Self Storage

Publishers Weekly

Flan Parker is floundering: her sweet but hapless husband, Shae, is procrastinating on finishing his dissertation, their young children are running wild, and the beloved yard sales she holds in their University of California-Riverside student housing cul-de-sac are under fire from the housing office. Then Flan becomes fascinated with her Afghani neighbors, particularly the wife, Sodaba, hidden beneath a burqa. When Sodaba, pulling into her driveway, accidentally runs over Flan's daughter, racial tension in the community is heightened. The unlikely friendship that develops between Sodaba and Flan in the accident's aftermath sparks its share of trouble as the FBI begins investigating Sodaba's husband for suspected ties to terrorism. Flan is an endearing, juicy character: well-intentioned, less than perfect, with a love of the old and faded (the ancient copy of Leaves of Grass she totes around and frequently quotes, for instance). Unfortunately, the inevitable political discussions (the book is set in the summer of 2002, and fears of another 9/11-style attack run rampant) are unsatisfying and banal. Brandeis, a winner of Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Fiction (described as "in support of a literature of social change), clearly wants to provoke social reflection. The book is most powerful when focusing on small, intimate moments. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Brandeis (The Book of Dead Birds, winner of Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize) has written a paean to Walt Whitman's Song of Myself. Protagonist Flan supports her family by going to self-storage auctions and selling the contents of the storage units; her husband is a graduate student struggling to finish his thesis. Although their housing complex includes families from many nations, their Islamic Afghan neighbors are treated as outcasts, particularly when Sodaba accidentally hits Flan's daughter with her car. Despite this incident, Flan helps Sodaba go into hiding when she faces deportation. Meanwhile, themes and snippets of Whitman's poem appear throughout the novel, as Flan and her family struggle to find their authentic selves. Parts feel forced, such as when the stereotypical white middle-class woman accuses the Afghan couple of being terrorists, but readers will identify with Flan's quest to go beyond the daily grind. Recommended for most libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/06.] Amy Ford, St. Mary's Cty. Lib., Lexington Park, MD Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An agreeable, if somewhat routine, novel of a young woman attempting to bring order and meaning to her life, from the author of The Book of Dead Birds (2003). Flan (short for Flannery) has an unusual occupation-she attends auctions at self-storage units, buying the contents of the unpaid lock-ups. She bids only on the small stuff, units filled with boxes of knick-knacks and old clothes, ten-dollar investments she sells at her Saturday yard sales. It's not much, but it supplements the lean lifestyle of her family of four-husband Shae, a doctoral student, who bores Flan with his endless quoting of Baudrillard, and their two young children, Noodle and Nori. Living in student housing, Flan enjoys the excitement of an international life by proxy-her friends and neighbors are research fellows and doctoral candidates from all over the world, which includes the Afghan couple across the way, a man and his mysterious burqa-wearing wife Sodaba. Set in the months after 9/11, their presence is a constant source of curiosity, and for some, anger borne of racism. Flan watches Sodaba at the community pool swimming in her burqa, sees her skittering into her house to avoid the neighbors, and wonders why she wants to wear that big black thing in America. Though Flan is characterized by the author as bright (she was set to go to Reed College before she met Shae), part of the novel's misstep is that she seems a bit of a dim bulb. She spends much of her time searching frantically for her kids, until tragedy finally hits-while Flan and Shae are indisposed, two-year-old Nori leaves the house and is hit by none other than Sodaba, driving without a license. As Nori lies in a hospital bed, Flan decides to saveSodaba from deportation (and maybe death) while fending off Child Protective Services for being an unfit parent. All the while, Flan draws strength from reading her mother's old copy of Leaves of Grass, which saves her in more ways than one. A bit too tidily resolved to be wholly convincing, but a pleasant read nonetheless.