Fantastic Writing ~ All That Is Solid Melts Into Air by Carole Giangrande

by Susan Roberts

All That is Solid Melts into Air should be read slowly so you can enjoy the fantastic writing.

Amazon affiliate links are used in this post. A free book was provided for an honest review.

April 2017; Inanna Publications; 978-1771333610
ebook, print (200 pages); women's fiction

About the book: In the morning fog of the North Atlantic, Valerie hears the frenetic ticking of clocks. She's come from Toronto to hike on the French island of St. Pierre and to ponder her marriage to Gerard Lefevre, a Montrealer and a broadcast journalist whose passion for justice was ignited in his youth by the death of his lover in an airline bombing. He's a restless traveller (who she suspects is unfaithful) and she's the opposite: quiet, with an inner life she nurtures as a horticulturalist. Valerie's thinking about Gerard on assignment in her native New York City, where their son Andre works. In New York City, an airplane has plunged into a skyscraper, and in the short time before anyone understands the significance of this event, Valerie's mind begins to spiral in and out of the present moment, circling around her intense memories of her father's death, her youthful relationship with troubled Matthew, and her pregnancy with his child, the crisis that led to her marriage to Gerard, and her fears for the safety of her son Andre and his partner James. Unable to reach her loved ones, Valerie finds memory intruding on a surreal and dreamlike present until at last she connects with Gerard and the final horror of that day.

My Review: This is a beautiful book that I read slowly so that I could savor the fantastic writing. It's about 9/11, a subject that many people still can't read about, but it's about so much more than that. It's about family and love and memory of earlier life and trying to make sense of the world around us even during a tragedy such as 9/11. It's about the way that the past and the present are connected and the fact that you often need to look at your past to understand what is presently happening. Most importantly it's a deep look into someone's mind as they deal with senseless tragedy on a personal and a worldview perspective. I really cannot recommend this book enough -- it's one that I plan to keep and re-read.

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About the Author:
Carole Giangrande's two most recent books (the novellas Here Comes the Dreamer and Midsummer) were both published by Inanna Publications in 2014. A previous novella, A Gardener On The Moon, won the 2010 Ken Klonsky Novella Contest. She's the author of the novels, An Ordinary Star (2004) and A Forest Burning (2000) and a short story collection, Missing Persons (1994), as well as two non- fiction books: Down To Earth: The Crisis in Canadian Farming (1985) and The Nuclear North: The People, The Regions and the Arms Race (1983). She's worked as a broadcast journalist for CBC Radio, and her fiction, poetry, articles and reviews have appeared in literary journals and
in Canada's major newspapers.

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with her on Facebook.

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