4.5 stars It’s brutal to read and not surprisingly. It’s about slavery after all . But that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautifully written. It’s written4.5 stars It’s brutal to read and not surprisingly. It’s about slavery after all . But that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautifully written. It’s written by Jesmyn Ward, after all . She takes us on the harrowing and horrific journey of Annis , a young slave woman as she is led, tied in ropes to other slave women, made to walk a treacherous landscape, cross rivers, while starving and wounded from from North Carolina to Louisiana. Horrific doesn’t adequately describe it, nor does gut wrenching and heartbreaking, but for lack of better words… Her wounds run deeper than on the body, deep in her heart and soul, suffering losses, and struggling to find her self. Annis’ journey is more than this brutal journey. It is a journey to be the strong woman her mother taught her to be, through stories, through her legacy to defend herself, a journey to be free.
I won’t say more about the plot. This is a story you should experience for yourself. I loved Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing and loved the ghost there , but there was a little too much magical realism here for me. I can’t quite give it 5 stars, but overall this is a stunning read that will shake you to your core .
Ward’s writing is just so beautiful: “ There's a green hill, trees all around us in an overturned bowl, a waterfall tossing down into a pool the same deep green as the trees around us. It's so beautiful I feel a turning in my chest, my heart a small bird stirring in its nest. For a moment, I don't feel bound. I forget what holds me. But the ache of me, through wrist and hip and thigh, tunnels me back down into my body, along with the rope. “
I received an advanced copy of this from Scribner through NetGalley.
Merged review:
4.5 stars It’s brutal to read and not surprisingly. It’s about slavery after all . But that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautifully written. It’s written by Jesmyn Ward, after all . She takes us on the harrowing and horrific journey of Annis , a young slave woman as she is led, tied in ropes to other slave women, made to walk a treacherous landscape, cross rivers, while starving and wounded from from North Carolina to Louisiana. Horrific doesn’t adequately describe it, nor does gut wrenching and heartbreaking, but for lack of better words… Her wounds run deeper than on the body, deep in her heart and soul, suffering losses, and struggling to find her self. Annis’ journey is more than this brutal journey. It is a journey to be the strong woman her mother taught her to be, through stories, through her legacy to defend herself, a journey to be free.
I won’t say more about the plot. This is a story you should experience for yourself. I loved Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing and loved the ghost there , but there was a little too much magical realism here for me. I can’t quite give it 5 stars, but overall this is a stunning read that will shake you to your core .
Ward’s writing is just so beautiful: “ There's a green hill, trees all around us in an overturned bowl, a waterfall tossing down into a pool the same deep green as the trees around us. It's so beautiful I feel a turning in my chest, my heart a small bird stirring in its nest. For a moment, I don't feel bound. I forget what holds me. But the ache of me, through wrist and hip and thigh, tunnels me back down into my body, along with the rope. “
I received an advanced copy of this from Scribner through NetGalley....more
I loved Anthony Marra’s novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomena and The Tsar of Love and Techno, a collection of connected stories which for me read I loved Anthony Marra’s novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomena and The Tsar of Love and Techno, a collection of connected stories which for me read like a novel. I count them among my favorites, so I was thrilled at the opportunity to read his new short story which is part of the Amazon Original Inheritance Collection. It’s filled with humor and emotion and regret, and is so relevant, not just because it’s about the son of a whistleblower, but because there are questions about the morality of the things people do or don’t do. I thought about what we are seeing on the news today, the lack of scruples of so many of our public servants and the honor of those who speak up for what is right. I don’t want to digress so I’m not going to get political here because the heart of this story for me, is the complicated relationship between this man and his father, a previous NSA employee, about whom his son wrote a tell all book. Fantastic writing, not a wasted word. There are so many funny lines, but the humor is tempered by the seriousness of the events and the depth of love that the story emanates. It’s too short to tell about the plot , but I’ll just say the same thing I said about “Everything My Mother Taught Me” by Alice Hoffman, another story in the Amazon Inheritance collection. I was fortunate to obtain an advanced copy of this from Amazon Original through NetGalley. It’s part of the Amazon Original Inheritance Collection. If you are a NetGalley member, I recommend you go and request it. If not, preorder it from Amazon for your kindle . It’s being released 12/19/19 . It’s worth so much more than the $1.99 that it will cost you.
It has taken me ages to connect with shorter fiction because I frequently felt unsatisfied at the end wanting to know more. While I wanted more of the fabulous writing, I wasn’t left with that hanging feeling. Amazing what a talented writer can do in 28 pages !
Merged review:
I loved Anthony Marra’s novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomena and The Tsar of Love and Techno, a collection of connected stories which for me read like a novel. I count them among my favorites, so I was thrilled at the opportunity to read his new short story which is part of the Amazon Original Inheritance Collection. It’s filled with humor and emotion and regret, and is so relevant, not just because it’s about the son of a whistleblower, but because there are questions about the morality of the things people do or don’t do. I thought about what we are seeing on the news today, the lack of scruples of so many of our public servants and the honor of those who speak up for what is right. I don’t want to digress so I’m not going to get political here because the heart of this story for me, is the complicated relationship between this man and his father, a previous NSA employee, about whom his son wrote a tell all book. Fantastic writing, not a wasted word. There are so many funny lines, but the humor is tempered by the seriousness of the events and the depth of love that the story emanates. It’s too short to tell about the plot , but I’ll just say the same thing I said about “Everything My Mother Taught Me” by Alice Hoffman, another story in the Amazon Inheritance collection. I was fortunate to obtain an advanced copy of this from Amazon Original through NetGalley. It’s part of the Amazon Original Inheritance Collection. If you are a NetGalley member, I recommend you go and request it. If not, preorder it from Amazon for your kindle . It’s being released 12/19/19 . It’s worth so much more than the $1.99 that it will cost you.
It has taken me ages to connect with shorter fiction because I frequently felt unsatisfied at the end wanting to know more. While I wanted more of the fabulous writing, I wasn’t left with that hanging feeling. Amazing what a talented writer can do in 28 pages !...more
If you didn’t enjoy The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, then I wouldn’t recommend this one . But if you lIf you didn’t enjoy The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, then I wouldn’t recommend this one . But if you loved those books and those characters as I did, don’t miss this one, a story focused on Harold’s wife bringing the reader full circle around the lives of these characters. In the lovely preface to the novel, Joyce describes her thought process around the three characters with a metaphor of “the sticky closet door”. Harold and Queenie are given their due and moved through “the sticky closet door” by Joyce and into my heart in the first two books. Maureen in those books was for me a bit of an enigma, but when Joyce decided that she’s entitled to her due, I was compelled to follow her on her own journey ten years after Harold’s .
Maureen, thinks of herself as not a nice person and at times, she’s not. She’s angry at times, sometimes down right nasty, but I mostly saw her as a grieving mother, trying to find a way to go on,a way to cope with her loss. When she discovers that Queenie made a sea side garden and in it a monument to Maureen and Harold’s son David, she knows she has to see it. It turned out to be a gift to a grieving mother, whose journey there allows her to make peace with others, but mostly with herself.
Maureen’s journey unlike Harold’s is not a walk, but a car ride. It’s not as open and inclusive as Harold’s, but a more private, solo venture. Yet, there are a few people that she meets along the way that are kind and generous as Harold encountered ten years earlier. It’s a bit quirky, sad, funny and very moving. Even though its less than two hundred pages, Rachel Joyce manages to get Maureen through that “sticky closet door “ and into my heart. Her imagined interview with Maureen at the end is priceless.
I received a copy of this book from Dial Press/Random House through NetGalley.
Merged review:
If you didn’t enjoy The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, then I wouldn’t recommend this one . But if you loved those books and those characters as I did, don’t miss this one, a story focused on Harold’s wife bringing the reader full circle around the lives of these characters. In the lovely preface to the novel, Joyce describes her thought process around the three characters with a metaphor of “the sticky closet door”. Harold and Queenie are given their due and moved through “the sticky closet door” by Joyce and into my heart in the first two books. Maureen in those books was for me a bit of an enigma, but when Joyce decided that she’s entitled to her due, I was compelled to follow her on her own journey ten years after Harold’s .
Maureen, thinks of herself as not a nice person and at times, she’s not. She’s angry at times, sometimes down right nasty, but I mostly saw her as a grieving mother, trying to find a way to go on,a way to cope with her loss. When she discovers that Queenie made a sea side garden and in it a monument to Maureen and Harold’s son David, she knows she has to see it. It turned out to be a gift to a grieving mother, whose journey there allows her to make peace with others, but mostly with herself.
Maureen’s journey unlike Harold’s is not a walk, but a car ride. It’s not as open and inclusive as Harold’s, but a more private, solo venture. Yet, there are a few people that she meets along the way that are kind and generous as Harold encountered ten years earlier. It’s a bit quirky, sad, funny and very moving. Even though its less than two hundred pages, Rachel Joyce manages to get Maureen through that “sticky closet door “ and into my heart. Her imagined interview with Maureen at the end is priceless.
I received a copy of this book from Dial Press/Random House through NetGalley....more
The book begins in California in the 1990’s when twenty six year old Mara Alencar, an undocumented immigrant from Brazil is a caregiver to an affluentThe book begins in California in the 1990’s when twenty six year old Mara Alencar, an undocumented immigrant from Brazil is a caregiver to an affluent woman with stomach cancer. In these early pages, I found Mara’s reactions to America fascinating and so enlightening as she tells of all of the things she has been surprised about in the ten years she has been in America. The narrative describes these things for several pages - how much is free here, public bathrooms, so many cars, that single women could be friends with married women, that it wasn’t okay for husbands to beat their wives, how everyone could eat at restaurants, that not everyone was white, grandparents lived separate from their grandchildren, that there were no words for certain things and so much more in these pages. This gave me a perspective that I quite honestly had not given much thought about, how strange things here might seem to an immigrant. Mara as an immigrant is only one facet of the story.
This is a multilayered story which covers a number of themes in a cohesive way . We are soon taken back to her childhood in this well written, first person narrative, taking us to Copacabana, Brazil in the 1970’s when she was eight years old. It’s in this time and place that we get a glimpse of the unconditional love of a mother for her daughter as her mother Ana gets caught up in a political scheme with a police chief who tortures people and the dissidents, the rebel guerrillas. Ana is a voice over actress who will do what it takes to provide for her daughter, even putting herself in danger. A horrific event takes place before Mara’s eyes and over the years Mara’s view of what happened and her mother’s role is never clear for her. She loves her mother and at the same time believes the worst about her.
There is yet another layer here with Mara’s role as a caregiver. How Kathryn deals with her illness is poignantly described and is even more impactful knowing that Samuel Park knew of which he wrote, dying of stomach cancer after this novel was written. It’s a captivating story about many things, not the least of which is a mother’s love for her daughter and a young woman coming to terms with the past.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley.
Merged review:
The book begins in California in the 1990’s when twenty six year old Mara Alencar, an undocumented immigrant from Brazil is a caregiver to an affluent woman with stomach cancer. In these early pages, I found Mara’s reactions to America fascinating and so enlightening as she tells of all of the things she has been surprised about in the ten years she has been in America. The narrative describes these things for several pages - how much is free here, public bathrooms, so many cars, that single women could be friends with married women, that it wasn’t okay for husbands to beat their wives, how everyone could eat at restaurants, that not everyone was white, grandparents lived separate from their grandchildren, that there were no words for certain things and so much more in these pages. This gave me a perspective that I quite honestly had not given much thought about, how strange things here might seem to an immigrant. Mara as an immigrant is only one facet of the story.
This is a multilayered story which covers a number of themes in a cohesive way . We are soon taken back to her childhood in this well written, first person narrative, taking us to Copacabana, Brazil in the 1970’s when she was eight years old. It’s in this time and place that we get a glimpse of the unconditional love of a mother for her daughter as her mother Ana gets caught up in a political scheme with a police chief who tortures people and the dissidents, the rebel guerrillas. Ana is a voice over actress who will do what it takes to provide for her daughter, even putting herself in danger. A horrific event takes place before Mara’s eyes and over the years Mara’s view of what happened and her mother’s role is never clear for her. She loves her mother and at the same time believes the worst about her.
There is yet another layer here with Mara’s role as a caregiver. How Kathryn deals with her illness is poignantly described and is even more impactful knowing that Samuel Park knew of which he wrote, dying of stomach cancer after this novel was written. It’s a captivating story about many things, not the least of which is a mother’s love for her daughter and a young woman coming to terms with the past.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley....more
This is the fourth story in the Amazon Original Stories Inheritance Collection that I’ve read and I was not disappointed. Forty two year old, Jack, a
This is the fourth story in the Amazon Original Stories Inheritance Collection that I’ve read and I was not disappointed. Forty two year old, Jack, a gay man is invited to attend his first gay wedding by his boyfriend, Caleb. Jack is surprised at how it makes him feel and he begins to think about marriage in ways he never has before. It’s the second wedding, a heterosexual one of an old college friend, though, that illicited for Jack (and me) the most thought provoking things. Relationships of the past and how much they remain a part of who one is, self discovery, discovery that some you loved is not who you thought they were, cultural identity, and of course love and marriage. This may still be available on NetGalley and will be available on Amazon kindle for $.99. A good deal for a worthwhile story.
I received an advanced copy of this short story from Amazon Original Stories through NetGalley.
Merged review:
This is the fourth story in the Amazon Original Stories Inheritance Collection that I’ve read and I was not disappointed. Forty two year old, Jack, a gay man is invited to attend his first gay wedding by his boyfriend, Caleb. Jack is surprised at how it makes him feel and he begins to think about marriage in ways he never has before. It’s the second wedding, a heterosexual one of an old college friend, though, that illicited for Jack (and me) the most thought provoking things. Relationships of the past and how much they remain a part of who one is, self discovery, discovery that some you loved is not who you thought they were, cultural identity, and of course love and marriage. This may still be available on NetGalley and will be available on Amazon kindle for $.99. A good deal for a worthwhile story.
I received an advanced copy of this short story from Amazon Original Stories through NetGalley....more
I suspect this was an easy to come by galley, perhaps to whet our appetite for Tyler’s new book, Clock Dance to be published in July. I’ve already reaI suspect this was an easy to come by galley, perhaps to whet our appetite for Tyler’s new book, Clock Dance to be published in July. I’ve already read the book, so for me the lure was simply that this was written by Anne Tyler. I’m a fan and have been for a long time. My attraction to her characters and novels is that they are about ordinary people, sometimes quirky, living ordinary lives as most of us do, while managing the things that fate throws in our way. This was a little different because Susanna who wants us to believe at the outset the same of her, is different than most of us. She is a healer, actually a sometimes healer. “The first thing I tell people is, I’m just an ordinary woman.” This is a short story, only 24 pages long, so I won’t say more, except that any fan of Anne Tyler will be interested in knowing if Susanna is right.
I received a copy of this story from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group through NetGalley.
Merged review:
I suspect this was an easy to come by galley, perhaps to whet our appetite for Tyler’s new book, Clock Dance to be published in July. I’ve already read the book, so for me the lure was simply that this was written by Anne Tyler. I’m a fan and have been for a long time. My attraction to her characters and novels is that they are about ordinary people, sometimes quirky, living ordinary lives as most of us do, while managing the things that fate throws in our way. This was a little different because Susanna who wants us to believe at the outset the same of her, is different than most of us. She is a healer, actually a sometimes healer. “The first thing I tell people is, I’m just an ordinary woman.” This is a short story, only 24 pages long, so I won’t say more, except that any fan of Anne Tyler will be interested in knowing if Susanna is right.
I received a copy of this story from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group through NetGalley....more
I’ve read a good number of WII novels, most of them focusing on the war in Europe and the Holocaust, the concentration camps . I’ve read a few about JI’ve read a good number of WII novels, most of them focusing on the war in Europe and the Holocaust, the concentration camps . I’ve read a few about Japanese internment camps in this country, but there always seems to be so much more to know . This novel illustrates yet another facet of the war that I knew nothing about. While described as a novel, this book tells the true story of one Dutch family living in the Dutch East Indies during the Japanese invasion as they are held in prison camps. Heather Moore met Marie Vischer Elliott called by her nickname Rita in this story and was taken by her account of her family’s experience . It’s clear that they represent many Dutch families who endured hardship and loss, horrible living conditions, fear and uncertainty under Japanese domination.
With multiple narrative points of view from six year old Rita through a child’s eyes, from her mother Marie bearing the uncertainty of her husband’s whereabouts and condition and managing to keep her children as safe as possible in the prison camp, and her father George, an officer in the Dutch Navy on a perilous mission trying to do his job while always thinking about his wife and children. Heartbreaking and hopeful. There’s always something new to learn through well written and well research historical fiction .
Lisa Wingate in telling heartbreaking stories of children touches me and teaches me about parts of our history that l knew nothing about. In dual timeLisa Wingate in telling heartbreaking stories of children touches me and teaches me about parts of our history that l knew nothing about. In dual time lines, 1909 and 1990 in Oklahoma, Wingate skillfully executes this as she has done in other stories of historical significance. In the 1909 part of the story I was drawn to eleven year old Olive Radley who is caring and smart and tries her best to save and protect six year old Nessa, a Choctaw girl from the abuse of her vile stepfather. Their journey reflects on the a time when Native American children were robbed of their land rights and highlights the strong women who worked to protect them. In the 1990 part of the story, Valerie Boren-O’Dell , a young widow and park ranger, is as tenacious and strong as Olive as she attempts to solve the mystery of bones discovered. As usually happens though, I was more drawn to the historical time.
Highly recommend for those who loved Before We Were Yours , and actually anyone who enjoys good historical fiction which transports you to a place and time that will inform you of things we need to remember and move you in ways that will at the same time break your heart and raise your spirit with the resilience and strength of the characters.
I received a copy of this book from Ballantine Books through NetGalley. ...more
This novel is an imaginative telling of the art glassmaking through the centuries on the island of Murano off the city of Venice. Tracy Chevalier blenThis novel is an imaginative telling of the art glassmaking through the centuries on the island of Murano off the city of Venice. Tracy Chevalier blends history, the Murano and Venetian cultures, the role of women, family, the essence of life, death, love and all of this with one family at the center of it. The structure is fascinating as we follow the Rosso family over 500 years, and how their lives are affected by historical events bringing prosperity, plague, poverty, with the same characters positioned in various time frames, only a few years older even though decades have passed. With “time alla Veneziana”, the passage of time , like a “skipping stone”, they remain themselves just in a new time, each time the current time for them. It’s one of those stories where you just have to trust your imagination. I’m glad I did.
Orsola Russo from six to her sixties is a character to remember for her passion for the art of glass bead making even in times when women were forbidden from working with glass, for her perseverance, and for her dedication to family in times of prosperity and hardship. All of the characters are fully realized from Orsola’s strong and sharp mother to her brothers and sister in laws to the business connections in Venice and her loves.
So much happens here, but I prefer not to give plot details which you can find elsewhere. I can’t quite give it 5 stars as it felt a little too ambitious trying to cover all the decades and that resulted in some time frames dragging on a little and others glossed over from the Plague to Covid. However, I’ve read several of Chevalier’s novels and this is my favorite. A touching ending to say the least with a little of the “terrafirma” where time moves ahead not as “time alla Veneziana”. Recommended for Chevalier fans and historical fiction readers .
I received a copy of this book from Penguin Random House through Edelweiss & NetGalley. ...more
“This is the story of Bob Burgess… Bob has a big heart, but does not know this about himself…” I read The Burgess Boys a number of years ago and was r“This is the story of Bob Burgess… Bob has a big heart, but does not know this about himself…” I read The Burgess Boys a number of years ago and was reintroduced to Bob in Oh William!, but I don’t think I fully appreciated him until now. Bob Burgess is now officially one of my literary crushes - what a good man ! But this novel is also very much about Lucy and Olive and the people in the stories of “unrecorded lives” that they share.
There are a number of reasons why Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite writers. In Crosby, Maine, she once again takes us to the small town life that she writes so astutely about. There’s how Strout describes the intimate, inner thoughts of her characters connecting the reader with their vulnerabilities, their fears, their loneliness, their goodness and kindness. Strout has such a keen sense of human nature. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how she beautifully, in so many places, describes the seasons with wonderful descriptions of the trees.
Olive is her outspoken, feisty self, this time with her caring about people more in the open . If you didn’t love Olive before, I’m pretty sure she will touch you here as she summons Lucy to visit her so she can tell her some sad stories about people who belong together and don’t ever get to be. As for Bob, Strout reminds us of the trauma in Bob’s life as a child and his continued struggles, his relationship with his brother . With Lucy, my favorite Strout character, I saw once again her vulnerabilities, perhaps as a result of her traumatic childhood, but also her sense of empathy for those around her and those she doesn’t know except through the stories that Olive tells her. “Lucy listens, really listens.”
This is not just one of those quiet novels where not much seems to happen . There’s a murder to be solved and Bob is in the thick of it and so is the reader. There’s so much here - loneliness, aging, grief, childhood traumas, marriage, and love of all kinds, the untold stories people keep . Lucy has an untold story of her own and one of the most touching and heartfelt moments is when she tells it to Olive. A seemingly simple, yet profound commentary on love, on the connections we make, on life . From the very first page, I wanted Elizabeth Strout to tell me everything and she does it perfectly. Now I want her to tell me more.
I’m thankful to have received a copy of this from Random House through NetGalley....more
All of my grandparents were born in Italy so I love reading about Italian and Italian American families. I always feel a connection, an appreciation, All of my grandparents were born in Italy so I love reading about Italian and Italian American families. I always feel a connection, an appreciation, an understanding of who these people are in some way. Whenever I read about people coming through Ellis Island, I can’t help but wonder what my grandparents’ experience might have been like.
The delirium of the Spanish flu , the war and what we now call ptsd, loss, marriage and separation while a husband goes to America to make a way for the wife and the prayers, the many prayers , the devotion to the Catholic beliefs are here at once in the beginning of this novel. A hope for a better future in America, but not everything can be escaped - death, adultery , the stock market crash . The three generations of women that follow try to understand their parent’s and grandparent’s history, and beliefs . When they do, they honor them. It’s as much about the old world as the new. This is described as a novel in stories, moving from one generation to another, but to me it just felt like a novel. I wish it had been longer and that there had been more time spent on how each generation made its way. The writing is excellent .
I received a copy of this book from Gold Lake Press through NetGalley...more
I was as drawn to Eilis Lacey Fiorello as I was in Brooklyn when I first met her, even more so, perhaps. I found her more mature and stronger. I foundI was as drawn to Eilis Lacey Fiorello as I was in Brooklyn when I first met her, even more so, perhaps. I found her more mature and stronger. I found it sad, though, that she’s lonely, 20 years after emigrating from Ireland and still not really feeling a part of her husband’s extended Italian family who live houses away from each other on Long Island. However, she manages to live her life, care for her family and maintain some independence and work as a bookkeeper. That is, until her husband Tony commits a transgression that turns their lives upside down. Sad because she has no one to call. I was impressed with Eilis’ strength, though, as the family plots to take care of things going against Eilis’ wishes as if what is happening doesn’t affect her and if she should have no say . She takes the reins and decides to return home to Ireland to visit her mother after twenty years.
Anyone who has read Brooklyn knows that Eilis is a complex character and that things were complicated when she returned to Ireland back then. As you might suspect, they will again be complicated upon her return. Told not just from Eilis’ point of view, but also from the man she once loved and her best friend, we get an introspective and intimate view of each one filled with uncertainty and emotions that are so realistic . Tóibín also gives us another ending that has me wanting to know what the future holds for Eilis. His alluring writing has me wanting to get to those books of his that I have not yet read . And hopefully a third book about Eilis.
I received a copy of this book from Scribner through NetGalley....more
You might say that the characters we read about in novels speak to us in one way or another each time we read a work of fiction. I’ve said any number You might say that the characters we read about in novels speak to us in one way or another each time we read a work of fiction. I’ve said any number of times that an author brings his or her characters to life, but Julia Alvarez has given that phrase a whole new meaning with a dose of magical realism that makes for such an enticing read. Alma, a writer is unable to fully tell the story of some characters she has been trying to write about for years. Nearing what she sees as the end of her writing career, she decides to move back to the Dominican Republic where she lived as a girl and bury the remnants of her stories in a “cemetery of untold stories” . However, two of her characters have ideas of their own and take over parts of the narrative to be sure their stories are told. What a clever mechanism!
They tell their stories to Filomena, who Alma hires as a caretaker . We learn Filomena’s story as well and get caught up in the drama of her family. Bienvenida Trujillo, the ex wife of the past dictator of Dominican Republic and Alma’s father Dr. Manuel Cruz are the two characters who speak to Filomena and to each other as well after the boxes containing drafts and notes of their stories have been buried. The combined story lines reflect a slice of Dominican history, complex family dynamics, and family secrets. It’s dark at times, funny at times, and thought provoking. It’s about love and family, aging and of course about storytelling, how people’s lives connect through our stories .
Julia Alvarez is a wonderful storyteller . I’ve read several of her novels and she never disappoints. Anyone interested in that slice of Dominican history should read her beautful novel In the Time of the Butterflies based on the lives of three real sisters . I have to be sure to get to her classic How the García Girls Lost Their Accents one of these days soon.
I received a copy of this book Algonquin Press through NetGalley....more
January 27 was Holocaust Remembrance Day. I didn’t read a Holocaust book near that date as I had planned , but it’s so important to remember it on anyJanuary 27 was Holocaust Remembrance Day. I didn’t read a Holocaust book near that date as I had planned , but it’s so important to remember it on any day. Gruesome, graphic, gut wrenching, this memoir written in 1950 was just recently translated from Hungarian.
Jozsef Debreczeni escaped the furnaces for the work camps, slave camps to be exact. For those who did, there was no escaping the horrors of daily life - no water to wash, the stench, lice, dysentery, typhus, whippings, almost no food with “daily rations: bread and a spoonful of sour jam” if that, soup with almost nothing in it . The hierarchy and cruelty of the kapo system pitting Jews against Jews , a tool of the Nazis is depicted in ways I had not read about previously. If the description of these horrific conditions don’t impact you, nothing will.
Translated works can sometimes lose something , but it feels as if the reality of this experience comes through vividly. The descriptions of the brutal reality of this all are difficult to read , but I couldn’t put this aside because I have to bear witness. It’s imperative to do so it doesn’t happen again . The only way I can do justice to this is to say, you must read it.
I received a copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley....more
Sunday Forrester is not like most people. She has her quirks about what she eats and drinks. She relies on an etiquette book for guidance on how to acSunday Forrester is not like most people. She has her quirks about what she eats and drinks. She relies on an etiquette book for guidance on how to act in social situations and she lives by Sicilian folklore. No, she’s not like the other characters in this novel, and the biggest difference is not those quirks. I found it was in her capacity to deeply love, especially her rebellious teenage daughter who is drifting away from her. She’s different from the rich and glamorous new neighbors whom she at first becomes enamored with. They are really not the kind people they want Sunday to think they are. Without going into detail, I’ll just say that the only way I can describe them is as “ careless people “ (like Tom & Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby ) caring only for themselves and not who they trample on .
I was afraid for Sunday and for her daughter Dolly, wondering if what I suspected would come to fruition. I wanted to climb inside the pages and warn her . This is a heartbreaking story in many way as we learn of Sunday’s past and traumatic childhood and as we see what Sunday is now facing. In some ways, though it is a triumph of spirit . In spite of this. Sunday is self aware and comfortable in who she is and thrives . It’s hard to say more about this story without giving anything away. I’ll just say that this is a touching and enlightening story that deserved its place as a contender for the Booker Prize.
I wondered how the author could get us so intimately connected with Sunday who is autistic. I read in notes about Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow that like her protagonist, she is autistic. A thanks to her for opening the window into Sunny’s thoughts.
I received a copy of this book from Algonquin through NetGalley....more
Beautifully written, difficult to read, but it’s important to know and to acknowledge history and the impact of that history on the present. Wow , canBeautifully written, difficult to read, but it’s important to know and to acknowledge history and the impact of that history on the present. Wow , can this man write - from the heart soul as he depicts the Indigenous American experience at different times . The prologue itself should be taught in high schools. It’s a multi generational story of identity, belonging, legacy and family, reflected through loss, blood shed, addiction. This is a follow up to Tommy Orange’s first novel There There. But it’s more than just a follow up taking me back to memorable characters that I loved in that novel. It goes further back in time to earlier generations of the family, back to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 with Jude Star and to 1924 with his son Charles Star focusing on the infamous Carlisle Indian School.
As in his first novel, this one is told through multiple points of view. I can’t quite give this all the stars as I felt the strength of the connections between the stories stronger in There There. Having said that, meeting Orvil Red Feather again as he continues on his journey to find himself, meeting again Jacquie Red Feather, still healing , and Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, my favorite character, still fiercely loving and protecting her family is a moving experience . Tommy Orange has once again educated me and reminded me of the brutal past of the Native American, an important story to be told.
I received a copy of this book from Knopf through NetGalley....more
When I first discovered Taylor Brown in 2015, I was immediately drawn to his beautiful writing and story telling. I’ve read all of his novels since thWhen I first discovered Taylor Brown in 2015, I was immediately drawn to his beautiful writing and story telling. I’ve read all of his novels since then and while I loved the others, especially Fallen Land , this one felt deeper and more important since there seems to be so little known or taught about the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in our country’s history. It feels important now, more than ever to consider our history.
The writing is perfection . Reading this was like watching a movie on an IMAX screen and I found myself in the center of it all - the horrific results of mine accidents, the violent shootouts, vicious attacks on individuals, the trauma on families being removed from their mine owned homes . Violence , a lot of violence , but that’s the reality of what happened in West Virginia in 1921. I also found myself in touching moments of family love, intimate details of character’s back stories and the beauty of people caring for their neighbors and friends. This is a war story, though , a war between the mine workers and the greedy, vulture mine owners and their hired thugs . They called it an insurrection, and it couldn’t have been more justified with men being held as indentured servants in many ways , being paid in company scrip , living in company owned cabins that families could get evicted from if you were a union supporter , or if the miner dies. Militia law instead of the constitution and Americans dropping bombs on American soil for the sake of greed. I knew of coal miner’s strikes , but I really had no idea .
Brown brings history to life with his extraordinary story telling, not just transporting he reader to the very time and place , but to the very heart and soul of his charcters lives , whether real life historical figures like Sid Hatfield and Mother Jones or the fictional characters he imagines there , who seem just as real. While there are courageous men who valiantly take up arms , one of my favorite characters is Dr. Moo, a hero without a gun inspired by Brown’s great grandfather. If you’re a fan of Taylor Brown, I don’t have to recommend this because you will probably read it and like me fall in love with his writing all over again and you will learn what the term redneck really means. If you have not read Taylor Brown, I’ll just say that this man was born to write.
I love knowing a writers inspiration and was glad to read Taylor Brown’s review of his book on Goodreads where he describes how he came to write this .
Happy to be back reading with my book buddy Diane .
I received a copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley....more
It’s difficult to read Holocaust stories, but that doesn’t keep me from reading them. It’s always for me so important to remember those who were killeIt’s difficult to read Holocaust stories, but that doesn’t keep me from reading them. It’s always for me so important to remember those who were killed or those who survived the unimaginable. Everyone should remember, so it doesn’t happen again. That’s exactly what this book is about - creating a way to remember. Adam Paskow, an English teacher in the Polish ghetto keeps a diary of people’s stories, their life before, their dreams, to preserve the memories so they are not forgotten. We meet a variety of characters in Adam’s circle who he interviews.
Eleven year old Filip, fascinated by dinosaurs can no longer go to the library to read about them, so he carves them out of wood and stays on the rooftop of the apartment to be away from everyone. He played football until they kicked him off the team to be “cautious” because he’s Jewish. This and the other interviews of children and others that Adam records are heartbreaking. It’s so important to see these people in the light of who they are , the lives they led to get a grasp of what was lost. And of course, it’s gut wrenching, as we learn what happens to Szifra, a young woman who does what she needs to do to protect her family, to feed her brothers. There are other horrific scenes that Adam reflects on as be encounters them in his daily life .
“I felt myself grow itchier as we walked south, toward their house; there were corpses on the street, covered with newspapers that fluttered in the wind. We pretended not to see them. A withered arm, a leg. On the sidewalk, children begged for scraps of food. “
“This morning. as I walked through the ghetto for my pail of soup, I saw the Nazis cordoning off a building on Chlodna Street. On my way back, they were removing its inhabitants at gunpoint, forcing their hands behind their necks. Even the children. The ones who stumbled were shot. The mothers who wailed were shot.”
I’m amazed at the resilience that I found here in spite of all that happened. The novel is based on true archives and some of these diary entries can be found today in the Oneg Shabbat Archive in Warsaw. A worthy addition to Holocaust literature. Highly recommended.
I received a copy of this book from Algonquin through NetGalley....more
There were times when I found this story so chaotic and confusing without fully understanding what had happened. I kept wondering how things got to beThere were times when I found this story so chaotic and confusing without fully understanding what had happened. I kept wondering how things got to be the way they were, wondering who these “astronauts”, the people in charge were, these truly evil people. Maybe the chaos and confusion was meant to reflect the apocalyptic nature of the time, maybe Enger is trying to warn us about evil focrces that are around us today. I’m really not sure. It’s unnerving, to say the least.
However, there’s much to love about this dystopian novel, especially some of the characters. Rainy, a bear of a man with such a gentle heart, expressing so much with his music. It’s moving to see how compassionate he is with children, how he protects and saves a 9 year old girl named Sol from a life of abuse on multiple occasions. I love his wife Lark, too, her love of books, how everyone loves her, how Rainy became a reader because of her. Lark exudes such hope in spite of what is happening. Sol is a bright spot in keeping with her name and gives Rainy some much needed hope in his grief.
The presence of the future through a dream, perhaps the spiritual moment of connection Rainy was searching for, the beauty and lure of his music, of the written word, of natural occurrences and the courage and resilience of people under duress, do bring hope. These things outweigh what at times left me wondering . This is worth reading for the memorable characters and the writing which is as lovely as in his other novels. Peace Like a River, though, which is one of my favorite books remains my favorite by Leif Enger.
I was grateful to have read this with my book buddy , Diane.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through both NetGalley....more
Angela M is taking a break.
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