Miniatures

Miniatures, a Novel by Norah Labiner

I am writing about this book before I finish reading it.  It is a horrible struggle to get through each chapter.  I am a reader, but I find myself flipping TV channels while I eye the book, trying to decide if I want to attempt it again.  George Eliot’s Middle March was easier to get into.

Miniatures is a babble of beautiful words and then more repitition of that babble.  But out of an ocean of chaotic phrases meandering through each chapter, there comes a gem of thought.  A single sentence that sums up some random idea that you never realized could be expressed in such a concise and honest way.  These bits of brilliance are what propels me forward, and entices me to pick up this book again.  That and the determination not to give up on a Award winning book. 

I do hope to eventually figure out why the American Library Association chose Miniatures to be a “Notable Book.”  I don’t believe that either the gems of thought or the narrator’s unusual voice warrant an overall book award, but I hope that by the end of the book I change my mind.  The female narrator, also a character, pulls you, the reader, in and almost makes you an accomplice.  She assigns emotions and opinions to the reader and this is intriguing.  I think it is a voice style that has been done before, but without the ring of forced participation that Norah Labiner manages to give her readers.

Despite all these wonderful traits, I am still reluctant to pick Miniatures up again and am unsure as to when I will finish it.  I will add my final opinion when I do.