Biblio Reviews

Edwidge Danticat's Claire of the Sea Light (2013) is consistent in that it showcases Danticat's wonderfully vivid, poetic prose. Set in the fictional seaside town of Ville Rose in Haiti, the novel narrates the intertwined stories of the titular Claire Limyè Lanmè Faustin and a few other characters who inhabit the town. Kamila Shamsie who reviewed the book for The Guardian captured the essence of the novel by writing the following: Danticat shows us a town scarred by violence, corruption, class disparities and social taboo, which is also a town of hope, dreams, love and sensuality. But these are enmeshed rather than opposing elements. Love leads to violence, dreams lead to corruption. Assessed from a technical standpoint, Danticat's storytelling is rich, nuanced, and complex. Her characters are fully developed, infused with a certain dignity in spite of their challenges. Similarly, the setting is expansive and fully envisioned, a symbolic character throughout the novel,

The struggle, often times, with writing a review is that the energy required to write one is more than the experience of having read the book. This is the case for me with Gretchen Galway's  Love Handles  (2011), claimed to be a "Romantic Comedy." It is neither. Love Handles  is book 1 of the "Oakland Hills" series and stars Beverly Lewis, a trained teacher, and Liam Johnson, former Olympic swimmer. Beverly has just inherited her estranged grandfather's fitness company, of which Liam is executive vice president. After more than ten years working for the company and having had a close relationship with Bev's grandfather, Liam expected that he would inherit the company. Grandpa had other plans. The story is essentially about...I'm not sure. Bev is a supposed nice girl who is out to prove to her critical family that she's no pushover and can save her grandfather's company by creating a positive work climate. Liam, her aunt, and every