Vestal McIntyre

I won an electronic copy of this story in a DailyLit giveaway. I've never read anything by the author before (nor have I read any Kindle Singles before, for that matter). Dinah, a talented ballet dancer from Ohio, is shipped to New York City for the summer to live with her uncle and his partner and attend ballet camp. The camp itself is a bit of a wash, but she learns a great deal about herself and the world in her sojourn to the big city.

There are plenty of things to like about this story. The setting is lovely and engagingly drawn; Dinah is relatively likable (for a teenager); while it's arguable that relatively little really happens, there's obviously a lot going on in Dinah's head as she figures things out about herself and her world. We get a great picture of the fashion designer from very few encounters with her.

However, a lot of the characters are very shallow -- stereotypes we barely skim the surface of. We're behind Dinah's eyes, and she has the empathy of a young teenager among strangers, which is to say she doesn't seem to have very much of it. Only Luis really pushes beyond being stereotyped, and then only in the very last part of the story. I'm not sure how much of this is supposed to be Dinah's insular Midwestern view and how much is unintentional, but I found her lack of connection -- her lack of really trying for connection, in almost every case -- pulled me out of the story.

It's not a bad read, all in all; I look forward to seeing where the author goes. Perhaps this one just wasn't for me, or I read it at the wrong time.… (mer)

This is one book that is sorely missing from many best of 2009 lists. Personally, I enjoyed this one more than the other books I read this year that found themselves on those lists.

Great characters with wonderful development abound. McIntyre handles his young characters with an expertise often lacking in fiction concerning adolescents. This novel has an interesting plot which kept my attention throughout, even when the issues were juvenile.

A fabulous read. I definitely look forward to McIntyre's next novel.… (mer)

Earlier this year, Jen from Devourer of Books spent a week focusing on titles from Harper Perennial. One of the titles she featured was Lake Overturn. This book especially caught my eye because of the gorgeous cover and the title. It fit the Body of Water category for my What's in a Name 3 reading challenge, but most of all, I loved the torn piece of paper floating on water. Something about that image struck me. After reading the novel, I still think it fits really well.

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out exactly how I was going to tackle this post. I enjoyed the book, but there is way too much that can and probably should be said about it. As you can see in the summary, there are quite a few characters that inhabit Eula, Iowa. None of them are insignificant. I spoke about this with Jen and we both agreed that Lake Overturn is a novel made up of several short stories sewn together by time, place, and theme. Enrique and Gene may seem to be the main characters at the offset. It is their experiment - something that I found very fascinating - which provides this book its title. However, there is way too much going on in Lake Overturn for that to be true. They do not disappear in the middle of the story by any means, but it's fair to say that their experiences serve as bookends for the novel.

While I liked Lake Overturn and think that McIntyre is a talented writer, the number of characters weighed me down. Partially this is because I started reading this before finishing other books. Reading in fits and spurts did not work well at all. I didn't catch traction until I started reading it exclusively. I kept wanting to compartmentalize certain story lines - parents versus students, growing up versus falling in love, etc... but it really is impossible because of the way that the characters are related to one another.

Taken as a whole, however, it does have a lot to say about the things you do not know that are happening to the people around you. Everyone was caught up in their own crisis virtually that it would have been very easy for them to overlook one another entirely. It's been quite a while since I've thought this much about structure in any depth.

Final Thoughts

Vestal McIntyre has written an interesting story that is more than the coming of age of two young men. It's about the coming of age of an entire town. I would suggest reading this novel when you have the opportunity to fully concentrate on it. With the number of characters, it's easy to lose track of who is who unless reading Lake Overturn is your primary focus.… (mer)

Lake Overturn by Vestal McIntyre is one of the best books I have read in a very long while. It is a rare author who can introduce us to a cast of enchanting characters, while creating an intriguing story has well. McIntyre has succeeded on both counts.

Set in a typical Small Town, USA (Eula, Idaho), the reader is introduced to myriad personalities, each of whom the author gently breaths life into until you feel like you've known them your whole life. The story itself evokes themes of striving for excellence, as well as being mired in mediocrity. There are triumphs and failures. There are half truths and overwhelming dishonesty. We are brought along for the incredible ride as the characters search for their own personal joy.

McIntyre's writing style is evocative of Jeffrey Eugenides and Julia Glass. Hopefully he will be lauded as such or, at the very least, continue writing so we can enjoy his artistry.… (mer)