A.M. Homes, May We Be Forgiven ** 1/2

When I read The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories several years ago, I said, "A.M. Homes is the author I am most likely to check out further." It took awhile, but I have finally done it.

May We Be Forgiven starts with an apparent mental breakdown and murder, but after the smoke clears, these events cast very little shadow over the rest of the story. The rest of the book is about how our narrator ends up supporting a makeshift family.

There are a lot of excellent moments, especially what the back cover calls "unexpected intimacies," but I didn't feel like it all held together. Harold never becomes distinctive as a character, and the narrative meanders. I think there's a theme to be found in Harold's views on Richard Nixon (as the reflection of his era and the end of the American Dream), but it feels tacked on.

Judith Schalansky, Atlas of Remote Islands *** 1/2

The subtitle of this book is "Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will." It's 100 pages plus a preface, with two facing pages devoted to each remote island. One page has a nice hand-drawn map of the island (to scale); the other tells a story related to the island. The entry for Christmas Island, for example, talks about the time of year when crabs come out to spawn, only to be met by swarms of ants in a battle to the death. Many islands host utopian experiments, others are so small as to be sinking back into the sea. Lots of lonely research stations.

It's a lovely and enjoyable armchair travel book that focuses attention on the far reaches of the globe.

David Byrne, How Music Works ****

The title suggests a book about music theory, but theory is one of the few musical subjects that Byrne doesn't tackle. His main theme is how musical creativity flows from its context, not from "an upwelling of passion or feeling...that simply must find an outlet to be heard." The first chapter talks about how the buildings in which different types of music are typically played influence that music; for example, churches favor harmonically simple pieces while nightclubs like CBGB demand insistent rhythm and volume. He also has a couple of chapters about the influence of recording technologies, which I would have found fascinating if I hadn't already read Perfecting Sound Forever.

The biggest strength of the book is the specificity of Byrne's examples. He illustrates his points with events from his own life and experience, and mentions other artists by name. This approach pays off especially well in the "Business and Finances" chapter, which explains how professional musicians make money. He shows exactly how much money he made on a few of his albums, and from what sources.

The last couple of chapters are less strong because Byrne abandons the detail-oriented nature of the rest of the book. These chapters argue about the importance of making music, and there's a lot more hand waving and questionable research. However, they don't diminish how entertaining and informative the book is.