Better Books #3

Do you read for style? Are you always on the lookout for novels written with a unique voice? Books on the bestseller lists are no guarantee that superb writing awaits, but here is one worth a look. Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett. No, I don't know the author, and I have no business incentive here, other than to acknowledge and promote good writing.

I think you will get pulled into the story like I did from the first chapter, feeling like a fly on the wall at an ordinary christening party that becomes anything but, and with the added benefit of getting to buzz around inside the heads of some of the attendees. What we get is a peek at the thoughts of people when they are thinking the things we all might think, secure in the belief that no one can read our minds. The internal debate of the tipsy priest about whether or not to accept an invitation to dance from a pretty, unattached woman convinced me I wanted this book.

The prose appears effortless, not drawing attention to itself, while delivering an intimate look into everyday but complex lives.

Unfortunately, much of the tension and anticipation pumped up so well in the first chapter escapes from the story balloon in subsequent chapters. Instead of seeing what happens next, it already has all transpired. The reader is shown to the bedside of a dying man, and the story now struggled to hold my interest as events unfolded backwards.

There are also gratuitous plot devices that seem phoned in to try and maintain reader interest and, I suspect, author interest. Some strain credulity, like a young boy walking around with a handgun stuck in his sock under his trousers (try it, unloaded, of course).

Still, the first chapter is a masterpiece of "alive" writing. For that alone, this book is worth a look.