Love and Lobsters

So, you may have noticed that most of my book reviews have been positive. This is because if I'm reading a book I don't like, I tend to not finish it, or if I finish it, I don't bother to review it. Or as in the case of one recent book, Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, I finish a book, like it well enough, but am not moved to spend several minutes writing about it. So I guess this book review blog will just be articles of me raving about some book I loved, which is not really a bad thing.

Which brings me to the novel Stern Men, by Elizabeth Gilbert. The very same Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote the well known and well loved memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, about her journeys of self discovery through Italy, India, and Indonesia (soon to be a movie starring Julia Roberts). I admit, I too devoured that book like an Italian cream puff and have been keeping my eye out for more Liz Gilbert ever since. I saw her new memoir on the shelves in bookstores (Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage) but... I have a confession to make- I have an odd aversion to buying new books because I know I'm just going to tear through them in a week or two and then they will just be taking up space on my bookshelf. If it's a used book I can usually coerce myself to cough up a couple bucks for it and then pass it on. Hence, the public library is a brilliant thing that appears was invented just for me. However, that means that Committed was checked out but Stern Men was in.

I admit that, no matter how much I loved Gilbert's smart and funny traveling memoir, I had pegged her for a one trick pony, much like David Sedaris. David Sedaris is one of my favorite writers, yet when a new one of his books comes out, you can rightly assume that it will be quite similar to the ones before it. Which I have no problem with- if he keeps coming out with more of the same I'll be very happy.

This novel, however, is fiction and was published before she made it on the New York Times Bestseller list. I was surprised to read on the back that it is about a young girl named Ruth living on an island off the coast of Maine in a culture steeped in lobster fishing. Right away the story starts out with the history and geography of the island and its inhabitants. We find out all about Ruth's ancestors before we meet Ruth herself, which to me immediately establishes the author as a bona fide fiction writer. I was convinced for the first few chapters that she must have researched the history of an actual existing island, because the story was so strange and complex yet so believable that it didn't occur to me at first that she was making it up.

I learned quite a bit about lobster fishing from reading this novel. She must have learned quite a bit while writing it. And yet, this book is not about lobster fishing, it's about the people on the island, the way they live, the way they talk. There are some brilliant chunks of dialogue. When I got to the end of the novel, I had the satisfying feeling that Elizabeth Gilbert got a big kick out of writing this book. She really settles in to the characters and their little world and gives them each such color and vitality.

I have to say, I think this one would make a great movie as well. Maybe not a blockbuster starring Julie Roberts though, maybe a little awkward indie film starring someone like that Juno girl but not so tiny.