Daniel Woodrell's The Maid's Version
I've never read anything by Woodrell before--he's getting much more hype now that Jennifer Lawrence is super famous: she received her first Oscar nom for Winter's Bone, based on the book by Woodrell. Much like Winter's Bone (the movie--like I said, I haven't read the book), this is a powerful, but harrowing, story. And it's surprisingly dense for such a short novel. It's narrated by young Alek, whose grandmother is relating the story of a terrible tragedy where a dance hall blew up, killing many people inside. But it's also the story of their family, and their town, and the family his grandmother worked for, and a few of the people who died that day, especially since the narrative moves back and forth in time, kind of all willy-nilly. I will also say that when the truth behind the disaster finally comes, it's . . . anti-climactic. From a literary perspective, this is strong, but I didn't really ENJOY it. B/B+.
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