First Wednesday Book Review Club: BURIAL RITES

Every once in a while, Megan sends along a book she's been especially impressed by and BURIAL RITES was one of them. Phil grabbed it first, being strangely enamored with Iceland. I read it next and was blown away by the writing, by the research that went into that writing, and most of all by the characters and story. It was impossible to believe this was a first novel by a young doctoral student but it was.

The story, based on historical record and heightened immeasurably by Ms. Kent's wonderful ability to step inside the character, is set in the remote and religious Iceland of 1829. This is a society that cuts no slack for poor women who have no defenders. Agnes Magnúsdóttir, along with her supposed confederate in a crime,  is condemned to death for the brutal murder of two men. She is sent to wait out the months leading up to her execution on the farm of district officer Jón Jónsson, his wife and their two daughters. This is the only place that she can safely await her death. 

The family, especially the mother, is resentful, frightened, and embarrassed at having to harbor a murderess in their small cottage. They avoid contact with Agnes as much as possible but assign her back-breaking labor. Often this labor brings them into close contact with their guest. We get inside Agnes' head and learn how she came to her death sentence, but we also get insight into the family. And into the priest sent to hear her confession.

The priest hears Agnes’s side of the story and provides her with succor despite being advised to keep his emotional distance. Over the course of the year, the family begins to view her differently and listens, as they must in their tiny cottage, to her confession.

Based on a true story, Burial Rites is a fantastic novel about so many things. Yes, we learn about Iceland at that time. But more than that, we see how women can easily become little more than currency if men choose to make them thus. Agnes never stood a chance coming from her circumstances despite being intelligent and resourceful. 
  
With a writing style as lucid and bracing as an Icelandic winter, Hannah Ken's sad but beautiful novel makes us hunger for her next one. 

THIS BOOKS DEBUTS IN EARLY SEPTEMBER. Megan sent me an ARC. 

First Wednesday Book Review Club

TRUST YOUR EYES, Linwood Barclay

When Ray Kilbride's father dies, he moves back home to settle the estate and make arrangements for his brother, Thomas. Thomas has not left the house, except for doctor visits, for many years. He spends his days mapping, through a computer system, every street in the world. He believes that this knowledge will save the world after the coming apocalypse. When brother Ray, an illustrator, agrees to follow up on an image that has upset Thomas, the two run afoul of a dangerous circle of people. Ray, with the help of Thomas, must settle both this issue and determine exactly how their father died and what is the secret from Thomas's past that perhaps precipitated his agoraphobia.

TRUST YOUR EYES is a technological hat tip to REAR WINDOW. Very enjoyable.

This is a sure-footed thriller with action that never lets up. Highly recommended for those looking for a speedy, exciting read. Some days that is more than enough.

For more reviews, see Barrie Summy. 

First Wednesday Book Review Club: THE UPRIGHT PIANO PLAYER, David Abbott

I have read THE UPRIGHT PIANO PLAYER twice in the last two years due to book club misunderstanding. It is a short book that seems much longer in terms of the ground covered, the number of characters, the years that pass, the plot.

Henry Cage is an enigmatic protagonist to say the least. Despite what seem outwardly like a successful life, he is left by his wife, spurned by his son, a stranger to his grandson, forced out of his career, and harassed by a man who knocks into him after a party. Yet none of these things lead him to much self-reflection. He seems unable to give much and is puzzled at the consequent results of his behavior.

This is a book that has been reviewed favorably yet not one of the women in my book group enjoyed it or even thought it a very good novel. These were the reasons they expressed:: they had no more understanding of Henry Cage by the end of the book than at the beginning--oh, yes, he had changed but it was not clear why. There were too many POVs that seemed unnecessary. Sometimes it was hard to sort out whose head we were in. Every character gets moments of reflection. So many in fact that this may have been what kept us from understanding Henry. The book begins with a horrific incident--an incident so horrible that we all dreaded having to go through it again. The author seemed determined to drape every character in tragedy, in fact. 

Having said this, I have thought about this book quite a bit. I wish we had been told more about his childhood, what made him such a inward man, so unreflective and aloof. I know back stories are unpopular nowadays but a character like Henry needs one if we are to have any hope of peering inside his head. What made Henry the man he was?

For more book review, see Barrie Summy. 

Who is the most enigmatic character you have read about? 

First Wednesday Book Review Club

                                                    Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward

This is one of those books you admire, you are in awe of, yet something about it doesn't quite draw you in. And in this case, it is the hyper-focus on saving newborn puppies for a future in dog fighting that is the problem for me. Now I well understand why this poor black family in the days leading up to Katerina are in the business--they already own a prize winning pit bull. With no mother and an alcoholic father, one brother seizes on this as a solution to their economic plight. These puppies will sell for a a high amount since their mother is a local legend. The fourteen year-old daughter, Esch, tells the story. She is pregnant, and that of course contrasts well with the attempt to save the mother and the new puppies. Ward nails so many things including how a girl that age is more concerned with getting the romantic interest of the father than what lies ahead for her as a teenage Mom. I liked this family; they vibrated with life.

What is most remarkable here is the writing. It is lush, original, gem-like. And the evocation of the storm is brilliant too. A little less talk about birthing puppies might have made this my favorite book of the last six months. As it is, it is still near the top. 

For more book reviews, see Barrie Summy

First Wednesday Book Review Club: State Of Wonder

State of Wonder, Ann Patchett

I cannot say I found this an entirely successful outing for one of my favorite writers. This is the story of a trip by a female scientist to a primitive part of the world. And the best part of the book is the evocation of that world. How alien it seems to us. And to Dr. Singh. Snakes, rats, cannibals, disease, drugs that are almost as difficult as the problems they solve. It is part of her assignment.

When a scientist for a pharmaceutical company disappears, his death is assumed, and another employee is sent to check on the details. The company is investigating the ability of a group of natives to both resist malaria and to have babies into their seventies. The second ability has the most cache for the company. Dr. Singh meets up with an early nemesis--the doctor who presided over her failure as a gynecologist. Now she is part of the research taking place in this remote place.

I found much of this book interesting, but I have to say the characters seemed more like voices for the moral quandary the doctor finds herself in than fully fleshed out characters. There is far too much discussion of the morality of scientific research to fully engage the reader. And yet, I finished the book so it had to have something. Maybe you will find it too.

First Wednesday Book Review Club: The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Margot Livesey

THE FLIGHT OF GEMMA HARDY, Margot Livesey,

I was very resistant to this book. On the face of it, it's Jane Eyre updated to the 1950s and set in Iceland and Scotland instead of England, but somehow seeming much the same. Does life never change in the U.K?

I stuck with it because the writing was so good. I have been a fan of Livesay since EVA MOVES THE FURNITURE. But for a long time, I kept asking myself why write a novel so similar to such a famous one. Mistreated orphans, death at a young age for a companion, finding satisfaction as a job well done--being a governess, a romantic employer, flight, closure.

And I can't tell you why this story eventually won me over. Again, the writing is superb and the blueprint from Charlotte Bronte is a winner. On the jacket, it claims to be an homage. But homages need to take flight on their own.

At some point, this book did and the pages turned faster and faster as I read into the night.

SO HERE'S A QUESTION TO YOU: WHEN DOES AN HOMAGE OVERSTEP ITS BOUNDARIES OR ARE THERE NONE IF IT WORKS?

For more reviews, check with Barrie Summy.

First Wednesday Book Review Club: DEFENDING JACOB, William Landary

This is the story of prosecutor, Andy Barber, who's about to begin investigating the murder of his son's classmate when his fourteen-year old son is accused of the crime. Andy Barber is convinced a known pedophile in the town is guilty. There is some evidence to back him up.

But various issues complicate the arrest of this man. Facebook entries shows Jacob's classmates believe him guilty. Family history complicates things too. And Jacob himself has shown signs of violent behavior. Even his best friend is wary of him.

There are lots of twists and turns in DEFENDING JACOB. I am not a particular fan of courtroom novels and I grew somewhat weary of the pages of testimony here. Especially since two trials become part of the story. And I am also wary of using genetic explanations for behavior. Sociobiology both excuses bad behavior and condemns it as involuntary.

But this was a compelling read, with lots of twists and turns to keep the pages turning quickly. It had enough psychological underpinnings and believable family interplay to carry me along.

More book reviews can be found by clicking the icon.

First Wednesday Book Review Club: The Lifeboat, Charlotte Rogan

Charlotte Rogan is publishing her first novel post age 50, which gives aspiring novelists a lift. And quite a novel it is. Set in 1914, as World War 1 is beginning, a ship, Empress Alexandra, goes down. Our narrator, a woman of 22, is one of the forty people that manage to get themselves on one of the lifeboats. Her recent husband does not.

We know from the start she is on trial for murder with two other women. They are accused of pushing the man who has commandeered the lifeboat overboard. The book examines what occurred on the life boat, which although said to be fit for forty is vastly overfilled. The weeks spent on the boat are full of degradation, hardship, starvation, madness.

There is an enigmatic quality to our narrator. How did she manage to wrestle her husband away from the woman he was engaged to? How did she manage to get a spot on the boat? How did she come away from the trial with a new husband in tow? Is she the naive woman she appears to be, taking her cues from more experienced travelers? Or is she more savy than her companions, push come to shove.

It will be up to you as the reader to judge her. Perhaps your judgement will be harsher than her jury's. Or perhaps more lenient than her fellow travelers. This is a deep and troubling book you will not soon forget. We learn very little about the men on this boat, but a lot about the woman.
This is fitting, I think. Highly recommended.


For more reviews, see Barrie Summy.

First Wednesday Book Review Club: THE ODDS, Stewart O'Nan

Another brilliant novel by the master.

A middle-aged couple, headed for divorce, decides to spend their final weekend together (Valentine's Day) at Niagara Falls, where they spent their first one.

They also decide to take the money left in the bank after some disastrous decisions and see if they can solve some of their troubles at the casino tables. This is not a travelogue of Niagara Falls but one that winds through their past a bit. They seldom leave the hotel, restaurants and casino in this book.

Sad, lovely, romantic, despairing, hopeful--all of these in this portrait of a marriage and what can go wrong and right with it. Just great stuff. There is no better contemporary writer (ahem, well maybe one) for me.

Check out other reviews at Barrie Summy's place.

First Wednesdays Book Review: Austentatious by Alyssa Goodnight

Austentatious, by Alyssa Goodnight

As much as some of us might contend that genre is an arbitrary slot to fit books into--and that all books are basically a story--that's not really true IMHO. If the main thrust of a story is a crime or criminals, we might correctly call it crime fiction even if the writer is Tolstoy. If the main circumstances are set in a hard-scrabble town beset by troubles with cattle rustlers in 1870, we might call it a Western.

If the conflict is between two planets hurling toward each other in outer space, that would certainly be science fiction to me. And if the protagonist is mostly looking for a companion, that is romance in my book.

Now the argument that there is no genre might work better for me if people read outside their preferred setting more often. And some readers do. But a heck of a lot of people only read what is classified as literary fiction-and I find it very hard to persuade them that they might like Started Early, Took My Dog, for instance. Likewise it is hard to convince me to try fantasy, science fiction, or in the case today, chick lit or romance. Although I can be persuaded to watch a movie like FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, I probably would never read the book.

Looking over the books I have read in the last fifteen years or so, I see only one book that might be classified as a romance and that is THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. It was one of those arm-twisting cases too.

I have also read no science fiction or fantasy over these years. Am I missing something? Of course.

I just finished AUSTENTATIOUS by Alyssa Goodlight for Barrie Summy's monthly review group. It was clever, well-written, enjoyable, and light-hearted. I liked the use of Austen and Austin, TX in it. I like that music figured into it. It felt real, populated with real people despite its magical elements. Let me tell you a bit about it.

The Austin setting was perfect for the story. Nic James, a newly minted engineer, is browsing in a shop in weird South Austin (been there and this brought that street back to me) and comes across a vintage journal. The journal is tucked between a set of Austen novels so it seems fortuitous to our Austen lover. (I never met an engineer who liked Austen but I suppose there are some). She takes the journal home and once she enters her first thoughts into the journal, those words are magically changed to push her in the direction any good Austen heroine will take--look for romance.

Fairy Jane as Nic calls her steers Nic right onto the path of a perfect romantic figure, Sean, a musician from Scotland. Austin and music are certainly a perfect fit. I pictured Hugh Grant in his younger days. The path of this romance changes Nic in the ways Elizabeth Bennet was changed by her love for Mr. Darcy. And that's a good thing for them both. The corset comes off or is at least loosened.

Alyssa Goodnight says that Jane took over the book at some point and isn't that how the best stories get told. I think anyone who likes a well-written romance will enjoy this book and maybe a few of the rest of you too.

Disclosure: this book was sent to me by the publisher in the hope I would like it enough to review it.

For more looks at books, visit Barrie Summy right here.

Book Review Club; MUDBOUND, Hillary Jordan

Sometimes belonging to a book group makes you read books you would never have come across on your own. This is one of them.

The story takes place in the years of the Second World War in the Mississippi Delta. It's told in multiple voices, which gives us insight into a number of characters, all of them wrestling with the lot fate has dealt them.

Two returning soldiers both struggle with what the war has done to them--one white, one black. The black soldier has actually been treated better as a soldier in Europe than he will ever be in the South of the 1940s.

The black soldier's family, sharecroppers, wrestle with the indignities forced on them in that era (leaving stores by back doors, taking what's left of virtually everything). The wife of the land owner (and they are not rich either) is college-educated but must live in a shack when her husband loses their potential house to a sharper bidder. Their marriage is not an easy one.

All of these characters have noble moments and lesser ones. The Mississippi of THE HELP looks more evolved than twenty years earlier. This is a sad book but one that will stay with you.

For more First Wednesday book review, check out Barrie Summy.

First Wednesday Book Review, TURN OF MIND, Alice LaPlante

Turn of Mind is the story of a sixty-four year old female hand surgeon accused of a crime she can't remember committing.

This is because she has Alzheimer's, and day by day her insight into her predicament and her life becomes more and more fragile. On good days, she recognizes her children and has memories of her past. But on many days, they are no more familiar to her than her caretaker or a stranger walking down the street.

Dr. Jennifer White is an enigma to the reader too. She seems to have been a rather remote mother, wife and friend. Or is this the disease? Has it taken away the qualities that would make us like her more.

The writing in this novel is highly original as LaPlante captures the elusive quality of Dr. White's life through her cryptic writing. The pages turn quickly and yet, at the end, I felt a bit disappointed. Perhaps it began too late in her disease to have a real feel for who she was.

Likewise the supporting characters seem remote and mysterious. But this is what Alzheimers does to its victims, so how can I fault it? It was certainly a very fine book, but perhaps not as good as I expected. And the mystery of the crime is solved in a rather desultory way.

For more book reviews, go to Barry Summie's blog.

First Wednesday Book Review, Time Will Darken It. William Maxwell

William Maxwell was one of my favorite writers. He died about a decade ago leaving a handful of novels and many shorts stories and essays. My favorite of his novels is TIME WILL DARKEN IT.

When the King family is paid a visit from distant Southern relatives, Austin King, eager to impress a female cousin and repay their kindness to his father, behaves in such a way as to threaten his marriage, his law practice, and his reputation as a young attorney. His pregnant wife is especially torn asunder by his actions.

Maxwell makes every character in this seemingly ordinary story come to life. I can't think of many books I closed so reluctantly and yet with such complete satisfaction. His novels include:

• Bright Center of Heaven (1934)
• They Came Like Swallows (1937)
  • An autobiographical novella about the cruel impact of the 1918 flu epidemic, as seen through the eyes of an 8-year-old midwestern child and his family
• The Folded Leaf (1945)
• Time Will Darken It (1948)
• The Chateau (1961)
• So Long, See You Tomorrow (1980) (Winner of the William Dean Howells Medal and National Book Award for Fiction)
  • An aging man remembers a boyhood friendship he had in 1920s Illinois which falters following a murder.

For more First Wednesdays reviews, visit Barrie Summy right here.

First Wednesday Book Review, THE PACK, Jason Starr

This was fun fast read that is hard to label precisely: part domestic drama, part crime story, part comedy, part horror story. Starr does a good job at keeping it fresh and accessible throughout. Each event follows on the heels of a precipitating one.

Simon Burns suddenly loses his job. Before he can blink, he is bundled up and escorted out the corporate America and turned into a house husband. His wife is okay with this, except when she isn't.

Things have begun to drag for Simon when he meets cute with three similar fathers at the play park. The guys seem happy with their lot in life. They immediately accept Simon, seeming glad to have him in their group, something that's been missing from his life of late. Burns' son likes their sons. Everything is copacetic until things turn strange after a late night party and a strange-tasting beer.

Suddenly Simon is the man he never was. Further plot summary will just dilute the surprises. This was a perfect summer read, which will make you laugh more than once. It is also a timely if light-hearted look at disenfranchised workers and their ill treatment.

For more book reviews, check out Barrie Summy's place.

First Wednesday Book Review, A Widow's Story, Joyce Carol Oates

I had intended to write a more comprehensive review of this book than what I did a few weeks back but time worked against me gathering my thoughts. So instead here is a list of books I have read recently and enjoyed including the Oates book, of course. You can find other book reviews at Barrie Summy's site.




The Ice Princess, Camilla Lackberg
Emily, Alone, Stewart O'Nan
The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, Tom Franklin
A Creative Kind of Killer, Sandra Scoppettone
Florida Gothic Stories, Vicki Hendricks
Townie, Andre Dubus III
Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver (sort of)
Various stories from ON DANGEROUS GROUND

What have you enjoyed lately?

First Wednesday Book Review, Emily Alone, Stewart O'Nan

FOR A FASCINATING PIECE ABOUT LA NOIRE, the new game and anthology, go here.
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I am a huge Stewart O'Nan fan and this book certainly lived up to my expectations. It is probably not for everyone though. It is the story of an elderly widow and a few rather lonely months in her life. It reminded me of MRS. BRIDGE for those who remember that wonderful novel.
Emily buries friends, entertains her family, frets about perceived slights, remembers both happier and unhappier times, cares for her dog, spends time with her cleaning woman and sister-in-law. Worries about her children.

And yet these small events add up to a life. Never for a moment do you doubt Emily exists as an elderly woman, quite aware of what lies ahead. She is neither better nor worse than the rest of us. O'Nan captures her so perfectly you forget for long periods that a man is inside her head.

To write like him....

For more review, visit Barrie Summy.

First Wednesday Book Review: MILDRED PIERCE, James Cain

I've talked about reading this book on here already, but it continues to reverberate in my mind a week later. And here is my mini review for Barrie Summy's Book Review Club.

MILDRED PIERCE is different from Cain's other work in that there are no murders, no crimes at all. It's a portrait of a woman in the years during the depression trying to support her two daughters and find some happiness for herself.

She turns out to be very good at supporting them financially and she parlays her skills for pie making into a small restaurant chain. She is less successful in supporting her family in other ways though and allows her unbridled love for her older daughter undo everything.

The men are not admirable; no one comes off very well. Economic distress may have a hand in this, of course. This book provides the reader with a good portrait of life in southern California during the depression. These are not the same people we see in THE GRAPES OF WRATH, of course. But they struggle too.

One of the biggest fascinations for me was how Cain laid out the details of life for Mildred Pierce: how a restaurant is run, how a waitress learns her craft, how people dress, decorate their homes, all of these things. And it also has four strong women as characters. Pretty unusual. It's the men who are weak in MILDRED PIERCE.

Mildred is one of the more enigmatic characters in fiction. Was she a monster herself? Did she turn the people in her lives into monsters? Would Vida have been the way she was if raised by someone else? Certainly Mildred's admiration for Vida's worst flaws, traits she saw as fine and noble rather than cruel and superficial, allowed them to flourish. Validated them. Would she have lost her husband had she provided him with more emotional support? These are the questions that make this book work so well.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for those who like dark characters.

For more book reviews today, check out Barrie Summys blog right here.

THE BOOK REVIEW CLUB

With the publication of Chang Rae Lee's fourth book SURVIVAL, I couldn't help but be reminded of his second book A GESTURE LIFE, which for me was the kind of book you pick up remaindered or at library sale and force on friends.

Although his first novel A NATIVE SPEAKER, was excellent and won many awards, this one is my favorite. I learned about several things I was not aware of before reading it besides being moved and admiring of the story and the graceful writing.

Hata is a retired Japanese businessman (a medical supplier) who lives in a suburban New York town where he is respected as a community leader for his polite, respectful ways.

But underneath this facade, he has been unable to form many bonds, including one with his daughter who has run away. After Hata nearly burns down his house and is hospitalized, his thoughts are forced back to his years in the Japanese army during the second world war. It is here, through brilliant flashbacks (yes, they can work when done well) that we learn the reasons for his aloofness.

During World War II, Korean women were forced to serve as "comfort women," satisfying the sexual needs of the Japanese soldiers to ensure high morale. A tragic incident involving a comfort woman forever shapes the life of Franklin "Doc" Hata.

In the jungles of Burma, Hata, an Army medic, made the mistake of falling in love with a comfort woman he calls "K," who was also the object of desire of a superior officer's. Hata, who was born Korean but adopted by a Japanese family (another event that distanced him), tries to protect K, and this attempt goes badly, influencing the rest of his life. He believes that the only way to protect himself from further tragedies is by an aloof politeness and leaving Asia behind.

It is only when Hata comes to term with what happened during the war and is able to see his life "as a gesture life" one filled with doing polite, if uninvolved acts, that he begins to become whole. This is a beautifully written and constructed book. I can think of very few books that have stayed with me more.

For more reviews, find your way to Barrie Summy's blog.

First Wednesdays Book Review Club: STONER

Stoner, John Williams

John Williams' remarkable 1965 novel has recently been reprinted by The New York Review of Books and is now available to us again.

William Stoner, a farm boy in Missouri, is sent to university by his father, who tells his son it will be helpful to the family for him to learn more modern farming methods. But instead Stoner discovers the great passion of his life—literature and the teaching of it—and he goes on to earn a doctorate in the subject. He meets and marries a local girl, has a child, and teaches at the university for the rest of his life. He is under-appreciated in this and in most things.

This description makes it sound like nothing much happens in this book—and in a sense, it does not. This book is about choices we make, and Stoner’s choice to put his love of literature and teaching on such a high pedestal both makes and destroys him. He is passive when he should be active in nearly every instance in this book. He is so deeply afraid of being deprived of teaching that he loses everything else instead.

This was a marvelous book. Written beautifully and making its points with the utmost subtlety. Williams (1922-94) won the National Book Award for AUGUSTUS in 1973.

If you want to read a book that makes you think about the choices you make, this is a great choice.

FOR MORE REVIEWS, VISIT BARRIE SUMMY HERE.

First Wednesdays Book Review Club

Set the Night on Fire by Libby Fischer Hellmann is one of the few books I’ve read in recent years that uses sixties’ radicalism in a crime fiction plot. And uses it to good avail. Hellmann tells an interesting story with just the right amount of attention to the climate of the sixties to anchor it. Her characters are fleshed out well, and we come to care about them in the past and in the present.

Dar Gartner is newly released from jail after serving a long prison sentence for an act of radicalism. In trying to put a new life together in Chicago, he also touches base with some members of his old group of friends. Friends who begin to die after his re-entry into their lives. His life seems in jeopardy as well.

One of the friends who dies is the father of Lila Hilliard. Hilliard, along with Lila's brother, perish in a house fire seemingly caused by faulty Christmas tree lights. Except Lila remembers unplugging the lights before she went out. As she investigates her father’s business affairs and the fire, her own life is threatened and she realizes there were things about her father and his tale of her long-dead mother that never quite added up.

So Lila and Dar begin circling each other, Lila wary at first, until in desperation they collectively put the puzzle together. Both are at risk and neither knows precisely where the threat is coming from, but both eventually conclude it's coming from past activities of the group of friends.

The reader travels back to the late sixties and watches the group of women and men living together, making the decisions that will effect the rest of their life. Through their circle, we're treated to insight into the types of young people drawn to radicalism and what price they were willing to pay to reform society. And also, what lengths they were willing to go to to cover their trail and how that history impacts the present.

The race of Lila and Dar to piece together the plot against them and act swiftly enough to save their lives makes this a thrilling read.

This was a very fine and compelling story.

Highly recommended.

Check out more reviews today at Barrie's place.