I Am Radar by Reif Larsen

Defying his genes, Radar Radmanovic, son of a Serbian electrician and a white New Jersey woman, is born black. What does his identity have to do with a group of performance artists who set up their pieces in global war zones? Plenty as it turns out. The bloated novel dazzles in its period pieces but is sometimes, quite literally, at sea. The immensely gifted Larsen aims high, but the central conceit about the definition of art is hard to buy into. Nevertheless Radar is mesmerizing enough to keep you hooked for most of its nearly 700 pages. No easy feat.

Parent Trap?

It's interesting that The Millions' Year in Reading launched yesterday. I saw it roll shortly after I watched this incredible video arguing marriage equality put forth by Moveon.org.

This young man, raised by two lesbian parents, makes a cogent argument for marriage equality. It made me worry that we have not arrived as a country if we need to prove that gay couples can raise stellar citizens. Can they be allowed to be parents only if the kids are perfect? How come heterosexual couples are not held to the same exacting standards?

Which is a perfect segue for my favorite book of 2011--The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson. The book is a perfect example of why not everybody should become parents. The self-absorbed parent Fangs, completely caught up in their art, wreak total havoc on the kids. It's worth a read. At the very least the arguments it puts forth in such a breezy fashion, will resonate long after the last page has been turned.