Archive for the ‘families’ Tag
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan has all the elements of a (good) soap opera: broken relationships, infidelity, family issues and so much more especially, or perhaps, because the setting is a small Ohio town (hence the name).
The fictional work spans six decades, but actual events serve as the backdrop.
Cal Jenkins and Becky Hanover grow up and marry in rural Bonhomie, Ohio. Carl was born with one leg shorter than the other; this made him ineligible to serve later when World War II breaks out. However, it’s VE Day when things begin to change for him. That’s when Margaret, relatively new to town and certainly a stranger to Calvin, walks into the hardware store where he works and kisses him in celebration of the war’s end.
Buckeye begins in the present, moves seamlessly to the past for a brief time, before moving forward. Margaret is married to Felix, but theirs is a passionless marriage; Felix is gay. There’s more backstory. He joins the navy when war is declared and is later lost at sea in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, Becky is preoccupied with her paranormal abilities; Cal is skeptical. It’s not long before Margaret and Cal begin spending more time together.
Ryan’s character-driven narrative is engaging and credible — well, perhaps Becky is less so because of her obsession with reaching the dead. Still, we watch the couples evolve with the times and situations particularly those associated with the numerous lies and secrets that slowly, but predictably, rise to the surface.
Buckeye
Nearly four bookmarks
Random House 2025
452 including acknowledgements
When was the last time you put pen to paper, placed it in a stamped envelope and mailed it? Or, when did you last receive a handwritten letter? These are the explicit unspoken questions lingering within the pages of The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Plenty of implicit ones fill the pages.
The novel is a series of letters written by 70-something Sybil Van Antwerp . Through years of letter writing, Sybil’s daily routines, her history, emotions and relationships are revealed. Her complexities are relatable. She is kind, ornery and persistent. She writes letters to authors, friends, her brother, the son of a former colleague and many, many others. Sybil has much to write about; she’s a retired lawyer, avid reader, mother, divorcee and lifelong learner.
Yet, for all these qualities, she’s not entirely likeable. She holds a grudge and misses a lot that’s right in front of her. Some of this is due to her diminishing eyesight, but more can be attributed to her stubborn personality. When opportunities arise to make amends, she’s a mixed bag. She extends olive branches to those with whom she had peripheral contact, while refusing with family members, including her dying ex-husband.
Evans is heavy handed when it comes to lessons to be learned such as establishing and maintaining relationships. Sybil is not completely aware of the impact of her letters. Still, Sybil’s commitment to written correspondence is commendable, particularly considering her frequent lack of face-to-face social skills.
Nonetheless, it’s time to buy some postage stamps.
The Correspondent
Three and three-quarter bookmarks
Crown 2025
285 pages including acknowledgements
(I’m back. I took a blogging break, but reading continued as usual: a lot. I’m not sure I’ll blog about everything that I read over the past (too many) months since I last posted, but thanks to a friend’s encouragement I’m reigniting my passions of reading and writing.)
When I picked up my copy of The Calamity Club from the library (a book with an exceptionally long wait list), I was thrilled until I realized it was more than 600 pages. Once I started reading, I forgot about the weight — er number of pages — and couldn’t put it down.
Set in the depression in Oxford, Miss., Kathryn Stockett’s novel has multiple intertwining threads, yet none get tangled enough to be confusing. All address some heavy, intense issues in an often amusing, but always poignant manner.
Birdie is a hardworking, intelligent, unmarried woman. She’s perceptive and speaks her mind. She goes to Oxford to learn why Frances, her newly-married, social-climbing sister, hasn’t communicated with anyone in the family. Frances and her husband live with his mother in their well-appointed home.
Eleven-year-old Meg has been abandoned by her mother and is considered “unadoptable” at the county orphanage where the sadistic director is particularly harsh toward her. Meg is witty and resourceful in spite of her situation.
Birdie and Meg are only two of the many, many interesting characters inhabiting the pages. All have distinct voices/personalities. The setting is vividly described and the hardships of the era are palpable.
A myriad of secrets, including some surprising connections, and a unique, actually kind of crazy, solution to solving the problems associated with poverty, racism and abandonment converge in some laugh-out-loud and tear-sniffling moments.
Stockett’s last book (The Help) was published in 2009. It was worth the wait for The Calamity Club.
The Calamity Club
Five bookmarks
Spiegel & Grau, 2026
656 pages
In Queen Esther, John Irving introduces readers to the Winslows of Pennacook, N.H., an intelligent, generous family with five daughters and several adopted caregivers for the girls from St. Cloud’s Orphanage (this may stir memories of an earlier Irving work particularly references to Dr. Larch).
The last adoptee is Esther, a Jewish orphan whose early and continued influence on the family is inexplicable: one of the novel’s shortcomings. When efforts to place her with a Jewish family fail, the Winslows’ aversion to anti-Semitism makes them the most likely candidates.
Through a winding narrative that moves from New Hampshire to Vienna, from Amsterdam to Jerusalem, from the early 1900s to 1981, Jimmy Winslow, the grandson of Thomas and Constance Winslow is the main character more than Esther. Jimmy is reared by the five Winslow sisters; yet, Hope, is the mother of record and Esther gave him birth. She has no direct role in his upbringing but is always a shadow in his life. As a young adult after leaving the Winslows, Esther spends her life searching for her Jewish self; this coincides with Israel’s contemporary political history. She provides Jimmy no tangible attributes – only a lot of questions.
Likeable and earnest, Jimmy grows up to be a writer, eventually a father, but someone whose curiosity about Esther is always a shadow.
As is true with most Irving works, there’s humor and an array of interesting, if not always necessary, characters. The novel is too long with little to redeem its wordiness.
Queen Esther
3.75 Bookmarks
Simon & Schuster, 2025
408 pages + acknowledgements and Reader’s Guide
Grief, isolation, broken relationships and climate change are beautifully and tragically addressed in Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy.
Dominick Salt and his three children are the caretakers and lone residents of Shearwater Island, near Antarctica. They’re organizing and packing the contents of a seed bank awaiting a ship to return them to the mainland. Rising tides, harsher weather conditions and the island’s isolation make it uninhabitable or a viable environment for continued study. Shearwater is a critical element of the story.
When a barely-alive woman washes ashore during a severe storm there’s an immediate sense of foreboding. Rowan’s reasons for traveling to Shearwater are suspect given Shearwater’s remoteness; when she reveals that she’s looking for her husband who had been in charge of the seed bank, the Salts’ reticence makes her suspicious.
As Rowan’s wounds heal she gets to know each of the children, while remaining mistrustful of Dom. The five characters are richly portrayed, each nearly eclipsed by grief and none able to communicate their feelings.
McConaughy’s writing maintains a palpable sense of tension throughout the narrative. It’s nerve-wracking and impressively captivating with numerous unanswered questions: what happened to the other members of the research team; how will the Salts adjust from their extremely secluded life; can their brokenness be mended; and more.
First person voice tells Rowan and Dom’s side of the story, while third person voice is used for the children. Short chapters further heighten a sense of dread, but also offer occasional glimmers of hope.
Wild Dark Shore
Five Bookmarks
Flatiron Books, 2025
302 pages, includes acknowledgements
Hollow Spaces, the title of Victor Suthammanont’s debut novel, refers to the emptiness created by emotions such as grief, anger and at times even love.
It’s been 30 years since Brennan and Hunter Lo’s father, John, was acquitted of murdering his lover, they were young children. Yet, for the last 30 years, the unresolved question of whether he was actually guilty or not has divided them.
Brennan only saw the good in her father while Hunter saw only the bad. Their mother, who was betrayed by her husband’s infidelity, did little to help either of her children work through their feelings. Instead, the siblings, who had rarely gotten along, decide to look for the answers to determine whether John was guilty of murder or not. Agreed is the concession that one will acknowledge the other was right all along.
Many witnesses are no longer alive and old police records not easily accessible. Still, they embark on their own private investigation. Brennan’s an attorney; Hunter is a journalist. They’re both adept at research.
Along the way, they receive threats from unknown sources to quit pursuing their search. This makes them suspect they’re on to something.
The narrative is fast paced and characters are well developed, if not always likeable. Brennan comes across as condescending and Hunter is arrogant. Nonetheless, their efforts to know more about the circumstances that tore their family apart all those years ago are intriguing and compelling. In the process they discover they have more in common than once believed.
Hollow Spaces
Three-and-three-quarters Bookmarks
Counterpoint, 2025
374 pages, includes acknowledgements
Claire Leslie Hall’s novel, Broken Country, is a study in class differences, miscommunication and reignited emotions, primarily love and guilt.
When Gabriel Wolfe reappears in Beth Johnson’s life years after their brief, but intense love affair ended, not only is her life uprooted, but so is everyone else’s in the small, rural English village (their country) where they live.
Despite the tragedy of losing their young son in an accident, Beth and Frank Johnson have a strong, seemingly healthy marriage. They work the family farm with Jimmy, Frank’s younger brother and they’re well-respected in their community. Gabriel is a well-known author from an affluent background who’s returned to his family’s estate with Leo, his young son in tow. He’s the same age as Beth’s son at the time he died.
Yes, this is a love story, but there is also an element of mystery. The character-driven plot is rich with descriptive images of the rural landscape and the deep-seeded emotions of Beth, in particular. This makes it more her story with the others as supporting actors. Nonetheless, each one is richly nuanced.
The narrative randomly alternates among the past, present and future. This serves not only to inform the reader about previous and existing relationships, but also hints at some of what’s to come. Thus, there’s much that is predictable here, particularly that Gabriel and Beth will once again be drawn to each. Fortunately, there is at least one major surprise that is bound to keep readers engaged.
Broken Country
Four bookmarks
Simon and Schuster, 2025
307 pages
Years ago I gave myself permission to stop reading if I couldn’t get into a book. I should have heeded my own consent with Among Friends by Hal Ebbot. I finished it, although with effort. I felt obligated because it was a book group selection.
The novel focuses on the long-standing friendships between two families: Amos, Claire and daughter Anna; Emerson, Retsy and daughter Sophie. Although from different social backgrounds, the men have been best friends for more than 30 years. Emerson and Claire, both come from privilege, have known each most of their lives. The teen girls have grown up together.
They’re together at Emerson’s country home in upstate New York to celebrate his 52nd birthday. Yet, something’s off; there’s an unstated, and apparently unusual, competition between the men.
Later, when Emerson finds himself alone with teenage Anna, something occurs that has the potential to change all their lives. Anna initially doesn’t tell her parents, but when she does they’re torn as to not only what to believe, but more importantly who.
The narrative then gets bogged down with too much about their pasts and it’s easy to question why they’re even friends.
Although Ebbott creates credible tension both with Anna and her parents, along with the adults’ responses, who care?! Retsy and Amos believe Emerson is capable of Anna’s claims; Claire’s ready to dismiss her daughter’s accusation and Emerson is certain he can manipulate the truth.
The characters aren’t people I’d want to know; reading about them was enough.
Among Friends
Two-and-half bookmarks
Random House, 2025
320 pages
Louise Erdrich seamlessly weaves together a fast-paced, engaging story of young love, manipulative relationships, the environment and secrets in The Mighty Red.
This novel is rich in well-developed characters beginning with Kismet is a bright, sensitive yet impulsive high school senior with plans to leave her small town in the rural Red River Valley of North Dakota. Her best friend is Hugo, a brilliant home-schooled social outcast is in love with Kismet. Gary is the son of the wealthiest family in town and star quarterback. He’s not an enigma but carries a dark secret, and is also in love with Kismet. He’s desperate to marry her believing that she can help him forget that which haunts him.
Yes, there are adults, but the actions of some are less mature than the teens. Gary’s mother and Kismet’s father have their own (unrelated) agendas, which alternate between the comical and sad. Only Crystal, Kismet’s mother, seems to have a logical take on things, until she briefly doesn’t.
The tragic humor Erdrich interjects throughout the narrative is not limited to the relationships, but also to the over-cultivation of the land, land that once belonged to Native Americans and now makes a lucky few rich through sugarbeet farming. There’s no mistaking the irony that Crystal and Kismet are Ojibwe; with the mother driving the crops to the sugar refinery and Kismet as the farmer’s son object of desire.
As critical as the characters are to the storyline, the land is also a significant element.
The Mighty Red
Four Bookmarks
Harper, 2024
372 pages
Rocky, a 50-something wife and mother, is caught between the lives of her aging parents and young adult children in Catherine Newman’s aptly-titled Sandwich.
It’s summer vacation which means the family’s annual weeklong trip to Cape Cod. They’ve stayed in the same rental cottage for decades making it rife with memories for everyone, but especially Rocky.
There are certain traditions Rocky strives to maintain even when events threaten to thwart them. Her efforts to recreate days at the beach and dinners out are crafted from long-standing habits; the family has always taken a cooler filled with the same type of sandwiches or always gone to a specific restaurant on a certain day within the seven spent at the beach. Yet this year things are different.
The rental has seen better days. Rocky is in the throes of menopause; she frequently acknowledges this which is also evident in her reactions to situations around her. But there’s more: other matters surface connected to long-held secrets and the realization that her children are increasingly more independent and parents are more so; they always join the family midweek.
The narrative is told through Rocky’s voice moving back and forth from the past to the present. Some memories are more joyful than others, as are some of the current happenings. All impact her mood and her relationship with her husband, daughter, son and his girlfriend.
Newman’s writing is engaging resulting in a well-paced relatable novel. In many ways, a week has never gone so quickly.
Sandwich
Three-and-a-half Bookmarks
Harper, 2024
240 pages
The Blue Page Special 