Ava

Rating:
Summary: Unlike anything else...
Review: All you have to do to see how different this novel is from others you have read is open it up and look at the prose. It's written in short poetic lines, separate little pieces. As I began reading, I wondered if I was missing out because I didn't understand everything... Then I gave in and just continued on--much to my delight. The story of Ava unravels itself subtly and carefully, like unrolling a newly discovered scroll written on dangerously fragile parchment. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Do yourself a favor and buy it. Sit somewhere peaceful and let yourself be carried away.

Rating:
Summary: Deeply and mysteriously resonant
Review: At first, this novel seems incomprehensible and pointless, nothing more than a collection of random phrases and information, but after a while the phrases find echoes, the information finds order, and the ultimate effect is haunting and devastating. (Indeed, I soon found myself incapable of reading more than 20 pages or so at a time because it was emotionally overwhelming, though I've yet to figure out the exact source of this power.)

Maso has said elsewhere that this book is, in some ways, related to Virginia Woolf's "The Waves", and I would agree, though in many ways I think Maso's is a more compelling and perhaps even richer book than Woolf's. "Ava" bears a certain relationship to "Mrs. Dalloway" and "To the Lighthouse" as well, for Maso, like Woolf, has subsumed her narrative within the perspective of her protagonist. The story lies between the lines.

This book can't be read impatiently, nor can it be skimmed or speed-read or soundbyted, for its effect relies upon accumulation: the accumulation of ideas, events, and even the sound of the words. It requires an active reader, one willing to put forth effort of both thought and feeling. The effort is rewarded a thousandfold.

Rating:
Summary: Unlike anything else!
Review: AVA has been one of those books that I return to on a regular basis. Each time I pick it up, I remember the first time I moved through it, sometimes crying, often laughing , but most often marvelling at its beauty. Ava Klein walks us through the fragmented recollections of her life -- things she tasted, lovers she's known, places she's visited and people who have left an impact on her. Maso writes in snippets of thought,her text reminding me of the way the human mind works (our thoughts rarely take a linear path, most often they're kind of all over, spinning around). I urge you to pick up this book and just flow through it, enjoying, if nothing else, the beauty and immediacy of the words. AVA is brilliant and wonderful; it is a work you will come back to often just so you can remember what a gift it is.

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Experiment, but...
Review: Carole Maso's Ava is an attempt to build a symphony out of words instead of musical notes.

Like a symphony, it is comprised of discrete themes, many repeated over and over again, sometimes with slight variations of rhythm, instrumentation, and harmony. Like a symphony, it has specific sections. However, unlike a symphony, Ava does not resolve in a meaningful manner. Perhaps Maso is trying to make the point that death does not resolve in any key.

Maso takes the fascinating subject of what a sick woman thinks during what the narrator, Ava Klein, expects might be one of her last days to live. She is only 39 and she is dying in a New York City hospital on August 15, 1990. As she floats through the day, few things impede her thoughts. Nurses asking her to roll over, talking about going to the park, and discussing the invasion of Kuwait are some of the few notes of the outside world that bleed into her consciousness. Some number of her ex-husbands and lovers are (or may be) in the room with her, but a description of her environment is sketchy. Her thoughts vary from the mundane ("The child draws the letter A"), to ruminations on music, Europe, and literature ("Just once I'd like to save Virginia Woolf from drowning"), to the philosophical ("We live once. And rather badly"), and to thoughts of the men in her life ("I would have married you, after just one night. Had I not already been married at the time").

But the problem with Ava is that her thoughts are so scattered that they fail to come together in a cohesive way. Ava has clearly had an interesting life, and while she is in no hurry to die she is also unwilling to continue to endure treatments for the sake of having treatments since her condition is judged to be hopeless. And it is difficult to ascertain what really happened in her life, what happened in fiction she read, and what she wished had happened in her life.

Rating:
Summary: Pointlessly beautiful language
Review: Readers searching for alternatives to mainstream fiction seem willing to accept any crumbs; AVA is a case in point. Maso's language is, indeed, innovative and often quite beautiful. As is often the case with "innovative" fiction, however, it goes nowhere. AVA is highly self-indulgent--the writer is everywhere on the page--and this supposed meditation on death and dying seems like little more that the author's excuse to brag about her knowledge of art and literature and drop a few names.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliance in the space.
Review: This book is amazing. I have never loved such a book that keeps me going back to it each year.

Rating:
Summary: Do yourself the favor of buying this
Review: This is perhaps one of my very favorite books. It is simply a gift to the literary world. Maso uses language like silk and the text shines. The "spaces" in consciousness create a stronger reaction than any amount of description and tight prose. Her words, thoughts, and narration is haunting and stirs the deepest parts of a readers understanding and consciousness. I feel I know Ava better than any other character in any other text. This is a gem. I completely agree with the former reviewer's comparison to fine wine. A great read.

Rating:
Summary: Do yourself the favor of buying this
Review: This is perhaps one of my very favorite books. It is simply a gift to the literary world. Maso uses language like silk and the text shines. The "spaces" in consciousness create a stronger reaction than any amount of description and tight prose. Her words, thoughts, and narration is haunting and stirs the deepest parts of a readers understanding and consciousness. I feel I know Ava better than any other character in any other text. This is a gem. I completely agree with the former reviewer's comparison to fine wine. A great read.

Rating:
Summary: Reading Ava is like drinking fine wine
Review: Three years ago while working in a bookstore I noticed a hardcover novel by an author I had never encountered. Picking up the book I was intrigued by a simple white cover with a black and white photograph. I opened the cover to see lines of what seemed to be poetry running down every page, like one long stream of consciousness poem. I decided to read Ava at first because I enjoy poetry, but second because the plot seemed interesting. It is simply put, the thoughts and memories of a dying woman whose life experiences have given her a wealth of sensual and deep images that draw the reader into her life. What I discovered while reading this book was that reading could be like sipping a rare and special vintage of the finest wine. As I got deeper into the book I discovered lines from poets I thought only I loved, and I discovered a woman facing her death with a quiet dignity and gratitude for life's beauty and pain. At the end of each section of the book (it is not broken down into chapters, but time segments; morning, noon,etc.) I had to stop and absorb all the images brought to mind. I felt drunk in a pleasant way; i.e. no hangover. After I had finished the book, I found myself flipping through it's pages, looking for one line or another, trying to recapture the image I couldn't forget. It never failed to recur with the rereading of a particular phrase, or number of phrases, and even today three years later it is a book I pick up once in a while to sip at. I loan books out to friends regularly and usually don't worry about their return, but Ava is one book that I tell people about, but never even offer to loan out. I just can't take the risk that this special gift might disappear from my world. In the last year I have read another Maso title and found her writing style had the same inebriating effect even though the format was the more traditional prose of most novels. I will always remember Ava as being my personal introduction to the world of a talented and unique author whose books will all be treasured in my library for many years to come.