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.