A Few Dysfunctional Reads

The byword for three books I have read lately is dysfunctional. I Know This Much Is True, the acclaimed novel by Wally Lamb, is a tedious journey wending through a labyrinth of flashbacks, emotions, and circumstances that the narrator Dominick Birdsey relates of his life with a schizophrenic paranoid twin brother. The premise and characters have the potential to be engaging and remarkable, not to mention unforgettable. It is a saga about love, redemption and the family ties that bind our humanity to make us more than the sum of our weaknesses and strengths. With some serious editing, I think it could have been a great story.

The Australian writer, Graeme Simsion, did it right in his hilarious novel, The Rosie Project. Don Tillman, a genius professor of genetics, has Asperger’s syndrome which seriously impairs his social skills. He constructs a list of questions that he uses to interview potential mates...then he meets Rosie. Truly a romantic romp that had me hootin’ and hollerin’ and definitely rooting for the two of them.

Reading the four novellas that comprise Dirty Love by Andre Dubus III is like being a spectator in an operating theater where the masterful surgeon exposes the internal mechanisms of the human soul and psyche.  When you’ve finished the stories, you may not like any of these people, but you will certainly not forget any of them.