Ordinary Grace

by William Kent Krueger, Atria Books, March 2013

...a coming of age story that is engrossing and memorable

The story is set in a small town in Minnesota in the summer of 1961. Folks are going to the soda fountain and drinking ice cold root beers and the Twins are a brand new team in Minnesota.   Our narrator is Frank Drum, the 13 year old son of the local minister.  His father Nathan is a vet haunted by memories of his WWII experiences, his mother Ruth struggles in her role as a minister’s wife.  Frank has a younger brother Jake, wise beyond his years who stutters in public and an older sister Ariel who is an accomplished musician headed for Julliard at the end of this fateful summer.

Frank narrates the story from a perspective 40 years later.  It is a technique that works well.  The first death in the book, a train accident that kills a mentally challenged young boy, sets the stage for the events that will follow.  Frank and Jake are an adventurous duo, walking the edge between serious trouble and normal boyhood adventures.  They spend a lot of time eavesdropping on adults and learning information that alters their take on events.  The author does a nice job in writing about the relationships among the three siblings, it is a family dynamic that rings true.

Frank grows into an adult maturity as he considers and responds to the action in the story.  I particularly enjoyed the writing when he describes his thought process on events.  It seemed so realistic.  The events of the summer are life changing for all involved.  The town will witness multiple deaths at least one of which is a murder.  While this story is described as a murder mystery,  it is not a page turner  and the murderer is apparent well  before it is revealed.  It is more of a coming of age story that examines the role of faith in response to horrific events.  

I liked this book and will search out more by this author.   I think he tells an engrossing  story of how good people struggle with loss, deal with guilt, participate in a community, support each other, weigh whether forgiveness is possible and find comfort in a religious faith.

I read a copy of this novel that I bought.

Reconstructing Amelia: A Novel

by Kimberly McCreight, narrated by Khristine Hvam, Harper Audio, 12 hrs, 15 min., April 2013

...chilling depiction of life in a rich kids' prep school

This book has been touted as the next Gone Girl.  It really isn't that type of a taut thriller with unexpected twists it is more of a Mean Girl  prep school story.  Kate, a successful attorney, is a single mother. her daughter Amelia is suspended from school for plagiarism and commits suicide the same day (not really a spoiler as it happens in the first chapter.)  Amelia had been a bright, confident student at an exclusive prep school.  Kate begins to doubt that Amelia’s death was a suicide and plunges into an examination of Amelia’s life.

The author uses  both Kate and Amelia’s voices in the narrative.  She employs text messages, blog posts and facebook statuses to tell the story  Amelia has been selected to join a secret club and begins a hazing process.  The dialogue with the teenagers is very good and gives you the feeling of just how menacing a group of teenage girls bent on harassment can be.  I don’t want to give away any of the plot here but I did think the author had a number of people acting out of character, specifically would a hard nosed NYPD detective let a dead girl’s mother practically run the murder investigation? I don’t think so.  Would a teacher at a prep school really undertake the activity that she is finally exposed for?  I don’t think so.  Would a successful attorney do what this guy did?  I don’t think so.  Get ready to suspend disbelief as this one wraps up.

The character development is quite good.  Both Amelia and Kate are vividly brought to life in the story.  There is a sense of sadness to the narrative due to the finality of Amelia’s death in the first chapter that I found hard to overcome.

Read it for the chilling depiction of life in a rich kids’ prep school, not as a thriller.

I listened to an excellent performance on the part of Khristine Hvam as she read this novel.  Her talented presentation enhanced the story.

I listened to a copy of this novel provided by Harper Audio

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

by Jonathan Evison, Algonquin Books, August 2012 

...definitely recommended

This is the story of Ben Benjamin, a 39 year old broken man.  He has lost everything, his home, his marriage, his job and often his will to live.  Ben, long a stay-at-home dad who hasn’t been in the work force for 11 years has taken a home nursing course (hence the title) and is employed as a caregiver to Trevor a 19 year old  who has late-stage Duchene muscular dystrophy.  Ben and Trevor develop an unusual but effective relationship that culminates in a road trip to see Trevor’s father in Las Vegas.  As the road trip story unfolds the author intersperses it with a recount of the events leading up to the tragedy that happened some years previously to Ben’s family.

This is a sad book not doubt about it, but oddly it is also funny, warm and ultimately redemptive.  I don’t want to give any of the key plot details because I really enjoyed the pace with which the author told this story.  You know bad things happen but somehow rolling them out as the author does is important in this story.  The writing is very good, no wasted words in the telling of this story. The dialogue between Trevor and Ben seems so natural, it just flows along.  During the road trip Ben and Trev pick up a couple of characters who enrich the story, particularly Trev’s love interest. 

It would be hard to categorize this book – part road trip tale, part coming of age story, part literary fiction – but it is definitely one I’d recommend.  There are enough thought provoking issues in this story that would make it excellent for book club discussions.  I read this author’s last book West of Here and wasn’t a big fan, but I really enjoyed this one – just proves you shouldn’t give up too soon on a new author.

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

The Jewels of Paradise

by Donna Leon, Atlantic Monthly Press, October 2012

 a story that is in no way riveting and very slow to develop

In this book Donna Leon leaves behind her highly successful Commisario Brunetti detective series for a standalone novel.  Dotoressa Caterina Pelligrini is a native Venetian who has left Venice to study and work in both Germany and England.  Her field of expertise is baroque opera.  She is lured back to her beloved Venice with a strange temporary job.  Two cousins have inherited two trunks from a long dead 17^th century ancestor Steffani.  Steffani was a mysterious figure who composed baroque operas and worked for the Catholic Church in Germany during the Reformation.  Caterina is hired to translate the papers and determine if the inheritance should go preferentially to one of the cousins.  The inheritance itself is somewhat of a mystery that isn’t revealed until the conclusion of the story.

Unfortunately that is the full extent of this story.  There really is little or no suspense in the telling.  There is lots of discussion of a murder that occurred in the long ago past.  There is lots of description of what constitutes research as performed by a classical scholar.  There is discussion of baroque opera and of religion.  The operative word here is discussion, there is not much action.  The best parts of this story are when Caterina interacts with her family – a sister who is a religious and a brother in law who assists her when she is mildly threatened for her work.  As always with Leon the descriptions of Venice are excellent and one of the things that draw me to her books.  The story is liberally sprinkled with Italian phrases that are not translated.  While this gives great color to the story I can imagine it would annoy readers who do not have basic Italian language skills.   I did think the author was remiss in not annotating at the end of the story which parts were based on true historical figures and which were not.  I do read this type of book for the history so it would be nice to know what parts were true and what were fiction. 

So in summary I’d say read this book for the characters and the atmosphere and be prepared for a story that is in no way riveting and slow to develop.  My hope is that Leon returns quickly to the much loved Brunetti series.

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

In the Shadow of the Banyan

by Vaddey Ratner, Simon & Shuster, August 2012 

 

...the characters jump off of the page and into your heart.

This lyrical story is told from the viewpoint of Raami, a seven year old girl when the Khmer Rouge enter the capital of Cambodia and set up a new government in 1975.  Cambodia had been ruled for centuries by a monarchy whose members included Raami’s father a prince.  Raami and her father, who is a poet, have a very close relationship.  He teaches her using myths and stories set in the Buddhist tradition.  Raami recounts the events of this nightmare as they unfold for her family and the Cambodian people.  Initially the revolutionaries are seen as progressive intellectuals but soon become violent and unstable in their actions.  Raami’s family, her parents, younger sister, grandmother, uncle, aunts and two young cousins are made to leave their comfortable home in Phnom Penh.  Carrying very little they retreat to another home outside of the city.  As with all of the people of Cambodia their nightmare has just begun.  Over the next four years of the Khmers’ rule horrific things occur.  Loss of life is commonplace, hunger moving into starvation is the norm, uprooting and moving people occurs frequently and life as was known is almost entirely lost.  Spread throughout these horrors are stories of people who act very humanely in the face of this evil.  All of these events are seen through Raami’s eyes and told in her words.  Her father is separated from the family early in the story and Raami is deeply affected by his absence.  His memory and stories sustain her and her mother through their trials.   

This is my second genocide novel this month.  My last read was The Sand Castle Girls which dealt with the genocide in Armenia in 1915.  This book is very different and much more memorable.  In the Sand Castle Girls the story was well documented with historical events and detail interspersed throughout the story but the characters were fairly one dimensional.  In this story the characters jump off of the page and into your heart.  Seen from a child’s point of view this story lacks the historical detail that I enjoy but the depth of feeling expressed more than makes up for this.  I defy you to forget these people after you have read the section where Raami digs through the mud looking for beetles to eat because she is starving.  

While the book is fiction the story closely parallels the experience of the author, Vaddey Ratner who was five years old when the Khmer Rouge entered the Cambodian capital.  She lost most of her family in the next four years and ended up as a refugee in the US in 1981.   I hung on every word of the author interview at the end of the book.  There are many remarkable things about this story but one of them is that the author was able to tell such a moving, poetic story in English.  By 1995 she had graduated summa cum laude from Cornell – surely there is another book in this refugee success story.  Ratner was quoted as saying she wrote this fictional memoir to “give voice to her father’s memory and the memory of all of the others who were silenced”.  She has done this and much more, highly recommended.

I read an advanced readers copy of the novel provided by the publisher.

The Orphan Master's Son

by Adam Johnson, Random House January 2012

...a super first novel but might not be for everyone

I had considered not writing a review of this book because I found it to be so strange that I could not imagine recounting the implausible plot but I just could not get the story out of my head.

So here goes.  The story is set in modern day North Korea, a weird society if ever there was one.  Pak Jun Do (emphasis on the John Do pronunciation) is the son of a man who runs a school for orphans.  In order to not show preference Pak’s father essentially ignores him.  His mother had been taken to Pyongyang to serve the government.  The government recognizes that Pak is a loyal citizen of the state and singles him out for training as a professional kidnapper.  Evidently it is not unusual for North Korea to capture people if the state needs their services – need a plumber capture one from a coastal Japanese town.  Pak is trained as an English translator and  loyally serves as  a radio operator on a fishing boat listening to transmissions from long distance rowers and the space shuttle.  After some strange interactions with the US Navy Pak is chosen for a North Korean mission to the US (told you it was a strange story).  The mission does not go well for North Korea and Pak is sentenced to prison.  Even stranger events unfold from there.   Pak is reinvented with an entirely new identity and falls in love with the wife of the man who he replaces as one of North Korea’s heroes.

What for me was so enchanting about this story was the goodness of the lead character in contrast to the soul deadening state of North Korea.  Pak was a selfless person who completely believed in the North Korean state and until he found love was willing to sacrifice himself for that state.  The transformation he goes through is thoroughly enchanting if not heartbreaking in the end.  The story is told with Pak’s narration but also interspersed are propaganda broadcasts from the state.  The author’s ability to recreate the North Korean state – the story includes casual horrific violence, incredible hunger and starvation, torture and interrogation – is memorable.  Truly has to be the worst country in the world ruled by a mad man (hope the mad man’s son is an improvement for these poor people).  The author who is a creative writing prof in California describes this genre as trauma narrative which is an apt description of a story that not only tells of traumatic events but traumatizes the reader as well.  This story is a little too unusual to be a great novel but it leaves me excited to see what Adam Johnson writes next, this is a super first novel (but not for everyone) and he is a writer to watch.

I read a copy of this novel borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

by Rachel Joyce, Random House, July 2012                                

...Harold Fry is a very endearing character
A few spoilers.        The lead character in this story, Harold Fry is a recently retired brewery employee who is leading a life of “quiet desperation” in a seaside town in southern England.  His wife Maureen is annoyed by almost everything that Harold does.  One morning he receives a letter from an old friend, Queenie Hennessey, who years earlier had done him a great favor.  Queenie is dying of cancer in a town in the north of England.  Harold pens a letter to Queenie, walks to the post box to mail it and unable to place it in the mail with little thought and no planning begins to walk north.  So his adventure begins.  Through interactions with people he meets along the way he becomes convinced that as long as he walks Queenie will live.  Woefully unprepared for the 600 mile journey he plods along, dealing with injuries, weather, unsuitable shoes, and money troubles along the way.  In a haphazard method throughout the journey Harold examines his life relationships - with his parents, his son and his wife Maureen.  These examinations allow him to come to peace with each of these relationships, accepting them for what they are and giving up his despair over chances lost.  As Harold’s journey proceeds, Maureen begins to miss Harold and in a believable way seems to fall back in love with him.  In the end both Harold and Maureen though exhausted by the ordeal are able to renew their relationship and reenergize their spirit. This is a difficult book to characterize.  In this debut novel the prose is excellent.  Some of the vignettes of Harold’s interactions with strangers met along the way are vivid in the telling and oh so British.   It is a very introspective look at one man’s life is an oddly personal way.  Harold Fry is a very endearing character. His life trials while not unique are told in a manner that make them very real and often heartbreaking.  The final chapters of the book reveal the plot elements that have driven the story and bring together nicely the sadness, despair and redemption that is Harold’s life.  The story is life affirming.  I defy you not to root for this man to overcome his depression and succeed in his physical and spiritual journey. I think you’ll remember him long after you finish this book.

The Language of Flowers - Review and Giveaway

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, narrated by Tara Sands, Audible Audio, 10 hrs., 50 min, August 2011

This is a story that will stick with you for a long time.

This is the story of Victoria Jones, who at age 18 has been emancipated from the foster care system.  It is a story that will stick with you for a long time.  Victoria has been placed unsuccessfully in numerous foster care homes by a social worker who only seems happy when she has passed the burden of Victoria to someone else.  When Victoria is freed of this system she is bitter, angry and unable to connect with most people.  She decides to live in a small park and plant a flower garden.  She was introduced to flowers and their meanings (the language) by Elizabeth a woman who had wanted to adopt Victoria when she was younger.  The story is told by alternating chapters from Victoria’s life 10 years ago and her life today.   She is hired by a florist and her natural ability with flowers allows her by sheer willpower to put together a life.  She has an uncanny ability to arrange and choose flowers that communicate the feelings of the giver.  She becomes successful at this and almost is able to overcome her aloneness and find happiness.  She connects with another florist, Grant and they develop a relationship.  You are told the back-story of her childhood in small pieces.  She is taken in by Elizabeth and very nearly adopted, we don’t know the reason it failed until late in the story.  I don’t want to give away much of this plot as it is lovingly doled out by the author over the entire book. 

The author’s use of flowers and their meanings, developed by Victorians in the late nineteenth century, adds an unusual dimension to the story.  Evidently there was an entire language of flowers.  When a Victorian maiden would receive a bouquet she would rush to interpret the sender’s meaning - Helioptrope (devoted affection), Black-Eyed Susan (justice), Hawthorn (hope), Liatris (I will try again), and Lisianthus (appreciation).

This is really a novel about relationships and how imperfect they can be.  Just when you hope that Victoria will triumph and sustain a loving relationship the insecurities of her childhood rise up and overwhelm her.  This is an emotional rollercoaster of a story that in the end does allow imperfect people who love to be rewarded for their persistence, but getting there will take its toll on the reader.  I listened to the audio version of this book and Tara Sands the narrator was superb! 

This book is just being released in paperback and the publisher has given me a copy for giveaway, if you are interested follow the directions to the right of this box.  Giveaway ends May 28.  This book would be a great bookclub read.

I listened to audio of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar

by Suzanne Joinson, Bloomsbury USA, May, 2012                                                        ... good story, great atmosphere, likeable characters and interesting plot

This story of two sisters who go off in missionary service to Kashgar (western China on the Silk Road) is set in 1923. One sister Elizabeth has a strong religious calling fostered by her mentor Millicent an older worldly woman. The second sister and story narrator Evangeline has very different motives.  Eva desires to leave England and have adventures. She has been given a book contract to relate her experiences cycling in the Far East (hence the title). Accompanied by Millicent the ladies set off on their adventures and adventures they do have!  First off, they assist a pregnant mother who delivers a baby girl on the roadside and promptly dies. The missionaries take the newborn along with them.They arrive in Kashgar to a very unwelcoming crowd of Moslems, Chinese, Turkmen and others. Millicent and Elizabeth throw themselves passionately into attempting to convert the locals to Christianity; Evangeline can see the fruitlessness and even danger in their work but is powerless to stop this force.Without giving too much away let’s just say things go downhill from there.

In a present day story that is intertwined the author introduces Frieda, an English woman   who has worked in the Moslem world for a think tank trying to sort out the problems in the communication between Christians and Moslems.  Frieda is weary of her rootless, peripatetic life and her needy lover Nathaniel when she meets Tayeb a Yemeni immigrant on the lam from the authorities.  At the same time she is notified that she is the sole heir to a woman that she has never heard of.  Frieda and Tayeb develop a supportive relationship and assist each other in coping with mysteries and changes in their lives. 

In the last third of the book the two narratives come together in a clever way.  I liked this story, the 1923 parts better than the present day narrative.  The exotic and strange life style and customs of  Kashgar were fascinating.  I also appreciated the elements of true history interspersed into the story - rebellions, uprisings and battles.  I liked the writing style; it was straightforward and evocative of the time and place without being overly descriptive.  I thought that most of the characters were well developed with clear motivations; I did struggle with the motivations of Millicent.

So for me this was good story, well written with great atmosphere, likeable characters and an interesting plot.  

 I read an advanced copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Houghton, Mifflin Harcourt, April 2005

...I am really looking forward to this movie, I bet it is a wildy better than the book!

This is the story of a young boy who has lost his father in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Oskar Schnell is depressed and deeply traumatized by his loss. After his father’s death, Oskar finds a key that his father had hidden in a vase. He sets off on a mission to find out what the key opens. His travels take him to all five of the NYC boroughs and his quest eventually helps him deal with the loss of his father. A backdrop to the story is his paternal grandparents experience in the firebombing of Dresden during WWII. The grandparents’ story is interspersed through Oskar’s adventures.

I don’t know when I’ve read a book that I’ve had such mixed feeling about. Oskar’s story is very well told. I was moved near to tears at how real his pain and loss is expressed in this story. His voice rings strong, true and heartfelt. The dialogue was perfect for a precocious nine year old, at times witty, at times clever, at times deeply sad. His expression for his grief – “I felt heavy in my boots” – was for me just perfect. His flights of fantasy in creating “Inventions” seem spot on for a bright young boy. It would have been easy to make Oskar’s story descend into cheap sentimentalism but the author doesn’t, he tells it in a way that is sensitive and realistic.

Now for the parts of the book that almost caused me to toss the book across the room. The grandparents story was told in an almost incomprehensible manner – was there no editor involved in this process? The grandparents have lives that have been greatly diminished by their experience in Dresden. Their marriage was a compromise for both of them. Their methods of dealing with their losses and trying to build a life are strange. Even though I found their story unusual I really objected to the way the author told it. Some of the pages contained a single word, some pages were filled with words that did not make sense and some pages were unreadable because the typeset was intentionally blurred. I’ve never read a graphic novel but if this is an example of one you can keep them. I think what I enjoy about reading is the picture the author creates in my mind by using words and the richness and depth of the experience that words bring to the story. None of this was present for me in the grandparents’ story.

I rarely think this but I am really looking forward to this movie,I am sure it will be well edited and  I bet it is a wildly better than the book!

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Cat's Table

The Cat's Table

 by Michael Ondaatje, October 2011, Knopf, Inc.

This is a beautifully written book with indelible images that in the end did not fulfill the promise of its opening.

The Cat’s Table is a coming of age novel. In it the narrator, Michael an 11 year old boy tells the story of his solo ship voyage from Ceylon to England in the early 1950s. Michael is seated at the Cat’s table, the table lowest in status and farthest from the captain’s table. He makes two friends, Cassius and Ramadhin, and their ship board adventures make for the most interesting parts of the book. The story is rich with eccentric characters. A musician, Mr. Mazappa, after teaching them obscene lyrics to songs sets them off on their adventures. Mr. Daniels has transformed a lower level of the ship into a botanical garden; a strange Australian girl roller skates the deck of the ship early each morning; a prisoner is kept below deck and only taken out for midnight walks; a thief with Michael’s help invades first class cabins and steals; a group of acrobats and a deaf girl add to the mystery; Miss Lasqueti has a mysterious background and travels with a crate of carrier pigeons, Sir Hector deSilva a wealthy passenger who is quite ill and perhaps has had a spell cast on him.

The author brings each of these characters in and out of the narrative as the voyage slowly takes place and the plot coalesces. Many of the events the boys don’t quite understand at the time but come to understand later in life -“Over the years, confusing fragments, lost corners of stories, have a clearer meaning when seen in a new light, a different place." The first half of this novel which is set on the ship is very strong. There is a great sense of time and place conveyed in the words. The whimsy and wonder that they boys have in their explorations is palpable. As with most of Ondaatje’s writing the metaphors abound, starting with the voyage itself as a symbol of the passage from childhood to adulthood and the Cat’s table as a symbol for the left behind and forgotten. For me, when the story left the voyage and went into future events it lost much of its energy. This is a beautifully written book with images that are indelible, at times I stopped to reread a paragraph so I could savor the scene that was described, and it just seemed to come alive on the page. In the end though I did not think this story fulfilled the promise of the beginning and ended on a weak note.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, Farrar, Straus and Giroux October 2011

 "...a weak story well told"

For me The Marriage Plot was my most anticipated book of the year. I had read Eugenides earlier works (Middlesex, Virgin Suicides) and loved them. I went to hear the author read from his work and answer questions at the Free Library session he conducted. All of this anticipation I think added to my disappointment with this story.

The setting for the novel is the Brown University campus in 1982. There are three central characters – Madeline, an indulged rich girl is a Literature major who loves the works of the great Victorian novelists (Eliot, James, etc.); Leonard is a brilliant biology major who has bipolar disease; Mitchell an idealist majoring in religious studies rounds out the trio. The story opens on graduation day. Madeline and Leonard have been lovers but have separated. On the way to graduation Madeline finds out that Leonard has been hospitalized for his bipolar disorder, she skips graduation joins him at the hospital and begins a period that ends up with her marriage to him a year later. Mitchell has been in love with Madeline (or an idealized version of her) since freshman year but his love is unrequited. The story is told in three parts from each of their view points. 
Let me first concentrate on what I liked about this novel. Eugenides is able to create genuine characters that have a real depth to them. The sections where Leonard’s mental illness is depicted were excellent. He described the lithium effects on Leonard’s personality and he gives real understanding to the depression that he suffers from. I read these parts and was sure that Eugenides must have had firsthand experience with mental illness to write this well. Leonard is the most developed of the characters; we get his back story of family problems and have a real understanding of his personality. Mitchell is also a well done character, he is the seeker of truth and beauty in the trio, even his idealism rings true for a 22 year old. His trip to work at Mother Teresa’s hospital in India (something Eugenides did) and his eventual dawning that he is not meant to become a religious mystic again rings true in the telling. I also liked the way Eugenides was able to describe the places where the novel occurred. The Brown campus, the genetics laboratory and the upper class New Jersey society all were worlds that were lush with detail and alive to the reader.

There were a number of things I did not like about this novel. I thought that the number of literary and philosophical references (some of which I understood, most of which probably passed me by), were too clever and in the end pretentious and distracting from the story. I really didn’t care for any of the characters, Leonard was narcissistic to the point of annoyance – I know, I know he was mentally ill – but it didn’t make him any more likeable. Madeline, like Mitchell was an idealist, but she seemed to also be self absorbed and really didn’t show much character growth. I was never able to understand what she saw in Leonard. Mitchell was the best of them, but again not enough for me to care about. Lastly, I thought the story lacked tension, probably because toward the end I had only a mild interest in the fate of these characters.

This novel is not Eugenides best effort. He is a fine writer who is erudite, witty and clever but that isn’t enough to carry this novel – a weak story well told.
I read a copy of this book that I purchased.

Rules of Civility

Rules of Civility: A Novel

by Amor Towles, Viking Adult, July 2011

If you want to visit another time another place that is both romantic and sophiscated read this book

Spoilers ahead
In Amor Towles stunning first novel, rich with period detail, the elegance of New York City in the late 1930s comes alive. The story centers on Katey, Eve and Tinker, three friends. The two women are roommates in a boarding house in NYC and they meet Tinker, an investment banker, in a jazz club. The story is told by Katey in a flash back. All of the action comes in the year 1938. Katey (aka Katya) is the daughter of Russian immigrants working in the steno pool at a law firm but out to better her circumstances. Eve is a Midwestern girl, intent on making her own way rather than take money from her well to do parents. Tinker, a man of mystery, seems the very essence of an old money Ivy League WASP now working on Wall St. The trio are involved in an auto accident when Tinker drives their car into a pole. Eve is seriously injured and disfigured. While initially Tinker and Katey seem destined to be a couple, Eve’s injuries change that dynamic. Tinker and Eve travel to Florida and Europe; Katey is courted by Wallace a wealthy, idealistic, liberal intent on fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

In the retelling this plot sound somewhat insipid but nothing could be farther from the truth with this story. Katey is a strong heroine. While she is intrigued by the world of wealth and security, she sees in the upper classes she remains grounded and loyal to her upbringing. The story focuses on the choices she makes, some small some large that drive her life - quitting her job, calling in sick, getting a ride to the city from a suburban party.

All of the characters are interesting – flawed but so believable. The relationships among the three friends and some of the minor characters that are introduced are fascinating and really well told. The dialogue is witty and entertaining, reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles! Many reviewers have noted the similarity to Fitzgerald and I’d have to agree. Pre WWII high society NYC has never seemed as alive as in this story. If you want to visit another time, another place that is both romantic and sophiscated read this book.

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

The Watery Part of the World

The Watery Part of the World by Michael Parker, Algonquin Books, April 26, 2011

...this relatively short novel really did not move me
To my mind, this story brimmed with possibility. It promised a story spanning the time period of 1800 to present day on an Outer Bank Island. Taking the life of Theodosia Burr, daughter of Aaron Burr who was lost off the Outer Banks and never again heard from, the author postulates that she survived tragedy at sea and built a life and had a family on the fictional island of Yaupon. In a parallel story 150 years later, two white women descendents of Burr live out the last days on the island with a black man, also a long time island resident. They are the only inhabitants of the island.


The story in the 1800s has lots of color. In the fictional account Burr is saved from a pirate attack because the pirate captain is convinced she is mad “touched by God”. Burr had been extremely well educated by her father and was thought to be the most well educated woman in the US at that time. Then she falls into a world where foraging for shipwrecked cargo is a more valued skill that reciting Shakespeare. Despite this she adapts and thrives on this island. She meets a former pirate and falls in love with him. Her strong will to live allows her to make a life for herself and her offspring on this island. She is a memorable character.

The 1950s story of the island residents, the two white sisters Whaley and Maggie, and Woodrow a black man descendent from a free African is really quite strange and hard to relate to. Talk about lives of quiet desperation, Thoreau must have had this crew in mind with that phrase. The elder sister Whaley, the more eccentric of the two is devoted to preserving her interpretation of the island’s history. Each year they are visited by anthropologists (called the Taperecorders). Whaley assumes an old island brogue and relates the history back to Theodosia leaving out any issues that would reflect poorly on the family. The younger sister unable to escape the island’s hold on her life mourns the loss of a love affair with a man who left the island. Woodrow also heavily drawn to life on this island is a remote character who in very understated ways expresses the frustration of the subservient black man in his relationship with these women. The relationships between and among these three characters is the central theme of this story; they have a strange, odd dependency among them. I found this second story somewhat dissatisfying in dealing with the race issue, while it is of great importance in their relationships it is never really tackled head on. I guess the other criticism I had of this second story was that the characters were all so passive and the island hold on them was so strong. While that is surely possible it is overwhelmingly sad to have lives wasted in this way.

So this relatively short (272 pages) novel really did not move me. I liked the section dealing with Theodosia and her adaption to life on the island. All of the prose relating to the island was good and gave a dreamy (perhaps watery?) feel to the story. Lastly I was left cold with the 1950s section.

I read a copy of this novel borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Coffins of Little Hope

The Coffins of Little Hope

by Timothy Schaffert, Unbridled Books, April 2011

...for a summer read it is quirky, charming and memorable.

This story is narrated by 83 year old Essie Myles, obituary writer for a small town newspaper in a mid west small town. There are three plot lines going – Essie’s relationship with her family, her grandson Doc and great granddaughter Tiff; the local publication of the last in a series of gothic children’s books (read H. Potter) and the disappearance of a local girl who may in fact have never existed.

The plot meanders along as all of the characters are introduced. I absolutely loved the voice of Essie. I can’t remember when I last read a book that had an 83 year old narrator. She is a great character very much alive with a wisdom developed over a lifetime – I really cared for her.

The author gently satirizes the culture we live in where the news media relentlessly covers scandals and feeds the public obsession with these cases. When news of the missing girl Lenore isn’t available, news is manufactured to continue the story. There is real doubt as to whether Lenore ever existed, but in the end it doesn’t matter because the story has a life of its own.

The printing of the children’s books (last in the series is Coffins of Little Hope) is done by the presses at the local paper. The author of these books, a character in how own right, also becomes fascinated with Lenore’s disappearance and arrives on the scene to add to the hilarity of the story.

Essie’s relationship with the two people she cares for the most Doc and Tiff is nicely told. The friendship between Tiff and her great grandmother is believable and filled with the everyday moments that make up a life. Tiff is a child who has been abandoned by her mother, raised by her uncle Doc and now trying to reestablish a relationship with her mother. Essie stands with her as a support but encourages her to make her own choices in facing life.

The plot is almost incidental and really just lazes along. This definitely is not an action story. It is a story of delightful characters. In the end I felt like I really knew and liked these people. At less than 300 pages it isn’t a major time investment but for a summer read it is quirky, charming and memorable.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

The Tigers Wife

The Tiger's Wife: A Novel
by Tea Obreht, narrated by Susan Duerdin and Robin Sachs, Random House Audio, March 2011, 11 hours, 26 minutes.


...the stories are folkloric and individually are very good, great prose and really very lyrical in the telling, but I can’t get on the bandwagon for this one

This story is set in the Balkans, most probably modern day Croatia where the author is from. The centuries old ethnic fighting gives background to this unusual story. Natalie Stefanovi, a physician on a “cross border” mission to inoculate children is the main character and narrator. Natalie has just learned that her beloved grandfather has died far from home. Her grandfather, a well known physician has been forced from his medical practice because he is suspected of disloyalty to the new state. Natalie interrupts her volunteer medical mission and seeks answers to his death. The story then separates into a number of different threads - some occurring in the present and some from her grandfathers youth when the Nazi’s invaded Yugoslavia. All of the stories are folkloric and individually are very good, great prose and really very lyrical in the telling.

The Tiger’s Wife sub story tells of an escaped tiger from the Belgrade Zoo and a deaf mute who befriends him. The presence of the tiger terrorizes the village and its inhabitants but not the deaf mute who in the face of death remains unafraid. The story of the Butcher, the Pharmacist and the Bear Trainer provide vehicles for the author to describe not only the rich ethnic background of the area but also differing views on life and death. The Deathless Man is a story of a character who cannot die but appears at the scenes of catastrophe (no shortage of these in the Balkans, always man made). Another story set in the present tells of a large family digging to recover the bones of a close relative so he may be properly buried and centuries old traditions honored. Superstition and fear have prominent roles in most of the stories.

As maybe you can tell from my review so far, I was not wild about this novel. Individual stories were very good but overall I did not think they tied together well. For a novel that deals with some very basic human emotions, the main character Natalie was strangely unemotional. The allegorical nature of the novel was as usual wasted on me. I am not a fan of puzzling out what the author is trying to say (I know, I know that is a key element of great literature but it started early for me – reading Coleridge in high school I could never get the fuss over the albatross in Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner).

So while the author has been selected by The New Yorker as one of the best writers under 40 with this her debut novel, I can’t get on the bandwagon for this one. I also listened to an audio copy read primarily by Susan Duerdin. I wasn’t a fan of her reading style, a little too breathless and in the moment for this sadly recurring Balkan tragedy.
I listened to an audio copy borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

Faith

Faith: A Novel

by Jennifer Haigh, read by Therese Plummer, Harper Audio Productions, 10 hours, 4 minutes, May 2011

...the author gets these characters pitch perfect.

Faith is billed as a story about the sexual abuse scandals in the US Catholic church, but it’s really a family drama with the abuse scandal as a key part. Set in 2002 in the Boston diocese, ground zero for the scandal in the US, this story centers on the McGann Family- a lace curtain Irish brood with a myriad of dysfunctional behaviors. Sheila, the daughter has been long estranged from most of the family but has remained close to her elder brother Art, a popular pastor in a suburban Boston church. Sheila’s younger brother Mike and her parents Ted and Mary round out the family. Sheila returns to Boston when her brother is accused of sexual abuse of a child from his parish. Sheila finds her mother in denial, her brother Mike believing his brother guilty and Father Art himself strangely reluctant to defend himself from the accusations. Sheila arrives in Boston convinced of her brother’s innocence but slowly that faith wavers.

This is a character driven novel with some mystery to it. Sheila narrates the story and presents a slow but steady stream of information that is enlightening. The descriptions and back story of each of the family members is fascinating and helps explain the behaviors of these folks. The author gets it just right. The mother Mary is a deeply repressed soul unable to cope with situations that don’t fall within her very straight-laced world view. The role of her alcoholic husband and his slow steady decline to a shell of himself is tragically told. Mike, the younger brother very different from Father Art is impulsive in all things. The most interesting character for me was Father Art. His boyhood, entry into the priesthood and parish activities are examined. I can’t help but feel that there were a number of younG boys  like Art who ended up as priests with no idea exactly how they made that life choice. Don’t want to give away too much of the plot here but let me say that the author gets these characters pitch perfect. While I don’t exactly know people who would match up to this family, I have seen parts of these personalities in a number of people I know. This story takes a look at the abuse scandal from a very different view and actually left me with some compassion for all of the victims here.

I listened to an audio reading of this book by Therese Plummer. It was a very good production and I’d recommend it.

I listened to an audio copy provided by the publisher.

State of Wonder

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, Harper, June 2011

...this is a good yarn that I believe readers will embrace and enjoy

A Minnesota physician, Marina Singh working for a big pharmaceutical company is sent by the CEO Jim Fox to the Amazon jungles to follow-up after the death of a colleague. The company has supported the unorthodox work of an obsessed researcher, Annick Swenson who has worked with a remote jungle tribe where the women maintain fertility well into their 70s. Singh has ties to all of the principals – she is lover to Jim Fox, colleague and friend to the dead employee and former student of Swenson. After cooling her heels with a couple of ex pat Australians in the Brazilian city of Manaus she finally is taken to the jungle research station. Then the fun begins. I don’t want to give away plot details here but while not exactly entirely believable from the scientific viewpoint, the story is credible.

This story has all of the elements of a good read – wonderfully described exotic setting in the jungles of Brazil; a story that is complex and contains enough plot twists to hold the reader’s attention; excellent character development that onion like leaves the reader knowing more and more about the principals and lastly a denouement that is very well done. For me what keeps this latest Ann Patchett from the highest rating was the main character, Marina Singh. She is an unlikely adventure heroine with no end of unresolved issues. She had an absent father who continues to haunt her dreams (a bit too many nightmares in my opinion), professional insecurities, and a love affair to which she has only a half hearted commitment. She careens from long periods of inaction into wonder woman like live saving fetes (beheading a 15 ft. anaconda with a machete, performing C-sections with shoe horns, facing down cannibals). Patchett allows her to face her demons and develop into a plausible heroine but in the end her character has a certain flatness to it that I couldn’t get beyond. The author does leave some ambiguous hope for a brighter future for Singh in the ending though. Don’t take this minor criticism as a negative, this is a good yarn that I believe readers will embrace and enjoy. I expect to see it widely read on the beach this summer.

I read a copy of this book provided by the Amazon vine program.

Doc

Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell, Random House, May 2011

... Doc is a unique character brought to life with all of his charms intact, you can't help but like him

In Doc, Mary Doria Russell has taken us to the Wild West, Dodge City 1878 to be specific. Dodge City functions for the express purpose of separating Texas cattle drivers from the money they bring to town using card games, alcohol and prostitutes. Into this wild place comes John Henry Holliday (Doc). He is a young man from Georgia doomed to an early death by the tuberculosis in his lungs. He lives life for all he is worth. A trained dentist he primarily earns his living playing poker. Along with his girlfriend, Kate a sometime aristocrat and now prostitute he settles into Dodge City's colorful lifestyle. Local characters include the Earp brothers, Wyatt, Morgan, James and Virgil, and the county sheriff Bat Masterson. Wyatt is employed as the local law enforcement in Dodge. There is the mysterious death of Johnnie Sanders, a mixed race young man who was friend to Doc and Wyatt that provides the backdrop of this story.

Dodge City a wild place and Russell brings it vividly to life. Her characters are real and we come to know the people not the legends that Hollywood has given us. Even the minor characters China Joe, Bat Masterson, Eddie Foy (yes that Eddie Foy), a Jesuit priest, and the local merchants are richly drawn and memorable. This really though is the story of Doc and he is a unique character brought to life with all of his charms intact, you can't help but like him. The murder mystery is really a minor part of this wonderful character driven novel. In the notes Russell outlines the parts of her story that are based on fact and surprisingly quite a bit of it is. While this novel is not in the same class as Russell's psychological sci fi novel The Sparrow it is a good read.

I read a copy of this book provided by the Amazon Vine program