Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com.
“The Hungry Season: A Journey of War, Love and Survival,” by Lisa M. Hamilton (Little, Brown & Company, 2023)
This is a nonfiction account of one Hmong woman’s life, from her childhood in a remote mountain village, through refugee camps in Indonesia, to her immigrant life working arid farmland outside Fresno, Calif. With extraordinary determination, persistence, inexhaustible hope, relentless striving, plus leavening doses of humor, the heroine, Ia Moua, overcomes seemingly impossible odds to support her family, both in the U.S. and in Laos. The “hungry season” in the title refers to the time of scarcity after last year’s rice crop has run out, and before the harvest of a new rice crop, when Laotian subsistence rice farmers learn to rely on optimism and hope to see them through. Such optimism and hope are the pillars of Ia’s life and character. Written with such affection and respect for Ia, this book flows like a novel, which I could hardly set down. (A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice; longlisted for the 2024 Plutarch Award.) — 4 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
“Mavis Gallant: The Collected Stories,” by Mavis Gallant (Everyman’s Library, 2016)
A “literary” writer and New Yorker regular, the author was known for work full of rich details about setting and character, which benefit from close reading. The volume is broken into decades, from the 1930s to the ’90s. One story, “The Other Paris,” recounts the trip of a young American in search of the exciting, entrancing city she’s heard of, but never can find. Gallant played the role of observant outsider in her work and her life. If you claim you don’t have time to read thoughtful, beautiful books, try these short samples to enhance your soul. –– 4 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune, Denver (bonnieMcCune.com)
“Day,” by Michael Cunningham (Random House, 2023)
Michael Cunningham’s latest literary novel samples three years on a single day: April 5 in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Yes, this is a pandemic novel, sort of, but it’s more a complex story of relationships within a family group: brother, sister, brother-in-law, BIL’s brother, his partner, assorted children — and a character invented just for Instagram. In Brooklyn and later in Iceland, each character struggles through “thwartments” for change and fulfillment. After a slow start, the story becomes more and more engrossing as we learn a surprising amount about these lives in a very restricted amount of time. — 3 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
