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.

Review of THE STOLEN CHILD by Ann Hood

3 Stars 

 This book has a predictable plot with a few too many coincidences.

During World War I, Nick Burns was an American soldier in France. Camille Chastain, an artist, befriended him until one day, as the German’s advance, she thrust her paintings and her infant son Laurent into Nick’s arms and fled. Nick abandoned the child near a village well where he hoped someone would find him. Then in 1974, Nick is given a terminal cancer diagnosis; with only a few months to live, he decides to make one last effort to find out what happened to Laurent and his mother. He hires Jenny, a college dropout whose life has been derailed and who is desperate for adventure, to assist him. The two travel to Europe to begin their search.

The novel alternates between Nick and Jenny’s perspectives, but then a third viewpoint is added. We follow the story of Enzo Piccolo in Naples from the 1930s to the 1970s. Though he’s a master craftsman of Nativity figures, he also opens up a Museum of Tears in which he displays the vials of tears he collects from people. As expected, his story eventually connects with Nick and Jenny.

The major theme is that of regret. Nick has been haunted by life-long guilt and regret because of a choice he made as a young man. Nick observes, “Funny how at the end of your life you understand so much but you can’t undo any of it” and “How sad life was. When it was too late, you figured out everything you should have done.” Jenny makes a mistake that has altered her life forever. Enzo regrets letting his older brother Massimo always force him to do things he doesn’t want to do. Another character, Geraldine Walsh, regrets waiting too long to take decisive action.

There are plot holes and coincidences that really bothered me. How can someone travel from Europe to the U.S. without a passport? How can Daniel find Jenny’s hotel in Paris when he doesn’t even know she’s travelling? And that hotel knows how to find her in Rome? Of the 24 soldiers who might know what happened to Laurent, only three are alive and it is exactly those three who are the key to the puzzle! Geraldine is so much in love but it takes her years to finally act on her feelings? It’s a little too convenient that the film The Graduate is shown on the island of Capri just when needed. Actually the entire romance between Daniel and Jenny is a bit much, the stuff of a rom-com, not reality.

Though slow-paced, the book is entertaining, but the reader must be willing to suspend disbelief because the plot is contrived and there are too many coincidences to be believable. There are some attempts to make this a serious novel, but it actually has more romantic fluff than substance.

Review of THE TALNIKOV FAMILY by Avdotya Panaeva (New Release)

 3 Stars

This is a translation (by Fiona Bell) of a Russian novel first published in 1848.

Natasha, the narrator, grows up in the 1820s in St. Petersburg in a chaotic and abusive family surrounded by siblings, various other relatives, and cockroaches. Her mother is neglectful, her father mercilessly whips his children, and the aunts and governess administer daily punishments for all misdemeanors, however small. Going to bed hungry is routine: “I was so often left without tea, without dinner, and without supper for a whole month that I was quite accustomed to this sort of punishment.”

This is not an easy read. To call it dark and depressing is almost an understatement. At least semi-autobiographical, it is full of relentless misery from which Natasha and her siblings find only fleeting moments of joyful escape. There is some humour in the way the unwed aunts fight for the attention of possible suitors, but even in these episodes there is sadness because the desperation of their situations is obvious.

The novel actually emphasizes the lack of women’s autonomy. The spinster aunts are totally dependent on relatives so they compete to curry favour. Natasha outlines their situation: “They, too, were deprived of life and freedom, and we often bore the consequences; disgruntled with our mother, our aunts took their anger out on us.” They all yearn for the escape that marriage would grant them, but of course there is no guarantee that their situations would much improve once they are wed. Certainly the marriages portrayed in the novel are less than ideal.

Of course children have even less autonomy. They receive little affection, education, food, and proper clothing. They are virtual prisoners; even their outdoor time is limited. What they are given is physical beatings and psychological abuse. Natasha is repeatedly told she is stupid, useless, and ugly. They long to escape the home, but when they are sent out into the world into the care of others, they often receive more mistreatment. That’s actually a problem: there is little to differentiate among the adults who are almost equally deplorable.

For me, the mother is the most despicable of the characters. A total narcissist, she is totally indifferent to the welfare of her children. Even the death of a child is met with indifference; she sheds no tears. When Mama witnesses another woman crying over the death of her child, Mama says, “’What a fool! What is she crying about? . . . Must be her first! I’ve got plenty to spare.’” She wants to be the centre of attention and becomes angry and envious when anyone else steals her limelight.

I did not find the style inviting. There are long paragraphs of exposition with limited dialogue. The lack of a plot and the presence of repetition makes reading somewhat tiresome. In a lengthy introduction, the translator admits, “Readers today may be put off by Panaeva’s frequent repetition and non-sequiturs. The novel often reads like its author’s breathless attempt to recount every impression and every wrongdoing, sometimes at the expense of literary style.”

I believe this is the first Russian novel I’ve read that was written by a woman. Written from the perspective of a young woman, it describes a totally dysfunctional family. I can understand why the book was suppressed in Russia, “the censor blocking publication by calling the novel ‘cynical’ and ‘undermining parental power.’” For modern readers, it certainly sheds light on family dynamics in the early 19^th century in Russia.

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

Review of BIRDS OF A FEATHER by Jacqueline Winspear

 2.5 Stars

Though I wasn’t overly impressed with the first book in the Maisie Dobbs series, I thought I’d give the second book a chance. I think I will be giving up on the series because this installment was not an improvement.

Maisie is hired by Joseph Waite, a wealthy grocery magnate, to find his daughter Charlotte who has once again fled her gilded cage. Locating her whereabouts becomes more pressing when Maisie discovers that three of Charlotte’s friends have recently met violent deaths. Is Charlotte the murderer or will she be the next victim?

Characters introduced in the first book reappear: Billy Beale, Lady Compton, Maurice Blanche, and Frankie Dobbs. Billy and Frankie both end up needing help but, as expected, their problems are solved fairly easily because of Maisie’s connections. New characters are introduced of course. One that bothered me is Charlotte. Her behaviour, given the circumstances, doesn’t always make sense.

Maisie continues to be too perfect. What irritated me this time is her total control; she never gets flustered and always has control of her emotions. She needs some flaws other than not eating enough and having tendrils of her hair always coming loose. What is also unbelievable is her use of empathy to investigate: She can sense auras and thereby knows not to leave a room because a clue is waiting to be found? This weird supernatural vibe means that she actually finds clues without any clever sleuthing. Isn’t she an investigator/psychologist, not a psychic?

The mystery is lacklustre to say the least. The title of the novel is so obviously a clue; given the setting of the novels, I immediately thought of the white feather campaign. The mystery would have been solved very early on if the author didn’t keep the reader in the dark. For instance, Maisie picks up two items in two different places but what she pockets is not identified until later. Keeping evidence from readers means this is not a fair-play mystery.

The pace can only be called glacial. Even when Maisie has definite clues as to Charlotte’s whereabouts, it takes her days to check if her suspicions are correct. I don’t need an action-packed plot to keep my interest, but I definitely expect something a little less sedate in a mystery, however cozy it is supposed to be.

This novel is set in 1930, twelve years after the end of World War I, yet all Maisie’s cases relate to events in the war? I understand the lasting impact of that horrific war, but not all crimes committed years later were connected to it. And why, if the murderer is motivated by events during the war, does s/he act only a dozen years later?