The Mineral Palace (Nova Audio Books)

Rating:
Summary: What Were Those Critics Thinking?
Review: First, to give Julavits some credit, I must say her book is very compelling. I couldn't put it down, possibly because it was so relentlessly grim that I kept turning pages to find out when the plot would take a more light-hearted turn (it doesn't).
It is hard for me to figure out why this novel was published and further, why it earned the admiration of some critics. Possibly, they admire the author for avoiding "female" sentimentality. In fact, she seems to go out of her way to avoid any hint of human emotion. Every time anything remotely "cute" or vulnerable (eg. kitten) ventures into the setting of her novel, she promptly has it killed and then devoured by rats. Virtually all of her characters are maimed or disfigured in some way, and they all harbor unimaginably dark secrets.
So, how does the author get away with this almost-laughable melodrama? I can only conclude that Julavits is following a different tradition from most modern novels. I suspect she's trying to emulate the 19th century Gothic, in which over-the-top macabre imagery is considered the norm. Her characters are not meant to be realistic, I suppose, they are meant to be symbolic and grotesque.
Knowing these things doesn't make me like the novel any better, though. The classic Gothic novel usually has some redemptive message; this has none. Also, the writing is not to my taste. Julavits' prose style seems awkward and verbose, and I groaned at her far-fetched metaphors (she actually compares a bologna slice to a soul, at one point!)
In short, I'm not sure why some critics liked this book. It held my attention, but left me feeling hollow and let-down at the end.

Rating:
Summary: Evocative, sensual, enigmatic, eponymous novel
Review: I don't know where to start! This novel is a pager turner of an incredible story with an abyss of emotional depth that will leave the reader spent, shaken out of his or her wooden workaday existence. The descriptions of the dust-bowl and the Depression (the period following the stock market crash of 1929) made me weep more than once. The cast of characters calls to mind Dickens, and the presence of artificial limbs is outright Melvillian.

I just bought three of these to give out as birthday presents this year. This is definitely a heartbreaking work of incredible genius.

Rating:
Summary: Bleak, But Beautifully Written First Novel
Review: Nothing can thrive in Pueblo, Colorado, the town in which Bena and her family move when her physician husband's past deprives him of employment in more hospitable towns. New-born kittens are, upon closer inspection, writhing with maggots, mangy dogs have their backs broken by defiant vagrants who refuse to share their meals, and buffalos inexplicably opt for mass suicide. The human inhabitants of Pueblo do not escape misery -- women are barren, except for a prostitute addicted to laudanum, Bena's infant fails to thrive despite her husband's insistence that the child is healthy, and Bena's marriage flounders.

The author skillfully evokes the despair and decay of a town that is blanketed with dust and populated with characters who are sad and pathetic. This is a difficult book to read but, like a traffic accident, it is impossible to look away and the images remain with the reader long after the story concludes.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing First Novel
Review: This book passed my test for a good novel -- I didn't want it to end! It is one of those rare novels that is intelligent and well-written (the prose is often lyrical), yet it still manages to be an enjoyable read.

The protagonist Bena is complex. She's not one of the cliched 'plucky heroines' that's so common in fiction nowadays. The reader can feel what it's like to be Bena as she tries to adapt to her new life in Pueblo, Colorado. Pueblo in 1934 is an unrelenting place, full of dust storms, prostitution and corruption. In this harsh environment, Bena must protect her baby son and try to survive without any help or understanding from her husband or the community.

There are a few parts of this novel that don't rise to the level of serious literary fiction, mainly the mini-drama surrounding the prostitute Maude. But taken as a whole, the novel is very successful. The ending of the book is heart-breaking, disturbing and unforgettable. It lingers in my mind even now.