Archive for the ‘guilt’ Category

BAD INTENTIONS by Karin Fossum

Karin Fossum’s BAD INTENTIONS is about three friends, now in their twenties, who have known each other since they were six. On the surface, Axel Frimann is by far the most successful. He is well-spoken, good-looking, nicely dressed, and drives a Mercedes; his job at an advertising agency pays well. Philip Reilly, on the other hand, is disheveled, has long, stringy hair (“he looked like a troll from a fairy tale”), and spends a portion of his small salary as a hospital porter getting high. The third member of the trio is Jon Moreno.

August 10, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  · Posted in: Award Winning Author, Good and Evil, guilt, Norway, Psychological Suspense, Sleuths Series, Translated

INCENDIARY by Chris Cleave

Imagine that you’re a working class Cockney mother with a husband who detonates bombs and a young son who is four years and three months old. You stave off your anxieties about the uncertainty of your life through mindless sex encounters. Eventually, you meet a neighbor – a journalist named Jasper – and, while your husband and son are at a soccer game, you invite him to your flat. At the exact same time you are in the throes of sexual abandon, there’s a massive terrorist bomb attack at the London soccer stadium, vaporizing over one thousand people – your husband and son among them. How do you go on? How do you live with the remorse?

March 12, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , ,  · Posted in: guilt, Unique Narrative, United Kingdom

EVERYTHING LOVELY, EFFORTLESS, SAFE by Jenny Hollowell

For the longest time, growing up in rural Virginia, Birdie Baker is convinced she is destined to follow the path set forth by her devout Christian parents. Like them, as a Jehovah’s Witness, she will spread the word of the Lord, marry, settle down and wrap it up. But the sense of unease that plagues her even after she is married to a church-going man named Judah, is worsened when she runs into her high school drama teacher at the grocery store. “What are you still doing here?” he asks, “I figured the next time I saw you it would be in a movie.” Eventually, leave Virgina she does. Birdie pools all her savings toward a one-way bus ticket to Los Angeles.

December 14, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , ,  · Posted in: 2010 Top Picks, California, Contemporary, Debut Novel, Drift-of-Life, guilt, Job, Life Choices

THE WIDOWER’S TALE by Julia Glass

I loved THREE JUNES by Julia Glass and her newest novel, THE WIDOWER’S TALE, has much the same wonderful flavor about it. This languid story of a family dealing with their relationships with one another and the instrusions of the outside world delights the senses. The central character is Percival Darling, widowed for the last thirty-two years, and a somewhat crusty, cynical and reclusive personality.

September 24, 2010 · Judi Clark · One Comment
Tags: , , ,  · Posted in: Character Driven, Contemporary, Family Matters, guilt, Life's Moments, Literary, Reading Guide

BRODECK by Philippe Claudel

There are many reasons we read: for enlightenment, escape, education, and in some rare instances, to confront ourselves with truths and insights we never would have encountered otherwise.

BRODECK is one of those rare instances. It is, quite simply, one of the best contemporary books I have ever read. And I have read a lot.

August 10, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , ,  · Posted in: 2010 Top Picks, Allegory/Fable, Award Winning Author, guilt, Literary, Translated, World Literature

THE DEAD LIE DOWN by Sophie Hannah

Sophie Hannah’s THE DEAD LIE DOWN is a multi-faceted psychological thriller about guilt, revenge, self-destruction, and redemption. All of the major characters have something to hide and they reveal their secrets reluctantly. Aiden Seed, who frames pictures for a living, has decided that he and the woman he loves, Ruth Bussey, should be open with one another before they become intimate. Ruth hesitantly admits that she did something shameful and was punished excessively for her actions. Aiden is sympathetic, saying, “The worst things stow away in the hold, follow you wherever you go.” It is then his turn to confess: “Years ago, I killed someone.” “Her name was Mary. Mary Trelease.”

June 4, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags:  · Posted in: guilt, Mystery/Suspense, Psychological Suspense, Revenge, United Kingdom