Jennifer DuBois (1) (1983–)

Lily Hayes imagines her semester abroad in Buenos Aires will keep her constantly surrounded by exotic language, food, men and stories. Instead, she finds herself living with a distrusting local family and boring American roommate. Eyes focus on Lily when her roommate Katy is found brutally murdered early into their stay, with tell-tale e-mails, witnesses, and DNA all building a seemingly open and shut case.

Though the story seems to share roots with the Amanda Knox case, Lily’s tale show more branches off in several unexpected directions. Cartwheel is much more than an echo of tales already told. duBois uses each of her characters, particularly Lily's father Andrew, to raise questions about parenthood, marriage, culture and justice in honest, insightful prose.

“She did not know to regard the absence of comfort with fear - partly because she wasn't particularly materialistic or entitled, but partly because she did not believe, not really, that such a state could ever truly be permanent. And that was entitled, Andrew saw now - that expectation of the universe's benignity.”

In this follow up to her widely hailed debut novel, Jennifer duBois guides readers along the line between belief and doubt, showing that it often blurs far beyond what we’re capable of seeing ourselves.

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When I received this book and I read the synopsis I could not for the life of me remember why I decided to review it. It was so very different from what I usually read. As I started to read I was almost immediately enthralled and suddenly very happy I had chosen to read the book. Not that it is a happy book, not by any means, but Ms. duBois has a writing style that just pulls you in and almost refuses to let you out.

Irina Ellison grows up in the shadow of a father dying by inches from show more Huntingdon's disease. She learns at a very early age that she has inherited the gene for the disease and lives her life with the foreknowledge of her death. She foregoes attachments both with friends and lovers knowing how her life with play out.

After her father dies she finds a letter he wrote to Chess World Champion Aleksandr Bezetov asking a question that was never answered. On a whim Irina travels to Russia to get the answer her father never received. Aleksandr is running a hopeless campaign for president against Putin at the time of her arrival and living under a cloud of death himself.

Will she find her answer? Read the book. You won't be disappointed. It's like no other book I have ever read. Not easy, not simple, and nothing is clear cut, but the writing - the writing is just plain magical. Even when dealing with the worst that life has to offer. Irina is cranky, miserable and very hard to like and to be honest I didn't like her at all. It's rare for me to enjoy a book when I can't like the main character but I truly found it hard to put this one down. Aleksandr was no peach either. An arrogant, unpleasant teenager who didn't improve with age. And yet, the prose sings. It is one of those books that I know will be even better on a second read. show less

An interesting fictionalization of the Amanda Knox trial. Told in multiple POV format, I think I liked the cop's best. Lily was a hard person to get a handle on. Sebastian was worse. Well written with excellent vocabulary - not written down to grade 4. Lots of good insight into life, beauty and guilt. Some quotes I highlighted in my library ebook copy -

"There was a particular kind of uneasiness that came from recognizing the profundity of your own uselessness. It was all so morally show more exhausting. Lily worried about it, and then forgot to worry about it, and then worried about the fact that she’d forgotten. She recognized this as perhaps the second stage of culture shock, after elation."

"but she had somehow never learned that the universe needed no excuse to fuck with you, no excuse at all, so you sure as hell better not give it one."

"When you’re young you think it’s the clarity that’s intoxicating; later you realize you were only ever drunk on your own vision."

"Sometimes when she thought about all the work she’d done in her life to make sure the men she knew were having a comfortable enough time—the vast amounts of effort she’d spent on this!"—

"This was her little impulsive adventure, after all, and she knew she had to make it feel as though they were having joyful and terrifically arbitrary fun. In the modern world, this was usually the girl’s job. She’d seen enough movies to know."

"A situation like theirs arose not because a man liked too many women, but because he hated too many." show less

This is my second book by Ms. duBois and while I must admit that I preferred her first, A Partial History of Lost Causes, I did find myself lost within the pages of Cartwheel. My main complaint and I'll get it out first is that the book opens with a statement that while it may mimic the Amanda Knox case (google it if you are so far out of touch/and or don't see or hear news you don't know who she is) it is a completely a work of fiction. Yes, it is a work of fiction but I could not separate show more Amanda Knox from Lily Hayes and that was problematic. And I didn't even see all that much coverage of the whole Italian story - only what showed up on network news.

That being written I do love Ms. duBois's way with a character. In this novel she uses mainly four; Lily, Lily's father, Lily's boyfriend and the prosecutor who will try her. The story it told in alternating chapters, in the different voices and covers the period before young Katy was murdered, a bit of the trial and a bit of time afterward. It is a book of thoughts, feelings and nuance. It is not a book of action so if you are looking for a page turning murder mystery this is not the book for you. This is book that makes you think. With each successive chapter you change your mind about Lily. She's guilty, she's not guilty. She's just a child. She's a sociopath. But who really IS Lily Hays? That is up to each and every reader to decide. There are no easy answers in this book just as there are not easy answers in life.

It is a book I am very glad I read despite the disingenuous opening about Amanda Knox. It is of course, about that case. This book did not evolve in a vacuum but I am glad it did because it has caused me to truly THINK. I will keep it and read it again. It's one of those books that I think will be a completely different book a year from now - even though the words are exactly the same. show less