Mini Reviews: Minding Frankie, Cutting for Stone and The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

It’s interesting because I had similar problems with all three of these novels. I didn’t hate any of them, but all three felt too disjointed. I loved certain story lines in each book, but the rest left me cold. They feel firmly in the middle for me and I feel like those are always the hardest books for me to review.
 
Minding Frankie
by Maeve Binchy
★★★☆

Noel is struggling to find a bit of meaning in his life. He has a mediocre job, lives with his parents and drinks away his boredom each night. Then he finds out that a one night stand from a few months before resulted in a pregnancy and his impending fatherhood forces him to get his life in order. Noel is surrounded by family and friends who are willing to support him and help, but a social worker named Moira is convinced he can’t be trusted with the child.

This one failed to really hook me. The whole time we’re suppose to hate Moira, which I did, but that doesn’t make for a great story. There were so many different characters and plots that the story kept loosing focus. I liked the American cousin and some of the other supporting characters, but it was too disjointed for my tastes.

BOTTOM LINE: If you’re a die-hard Binchy fan you should read it. If you aren’t but you’d like to check her out, start with Circle of Friends, Evening Class or Tara Road.

Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese
★★★☆

In the most incredible set of circumstances, twins (Marion and Shiva Stone) are born to a nun in an Ethiopian hospital. The story that follows is an intricate look at their lives and the many people around them.

My favorite part of the book was the plot involving Hema, a strong female doctor, and her relationship with fellow doctor Ghosh. They raise the twins together and their relationship defies all stereotypes and clichés.
 
Some of the medical scenes were a bit too graphic for me. They are continuous and sprinkled throughout the book because all of the main characters are doctors, so they’re hard to avoid. The brutal nature of the medical world is one I’m not familiar with and it’s not one I’m drawn to. There are also other elements, female circumcision and a graphic pregnancy scene that made my stomach turn.
 
BOTTOM LINE: I wanted to like it more than I did. Bits of beautiful writing are spliced into a frustratingly bloated story. A few stand out characters helped me connect, but overall I was disappointed.

“Perhaps she should have been grateful to him, happy to be alive, but in the hierarchy of her emotions anger was always trumps.”

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz
★★★☆

This is the story of an over-weight geek with a penchant for falling in love a little too easily. From his childhood in the Dominican Republic to his later years in New Jersey, Oscar never really finds the happiness he longs for.

The story is told from Oscar’s college roommate Yunior’s point of view, which is a strange choice. It bounces around dealing with the rough relationship between Oscar’s sister Lola and their harsh mother, the mother’s troubled past, Oscar’s emotional issues and Yunior’s romantic relationship with Lola.

It was interesting to read this shortly after reading In the Time of the Butterflies earlier this year, because books discuss Trujillo’s reign in the Dominican Republic. Also I’m an absolute geek at heart, so I loved all the nerdy references to Tolkein, etc., but it wasn’t enough to really hook me.
 
BOTTOM LINE: There were aspects of the novel that I enjoyed more than others, but I was never as invested as I wanted to be. In the end it just wasn’t enough. There were too many different threads and it never came together in a satisfying way.