Carolyn Parkhurst

Carolyn Parkhurst makes me want to write novels. "The Dogs of Babel," one of my favorite books, reads like it was written effortlessly.

The skill involved in crafting "The Nobodies Album" is a little more apparent. The premise is that best-selling author Octavia Frost has decided to rewrite the endings of each of her books. The original and revised endings are woven throughout the book, as Octavia reconnects with her estranged son, a rock star, who has been accused of murdering his show more girlfriend.

My only criticism of "The Nobodies Album," is that the original endings don't read to me like actual book endings. There's a lot of recap to give readers the sense that they've read the entire book. I'm willing to forgive that, however, because for the most part, I found the excerpts from her fictional books as engaging as the plot of the "real" novel.

I didn't care for the excerpts from the first two novels Octavia rewrites, and worried that as I got to these dramatic interludes that I'd get tired of the formula and want to skim through them. But that wasn't the case. Within "The Nobodies Album," Parkhurst has developed four or five other multi-layered, revelatory novels that enhance Octavia's story.

The murder mystery itself is not exactly Hitchcockian, but "The Nobodies Album" is more of a family drama than it is a mystery novel. It's suspenseful and affecting. I loved it.

Like the best novels, I found it difficult to put down, and was sorry when it ended. show less

Linguistics professor Paul Iverson comes home one day to find his wife, Lexy, lying dead below the apple tree. The only witness is his Rhodesian Ridgeback, Lorelei. Did Lexy fall from the tree or did she commit suicide? What was she even doing up in the apple tree? After the police rule it an accident, Paul sets out to try to teach Lorelei to speak so she can tell him what she witnessed that afternoon. During Paul's crusade to make Lorelei speak we see events from the past tell a story of show more how Paul and Lexy meet and fell in love. There are many beautifully written flashbacks, detailing Lexy and Paul relationship.

Paul is a pretty tragic character. You can see him working through his grief and it makes him change and do things he might not consider doing otherwise. For the most part, this is a story narrated by Paul and he and Lorelei are the main characters. There are other side characters in this book but Paul and Lorelei are the ones to tell the story. The whole plot was the mystery of Lexy's death, but I think that it also included the emotions and grieving process Paul was going through. It shows what a person devastated by grief might do to find out what happened, even trying to teach his dog to speak. Desperation makes people do strange things.

There are some tough subjects in this book including suicide, animal cruelty and violence. The animal cruelty is sad and sometimes described vividly and difficult to read about. The writing was very emotional and a week after finishing it, I'm still thinking about it. In the end the mystery is solved. Paul understands the truth behind his wife's death and comes to terms with it but I continued to wonder if the real victim was Lorelei.

I thought the story was beautiful and heartbreaking. It had an interesting concept and one I've never thought of before. It's part mystery and part love story and the author entwines both of them in a very convincing way. The story explores relationships at their best and often worst moments. More than a love story between Paul and his wife, it's also a story about a man in the depths of despair and the comfort he gets from his only confidant, the family pet. show less

Olivia Frost lost her husband and young daughter in a terrible accident, many years ago. More recently, she lost her grown-up rock star son, too, when he suddenly stopped talking to her. So now she tries to content herself with her life and her writing, though all her novels seem, inevitably, to feature dead children, and lately she's decided she wants to re-write the endings of them all. Then her son is accused of murdering his girlfriend, and she feels compelled to reach out to him.

It's a show more very multi-layered novel. Mostly, it's a sort of introspective drama about motherhood and grief. But it's also a little bit of a murder mystery, although I imagine anyone reading it only for that part of things is going to be a little disappointed. And it's also a slightly meta-feeling exploration of writing and storytelling. It all works together really well, I think. Not flawlessly, perhaps, but very successfully, nonetheless. I feel like I've been floundering around a bit lately, trying to find the right book to distract myself from a slightly stressed-out mood, to give me something absorbing to think about. Turns out, this was exactly what I needed. Whether or not it's perfect, I liked it a lot, and I'm definitely going to be seeking out more books from this author. show less

This was an odd reading experience. The book was recommended to me by a friend, but it had been standing on my shelf for over a year, I think, before I finally picked it up. And I didn't expect to like it; I thought the premise of the story was odd and it'd turn out to be a sappy, too-pathetic look back of a husband who's grieving for his wife. Well, it's a good thing I'm not always right.

The story goes as follows: after the death of his wife, a linguistics professor believes the only way to show more find out the truth about his wife's death is to teach their dog to talk, because she was with his wife when she died. While doing so, he reminisces about his life with his wife.

Even despite my doubts, I enjoyed this book from the beginning, because it flows. Flowing really is the best expression; it's a pleasure to read, and I felt like I was floating over the pages. The writing felt very soft - this was one of the instances where the writing felt very tangible. (I know this sounds strange, but for me that's the best way to put it.)

And again, despite my doubts there were many passages I underlined and even more where I could've done so. The love Paul Iverson felt for his wife feels very real, as does his grief, and his slow coming to terms with what happened. His project with his dog, bringing with it something really creepy and disturbing, never quite seemed like a fool's errand for me. It was something for him to focus on, although I see why other people - especially scientists - might find it worrying. But it was interesting to read about what he was trying to do (and not).

It's also a very, very female book, at least it felt like that to me. It'd be interesting to see whether other people feel the same, although I can only think of one person who might be interested to read it, and she's a woman. But that kind of thing isn't bad. It had the same feel to it like "The Myth of You & Me", I think; the ease with which I read it definitely reminded me of that book.

So yeah, I really loved it. It's a beautiful story about love, loss and grief. And thus, probably, life. show less