The Coffins of Little Hope

The Coffins of Little Hope is Timothy Schaffert’s deceptively titled latest book. Evoking the macabre, it is anything but. Instead, it is a small-town delight, with both a lightness and a richness that will fly by while you savor every moment.

Essie Myles is an 83-year-old obituary writer from a dying town in rural Nebraska. She lives across the street from her grandson Doc, who runs the local paper where her obits are published. With Doc lives Tiff, Essie’s 13-year-old great-granddaughter, issue of Doc’s sister Ivy, who ran off to Paris when Tiff was seven.

Doc’s paper was one of several small-town publications that had been selected to print, in secret, the eleventh and last of the dark-but-wildly-popular book series about two sisters who live in an asylum, but manage to get up to a myriad of twisted adventures. (Think Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events crossed with Harry Potter.)

That very same summer, a local woman named Daisy claims an itinerant aerial photographer stole her daughter Lenore. Even though no one has heard of Lenore and Daisy can provide no good picture of her or even a birth certificate, her story captures imaginations.

The next six months are a time of turbulence for the town and Essie. The world becomes obsessed with the story of Lenore (in no small way thanks to Doc’s relentless coverage), pages of the secret book may have been leaked, and Ivy returns to Essie’s family, turning the town and Essie’s life upside down.

The Coffins of Little Hope is charming and filled to the brim with eccentricities. Essie, an octogenarian narrator who is in full control of her faculties, narrates in a no-nonsense way that is refreshing and encouraging. The chapters are short and contain many a chuckle-worthy moment, while the whole arc of the story provides low-key commentary on many of the foibles in modern American culture. I have great hope for The Coffins of Little Hope and see many a reader and book group joining the search for the elusive Lenore.

Article first published as Book review: The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert on Blogcritics.

Library Journal Reviews: Mike Tyson Slept Here, The Talk Funny Girl

These reviews appeared in April and July, 2011, respectively. When you follow the link, scroll down.

Huntington, Chris. Mike Tyson Slept Here. Boaz, dist. by New Harbinger. May 2011. c.224p.ISBN 9781893448100.pap. $14.95. F 

Review page:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/book/889718-421/fiction_reviews_april_15_2011.html.csp

Merullo, Roland. The Talk Funny Girl. Crown. Jul. 2011. c.320p. ISBN 9780307452924. $23. F


Review page:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/891181-289/xpress_reviewsfirst_look_at_new.html.csp

The Compass of Pleasure

I loved The Compass of Pleasure by David J. Linden. It's about the "pleasure circuit" in the brain: the anatomy and physiology of brain cells that result in our experiencing pleasure.

If that sounds a geeky, it's absolutely not. Linden's book is a delight (his occasional efforts to teach the reader a little brain science not withstanding), unfolding like a mystery in easy prose with touches of humor. First, he shows us that there is, in fact, a particular area deep in the brain that is responsible for pleasurable feelings, and when it is possible to stimulate it directly (as in animal experiments and one unfortunate and unethical human one), the individual would stimulate it until they die, it is so compelling.

Linden then explores how the pleasure circuit is involved in addiction, love and sex, memory and learning, each chapter adding clues to the puzzle of pleasure. He looks to evolution for the reasons we each (and just about every other organism on earth) have one. His observations are both refreshing (pleasure is just as important with virtue as vice) and disturbing (his view of the future of pleasure would make on scary sci-fi novel).

I was a psych major in college (I'm not saying how long ago), so have a good basic understanding of neurons, neurotransmitters, and the like. I therefore did not spend the time to read all the extra detail on neurobiology put in the book. I think Linden could have left it out completely, but with my basic understanding of the brain already at hand, I'm a not a good judge of how a novice would fair. And Linden is a good professor and thinks his readers will benefit from understanding some of how the brain works under the hood, bless him.

Still not sure if this book is for you? Hear what the author himself has to say when he was a guest on NPR's Fresh Air in June 2011 talking about the book.