G W Latimer

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I requested this book, but I'm sure it wasn't what I got. There's not much of a story, it's more a quiet series of observations would be the best way I could explain it. If you've read Nicholson Baker, you'll have an idea of what I mean.

It starts out a bit slow....the first 20 pages had me worried about slogging through the rest of the fairly short book. Fortunately, it settles into a better pocket after that and continues up until nearly the end when I felt it lost its thread again. It's kind of a book about nothing, but it's not Seinfeld. You'll find some smile-inducing passages, but not laugh-out-loud moments. It's just a comfortable read and Latimer is a decent weaver of tales.… (mais)

I'll admit it right up front: "Walking Through Brambles" is one of the strangest modern novels that I've ever read, the kind of book that I'm still a little surprised that I finished. I struggled with the first half of the book, but I kept pushing through my doubts, and I'm happy that I did because, in the end, "Brambles" is really something.

G.W. Latimer tells the story of Adam Moore, a librarian, a loner, and a thinker, who lives in Valencia, a coastal town in Oregon. There, Moore works as the little town's only librarian, a job that seems to demand very little of him other than being there. That's perfect for a man like Adam Moore who seems to live more of his life inside his head than in his physical surroundings In fact, the man feels a closer kinship to his cat (Yellow Cat) and the ghost of the painter who inhabited his home before he arrived than to anyone else in the world.

"Brambles" explores the evolution of Adam Moore as he gets acquainted with his new hometown and the rhythms of life there. But as it turns out, the man seems to be learning as much about himself and humankind as he learns about Valencia - and he shares it all in detail with the reader.

Latimer is a good writer, and he has the ability to paint little pictures that stick with the reader. For instance there's a brief scene during which Moore has taken shelter under a bridge during a brief rain shower. There he encounters a bunch of grackles who have the same idea: "They bullied me from their perch as I backed up on the berm and sat down, still aware of them turning around to heckle me. I tossed a few stones at them but they just looked at each other and squawked. They liked the rain less than I did and continued to act as if a stranger had just walked into their living room." I love that description.

Bottom Line: "Walking Through Brambles" is not going to appeal to everyone - few books would- but if you give this one the chance to surprise you, it might just do that.… (mais)