Entertaining reading, even with the overwhelming cast of characters, until the dog is murdered - that was it! Enough of "The Dog Dies."

Surely, there must be a better way to move a plot, non? ( )

** : Difficile de parcourir l'histoire d'un pays en 300 pages. Restent ces morceaux de vie qui se croisent. On parcourt le livre comme un album photos. C'est tendre, léger et bien écrit.

I would have awarded higher but thought the plotting was eventually just too fragmented and the cast of characters too large. ( )

This quietly spectacular debut novel revolves in concentric circles around two white families, two Black families, and the narrows where they intersect. Each chapter builds on the events and the meetings in both earlier and later times. The Vietnam war has its impact, as does infidelity, rape, domestic violence, and parental neglect, but the overwhelming atmosphere is simultaneously solemn and joyous. Settings are as varied as the Bronx, Portsmouth, NH, Berlin, and Buckner Co, Georgia. Characters range from James Joyce scholars to crabmeat pickers to a Black woman pilot. Each coincidence and unlikely meeting comes as a delightful surprise, and each chapter could stand alone magnificently as a short story on its own. A must read.

Quotes:" I remember how still the room was when he died. How the air just left him and there was no difference between his corpse and the metal bed that held it."

"It's like once he says he's leaving he's got to follow through and they are both stuck on stubborn." ( )

First is a book published last year, Regina Porter’s The Travelers, which takes us from the 1950s through Obama’s first year as president.

Porter travels back and forth in time, and she helpfully lists the Cast of Characters and their relationship to each other at the beginning of the novel. At the beginning of each chapter she shares the year that chapter covers.

James Vincent Jr. is a successful Manhattan lawyer, who has a son by his first wife Sigrid. Sigrid takes their son Rufus and moves to California, and James remarries. He also has a son by his occasional mistress, but this is not acknowledged by anyone.

Rufus marries Claudia, a black woman, whose mother Agnes was traumatized as a young woman, which led her to leave home and marry Eddie, who ends up in Vietnam, serving on a naval ship with his cousins. The men make a decision on that ship that will haunt Eddie.

The character who interested me most was Eloise, who was in love with Agnes and devastated when Agnes rebuffed her. Eloise was obsessed with Bessie Coleman, a black aviatrix, and wanted nothing more than to learn how to fly.

The families’ stories intersect over generations, and it’s fascinating to see how Porter weaves all of her characters stories together and how strong the pull towards home is for all. I highly recommend it. ( )