Something Missing by Matthew Dicks

My Review and Summary

Take a good hard look through your pantry. Are all your cans of vegetables there? Your cereal boxes? Have you counted them? Is everything where it should be? If it is, then breathe a sigh of relief -- you have not been visited by Martin yet.

Who is Martin? Until recently, he has been a sort of obsessive compulsive thief who lives off of a series of "clients." Calling himself a career criminal, the star of this fun book would rather steal a can of beans than any cash to avoid being noticed. While he isn't an anti-hero, he isn't a parasite either. If you are one of his clients, count yourself lucky -- he'd more than put his life on the line for you.

However, go and recount your groceries to make sure that there isn't Something

Missing.

Inside Out Girl by Tish Cohen

Book Summary

Rachel Berman and Len Bean are two single parents who develop a relationship after meeting by the side of the road one day. Rachel is an overprotective mother of her two teenaged children. Len is navigating the difficult waters of parenting his daughter, Olivia, who has a nonverbal learning disability. The relationship slowly strengthens, despite the deep, dark secrets that surround them.

My Review

It is clear to see why this book was a best seller in the "Globe and Mail" newspaper. Inside Out Girl is an easy page turner. Readers can sympathise with Rachel's attempts to be the perfect parent. Olivia is a real, realistic heroine, and Tish Cohen did a wonderful job of developing her character. While the subplot involving Rachel's daughter was weak, the conclusion is optimistic and well planned.

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

Book Information
Martel, Yann. (2010). Toronto: Knopf Canada.

Review

Readers who enjoyed the spare existentialism of Samuel Becket's Waiting for Godot or the animal symbolism of Yann Martel's Life of Pi may wish to take a look at Beatrice and Virgil.

The novel focuses on two stories. The first story is of Henry, the author who helps a strange taxidermist to write a play. Much of the novel centres on Virgil and Beatrice, a donkey and a howler monkey who have lived through unspeakable tragedies.

As noted in the Toronto Star book review by Geoff Pevere, this novel is broken up and the pieces do not easily work in a whole. However, Yann Martel provides a fresh perspective on survival and on tragedy through two surprisingly understandable animals.

My Notes

I have mixed feelings for this book. The English student part of me loved all the talk about the process of writing. Martel also captured Becket's style. Sometimes, however, I wished that the issues dealt with by Beatrice and Virgil were approached with more realistically and with less existentialism.