CBR10 Bingo: Snubbed (short-listed for the 2010 Man Booker Prize) – BINGO #2! Jack is a typical five-year-old boy. He likes cartoons and birthday cake and bouncing on the bed. He does phys ed with his mother, timing how many laps they both can make around the room and celebrating when he wins. He likes picture books and drives his mother to distraction when he makes her read Dylan the Digger over and over and over. He’s whip smart for a 5-year-old; he knows that the […]
One Cannot Live on Faith Alone
In a small Irish village in the 1850s a miracle is taking place. Or is it? Eleven year old Anna O’Donnell has been fasting for four months and yet is alive and well. Lib, an English nurse trained by Florence Nightingale, is sent to Ireland to watch the girl and report back to a committee about her findings. Is Anna a fraud or a blessed child? Lib is confident that it’s the former, but as Anna begins to deteriorate, she struggles with her own complicity […]
Hunger, religion, and faith
I remember reading Room by Emma Donoghue and not being able to put it down. I was impressed that Donoghue was able to write such a sensitive story, with such a realistic viewpoint of a little boy in extraordinary conditions. Even more, I was glad that she managed it without it feeling too exploitative. So when I saw that Donoghue had just written The Wonder (2016), I knew I wanted to read it. At first glance, The Wonder looks like it could not be more different than Room. It takes place in […]
Sad Babies Ruined It for Me
Emma Donaghue’s Frog Music should have been a slam dunk for me. It’s a period piece murder mystery with a European element. I regret to say that it fell a little short of the mark for me. I think most people would enjoy the novel, however, so this won’t be an entirely negative review. Frog Music tells the story of the murder of Jenny Bonnet, a cross-dressing, walking, talking Mark Twain character in 19th century San Francisco, and the efforts of her friend Blanche Beunon, […]