The Road Home by Rose Tremain (Jayme)

Title:  The Road Home

Author:  Rose Tremain
First Published: Great Britain, 2007 - Chatto & Windus
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Accolades:  2008 Orange Prize winner

In order to support his 5-year old daughter and mother, widower Lev must leave his Russian village to find work after the saw-mill closes.  He travels to London where he will work at menial, back breaking jobs as he tries to circumvent the twisting roads that he faces as an immigrant in a new country. Fortunately, he will meet an eclectic group of Londoners who might not have all the answers, but with out realising it, will help Lev to heal after the death of his wife and to recapture his dreams.

I have been thinking of The Road Home for several days and as I reread my brief synopsis it just doesn't do this book justice. I know when writing a review there are clichés and phrases that we write a lot, such as, mesmerizing and thought-provoking, but this book is precisely that a thought-provoking book that has the ability to change a person’s viewpoint: mine specifically.  I consider myself a pretty open-minded person, sympathic to the needs and problems of others, but this book made me question what my perception really was of immigrants and, if I was at least subconcsiously, part of the problem.  Let me explain. 

In The Road Home Tremain has done a brilliant job of really getting into the mind of Lev.  When he feels the frustration of language problems or anger because people think he’s stupid when he has just misunderstood a phrase or word, as the reader, you feel it, too.  When strangers on the streets of London stare at him as if he is a vagrant because his clothes are outdated and he needs a shave you come to understand how much we judge people and how often our perception is wrong.  As I was reading this book I began to wonder if while walking down a street did I inadvertently misjudge someone by their appearance and gave a look that alienated them or made them feel unworthy - shame on me.  

Now Lev isn’t always a nice guy in The Road Home, but he’s sincere in his humanity and in his willingness to change in order to make life better for himself and those he loves. Lev isn't perfect, none of us are, and Tremain has shown us in The Road Home that we have the ability to change, make life easier for someone else, and set our dreams free.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Jayme)

Title:  Purple Hibiscus
Author:  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Published:  2003, Algonquin Books
Genre:  historical fiction
Accolades:  2005 - Commonwealth Writers Prize, 2004 -  shortlist Orange Prize,  2004 - longlist Booker Prize

Set in Nigeria during the Abacha military regime of the mid-1990s, Purple Hibiscus is a coming-of-age story centering around, Kambili, the daughter of a wealthy newspaper publisher and benefactor to the community and church.  To everyone, even family, Kambili, her brother Jaja, and their mother appear to have it all, but what they really have is a religiously fanatic father who enforces his Christian beliefs with physical abuse and horribly punishes them for what he considers heathen-like behavior. It isn’t until they spend a week in the home of their Auntie and cousins that Kambili and Jaja begin to really understand the beauty of their native religion and that there could possibly be other choices,other ways to live. 

This was the first book that I read by Adichie and I keep wondering what took me so long. Written in first person narrative Adichie captures the innocence of Kambili as she maneuvers through the terror of her world.  The vivid details of the abuse was staggering: 

"He lowered the kettle into the tub, tilted it toward my feet. He poured the hot water on my feet, slowly, as if he were conducting an experiment and wanted to see what would happen...The pain of contact was so pure, so scalding, I felt nothing for a second. And then I screamed." page 194

For all the heart ache and pain that Kambili experiences what is most amazing is that this book is about hope and strength.  The courage of the Nigerian people as they try to survive the atrocites of the Abache military regime are mirrored in Kambili's young life.   Adichie paints such vivid imagery of the Nigerian culture and landscape that you can almost feel the sweat running down your back and taste the sweet mango as you walk in the market place with Kambili.

Purple Hibiscus is simply a beautiful and powerful novel that should not be missed. 

Home by Marilynne Robinson (Jayme@Beachreader)

Title:  Home
Author:  Marilynne Robinson
Published: 2008, Farrar, Straus, Giroux
Genre:  Literary Fiction
Accolades:  2009 Orange Prize

Last year I read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson which was one of my top twelve "best books read" in 2011. Today I finished Home which will be in the running for the top twelve books read in 2012 and has made Marilynne Robinson my favorite author.

Gilead is the story of Reverend John Ames, his faith, and his struggle with his ability to forgive. In Gilead we were introduced to Glory Boughton, who had come home to take care of her ailing father, Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames's closest friend, and to Jack Boughton, Ames's godson and the proverbial prodigal son. Home is the story of Glory Boughton and revolves around the Boughton's home and family. Home focuses on the Boughton's mistakes and failures and how difficult it is to forgive ourselves and those we love. But most importantly, it is the story of home. What does it mean to come home? And can coming and being home really save a weary soul?

In Home Glory has returned to care for her dying father, but also to escape a broken engagement.  In the first few pages we can sense Glory's despair and disillusionment in having to return home;

" Did she choose to be there, in that house, in Gilead? No, she certainly did not... What an embarrassment that was, being somewhere because there was nowhere else for you to be."  page 25

As Glory comes to terms with being back in her parent's home which she deems as a sign of failure, her father receives a letter from her brother Jack who will be coming home after an absence of twenty years.  Jack is the prodigal son, the lost soul who can't forgive himself and is hoping to find redemption in a place that he has never been able to call home.

Home is a subtle, delicate book that questions our ideas of home - ideals that can never live up to our expectations because our true home really lies within our heart and is an expression of our soul. 

Home is not a prequel or a sequel to Gilead because both stories occur at the same time and both books can stand on their own; however, I really feel that if you read Home, you have to promise yourself that you will read Gilead.  They are the two halves to a perfect whole (I would still read Gilead first)

Note:  I read the 2009 Picador paperback edition (my own copy)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Beachreader)

Title:  The Song of Achilles
Author:  Madeline Miller
Published:  2012, Ecco/Harper Collins Publisher
Genre:  Myth
Accolades:  2012 Orange Prize

In this seemingly flawless account of the myth of Achilles Madeline Miller has given us a new viewpoint of the Trojan War and it's hero Achilles as seen through the eyes of Achilles' companion and lover, Patroclus.

I love Greek mythology, and found The Song of Achilles to be a fascinating retelling of Homer's The Iliad.  I was really surprised that I could not put this book down and had to finish it in one day - especially since I knew how it would end.  I think what makes this story so good is that it is a well-written love story that captivates with it's depth and honesty.  This is Patroclus' song for Achilles - the love of his young life.

Miller mixes the love story with rich visual details of a Greece where gods and men interact with each other and shows us a time when honor and glory meant more than life.  If I have a problem with this book, it is a small one.  Patroclus comes off as rather wimpy.  In classic Greek myth Patroclus was a brave and powerful warrior in his own right.  Miller didn't have to make Patroclus weak to make Achilles appear strong.  Achilles was half-god - no one was stronger.

That is my analytical self speaking.  What's most important is that I thoroughly enjoyed this lyrical and magical book about a love that transcends time and is worthy of the gods.

Jacques-Louis David, Patroclus, 1780

A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore (Jayme)

Title:  A Spell of Winter

Author:  Helen Dunmore
Published:  1995, Penguin
Genre:  Gothic
Accolades:  1996 Orange Prize Winner

Isolated on their grandfather's estate after their mother abandoned them and their father is sent to a sanatorium Catherie and Rob rely on each other to navigate the secrets and loneliness of their world until their need for each other crosses boundaries and destroys all they know.

With Dunmore's haunting proses she draws the reader in this dark eerie story  as we are introduced to Catherine, a grown woman, living in one room of a decrepit estate trying to stay warm wrapped in her brother's army coat.  I was hooked immediately and could not let go.  Dunmore masterfully weaves suspense and horror as her tale twists and builds until you wonder how this story will resolve and then two thirds into it you realize that it doesn't - there lies the problem with this book.

Let me explain. I really did like this book.  The sensory details of an English winter had me reading this book wrapped in a blanket and drinking hot chocolate -  that's how atmospheric the book is - I was cold. Dunmore expertly drew me in and with each heightening twist I kept wondering how is she going to end this and I think she may have been asking herself the same question.  After the final crushing event I felt like I was reading a completely different book.  I kept thinking "Huh, what happened, this isn't how I would end it."  This book was to good for pat endings.

Is it worth reading? Absolutely, the writing is exquisite, but maybe you should stop reading in the middle of chapter 23rd that would have been a perfect, creepy ending.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Jayme)

Title:  The History of Love

Author:  Nicole Krauss
Published:  2005, W.W. Norton & Company
Genre:  Literary Fiction
Accolades:  2006 short list for The Orange Prize

Leo Gursky an elderly man has spent his life hiding.  First as a teenage boy hiding in the forest from the Nazis and later hiding from the memories that haunt him.  As a young man Leo fell in love with a girl named Alma and wrote a manuscript called The History of Love which he gave to her.  But the war tore Alma and Leo apart. The only thing that kept him going is the love he had for Alma who escaped to America during the war. While recovering from an illness in Poland after the war he gave his copy of The History of Love to a friend when he thought he was going to die. The friend moved to Chile and published the book under his own name while Leo went to New York to search for his lost love Alma. But Alma had married someone else when she found out that she was pregnant with Leo's child and thought Leo was dead.  That is only the beginning of the story.  What beautifully unfolds in this heart-wrenching novel is the impact that the published novel The History of Love will have on the past and present and finally on Leo himself.

The History of Love is told by two different narrators Leo and Alma a fourteen-year-old girl who was named after the real Alma in Leo's published book The History of Love 50 years later.  Alma is on a quest to find out about the real Alma and to understand the love between her recently deceased father and mother. OK, are you confused yet? There is a lot to keep track of in The History of Love, but it is well worth the effort. My  advice when reading this book is not to set it down for more than a day.  I began reading the book before the New Year holiday and than company came and I didn't get to it for almost a week. I ended up starting the book over because I had forgotten key events and people and was lost.

The History of Love is a very good book. There are extraordinary passages that will catch in your throat - the truth tends to do that:

"We met each other when we were young, before we knew enough about disappointment, and once we did we found we reminded each other of it." (page 103, the History of Love)

Couldn't you just weep?  The History of Love is not an easy read, but it is an enriching one. It will leave you wondering about how lives are interwoven and the characters will capture your heart.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Jayme)

Title:  Gilead

Author:  Marilynne Robinson
Published:  2004, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Genre:  Literary Fiction
Accolades:  2005 - Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2004 - National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, 2006 - long list Orange Prize for Fiction

76-year-old Congregationalist Minister John Ames is dying of a heart condition.  Still capable of preaching and mentally sharp he has decided to write a letter - a journal of his thoughts - to his young son to explain the family's history, who he is, and what he believes.  Set in Gilead, Iowa in 1956 this quiet, profound book is the story of a life and a faith that can move mountains if only it can forgive.

There are certain books that as soon as you read the first two or three pages you know that it is special - that it will change you somehow - maybe not lightning bolt jolts, but small, subtle movements near your heart.  Gilead was that book for me.  Gilead begins with John Ames counting the blessings of his life and expressing the joy of having found love and having a child in the twilight of his years.

" I'm writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you've done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God's grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle." page 52

What simple words written or spoken that could be life-changing - some one's salvation - maybe we need to say them to those we love.  As we read on though we discover when the "prodigal son" of a life-long friend comes back to town that John Ames has yet to give the greatest miracle of all - forgiveness. Though Ames is a minister he still struggles with a human soul and Robinson deftly and beautifully describes his torment and his epiphany.

In the bible Gilead means hill of testimony and that is what the book Gilead is for John Ames his testimony of a well-lived life. 

My Rating: 5 out of 5

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Jayme)

Title:  A Visit From the Goon Squad

Author:  Jennifer Egan
Published: 2010, Borzoi Book - Alfred A. Knopf
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Accolades: 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award, long list for 2011 Orange Prize

A Visit From the Goon Squad is a novel that is written as a collection of stories that center around Bennie Salazar a music executive, his kleptomaniac assistant Sasha and the people that weave in and out of their flawed lives. Each chapter is a story that moves through the timeline of Bennie and Sasha's lives and as readers we witness the moments that changed them.

A Visit From the Goon Squad has received critical acclaim, but somewhat mixed reviews from the "everyday" reader.  I understand the division. This book is difficult to pinpoint and to categorize - just writing the first paragraph of this review was hard because it is a difficult book to explain.  But I will tell you that I loved it.  The writing is crisp, honest, and inventive.  There are proses in this book that are so vivid and accurate that I had to stop and read them again and again.

"It's turning out to be a bad day, a day when the sun feels like teeth."  page 60

Time is a key element to the story (The Goon Squad is a reference to time) - it is always there hovering over the characters and they each feel its impact as it changes their relationships, values, and themselves. The book weaves back and forth through a time span of about 50 years starting in the 1970's and ending in a somewhat dystopian 2020.  My favorite chapter is the chapter that is written as a power point by a teenager of today. It is so in the moment - our current time - it is brilliant.

A Visit From the Goon Squad is a remarkable, strangely moving story about the one thing we can't escape - the impact of time.

My Rating:  5 out of 5

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (Beachreader)

Title:  Bel Canto

Author:  Ann Patchett
Published:  2001, Harper Collins
Genre:  Literary Fiction
Accolades:  2002 Orange Prize, 2002 Pen/Faulkner Award, 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction shortlist

In this lyrical and beautifully written novel Ann Patchett has created a story based loosely on an actual hostage situation in Peru in 1996.  In an unnamed South American country diplomats and the wealthy are gathering in the home of the vice president to hear an international opera singer perform at the birthday party of a powerful Japaneses businessman.  During the party terrorists storm the home and take everyone hostage.  What begins as a horrendously difficult and frightening situation slowly turns bearable as days turn into weeks turn into months and terrorists and hostages find the humanity in each other in order to survive the ordeal.

I am going to come right out and say it - I have a few quibbles with this book.  I can not deny that Patchet is an amazing weaver of words and the book is rich with descriptive passages;

"She stared hard into the darkness of her eyes, the place where she knew the sins stacked up like kindling, dry and ready for a fire."  page 247, Bel Canto

Amazing. 

What I had a hard time with was suspending belief.  I don't know if its post 9-11, but I couldn't feel sympathy towards the terrorists which made it difficult to believe or even understand some of the events that occur in the book. The plot of the book is interesting, the idea that when people are trapped together even under vicious circumstances they create their own universe to help make sense of the chaos and stress that fear can induce, but there had to be someone out of all those hostages who would have at least plotted an escape - the idea wasn't even suggested (unless I missed it).

The other problem I had with the book was the epilogue. I felt it was just tacked on as an after thought.  The ending would have been more powerful if the book had stopped before the epilogue (I can't really go into detail why with out spoiling the story).

Patchett's characterization is brilliant. She captured how our culture plays an integral role in shaping who we are and it was interesting watching how the characters overcame their differences in order to survive.  I kept reading the book because there were several characters that I really liked and I wanted to know if they "made it out alive."  If you are a fan of Patchett's you will enjoy this is well-written story. 

My Rating Guide:  3 out of 5

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel (Beachreader)

Title:  Beyond Black
Author:  Hilary Mantel
Published:  2005,  Henry Holt and Company
Genre:  Gothic
Accolades:  2006 shortlist Orange Prize

Alison Hart is a kind, lonely woman who is well-respected in her field. Those that are down on their luck or have dark secrets are drawn to her and she gently tries to help them see the light.  But Alison also has dark secrets.  She is haunted by a horrendous childhood and by the spirits of those that hurt her - literally and figuratively.  Alison is a psychic medium.  She sees dead people.

I like a good ghost story even if it's really dark and eerie, I don't frighten easily. Beyond Black is just that - it's beyond dark - way beyond.  This is a creepy book on so many levels.  The most frightening aspects of the book are not the ghosts themselves, but it's the horrible people that the ghosts were before they were ghosts and the sickening things that they did to Alison when she was a child. There aren't many likeable characters, dead or alive, which made it very difficult to enjoy this book.

There are many layers to Beyond Black.  On the surface it's about a psychic and the ghosties that haunt her relentlessly, but it's also about the ghosts of our pasts that haunt us and keep us from moving forward.  So the question that I was left wondering was, " Did Alison really see ghosts, or was it the pain of her past that haunts her?"  You'll have to read the book and decide for yourself.

My Rating:  3 out of 5

Beachreader's Review - Wolf Hall

Title: Wolf Hall

Author: Hilary Mantel

Published:  2009, Henry Holt and Company

Genre: Historical Fiction

Accolades:  2009 Man Booker Prize winner, 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award winner, 2010 short list for The Orange Prize


Wolf Hall is a very detailed book that chronicles the life of Thomas Cromwell focusing on his impact on the house of Tudors and Henry VIII.  The book is divided into two sections with the first emphasizing the fall of Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York and Cromwell's patron and the second half the rise of Cromwell and his role in the separation of England from the Catholic church, so that Henry VIII can marry Anne Boleyn.

I have been sitting here trying to figure out how to write about an award-winning book that is masterfully crafted and amazingly detailed in its historical accuracy, but that I just didn't enjoy.  I have been trying to pinpoint what it was that didn't captivate.  I think one thing that put me off on this book is that I did not really care about Thomas Cromwell - I didn't form a bond, so to speak, with the character.  I was more interested in the people around Cromwell than Cromwell himself.  The other characters seemed more intriguing and life-like with Cromwell almost like a shadow figure.  But maybe that's what Mantle was doing in her book, focusing on the historical story through Cromwell's eyes.

Is this book worth reading? I would say yes, because of the historical element, but it goes slowly - at least for me.  I read three other books while reading Wolf Hall because I needed a book that was more gripping, more alive. 

Review: Molly Fox's Birthday

Title: Molly Fox's Birthday
Author:  Deidre Madden
Published:  2008, Faber and Faber
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Accolades:  2009 Orange Prize Finalist

It is June 21st and Molly Fox the acclaimed stage actress has lent her home to a close friend while she is in New York City.  Her friend, a play write who is struggling with writing her next play, is distracted and starts thinking about her friendship with Molly as she wanders around Molly's house noting items that are dear to Molly and begins to wonder if she really knows who Molly is and if anyone really understands the heart and motives of another.

I am going to state up front that this is one of the best books that I read this year.  At first appearances this book seems to be a slight and effortless read.  It takes place in one day and moves seamlessly from morning to night as Madden reveals the layers and depths of her characters through their relationship with the play write.  Her writing is creative and thoughtful as we discover who the characters are:

"Fergus was a dangerous man, with his tenderness and his charm and the deep and unending darkness of his mind that was an abyss into which Molly might vanish one day if she wasn't strong enough." (page 149, Molly Fox's Birthday)

and just when the reader and the play write have formed their opinion about a character - in this instance Fergus- we are given another layer and discover that we really didn't know who he was at all.

"Fergus was a man of wisdom and acute moral knowledge.  He had had the courage and insight to inspect his own life more closely than most dare to do, and he had compassion and forgiveness for those who had hurt him." (page 155, Molly Fox's Birthday)

The questions that this book challenges are interesting ones: how well do you really know those who you think are the closest to you? and what happens when they do something so out-of-the-ordinary that they seem like strangers? and will that change you?  This book leaves the reader thinking about the characters and pondering their own realtionships - fabulous.

My Rating: 5 out of 5
Note: I read the U.S. 2010 Picador edition

The Weight of Water - (Beachreader)

Title: The Weight of Water
Author: Anita Shreve
Published: 1997, Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Mystery
Accolades: 1998 Short list for The Orange Prize

Around midnight on the evening of March 5th, 1873 two women were strangled and hacked with an axe on Smuttynose Island in the Isles of Shoals, a group of islands off the coast of New Hampshire. Another woman survived being murdered by hiding in a cave until help arrived. Though a man was found guilty of the crimes and later hung, there has been continual debate in this seaside community that the real murderer escaped justice and that an innocent man was killed. In 1995 a woman photographer arrives to investigate the murders and finds her self caught-up in the treachery of the past which will end up shaping her future.

Based on the true story of a century-old murder case Anita Shreve has blended fact and fiction in an engrossing tale of pain, loss, and obsession. The book is really two stories in one. The first story takes place in modern time and is the story of Jean, the photographer, and her concern that her marriage is ending and her husband is having an affair. The second (and much more interesting) story is the written account of Maren Hontvedt, the women who has survived the murders, who on her deathbed has decided to tell what really happened on the evening of March 5th.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The mystery surrounding the murders of the women was fascinating and Shreve has masterfully woven a tale of increasing tension and suspicion that when the murderer is finally revealed I was surprised. My problem with the book was the characters - especially the characters of Jean and her husband. They were rather - blah. They seemed to be floating around their lives and there wasn't enough emotion or motivation to make me really care what happened to them. I found myself skimming their section of the book to read about Maren's account of what led to the murders. What happens to Jean and her husband felt almost contrived and the last chapter had me wondering - huh?

My Rating: 3 out of 5