Found: One Good Book

Had it not been for Josh's recommendation, I'm not sure if or when I would have picked up Carolyn Parkhurst's second novel: Lost and Found. With its The Amazing Race-like reality TV plot, it sounded too...something. Too flighty maybe? Or just silly. Despite my love for shows like TAR and Project Runway there is definitely still a part of me that expects reality television to be lame (Farmer Wants a Wife keeps my expectations low), and a book built with this pop culture phenomenon as its foundation could have been a disaster.

Josh was right on the money (as he just about always is with book suggestions, I have to say), though, and Lost and Found is a great read. As with her first novel, Dogs of Babel, Parkhurst's style is instantly engaging and her prose imminently readable. But where Dogs of Babel took some understandable but ultimately unsuccessful diversions, Lost and Found has no such missteps. The tale explores relationships of many varieties (mother/daughter, siblings, friendships of convenience, romances of hope, etc.) all the while looking at our culture's obsession with media. Parkhurst's characters are honest, their pain real, and their frustrations at having to lug parrots and ski poles around the world for a cash prize very funny.