Wally Lamb won readers' hearts with his New York Times bestselling novel (and Oprah Book Club selection) She's Come Undone. Four bestsellers later, he returns with I'll Take You There. 

The novel follows film professor Felix Funicello, a divorced father who runs a Monday-night movie club for his film students. One evening, Felix encounters the ghost of Lois Weber, an American silent film actress and director. Felix follows her on the ride of his life, revisiting scenes from his past that are projected onto a movie screen. As Lois takes him back through time, Felix realizes that he has been charged with uncovering a dark secret at the heart of his family. 

Lamb's previous work has been quite sensitive to women, painting endearing portraits of female characters who have been ignored, shamed and often mistreated. He builds on that tradition in I'll Take You There, a love letter to feminism and to trailblazing women—real and imagined—who have graced the silver screen or stood behind the camera.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Wally Lamb explores the ways in which the past impacts the present in his moving novel I'll Take You There. Felix Funicello is a film buff who hosts a weekly movie event in an old cinema. One night in the theater, Felix is visited by two ghosts: Lois Weber, a pioneering silent-film director, and Billie Dove, who starred in one of Lois' movies. The two spirits invite Felix to observe chapters from his past by watching them on the theater's screen. The scenes feature the women who have most influenced him, including his daughter, aspiring writer Aliza, and his adopted sister, Frances. Initially, Felix is unsettled by his interactions with the ghosts, but he begins to anticipate their visits. Lamb uses the movie screening as a powerful narrative device—it's an effective way of exploring Felix's personal history—and his ghosts from the bygone days of Hollywood are wonderfully convincing. This is a rich and powerful novel that's sure to satisfy Lamb's many fans.

A HOUSE OF STRANGERS
A finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, Amos Oz's poignant novel Judas takes place in Jerusalem in the 1950s. A young scholar in search of himself, Shmuel Ash is recovering from a breakup when he goes to work as a live-in attendant to gruff, elderly Gershom Wald, a former schoolteacher. Atalia Abravanel, an older woman whose late father was a Zionist organizer, also lives in Gershom's apartment. Shmuel is captivated by Atalia, who remains elusive to him despite the close quarters. As time goes by, the three housemates—all very different, all trying to make sense of the past—learn more about one another and the connections that bind them. Oz delivers a timeless story of love, identity and the search for self in this beautifully rendered novel. Presenting fascinating insights into the nation of Israel—his home country—while taking inspiration from the traditional story of Judas, Oz constructs a multilayered narrative that's provocative and rewarding.

TOP PICK FOR BOOK CLUBS
The Keeper of Lost Things, the impressive debut novel from British author Ruth Hogan, is a stirring exploration of love, the passage of time and the experiences—and objects—that inform everyday life. Anthony Peardew is filled with regret after he misplaces a gift he received from his fiancée, Therese. When she unexpectedly dies, he begins collecting abandoned items—gloves, umbrellas, buttons—and writing stories inspired by them. After 40 years of collecting, Anthony, now an elderly man, bestows his home and assemblage of objects upon his assistant, Laura. Single and somewhat at loose ends, Laura finds a new sense of purpose when she takes over Anthony's estate, where her duties include returning Anthony's items to their original owners. A beautifully crafted novel from a promising new writer, this is a narrative that holds many surprises. It's a delightful read that's just right for December.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Not long after film scholar Felix Funicello turns 60, a very strange thing starts happening. At the empty theater in New York City where he normally shows classic movies to his film group, two ghosts show up instead, with reels of their own. The "movies" they show Felix are of his own childhood, which he not only watches but also literally reenters, experiencing a kind of dual awareness of the present and his memories of the past, primarily the fights between his two older sisters. The ghosts in charge are women who were silent film–era heroines, including Lois Weber, an actress and eventual powerhouse director. While it's clear that Lamb (We Are Water) intended this framework as a kind of celebration or heralding of unsung women, the setup feels not like illuminating magical realism but simply like far too much of a stretch. When he's not hanging out with ghosts, Felix is the encouraging father of Aliza, his adult daughter trying to make a name for herself as a journalist in present-day New York City. With both humans and the supernatural, Felix's relationships feel forced, awkward, and unlikely, in no small part because of his trite, preachy wisdom: "Bad things can happen to good people. Bad people do sometimes thrive and get away with terrible transgressions." However, nearly 200 pages in, Felix watches the "movie" of the story of his sister Frances, who was adopted in the early 1950s, a few years before Felix was born. Frances's birth mother, Verna, was 17 years old and married to a man in the Merchant Marines who was oversees when she became pregnant by Felix's uncle. After giving birth to Frances, alone and prematurely in a hotel bathroom, she died. Verna's story makes up the bitter, believable, and well-told last third of the book, raising the question why Lamb didn't chuck the ghost and movie shtick, along with Felix's corny narration, to simply write about three generations of the Funicello family. (Nov.)