If Frieda were taking requests for songs on her mandolin, meant to describe this book, I’d ask her to play Thao Nguyen’s “Chivalry.” Thao sings, “I am tired / I am through / When I love, I will love so hard / Harder than I could love with you.” Early Morning Riser is about a woman who wants to love someone “so hard,” and her family, friends, and especially the lover, who often fall short of the mark — but (and this is important) not always. 

It’s also about a young man on the autism spectrum, and the village (small town) that cares for and alongside him. This novel is about the big feelings felt while living through the small pleasures and hardships of a mundane life.

Sometimes, I really enjoyed it (like when Jane’s daughter finally “got” cartwheels, or when one of her second-graders complained of a “disappearing bathroom”). Sometimes, Jane wanted “to get drunk enough to ask [her friend] if it was true if she hadn’t ever had sex with anyone, not even a drunk migrant worker.” Only one time did a woman “go home with” another woman, and it was assumed that the experience would be a “sexual awakening,” which was very othering. Personally, I was also peeved that the sexually “unawakened” character was a librarian; it just plays into (one of the) dominant stereotype(s) of librarians (that we’re prudes). What I’m saying is, despite its charms, this book felt very white, cisnormative, and heteronormative…and not very socially conscious or aware.