“Indians on Vacation” by Thomas King

This was a very readable book. I enjoyed hearing about Prague and other parts of Europe, and the jumps in time were well done. The idea looking for the family’s medicine bundle is appealing and I really liked the character of Mimi, the protagonist’s wife. Two seniors looking back on their life together.

But the underlying theme was our helplessness to change the big wrongs of the world. Writing articles, etc etc does not change anything. I think there was some optimistic message at the end but I missed it. This is not an existential concern that interests me. Sometimes the author took me out of the book by being too expository about the ills of the world. 

"The Guest List" by Lucy Foley

I could not finish this book despite its gorgeous setting on a wild Irish island near Connamara. The characters are all so unpleasant, either mean or whiney or sorry for themselves, that I could not stand it any longer. I gave up when yet another short "night of' chapter failed to divulge the murderer. The different points of view per chapter, slowly revealing the details of their lives and realtionships, was clever, but did not work for me because of the unpleasantness of the characters and their histories. I read a summary of the book, and the plot was even more ridiculous than I expected. It seems that through coincidence, the murdered groom had harmed absolutely everyone in the main party. I read a mystery book for the psychology, and not the plot. This book was very weak on psychology.