Tell it to me again
EELS is back, and you know what else is back? A bunch of old books in a new form! Let’s get to it, because these are pretty long books with writing way better than mine, and you should be spending your time on them, not me.
⛰️ Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver, 2022
Gosh, this is good. Like “Oh man, here I am, reading a Great Book that will stand the Test of Time” good. I’ve never read David Copperfield, upon which this is based—the idea is that Kingsolver takes Dickens’s social commentary on children in poverty and the utter lack of help they get from the British state and sets it in Appalachia, right as the opioid crisis is kicking off. And good golly, it brutally and gradually rips out your heart, while also being funny and poignant? I can’t explain it, except to say that Kingsolver has a deep and important gift.
Listen, I promise you that I don’t love this book purely because there’s a scene that takes place in my town. But seriously, listen, there’s a scene that takes place in my town!!
Recommended to: Those who love to truly hear a narrator’s voice ringing in their head, and also those who can handle very dry, dark comedy. And those who love scenes that take place in my town!!!
Recommended format: I hear tell that the audiobook is amazing, but I can attest that the hardcover comes with an adorable recipe card for a thing Mrs. Peggot is always making.
👃Quichotte
Salman Rushdie, 2019
I truly think Demon Copperhead could be seen as a companion book for Rushdie’s 2019 Quichotte, another retelling of a classic, another dark comedy, and also involves the opioid crisis, but set in a much different space and income level. If I could command you, I’d make you read this one first, then Demon second. Then I’d make you read Nico Walker’s Cherry. Just kidding, that would be way too much at once.
I wish I could go back in time and replace the D.A.R.E. program with just these books. Now that’s a good idea for a bad novel—brb!
Recommended to: Those who can hang with a sort of fable-y vibe that I extremely like when Rushdie does it but don’t often like when somebody else does.
🎤 Pride
Ibi Zoboi, 2018
Are there enough Pride and Prejudice retellings in the world? Trick question, hot shot! There’s always room for new good things, even if they’re based on old good things. These particular prideful and prejudiced characters are teens in Brooklyn. Yes, you know the broad strokes of what’s going to happen, but you don’t know how it will. And there’s something comforting about treading a well-worn plot path while the details around you are getting your attention in new and exciting ways.
Recommended to: Those who…no, actually, everyone. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t like this book.
Recommended format: 100% audiobook, no question. I mean, Zuri is a slam poet.
Another thing you should read
Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz brings together her writing skills, adventure skills, and even, unfairly, art skills for a travelogue Substack that is more like reading essays that should be in a book. In other words, the exact opposite of whatever it is I’m doing here.
I swear to you, it takes something very engaging to tear me away from my book-reading time, and this does it. Also I figure, Sangeeta’s essays will certainly appear in a book some day, so it’s kind of like I’m just getting it done ahead of time.
And now, a bonus recommendation
🐋 The Whalebone Theatre — Joanna Quinn, 2022
Recommended to: “Secretly sentimental people who enjoy long descriptions of British seaside towns, funny children protagonists, books about World War II without the horrible combat scenes, and espionage.”
Recommended by the aforementioned Sangeeta, a journalist who writes that extremely charming travelogue! She is currently attending a surf camp in Rio and has recently enjoyed The Lost City of Z, The House of The Spirits, and rereading her two favorite Agatha Christie novels.
That was the third EELS! Fun fact: The collective noun for a group of eels is “a Substack.” Send any and all questions, feedback, and shouted book recommendations to me by hitting reply!
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– Susan