Crux

I'm calling it: This is book of the year. I could write a dissertation on this book, but suffice to say for now that Tallent strikes again. He's so good at creating and conveying characters such that they feel so real. After I finished reading the last paragraph, I was overwhelmed with sadness that I would never know more of Tamma.

She's a character like no other - crass, vulgar and quite possibly manic; tough as anyone else but also cries-- a lot; insecure such that she always describes herself in superlatives; tender-hearted and full of optimism when she has no right to be (after reading just a couple interactions with her mom, you'll understand why). She seems so grating to be around, and yet I love her and my heart is bursting with hope for her to succeed.

Did I cry because of how loving her relationship is with Dan? Yup. Did I cry when the people in her life were hurt? Absolutely. Did I cry when she's still so fiercely committed to her family even though it's so, so hard? Oh, yeah.

Did she make me literally guffaw? Yes. Multiple times? YES. Are her outlandish stories and interjections some of the weirdest things I ever heard? Without a doubt. She's a delight and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

And I'm not even touching upon the story, which was also very compelling. And Tallent writes tense scenes in a way that have me white-knuckling the book while his characters are tip-toeing upon tiny little rock nubbins 80 feet in the air. It's an intense ride. 

Slight disclaimer: There's a lot of climbing jargon in this book. If I had less knowledge about climbing (which isn't a lot, to be fair), I think that would have slowed me down a bit. But I think it's still worth working through those long descriptions for everything else.