Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
It’s 1980 when Carl Fletcher, the owner of his family’s Styrofoam manufacturing plant, is kidnapped from the driveway of his home In Middle Rock, a wealthy, mostly Jewish, Long Island community. Thus begins Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s novel Long Island Compromise.
There’s certainly intrigue regarding the kidnapping, but it’s not much of a spoiler to note that after his harrowing experience, Carl is ultimately reunited with his pregnant wife, Ruth, six-year-old son Nathan and four-year-old Bernard (later known as Beamer). Carl’s mother, Phyllis, insists the family move onto her estate with the intent that all will be safer.
The family’s affluence has its roots in Phyllis’s late husband, who escaped from Nazi-occupied Poland with a formula for plastics, founded the factory.
Although Jenny, is born soon after her father’s kidnapping, she and her brothers are forever marked by their father’s ordeal and the wealth of their upbringing. For the rest of their lives Ruth and Phyllis go to extremes to protect Carl who remains traumatized.
The novel is loosely based on a true story, but the characters are composites of stereotypes with personality twists. They’re interesting, amusing, pathetic and occasionally surprising, often predictable – sometimes in the same breath (or sentences as the case may be).
The Fletchers’ tale spans four decades with narration changes as each family member’s personal story is portrayed. There are contemporary issues such as drug abuse, mental health issues, financial concerns and familial turmoil. Yet, Brodesser-Akner’s writing is rich with an abundance of humor, irony and empathy.
Long Island Compromise
Four Bookmarks
Random House, 2024
444 pages
Repression, redemption, acceptance and truth are the themes of The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne primarily set in Ireland.
Catherine, a 16-year-old, girl from a rural community, is physically kicked out of the church and her community by the parish priest for being pregnant and unwed. She makes her way to Dublin, gives up her newborn son for adoption and moves on with her life. The boy, Cyril, is adopted by Charles and Maude Avery, a wealthy couple whose idea of parenting doesn’t include affection. Nonetheless, he lacks for little else. The narrative follows Cyril for seven decades.
Cyril is introspective. He’s told to call his adoptive parents by their first names and is frequently reminded he is “not an Avery.” When, at age seven, he meets Julian he is immediately enthralled. Later, they become best friends but couldn’t be more different: Cyril is gay and Julian loves (all) women.
For most of his life, Cyril hides the truth about himself. This haunts him and destroys the most important relationships in his life. There are rifts, disappointments and more lies until Cyril finally leaves Dublin in spectacular, yet shameful, fashion.
This beautifully crafted novel is rich with complex, interesting characters. Boyne injects humor, joy and sorrow into all of them, especially Cyril. He is someone to embrace and shake by the shoulders. He’s intelligent, funny and serious, and it takes years for him to recognize all his life holds. The abundance of which surprises the reader as much as him.
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Five Bookmarks
Hogarth, 2017
585 pages, includes reader’s guide
Lorrie Moore has multiple threads in her novel I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, some are easier to digest than others. First, there are letters from a woman to her dead sister written shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. The main plot, though, follows Finn, a middle-aged man fumbling through life.
Finn and Lily have ended a long relationship. She worked as a clown therapist; that is, a therapist dressed as a clown) with a history of threatening suicide. He’s suspended from his teaching job because of his attitude issues. After receiving a call about Lily’s latest attempt, he leaves his brother’s deathbed and drives through the night to be with her.
Here’s where things get strange. Lily is, in fact, dead, but her remains were not placed where she wanted them to be, so she and Finn take a road trip to her desired final resting spot.
Despite the bizarre turn off events, or maybe because of them, Moore’s writing is imbued with humor, poetic phrasing and sharp wit. Her descriptive language is vivid. Interspersed with the road trip are other letters from the woman to her dead sister.
Finn is still in love with Lily and as they make their way from one cemetery to another, her body continues to slowly decay. When Finn needs to stop to rest, they land at an old inn that is almost as decrepit as Lily. The inn is significant, but I’ll avoid a spoiler here.
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home
Three-and-a-half bookmarks
Random House, 2023
193 pages
Hiking in Italy’s Piedmont region got off to a mucky start. We spent a rainy day stomping and sliding along trails surrounded by grape-heavy vineyards. Still, the vistas were breathtaking with rolling hills terraced with rows upon rows of grapevines. We were soaked to the bone with so much mud on our boots it felt like walking in high heels on uneven surfaces.
After arriving at our first night’s stay in the hamlet of Vergne, we’d clocked about 10 miles. Arrangements had been made for our bags to be delivered to Ca’ San Ponzio where we had a room for the night. Despite fatigue and a desperate desire/need for a hot shower, this 12-room agriturismo immediately charmed us.
This was the home of owners Luciano and Maurizio’s grandparents; as children they often visited. The brothers renovated the L-shaped building while maintaining its traditional architectural features.
Our warm, spacious room was only part of the charm. A large stone fireplace was the focal point of the inviting living room (lobby doesn’t do it justice). The large dining area – with an impressive breakfast buffet was available in the morning — was another common room for relaxing available, but it was the wine cellar that captivated most guests.
Along with an impressive number and varieties of wine, were bottles, glasses, corkscrews and a stack of Post-it notes. Guests were to help themselves, but needed to jot down their room number and what they’d taken: glass or bottle. This was an honor system everyone happily followed. (With payment for what was drunk made at checkout.)
Bonus: the weather was in our favor the next day.
Ca’ San Ponzio
Five Glasses of wine (this is the rating, not what we drank)
Via Rittane 7, Frazione Vergne, 12060 Barolo, Italy
Home | Cà San Ponzio
The title alone gives away that this is a mystery with trust issues. First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston follows Evelyn “Evie” Porter on a secret assignment to get romantically involved with Ryan Sumner.
It’s soon evident that Evie isn’t who she says she is; parts of her backstory are interspersed with the mysteries at hand: who is Ryan, why is it necessary to know him, and more, importantly, who is the elusive, enigmatic “Mr. Smith”?
It’s no spoiler to reveal Evie, is aka Lucca Marino, who explains that Smith is the person who clandestinely hires her and pays her handsomely to get the dirt on people. Consequently, Evie moves from location to location, mostly in the South, with different identities, looks and ways of ingratiating herself into her targets’ lives.
The problem Evie encounters with Ryan is that she finds herself actually falling in love with him. Yet, she knows there’s a lot he’s hiding from her. Of course, everyone has their secrets but in this case, there are a lot to keep track of!
Evie, a smart, engaging character, and Devon, the assistant she’s secretly hired to help her unbeknownst to Smith, make for a strong team. The relationship between Evie and Ryan is credible and one the reader actually roots for.
Elston incorporates a number of plot twists to keep the reader guessing and it mostly works. However, there are so many threads to untangle it often gets a little messy; this serves to break the tension rather than enhance it.
First Lie Wins
Viking, 2024
Three-and-a-half Bookmarks
340 pages
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is part mystery and historical fiction inspired by the experiences and diary of Martha Ballard, the novel’s narrator, who relates her story as the town midwife and life in rural late-1700s Maine.
When a body is found and recovered from the frozen Kennebec River, Martha is immediately suspicious of the cause of death. The victim is one of two men accused of committing rape; the other is a judge and respected citizen.
Despite numerous obstacles, including being a woman whose opinions are quickly dismissed by the men who oversee the social norms of the day, Martha is determined to fight for the preacher’s wife who was raped.
Martha is happily married and a mother, most of her children are in their teens and early 20s. She takes her role, as not just a midwife but medical care provider for the town and surrounding area, seriously and professionally – even after a Harvard-educated physician arrives and questions her knowledge and abilities.
The harsh elements of the wintry landscape and the hardscrabble life the townspeople endure are vividly described. Martha’s efforts to prove the rape victim told the truth while also trying to determine how one of the accused died results in an engaging work.
This is a portrayal of a strong, intelligent woman ahead of her time in her recognition of the sexism women faced. Martha’s story is one of life in a rural community impacted by the season, gossip and mores of the times.
The Frozen River
Four Bookmarks
Doubleday 2023
432 pages, includes author’s notes and acknowledgements
James is Percival Everett’s retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from James’ (Jim’s) perspective.
After learning he’s to be sold and forced to leave his family, James runs away. Jim is the name he’s been given by his white owner; his peers know him by his more formal name. Huck fakes his own death to avoid further beatings by his father and discovers Jim in hiding. The two make their way down the Mississippi River, each with different goals in mind.
There’s a reward for James’s capture, and he worries he’s suspected of Huck’s “death.”
While this has Twain’s classic as its foundation, the architecture is all Everett’s. James speaks in the vernacular associated with slaves when spoken to by slave owners and other white people. However, among each other, slaves converse in perfect English, that’s not only grammatically correct but rich in vocabulary. James also knows how to read, as do many in his circle.
Occasionally, he slips in a word that Huck doesn’t know but quickly makes its clear he’s misspoken, when, in fact, James hasn’t.
The book is full of irony, humor and sadness. In their travels they encounter kindness, brutality and fear. At one point the pair is briefly separated and James fares well, including, ironically, being recruited by a minstrel group and is befriended by another black man who passes for white.
Like its predecessor, this is an adventure story but more profoundly addresses still existing racial inequities and social injustice.
James
Four bookmarks
Doubleday, 2024
303 pages
The Silence of the Choir is, in fact, loud and clear. This timely, multi-voiced novel by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr addresses the plight of African refugees and their impact on a small Sicilian town.
The men, called “ragazzi” by the townspeople, have fled their respective countries for numerous reasons, including war and poverty. Few share the same language, but all endured subhuman conditions to reach Europe – at great cost physically and monetarily.
Not surprisingly, reaction to their arrival varies: some locals are eager to help, others are convinced they will take jobs and do harm. Few are indifferent.
The story is told from numerous perspectives including several refugees, the town physician, a priest, a reclusive poet, the mayor, the woman determined to help them attain asylum and a man equally resolute to send them back to where they came from.
Jogoy, is a former refugee working as an interpreter. Some of the ragazzi trust him, many don’t. Still, it’s his skill with languages that’s secured his place, but his past remains a burden that’s always close to the surface. The narrative is sporadically interrupted with his story, complete with a different font and chapter titles. His could easily be that of others in exile.
Though this is a poignant, contemporary and significant topic, the author injects moments of humor and joy with the agony of uncertainty the ragazzi and locals experience. There are also elements of mystery, romance and an array of often painful approaches dealing with the situation.
The Silence of the Choir
Four-and-a-half bookmarks
Europa Editions, 2024
391 pages
Raquel Toro is a first-generation university student in her third year at an Ivy League school studying art history. She’s never heard of Anita de Monte but the two share several commonalities though they’re a generation apart in Xochitl Gonzalez’s novel Anita de Monte Laughs Last.
Anita was an up and coming artist in the mid-1980s before she’s found dead. Her husband, Jack, is a well-known, successful sculptor who, although professes his undying love, manipulates his wife to suit his moods/needs.
Jump ahead to the late 1990s, Raquel is certain she wants to do her senior thesis on Jack, with neither awareness of his deceased wife, nor knowledge of how she died. Although Raquel doesn’t realize it, readers will quickly see similar behaviors between Jack and Nick, the graduating art student from a wealthy family, with whom she becomes romantically involved.
There is passion in both relationships, but there are also strings attached. As she researches Jack’s work, Raquel identifies a period in which he produced little, if any, art. This is roughly the same time of Anita’s death, which is noted as either a fall from or push out of a high-story New York City window in the novel’s early pages. A subsequent trial following her death is also new to Raquel.
The engaging storyline is driven by chapters narrated by Anita, Raquel and occasionally Jack. Those revealing Anita’s side of the story require accepting the perspective from someone who’s dead, but very much alive in the spirit world.
Anita De Monte Laughs Last
Three and three-quarter bookmarks
Flatiron Books, 2024
341 pages
When things go wrong for Dickie Barnes in The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, they occur in seemingly slow motion yet the ensuing chaos is still surprising. What catches readers off guard is the number of lies the characters tell not only to one another but also to themselves.
The plot, told in the present and past, follows Dickie; his wife Imelda; daughter Cass; son PJ; and older brother Frankie. Dickie is in a downward spiral. His once-successful car business is falling apart and his family isn’t doing so well either. Reverting to their histories is significant: at which point did things go amiss?
Frankie, the small town’s popular football star, and Imelda were engaged. Dickie was always in his older brother’s shadow and left for Dublin to study at university to one day take over their father’s car business.
The author blends humor and pathos. How Dickie and Imelda came to be married and the bee sting (the title source) that forced her to wear her veil throughout the day of their wedding are major elements; as is the impact of their unraveling marriage on their children. These are main threads of this lengthy book– which at times is long-winded and other times impossible to put down.
Without revealing the ending, it’s necessary to note it is one of the most cinematic, edge-of-your-seat conclusions. It’s fraught with danger, fear and love … just like the rest of the book. However, it takes a long time to reach this point.
The Bee Sting
Four Bookmarks
Paul Murray
645 pages
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023
The Blue Page Special 