Groundskeeping: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel

A pleasant book that you begin to speed read as you progress in the main characters life and career evolution.

Lee Cole's "Groundskeeping" is a poignant exploration of love, identity, and the complexities of navigating life in a divided America. As I journeyed alongside Owen Callahan, I felt the weight of his struggles and aspirations resonate deeply, particularly against the backdrop of the 2016 election. The contrasts between Owen and Alma, both in their personal lives and backgrounds, create a rich tapestry that reveals the intricacies of class and belonging. Cole's lyrical prose captures the raw emotions of their budding romance, reflecting the difficulties of bridging their worlds while offering profound insights into familial ties and societal expectations. This debut novel not only tells a love story but also compels us to reflect on the divisions that exist within ourselves and our communities. It’s a beautifully crafted piece of literature that left me contemplating long after the last page. Highly recommended for those who appreciate nuanced storytelling!

This book expertly chronicles the complication of feeling alienated in the place of your birth when you realize it's hostile to your values and you don't know quite what to do about it because the only people you have strong bonds with are rooted there.

Timely, gut-wrenching, poignant, exactly what I wanted to and didn’t want to hear and feel and livethrough via Owen. 10/10

I found this book quite realistic to a generation of 20-somethings, but any reader could find a character that resonated with their own lives. A good read, great storytelling, but I am left feeling quite sad. I was rooting for the characters and need to know the rest of the story.

I wanted to love this book. As a Kentucky resident, actually a resident kd a town in the book, I was hoping it would be great. But I couldn't get interested innit. The characters weren't as interesting as other KY authors I've read recently. So, in my opinion, it's a good book. I was hoping for a great book, but it's not.

A novel for our time that reaches across our divides as Americans with empathy and compassion. This is a book that deserves to be widely read.

Kept waiting for a resolution, but was disappointed. Expected more than this. Expected more than this. Four more required words.

Here’s the 4: For Kings and Planets (Ethan Canin, also Iowa Writers Workshop I believe), Moo (Jane Smiley), Straight Man (Richard Russo), and Wonder Boys (Michael Chabon) - even though Groundskeeping is not comedic like the latter 3. Subtext matters - there is more to Groundskeeping than Cole’s skillfully drawn characters and vivid settings. His subtle reflections on culture (class, religion, age, professions, meals, movies, etc.) keep the book in your head for long after you read it. Finally, Lee Cole is not Ernst Hemmingway, but his efficiency with words reminds me of him a bit, as in A Movable Feast (a masterwork if there ever was one). I highly recommend this book.

I’m not sure I’ve ever read a novel like this. The story doesn’t really have a plot, it’s more a narrative covering a span of time in the protagonist’s life . The story is filled in with believable characters richly described, beautiful dialogue, and the backdrop of western Kentucky in 2016. Loved it.

So much waste of plots in this novel that do not add up to the story. The couple going to see a moonbow, for example, which adds nothing but is merely anecdotal to their relationship. There is good writing here with the US elections percolating like a breeze and sometimes like a wind. We witness bars, music, trees, rednecks, immigrants, etc but the parts falter to add up to the story. If you are into Mills and Boons, then this will do for you.

A love story littered with an ambitious soul lost in mediocrity. I would read another form this author for sure.

Set in modern times, the story is about an evolving relationship between two people from differ cultures, coping, trying to identify themselves and navigate in the divisive world exposed by Trump.

Groundskeeping is a multilayered novel that satisfies on each of its levels. In the foreground, it is a contemporary love story of two people from very different social, economic, religious and regional backgrounds. In the middle ground are the sometimes strained relationships between the generations in contemporary America, arising out of political and religious differences and intolerance, handled here with restraint. There is also woven into the novel a clever, and at times witty, treatment of several current, and arguably overworked, literary trends, especially metafiction and autofiction. (Definitions and examples are readily available on line.) In addition, the author has a very fine hand with a metaphor. As the narrator, a groundskeeper and aspiring writer, fells an ash tree killed by an environmentally invasive insect, he describes its fall in detail, beginning—“I could already hear the great creaking whale song of the tree as it began to fall.” As a Kentuckian with a degree from UK who left the state for life among the “coastal elite,” I thoroughly enjoyed both the story and its artistry. I highly recommend it.

The author really didn’t make me care about either of the main characters but the minor characters were well done especially Pop and Rando. The discussions on music were unnecessary and distracting from the story. Yet the discussions on writing were great.

This may have made a better short story. I wanted to like it , being a Kentuckian, but it just dragged on, focusing on political infighting and trite exchanges between the principal characters. There were a few meaningful moments but a lot of dullness in between.

I hate to give a negative review of this book. Mr. Cole demonstrates a lot of promise as a writer and this is only his first novel after an MFA from the prestigious Iowa Workshop. But there are some serious issues for me as a reader. But positive first. Mr. Cole is wonderful at creating a smooth, readable flow. His sentences and paragraph structure, both individually and collectively, are constructed to create this rapid, flowing pace and movement. There are no chapters and no quotation marks and it works, making the book a pleasure to read. Additionally, Mr. Cole and his narrator are obviously liberal politically, and politics are certainly a significant part of the book. But unlike most writers of literary fiction, or really writers of anything, Mr. Cole makes an effort not to treat his rural, conservative characters with scorn. The effort doesn't always succeed but it shows and it is appreciated. He also is willing to show flaws in his liberal characters, particularly the narrator; flaws in both their character traits and their thinking. For example, at one point, Alma, the narrator's love interest, opines on how horrible it would be to work at Goldman Sachs. Now in most books, that comment would simply be lazily asserted allowing its liberal reader to nod along sympathetically, likely knowing very little about Goldman, what it does or why it warrants disdain. That is bad writing, though absolutely everyone gets away with similar empty gestures in literary fiction. Not Mr. Cole. He actually has a character, briefly, challenge such an assertion and its foundation, not letting it idly slide by. I was shocked and, again, Mr. Cole deserves a lot of credit.There are several problems for me. On page 147, the narrator's writing teacher gives him this advice: "This guy, your narrator-- he's got this whole woe-is-me, I'm-so-lonesome-I-could cry attitude. Get rid of that. Don't ask for the reader's pity." I don't know if Mr. Cole was trying out some meta critique of his own work or something, but he certainly could have used his own advice. I don't like his narrator Owen. Not at all. Now, I think the "characters are unlikable/unrelatable" can often be one of the worst, most inane criticisms that I so often see in professional criticism of film or literature. You do not necessarily have to like the characters for it to be a great book/film. Sometimes the author doesn't want us to like a character, but just wants to tell his compelling story. And that is okay. The problem arises when an author clearly wants us to like a character and we still don't, despite all the author's efforts. That is a problem and a problem with Groundskeeping. (SPOILERS) Owen the narrator is a mopey, morose, self-righteous character pining over this younger woman who is scornful of his culture, leads him on but then rebuffs his advances, disclosing that she actually has a rich boyfriend, then cheats on the rich boyfriend with Owen, but when she finds out Owen is poor, ghosts him for weeks and goes back to the rich boyfriend, until her boyfriend finds out about the cheating, wrongly accuses Owen's friend of the cheating and causes a brawl that breaks Owen's nose, culminating in a reconciliation between Alma and Owen. This is the first one-half plus of the book, Owen desperately pining for this noxious girl. I am sorry, I didn't buy it. And, putting aside the implausibility, it caused me not to like her or Owen, putting aside their politics and sanctimony. But Cole wants us to like them(!) and sometimes you can feel him pulling those strings and that is a serious problem in the novel.Finally, I talked about Cole's ability to not fall prey to some of the lazy liberal presumptions other writers routinely succumb to. And good for him. But there is a passage where the narrator, unchallenged, goes on and on about how John Wayne is a racist and a bigot and was too stupid to realize The Searchers was a blistering critique of America's imperialism and Wayne's whole cowboy mien. 1) Total mis- and over- reading of The Searchers. Look at all the contemporary complaints and attempted cancellations of it; and 2) It is pretty harsh to simply blanket Wayne's legendary life and career and dismissively enshroud it with the slur of racism. Not really a fair encapsulation of his whole life. Yeah, I get it, 60 years ago the man said some off-color things about racial minorities that if he had said it today would ruin his career. But, he wasn't around today thankfully. The guy started making movies in the 1920s, he came from nothing to become one of the biggest legends in the history of Hollywood that people, like Mr. Cole, are still talking about, and he was a product of his difficult, less enlightened time. So maybe give the guy a break? Let's not impose 2022 standards on people who never even saw the 80s let alone 2022. My point is, I think there is a lot of counter-evidence demonstrating Wayne was not really a bigot, and I think Cole blithely calling Wayne ...

Unusual setting in rural Kentucky: I always like learning about worlds outside of my experience and Cole has an eye and ear for his native region that is cinematic. The story is about a first generation college kid from a poor family named Owen trying to pull his chaotic life back together, who falls in love with a beautiful, sophisticated Princeton-educated writing instructor. Her name Alma means “soul” in Spanish, but she is actually a Bosnian Muslim immigrant. Cole’s writing voice is filled with warmth and originality. But he tamps down his feelings so completely at crucial moments! Accurate for a guy from his background but a little bit frustrating. I had a lot to think about when the book ended so briskly; it left me waiting for more. Keep on writing, Cole!

I wanted to like this book mostly because it took place in Kentucky. However, it didn’t keep my interest and didn’t make me care about the characters. The last fourth of the book was fairly good. A lot of the book could have been edited out in my opinion. It wasn’t too complimentary of Kentucky either. Not my type of book.

Groundskeeping is a good story, well written, realistic, but I like closure and the end left me wondering about these characters, especially the two main characters.