Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Because of Winn-Dixie

by Kate DiCamillo

Candlewick Press, 2000

192 pages

Sorry about the posting delay, all. I've been working through a very fractured-attention-span time, which leads to significantly less reading (I haven't read anything since this book) and less ability to write a coherent review, too. This may not get everything I wanted to say about this book, but I figured that a little review is better than no review at all.

This book is lovely. It's well-written. It's a little capsule of sweet and sad all rolled into 192 pages, and it is a perfect book club read for my parent-child group.

India Opal Buloni has moved to a small town in Florida with her single-parent father, a pastor at a small evangelical church. We meet her immediately as she is meeting Winn-Dixie, the titular dog, in the supermarket of the same name. He's causing quite a disruption, and she manages to convince everyone that he's hers, and she also manages to convince the pastor that they need a dog. Through the rest of the book, we follow India through her summer as she meets some very interesting people in the town, and starts to connect them to each other in ways they may not have foreseen before a girl and her dog showed up.

More than being about the hijinks between India and Winn-Dixie, though, this is a story of connection and friendship, and a story about loss and sadness, too. Which doesn't mean it's a sad book, or a downer in any way -- not a chance. But it is a book about the lives people lead that don't always show on the surface, and how beautiful and difficult those lives can be. I suppose in some ways, some of the characters might read like a heavy-handed moral -- "don't judge a book by it's cover!" and that sort of thing -- but I think DiCamillo handles it skillfully and gently, in a way that doesn't talk down to her readers. I enjoyed this book as much as an adult as I think the kids will enjoy it.

I definitely recommend this book for reading together. I think it's a fine read-alone for kids, too, but I think that there are a lot of themes that can be addressed here, making it an ideal read for the book club. I'd also recommend it for a light and quick, but not entirely fluffy, read for adults, too. DiCamillo writes in such a way that I could picture the southern atmosphere, I could feel the summer heat, and I could smell the wet dog. The story is simple, pleasant, and kind, but not without its touch of sadness, which I think makes the whole thing sweeter.

The City and the City by China Miéville

The City and the City

by China Miéville

Del Rey, 2009

312 pages

And now back to our regular programming. Seriously though, everyone, the battle for book ownership isn't over yet -- if you haven't ever thought about who actually owns that book you're reading on your screen of choice, you should really start thinking about it now. And deciding what you think about how much you're paying for a license rather than ownership.

Okay, really, now back to our regular programming.

In a mind-bogglingly ironic move, here we have it: my first e-book reviewed on this site. (It isn't a HarperCollins book, mind you, but Random House, who so far have behaved rather admirably in this brave new world. I'll be buying this book. Maybe even in hardcover.) And it was kind of an accident; I didn't mean to read it, at all. I intended to download it as a test from the library's e-book collection, and then figure out how to return a borrowed e-book early, so that I can then train people on that in the upcoming weeks. It was to be a dummy book, a guinea pig book. Only I downloaded it and thought, I wonder what Miéville's writing is actually like. I've heard good things. So I decided I'd read the first page.

And then it was suddenly Chapter 9 and I was in no way planning to return that book until I had finished reading it, thank you very much. It took me three short days of staring at my computer screen, because I haven't purchased an e-reader yet, and sitting in an uncomfortable position staring at the screen didn't even register with me most of the time. I haven't been feeling well lately, and even that didn't really register while I was reading.

This book. If you haven't read it yet, my god, what are you waiting for? It is a brilliant piece of work, and I don't say that lightly or use "brilliant" as hyperbole. It's brilliant in the sense of incredibly intelligent, and brilliant in the sense of a shining example of great writing, great plotting, great character development -- all of these, in fact, out of the ordinary. Though I'm not sure I would call it "brilliant" in the luminous sense, as that would be misleading; this is a somewhat dark book, a tense book, a gritty mystery that can delve into the uglier side of humanity.

It's hard to write a summary without giving anything away. Part of the joy of this book is the way the layers are peeled back slowly for the reader, the way we start out as we would with a regular genre mystery, with the discovery of a woman's body and a detailed, grinding investigation, hints of drugs and prostitution and seedy back alleys. Inspector Tyador Borlú is our first-person guide, an experienced and immediately recognizable police detective. We don't know exactly what country we're in, or what city, or what laws and customs we're dealing with. Some of the terminology is a bit skewed and unfamiliar, and the names almost Eastern European. We know very quickly that Borlú and his colleagues don't converse in English. And we realize slowly, with the unfolding of both the plot and scenery, that nothing is as it seems. Both grow, at first imperceptibly, to something larger and stranger.

Things are never so strange, though, that the reader becomes lost, and we never really lose sight, thanks to our dedicated detective, of the plot: this is a murder mystery. But by the time we are well into the mystery, we are also well into the world Mieville has created to house it, and it is a fascinating, dangerous, foreign, strange place. Things Borlú knows are mentioned, dropped like clues and sometimes never picked up. But it all contributes to the flavour of the story and the world.

What I think I loved most, aside from everything, was the solution to the mystery. There are labyrinthine twists and turns throughout the whole story, red herrings aplenty, some of which are immediately discarded by both the reader and the Inspector, some of which are discarded by one or the other, and some of which are believed in doggedly until they are simply clearly not plausible any more. Barrelling towards the conclusion, even right in the climax, no one is quite sure what or who to believe anymore -- not the Inspector, and not the reader. I was in total suspense. And I don't think I can tell you anything else without ruining something, so I won't. But if anyone has read this book and wants to tell me what you thought of the way the crime is solved and what really happened, by all means do so in the comments. Rest assured that the way Miéville handles his story is perfect in every way. I am still marveling over it days later.

Most remarkable in all of this is that while this book is a fantasy, and couldn't be what it is without the fantastic elements, it's absolutely at heart a gritty murder mystery and conspiracy thriller. If you don't like fantasy, or are scared to try it, try this book anyways. It may not change your mind about fantasy, but you will have read a superlative mystery.

So, as you can see, highly, highly, highly recommended. An absolutely remarkable book. One of my best reading experiences in ages, and that is saying something. I will not only be buying it for myself, but I'll be buying it for several people I know, too.