Category: Reviewed by JoAnn

The Place Beyond the Pines (DVD)

The Place Beyond the Pines

This film supposedly takes place in Schenectady, NY and follows parallel lives of two characters, a tattooed carnival stunt motorcycle driver played by Ryan Gosling and a young honest cop played by Bradley Cooper.  Their lives cross when Cooper chases down and kills Gosling’s character after he robs a bank trying to provide for the infant son from a one night stand with a waitress played by Eva Mendes. This act of violence causes others to call him a hero and we’re then immersed in a world of crooked police officers and life-changing moral dilemmas. The film then jumps ahead 15 years when the two teenage sons’ paths cross and cause us to see what went before in a whole different way. It’s a very intense film with great characters who are just trying to get through each day to support and provide for their family.

The Hit by David Baldacci

The Hit

If you like suspense, action and lots of twists, then you will like this book. It’s basically the story of two master assassins that the government calls in to get their worst enemies. Will Robie and Jessica Reel are considered the best of the best. The story starts out with Reel turning on members in her own agency, which in turn forces the agency to send Robie out to kill her. There are a lot of cat and mouse traps. Questions arise through the action as to who exactly the bad guys are, and Robie starts to ask questions about Reel’s motives. The story also reflects on how these two assassins’ backgrounds led them to become trained killers. The final answers are surprising. I would recommend this book because it’s quick and full of suspense.

The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain

The Good Father

This is a powerful emotional portrayal of parenthood and the issues parents deal with. The story is told through the eyes of three main characters, Travis, Robin and Erin, who become linked together as the story unfolds. Travis Brown, a young single father trying to raise his daughter, Bella, becomes unemployed and homeless which leads him into a dangerous situation to provide for her. Robin is trying to focus on her new life after being sick for so long, but can’t forget the memory of the baby she once gave up. Erin is grieving for the daughter she lost, and shattered by grief, but finds a new way of coping with constant heartache. I have never read Diane Chamberlain before but I will definitely read more of her novels. I like how she writes with various character acting as narrators, which makes the story a quick and easy flowing read.

 

The Dinner by Herman Koch

The Dinner

This novel revolves around two brothers and their wives having a five-course dinner in a very upscale Amsterdam restaurant in the Netherlands. They have come together for an uncomfortable conversation. One of the brothers, Serge, is a famous politician while the other brother, Paul, is a “retired” history teacher. The brothers don’t get along.  As the story unfolds, you learn that Paul, the narrator, actually loathes his older brother and can’t understand how his sister-in-law can tolerate him. Their 15-year old sons, however, do get along, and it is discovered that they have done something extremely awful, which is the reason for this uncomfortable dinner. The boys’ actions are so shocking that the whole nation is upset after seeing video footage of the incident on the nightly news. The boys’ identities are not generally known because their faces were never seen. However, the parents do know what their sons have done.  As the dinner progresses, it’s amazing and alarming to see how far these families will go to protect their children, even when they have committed a crime. This is a very quick read because, as the tension in the story builds between each course, you don’t want to stop reading until you see how these two very different families deal with their compulsion that their children can do no wrong.

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

The Burgess Boys

This is a story of the Burgess family twins, Bob and Susan Burgess, and their older brother, Jim. An accident happens when they are all children.  When the father leaves the children in the car for a few minutes, one of them gets behind the wheel pretending to drive.  The car rolls backwards, killing the father. This incident dramatically affects the entire family. The story takes place in a small town in Maine where the children grew up with just their mother to raise them, doing the best she could.

The two brothers escape to NYC as soon as they can.  Both become lawyers. The older brother, Jim, becomes a successful corporate lawyer whom the twins idolize. The twin brother, Bob, becomes a Legal Aid attorney who is always belittled by his eldest brother.  Their sister Susan stays behind in Maine. All is well until Susan’s lonely teenage son Zach urgently calls them to say that he has gotten himself into a world of trouble and needs their help. When the brothers return to their childhood home in an effort to help get their nephew out of this mess, the long-buried family tensions begin to surface and unravel in unexpected ways that change all of them forever.

I enjoyed this  novel by Elizabeth Strout. She develops and gives insight into her characters, and it is a very deep look into a family’s struggles and triumphs. I found it a very interesting read with many surprises along the way on how each of these characters deal with the family turmoil as the author exposes the tensions that can fester in a family, especially when they return to their childhood home.