ways. Ko moves the novel from the 1980s of their teenage years all the way to a future beyond their deaths to explore the ways in which they impact their world and how they become the women they need to be to survive and thrive in that world.

Underneath their different pursuits, they are all trying to answer the same questions that all artists are trying to answer, the questions Giselle knows an interviewer is really asking her: “HOW DO YOU LIVE (HOW DARE YOU LIVE) WHAT DO YOU DO (WHAT SHOULD WE DO) HOW DO WE LIVE HOW DO WE DIE WHAT DO WE NEED TO HEAR.”

Ko’s novel provides three different answers to those questions, but, more importantly, it asks the readers to find the answers in their lives.

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko. Riverhead Books, March 2024.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite

Book Review :: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, James McBride’s latest novel, centers around a small community in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in the early and middle twentieth century. The neighborhood of Chicken Hill is changing, first from a largely Jewish area to a primarily African American one, but then even that dichotomy breaks down with a significant influx of Eastern European Jews who don’t always see the world the same way the older immigrant community does.

Moshe bridges the original divide, as he owns a theatre that once hosted vaudeville acts, but then transitioned to Black bands as demand grew. His primary employee is Nate, a Black man, who helps Moshe work across the racial divide. However, the main impetus for Moshe’s doing so is his wife, Chona, who runs the titular grocery store. She encourages (forces, really) Moshe to leave the grocery store in the neighborhood even as its demographics change, and she becomes the face of welcome to anyone who walks in.

She even makes Moshe hide Dodo, Nate and Addie’s deaf nephew, when the state comes to take him away, a decision that will lead to much of the conflict in the novel. However, Chona stands for the heaven and earth of the store, as she attempts to live out the love of God, the will of God, on earth, as it is in heaven, a message of inclusivity needed now as much as ever.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Riverhead Books, August 2023.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite

Book Review :: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff book cover image

The premise of Lauren Groff’s latest novel, The Vaster Wilds, is simple: a girl runs away from a settlement in Colonial America for reasons the reader will discover later in the book. The storyline moves between her attempts to stay alive in an unwelcoming environment and her past life as a servant. Those two situations are not as different from one another as they initially seem.

While Groff tells a believable story about a girl several hundred years ago, she is just as interested in talking about what it means to be a female in the twenty-first century. One of the few times the girl encounters anybody outside the settlement, she sees two Indigenous men. When Groff writes, “And she was chilled to her soul, for it was reflexive, for she feared the fate of women anywhere, women caught alone on a dark street in a city, in a country lane far from human ears, in any place where there were no other people nearby to witness,” she could be describing everyday life for women.

Groff also reminds readers of men’s insatiable need to own and dominate, whether that’s women or land. Near the end of the novel, the narrator reflects, “The men of her own country had always felt this nothing deep within them; . . . it gave them a need to set their boots upon everything they saw.”

Groff is writing about what it means to be a woman in America today, living in fear of what men might do to them while watching what men do to the world around them.

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff. Riverhead Books, September 2023.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite

South of Superior

Ellen Airgood’s debut novel South of Superior is categorized first under “self-realization in women” and secondly under “Michigan Fiction.” Such categories never tell the full story. Certainly there is a female main character, but she is for much of the book unsympathetic and certainly not a superwoman, and the novel’s delight is in the realism of all the vividly portrayed characters and of Michigan life in a place like Grand Marais, here renamed McAllaster. All Michiganders (not just women) should relish this book for the reliving of this state’s recognizable features and lifestyles.

Continue reading “South of Superior”