This one starts off with a lot of slow and thoughtful world building, at so relaxed a pace that I wandered off and read several other books, there being no sense of urgency. But, about a third of the way into the story, the action gets going and does not let up until the end. Since I like slow and thoughtful novels, I zipped through the last part feeling like I had been switched from slow food to fast food. It's a good book, slightly haunted by the amazing book it suggests.
It's midsummer's night and the queen of the fairies has divorced her husband after the death of their adopted son, the catch being all of this is happening in 2008 in San Francisco. Magic and madness echo and re-echo through both the mortal and immortal spheres, as love turns to sour hate, but perhaps not forever, or not for everyone. Parts in this book appeared in The New Yorker, which tells you a great deal about the type of writing: literate, contemporary, obsessed with telling details.
The first of a series of Arthurian novels thirty years out of print, and one of the better retellings of the tale, has return both in print and as a ninety-nine cent e-books. It's hard to imagine a better book for a quiet summer afternoon. In this one, our hero son of King Lot and Morgawse, half-sister of the bastard war leader Arthur, grows up unhappy and less than competent—at least as a warrior—and embraces his mother's black magic. Written from a different viewpoint and with some attention to cultural and historical fact, the story rings changes on the conventional version of the Matter of Britain. It looks like the publisher is enticing readers as it plans to re-release the entire series.
Far more tightly constructed than her novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, Eagan's short stories New Yorker-style adventures of people who live affluently, and distrust and betray extravagantly.
It took three tries to get into this one, and I would not have persisted if it were not for the book's starred review by Publishers Weekly. The plot echoes American Pop, if American Pop had continued on into a child-centric near future where parents gather for a free concert for their offspring, the mere adults happy to get a helping of double-entendres for their own enjoyment. Parts of this book appeared as short stories, leading to long stretches when the reader plods through what's already been read, although not quite in the context of the whole. Goon Squad is, in the end, skillfully done, but it shouldn't be so hard to read a good book. I'd have given it three stars but I expect it will work better on re-reading. And what's the Goon Squad? It's about time, people growing up, growing old, growing corrupt, and even growing happy.
