Satin Island

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

U. is a 'corporate anthropologist' who, while working on a giant, epoch-defining project no one really understands, is also tasked with writing the Great Report on our society. But instead, U. spends his days procrastinating, meandering through endless buffer-zones of information and becoming obsessed by the images with which the world bombards him on a daily basis- oil spills, African traffic jams, roller-blade processions.

Is there a secret logic holding all these images together? Once cracked, will it unlock the master-meaning of our era? Might it have something to do with the dead parachutists in the news? Perhaps; perhaps not.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 7 Up-Matt lost his mother to cancer, and his father has started drinking to hide from the pain, leaving him alone. He's sure that none of the kids at school can understand how he feels, and realizing how many other students avoid him just strengthens that feeling. He has one real friend, Chris, who sticks by him. When Matt realizes he needs a job, not only to stay sane but to help with bills, he tries Cluck Bucket and is attracted to the girl behind the counter but instead ends up doing the unthinkable, agreeing to work for Mr. Ray at the neighborhood funeral home. Matt begins to sit in on funerals, not knowing why at first, but soon realizes after studying mourners that there's always someone whose grief can't be understood, which validates his feelings of loss and reassures him that he's not alone. When he hears Lovey at her grandmother's funeral, something magic happens. How this plays out and helps pull him out of his grief makes for an amazing story. Corey Allen is a perfect narrator for this wonderful story of grieving and hope. VERDICT Definitely worth adding to any library.-John R. Clark, Hartland Public Library, ME © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.