Miki Reviews Chris Pavone's, The Accident

cover photo courtesy of tatteredcover.com

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The Accident by Chris Pavone

My first experience with Chris Pavone's writing was with the audio version of his novel, The Expats.  The book was a fun and exciting CIA thriller with a kick ass woman as the main character.  I can't tell you how many turns I missed or how many phone calls I ignored as I got stuck in the world Pavone created.

When I found out that Pavone had another CIA novel hitting bookstores, I just could not wait to get my hands on a copy.  Luckily for me, when The Accident reached my reading pile, I was not disappointed.  Furthermore, when I realized that the book was a CIA thriller in the publishing world, I nearly leaped out of my skin and into the pages of the book.

As a self-proclaimed book nerd (others will also vouch for me too), books about the book world really get me going. This one, however, may be one of the best I have ever read.  I work for a publishing company, and this book made me feel less like a nerd and way more like that kick ass female in The Expats.  

The subject matter is not the only gold star awarded to this novel.  The writing is smart, the plot is thick, and the word thriller does not do the book justice.  I hope Pavone writes a novel every summer, because this is what I call pleasure reading.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

Pete has another great book review

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (a novel by Haruki Murakami)

I confess I wasn't able to finish Murakami's prior novel '1Q84,' dropping off somewhere beyond the halfway point. But that was one giant book, and I am happy to report that the only thing giant about his latest novel 'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage' is the title, which is explained in full early on in the story. In contrast to '1Q84,' Murakami's new novel is much shorter in length (Thank God), and much simpler in plot. I would also add that it's one of the most joyful reading experiences I've had in quite some time. Murakami has already won himself quite a few awards, but I think this novel pushes him ever closer to Nobel territory. 

As I've written, the plot is simple. Five high school friends (three boys, two girls) form an exclusive, intimate friendship, though without sexual attraction (or so the narrator perceives). The group is inseparable until Colorless Tsukuru leaves town to attend a university in Tokyo where he studies the building of train stations. Everything is okay during his visits home at first, but come spring a trip home results in the altering of his life forever. Tsukuru returns to his home town and finds that the other four will not talk to him, will not see him, and have entirely banished him for apparently no reason. He falls into a horrible depression, loses weight, and begs for his heart to just stop beating. But it doesn't.

Flash forward 16 years later and Tsukuru is building train stations and has a new person in his life. But his girlfriend, Sara, notices that his banishment from the group all those years ago is still nagging at his present, holding him back somehow. Sara pushes him to find each member of his former group to pinpoint just what the hell happened. This is the story of 'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage,' a pilgrimage more mental than physical, and yet still takes him from Tokyo all the way to Finland of all places. As Tsukuru finds out, the truth can hurt, badly, but as the saying goes, it'll also set you free.