Vestal McIntyre

Lake Overturn by Vestal McIntyre is one of the best books I have read in a very long while. It is a rare author who can introduce us to a cast of enchanting characters, while creating an intriguing story has well. McIntyre has succeeded on both counts.

Set in a typical Small Town, USA (Eula, Idaho), the reader is introduced to myriad personalities, each of whom the author gently breaths life into until you feel like you've known them your whole life. The story itself evokes themes of striving show more for excellence, as well as being mired in mediocrity. There are triumphs and failures. There are half truths and overwhelming dishonesty. We are brought along for the incredible ride as the characters search for their own personal joy.

McIntyre's writing style is evocative of Jeffrey Eugenides and Julia Glass. Hopefully he will be lauded as such or, at the very least, continue writing so we can enjoy his artistry. show less

I won an electronic copy of this story in a DailyLit giveaway. I've never read anything by the author before (nor have I read any Kindle Singles before, for that matter). Dinah, a talented ballet dancer from Ohio, is shipped to New York City for the summer to live with her uncle and his partner and attend ballet camp. The camp itself is a bit of a wash, but she learns a great deal about herself and the world in her sojourn to the big city.

There are plenty of things to like about this story. show more The setting is lovely and engagingly drawn; Dinah is relatively likable (for a teenager); while it's arguable that relatively little really happens, there's obviously a lot going on in Dinah's head as she figures things out about herself and her world. We get a great picture of the fashion designer from very few encounters with her.

However, a lot of the characters are very shallow -- stereotypes we barely skim the surface of. We're behind Dinah's eyes, and she has the empathy of a young teenager among strangers, which is to say she doesn't seem to have very much of it. Only Luis really pushes beyond being stereotyped, and then only in the very last part of the story. I'm not sure how much of this is supposed to be Dinah's insular Midwestern view and how much is unintentional, but I found her lack of connection -- her lack of really trying for connection, in almost every case -- pulled me out of the story.

It's not a bad read, all in all; I look forward to seeing where the author goes. Perhaps this one just wasn't for me, or I read it at the wrong time. show less

Literary fiction takes many forms. Sometimes it takes the shape of social satire placed within a simple narrative, other times it takes the form of an author, self-aware of the words he or she places on the page, and even still, other times it takes the form of a complexly interwoven plot. Partly masterful and partly mundane, Vestal McIntyre's Lake Overturn follows the characters of a small town of Eula in rural Idaho. Even though the setting and characters in this book strikingly resemble show more Napoleon Dynamite, this book spends no time seeking to be a comedy. The foundational plot line upon which the narrative is built centers upon the frightening phenomenon occurring at Lake Nyos in Cameroon. At the lake, gas was released from the depths of the lake and suffocated every living animal around the lake. In the novel, two junior high boys attempt to study what would happen if the lake overturn phenomenon occurred in their small town.

Titled lake overturn, this phenomenon happens when deep lakes build up extremely concentrated levels of carbon dioxide. When the pressure becomes too much for the lake's surface to bear, carbon dioxide bubbles from the depths of the lake similarly to a shaken soda can. Correspondingly, McIntyre's novel builds through a complex narrative of multiple main characters before the pressure in each character’s life releases as the novel opens up toward its end. In different ways, each character builds through depth and quality until their inner demons expose themselves in fantastic fashion. One character struggles with his sexuality, one seeks to find redemption from her addictive tendencies, and another despairingly searches for biblical answers to her ever-present loneliness.

The masterful portions of the book follow from these complex characters. McIntyre flawlessly switches between characters as they enter the story. Multiple times, one character runs into another in a paragraph and the next paragraph picks up on the new character's narrative. In writing this way, the author creates a complex web of relationships that truly place the focus on a small town community.

However, McIntyre's focus on narrative diminishes his artistic observation. Throughout my reading of this book, I never paused on a paragraph reflecting on a powerful observation or a striking metaphor. In Lake Overturn, McIntyre writes a story with no flashy frills or philosophical underpinnings. Nevertheless, he writes a compelling story, one I would recommend for its unique characters.

Originally posted at http://wherepenmeetspaper.blogspot.com/ show less

This is one book that is sorely missing from many best of 2009 lists. Personally, I enjoyed this one more than the other books I read this year that found themselves on those lists.

Great characters with wonderful development abound. McIntyre handles his young characters with an expertise often lacking in fiction concerning adolescents. This novel has an interesting plot which kept my attention throughout, even when the issues were juvenile.

A fabulous read. I definitely look forward to show more McIntyre's next novel. show less