[LT1]∎ Download Gratis Improvement A Novel Joan Silber 9781619029606 Books

Improvement A Novel Joan Silber 9781619029606 Books

Download As PDF : Improvement A Novel Joan Silber 9781619029606 Books

Improvement A Novel Joan Silber 9781619029606 Books

IMPROVEMENT is the first novel of Joan Silbur’s that I have read, and it will not be the last. She has taken three stories and seamlessly woven them together in a way that is so natural and yet so brilliant. Reading this book was an absolute pleasure for my mind. The cause and effect that one character has on another makes you think about the present and how what we do in our daily lives can make an imprint on another person, someone whom we might know, or who might be a stranger.

Find out what Turkish rugs, Rikers Island, and cigarettes could possibly have in common, or rather how they commingle in this novel.

There is a unique language to IMPROVEMENT that flows with such freshness. After each sentence, you eagerly await the next. From Turkey to New York, connections are made, wavering decisions dangle, and the intent to improve abounds.

I count this book as one of my favorites of the year.


Tags : Improvement: A Novel [Joan Silber] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>NATIONAL BESTSELLER<BR><BR>WINNER OF THE 2018 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION <BR><BR> WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION <BR><BR> AUTHOR IS THE WINNER OF THE 2018 PEN/MALAMUD AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE SHORT STORY <BR><BR> Named 1 of 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2017 by The Washington Post</i> Named 1 of 10 Top Fiction Titles of 2017 by the Wall Street Journal</i> A Newsday</i> Best Book of 2017 A Kirkus</i> Best Book of 2017 A New York Times Book Review</i> Editor's Choice</b> One of our most gifted writers of fiction returns with a bold and piercing novel about a young single mother living in New York,Joan Silber,Improvement: A Novel,Counterpoint,161902960X,Coming Of Age,Urban,Aunts,Aunts;Fiction.,Ex-convicts,Harlem (New York, N.Y.),Single mothers,Single parents;Fiction.,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,FICTION Coming of Age,FICTION Family Life,FICTION Family Life General,FICTION Literary,FICTION Urban,Fiction,Fiction-Coming of Age,FictionComing of Age,FictionLiterary,FictionUrban,GENERAL,General Adult,New York,United States,PEN Award Winner;PEN Faulkner Award;National Book Critics Circle Award Winner;Pen Malamud Award Winner;best book 2017;wall street journal best books;kirkus best books of the year;new york times book review editors choice;washington post best books;newsday best books;motherhood;books about motherhood;mothers and sons;books about mothers and sons;New York;New York City;family;East Village;Rikers Island;prison;love;relationships;crime;coming of age story;butterfly effect;chaos theory;contemporary fiction,new york city; relationships; rikers island; prison; crime; east village; PEN Award Winner; PEN Faulkner Award; National Book Critics Circle Award Winner; Pen Malamud Award Winner; best book 2017; wall street journal best books; kirkus best books of the year; new york times book review editors choice; washington post best books; newsday best books; motherhood; books about motherhood; mothers and sons; books about mothers and sons; New York; family; love; coming of age story; butterfly effect; chaos theory; contemporary fiction

Improvement A Novel Joan Silber 9781619029606 Books Reviews

IMPROVEMENT is a novel, mostly centered in New York, but also Berlin and Turkey, about people trying to improve their lives, despite the small or catastrophic tragedies that changed their position or outlook. The people in Silber’s cast are either related to each other by family; their circumstances; by a generation; or by several degrees of separation. In some instances, they are intimately associated with each other, or acquainted, but at times, it is only a casual or chance agency that is relevant. What IS relevant is that they are ordinary people, relatable, with baggage and common problems—money, relationships, insecurities—that make them so familiar and sympathetic.

Reyna and Boyd are a couple; she has a four-year-old, Oliver, from an ex no longer in their lives. Boyd is just out of Rikers for a minor criminal offense, and Reyna is concerned that Boyd wants to go into another life of petty crime with his cousin, Maxwell, and best friend, Claude. She’s not even sure that her and Boyd are meant to be forever. “I was perfectly aware that some part of my life with Boyd was not entirely real, that if you pushed it too hard a whole other feeling would show itself.”

Claude’s sister, Lynette, is an adversary of Reyna’s--they have a strained relationship due to Reyna’s suspicion that Lynette wants to hook up with him. Lynette is an aesthetician, talented in brow work, and wants to own her own salon one day. She is confident that she is capable of making it happen. “The point was to ask for strength. Improvement wasn’t coming any other way.”

One of her steady clients, Monika, a Berlin transplant to NYC, is an art historian for the Met, and married to a Jewish artist whose career is declining, which is putting a strain on their marriage. Julian has a tense relationship with Monika’s mother, who is ailing and living on the dole in Berlin. He still has assumptions that Germany is crawling with anti-Semitism, especially from Monika’s mother. So he resists the potential to start a career in Berlin, where the art community may be more receptive to his installations.

Long ago, unknown to Monika, her mother was a short-term dealer in antiquities, and had briefly met Kiki, Reyna’s aunt, in Istanbul. Aunt Kiki and her braided rugs are like the glue of the story. In some ways, Kiki is closer in degrees of separation to almost everyone, whose choices have a magnifying but subtle effect on the other characters’ personal histories.

Silber keeps the narrative focused on the quotidian, the day to day concerns and activities of her characters, and at times they are braided, like Kiki’s rugs, into a larger narrative or whole piece. Kiki was married in 1970 to a Turkish man and lived in Istanbul and in the countryside, at first helping her husband Osman, in rug trading, and then went with him when he went into farming. She returned, divorced, after eight years, and remains an enigmatic but supportive presence in Reyna’s life. Kiki has never remarried, and lives independently in the East Village.

There are others who populate the novel, some related by death, denial, tragedy or secret affairs. The connections—lost, found, fragile, refuted, or discarded, go back and forth in time and characters. What they held, and what held them. The mind—able to be two places at once—the truth and the lie, the past and the present. “A person could keep the best of certain private things to herself, so they didn’t fade, and she could lie flat-out…out of loyalty to once was. Nothing could get her to take back the lie; she was glad for what she held on to.”

There’s deliverance through the fog and cloud of precarious decisions, even a grand or noble gesture that change perspectives and lives, and allows us to look through the lens of ordinary people at the small but poignant gestures and bits of improvement that grant redemption.
I loved reading Improvement. Loved the experience of reading it, because the writing flows so smoothly that I found the actual experience of reading the book a joy. The characters are connected in surprising and unpredictable ways, woven together in stories that move from New York City to Turkey and Germany. We experience the far-reaching effects of decisions and events. I liked the way it felt natural to empathize with characters as they moved through very different worlds. This book is a gem, wonderful storytelling, with much insight and also rich in heart.
“This is the story of people making poor decisions and the consequences that follow,” to quote another reviewer. I found Reyna a depressing character who—in her immaturity—chooses roads to the least opportunity, who has moments of self-awareness and sparks of conscience. She can’t pick men, but she occasionally (and significant to the story) connects with the consequences of her actions. Kiki, her aunt is, simply, a hippy—rolling through her young and mid-adult life, taking opportunities (good and bad) as they come. She, too, suffers consequences. This isn’t a story that left me feeling good or hopeful for these characters. Disappointingly, the “humor” (as claimed by the book’s review on ) is slim to none. What I give Silbur credit for is her excellent writing in its spareness and clarity. Her style feels deceptively simple, making for an unambiguous story. You won’t find wasted words here or paragraphs full of flowery descriptions (even the descriptive language is lean). Perhaps you could see her characters just as deceivingly simple, but they’re not. They lead lives of struggle and uncertainty. I don’t understand the acclaim by the award-givers for this book, as other reviewers have written. Silbur’s characters in this particular book (my first of Silbur’s) are sad, sometimes pathetic people. I suppose I experienced this book as a character study of lost and found souls. I did change my review from 3 stars to 4. I don’t like the characters or storyline, but that shouldn’t take away from the talent Silbur has with the written word.
Another book that critics loved and I didn't. The main character is uninteresting and yet she does something unusual at the end which seems more the author's desire than anything that comes more organically from the main character. Also, there were too many characters and plot lines that seemed merely discarded.
I just finished this book and feel like I just completed a jigsaw puzzles and had pieces left over. The pieces all looked like they should fit, but the puzzle was done and there was no place to put them. That was how it was with several of the characters in this book. They looked like they should fit into the story but were just left hanging in the end. The writing style was excellent and it's apparent the writer is talented, but I would have liked more substance to the narrative.
IMPROVEMENT is the first novel of Joan Silbur’s that I have read, and it will not be the last. She has taken three stories and seamlessly woven them together in a way that is so natural and yet so brilliant. Reading this book was an absolute pleasure for my mind. The cause and effect that one character has on another makes you think about the present and how what we do in our daily lives can make an imprint on another person, someone whom we might know, or who might be a stranger.

Find out what Turkish rugs, Rikers Island, and cigarettes could possibly have in common, or rather how they commingle in this novel.

There is a unique language to IMPROVEMENT that flows with such freshness. After each sentence, you eagerly await the next. From Turkey to New York, connections are made, wavering decisions dangle, and the intent to improve abounds.

I count this book as one of my favorites of the year.