books #59-60

I can't believe I forgot the best book I've read in weeks! Maybe because I've already been recommending it to Shrinky all week...

59. My Sister's Continent by Gina Frangello. It's kind of a reworking of Freud's book about Dora and hysteria, but I've never read that and I still loved it. It's kind of a disturbing story about twin sisters. The book is told from multiple perspectives and through diary entries, flashbacks and dreams as well as straight-forward narration and each perspective provides conflicting information on the family history and people's motivations. While I was reading, I wanted the truth to become clear and all the misunderstandings and conflict between characters (especially the twins) to be resolved. The book is too real for that, though. It's impossible to tell who was telling the truth, who was lying, who believed they were telling the truth when they were actually mistaken and so on. There's an excellent interview with the author here.

60. The Fate of the Artist by Eddie Campbell. I read this last night, so I may as well put it up here. It's a graphic novel, but has some pages of text interspersed with newspaper-style comic strips, photos and other drawings. The story is that the author has gone missing and a detective is interviewing his family, so most of the book is descriptions of his behaviour and character. I enjoyed it, but I think I missed the undercurrent of "deep despair" that the Publisher's Weekly reviewer saw.