BlogHer Book Club: The Book of Jonas

The Book of Jonas, a first novel by Stephen Dau interweaves the stories of Jonas, a U.S. Soldier, and His Mother, like a finely woven tapestry. Albeit there are some holes, maybe left by the craftsman intentionally, or just the work of an inexperienced artisan.

Dau's style, short succinct chapters, made The Book of Jonas easy to read, but sometimes hard to follow. I read most of this novel in one two hour block of time, finishing the last 50 or so pages over the next two days. This enabled me to follow the story more easily, however if I was reading The Book of Jonas over many, many, days, I feel I would have been confused easily.

I had a deep desire to come to the end of this book. I just wanted to know that Jonas would be okay. I hoped that all of the foreshadowing was false and that the end would turn in a different direction. The book jacket suggests a surprise ending, but if you follow along, there is no surprise. Each chapter, each sentence, each word leads you to the obvious.

The Book of Jonas was a good read, but it left me wanting more. I loved how one action, like the flap of the wings of a butterfly, could change the lives of so many. I love that theory, but the way in which these stories were told made me feel like something was missing. It may be the writers succinct style, or my recent fondness for overly verbose prose, but I was left missing, wanting, longing.

The central theme of loss may have something to do with my desire to have more. When we suffer great loss, or those around us do, I think it is only natural to want more information, we (Okay, maybe I) want to understand, to see if there is anything we can do to help.

Read a review, join a discussion at Blog Her.com:

http://www.blogher.com/bookclub/now-reading-book-jonas

This has been a paid review for BlogHer, the opinions however are mine, mine, mine.