Avalon

Avalon: A novel by Nell Zink
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm not sure why Avalon was an acquired taste for me. Nell Zink has a distinctive style, and her narrator, Brandy, has a distinctive voice combined with a bizarre background. Brandy's mother abandons her to become a Buddhist nun (I didn't even know those existed.) Brandy grows up at a nursery with some very questionable characters aka gross guys and spends her time attending school, reading whatever she can, trimming custom topiaries, and befriending fellow lost souls at school. Through her closest eccentric friend, she meets a boy she falls in love with and they have an Estella/Pip style romance at a distance throughout this coming-of-age novel.

Once I warmed up to Brandy, I just couldn't put Avalon down. I stayed up until 3 a.m. every night until I ran out of book and I was briefly tempted to just start over to enjoy the ride all over again. Like so many novels set in California with a focus on Los Angeles, the setting is both familiar and otherworldly.

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