Don you headphones and keep an Excel spreadsheet a click away, it’s time for another edition of the Thursday afternoon workday distraction that is Books in 140 Seconds. Last week Erin and I talked about Sloane Crosley’s entertaining essay collection How Did You Get This Number, and this week we’re switching gears from a lighthearted romp through through one woman’s twenties to a darker exploration of the tortured teen years with Cordelia Strube’s Lemon.
In case you’re reading along (which you most definitely should), run to your local bookstore or library and lay your hands on Sarah Selecky’s short story collection This Cake Is For the Party, which we’ll serve up next time on Thurs. Aug 26th.
Great summary Jen and Erin! I loved this book. I SO wanted Cordelia to read at the YA stage at Eden Mills, but ultimately the book is not YA, even though I think, as you do, that teenagers should read it. Cordelia is reading on the main stage, so people should come and listen on Sept. 19th! Shameless EMWF promotion! If you can’t wait until then come to the media launch at The Bookshelf next Weds. (Aug 18th). She’s reading there too.
This books sounds good! I’m glad you were impressed with the characterization, which sounds strong, something that’s as important to me as good writing.
PS. I love the EMWF!!
As fabulous as LEMON is on the page, Cordelia Strube delivers her work with powerful authority in a live reading. She’s has finely honed skills as a playwright and her dialogue speaks volumes. She was great at the Leacock Summer Festival in July in Orillia where she read on a triple bill with Mark Kingwell and Russell Smith. Ask her about being nominated with the likes of Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood and Anne Michaels for the 2010 Trillium Book Award. A very accomplished novelist getting some well-earned recognition. Hope to see you at Eden Mills.
[...] Lemon by Cordelia Strube (Coach House Books, 2009) This is the smartest, most honest, if most troubling, portrait of being a teen in the new millennium I’ve ever come across (or am likely to). In Lemon, Strube has created a savvy, brave heroine to remember and her scathing social criticism and unrelenting honesty are necessary and eye-opening. [...]