Customer Reviews

The Book of Dahlia: A Novel

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I almost gave up on this wise, funny, yet deathly sad book after the first short chapter because I simply could not stand Dahlia. Spoiled, wasting her days smoking pot and watching old movies in the house her daddy bought for her I found nothing in her personality to which I could relate. It's a tribute to Elisa Albert's storytelling ability and gift for character development that I stayed with the book and even developed a fondness to the title character by the novel's close.

The plot of the book is simple. Dahlia a young woman who has drifted through her twenties is now pushing thirty and is diagnosed with brain cancer. The book is framed by a self-help book for cancer patients written by a man named Gene that Dahlia buys shortly after her diagnosis and quotes from this positive thinking book preface each of the eighteen short chapters. But THE BOOK OF DAHLIA is no "better living through disease" novel and it's a bumpy ride through radiation, chemo, support groups and finally hospice as Dahlia ruminates on her life both past and present.

The book is both an angry and comical account thanks to Albert's writing style and we soon find sympathy with Dahlia especially after we meet her very dysfunctional family. Dahlia's dad Bruce is a very successful LA attorney who certainly means well but believes all problems can be solved by money. Her beautiful mother Margalit is a sharp tongued and totally self-absorbed woman who left Dahlia and her brother Dan to go find herself in her native Israel when they were quite young. Dahlia's brother Dan grows up to be a rabbi who specializes in working with teenagers but treats his own sister abominably and I at least had total understanding of Dahlia's hatred of him and his social worker wife Nadia. Albert brings these characters to life with such clarity in this short novel I could swear I know them. THE BOOK OF DAHLIA is simply one of the best books I have read in awhile.

this is a novel that grabs hold and will not let go. i found myself deeply affected for days after putting it down. Dahlia is such an affecting, honest, original voice, and the book pulls no punches. kind of reminded me of the catcher in the rye that way -- this very real, very open voice. written with wit and soul, two things that can't be faked.

The protagonist is one of the angriest I've ever experienced, making for a painful reading experience. However, one can't deny how solid, powerful and brilliant the writing is. Sentences crackle off the page. While the subject matter and protag. are hard to take, this is a book worth reading.

I am sorry to see that the first reviewer completely missed the raw beauty and genius of this novel.

The New Yorker (a much more reputable source for book reviews), however, did not. In their March 24, 2008 "Briefly Noted" section the reviewer notes that "Dahlia Finger, the heroine of this début novel, is a sarcastic, self-absorbed Jewish American Princess, twenty-nine years old and living in a desirable bungalow in Venice, California, bought for her by her lawyer father. She's also, thanks to Albert's control of tone and timing, one of the most likable characters in recent fiction, as self-aware about her bad habits (smoking pot, wallowing in hopelessness, refusing to engage with her broken family) as she is incapable of changing them, even when diagnosed with a "level four" tumor in the left temporal lobe of her brain.... Albert writes with the black humor of Lorrie Moore and a pathos that is uniquely her own, all the more blistering for being slyly invoked. '

The San Francisco Chronicle has also called THE BOOK OF DAHLIA a "darkly brilliant first novel... a book so original in its voice and vision that it's truly thrilling."
I feel that the conclusion of the Chronicle's review is perfectly addressed to readers who may not initially "get" this book. Here it is:
"The Book of Dahlia will probably find detractors just as passionate as its champions. As Albert writes, "A vile, self-absorbed, depressing, lazy, messy, spoiled, f-up, probably mentally ill loser dies. So what?" Albert answers her own "So what?" with a deeply sympathetic portrait, devoid of sentimentality. Readers looking for a depiction of illness as a crucible for the triumph of the human spirit will be disappointed. But this book keeps its steadfast focus on a more complicated truth, and that is its triumph."

It's one of the best books I've read in years.

I heard the author interviewed on NPR and bought the book in the middle of the interview. I thought it was about a sarcastic ambitionless loser who discovers she has a brain tumor. The book turned out to be about so much more. Throughout the book, Dahlia fights to have a life. Using flashbacks, we come to understand why Dahlia is the way she is. Dahlia's anger is understandable. Her relationships with her mother and especially with her brother are heart-breaking. It was interesting that, unlike so many other books, things are not resolved, which seemed so much more real.

I finished the book last night, with tears streaming down my life. I tear up thinking about it now.

I loved this special, special book.

It is hard, very hard, to write sarcasm. But Albert is an amazing stylist, and her David Foster Walace-esque prose is a joy to read. How can you make a cancerous brain tumor funny? It's not easy, but she does it, and does it so well that at the end of the novel I was both crying and laughing. The book is touching, honest, in your face, and wonderful. I can't wait to read more by Albert, and am ordering her short stories as we speak.

In this book, we meet the heroine Dahlia, after a brief glimpse of her daily and seemingly wasteful and over-indulgent lifestyle. After the diagnosis of her deadly brain tumor, Dahlia takes us on a journey through her past. Despite being spoiled and over-indulged and lazy, it turns out Dahlia has had nowhere near an ideal life. Her story, starting with her parents' meeting, then the birth of her brother, then her birth and life, is absolutely gut-wrenching. That Dahlia survived as long as she did is a feat in my mind. Although she is extremely angry and resentful, I cannot same I blame her. Too many people are quick to assert that anybody who grows up spoiled and privileged has no right to be angry, but I think the truth is the exact opposite. One of the ultimate questions is whether a life like Dahlia's, one that is on the surface selfish, and unrealized, is of less value than somebody who has achieved great things. After reading this book, I decided that indeed Dahlia's life is just as precious. That she was born to such a dysfunctional and abusive family is no fault of her own, and she still forges ahead in her own life, willing herself to live, despite flirting dangerously with suicide. Perhaps Dahlia can teach all of us that no matter who you are, where you come from, how much money you have, etc., you're still a person with a past and a story, and who contributes in life, not even necessariy in the form of a fancy job or lifestyle. Dahlia's life, in my humble opinion, was not a waste, and even though she is a fictional character, I feel the world has suffered a great loss of such a vibrant, dynamic woman.

Having just been through the cancer of two close relatives, I must say that this book is a must-read for anyone who is facing the disease. It perfectly captures the many mental states and stages of the person with the cancer and his or her relatives.

For those not afflicted, it's just an amazingly funny, sad, and moving piece of fiction.

I sobbed throughout the final chapters of this book, something I don't think I've ever done before. Many people have complained that Dahlia is unlikable, but I did not find that to be the case. She is complicated and very sad but wants to live a good life and to be happy and form connections with other people. Somehow this hasn't happened for her and isn't going to since she gets diagnosed with terminal cancer at 29. While there are plenty of hilarious moments throughout this book, at times it was painful to keep reading. There are no happy endings or life changing moments for Dahlia. This book brings up many questions about life and death that are challenging to examine, but the author's talent will ultimately make you glad that you did. Just have a box of tissues handy.

I picked up this novel after hearing Elisa read at the most excellent KGB Bar in New York, and deciding--as I'm sure almost anyone else who was there did--that it was one of the funniest, most gripping readings I'd ever been to. I don't regret the purchase for an instant. Elisa Albert has one of the sharpest pens (keyboards?) I've yet encountered, and its a sharpness that cuts both ways: it makes you laugh 'til your sides split while breaking your heart. The ending was so gorgeous and inevitable and sad I read it three times, just to savor its perfection. This is not an easy book, but that's precisely why it's so essential and so brilliant. Kudos!