Rating: 
Summary: This Electricity Is Staticly Charged
Review: One should never read a book expecting to get zapped by lightning. But my expectations were high--I had read Nordan's novel Wolf Whistle and thoroughly enjoyed it. But in this novel, lightning only struck from a distance, and then the thunder rolled away and away.Set in a Mississippi town in the 70's, this "bildungsroman" of a young boy trying to mature never really matures as a narrative; Nordan doesn't develop it. Instead, he is content to have his protagonist watch others debauch themselves around him. Only later in the novel, when the 12-year-old boy goes to paton twirling camp in the summer and is eventually lured into a rape situation by his teacher, does the reader finally get some intriguing development. Nordan writes well, but his plot meanders. He relies on his descriptions of lightning storms and wayward behavior of his mother and uncle (who have a clandestine romance) to carry the momentum of the story. But he never digs into the character's minds, and this leaves me with only a damp postcard of meaning and not much else.
Rating: 
Summary: A Lightning Charged Coming of Age Story
Review: Our erstwhile narrator, Leroy Dearman, is twelve years old and lives on a llama farm in Mississippi with this tee totaling parents and younger sisters. The story opens with Leroy sneaking into the attic to get a gander of his Uncle Harris's nudie mags. When he sees a picture of a woman without clothes, he believes she'd been tricked by the photographer into getting dressed in clothes way to small for her and then having her picture taken without her knowledge.
Leroy and his family lead a pretty ordinary llama farming life, until Uncle Harris shows up in his sportscar. Well, there was that one incident where his grandfather passed away in the attic. Leroy tried CPR and brought the old man back to life. At least he thought he had as he left the attic. However the old geezer was shortly discovered deader than a doornail. Anyway the attic was empty now, so when Harris's wife kicked him out, it was the perfect place for him.
Uncle Harris brings glamour and excitement into Leroy's life, into everybody's life. Every night he has a little party with what he calls grog rations (a different alcoholic drink every day). Swami Don (Leroy's father) does not partake, but his wife does. Everybody, except maybe Swami Don, is captivated by this freeloader.
Leroy both loves and hates his parents, like a typical twelve year old. He adores his mother when they listen to the song of the llamas at sunrise together, but hates her when he sees her kissing Uncle Harris behind his father's back. Swami Don has a bad arm and behaves like he's living a hundred years in the past, however he's a wonderful father, mostly.
Then there are the new people, a couple that has moved in down the way. They like to play dress up, talk in funny accents and they befriend Leroy when he needs one. They irritate the heck out of Swami Don, as they seem to see through a marriage and a family that is falling apart.
And lastly there is that illusive character in the story, the lightning. Somehow, in a totally believable way, it's responsible for healing wounds, righting wrongs, and putting the family back together again in this cracking good story full of laughs and tears, wit and charm and characters that were dancing around in my brain long after I finished the book.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting and beautiful
Review: The plot of this book is a minimalist coming-of-age story. The novel's great strength lies in the strength of the writing: Nordan can make a trip to the store sound Homeric. The individual episodes vary in quality, but at Nordan's finest he writes as movingly as anyone alive.
Rating: 
Summary: A narrative with a strong feminine touch
Review: This book is very good for the female readers. The writing is very extensively pulled like a (sour)dough purposedly put in a llama ranch to grow instead of being put in an oven to be baked crackingly crispy. The readers in other gender might find it very difficult to be focused, if it is not enforced by their English professor to finish it patiently to get a grade. Living and growing up in the South like Leroy's boring teenage is an experience I could skip with no big deal. A very pretentious writing style like old Faulkner at the same age as the writer himself
Rating:
Summary: Almost wonderful
Review: This novel starts and ends well, but it's tedious in the middle. Somewhat plotless and episodic; the characters are eccentric enough, though, to make it interesting.
Rating:
Summary: I'm still laughing
Review: This was the first Lewis Nordan novel I read, and it was the perfect way to start. This book is funny--very, very funny. If you are a fan of magic realism--Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez--you have to give this novel a try; it is magic realism with a southern twist. Lightning continues to strike the house, becoming a living, breathing character in the novel. Magazines glow. A girl with fins twirls a baton with amazing talent. About half way through this book, you will be back online looking for other Lewis Nordan novels, so you won't have to wait a second between books.
Rating:
Summary: I'm still laughing
Review: This was the first Lewis Nordan novel I read, and it was the perfect way to start. This book is funny--very, very funny. If you are a fan of magic realism--Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez--you have to give this novel a try; it is magic realism with a southern twist. Lightning continues to strike the house, becoming a living, breathing character in the novel. Magazines glow. A girl with fins twirls a baton with amazing talent. About half way through this book, you will be back online looking for other Lewis Nordan novels, so you won't have to wait a second between books.
| 
