Lee Cole

"A love story set in the foothills of Appalachia about two very different people--Owen, from Kentucky, and Alma, the daughter of Bosnian immigrants--navigating the entanglements of class and identify in an America coming apart at the seams"--

Groundskeeping

Kristen Claiborn

I love my Facebook groups. They provide me with a whole lot of mindless entertainment. One of my favorites is a group about online drama. I love it…because it’s not my drama. I absolutely love other people’s drama, so I seek it out and revel in it. One of my favorite things about these groups are the responses…and one of my favorite responses is “OOF.” Imagine the noise you might make when you flop on your comfy couch at the end of a strenuous day…OOF! My drama groups use the sound/word “OOF” to describe a situation they just don’t have words for. That is my response to this book: OOF! 
	This isn’t much of a story…as far as stories go. This is a snippet of a young man’s life. It’s a brief, but significant, snippet, but a snippet nonetheless. This guy is trying to find his place in a world with ignorant trumpsters proudly boasting racist views that used to be taboo in a public setting. Not being able to afford graduate school, he takes a job as a groundskeeper at a small liberal-arts college in exchange for one free class per semester. He meets and becomes infatuated with a Muslim, Bosnian refugee and successful author. This book covers the full extent of their relationship, which mercifully doesn’t last very long. 
	From the onset of their short relationship, Alma is demeaning and cruel at times. It’s clear she doesn’t think very highly of Owen, so it makes zero sense that they’re together at all. She constantly belittles him, clearly feeling as though she is “better” than he. It made me wince. I couldn’t understand why Owen was putting himself through what became a sort of self-flagellation. Eventually, he discerns his own worth and high-tails it away from her, but from my point of view, it took too long. Hell, their relationship started when she was seeing someone else…someone he had briefly considered a friend. The whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth (though, that could have been the coffee lingering…). 
	I didn’t love this one. I would have given it 2.5 stars, but none of the ratings systems allow for a half star. I decided to round up to three stars simply because I didn’t absolutely hate it, and I usually only give two stars to books I have finished but REALLY didn’t like (a one star book is one I flat out DNF).

Cheri McElroy

I hate giving this two stars. I usually love Read with Jenna picks. And it’s a story about a writer, which is usually my thing. 

But it’s a meandering story about Owen, who has returned to Kentucky, to live at home and work as a groundskeeper at a small college in return for a free writing class. He meets Alma, a writer in residence, and they begin a relationship.

The writing is good, if not stereotypical of a first novel by an Iowa Writer’s graduate. But it’s not about family, as we are told. It is about being inside the mind of Owen, who is judgmental and selfish, while telling the reader how much he hates those things in others. 

P.S. The fact that he’s from Kentucky and hates it, while this former Kentucky girl still loves it, definitely didn’t help me like the book ;)

Groundskeeping

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