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    		•  December paperback releases offer good choices for reading groups

    REVIEWS BY JULIE HALE

    Cover Get a Life
    Set in South Africa, Gordimer's 14th novel is another tense, complex exploration of politics, class and race. The narrative focuses on Paul Bannerman, a well-to-do ecologist trying to protect the African bush from developers. Married to Berenice, an advertising executive with whom he has a young son, Paul leads a successful life, but the family's peace is suddenly shattered by the discovery that he has thyroid cancer. When Paul undergoes radiation treatment, the experience leaves him, literally, radioactive. Fearful of harming his son, he seeks refuge with his parents, Adrian and Lyndsay. Paul's stay with them gives him ample time to reflect on his own marriage, and it soon becomes clear that his relationship with his wife is not what it should be. Paul's goal of protecting the bush is threatened by Berenice's clients, who want to construct hotels on the land he's trying to save. His parents experience a similar clash of interests. Lyndsay, Paul's mother, is a civil rights lawyer, while Adrian is a businessman. The author's depiction of these two different generations of South Africans and the ways in which they conduct their personal and public lives is shrewd and revealing. Gordimer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize, writes with unflinching honesty about family life, meanwhile slyly commenting on the bigger picture—the social and political climate of South Africa.

    Cover Beasts of No Nation
    Only 23 years old, Iweala writes with incredible authority about civil war and political upheaval as they sweep across a fictional nation in West Africa. Agu, the narrator of this debut novel, is a young boy when his father is murdered by guerillas, and his mother and sister disappear. The book follows his development from orphaned, innocent bystander into full-blooded killer. Desperate for acceptance, Agu joins a guerilla faction led by a tyrant who encourages his men to murder and rape. In brutal surroundings, Agu fights to survive. Food is scarce, and he is attacked by the army leader. He is also surprised by his own capacity for violence. Yet memories of his family sustain Agu, and despite the horrors that surround him, he still retains hope for the future. As he struggles to find his place in an unwelcoming world, he narrates events in a voice that's unforgettable—at once naive and wise, childlike and poetic. Iweala, winner of the New York Public Library's 2006 Young Lions Fiction Award, has a prose style and a narrative vision that are both wonderfully original. This is an accomplished first novel from a promising young author. A reading group guide is available online at www.harpercollins.com.

    Cover Memories of My Melancholy Whores
    Márquez's first novel in a decade, this brief book is a poignant look at love as one man experiences it in the waning years of his life. The narrator, an unnamed Colombian news reporter, is about to turn 90. Unmarried, never swayed by genuine romantic love, and extraordinarily ugly, he has slept only with prostitutes throughout his life. For his birthday, he wants one thing: to share his bed with a young virgin. His birthday wish leads him to Rosa Cabarcas, who runs the best brothel in town. Rosa fills his request with a 14-year-old girl who works in a factory sewing buttons to support her family. On the night of their meeting, Rosa makes up a special drink to settle the girl's nerves, and upon consuming it, she falls asleep. So the narrator finds her when he arrives. The incident has a transformative effect on him, however, as he experiences unexpected pleasure in simply watching the girl sleep. He meets with her regularly just to observe her in slumber, enjoying an enduring tenderness for the first time in place of the usual, fleeting passion. This is a beautifully written account of one man's emotional awakening. A remarkable addition to an already remarkable body of work, the narrative will satisfy Márquez's many fans, while whetting their appetites for more from the master. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.readingroupcenter.com.


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