Love Medicine - Louise Erdich and Death in Summer - Willam Trevor

Well, I've read two books since writing last. Both very different but really good reads. I don't know what it is at the moment with my book choice but I'm pretty much loving everything that I manage to get my hands on at the moment. (Having said that, I meandering my way begrudgingly through "Psychological Testing and Assessment" at the moment for uni so it's not all good).

It might be that my mother has recently leant me a bag of books of those she's recently read. Isn't that just the best idea? A book bag. Ask me to define manna from heaven- a book bag. Anyway, so far all inside that I've read have been fantastic.

Death in Summer by William Trevor comes from a good friend of mine Elisabeth whose favourite authors are Trevor and Alice Munro. I'm due to receive some Munro today on loan which I'm terribly excited about. (See above reference to "Psychological Testing and Assessment).

Love Medicine was rich and polemic. I swam through it. I was going to say race but that was accurate enough. You can't race because it's just so layered and textured. I'm a fast reader (I think I've said this) and am prone to 'skim'. But again, with this book, I had no inclination to. Erdich manages to evoke these individual and unique characters that form a backdrop scenery to the novel. Her use of voice is remarkable and on top of all of this, the story is multi layered and compelling. All of this and it was her first novel at 29!! Can you believe it? I'd not read her before although "Tracks" was on a reading list I had at uni. I'm interested to read another book by her so if you have any recommendations, let me know.

Death in Summer by William Trevor was quite different. His writing is considered and sparse but beautiful. As I told my friend Elisabeth while I enjoyed it and finished it in about 3 hours, I did find it somewhat bleak. I am keen to read another of his to see if this is his style or if just the particular novel. The characters were more subtle than Erdrich but deft. I enjoyed the descpriptions of and references to gardening thoughout the novel.