William Loizeaux

Somewhere Kafka is rolling over in his grave. This is the tale of a cockroach who inexplicably turns into a roach-sized boy. Potentially interesting premise, but here's the catch: all of the cockroaches in this story are already basically humans in cockroach bodies. They have deep feelings and feel things deeply (I believe it's called anthropomorphizing).

So when the family whose house the cockroaches inhabit decides they don't want to live with cockroaches anymore (justifiably, as the bugs make the kid sick and ROACHES ARE GROSS) the roach-turned-boy, our titular Clarence, stands up for his family and tries to convince the humans not to wipe out an entire colony of living, loving, sweet-tempered creatures. Forgive me if I don't weep at the possibility of cockroach murder.

This book is one of two things: a ridiculously far-fetched parable about how we should all just get along, or the disguised manifesto of a vegan and/or Buddhist who believes no living thing should ever be intentionally killed.

There may very well be plenty of kids who will enjoy this, but I found it irritating, predictable, and didactic.… (meer)

I'd like to thank Syracuse University Press for the ARC via NetGalley.

To what extent can we gather our lives' strings into our own hands and pave our own way to happiness? How do we cope with the countless what ifs that crop up with every step we take? Is absence magnetic?

This is a great read detailing the consequences of a couple's life-changing decision to sever their ties with everything they'd been used to and set out into the unknown. It's richly descriptive, warm, and moving; a study in humanity that maps out the journey of the characters with all the highs and lows on their way. The excitement of an enterprise offering a brand new start, the idyll of family coziness away from the pitfalls (and perks) of urban existence until something happens that calls into question that one decision made years ago...

The book's greatest strength lies in the emotional landscapes and depths explored. The choice of narrative point of view is rather sly - as a narrator, Mark allows us a solid glimpse into the psychology of the other characters, even though it's through his perspective - we get so much material on them, that it's easy to fail to appreciate Mark as a character, because he somehow fades into the background next to headstrong Fran and the interest that the reader takes in Nat, as a new player on the stage.

As to the writing itself, it seems neat, controlled, and practiced, so I could detect the craft of a professional writer without any background reading.
The passages that gently encourage an analogy between the litany of things that need fixing in the inn and the way his inner world starts to crumble.

All in all, a wondrously evocative novel that may leave the impression little is going on at first, until you delve beneath the surface.… (meer)

This book was good but sad. I tried it as I am from NY. The Inn seemed like it should have been set in Alaska -- there is just no wilderness anymore in NY. You can get away from it all by staying in an inn or camping, but it is not as wild as the book portrays. I do think that in an usual ice storm you can get stranded and many have -- they are just not events that occur often. I would not want to be an innkeeper, but I thought this book might want to delve into this a bit more. I felt like I did not know the characters well. It was a short book. I am hesitant to say this should be longer -- it just needed more detail so that I would connect to characters.… (meer)

Mark and Fran Finley are school teachers in suburban New Jersey. They are burned out on their jobs and on their attempt to have a baby. Fran decides that they need a change of scenery and applies for a job as inn keepers at the Tumble in the Adirondack Mountains, even though neither of them have experience as innkeepers. This is a story of learning and growth. They make lots of mistakes but along the way, they make a lot of friends and learn to do things right. They have a baby and they experience the highs and lows of life. The book made me laugh out loud and it made me cry. I thought that the author did a fantastic job in making his characters realistic and I thought that the story was a wonderful story of the growth of life and love.… (meer)