Archive for the ‘fiction’ Tag
In 1942 Japanese Americans were forced to relocate to ten remote isolation camps under the guise of protecting the U.S. This is the foundation for Tallgrass, Sandra Dallas’s fictional portrayal of a small Eastern Colorado town that became home to an internment camp.
Tallgrass was published in 2007 yet remains timely in its illustration of unfounded prejudice and ill-conceived fear of those who are different.
Renny is the youngest daughter of a beet-farming family, whose property is near Tallgrass. Initially, the young teen doesn’t know what to think of the Japanese since there’s a clear division in town among those who think the idea of the camp is shameful and those adamantly opposed to its presence. The negative attitudes are fortified when a young girl is found raped and murdered. Guilt is immediately assigned to the Japanese.
Due to the war, finding farm laborers proves difficult, so Renny’s father hires three young Japanese men who prove to be hard workers and serve to dispel the misgivings held by Renny and her mother.
Dallas has crafted an engaging narrative proving that evil is not defined by one’s ethnicity or skin color. However, in her portrayal of some characters, there is little gray area. Still, as Renny’s family grows closer to the Japanese workers, she matures and is ultimately able to form her own opinions.
While there’s much that is predictable, the mystery of the murder, family secrets and a view of the hardscrabble life of farmers contribute to the well-paced novel.
Tallgrass
Four bookmarks
305 pages plus Reader’s Guide
St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007
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
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
In Open Throat, a feral mountain lion roams the Hollywood Hills above Los Angeles (“ellay”). He’s hungry, but has his limits as to what prey he’ll pursue. He even protects a homeless camp, unbeknownst to its inhabitants.
Author Harry Hoke’s novel addresses climate change, homelessness and humankind’s encroachment on nature. Almost poetic in form, the lion narrates the story as he watches hikers and eavesdrops on their conversations. Some words he overhears often enough that they become part of his narrative: scarcity becomes scare city.
The lion witnesses the start of a manmade fire, something erroneously blamed on the homeless camp. The heat and smoke force the lion into a residential neighborhood where he finds shelter in the basement of a house he overheard someone say was owned by “slaughter.”
He’s soon discovered by the owner’s teenage daughter who calls him “hecat” and he refers to her “little slaughter.” (All quotation marks are mine, not the author’s).
There’s no punctuation no capitalization except for the personal pronoun I. Excluding the italicized statements from little slaughter, who treats him in as a pet and support animal, everything is from the lion’s perspective. When she takes him to Disneyland, suspending disbelief is challenged!
From 2012 to 2022, a puma known in the Los Angeles area as P-22 roamed Griffith Park. His presence was well known making him a celebrity of sorts. The only concern for Hoke’s predator comes from little slaughter; otherwise, interest in his wellbeing is, reasonably, overshadowed by fear.
Open Throat
Three bookmarks
MCD, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023
160 pages
It’s 1966 and young men are going off to war in Viet Nam; except they’re not alone. Young women go, too, which is the topic of The Women by Kristin Hannah.
Frankie McGrath volunteers for the Army Nurse Corps soon after learning her brother has been killed in the war. She is part of a field medical unit treating wounded soldiers. Many of whom can’t be saved. As her nursing skills get stronger so does her friendship with fellow nurses, Ethel and Barbara. She also falls in love with a naval pilot.
Dealing with the natural elements, seeking safety from enemy bombardments and never getting used to the carnage wrought by war is almost nothing compared to Frankie’s return to the States following two tours of duty.
Hannah’s descriptions of the attitude toward Viet Nam vets are heart wrenching because of their truth. This is compounded by the mindset held by many, including other vets, that there were no women in Viet Nam. Even Frankie’s father refuses to admit to his country club social circle that his daughter served in the war.
The novel is divided into two parts. The first focuses on Frankie’s naiveté and gradual realization that the situation in Viet Nam is uncompromising for those in its midst. The second section deals with her reintroduction to society vehemently opposed to the war without acknowledging its toll. Thankfully, Frankie’s nursing friends provide unending love and support as she fights her inner battles and struggles to move forward.
The Women
Four Bookmarks
St. Martin’s Press, 2024
470 Pages, includes Author’s note and acknowledgements
The Blue Page Special 