Review of THE NIGHT IN QUESTION by Susan Fletcher

 4 Stars

This book emphasizes that it is never too late to embark on a journey of self-discovery.

The setting is Babbington Hall, a British assisted living facility. Renata Green, the manager, falls from her window, a fall that most deem a suicide attempt. However, Florrie Butterfield, an 87-year-old resident who witnessed the fall and had recently interacted with Renata, believes she was pushed. Though wheelchair-bound, Florrie sets out to investigate, aided by Stanhope Jones, a fellow resident.

As they play amateur sleuths, Florrie reflects on her life which has certainly been unconventional. There’s a dark secret in her past she has difficulty even thinking about, much less speaking of to anyone. The nature of the secret is not revealed until the end, but it obviously influenced the choices she made throughout her life, especially with regard to relationships.

It is impossible not to like Florrie. She is intelligent, curious, and empathetic. She is unfailingly kind to others. Though a dark secret has shadowed her life from the age of seventeen, she tries to remain positive and cheerful. She finds beauty and wonder in the simplest of things. Florrie is able to uncover what happened to Renata because she sees similarities between them. She surmises correctly that they are both hiding from traumatic events in their pasts: Florrie married Victor, and Renata chose a job and quiet life in the Oxfordshire countryside.

Florrie is a dynamic character. For seventy years she has carried a secret. Despite her best friend urging her to speak of it, she has not been able to bring herself to do so. Only as an octogenarian does she learn to forgive herself and to embrace the chance to be loved and happy. In many ways, this is a late-in-life coming-of-age story. 

The mystery is slow-paced, as befits the two elderly detectives. It can be described as a type of locked-room mystery since the suspect must be someone with access to the retired residence. My only objection to the solution is that it relies on hidden identities. There are three characters whose names have been changed!

Though a cozy, charming, and heart-warming story, there is some substance to it. It emphasizes the importance of friendship, gratitude, and maintaining a sense of wonder. It also shows that love can exist in many forms and that one should accept that love and live life to its fullest.

I listened to the audiobook version and it would be remiss of me not to mention the narrator, Jenny Funnell. She has the perfect voice for this book; even her Polish accent for Magda is perfect. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought the narrator was Judy Dench.

I really enjoyed listening to this book on my morning walks. It is funny, sad, wise, tender, and uplifting with endearing and memorable characters.

Review of INVISIBLE HELIX by Keigo Higashino (New Release)

 3 Stars

This is the fifth in the Detective Galileo series. I’ve read several of Higashino’s crime fiction books, but I was disappointed in this one.

The body of Ryota Uetsuji is found in Tokyo Bay but a bullet wound clearly suggests a murder rather than an accident. His girlfriend, Sonoka Shimauchi, had reported him missing but then took time off work and has disappeared. Chief Inspector Kusanagi and Detective Inspector Kaoru Utsumi lead the investigation and call upon Professor Manabu Yukawa, a.k.a. Detective Galileo, to assist. It is he who makes connections and discovers that Nae Matsunaga, a longtime friend of Sonoka’s mother, and Nidemi Negishi, the owner of a hostess bar, may be involved.

The title clearly suggests the physical structure of DNA, and DNA does indeed play a role. However, it is the reference to DNA testing that leaves me totally confused. What are the chances that samples from a specific person and a random woman would result in a 99.5 percent probability of these two people being related? Sonoka thinks, “He’d taken samples from some completely different woman and her grandmother and sent them to the testing company” and the result “was a ‘99.5 percent or over’ probability of [their] being related.” Am I missing something?

There are so many coincidences in the book and these definitely weaken the plot. Even the description of the book states, “It's up to Galileo to find the nearly hidden threads of history and coincidence.” The revelations about Yukawa’s family at the end rely on a series on coincidences. Everyone has a lost family and secret background. There are three women who gave up children because they were unable to look after them.

Like previous Higashino mysteries, there are secret relationships among characters and connections between past and present events. The problem is that the books have become almost formulaic.

Review of THE CLUES IN THE FJORD by Satu Rämö

 3 Stars

I picked up this book because it’s the first of a new series set in Iceland and because it has had glowing reviews. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

Hildur Rúnarsdóttir, working out of Ísafjörður, is the only detective in the Westfjords. She is joined by Jakob Johanson, a police trainee from Finland who chose Iceland’s most sparsely populated region for his internship. Both Hildur and Jakob have difficult backstories. Hildur’s two sisters disappeared 25 years ago and she self-medicates by exercising strenuously. Jakob is the midst of a custody battle for his son; he has taken up knitting as a way of helping himself keep calm.

The pair’s first case begins when a man’s body is found after an avalanche destroys his home but evidence clearly shows that he was murdered. Then two other murders occur and it becomes clear that the three victims must be somehow connected and that the motive for the killings lies in that connection.

Both Hildur and Jakob are appealing characters. They are intelligent, sensitive, kind, and empathetic. Though hampered by his not understanding the Icelandic language, Jakob helps as he can and he and Hildur quickly become good partners and friends. Because both are familiar with loss, they earn the reader’s sympathy.

One problem with the book is its slow pace. Since this is the first of a series, I understand the need to develop character but often there seems to be more focus on the characters’ personal lives than on the investigation. Sometimes elements seem to serve little purpose. For instance, Jónas and his story are entirely superfluous. On the other hand, there are unanswered questions regarding the case.

Then there are the over-explanations about Iceland and its culture and customs. There are passages like, “As is customary in Iceland, the door opened inward. The amount of snow that packed in front of doors would make them impossible to open outward. An inward-opening door guaranteed a quick exit, even in winter.” We are given information about Ístex, “Iceland’s largest and oldest woollen mill. Ístex was owned by sheep farmers, and most wool from the autumn and spring shearings was sold to the mill and turned into yarn of various qualities. Wool from Icelandic sheep had made a name for itself among knitting communities around the world, and the most popular colours were hard to find outside Iceland.” We learn that Icelandic police don’t carry firearms, but the author feels the need to explain “Police firearms were a regular topic of debate, but no changes had been made to the legislation yet. And Icelanders were in no way anti-gun. There were actually quite a few guns in the country because a lot of people liked to hunt.”

The author moved to Iceland from Finland and the book gives the impression that she wants to expound on what she has learned about her adopted country. What is the relevance of the information about the Centre Party? Is it necessary to preach about the importance of runners warming up the upper parts of their bodies? I might enjoy learning about the expensive, expressionist landscapes of Jóhannes Kjarval, “Iceland’s most famous twentieth-century painter” but is that information relevant to the plot?

The book was not carefully edited. For instance, Hildur drives to the police station and waits in the vehicle for her boss Beta. Beta opens the driver’s door and climbs in and Hildur drives away. Both women are sitting in the driver’s seat? We learn early in the novel that Hildur has an aunt named Tinna living in Ísafjörður and another aunt in the Faroe Islands but then later there’s a statement that “Tinna was Hildur’s sole remaining relative”? Hildur contacts an excavator operator and “made him promise to wait for her. She would stop by that evening to show him the exact spot [to dig]” but by the time she gets to the location, the man had already “opened that mound”? Why would a passer-by ask to take a photo using someone else’s camera if the photo would remain with the camera owner?

For those interested, the second book in the series, The Grave in the Ice, will be released in the spring of 2025, and the third, The Shadow of the Northern Lights, will be available in the fall. I’m not certain I will continue following Hildur and Jakob because the weak plot and slow pace do not make for a gripping page-turner.

Review of ALL THE COLOURS OF THE DARK by Chris Whitaker

 4 Stars

At just over 600 pages and 261 chapters, this is for readers who enjoy a big book that blends genres: literary thriller plus crime fiction plus love story plus coming-of-age tale.

The book spans a quarter of a century. It opens in 1975 in Monta Clare in the Ozark mountains of Missouri. Saint Brown and Joseph Macauley are young teenagers. Saint is a talented pianist and aspiring beekeeper living with her grandmother; Joseph (nicknamed Patch because of the patch he wears over his missing eye) is bullied and lonely and has become a petty thief. The two become inseparable best friends. One day, after coming to the aid of a young girl, Patch goes missing. After a time, people fear he is dead, but Saint never gives up searching for him. When Patch does return, he is irrevocably changed. Saint wants to pick up their friendship, but Patch is fixated on Grace, a girl who shared his trauma and helped him survive. But is she even real?  As years pass, Patch does not give up searching for Grace, and Saint does not give up trying to help her friend.

The plot is complex with the stories of various characters added, all of which come together in the end. There are certainly unexpected twists and turns, though looking back, there are subtle clues. Why, for instance, does Saint take note of the book a mother buys her son? Some coincidences irked me, especially in the later chapters. And the reader has to suspend some disbelief: a totally untrained artist dazzles the art world so much that his paintings sell for phenomenal prices and a bank robber escapes so easily so many times.

The book also offers detailed character studies. Saint and Patch are layered; both have strong principles as well as vulnerabilities and flaws. They feel like real people whom I will remember like friends I have made over time. Despite the dark tone, there are moments of levity, many of them provided by Sammy.

I loved the writing style. The author excels at interesting turns of phrase and imagery: “the sun dipped and cannoned color across the ocean” and “a great oak held bronze sky in its trusses” and “Right then mammatus clouds sagged like pockets of rainfall, the framing sky detonated like it could no longer hold blue” and “The window was tall and narrow like a letterbox flipped on its side” and “The road sliced [the everglades] without mercy, a blight on natural wonder.”

Several themes are developed: childhood trauma inevitably shapes adult lives, influencing decisions, choices and relationships; kindness and loyalty will be rewarded; and “sometimes things survive despite the harshest of odds” and “sometimes, against the longest of odds, hope wins out.”

In many ways, this is an unconventional book which may not appeal to everyone. Though not perfect, it provided me with a reading experience that will stay with me for some time.

Review of BRIGHT I BURN by Molly Aitken

 3.5 Stars

I was interested in this novel when I read a description of it which mentioned that it is set in Kilkenny, a city my husband and I visited during our tour of Ireland. I was further intrigued by the fact that the book is based on a real woman, Alice Kyteler, the first recorded person condemned for witchcraft in Ireland.

The novel, set between 1279 and 1331, is a retelling of Alice’s life as seen through her own eyes; in a final note, the author mentions that her book is intended to “give her a voice again” because “like many women, her perspective has been lost.” As a child, Alice sees her mother wither under the constraints of family responsibilities and vows not to follow her path. Learning from her father, she proves to have a skill as a money lender. When her father dies and she wants to take over his business, she decides to marry because “’Few would choose a woman banker if she were unwed.’”

This becomes the first of four marriages. All her husbands are notable, wealthy men whose deaths leave her with more riches. The speed with which she remarries each time motivates people to suspect she may have hastened their deaths. Because she is not meek and subservient as women were expected to be and because she is rich and powerful, she becomes a target of jealousy and resentment and rumours are spread about her.

The writing style is ambiguous at times in that much is not explicitly stated so the reader has to infer. One example is Alice’s relationship with Petronilla. The novel sometimes feels disjointed as it skips years. Interspersed with the narrative are memories, dreams, and villagers’ gossip. It is the latter which adds most to the story. At other times, I was left confused. What, for example, is the purpose of “The Tale of the Coin”?

It is the character of Alice that is most interesting. She is independent, strong-willed, fearless, shrewd, manipulative, proud, ambitious, passionate, and ruthless. She is not someone that most readers will like, though one cannot but understand her frustration with the restrictions placed on her because she is a woman. She describes herself as “a girl turned bitter against men yet always in need of their devotion.” It’s clear that she is both victim and villain. The focus seems to be on her greed for money and the power it bestows and on her physical desires. She wants two things from her husbands: wealth and sexual pleasure. She is straightforward in her judgment of herself: “Everything good must die. That’s why I keep living.” In the end, she summarizes her life: “Once brightly I burned, I drew them all to me and consumed them all, unwittingly and wittingly, in my fire.”

I enjoyed Alice’s comments about society. She dismisses men “who worship at the altars of themselves” and weak women who “never learned the art of persuading men to believe they are in charge.” She does not have a high opinion of churchmen: “Half the churchmen I know have sold their souls to the Devil and bought back their right to purgatory with coin. Any rich man can save himself.” She doesn’t believe in the sermons delivered in church because “the God we hear about from the pulpit was created to line the purses of greedy men.”

Kilkenny has “the castle at one end, up on the hill, at the other end the cathedral.” What I did not know when we visited the city is that the Kyteler’s Inn along the Medieval Mile between the castle and the cathedral actually dates back to the time of Alice Kyteler. I would have enjoyed my Smithwicks there and raised it in honour of an unconventional woman who challenged societal standards. Though uneven in quality, this book does realistically develop Alice’s outer and inner life.

NOVEL SUGGESTIONS FOR GIFT GIVING AND WINTER READING

This article was written for The Madawaska Valley Current:  https://madvalleycurrent.com/2024/12/05/novel-suggestions-for-gift-giving-and-winter-reading/

NOVEL SUGGESTIONS FOR GIFT GIVING AND WINTER READING

It’s that time of year again. Snow and colder temperatures have arrived and the festive season is drawing near. If you’re looking for books for the readers on your Christmas list or searching for titles for winter reading, here are some suggestions from amongst the best books I’ve read this past year.

The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey

This novel has an unusual narrator, a magpie named Tama who falls out of his nest and is rescued by Marnie, a farmer’s wife on New Zealand’s South Island. Her husband Rob does not approve, but Marnie enjoys the bird’s companionship. And though he misses his magpie family, Marnie becomes the centre of Tama’s world. When Tama learns to mimic human speech, his talent may be a way to alleviate the couple’s financial woes. All is not well in the home, however, as Tama witnesses Rob’s short temper, coercive control, and violent outbursts. This unique book explores serious issues and is emotionally engaging.

The Guests by Agnes Ravatn

This psychological drama reminds us “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” Karin and her husband Kai spend a week in a friend’s luxurious holiday home in the Norwegian fjords.  While there, Karin meets a neighbour and, believing she has been treated disparagingly, she implies that the holiday home actually belongs to her and Kai.  Then Kai joins in the charade and the lies are compounded, thereby creating further problems and a domino structure of complications. This dense and powerful book shows that the author has an insightful understanding of human psychology.

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

This quiet book, set in the first summer after the end of World War I, will appeal to those who enjoy historical fiction. Constance Haverhill is sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a hotel in Hazelbourne-on-Sea.  Constance finds herself mixing with the elites who live in the hotel.  In particular, she meets Poppy Wirrall, an unconventional young woman, the leader of a group of independent-minded motorcycle-riding women, and her brother Harris, a fighter pilot trying to adjust to life as an amputee. The book, with its social commentary, captures the mood of the world after the war.

The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

This is a western adventure with romance and humour. It begins in October of 1891 in Butte, Montana. Tom Rourke, addicted to a life of alcohol, opium, and debauchery, meets Polly Gillespie who has just arrived and been married to a mine captain. It’s love at first sight for Tom, and Polly quickly succumbs to his roguish charm. Soon the two head west with stolen money and a stolen horse, their escape resulting in a pursuit by hired hit men. The book’s memorable characters, humour, vivid imagery, and poetic language make for an engrossing, entertaining read.

All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker 

 For readers who enjoy big books, this one, at 600+ pages and 261 chapters spanning 25 years, is a good choice. Saint Brown and Patch Macauley, young teenagers, become inseparable best friends. One day, after coming to the aid of a young girl, Patch goes missing. After a time, people fear he is dead, but Saint never gives up searching for him. When Patch does return, he is irrevocably changed. Saint wants to pick up their friendship, but Patch is fixated on Grace, a girl who shared his trauma and helped him survive. But is she even real?  As years pass, Patch does not give up searching for Grace, and Saint does not give up trying to help her friend. This book is a literary thriller plus crime fiction plus love story plus coming-of-age tale.

Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson

If you enjoy dark and disturbing books with genuinely shocking twists, this one is for you. Emma Lindahl, an art appraiser, is sent to Storholmen, an island in the Stockholm Archipelago, to the manor house of the Gussman family to catalogue their art collection.  Nine years earlier the body of a teenaged girl was found hanging from a tree on the property.  Inspector Karl Rosén investigated but the case remains unsolved. Then the body of another teenager is found. Emma makes some discoveries at the house and ends up assisting Karl in his investigation. Only the most astute readers will see all of the author’s sleights of hand.

Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan

This award-winning novel is set in Sri Lanka. It focuses on 1981 to 1989, the earlier years of the Sri Lankan civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and Tamil separatist groups. The narrator is Sashi Kulenthiren, a Tamil, and the only daughter in a family with four sons. When the novel opens, she is sixteen and an aspiring doctor. One brother is killed in anti-Tamil riots and then two others join the militant Tamil Tigers. Once in medical school, Sashi’s friendship with K, a high-ranking member of the Tigers, leads her to become a medic in a Tigers’ field hospital, but she starts to question her role in the war. This is a coming-of-age tale but the reader also learns a great deal.

The above recommendations are by writers from New Zealand, Norway, England, Ireland, France, and the United States, but Canada has no shortage of talent. Here are five titles from Canadian authors.

In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart

This historical novel is set in the 1950s. Emer McConnell, a middle-aged teacher in rural Saskatchewan, thinks back on her life. When she was eleven, she spent a year in a hospital. There she became acquainted with a child performer in a travelling theatre company, a Jewish boy from a farm collective, and a girl from a Doukhobor community. Emer also reflects on her mother’s relationship with a man not her husband, her brother’s spirituality, and her own long-term love affair with a brilliant scientist. The book touches on colonial expansion in Canada, attitudes towards immigrants, and the role of women.

Death and Other Inconveniences by Lesley Crewe 

 Despite its title, this book is a fun, cozy, heart-warming read. Margo Sterling is left a widow when her second husband Dick dies suddenly and leaves her homeless and virtually penniless. The appearance of Dick’s ex-wife Carole and daughter Velma, who both hate Margo, adds to Margo’s problems. Fortunately, she has a supportive family. This, a late-in-life coming-of-age story, touches on relatable events happening to relatable people.

Real Ones by Katherena Vermette 

This book, which examines the dehumanizing effects of pretendianism, focuses on two Métis sisters and what happens when their estranged white mother Renee is called out as a pretendian. An artist, going by the name Raven Bearclaw, Renee has enjoyed considerable success copying the Indigenous Woodland Art style. When the story is made public, the sisters read enraged online commentary. As they consider what effects Renee’s false representation will have on them and what to do about her lies, painful memories of their relationships with their mother resurface. This novel is very timely because there have been a number of instances of pretendianism in the news.

Bad Land by Corinna Chong 

 The setting is 2016 in Drumheller, Alberta. Regina Bergmann lives a solitary, mundane existence in her run-down childhood home. Her life is upended with the arrival of her brother Ricky with whom she has had no contact for seven years. He is accompanied by his daughter, six-year-old Jez, but is reluctant to reveal why they left Arizona and Jez’s mother. When Regina learns what happened, she decides that her niece needs protection so she takes Jez away on a trip that becomes a journey of discovery. The novel touches on some heavy subject matter: parental abandonment, mental illness, violence, and generational trauma.

Songs for the Broken-Hearted by Ayelet Tsabari 

 With its dual timeline, this book is both entertaining and informative. In 1950, Saida, one of many Yemeni Jews who immigrated to Israel after the establishment of the country, is in an immigrant camp where she meets a young man named Yaqub. They fall in love, but it’s a forbidden relationship because Saida is married and has a young son. In 1995, Zohara, a grad student in New York City, receives a call notifying her that her mother Saida has died. Zohara decides to return to Israel. While cleaning out her mother’s house, she uncovers Saida’s secrets and learns more about her heritage. Given current events in Israel and Gaza, this is a timely book which sheds light on the complex history of Israel.  

Complete reviews of all these books – and over a thousand more – can be found on my blog: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! HAPPY READING!

Review of BAD LAND by Corinna Chong

 4 Stars

This novel appeared on the longlist for the 2024 Giller Prize for Fiction.

The setting is 2016 in Drumheller, Alberta. Thirty-something Regina Bergmann lives a solitary, mundane existence in her run-down childhood home. Her life is upended with the arrival of her brother Ricky with whom she has had no contact for seven years. He is accompanied by his daughter, six-year-old Jez. He is reluctant to reveal why they left Arizona and Jez’s mother Carla. When Regina learns what happened, she decides that her niece needs protection so she takes Jez away on a trip that becomes a journey of discovery.

There are numerous flashbacks. Ricky’s unexpected arrival inspires Regina to think back to their childhood with Mutti, the mother who left them 15 years earlier. It’s obvious that Regina’s relationship with Mutti, a stern and unpredictable woman, was often strained.

What stands out in the novel is the relationship between Regina and Jez. Regina sees herself in her niece, the odd child. Because she is obese, Regina is a misfit shunned by society: “so large and out of place and always on display, a curiosity, even when she just wanted to be . . . herself.” Jez, because her behaviour is often aggressive and manipulative, is also perceived as different. Just as Regina prefers her own company, Jez lives in her own imagined world. Both lash out in anger. Regina has a conversation about Jez, but she’s also talking about herself: “’She feels more deeply than anyone. It’s more than they could ever comprehend, it’s so much it can’t even fit inside her. . . . [They think] she doesn’t have a brain, a heart, like anyone else. . . . She deserves to be loved. Real love.’”

I also enjoyed Regina’s journey of discovery. She learns things about her brother and mother, but she also learns about herself. Most significantly, she realizes how blind she has been, with “’an amazing ability to delude’” herself. Just as Jez lives in her imagination, Regina shapes the past in a way that makes the past tolerable. Throughout the novel, I kept hoping that Regina would have a meaningful conversation with her brother but that happens only towards the end.

The novel touches on some heavy subject matter: parental abandonment, mental illness, social disconnection, and violence. The book also examines generational trauma. Ricky talks about his “messed up” life but Regina has difficulty understanding that her isolation and obesity are probably reactions to trauma. Even her refusal to leave her childhood home is significant. At the end, Regina realizes the past cannot be erased. She also comes to understand the corrosive nature of guilt which is described as an “incurable infection” leaving its victims with “tortured souls.”

A thesis could be written about the symbolism in the novel: the title, the setting with its layers of dinosaur fossils, Wuppertal’s suspension railway, Regina’s job, and Mutti’s jobs in which she is surrounded by the past. And the photograph on the book’s cover is perfect!

I understand why this book was nominated for the Giller Prize. With so many layers to unravel, this is a book worth re-reading.

Review of RESTLESS DOLLY MAUNDER by Kate Grenville

 3.5 Stars

I picked up this novel because it appeared on the shortlist of the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction. As I read, I kept wondering why it had been given that honour.

The protagonist is based on the author’s grandmother, a smart and ambitious woman thwarted by the societal restrictions imposed on her gender. Born in 1881 on a sheep farm in New South Wales, Australia, she loves school and wants to be a teacher, but her dreams are crushed by her father. Marriage can get her away from the drudgery of the family farm “where everything was rough, coarse, dirty, half-broken, a life of hard work and nothing to show for it.” Of course she discovers that marriage is just another form of servitude. She urges her husband to become a businessman, not a farmer, and is happy when he agrees. Quickly however, she becomes restless and is looking for something else to achieve. And determined to give her children, especially her daughter, the opportunities she didn’t have, she becomes a demanding mother whose relationship with her children suffers.

I found the book repetitive. Dolly opens a business but gets bored once it’s a success. She uproots her family and moves on to a new place with another business and the pattern repeats again and again. She is never satisfied, endlessly pursuing the next challenge.

There is much to admire about Dolly. She is smart, determined, and resourceful. It is not difficult to sympathize with her because of her limited options: “She just wanted to be a woman with the same freedom to choose that a man had.” Of course her dominant trait is her restlessness: “The craving for a new place, a new venture, a new set of challenges to meet and conquer – once that craving gripped her she couldn’t ignore it.”

What is missing is some self-reflection, any real attempt to understand the impact of her single-minded restlessness on her children. Over and over again, her children must leave behind friends. Dolly even forces her daughter to pursue a career she doesn’t want, justifying her actions with “A parent knew better than a child what was best for the child.” Never does Dolly realize that she is behaving like her own mother. Dolly has been scarred by her childhood but she behaves in a way that scars her children.

Because the novel appeared on the shortlist of a prestigious literary prize, I was expecting so much more. This story is like so many I’ve read. The book is superficial in many ways; it explains everything so the reader doesn’t have to engage. There are passages like “a world of small thinking . . . was all most women had access to. They’d never been told they could do anything bigger, and they’d been blocked if they tried. Finally, like a broken-in horse, they’d forgotten their real natures. They’d gone on and made a life out of the tame things they were allowed. Clever women, so many of them, bust shrunken because they were women.” I prefer being shown, not told.

The book is the author’s attempt to understand her grandmother who was described as cold and dominating and uncaring and selfish and unloving. What the author imagines for her grandmother is a plausible explanation for Dolly’s behaviour, but as a work of literature, the book is unremarkable.

Review of SANDWICH by Catherine Newman

 4 Stars

The narrator/protagonist of this novel is a woman in her fifties coming to terms with her changing body and her changing role as a mother.

Rocky, her husband Nick, and their grown children, Jamie and Willa, return to Cape Cod for a week for their annual summer vacation as they have done for two decades. As they slide into familiar routines, Rocky reminisces and examines how her life has changed. Secrets are revealed as are messy emotions like anger and shame.

There are a lot of flashbacks to Rocky’s earlier years as a mother; these flashbacks usually begin with sentences like “Jamie was four then, and Willa was not yet one.” She remembers being tired and overwhelmed and anxious about what could endanger her children. Of course, she also remembers the joy of being a mother, a happiness she feels again now that the family is all together once again. She is having difficulty adjusting to the idea that she and Nick are now empty nesters.

The stages of motherhood are an obvious theme. Given her close relationship with Jamie and Willa, it is obvious that Rocky is a successful mother. But there are instances of motherhood being rejected. I like how there are women at various stages of motherhood; if Rocky is in the middle, Jamie’s fiancée Maya is at the beginning and Rocky’s mother Alice is at the end.

Rocky’s life is also full of change because she is in the midst of menopause and she hates the changes it has brought to her body and emotional state. It is her observations about menopause that are the source of much of the humour in the book: “Menopause feels like a slow leak: thoughts leaking out of your head; flesh leaking out of your skin; fluid leaking out of your joints. You need a lube job, is how you feel. Bodywork. Whatever you need, it sounds like a mechanic might be required, since something is seriously amiss with your head gasket.” She bemoans her hot flashes, and “permanently trashed perineum” and atrophying vagina and her scalp “extruding a combination of twine, nothing, and fine-grit sandpaper.”

The title is perfect. Rocky is part of the sandwich generation “halfway in age between her young adult children and her elderly parents.” She worries about losing her children as they spread their wings but also her increasingly frail parents. The making of sandwiches is something Rocky enjoys; it seems to be a way for her to show her love for her family. She even customizes everyone’s sandwiches according to people’s wishes. Then, on the last day, the family opts to buy sandwiches from a deli instead of eating sandwiches she offers to make. This latter choice is a wonderful metaphor for how life and motherhood are constantly changing.

I enjoyed both the humorous and serious elements of this novel.

Review of THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore

 4 Stars

I picked up this book when I saw it on Barack Obama’s 2024 Summer Reading List.

In the summer of 1975, thirteen-year-old Barbara Van Laar goes missing from Camp Emerson, an Adirondack summer camp owned by her wealthy family. Her disappearance brings back memories of 1961 when eight-year-old Bear Van Laar went missing. His body was never found though suspicion fell on a local man who died in police custody.

Judyta Luptack, one of the first female investigators in the country, is part of the team investigating Barbara’s case. Judyta is determined to discover what happened to the girl and suspects that there could be connections between the two disappearances. Were both siblings victims of Jacob Sluiter, convicted of several murders in the area in the 60s, who recently escaped from prison? Or does the truth lie closer to home?

There is a large cast of characters. We are given the perspective of people such as Tracey, Barbara’s bunkmate; Louise, Barbara’s counsellor; Alice, Barbara’s mother; and T.J., the camp director. All characters are complex with complete backstories so they feel like real people, and the reader has no difficulty differentiating amongst them. It is interesting how the lives of several of the characters are interconnected.

This is very much a literary mystery. Besides presenting mysteries to solve, the novel examines class, emphasizing the differences between the rich and the poor. Connections and money come to the fore to rescue the haves, whereas the have-nots, who have no such networks and influence, become easy scapegoats when the rest of the time they are regarded as menial labour and largely unseen. What is also stressed is the concern for reputation amongst the wealthy. The Van Laars are obsessed with their public reputation, prioritizing it over family well-being.

Many of the female characters elicit sympathy. Judyta is expected to live at home until married even though the commute is a real hardship. Alice is expected to be submissive to her husband, just as her mother-in-law submits to her husband. Barbara challenges expectations and so is sent off to a boarding school where she’s basically ignored by her parents. T.J. is the target of gossip and speculation because she also does not behave as a woman is expected to behave. Louise is subjected to physical and psychological abuse.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Multiple timelines are revealed in non-chronological order, but I never found myself confused. The book is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Review of COME TO THE WINDOW by Howard Norman

 3.5 Stars

This novel, set in Nova Scotia, begins in 1918 in the last year of World War I as the Spanish flu begins its deadly rampage across the province. The narrator is Toby Havenshaw, a court reporter sent to Parrsboro for the trial of Elizabeth Frame. She admits to killing her husband on their wedding night and pushing the murder weapon into the blowhole of a beached whale. She makes more surprising revelations, but the trial is cut short when she escapes with Peter Lear, the court stenographer.

Though he returns to Halifax, Toby becomes almost obsessed with following Elizabeth and Peter. He tries to understand Elizabeth’s motives and Peter’s as well, especially after he learns more about Elizabeth’s past. In the end, Toby’s life becomes inextricably entwined with Elizabeth’s.

The novel examines the effects of trauma. People suffer trauma because of the actions and deaths of loved ones. There’s the pandemic, which will have the reader drawing parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic. People not only maintain physical distance but also become distrustful. The war is still waging and there are several characters who are suffering from PTSD, Peter Lear and the man given the job of detonating the whale’s carcass being two obvious examples. Amelia, Toby’s wife, is a surgeon who has returned from France, and she speaks openly about being changed by the horrors she witnessed.

What stands out for me is Toby and Amelia’s relationship. The two so obviously love and support each other. In a book with little humour, there is some in their exchanges. I correctly guessed how events would come together for the couple. If there is a message in the book, it’s that love can help people navigate through and recover from difficult times.

The title comes from Matthew Arnold’s poem “Dover Beach” which, like the novel, speaks of a time “Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, / Where ignorant armies clash by night.” The speaker pleads, “Ah, love, let us be true / To one another!” and that seems to be Toby and Amelia’s response to the chaos that surrounds them.

At just over 200 pages, this is not a long novel, but it speaks movingly about the human condition. In the end it is hopeful in a way not expected given the circumstances.

Review of THE COMMANDMENTS by Óskar Guðmundsson

 3.5 Stars

Earlier this summer, I read Óskar Guðmundsson’s book The Dancer (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2024/07/review-of-dancer-by-oskar-gumundsson.html). It impressed me enough that I decided to read this one, an earlier release.

Salka Steinsdóttir, having returned to Iceland after some time in England with her ex-husband, is asked to investigate the brutal ritualistic murder of a priest, Hróbjartur. She had previously worked on a case involving him and other priests charged with sexual abuse. The charges had been dismissed. Salka works with Gisli, a young, inexperienced police officer.

Events take place in Akureyri and the nearby village of Grenivík where everyone knows everyone. This can help an investigation, but it can also present complications as friendships and family connections can affect objectivity. The discovery of more bodies also complicates the investigation.

A lot of clues are provided so it’s not too difficult to at least guess who is involved. The number of adoptions amongst the characters, the convenient absences of people at critical moments, and the reactions of individuals are all telling. It is also not difficult to guess what happened in Salka’s marriage.

Salka is an interesting character. She is intelligent and determined. Though she appears to possess inner strength, the reader learns she is emotionally fragile. She has difficulty opening up and moving on with her life. Her vulnerabilities make her very human and relatable.

Like The Dancer, this book explores the effects of childhood trauma, especially when justice is not done for the victims. The story of Anton is especially heart-breaking. The methods used to groom and brainwash children are explored, but so is the way that people often turn a blind eye to such abuse. I have to admit I found myself uncomfortable with the fact that I didn’t feel more uncomfortable with the retribution exacted on the sexual abusers of children.

This is not a cozy mystery; it is dark and disturbing with several scenes of brutal violence. I can certainly see this as the first book in a series featuring Salka. If that turns out to be the case, I’ll certainly pick up the next installment.

Review of LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER by Susan Rieger (New Release)

 3.5 Stars

This novel touches on several themes: family, marriage, ambition, motherhood, and mother-daughter relationships.

When Lila Pereira is two years old in 1960, her father Aldo has his wife Zelda committed to a mental institution. Lila never sees her mother again as she is told that she died. An ambitious woman, Lila eventually becomes executive editor of a major newspaper. Though she has three daughters, Lila prioritizes her career, leaving her husband Joe to raise the girls. Grace, the youngest child, feels abandoned by her mother though she becomes a successful reporter. Whereas Lila never questioned her father’s version of events, Grace has her doubts about Aldo’s story, refuses to live with ambiguity, and sets out to confirm what happened to her grandmother: Did Zelda really die while in the psychiatric facility?

Zelda, Lila, and Grace are the central women; each is the focus of one of the novel’s three sections. Strong-willed, ambitious, and intelligent, they have similar personalities. One difference is that Zelda and Lila look forward into the future, not back into the past, while Grace wants to uncover her grandmother’s past. Though she is certainly flawed, I liked Lila. She is open and honest from the beginning about her career ambitions and about not wanting to be a conventional mother. I found Grace annoying; she is selfish and resentful and desperate for attention. Instead of appreciating what she has – a truly privileged life – she takes petty revenge on Lila by writing a book about her. Her father tells her she’s self-absorbed, “’stuck in adolescence,’” and her aunt tells her, “’You’ve got to grow up.’”

There is a large cast of characters, but I never found myself confused because they are sufficiently differentiated. (There is a chart at the beginning to help if needed.) An issue, however, is that some of these characters (Joe, Frances, Ruth, Kathy and Richard Goldsmith) are almost too good to be true. And as soon as Nicholas and Alexander were introduced, I guessed what roles they would be given. The ending is also a bit too much like that of a fairy tale: everyone finds true love, and has a successful career with financial stability.

The novel jumps back and forth in time and from one character’s point of view to that of another. My issue was that this approach sometimes led to repetition. An event is mentioned and then detailed later. The pace is also slower because of this.

I was confused by the political rants. Real political figures are mentioned (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden) but then there’s a fictional president, Charles Webb, who is definitely modeled on Donald Trump. Webb is portrayed as a villain so the author’s political views are obvious. Though I agree with her, I found some of these rants out of place since they are not relevant to the book’s themes.

The book is entertaining and inspires thought about the complexities of families, marriages, and parenthood and about how the past informs the present.

Review of WEST WITH GIRAFFES by Lynda Rutledge

 3.5 Stars

This book is an adventure tale, a historical saga, and a coming-of-age story.

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, 105, knows that his life is drawing to an end and decides he needs to tell the story of a life-altering experience. Aged 17, he drives two giraffes, who miraculously survived the Great Hurricane of 1938, across the continent from New York City to California. In the 12-day journey, Woody meets a cross-section of humankind. Closest to him are Riley Jones (aka Old Man), the animal carer charged with bringing the giraffes to the San Diego Zoo, and Augusta, a young woman determined to document the journey and get her photo essay published in Life magazine. And most importantly, there are Wild Girl and Wild Boy, the two giraffes.

The story is based on an actual event. In September of 1938 two giraffes were indeed driven across the country. The unusual travelers were a sensation everywhere they went—and their story provided some much-needed enjoyment for a nation still struggling from the Depression. Newspapers updated their journey on a daily basis.

I think I would have enjoyed reading a non-fiction account of the trip. I think an opportunity was missed to also present the story of Belle Benchley, the only female zoo director in the world, who wanted giraffes for her zoo. The fictionalized sections of the journey are often unbelievable. One minute Wild Girl’s leg is doing fine and then it becomes badly infected? What are the chances that Woody and his companions make it to the exact spot where Woody lived? Though unrealistic, events are just as predictable: problems are encountered and the welfare of the animals is in jeopardy. Then the problems are all resolved fairly quickly.

For some reason, I found it difficult to connect with Woody who is the narrator of his story. I didn’t find him to have an interesting personality. His obsession with his deep, dark secret becomes tedious. The repeated references to his secret and how terrible it is are obviously intended to create suspense, but after a while, they just become annoying. Then, once he tells his secret, which left him so traumatized he was mute for months, all is well and he is able to put it in the past?

The same technique of withholding information is used to leave the reader guessing who Woody’s intended audience is for the story he is frantically writing before he dies. I felt manipulated.

Wild Boy and Wild Girl are by far the most interesting characters. They have distinct and endearing personalities. I also appreciated the book’s message about the importance of protecting animals and how animals can have a positive influence on the lives of humans: “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”

I had no difficulty taking breaks from reading the book because I didn’t find it totally engaging. There are a couple of surprises at the end, but the days of the journey are repetitive. I kept checking to see how many pages were left to the end. The novel could be 100 pages shorter if the romance element were eliminated and the focus were on the animals. After all, the author was motivated to write the story because she learned about how giraffes are now a threatened species, so she wanted to show how animals can make us more human and can charm and inspire us.

This is not a bad book, but I didn’t find it as entertaining as I’d hoped. I wanted the focus to be on human-animal interactions and connections.

Review of BROTHERLESS NIGHT by V. V. Ganeshananthan

 4 Stars

The author won the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction for this book; I certainly understand why.

The novel is set in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. It focuses on 1981 to 1989, the earlier years of the Sri Lankan civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and Tamil separatist groups. The narrator is Sashi Kulenthiren, a Tamil, and the only daughter in a family with four sons. When the novel opens, she is sixteen and an aspiring doctor. One brother is killed in anti-Tamil riots and then two others join the militant Tamil Tigers. Once in medical school, Sashi’s friendship with K, a high-ranking member of the Tigers, leads her to become a medic in a Tigers’ field hospital, but she starts to question her role in the war.

I knew little about the Sri Lankan civil war, though I did know that the Tamil Tigers have been designated a terrorist group by several countries, including Canada. The book opens with Sashi addressing this issue; her opening sentence is “I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know” and the first paragraph ends with her admission that she was once “what you would call a terrorist.” Her goal is to tell the story behind that label, to show that terrorists are made, not born. She emphasizes that in war people’s choices are often dictated by outside forces.

The minority Tamils are discriminated against and persecuted under majority Sinhalese rule so the emergence of groups like the Tigers fighting for a separate Tamil homeland is understandable. But then the Tigers, in order to establish their prominence, turn on other militant groups and civilians who for any reason are seen as a threat or disloyal. The killing of a respected teacher because he organized a cricket match between the boys of his school and the army team illustrates the extremism. The novel clearly shows that atrocities are committed by all involved in the war. Sashi embarks on documenting human rights violations committed not just by the Tamil Tigers, but by the Sri Lankan army and the Indian peacekeepers as well.

No side emerges as heroic. What is emphasized is the effects of war on ordinary people and families. Sashi’s family is torn apart, and she loses more than one loved one. As a medic, she sees how civilians suffer; her description of the rape of one young woman is horrific and heart-breaking. By recording the intimate and personal lives of people caught up in the war, the novel emphasizes the impact of war. Including the perspective of women adds to the novel’s effectiveness.

Several times, the narrator directly addresses the reader: “Imagine the places you grew up, the places you studied, places that belonged to your people, burned.” I see these direct pleas as challenging readers to have compassion for those caught in the middle of a war and to look for the truth behind the “official” stories told by the opposing sides of a conflict. Though the book is about the Sri Lankan civil war, the reader will clearly see parallels with what is currently happening in Ukraine and Gaza.

This is a coming-of-age tale, but it’s not just Sashi who learns and matures. The reader learns about the Sri Lankan civil war and is left pondering the answer to Sashi’s final questions: “Whose stories will you believe? For how long will you listen?”

Review of DARK AS NIGHT by Lilja Sigurðardóttir

 3.5 Stars

This is the fourth installment in the Áróra Investigations series. Besides crime investigation, this book has some spy thriller and speculative fiction elements.

As in the previous books, there’s more than one case to investigate. Áróra receives a phone call from a woman who claims her 3-year-old daughter Ester Lóa is the reincarnation of Ísafold, Áróra’s sister who disappeared three years earlier. Ísafold is presumed dead though no body has ever been found, but now Ester Lóa seems to have more information. While Áróra and her boyfriend Daníel set out to check the veracity of Ester Lóa’s claims, Lady Gúgúlú, Daníel’s drag queen tenant, leaves a goodbye note stating she is leaving the country. Daníel questions this sudden leave-taking and becomes convinced something is wrong when three threatening men pay him a visit.

I was once again totally drawn into the book so I found it difficult to put down. I enjoyed encountering Áróra and Daníel who behave consistently. Intelligent and determined but flawed Áróra remains as likeable as before. But I also enjoyed revisiting with other characters like Helena, Sirra, and Bisi from the earlier books and learning what has happened to them in the interim. Lady Gúgúlú is a favourite character and it was interesting to learn about his background which explains something mentioned in previous books that always bothered me.

There is a great deal of suspense that will definitely keep readers turning pages. Lady Gúgúlú is in obvious danger: “He didn’t doubt they would kill him if they got hold of him. . . . His biggest fear, however, was that they might try to torture him first.” Anyone who tries to find him is also in danger. Then there’s the mystery surrounding Ester Lóa: how can she possibly know what she knows? In the end, some mysteries are solved, but a new puzzle emerges.

What impressed me again is the author’s intricate plotting. Alternating points of view are presented (e.g. Áróra, Daníel, Lady Gúgúlú, Helena). This narrative structure creates suspense through dramatic irony: the reader knows where Lady Gúgúlú is, but will friend or foe find him first? I like how one chapter often elaborates on what is learned in the previous chapter.

Some of the James Bond elements bothered me since I find them unrealistic, and though I know it’s a tenet of several religions, I’m not a fan of paranormal elements like transmigration. Nonetheless I tried to be less skeptical and “to go with the flow”. And I admit to liking Lady Gúgúlú’s final comment to Daníel: “’If you believe what your senses consider to be reality is in fact reality then you haven’t understood a word I’ve said to you about the inner life of the atom.’”

This is an enjoyable and quick read. The reader’s interest is maintained throughout, and the short, snappy chapters add to the quick pace.  

Review of DEATH AND OTHER INCONVENIENCES by Lesley Crewe

 4  Stars

Despite what its title might imply, this book is a fun, cozy read.

Margo Sterling is left a widow when her second husband Dick dies suddenly. She is left floundering, especially when she learns that Dick was a real dick and left her homeless and virtually penniless. The appearance of Dick’s ex-wife Carole and daughter Velma who hate Margo adds to Margo’s problems. Fortunately, she has a supportive family: her son Mike and daughter Julia and their partners, her ex-husband Monty, and her sister Eunie and brother Hazen.

This is very much a late-in-life coming-of-age story. Margo, 62, is meek and mild, insecure and indecisive; because of her lack of focus, she comes across as a bit of an airhead. Her sister Eunie knows her sister well. As a child, she had been spoiled by her parents; as an adult “Margo felt things very deeply and was always afraid of making a mistake. She could never make up her mind and people would get impatient with her.” Margo is always touching up her makeup so it’s obvious that “’Makeup is her protection. A mask she hides behind.’”

Though naive, Margo has a heart of gold so it’s understandable why others stand by her side to support her. It’s heart-warming to see her gradually gain confidence and become more independent. She comes to enjoy living alone for the first time, and she stands up for herself.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of. Besides the immediate family, there’s the partners: Julia’s husband Andre, Mike’s girlfriend Olenka, Velma’s girlfriend Joanne, and Monty’s husband Byron. Other relevant characters are Holly, Eunie and Hazen’s lodger; Gerda, Olenka’s mother; Hazel and Posy, Margo’s granddaughters; and Harman, Margo’s best friend. And then there are the animals: Stan and Mr. Magoo and Fred and Ginger and Wilf. Fortunately, each character is distinct in some way so I did not find it difficult to remember who is who. Some of these other characters also grow and change.

There is a lot of humour. Olenka always compares human behaviour to that found among animals so we learn that “’Eighteen percent of first-time [spotted hyena] mothers die when their penis-like genitalia rips open’” and “’[Giraffes’] calves fall six feet to the ground when they’re born. That breaks the umbilical cord and gives them the incentive to take a breath.’” The young granddaughters make unintentionally humourous comments. For example, when Margo stops using a lot of makeup, Hazel asks her, “’Did you lose your crayons?’”

Reading Lesley Crewe’s books has been compared to receiving hugs. I love that description. This is a heart-warming book that touches on relatable events happening to relatable people. My favourite line is from the last page: “’Older females are the world’s most adaptable creatures.’”

Review of A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA by Christina Dodd

 3 Stars

This retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a romantic comedy/mystery.

The narrator is Rosaline Montague, eldest daughter of Romeo and Juliet. In this version, the star-crossed lovers survived their suicide attempt and are now parents to seven children; theirs is a “loud, exuberant, contentious, laughing, singing, loving and passionate family.” Though nineteen years of age, Rosaline is uninterested in marriage and has avoided romantic entanglements, but now she is betrothed to Duke Leir Stephano whose last three wives died under mysterious circumstances.

At the betrothal party, she meets Lysander Marcketti and experiences love at first sight just before stumbling across the body of her husband-to-be who has a dagger in his heart. Suspicion falls on Rosie since everyone knows she was a reluctant bride-to-be, but Prince Escalus tries to protect her. Knowing she will continue to be suspected and may herself be in danger, she hopes to identify the killer. When there are more deaths, revealing the killer(s) becomes even more important.

At times Rosaline reminded me of Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew. She is intelligent, witty, sarcastic, outspoken, and independent. Her parents’ “true and impetuous love” is legendary but she hates poetry and scoffs at romance, and has manipulated her way out of several possible betrothals. With men she doesn’t behave meekly as is expected; even with the prince of Verona, she is sassy. She is Friar Laurence’s apprentice and she has even learned swordplay.

There are several references to Shakespeare. Rosaline even speaks lines similar to her mother’s: “’Lysander, why must you be of the house of Marcketti, and my enemy?’” Romeo and Juliet even attend a play, Two Gentlemen of Verona which Rosaline does not like because “’Silly men don’t interest me.’” Shakespearean phrasing is used but so is modern slang so there are sentences like “’”Anon, good Nurse” was my mother’s line when she was fooling around with Papà.’”

There has been some attempt by the author to have characters remain consistent with their personalities in Shakespeare’s play. The Nurse continues to be talkative and raunchy: “’perhaps a woman is like wine and the longer her cork remains intact, the more intoxicating she becomes.’” Romeo and Juliet are as in love as ever. Though he is 36, women still fall in love with the handsome Romeo, but Juliet is the only woman for him. Rosaline is embarrassed by the passion that still exists between her parents. And interestingly, Romeo remains rash; he tends to lose his temper quickly and engage in fights, though his skill with the sword is unmatched.

The ending suggests this is the first of a series and the author’s note at the end confirms this. I’m not certain I’ll follow the series. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the book, but it’s really just fluff like most romantic comedies.

Review of GRANITE HARBOR by Peter Nichols

 3 Stars

Alex Brangwen, a Booker-nominated British novelist, is now a police detective in Granite Harbor, a coastal community in Maine. A teenager is brutally murdered and his body left at the Settlement, a local archaeological site where locals work as historic enactors. Fear in the community ramps up when a second teenager disappears. To complicate matters for Alex, his daughter Sophie is friends of both teenagers, and she and another friend fear they may be the next victims as it seems a serial killer is on the prowl.

I listened to an audio version and I think my feelings about the book were influenced by the audio narrator. He used an unidentifiable accent for Alex and had him speak in a monotone that really bothered me. Alex ends up sounding like a stereotypical villain in a bad movie. Actually, the narrator uses a flat, unmodulated voice for the entire novel.

This is supposed to be character-driven crime fiction, but it doesn’t work as such for me. Alex is not a compelling character. Most of the time he doesn’t seem to know what to do and in fact ends up doing very little. He doesn’t know about tracking apps on cellphones? Were it not for the assistance of Isabel and her psychic visions, Alex would get nowhere. Don’t get me started on how the use of paranormal elements is just a cop-out!

The perspective of the killer is included. Though he remains unnamed until late in the book, we learn about his difficult childhood. I appreciated that the villain is not portrayed as totally evil, but his motivation becomes weak. His first killing has a strong personal element, but the more recent attacks are less convincing in terms of motive.

Then a lot of random characters are added to serve as potential suspects. Ah yes, here’s another Settlement enactor. Though considerable background information is given about these secondary characters, I found little to differentiate them in terms of personality. It was difficult to keep track of who was who, though the person who first becomes a suspect is so obviously a red herring as to be laughable. Some of the characters, like the insufferably obnoxious ex-wife and the arrogant FBI agent, are just stereotypes.

There are many scenes which, for lack of a better word, I’d call fillers. They give a lot of information that has little to no relevance to the investigation. It almost seemed like the author needed to make the book longer and so bogged it down with extraneous details. This approach adds to the slow pace but certainly does not add suspense. Only its climactic “will the next victims be rescued in time” scene has any real suspense.

This novel just felt flat. Its plot is unremarkable, though the graphic violence seems to be intended to add a gruesomely creative aspect to the ritualistic killings.  For me, the book just seems scattered and unfocused, its thin plot padded with irrelevant details which serve only to distract.

Review of THE MORTAL AND IMMORTAL LIFE OF THE GIRL FROM MILAN by Domenico Starnone (New Release)

 3.5 Stars

This is a quiet, reflective novel; although it’s a genre I usually enjoy, I sometimes found myself losing interest while reading this book, a translation from Italian.

An elderly man looks back at his youth, beginning with a pivotal event when he is 8 years old in the early 1950s in Naples. He sees a black-haired girl dancing on a balcony across from his and falls in love. An imaginative child, he daydreams about being her hero, fighting duels and even rescuing her from death. Only later does he realize that what he remembers may not truly reflect the reality of what happened to his first love.

I appreciated the novel’s portrayal of the thoughts and emotions of a young boy. It feels so authentic. He longs for a dramatic life and death so romanticizes everything. He dreams of “perishing heroically” but “if I got a scratch or felt pain or saw blood, then life was intolerable, and even worse if accompanied by a few humiliating sniffles and tears.” His infatuation for the girl is not an ordinary infatuation but a life-or-death infatuation. Even in early adulthood, his aspirations are not just about succeeding in life: he aspires to acquire immortality through his writing.

What the book emphasizes is the difference between his romanticized love for the girl and the very real, unconditional love of his grandmother. The girl is beautiful and speaks proper Italian whereas his grandmother is ugly and speaks a rough Neapolitan dialect. He focuses on loving the distant and idealized love object instead of the ever-present, tender and attentive grandmother. He sometimes appreciates what his grandmother does for him but, “To tell the truth, underneath it all, I don’t think I even loved her that much.”

A university exam on glottology, the history of language, forces the protagonist to pay attention to his grandmother’s dialect. He realizes that language constantly changes and can never truly capture what one is trying to express: “marks and signs are constitutionally inadequate, fluctuating merely between what you try to say and pure dismay.” He decides to write “without ever caring about approval, or truth, or lies, or raising issues or sowing the seeds of hope, or how long something might endure, or immortality or any of the rest of it.”

Of course it is not just language that changes. Nothing lasts forever. Eventually, the narrator confronts his childish delusions and prejudices. His grandmother changed from a beautiful young woman to an old, stooped woman, but we are all a “mass of living and decaying matter.” A favourite quotation from the book is the comment, “’We spend half of our life studying the mortal remains of others and the other half creating mortal remains of our own.’”

At 144 pages, this is a short novel but it gets bogged down occasionally with long paragraphs about linguistics. While describing his first-year university studies, the narrator goes on and on about topics such as toponyms, changes in spellings of words, phonetic writing, and “how phonemes are classified.” This book was written in Italian and its intended audience is Italians who have some familiarity with different regional dialects and how they differ from standard Italian. Not being one of those people, my interest waned. What am I to make of this: cchitaratoperméss, eh, mestaifacènnascípazz, taggiocercatadapertútt, macómm, tujescecàsasènzadicereniént, moverímmoquannetòrnanomammepapà, moverímm?

This book contrasts reality and fantasy, familial anomd rantic love, and old age and youth. Much of it resonates. However, the information dumps become tedious.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of BLUE LIGHT HOURS by Bruna Dantas Lobato (New Release)

 3.5 Stars

This is a quiet novel about the bond between mother and daughter.

An unnamed young woman is attending a liberal arts college in Vermont as an international student. Her mother remains in northeastern Brazil. In the blue light of their computers, the two communicate, and as absence disrupts their usual routines, they develop new rituals to maintain their bond.

The book examines the immigrant experience. The young woman has to adjust to a new country with a different climate, culture and language. As one would expect, she makes friends mostly with other international students who can understand her feelings of not fitting in and her homesickness and loneliness. Because she is a scholarship student, she doesn’t have the money other students have to return home for periodic visits.

But the book’s focus is on the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship as it inevitably changes because of the distance that separates them and because the daughter’s experiences are so alien to the mother. The daughter, though she often feels isolated and adrift, is grateful for the opportunities she has and wants independence, but at the same time as she enjoys her life, she loves her mother and feels guilty about leaving her alone. The mother’s health issues add to the daughter’s concerns. The mother realizes she has more freedom and fewer responsibilities but loves and misses her daughter very much. She wants her daughter to have opportunities, “to have the ocean,” but has to come to terms with changes in her daughter, including hearing her speak a language she herself doesn’t understand. Both want to maintain a connection while having to find new identities and purposes and learn “how to live alone, and to keep going.”

Three-quarters of the book is from the daughter’s perspective in first person. This section covers her first year in the U.S. Then there’s a shift to the mother’s perspective but her section is in the third person. Though very short, the mother’s chapter covers years. The final chapter entitled “Reunion” takes place five years after the daughter’s leaving for her education. I found the large time jumps to be awkward, and the switch to third person has a distancing effect.

Actually, there’s a feeling of detachment throughout. The style contributes to this because it feels detached and emotionless. There were many times when I wanted more feeling. The plot is also minimalist so parts felt incomplete; not much happens. For instance, the daughter’s life is described vaguely; it’s an impressionistic approach. I understand that the author wanted to focus on theme, but I would have appreciated more depth.

This is not a book for readers wanting lots of action since it describes only the mundane daily activities of the young woman and her mother. I sometimes found the book repetitive and its slow pace frustrating. However, it will appeal to readers interested in a realistic portrayal of a mother and daughter relationship as the two learn to let go and move forward while still maintaining a close bond.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.