by Richard Flanagan
This book won the Man Booker Prize this year and the award is certainly deserved, unlike the title they chose last year.
The book is an amazing work of literature but it is brutal and devastating. I had to put it away several times because I couldn't deal will the brutality and cruelty in it.
It is the story of an Australian doctor who ends up serving in a Japanese POW camp in Burma. The man has a girl friend whom he proposes to, prior to leaving for the war. However, he also has a passionate affair with his uncle's wife.
The largest part of the story is about the hardships and cruelty the prisoners in the POW camp face as they are tasked with building a railway through the jungle. The book is graphic in details of the starvation, illness, cruelty of the Japanese officers and prison guards. It also shows kindness that the prisoners showed to each other. It also shows how the prisoners escape from the reality by remembering or daydreaming about life at home. The doctor does his best to look after and fight for the soldiers. He spends a lot of time thinking of his lover, Amy.
We learn that the man's uncle knew of the affair and tells his wife that Dorrigo, the Dr, has been killed in the war. The Doctor's fiancee likewise writes him a letter telling him that his lover died in a fire at the hotel/bar his uncle and she ran. Both things are untrue.
We then see the lives of some of the prisoners, guards and soldiers after the war. The Japanese and guards think that they did nothing wrong, they were acting on behalf the the Emperor and they look upon the soldiers who surrendered as weak and thus deserving of everything they suffered. Some of the prison camp staff are put on trial for war crimes and are sentenced to death but the major figures escape unscathed. Dorrigo meets the wife of one of the soldiers who died in the camp, she tells him how lonely she is without her husband, they were deeply in love.
Dorrigo returns to Australia and marries his fiancee. Despite acclaim he feels empty and the marriage is loveless. He has numerous affairs trying to fill the emptiness he fells. Dorrigo does rush through a barrier to save his wife and three children from a wildfire but it seems that he does this more as an automatic reaction, in an emergency, much like his work as a doctor in the POW camp, than an act of love.
One day he does see his lover and she sees him. He is surprised that she is still alive and does not approach her. He assumes that the two little girls she is with are hers, they are her nieces. She seems him and knew he was alive because of the news reports about him. She had thought of contacting him but never did. He had told her he would marry her.
The book does a brilliant job or representing the people and the lives, the good the bad and the ugly. However, it was just so hard to read I don't think I would ever reread it.
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Sunday, 14 December 2014
A Quiet Kill
Janet Brons
This is a book by a woman who worked for the Canadian Foreign Service for part of her career. It is set at the High Commission in London England where one of the staff, a public relations person, has been brutally murdered in the High Commission building. It appears there may be an eco-terrorism connection to the murder as the RCMP officer assigned to the High Commission claims the weapon was a sealing club.
The Brits initiate the investigation of the murder and are soon joined by two RCMP officers from Canada and another Canadian official. As the site is officially Canadian territory there is some sensitivity as to what the role of the Brits is, but the two teams seem to work together fairly well. In the staff interviews we meet a strange little woman, who seems to be OCD and mental. She is obsessed about cleaning the building, patrols the building at the end of the day to clean or check for thefts. She cooks fabulous meals, imagining a handsome man will arrive someday to share the meals, and then throws them out uneaten. We also meet the frustrated chef, the Asst. to the Commissioner, the Commissioner who seems to be a decent man and his very rude and hated wife. We also meet an ecological activist.
Shortly thereafter a man is killed in his fur store. He and his wife are Canadians, making a living in England. His wife shows police threatening letters he has received. The police wonder if both deaths are the act of eco-terrorists and suspect the activist they have interviewed may be responsible. As the investigations continue they learn that the female victim was pregnant and that she had been having an affair with the Commissioner. The Commissioner had told his wife he wanted a divorce to marry the victim once his posting in England was over. Could the wife be the murderer? But what of the furrier?
The murdered woman's father arrives to claim his daughter's body. We learn that he was from Bosnia but moved to Montreal where he ran a successful dry cleaning business. The police then learn that the RCMP officer assigned to the High Commission was stationed in Bosnia and at the time there was suspicion that some of the military people were involved in drug trafficking out of Bosnia to North America.
The police rush to find the RCMP officer but he has been killed by the girl's father. The father is furious that the RCMP officer, who had been involved with the father in drug trafficking to raise money for Bosnia, did not protect his daughter. He doesn't realize that it was actually the officer who killed the man's daughter so she would not reveal his and her father's role in drug trafficking. He murdered the furrier just to confuse the police and try to direct police interest to eco-activists.
This was a small book but very well written. As it ends it seem like there may be future stories involving the Canadian female RCMP officer and the British Inspector... I hope so.
This is a book by a woman who worked for the Canadian Foreign Service for part of her career. It is set at the High Commission in London England where one of the staff, a public relations person, has been brutally murdered in the High Commission building. It appears there may be an eco-terrorism connection to the murder as the RCMP officer assigned to the High Commission claims the weapon was a sealing club.
The Brits initiate the investigation of the murder and are soon joined by two RCMP officers from Canada and another Canadian official. As the site is officially Canadian territory there is some sensitivity as to what the role of the Brits is, but the two teams seem to work together fairly well. In the staff interviews we meet a strange little woman, who seems to be OCD and mental. She is obsessed about cleaning the building, patrols the building at the end of the day to clean or check for thefts. She cooks fabulous meals, imagining a handsome man will arrive someday to share the meals, and then throws them out uneaten. We also meet the frustrated chef, the Asst. to the Commissioner, the Commissioner who seems to be a decent man and his very rude and hated wife. We also meet an ecological activist.
Shortly thereafter a man is killed in his fur store. He and his wife are Canadians, making a living in England. His wife shows police threatening letters he has received. The police wonder if both deaths are the act of eco-terrorists and suspect the activist they have interviewed may be responsible. As the investigations continue they learn that the female victim was pregnant and that she had been having an affair with the Commissioner. The Commissioner had told his wife he wanted a divorce to marry the victim once his posting in England was over. Could the wife be the murderer? But what of the furrier?
The murdered woman's father arrives to claim his daughter's body. We learn that he was from Bosnia but moved to Montreal where he ran a successful dry cleaning business. The police then learn that the RCMP officer assigned to the High Commission was stationed in Bosnia and at the time there was suspicion that some of the military people were involved in drug trafficking out of Bosnia to North America.
The police rush to find the RCMP officer but he has been killed by the girl's father. The father is furious that the RCMP officer, who had been involved with the father in drug trafficking to raise money for Bosnia, did not protect his daughter. He doesn't realize that it was actually the officer who killed the man's daughter so she would not reveal his and her father's role in drug trafficking. He murdered the furrier just to confuse the police and try to direct police interest to eco-activists.
This was a small book but very well written. As it ends it seem like there may be future stories involving the Canadian female RCMP officer and the British Inspector... I hope so.
Come Barbarians
by Todd Babiak,
"Christopher Kruse has moved to the south of France with his wife and daughter to become a better man—to escape his past as a high-priced security agent and his guilt over old wrongs. But after a harrowing accident, he finds himself drawn into a web of political gamesmanship and murder. When his wife disappears, Kruse must draw on his old instincts to find her, ahead of the police and two sinister members of a Corsican crime family. His desperate search leads him closer to his wife, and deeper into the dangerous machinations of the most powerful leaders in the country".
Kruse and his wife have moved to France. His wife is working as a pr person for a very conservative French political party. At a party for a local candidate their daughter is tragically killed by the candidate himself who hits her with his car. His wife is distraught and goes to see the candidate. His wife does not return and shortly after the candidate and his wife are found murdered in their home. Kruse proceeds to try to find his wife and prove her innocent of the murders. He gets some assistance from the local police officer but suddenly the police officer is forced into retirement.
Kruse keeps trying to find his wife and makes contact with other police who seem to want to help him but really want to use him to find his wife. His wife is brutally murdered but he keeps going to find out the truth, that the candidate was drugged by people who wanted to stop him from being elected. The physical training he received from his partner in his security company saves his life on numerous occasions.
The book was an interesting thriller but I found the graphic violence very unpleasant, especially since the last few books I have read have all had elements of imprisonment and torture in them. I would have enjoyed the book better if there had not been such graphic violence.
"Christopher Kruse has moved to the south of France with his wife and daughter to become a better man—to escape his past as a high-priced security agent and his guilt over old wrongs. But after a harrowing accident, he finds himself drawn into a web of political gamesmanship and murder. When his wife disappears, Kruse must draw on his old instincts to find her, ahead of the police and two sinister members of a Corsican crime family. His desperate search leads him closer to his wife, and deeper into the dangerous machinations of the most powerful leaders in the country".
Kruse and his wife have moved to France. His wife is working as a pr person for a very conservative French political party. At a party for a local candidate their daughter is tragically killed by the candidate himself who hits her with his car. His wife is distraught and goes to see the candidate. His wife does not return and shortly after the candidate and his wife are found murdered in their home. Kruse proceeds to try to find his wife and prove her innocent of the murders. He gets some assistance from the local police officer but suddenly the police officer is forced into retirement.
Kruse keeps trying to find his wife and makes contact with other police who seem to want to help him but really want to use him to find his wife. His wife is brutally murdered but he keeps going to find out the truth, that the candidate was drugged by people who wanted to stop him from being elected. The physical training he received from his partner in his security company saves his life on numerous occasions.
The book was an interesting thriller but I found the graphic violence very unpleasant, especially since the last few books I have read have all had elements of imprisonment and torture in them. I would have enjoyed the book better if there had not been such graphic violence.
The World Before Us
by Aislinn Hunter
This book is written by a Canadian but takes place in England. It is the story of a young woman, Jane, who is carrying around a big burden of guilt. As a young girl, 15, she was accompanying a widower and his daughter on a trip into the countryside. The man was doing some research about plants, the girl was supposed to be minding the little girl and she is playing a game with the girl but gets momentarily distracted and the girl disappears and is never found.
The young woman feels guilty because the girl disappeared, she also feels guilty because she had a juvenile crush on the man, and daydreamed about him.
When the story opens the young woman is working as an archivist in a small museum in London. The museum is being closed down because of lack of funding and she is helping to log and disperse items that have been sold. She will be losing her job and is understandably upset at this prospect. She is even more upset about the fact that William, the father of the girl who went missing, will be coming to speak at the museum about a book he has just written. She longs to see him again but also fears it.
The museum is actually the result of the research and collecting of one British man. The museum is located in his home, which has been converted to a museum with all sorts of biological specimens and other curiosities including a whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling.
Aside from her work at the museum, the girl has been working on research about an asylum near where the man's daughter disappeared. In the late 1800's two patients walked away from the asylum and wandered over to a local estate where they were invited to come in and have tea before being returned to the asylum. She learns that both men returned but is puzzled by another note saying that "N" is missing. She is curious as to who N is and what happened to her.
While she is wrapped up with wrapping items, thinking about the disappearance and William she is also puzzling about the Asylum incident. While she is working/thinking we find out that she is surrounded by a number of spirits/ghosts. They seem to follow her around. We don't learn their names, they don't see each other but know who is there by doing role calls, referring to each other by nicknames, boy, girl, poet, theologian, etc. The spirits enjoy looking at the exhibits, hoping that they or the girl will help them to figure out who they were in life. Some items seem to resonate with them. They seem to hope that if they find out who they were they will then no longer be in this suspended state.
The day of William's speech arrives and Jane listens to it. She is surprised by some of the things he says about the life of the museum creator and his acquaintances, he seems to give some things very short shrift. She is surprised to learn that he has remarried and has a little girl. It seems that he has gotten on with his life, something she has been unable to do. When she encounters him he doesn't recognize her. She slaps him on the face and runs from the building.
She leaves town in a hurry, leaving her cell phone behind, borrowing the family car, but not telling anyone what she is doing or where she is going. She leaves for the little village near where the little girl and woman N disappeared. She signs in at the hotel under a pseudonym. She then proceeds to the local archives to try to find out more about the truth about N. She examines asylum records and also letters and diaries of the family that own the estate. She visits the estate which is under restoration to be a museum and meets a young gardener who shows her around. She tells him she is a trust researcher and tells him her false name. The young man is a much younger than her but seems to really fall for her and they have sex.
She finds out that one of the two escapees died a short time after his escape. She later learns that he was killed at the estate he had visited previously by one of the men of the estate. She figures out that N was an employee at the asylum and then went to work on the estate. She also learns that there was an affair between one of the men of the estate and the wife of another man. As she is doing her research some of the spirits seem to figure out a bit more about themselves, for example the theologian determines that he was a school teacher who had an affair with the other man of the estate. We suspect that the "quiet one" might be N and I think the little girl may have been Jane's charge.
Eventually Jane tells the young man her true name. He is shocked that he lied to her but still loves her. The police arrive at her hotel room while she is out, not because she is in trouble, but because she has been reported as a missing person. As the story ends Jane has given the young man her number in London, the spirits are still around thinking they are there to help Jane, not the other way around. We never learn what really happened to the young girl, if she drowned or was killed.
I enjoyed the idea of the story and of the spirits hovering around but had expected some sort of resolution for Jane but that didn't seem to happen. She did of course learn that William had chosen to live in the present, something she hadn't been doing. An unusual and engaging, if somewhat unresolved story.
This book is written by a Canadian but takes place in England. It is the story of a young woman, Jane, who is carrying around a big burden of guilt. As a young girl, 15, she was accompanying a widower and his daughter on a trip into the countryside. The man was doing some research about plants, the girl was supposed to be minding the little girl and she is playing a game with the girl but gets momentarily distracted and the girl disappears and is never found.
The young woman feels guilty because the girl disappeared, she also feels guilty because she had a juvenile crush on the man, and daydreamed about him.
When the story opens the young woman is working as an archivist in a small museum in London. The museum is being closed down because of lack of funding and she is helping to log and disperse items that have been sold. She will be losing her job and is understandably upset at this prospect. She is even more upset about the fact that William, the father of the girl who went missing, will be coming to speak at the museum about a book he has just written. She longs to see him again but also fears it.
The museum is actually the result of the research and collecting of one British man. The museum is located in his home, which has been converted to a museum with all sorts of biological specimens and other curiosities including a whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling.
Aside from her work at the museum, the girl has been working on research about an asylum near where the man's daughter disappeared. In the late 1800's two patients walked away from the asylum and wandered over to a local estate where they were invited to come in and have tea before being returned to the asylum. She learns that both men returned but is puzzled by another note saying that "N" is missing. She is curious as to who N is and what happened to her.
While she is wrapped up with wrapping items, thinking about the disappearance and William she is also puzzling about the Asylum incident. While she is working/thinking we find out that she is surrounded by a number of spirits/ghosts. They seem to follow her around. We don't learn their names, they don't see each other but know who is there by doing role calls, referring to each other by nicknames, boy, girl, poet, theologian, etc. The spirits enjoy looking at the exhibits, hoping that they or the girl will help them to figure out who they were in life. Some items seem to resonate with them. They seem to hope that if they find out who they were they will then no longer be in this suspended state.
The day of William's speech arrives and Jane listens to it. She is surprised by some of the things he says about the life of the museum creator and his acquaintances, he seems to give some things very short shrift. She is surprised to learn that he has remarried and has a little girl. It seems that he has gotten on with his life, something she has been unable to do. When she encounters him he doesn't recognize her. She slaps him on the face and runs from the building.
She leaves town in a hurry, leaving her cell phone behind, borrowing the family car, but not telling anyone what she is doing or where she is going. She leaves for the little village near where the little girl and woman N disappeared. She signs in at the hotel under a pseudonym. She then proceeds to the local archives to try to find out more about the truth about N. She examines asylum records and also letters and diaries of the family that own the estate. She visits the estate which is under restoration to be a museum and meets a young gardener who shows her around. She tells him she is a trust researcher and tells him her false name. The young man is a much younger than her but seems to really fall for her and they have sex.
She finds out that one of the two escapees died a short time after his escape. She later learns that he was killed at the estate he had visited previously by one of the men of the estate. She figures out that N was an employee at the asylum and then went to work on the estate. She also learns that there was an affair between one of the men of the estate and the wife of another man. As she is doing her research some of the spirits seem to figure out a bit more about themselves, for example the theologian determines that he was a school teacher who had an affair with the other man of the estate. We suspect that the "quiet one" might be N and I think the little girl may have been Jane's charge.
Eventually Jane tells the young man her true name. He is shocked that he lied to her but still loves her. The police arrive at her hotel room while she is out, not because she is in trouble, but because she has been reported as a missing person. As the story ends Jane has given the young man her number in London, the spirits are still around thinking they are there to help Jane, not the other way around. We never learn what really happened to the young girl, if she drowned or was killed.
I enjoyed the idea of the story and of the spirits hovering around but had expected some sort of resolution for Jane but that didn't seem to happen. She did of course learn that William had chosen to live in the present, something she hadn't been doing. An unusual and engaging, if somewhat unresolved story.
Us Conductors
by Seanid Michaels
This book just won the Giller Prize. It is the story of the life of Leon Termin, the inventor of the strange musical instrument called the Theremin. It takes us from his life as a scientist in Leningrad to a glamourous life in the United States where he is 1)trying to sell his invention to a big company. His vision is to have a theremin in every home in America. 2)he is conducting spying activities on behalf of the Soviet Union and has a minder who tells him who to see and what to do.
It was a well researched story. It was interesting to learn more about his life. I know of the theremin but didn't realize that he had actually trained people to play it and had concerts in Europe and the U.S. While he was in the U.S. he mixed with the rich and famous. At some point we learn that he is basically broke. We never find out what happened to his money. Did he not make any or did his minder waste it somehow?
One of his friends becomes his patron and offers him an apartment in his building in return for teaching his wife to play the theremin.
Termin married a woman in Russia and brought her to the U.S. She lived in New Jersey, they didn't really see much of each other and eventually they divorce. He carries on an affair with another woman even before he is divorced.
The good life is suddenly over, Theremin is scooped up and sent back to Russia, locked into a room on a freighter on his way back. He is sentenced as a traitor and tortured in the prisons. He doesn't believe he has done anything wrong but eventually confesses just to get the tortures to stop. He eventually is released and remarries.
He seemed to be a brilliant man, it seemed puzzling that the Russian's would waste his brilliance by locking him up.
This book just won the Giller Prize. It is the story of the life of Leon Termin, the inventor of the strange musical instrument called the Theremin. It takes us from his life as a scientist in Leningrad to a glamourous life in the United States where he is 1)trying to sell his invention to a big company. His vision is to have a theremin in every home in America. 2)he is conducting spying activities on behalf of the Soviet Union and has a minder who tells him who to see and what to do.
It was a well researched story. It was interesting to learn more about his life. I know of the theremin but didn't realize that he had actually trained people to play it and had concerts in Europe and the U.S. While he was in the U.S. he mixed with the rich and famous. At some point we learn that he is basically broke. We never find out what happened to his money. Did he not make any or did his minder waste it somehow?
One of his friends becomes his patron and offers him an apartment in his building in return for teaching his wife to play the theremin.
Termin married a woman in Russia and brought her to the U.S. She lived in New Jersey, they didn't really see much of each other and eventually they divorce. He carries on an affair with another woman even before he is divorced.
The good life is suddenly over, Theremin is scooped up and sent back to Russia, locked into a room on a freighter on his way back. He is sentenced as a traitor and tortured in the prisons. He doesn't believe he has done anything wrong but eventually confesses just to get the tortures to stop. He eventually is released and remarries.
He seemed to be a brilliant man, it seemed puzzling that the Russian's would waste his brilliance by locking him up.
Sunday, 2 November 2014
Children of the Jacaranda Tree
by Sahar Deligani
This book is about life in Iran from 1983 to the present and how the violence inflicted on citizens by the government affected the families.
The story begins in prison. A young activist gives birth in the prison and is allowed to keep her baby for a while. All the other women find joy in the arrival of the baby and put aside their bickering and jealousy to make things for the baby and look after the baby. Eventually the baby is taken away from the woman and sent to her parents.
The woman eventually gets out of prison but her husband remains in prison. She brings the child to see him a few times. She hopes he will eventually be released but one day she is notified that he is dead (he has been executed).
The story switches in time to before the woman is released from prison. The woman's mother, sister and father are looking after her children and also two children from other imprisoned family members.
The woman decides to leave Iran but it takes 10 years for her to get a visa for Italy. She tells her daughter that her husband died from cancer. She cannot bear to tell her the truth. Nor can she stand to live in Italy. She eventually leaves her daughter behind and returns to Iran.
We then meet the young children who were cared for by the woman's family. They are grown now, one of them is studying in the U.S.
She returns to Iran to see a boy she loved. They had wanted to marry but he didn't want to leave Iran and she did. She is hurt that he has remarried. She wonders if he remembers there passion and despite the fact that she is engaged to be married shortly she would be willing to restart the relationship. The young man avoids this. The young children remember fondly the two strong women, the grandmother and the daughter who looked after them. In fact several of them did not want to go to their real mothers when they returned because they didn't know who they were. These mother's struggle to develop close relationships with their children.
The young man is shocked to hear how this generation of young people have also been protesting and have been attacked and imprisoned by the authorities. She feels disconnected from the action and perhaps sad to not have been part of it.
Meanwhile in Italy, the daughter who remained there has met an Iranian immigrant to Italy. They are having an affair. He tells her that he too was involved in the riots, as was his father. She too is shocked to realize that she is seeing someone who participated in what she had only watched on the Internet. When she finds out that the man's father was originally a guard she wants to draw away from him. Was this man responsible for her father's death. Even if he wasn't he was part of the establishment that created the prisons and engaged in the torture. She is wrestling about what to do in this relationship.
She returns to Iran and confronts her mother about the truth of her father's death and her mother confesses that she lied. The girl is furious at her mother for not telling her the truth. She feels she was entitled to the truth however unpleasant.
This was a very difficult book to read, the tragedies, the sadness were very hard to read about. However. it is certainly an important story and the author did a superb job of portraying the climate and family tragedies in Iran.
This book is about life in Iran from 1983 to the present and how the violence inflicted on citizens by the government affected the families.
The story begins in prison. A young activist gives birth in the prison and is allowed to keep her baby for a while. All the other women find joy in the arrival of the baby and put aside their bickering and jealousy to make things for the baby and look after the baby. Eventually the baby is taken away from the woman and sent to her parents.
The woman eventually gets out of prison but her husband remains in prison. She brings the child to see him a few times. She hopes he will eventually be released but one day she is notified that he is dead (he has been executed).
The story switches in time to before the woman is released from prison. The woman's mother, sister and father are looking after her children and also two children from other imprisoned family members.
The woman decides to leave Iran but it takes 10 years for her to get a visa for Italy. She tells her daughter that her husband died from cancer. She cannot bear to tell her the truth. Nor can she stand to live in Italy. She eventually leaves her daughter behind and returns to Iran.
We then meet the young children who were cared for by the woman's family. They are grown now, one of them is studying in the U.S.
She returns to Iran to see a boy she loved. They had wanted to marry but he didn't want to leave Iran and she did. She is hurt that he has remarried. She wonders if he remembers there passion and despite the fact that she is engaged to be married shortly she would be willing to restart the relationship. The young man avoids this. The young children remember fondly the two strong women, the grandmother and the daughter who looked after them. In fact several of them did not want to go to their real mothers when they returned because they didn't know who they were. These mother's struggle to develop close relationships with their children.
The young man is shocked to hear how this generation of young people have also been protesting and have been attacked and imprisoned by the authorities. She feels disconnected from the action and perhaps sad to not have been part of it.
Meanwhile in Italy, the daughter who remained there has met an Iranian immigrant to Italy. They are having an affair. He tells her that he too was involved in the riots, as was his father. She too is shocked to realize that she is seeing someone who participated in what she had only watched on the Internet. When she finds out that the man's father was originally a guard she wants to draw away from him. Was this man responsible for her father's death. Even if he wasn't he was part of the establishment that created the prisons and engaged in the torture. She is wrestling about what to do in this relationship.
She returns to Iran and confronts her mother about the truth of her father's death and her mother confesses that she lied. The girl is furious at her mother for not telling her the truth. She feels she was entitled to the truth however unpleasant.
This was a very difficult book to read, the tragedies, the sadness were very hard to read about. However. it is certainly an important story and the author did a superb job of portraying the climate and family tragedies in Iran.
A Bitter Truth
by Charles Todd
This is the third mystery featuring the WWI nurse, Bess Crawford.
The story starts with Bess returning on leave from the front in France. She finds a woman huddled on the front steps of the boarding house where she lives. The woman has a large bruise on her face. Bess convinces the woman to come inside to get warm.
The woman eventually tells Bess that she has run away from her husband because he hit her following an argument. She doesn't know what to do but is afraid to go home. She finally agrees to go home if Bess will accompany her. Bess feels that she should be visiting her parents but agrees to take the time to see the woman home. She only plans to spend one night at the woman's home in the country.
However, one of the visitors at the house is found murdered near the cemetery in the church yard and Bess is required to stay by the police. She finds out that the woman's husband's family has never recovered from the death of the man's sister when she was a little girl. The dead man had had an argument with the woman's husband on the night before he was killed. He insisted that he had seen a young orphan in France who looked like the husband's dead sister -- implication - the child is the man's.
One of the people suspected of the murder is a blind man whom the woman had been reading to. Her husband suspects that there is more to the relationship than reading. The blind man disappears.
The woman asks Bess to try to find this child when she is in France and with the help of an Australian soldier she nursed to health she is able to find the home where the girl is being cared for by nuns. She runs into the woman's husband but doesn't admit she has found the girl. Things get even more complicated when Bess learns that the Australian soldier has smuggled the young girl into England.
The woman and her husband cannot seem to overcome their distrust of each other. At one point the man's mother admits to the murders to take suspicion off her husband. However, Bess and her family friend eventually figure out that the murderer is a local police officer who killed the two men because they served on a court martial against him.
The story was okay but I really didn't have any sympathy for the woman. She seemed to be quite clueless, acting on impulse with little thought of the consequences for her or others.
This is the third mystery featuring the WWI nurse, Bess Crawford.
The story starts with Bess returning on leave from the front in France. She finds a woman huddled on the front steps of the boarding house where she lives. The woman has a large bruise on her face. Bess convinces the woman to come inside to get warm.
The woman eventually tells Bess that she has run away from her husband because he hit her following an argument. She doesn't know what to do but is afraid to go home. She finally agrees to go home if Bess will accompany her. Bess feels that she should be visiting her parents but agrees to take the time to see the woman home. She only plans to spend one night at the woman's home in the country.
However, one of the visitors at the house is found murdered near the cemetery in the church yard and Bess is required to stay by the police. She finds out that the woman's husband's family has never recovered from the death of the man's sister when she was a little girl. The dead man had had an argument with the woman's husband on the night before he was killed. He insisted that he had seen a young orphan in France who looked like the husband's dead sister -- implication - the child is the man's.
One of the people suspected of the murder is a blind man whom the woman had been reading to. Her husband suspects that there is more to the relationship than reading. The blind man disappears.
The woman asks Bess to try to find this child when she is in France and with the help of an Australian soldier she nursed to health she is able to find the home where the girl is being cared for by nuns. She runs into the woman's husband but doesn't admit she has found the girl. Things get even more complicated when Bess learns that the Australian soldier has smuggled the young girl into England.
The woman and her husband cannot seem to overcome their distrust of each other. At one point the man's mother admits to the murders to take suspicion off her husband. However, Bess and her family friend eventually figure out that the murderer is a local police officer who killed the two men because they served on a court martial against him.
The story was okay but I really didn't have any sympathy for the woman. She seemed to be quite clueless, acting on impulse with little thought of the consequences for her or others.
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
The Back of the Turtle
by Thomas King
This book starts with a young man, a scientist, planning to commit suicide by drowning himself on the BC coast. He is part native Canadian and is drumming and singing as the water rises around him. However, rather than drowning he actually seems to rescue a young girl and other people from the water.
We learn that the young man feels responsible for a terrible environmental tragedy that occurred in the area. He had been partly responsible for a foliage reduction chemical that was used incorrectly. It devastated the water, trees and killed local people including the residents of a local Indian village.
The young man Quinn is befriended by Nicholas Crisp, a strange talking, very hyper individual, who rents him a trailer to live in. He also meets a young artist and a young mentally retarded boy who lives at the local (now abandoned) motel.
Meanwhile in Toronto we meet Quinn`s former boss, Dorian. Dorian is enjoying living the high life, buying expensive clothes and jewellery. He feels no remorse for the devastation. He seems to be ill but keeps on with his acquisitiveness. He is very annoyed that his employee Quinn is AWOL. He is also annoyed because a ship that was supposed to be taking the bad chemicals to storage has also gone AWOL. He is somewhat less annoyed when his wife, who had been bugging him to buy property in Florida, announces that she wants a divorce (she has a lover).
As the story goes on we learn that Quinn's family was living in Lethbridge but his father decided to take an assignment in the U.S. Quinn went with him, but while she said she would follow later his mother and his sister never join them. Quinn's father is killed on duty. Quinn completes his education in Minnesota and then finishes off in Stanford. He did not keep in touch with his mother nor sister. We find out that Quinn's mother and sister and his nephew were living in the native village where the pollution occurred so he is doubly devastated, hence his desire to kill himself.
Quinn later learns that the young artist, Mara, also suffers from guilt. She had left the village to study art, against the wishes of her mother and grandmother. She didn't return often and she wasn't there when the devastation occurred. He is shocked to learn that Mara knew both his sister and her best friend.
The young retarded boy keeps scouring the shore for "treasures". His father isn't around but he keeps thinking about what his father would say or what his father would have wanted him to do. Sonny survives through the assistance of his uncle, Nicholas. He decides that he will build a tower on the beach from scraps he finds and things he steals.
Mara decides to move back into her Grandmother's house. Shortly after she settles in she is visited by a number of strangers who join her in a big meal.
The area had been famous for turtles coming to hatch their eggs. Since the devastation there is little sign of wildlife. But one day a bird is seen in the sky and a sea turtle is spotted laying eggs. Could it be that the area is recovering?
Then we find out that the strangers who arrived at Mara's for the meal, are the same people that Quinn thought were ghosts who came out of the water. They did indeed come from the water. They escaped from the ship carrying the bad chemicals. Soon there is a high tide and the ship threatens to run aground on the beach.
They manage to direct it away.... but..... what will happen next? We are not told....
This was a great book. I really enjoyed the cantankerous, strange characters and the interesting plot. I like King's sense of humour and his language, a very storytelling voice. I was sorry when the story was over.
This book starts with a young man, a scientist, planning to commit suicide by drowning himself on the BC coast. He is part native Canadian and is drumming and singing as the water rises around him. However, rather than drowning he actually seems to rescue a young girl and other people from the water.
We learn that the young man feels responsible for a terrible environmental tragedy that occurred in the area. He had been partly responsible for a foliage reduction chemical that was used incorrectly. It devastated the water, trees and killed local people including the residents of a local Indian village.
The young man Quinn is befriended by Nicholas Crisp, a strange talking, very hyper individual, who rents him a trailer to live in. He also meets a young artist and a young mentally retarded boy who lives at the local (now abandoned) motel.
Meanwhile in Toronto we meet Quinn`s former boss, Dorian. Dorian is enjoying living the high life, buying expensive clothes and jewellery. He feels no remorse for the devastation. He seems to be ill but keeps on with his acquisitiveness. He is very annoyed that his employee Quinn is AWOL. He is also annoyed because a ship that was supposed to be taking the bad chemicals to storage has also gone AWOL. He is somewhat less annoyed when his wife, who had been bugging him to buy property in Florida, announces that she wants a divorce (she has a lover).
As the story goes on we learn that Quinn's family was living in Lethbridge but his father decided to take an assignment in the U.S. Quinn went with him, but while she said she would follow later his mother and his sister never join them. Quinn's father is killed on duty. Quinn completes his education in Minnesota and then finishes off in Stanford. He did not keep in touch with his mother nor sister. We find out that Quinn's mother and sister and his nephew were living in the native village where the pollution occurred so he is doubly devastated, hence his desire to kill himself.
Quinn later learns that the young artist, Mara, also suffers from guilt. She had left the village to study art, against the wishes of her mother and grandmother. She didn't return often and she wasn't there when the devastation occurred. He is shocked to learn that Mara knew both his sister and her best friend.
The young retarded boy keeps scouring the shore for "treasures". His father isn't around but he keeps thinking about what his father would say or what his father would have wanted him to do. Sonny survives through the assistance of his uncle, Nicholas. He decides that he will build a tower on the beach from scraps he finds and things he steals.
Mara decides to move back into her Grandmother's house. Shortly after she settles in she is visited by a number of strangers who join her in a big meal.
The area had been famous for turtles coming to hatch their eggs. Since the devastation there is little sign of wildlife. But one day a bird is seen in the sky and a sea turtle is spotted laying eggs. Could it be that the area is recovering?
Then we find out that the strangers who arrived at Mara's for the meal, are the same people that Quinn thought were ghosts who came out of the water. They did indeed come from the water. They escaped from the ship carrying the bad chemicals. Soon there is a high tide and the ship threatens to run aground on the beach.
They manage to direct it away.... but..... what will happen next? We are not told....
This was a great book. I really enjoyed the cantankerous, strange characters and the interesting plot. I like King's sense of humour and his language, a very storytelling voice. I was sorry when the story was over.
The ABC Murders
by Agatha Christie
After reading the "new" book about Poirot I thought I should read an actual book by Agatha Chrisite.
This book starts with Poirot, who is retired and trying to relax in London, receiving a letter announcing an upcoming murder in Andover. An elderly woman, owner of a newspaper shop is murdered in the town. Her last name begins with an A. No one was seen committing the crime. Then a second letter arrives announcing a murder in Bexhill and a young woman, with the last name starting with a B is strangled. Then a Sir Clarke is killed in Churston. The police and Poirot are frustrated. How can they catch/stop this serial killer. The only chance might be for him to make a mistake.
We are later introduced to a lonely young man. He reads the news and finds blood on his sleeve after he was in the location of one of the murders and he has lady's silk stockings in his possession. This is something that seems to tie all the murders together.
Poirot works with the local police. He is not as condescending to the police as he is in the recently written Christie-like mystery.
He eventually figures out that the brother of the third victim is indeed the serial killer. He planned and carried out all the other murders to take attention away from himself in regards to his brother's murder. The man also setup the young loner, hiring him to sell the stockings and making sure he was in the towns where the murders were committed. The young man became convinced that he could have carried out the crimes.
It was an interesting story, the plot twist with the young loner was an interesting aspect. I was really impressed with how sophisticated Christy's analysis of the mind of the serial killer was. It was not something I would have expected.
I will certainly look forward to reading more of her books. They are truly classics and stand up well even today against current mysteries.
After reading the "new" book about Poirot I thought I should read an actual book by Agatha Chrisite.
This book starts with Poirot, who is retired and trying to relax in London, receiving a letter announcing an upcoming murder in Andover. An elderly woman, owner of a newspaper shop is murdered in the town. Her last name begins with an A. No one was seen committing the crime. Then a second letter arrives announcing a murder in Bexhill and a young woman, with the last name starting with a B is strangled. Then a Sir Clarke is killed in Churston. The police and Poirot are frustrated. How can they catch/stop this serial killer. The only chance might be for him to make a mistake.
We are later introduced to a lonely young man. He reads the news and finds blood on his sleeve after he was in the location of one of the murders and he has lady's silk stockings in his possession. This is something that seems to tie all the murders together.
Poirot works with the local police. He is not as condescending to the police as he is in the recently written Christie-like mystery.
He eventually figures out that the brother of the third victim is indeed the serial killer. He planned and carried out all the other murders to take attention away from himself in regards to his brother's murder. The man also setup the young loner, hiring him to sell the stockings and making sure he was in the towns where the murders were committed. The young man became convinced that he could have carried out the crimes.
It was an interesting story, the plot twist with the young loner was an interesting aspect. I was really impressed with how sophisticated Christy's analysis of the mind of the serial killer was. It was not something I would have expected.
I will certainly look forward to reading more of her books. They are truly classics and stand up well even today against current mysteries.
Saturday, 11 October 2014
The Monogram Murders
by Sophie Hannah
This is a "New Hercule Poirot Mystery". As it has been a while since I have read an Agatha Christie novel I can't say how close to the original the work is from a writing perspective. However, the author does a splendid job of representing the character of Poirot and his little idiosyncrasies.
The story takes place in England. Poirot is retired and visiting a local restaurant for a cup of coffee. A frantic young woman enters and says she is going to be killed and deserves to be. She insists that Poirot promise he will not seek out her murderer. Then she runs away. Poirot is worried about her and tries to follow her, unsuccessfully.
Then he learns from a fellow boarder, a detective, Mr. Catchpool, that there has been a triple murder at a nearby hotel. All three people, two women and one man, have one monogrammed cufflink, with the initials PIJ in their mouths and they are laid out as if at a funeral. Mr. Catchpool ask Poirot to assist with the investigation of the crime. They get evidence from a witness that he saw a woman running from the hotel who dropped two hotel keys on the ground as she was leaving the hotel. She did stop and retrieve them before running away. The man recognizes her as a somewhat famous portrait artist.
It turns out that all three of the dead once lived in a small village. Mr Catchpool is dispatched to the village to find out about the three dead. He learns that a vicar and his wife committed suicide a number of years before and that the three dead individuals had been fomenting dissent in the village about the vicar. They were claiming he was summoning spirits for a fee. Another village woman claims that she was in love with the vicar and that was why she was visiting him when his wife was not around. This woman is the artist the witness claims he saw leaving the hotel. The scandal about the vicar was started by a young serving girl. The vicious neighbours took her claim and used it to accuse him of all sorts of bad things.
Then a fourth hotel room is found with blood on the floor. They found out that the serving girl from the village is the young woman Poirot met in the restaurant. He fears that she has been murdered as she was the one to check into that room.
As the story progresses Poirot looses patience with Catchpool often because he doesn't seem to observe things carefully or be as passionately committed to solving the crimes as Poirot seems to think he should be. He often challenges him to figure things out for himself.
When the young woman is found alive she claims that there was a suicide pact amongst the three people who hounded the vicar and herself and she is supposed to make sure that the artist is framed for the murders.
This turns out to be not quite the truth.
It was an entertaining read, certainly in the spirit and character of a real Agatha Christie mystery.
This is a "New Hercule Poirot Mystery". As it has been a while since I have read an Agatha Christie novel I can't say how close to the original the work is from a writing perspective. However, the author does a splendid job of representing the character of Poirot and his little idiosyncrasies.
The story takes place in England. Poirot is retired and visiting a local restaurant for a cup of coffee. A frantic young woman enters and says she is going to be killed and deserves to be. She insists that Poirot promise he will not seek out her murderer. Then she runs away. Poirot is worried about her and tries to follow her, unsuccessfully.
Then he learns from a fellow boarder, a detective, Mr. Catchpool, that there has been a triple murder at a nearby hotel. All three people, two women and one man, have one monogrammed cufflink, with the initials PIJ in their mouths and they are laid out as if at a funeral. Mr. Catchpool ask Poirot to assist with the investigation of the crime. They get evidence from a witness that he saw a woman running from the hotel who dropped two hotel keys on the ground as she was leaving the hotel. She did stop and retrieve them before running away. The man recognizes her as a somewhat famous portrait artist.
It turns out that all three of the dead once lived in a small village. Mr Catchpool is dispatched to the village to find out about the three dead. He learns that a vicar and his wife committed suicide a number of years before and that the three dead individuals had been fomenting dissent in the village about the vicar. They were claiming he was summoning spirits for a fee. Another village woman claims that she was in love with the vicar and that was why she was visiting him when his wife was not around. This woman is the artist the witness claims he saw leaving the hotel. The scandal about the vicar was started by a young serving girl. The vicious neighbours took her claim and used it to accuse him of all sorts of bad things.
Then a fourth hotel room is found with blood on the floor. They found out that the serving girl from the village is the young woman Poirot met in the restaurant. He fears that she has been murdered as she was the one to check into that room.
As the story progresses Poirot looses patience with Catchpool often because he doesn't seem to observe things carefully or be as passionately committed to solving the crimes as Poirot seems to think he should be. He often challenges him to figure things out for himself.
When the young woman is found alive she claims that there was a suicide pact amongst the three people who hounded the vicar and herself and she is supposed to make sure that the artist is framed for the murders.
This turns out to be not quite the truth.
It was an entertaining read, certainly in the spirit and character of a real Agatha Christie mystery.
Emberton
by Peter Norman
This is the story about Lance Blunt, an illiterate young man, who is offered a job at a dictionary publishing company. He is surprised to be offered the job in the company's marketing department, unsolicited. He did have a successful career in his father's furniture store until his father died and the business closed.
He gets little instructions about what to do, pretends to know how to read, and attends very tedious meetings. The building occasionally shakes and shudders. One of the senior members of the team seems to be quite ill and is found one day inhaling vapors from the radiator. Everyone is amazed when the young man is summoned to the penthouse by the company President. He is told that the man knew him from his father's business.
One day Lance meets a young woman he is attracted to, an etymologist with the company. She leaves him a note on a sticky. Of course he can't read it but gets help from one of the staff. She wants to meet him in the cafeteria. He is delighted to meet her, the cafeteria is basically deserted. She asks him for help in trying to dig up background information on the company. She takes him to a garden in the building and also the archives where they try to seek information without being noticed.
Later the owner takes Lance on a tour into the bowels of the building where he discovers that the building seems to be "alive" it lives off words, and body parts of employees. That explains why some employees leave without explanation. He allows Lance to feel the life force. He gives Lance a drink, harvested from the building's life force. It enables him to read.
Lance is anxious to share this information with the young woman but when he goes to he etymology floor he is told no one by her name works there. He finds out that as a child he was exposed to one aspect of the life force and it affected him negatively (like the vapours from the radiator). The President wants him to be his successor in running the company ad feeding the force. Something is going wrong, not only is the building rumbling, signs and words and communication outside the building are getting disrupted. Most of the employees are sent home for their safety. But Lance finds he cannot exit the building. It seems to have a hold on him.
Lance and the girl meet again and he tells her what they have learned. He decides that while it would be wonderful to be able to read he must destroy the force and they proceed to do so.
Being a Librarian I normally enjoy stories about books, writing, etc. I found the first half of the book interesting but the story line about this force consuming words, first abandoned words and then people was a bit far fetched for me so I wasn't really engaged in the latter part of the story.
This is the story about Lance Blunt, an illiterate young man, who is offered a job at a dictionary publishing company. He is surprised to be offered the job in the company's marketing department, unsolicited. He did have a successful career in his father's furniture store until his father died and the business closed.
He gets little instructions about what to do, pretends to know how to read, and attends very tedious meetings. The building occasionally shakes and shudders. One of the senior members of the team seems to be quite ill and is found one day inhaling vapors from the radiator. Everyone is amazed when the young man is summoned to the penthouse by the company President. He is told that the man knew him from his father's business.
One day Lance meets a young woman he is attracted to, an etymologist with the company. She leaves him a note on a sticky. Of course he can't read it but gets help from one of the staff. She wants to meet him in the cafeteria. He is delighted to meet her, the cafeteria is basically deserted. She asks him for help in trying to dig up background information on the company. She takes him to a garden in the building and also the archives where they try to seek information without being noticed.
Later the owner takes Lance on a tour into the bowels of the building where he discovers that the building seems to be "alive" it lives off words, and body parts of employees. That explains why some employees leave without explanation. He allows Lance to feel the life force. He gives Lance a drink, harvested from the building's life force. It enables him to read.
Lance is anxious to share this information with the young woman but when he goes to he etymology floor he is told no one by her name works there. He finds out that as a child he was exposed to one aspect of the life force and it affected him negatively (like the vapours from the radiator). The President wants him to be his successor in running the company ad feeding the force. Something is going wrong, not only is the building rumbling, signs and words and communication outside the building are getting disrupted. Most of the employees are sent home for their safety. But Lance finds he cannot exit the building. It seems to have a hold on him.
Lance and the girl meet again and he tells her what they have learned. He decides that while it would be wonderful to be able to read he must destroy the force and they proceed to do so.
Being a Librarian I normally enjoy stories about books, writing, etc. I found the first half of the book interesting but the story line about this force consuming words, first abandoned words and then people was a bit far fetched for me so I wasn't really engaged in the latter part of the story.
Thursday, 2 October 2014
Mr Gwynn
by Alessandro Baricco
This book is a book about an author who writes an article listing 50? things which he will never do again, one of which is write another book.
He is a rather lone figure, his agent has to have people track him down, usually in laundromats and hand him a phone so he can talk to him. The agent is very sad, and skeptical at first, that Mr. Gwyn means what he says.
However, Gwyn decides that what he will do is write portraits for people. He hires a studio, furnishes it with a bit of furniture and lights that will gradually burn out in approximately 30 days. Then he has his subjects come and "live" in the studio for four hours per day, naked. He observes them, not wanting them to talk. Near the end he does ask them a few questions. He finds that people's behaviour changes over the days. When the 30 days are up he give them a narrative about themselves of a few pages long.
The clients have paid a lot for this experience and they are all delighted with the profiles he produces. Many of them are quite strange. He tries to swear his clients to secrecy and all comply except the daughter of his first client. She is an angry spoiled teenager who takes his tale to the press. Mr. Gwyn then turns copies of the profiles to his secretary/office manager and asks her to take care of them. He also leaves her a copy of a book by an author she has read previously. She is so angry at him that she tosses the book against the wall.
She goes on to marry and have a child. One day she sees a copy of the book he gave her. She reads it and sees elements of the profile he wrote about her in the book. She then becomes convinced that he is still alive and eventually tracks him down.
The first part of the book contains this part of the story, the second part is a side story, the third is related to the first. I think the best way to summarize the book is a quote I found by an Amazon customer "While the story was clever and you inevitably become emotionally invested in the characters, the story falls apart at the end. The story becomes difficult to follow, and while it doesn't lose its enchanting style and remarkable way with words and storytelling, the plot disintegrates and fades into disjointed vignettes and a conclusion that feels as unsatisfying as Jasper Gwyn's own end."
This book is a book about an author who writes an article listing 50? things which he will never do again, one of which is write another book.
He is a rather lone figure, his agent has to have people track him down, usually in laundromats and hand him a phone so he can talk to him. The agent is very sad, and skeptical at first, that Mr. Gwyn means what he says.
However, Gwyn decides that what he will do is write portraits for people. He hires a studio, furnishes it with a bit of furniture and lights that will gradually burn out in approximately 30 days. Then he has his subjects come and "live" in the studio for four hours per day, naked. He observes them, not wanting them to talk. Near the end he does ask them a few questions. He finds that people's behaviour changes over the days. When the 30 days are up he give them a narrative about themselves of a few pages long.
The clients have paid a lot for this experience and they are all delighted with the profiles he produces. Many of them are quite strange. He tries to swear his clients to secrecy and all comply except the daughter of his first client. She is an angry spoiled teenager who takes his tale to the press. Mr. Gwyn then turns copies of the profiles to his secretary/office manager and asks her to take care of them. He also leaves her a copy of a book by an author she has read previously. She is so angry at him that she tosses the book against the wall.
She goes on to marry and have a child. One day she sees a copy of the book he gave her. She reads it and sees elements of the profile he wrote about her in the book. She then becomes convinced that he is still alive and eventually tracks him down.
The first part of the book contains this part of the story, the second part is a side story, the third is related to the first. I think the best way to summarize the book is a quote I found by an Amazon customer "While the story was clever and you inevitably become emotionally invested in the characters, the story falls apart at the end. The story becomes difficult to follow, and while it doesn't lose its enchanting style and remarkable way with words and storytelling, the plot disintegrates and fades into disjointed vignettes and a conclusion that feels as unsatisfying as Jasper Gwyn's own end."
The Valley of Amazement
by Amy Tan
This is the first book by Tan that I have read. Her books have been very popular so I had high expectations.
The book is the story of Violet Minturn. Violet's mother, an American, operates an exclusive courtesan house. She observes how her mother handles the clients, teasing them, nurturing their egos. As the politics in China change one of Violet's mother\s clients makes arrangements for the two of them to leave China for San Francisco on a ship. Violet's mother makes it onto the ship but Violet is detained and does not make it. It appears this was deliberate on the part of her mother's client. Violet later finds out that this man was likely her father.
Violet is taken in by another courtesan house and groomed to be a courtesan by a former employee of her mother's. This woman not only coaches her on how to behave but looks after her as a surrogate mother. Violet does not want to become a courtesan but she has no alternative.
The man who buys her "deflowering" is a man she likes, they have a loving but also tempestuous relationship while he has her contract. She treats him very rudely and he decides not to renew his contract. She then lives several years with a variety of clients.
Then she meets a client, an American. They fall in love with her and he takes her away from the brothel and they live together as man and wife. She has a baby girl. They are very happy for a few years until the man dies. Violet doesn't know what to do and decides to take on the name of the man's American wife, registering her daughter as his daughter. He has left her his fortune in China so she should have been comfortable. However, the man's American wife discovers what she has done, she is charged with a crime and the woman takes her daughter from her.
Violet is distraught by the loss of her daughter. She returns to work in a brothel where she meets a man who claims to be a poet. He woos her with tales of his family and with poetry and she agrees to marry him. She and her surrogate mother travel a great distance and are shocked to discover that the man is not as wealthy as he claimed and he has two other wives. She will be one of his concubines. She is furious and plots how to escape but the location is very remote and escape seems impossible. She does try to get away and her "husband" beats her savagely. Then she and other of the concubines hear about a village you can reach by climbing a nearby mountain.
They set out but the man almost catches up with them, but he is killed by a rock fall.
Violet returns to her home city but is adamant she will no longer be a courtesan. She goes to her first lover and insists he give her a job in his business. He does so and her English language skills and ability make a valuable contribution to his company. Initially they remain friends but not lovers.
Eventually Violet learns where her mother is and the circumstances under which she left. She contacts her mother who tracks down her daughter. Violet's mother makes friends with the girl and keeps an eye on her for Violet. It is clear the girl does not like her adopted mother. Violet's mother and her daughter travel to China to see her and invite her to return with them to the U.S. But she decides it would be better for her to stay and take care of her aging lover.
This was an interesting story, the portrait of the lives of the courtesans was interesting. It was interesting to see the strong female characters trying to have some measure of control over their lives. The story line of the mother's losing their daughters was poignant. The woman were very strong willed. The story was interesting with a lot of colourful characters. However, I felt it was a bit too wordy at times. The author spent a lot of time describing scenes and interactions but didn't give us much detail as to how Violet or her mother were feeling about the loss of their daughters. Violet's mother, to be fair, had been told that her daughter had been killed, run over by a carriage, if I remember correctly.
This is the first book by Tan that I have read. Her books have been very popular so I had high expectations.
The book is the story of Violet Minturn. Violet's mother, an American, operates an exclusive courtesan house. She observes how her mother handles the clients, teasing them, nurturing their egos. As the politics in China change one of Violet's mother\s clients makes arrangements for the two of them to leave China for San Francisco on a ship. Violet's mother makes it onto the ship but Violet is detained and does not make it. It appears this was deliberate on the part of her mother's client. Violet later finds out that this man was likely her father.
Violet is taken in by another courtesan house and groomed to be a courtesan by a former employee of her mother's. This woman not only coaches her on how to behave but looks after her as a surrogate mother. Violet does not want to become a courtesan but she has no alternative.
The man who buys her "deflowering" is a man she likes, they have a loving but also tempestuous relationship while he has her contract. She treats him very rudely and he decides not to renew his contract. She then lives several years with a variety of clients.
Then she meets a client, an American. They fall in love with her and he takes her away from the brothel and they live together as man and wife. She has a baby girl. They are very happy for a few years until the man dies. Violet doesn't know what to do and decides to take on the name of the man's American wife, registering her daughter as his daughter. He has left her his fortune in China so she should have been comfortable. However, the man's American wife discovers what she has done, she is charged with a crime and the woman takes her daughter from her.
Violet is distraught by the loss of her daughter. She returns to work in a brothel where she meets a man who claims to be a poet. He woos her with tales of his family and with poetry and she agrees to marry him. She and her surrogate mother travel a great distance and are shocked to discover that the man is not as wealthy as he claimed and he has two other wives. She will be one of his concubines. She is furious and plots how to escape but the location is very remote and escape seems impossible. She does try to get away and her "husband" beats her savagely. Then she and other of the concubines hear about a village you can reach by climbing a nearby mountain.
They set out but the man almost catches up with them, but he is killed by a rock fall.
Violet returns to her home city but is adamant she will no longer be a courtesan. She goes to her first lover and insists he give her a job in his business. He does so and her English language skills and ability make a valuable contribution to his company. Initially they remain friends but not lovers.
Eventually Violet learns where her mother is and the circumstances under which she left. She contacts her mother who tracks down her daughter. Violet's mother makes friends with the girl and keeps an eye on her for Violet. It is clear the girl does not like her adopted mother. Violet's mother and her daughter travel to China to see her and invite her to return with them to the U.S. But she decides it would be better for her to stay and take care of her aging lover.
This was an interesting story, the portrait of the lives of the courtesans was interesting. It was interesting to see the strong female characters trying to have some measure of control over their lives. The story line of the mother's losing their daughters was poignant. The woman were very strong willed. The story was interesting with a lot of colourful characters. However, I felt it was a bit too wordy at times. The author spent a lot of time describing scenes and interactions but didn't give us much detail as to how Violet or her mother were feeling about the loss of their daughters. Violet's mother, to be fair, had been told that her daughter had been killed, run over by a carriage, if I remember correctly.
Thursday, 4 September 2014
Cuckoo's Calling
by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J. K. Rowling)
In this mystery a youmg famous black model falls to hear death from her apartment window. The coroner rules it a suicide. However, the brother of the woman engages the services of a down and out Private Investigator because he does not believe it was suicide.
The detective is living out of his office as he has been kicked out by his girlfriend. He is a war vet and has a prosthetic leg.
He takes on the case, and with help from his temporary assistant, interviews the girls family members (she was adopted), her friends and business acquaintances and he does uncover the truth.
This was a typical detective story, it kept developing the story towards the truth a bit at a time. I thought the story was okay, the persistence of the detective was engaging. It did seem to drag on a bit near the end.
As I read reviews of the book people seemed to be pleased with the surprise ending but I have to say that I found the ending entirely unbelievable, and as a result unsatisfactory.
At the end of the story we find out that the model wrote a hand written will on the day she died. Why would she do this, did she expect something to happen? She leaves all her money to a brother she has never met (she has identified her biological mother and father and learns that her father had a family including a son). Why would she leave all her money to someone she has never met? She had met her mother, a poor sluttish woman and had befriended a young drug addict in Rehab. I don't understand why she would leave money to a total stranger and nothing to these others. I know she didn't like her birth mother but thought she might leave something to the other girl.
But the most problematic aspect of the book is that the man who hired the detective is actually the one who killed the girl. Why would he go to the bother and the expense when it had been deemed a suicide and without a will all the money would have gone to him and his family. I don't see the point.
I think I had expected something better written, more creative, by Rowling.
In this mystery a youmg famous black model falls to hear death from her apartment window. The coroner rules it a suicide. However, the brother of the woman engages the services of a down and out Private Investigator because he does not believe it was suicide.
The detective is living out of his office as he has been kicked out by his girlfriend. He is a war vet and has a prosthetic leg.
He takes on the case, and with help from his temporary assistant, interviews the girls family members (she was adopted), her friends and business acquaintances and he does uncover the truth.
This was a typical detective story, it kept developing the story towards the truth a bit at a time. I thought the story was okay, the persistence of the detective was engaging. It did seem to drag on a bit near the end.
As I read reviews of the book people seemed to be pleased with the surprise ending but I have to say that I found the ending entirely unbelievable, and as a result unsatisfactory.
At the end of the story we find out that the model wrote a hand written will on the day she died. Why would she do this, did she expect something to happen? She leaves all her money to a brother she has never met (she has identified her biological mother and father and learns that her father had a family including a son). Why would she leave all her money to someone she has never met? She had met her mother, a poor sluttish woman and had befriended a young drug addict in Rehab. I don't understand why she would leave money to a total stranger and nothing to these others. I know she didn't like her birth mother but thought she might leave something to the other girl.
But the most problematic aspect of the book is that the man who hired the detective is actually the one who killed the girl. Why would he go to the bother and the expense when it had been deemed a suicide and without a will all the money would have gone to him and his family. I don't see the point.
I think I had expected something better written, more creative, by Rowling.
Body Count
By Barbara Nadell
This mystery, set in Istanbul, involves the gruesome murders of several people on the 21st day over several months. Some of the victims are loosely related. Several of them have had their hearts cut out. The first victim, apparently somewhat mental, had strange writing, that was at first thought to be math formulas in his home. The writing was later identified as related to the Mayan calendar. The police wonder if the mrders are somehow connnected to Mayan rituals.
As Inspector Suleyman goes about trying to solves the crimes he encounters a gypsy woman, a former lover of his. Their affair is reignited. This causes him to abandon a young female colleague he was in a relationship with.
As the victims all have crimes/sins in their background (adultery, crime, pedophilia, homosexuality the police wonder if the murders are being done to punish the"sinners". The search for the killer results in the death of Suleyman's female colleague and Suleyman comes close to death at the hands of the serial killer.
In the end, it is one egomaniac academic, who got one of the victims pregnant as a young girl, who was having an affair with one of the victims and who has a hatred for the Ottoman descendents who is the serial killer.
It was an interesting mystery. The various police officers had unique and endearing personalities. The setting in Istanbul and the time frame in current Turkey added extra colour and life to the story.
This mystery, set in Istanbul, involves the gruesome murders of several people on the 21st day over several months. Some of the victims are loosely related. Several of them have had their hearts cut out. The first victim, apparently somewhat mental, had strange writing, that was at first thought to be math formulas in his home. The writing was later identified as related to the Mayan calendar. The police wonder if the mrders are somehow connnected to Mayan rituals.
As Inspector Suleyman goes about trying to solves the crimes he encounters a gypsy woman, a former lover of his. Their affair is reignited. This causes him to abandon a young female colleague he was in a relationship with.
As the victims all have crimes/sins in their background (adultery, crime, pedophilia, homosexuality the police wonder if the murders are being done to punish the"sinners". The search for the killer results in the death of Suleyman's female colleague and Suleyman comes close to death at the hands of the serial killer.
In the end, it is one egomaniac academic, who got one of the victims pregnant as a young girl, who was having an affair with one of the victims and who has a hatred for the Ottoman descendents who is the serial killer.
It was an interesting mystery. The various police officers had unique and endearing personalities. The setting in Istanbul and the time frame in current Turkey added extra colour and life to the story.
Tuesday, 26 August 2014
We Are Completely Beside Ourselves
by Karen Joy Fowler
This books is one of the titles on the Booker longlist this year. I read a previous bestseller by this author, The Jane Austen Book Club. As I recall it was okay.... not great.
This book is about a young girl who as a child had a baby monkey being raised as a sibling and being studied by her father, a scientist and his grad students.
They are studying how the monkey learns, if it learns from the child, and vice versa.
We learn that the girl used to have a sister, but we don't learn that the sister was a monkey until well into the book. It turns out that the monkey was removed from the family when the girl was approximately five years of age, after the girl tells the family that the monkey killed a kitten.
At the same time as the monkey is removed from the family, the girl is sent to stay with her grandparents. She thinks she has done something wrong. She acts out and is returned home to find that her sister is gone. The family is told that the monkey has been sent to a sanctuary. The family falls apart with the removal of the monkey. The girl remembers playing with the monkey, being read to by their mother, she misses her desperately even though she was taunted at school, called a Monkey Girl. She thinks of herself as having monkey behaviours she learned from the baby monkey, Fern.
After the monkey is taken away from the family the family falls apart. The mother becomes depressed, the fathers academic career falters, the son's relationship with the family deteriorates and he eventually runs away to become an animal rights activist/terroist. The family don't know where he is and the FBI are looking for him.
As the story starts the girl is in university, she has a girlfriend who is very self-centred and explosive. The girl's brother shows up and tells her the truth about Fern. She is in a laboratory. He is trying to figure out how to get her out but doesn't succeed.
Eventually the girl and her mother become volunteers at the facility and have some contact with Fern, but it is of course very sad for them know what has happened to her.
As with Annabel, I was dissatisfied with this book. I can understand being distraught at the loss of the monkey, they thought of her as family. However, I have lost two dogs, both of whom we loved as members of our family. It hurts a lot when you lose them but gradually the pain lessons, but you never forget them. Perhaps because we tell ourselves they have "gone to a better place" or "are no longer suffering". I could understand the son's response -- to become an animal activist, but I really couldn't buy the long drawn out grief of the mother and daughter. The girl did eventually remember that she is likely responsible for the monkey being taken away from the family, I can see her having some guilt from that. The parents probably had guilt or realized how unethical it was to subject the baby monkey to experimentation. But overall, it just seemed way over the top emotionally.
I suppose you could consider the book in terms of a family losing a child, a child losing a twin or sibling and the grief that would ensue. I think I would be less critical of the story.
This books is one of the titles on the Booker longlist this year. I read a previous bestseller by this author, The Jane Austen Book Club. As I recall it was okay.... not great.
This book is about a young girl who as a child had a baby monkey being raised as a sibling and being studied by her father, a scientist and his grad students.
They are studying how the monkey learns, if it learns from the child, and vice versa.
We learn that the girl used to have a sister, but we don't learn that the sister was a monkey until well into the book. It turns out that the monkey was removed from the family when the girl was approximately five years of age, after the girl tells the family that the monkey killed a kitten.
At the same time as the monkey is removed from the family, the girl is sent to stay with her grandparents. She thinks she has done something wrong. She acts out and is returned home to find that her sister is gone. The family is told that the monkey has been sent to a sanctuary. The family falls apart with the removal of the monkey. The girl remembers playing with the monkey, being read to by their mother, she misses her desperately even though she was taunted at school, called a Monkey Girl. She thinks of herself as having monkey behaviours she learned from the baby monkey, Fern.
After the monkey is taken away from the family the family falls apart. The mother becomes depressed, the fathers academic career falters, the son's relationship with the family deteriorates and he eventually runs away to become an animal rights activist/terroist. The family don't know where he is and the FBI are looking for him.
As the story starts the girl is in university, she has a girlfriend who is very self-centred and explosive. The girl's brother shows up and tells her the truth about Fern. She is in a laboratory. He is trying to figure out how to get her out but doesn't succeed.
Eventually the girl and her mother become volunteers at the facility and have some contact with Fern, but it is of course very sad for them know what has happened to her.
As with Annabel, I was dissatisfied with this book. I can understand being distraught at the loss of the monkey, they thought of her as family. However, I have lost two dogs, both of whom we loved as members of our family. It hurts a lot when you lose them but gradually the pain lessons, but you never forget them. Perhaps because we tell ourselves they have "gone to a better place" or "are no longer suffering". I could understand the son's response -- to become an animal activist, but I really couldn't buy the long drawn out grief of the mother and daughter. The girl did eventually remember that she is likely responsible for the monkey being taken away from the family, I can see her having some guilt from that. The parents probably had guilt or realized how unethical it was to subject the baby monkey to experimentation. But overall, it just seemed way over the top emotionally.
I suppose you could consider the book in terms of a family losing a child, a child losing a twin or sibling and the grief that would ensue. I think I would be less critical of the story.
Annabel
By Kathleen Winter
This book received lots of praise, it was a Canada Reads book plus a finalist for the Giller Prize.
I am not sure what I expected, but I think I expected it to be a better book. The story is certainly unusual, a hermaphrodite child is born to a couple in a remote Labrador community. They are advised to select one sex for the child, the father opts for a boy, the mother would have preferred a girl.
The child seems to have a desire for some girly things, a shiny synchronized swimming costume (if I remember correctly). The father does everything he can to make the boy a man. The boy builds a bridge on the family land and he and a female friend decorate it with lights and fabric and spend a lot of time there. The father is fine helping the boy design and build the bridge structure but after he sees what the kids have done to it he dismantles it and buys his son a puppy an apology. The boy does not take to the dog and the father eventually gives it away.
The father is a trapper, he is a strange man. He is first to go out onto the trap line and the last to return. He seems to enjoy life more out in the wild on his own, wear he reads philosophical books, than the time he spends with his family. The child's mother is very depressed, she misses her life and the liveliness of Newfoundland. I had to wonder why he ever got married. The mother sufferes severe depression partly because of her anxiety about her child and the isolation of living in Labrador with such an unloving, inattentive husband.
The child is on hormones but isn't told why he is taking them. One day, a female friend of the family, who is also a local teacher, finds the boy in discomfort and decides to take him to the hospital because she cannot reach his parents. It turns out menstrual blood has been collecting in his body. The father is furious that she has chosen to do this and the teacher is suspended for her actions.
The boy is eventually told the truth about himself. In some ways he is relieved as it explains why he has always felt different. When he graduates high school he leaves for Newfoundland where he finds a job delivering meat. He decides to stop taking the hormones regardless of the consequences. He tells a boy he hardly knows the truth about himself, this person blabs to some other guys and they brutally rape the boy. The boy confides what has happened to his father when he comes for a visit. The father plots to revenge his son on the perpetrators. It isn't spoken of again but we assume he did. He also gives the son money he saved from buying gold stocks so the boy can finance a future for himself. So despite his harsh treatment of the boy in the past we know he cares about him.
Near the end of the book the mother and father seem to develop some sort of companionship, going out for dinner. Meanwhile, the family friend has tracked down the boy's childhood friend and arranges for him to visit her in Boston where she is living and studying.
He goes to visit her and realizes he thinks he could fit in in a university setting.
I found the book very sad, I think the boy's confusion about himself was portrayed adequately but I just don't understand why the character of the father had to be so cold and cruel. I also don't know why they couldn't have told the boy about his condition sooner. Was it because they didn't want to admit to the situation? I think the book could have included a bit more about the father's thoughts and the mothers.
I wonder if the appeal of the book was the unusual story, as I don't think the writing itself or the entire story were all that memorable. The story seemed to be about coming to terms with who you are, the father seems to have done this and the son near the end, but we don't see any such redemption/resolution for the mother. I have to say I was disappointed in the book. I spent more time asking "why" or "why not" than thinking "wow".
This book received lots of praise, it was a Canada Reads book plus a finalist for the Giller Prize.
I am not sure what I expected, but I think I expected it to be a better book. The story is certainly unusual, a hermaphrodite child is born to a couple in a remote Labrador community. They are advised to select one sex for the child, the father opts for a boy, the mother would have preferred a girl.
The child seems to have a desire for some girly things, a shiny synchronized swimming costume (if I remember correctly). The father does everything he can to make the boy a man. The boy builds a bridge on the family land and he and a female friend decorate it with lights and fabric and spend a lot of time there. The father is fine helping the boy design and build the bridge structure but after he sees what the kids have done to it he dismantles it and buys his son a puppy an apology. The boy does not take to the dog and the father eventually gives it away.
The father is a trapper, he is a strange man. He is first to go out onto the trap line and the last to return. He seems to enjoy life more out in the wild on his own, wear he reads philosophical books, than the time he spends with his family. The child's mother is very depressed, she misses her life and the liveliness of Newfoundland. I had to wonder why he ever got married. The mother sufferes severe depression partly because of her anxiety about her child and the isolation of living in Labrador with such an unloving, inattentive husband.
The child is on hormones but isn't told why he is taking them. One day, a female friend of the family, who is also a local teacher, finds the boy in discomfort and decides to take him to the hospital because she cannot reach his parents. It turns out menstrual blood has been collecting in his body. The father is furious that she has chosen to do this and the teacher is suspended for her actions.
The boy is eventually told the truth about himself. In some ways he is relieved as it explains why he has always felt different. When he graduates high school he leaves for Newfoundland where he finds a job delivering meat. He decides to stop taking the hormones regardless of the consequences. He tells a boy he hardly knows the truth about himself, this person blabs to some other guys and they brutally rape the boy. The boy confides what has happened to his father when he comes for a visit. The father plots to revenge his son on the perpetrators. It isn't spoken of again but we assume he did. He also gives the son money he saved from buying gold stocks so the boy can finance a future for himself. So despite his harsh treatment of the boy in the past we know he cares about him.
Near the end of the book the mother and father seem to develop some sort of companionship, going out for dinner. Meanwhile, the family friend has tracked down the boy's childhood friend and arranges for him to visit her in Boston where she is living and studying.
He goes to visit her and realizes he thinks he could fit in in a university setting.
I found the book very sad, I think the boy's confusion about himself was portrayed adequately but I just don't understand why the character of the father had to be so cold and cruel. I also don't know why they couldn't have told the boy about his condition sooner. Was it because they didn't want to admit to the situation? I think the book could have included a bit more about the father's thoughts and the mothers.
I wonder if the appeal of the book was the unusual story, as I don't think the writing itself or the entire story were all that memorable. The story seemed to be about coming to terms with who you are, the father seems to have done this and the son near the end, but we don't see any such redemption/resolution for the mother. I have to say I was disappointed in the book. I spent more time asking "why" or "why not" than thinking "wow".
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
Open Secret
by Deryn Collier
I picked up this book at a bookstore in Nelson, BC. It is by a local author.
The book is the second mystery book by this author featuring the coroner Bern Fortin. Fortin is a retired soldier who it appears has PTSD or at least a lot of skeletons in his closet. He has served in Rawanda, Bosnia and Afghanistan in an Administrative capacity. But that has not prevented him from witnessing the horror and even contributing to it. One of his superiors is shot by a boy along the road. They shoot back and the boy is wounded. His superior wants him to save the boy but Bern knows the boy is dying so shoots him so he won't suffer more. Bern also had an affair with the wife of one of his senior officers and still longs for her.
Bern is now living in Nelson, serving as a coroner. He is living amidst a colourful group of characters including the local police. One family is grieving the disappearance of a native girl they adopted. She disappeared many years before but they still miss her, especially the adopted father (who it appears sexually abused her, but he was not the only one -- she was neglected and abused by her father and possibly also a male cousin.
Bern is out hiking one day when he hears a gunshot. His immediate reaction is to duck. He then sees the local doctor running to a downed man, but the man dies. It turns out he is a known criminal.
The Doctor keeps making excuses so she doesn't have to report to the police about the incident. At the same time as the murder a man disappears at the Can/US border. He had a panic attack and bolted from his vehicle. As the murdered man had been staying with him, much to the chagrin of the man's wife, he is suspected of being the murderer. He realizes his marriage is over but thinks if he can score some marijuana or the special ointment that the Dr. is preparing, which is illegal, he could set his wife and family financially. However, he is tricked by the local pharmacist and it appears doesn't get his payday.
As Bern and the police try to figure out why the crook was murdered they interact with a local woman suffering from MS, her son and his child and wife. There is suspicion that this group is growing illegal marijuana but no one can find evidence. Bern does stumble onto their grow op but it has been robbed and trashed.
As the story develops we find out that the runaway man knows what happened to the missing girl. He digs up part of her corpse so that it can be found and she identified. Then he writes the coroner a letter telling him where to find the rest of the body.
While all this is happening, the cousin of the dead girl arrives in town and attacks/kidnaps a local woman who bears a resemblance to the missing girl and a former soldier/reporter tracks Bern down and asks him to confess to some of his deeds to "save" another soldier who is on trial for killing a wounded Afghan man to put him out of his mystery. Bern is reluctant to tell his story at first but eventually decides to come clean even though there will likely be serious consequences for him.
Bern had told police about the local grow-op. This has the unintentional consequence of getting the woman with MS murdered... another death on his conscience.
This was a well written mystery. In some ways, with the off the beaten path local and the quirky local population, it reminded me of Louise Penny's mysteries. I enjoyed it.
I picked up this book at a bookstore in Nelson, BC. It is by a local author.
The book is the second mystery book by this author featuring the coroner Bern Fortin. Fortin is a retired soldier who it appears has PTSD or at least a lot of skeletons in his closet. He has served in Rawanda, Bosnia and Afghanistan in an Administrative capacity. But that has not prevented him from witnessing the horror and even contributing to it. One of his superiors is shot by a boy along the road. They shoot back and the boy is wounded. His superior wants him to save the boy but Bern knows the boy is dying so shoots him so he won't suffer more. Bern also had an affair with the wife of one of his senior officers and still longs for her.
Bern is now living in Nelson, serving as a coroner. He is living amidst a colourful group of characters including the local police. One family is grieving the disappearance of a native girl they adopted. She disappeared many years before but they still miss her, especially the adopted father (who it appears sexually abused her, but he was not the only one -- she was neglected and abused by her father and possibly also a male cousin.
Bern is out hiking one day when he hears a gunshot. His immediate reaction is to duck. He then sees the local doctor running to a downed man, but the man dies. It turns out he is a known criminal.
The Doctor keeps making excuses so she doesn't have to report to the police about the incident. At the same time as the murder a man disappears at the Can/US border. He had a panic attack and bolted from his vehicle. As the murdered man had been staying with him, much to the chagrin of the man's wife, he is suspected of being the murderer. He realizes his marriage is over but thinks if he can score some marijuana or the special ointment that the Dr. is preparing, which is illegal, he could set his wife and family financially. However, he is tricked by the local pharmacist and it appears doesn't get his payday.
As Bern and the police try to figure out why the crook was murdered they interact with a local woman suffering from MS, her son and his child and wife. There is suspicion that this group is growing illegal marijuana but no one can find evidence. Bern does stumble onto their grow op but it has been robbed and trashed.
As the story develops we find out that the runaway man knows what happened to the missing girl. He digs up part of her corpse so that it can be found and she identified. Then he writes the coroner a letter telling him where to find the rest of the body.
While all this is happening, the cousin of the dead girl arrives in town and attacks/kidnaps a local woman who bears a resemblance to the missing girl and a former soldier/reporter tracks Bern down and asks him to confess to some of his deeds to "save" another soldier who is on trial for killing a wounded Afghan man to put him out of his mystery. Bern is reluctant to tell his story at first but eventually decides to come clean even though there will likely be serious consequences for him.
Bern had told police about the local grow-op. This has the unintentional consequence of getting the woman with MS murdered... another death on his conscience.
This was a well written mystery. In some ways, with the off the beaten path local and the quirky local population, it reminded me of Louise Penny's mysteries. I enjoyed it.
Tuesday, 5 August 2014
Boy, Snow, Bird
By Helen Oyeyemi
This book has been on the "Best of" lists at Chapters for long time. It is a very unusual story. It seems to reference fairy tales to some extent - there are two sisters one very blonde one black-- rose red and snow white, and the blonde one is even named snow. The main character, Boy, feels she has a spell on herself. The three main character's reflections don't show up in mirrors... this is never explained...
The story starts with the life of Bird. She is living with her very violent father, a rat-catcher, who beats her and torments her. Bird finally has enough and runs away from home. She loves him too. She jumps on a bus and arrives in a town where she remains for the rest of her life. She leaves behind a young man, Charlie, who is very much in love with her. She lives in fear of her father tracking her down and seeking revenge.
When she arrives at the end of her bus ride she follows some young girls to a boarding house where she is welcomed. She stumbles through various jobs eventually getting a job in a bookstore. She meets a man, who has a beautiful young daughter, Snow, who is adored by everyone. She doesn't love the man but he keeps persisting and eventually she succumbs and agrees to marry him. Before she gets married her former boyfriend contacts her and asks her to marry him, but she turns him down. Why?? Does she think she doesn't deserve to be happy. Her husband is a jewellry artist and at one point makes handcuffs and chains.... is he threatening her?? Later he makes a snake bracelet that extends from her elbow to her upper arm, she wears it all the time except when she is pregnant. What is his intention in this?
Her husband's mother and other relatives tolerate her but they dote on his daughter Snow. Everyone seems to think that she is perfect and can do no wrong. Bird likes her but is suspicious of her. When Boy has a baby girl the child is black in colouring. Of course people think she cheated on her husband but the truth is he is of negro ancestry, his relatives have pretended to be white to become successful. The story describes why the family felt it had to go north and act white to be accepted and respected.
Boy finds out that her husband's oldest sister was sent away as a child because she wasn't white skinned. After she finds this out Boy decides to send Snow away to live with her husband's sister. Everyone is shocked at this, they would have expected her to send Bird away. Bird refuses to have anything to do with Snow but her husband visits with her regularly and eventually Bird and Snow start a letter writing campaign.
As Boy wasn't loved by her parent you would think she would have loved both girls, but it seems that she resents the appeal that Snow has with everyone, figures she will have the strength to survive, but she doesn't want Bird to have to live in Snow's shadow. Bird eventually learns that she has a sister who was sent away. Her mother won't talk about her but keeps some letters she received from he daughter. Bird eventually finds these letters and reads them, including a letter from Snow addressed to her. Snow eventually has accepted the fact that she will not be returning to live with her father and stepmother. She accepts life with her black aunt and her family.
Bird is friends with a young chinese boy. He is the victim of some bullying because of his race. She seems to be the only one able to engage in a true loving relationship. Eventually Snow and her adopted family join the rest of the family for Thanksgiving. It is a meal from hell -- all the family tensions come out. Snow and Bird end up having a fight as they are washing dishes after the meal.
One day Bird is dragged down from a tree by a strange man. He tells her her mother is his daughter and that her mother is evil. She is a afraid of what he will do so agrees to go to a diner with him. He starts to tell a very different story than what Boy remembers of his life with the man. Bird's father finds them in the diner and sends the man away telling him never to come back.
Bird's friend (who had an abortion and trouble recovering from it) tells her that she has been doing research on her, Bird's, father. She has found out something amazing.... there is a birth certificate for Bird listing a mother's name but not a father's name. She then goes on to state that Bird's mother had been a graduate student showing great promise. She was a lesbian. She is raped. She runs away from college and gives birth to Bird, she then takes up a job as a rat catcher. Bird and her friend think the father? mother might be visiting to come clean.
They decide to set off for New York to find Bird's parent, only after she asks for advice on how to break a spell.... when you are fed up with it, it won't affect you anymore.
This book was very difficult to read, there was so much sadness and discord, lonliness, feeling of being rejected, not good enough. Why didn't Bird marry her first boyfriend, the one who loved her and whom she loved? Why couldn't they have lived happily ever after? As she didn't choose that route, she became the wicked stepmother.... rejecting her beautiful step daughter and sending her away in favour of her less attractive, less captivating black daughter. Obviously the book was making reference to the reverence, assumed goodness of "whiteness". Like Bird's husband's family pretended to be white, Birds mother decided to become a man. Would this be safer for her? Why was she so cruel to her daughter?
I never could figure out why the three women, Boy, Snow and Bird could never been seen in mirrors... something to do with them not being what others expected to see? not being real? a spell on them? I started to think that this was possibly a made up story to cover up something else that happened.... like Life of Pi, but that didn't seem to occur. A very puzzling story.
This book has been on the "Best of" lists at Chapters for long time. It is a very unusual story. It seems to reference fairy tales to some extent - there are two sisters one very blonde one black-- rose red and snow white, and the blonde one is even named snow. The main character, Boy, feels she has a spell on herself. The three main character's reflections don't show up in mirrors... this is never explained...
The story starts with the life of Bird. She is living with her very violent father, a rat-catcher, who beats her and torments her. Bird finally has enough and runs away from home. She loves him too. She jumps on a bus and arrives in a town where she remains for the rest of her life. She leaves behind a young man, Charlie, who is very much in love with her. She lives in fear of her father tracking her down and seeking revenge.
When she arrives at the end of her bus ride she follows some young girls to a boarding house where she is welcomed. She stumbles through various jobs eventually getting a job in a bookstore. She meets a man, who has a beautiful young daughter, Snow, who is adored by everyone. She doesn't love the man but he keeps persisting and eventually she succumbs and agrees to marry him. Before she gets married her former boyfriend contacts her and asks her to marry him, but she turns him down. Why?? Does she think she doesn't deserve to be happy. Her husband is a jewellry artist and at one point makes handcuffs and chains.... is he threatening her?? Later he makes a snake bracelet that extends from her elbow to her upper arm, she wears it all the time except when she is pregnant. What is his intention in this?
Her husband's mother and other relatives tolerate her but they dote on his daughter Snow. Everyone seems to think that she is perfect and can do no wrong. Bird likes her but is suspicious of her. When Boy has a baby girl the child is black in colouring. Of course people think she cheated on her husband but the truth is he is of negro ancestry, his relatives have pretended to be white to become successful. The story describes why the family felt it had to go north and act white to be accepted and respected.
Boy finds out that her husband's oldest sister was sent away as a child because she wasn't white skinned. After she finds this out Boy decides to send Snow away to live with her husband's sister. Everyone is shocked at this, they would have expected her to send Bird away. Bird refuses to have anything to do with Snow but her husband visits with her regularly and eventually Bird and Snow start a letter writing campaign.
As Boy wasn't loved by her parent you would think she would have loved both girls, but it seems that she resents the appeal that Snow has with everyone, figures she will have the strength to survive, but she doesn't want Bird to have to live in Snow's shadow. Bird eventually learns that she has a sister who was sent away. Her mother won't talk about her but keeps some letters she received from he daughter. Bird eventually finds these letters and reads them, including a letter from Snow addressed to her. Snow eventually has accepted the fact that she will not be returning to live with her father and stepmother. She accepts life with her black aunt and her family.
Bird is friends with a young chinese boy. He is the victim of some bullying because of his race. She seems to be the only one able to engage in a true loving relationship. Eventually Snow and her adopted family join the rest of the family for Thanksgiving. It is a meal from hell -- all the family tensions come out. Snow and Bird end up having a fight as they are washing dishes after the meal.
One day Bird is dragged down from a tree by a strange man. He tells her her mother is his daughter and that her mother is evil. She is a afraid of what he will do so agrees to go to a diner with him. He starts to tell a very different story than what Boy remembers of his life with the man. Bird's father finds them in the diner and sends the man away telling him never to come back.
Bird's friend (who had an abortion and trouble recovering from it) tells her that she has been doing research on her, Bird's, father. She has found out something amazing.... there is a birth certificate for Bird listing a mother's name but not a father's name. She then goes on to state that Bird's mother had been a graduate student showing great promise. She was a lesbian. She is raped. She runs away from college and gives birth to Bird, she then takes up a job as a rat catcher. Bird and her friend think the father? mother might be visiting to come clean.
They decide to set off for New York to find Bird's parent, only after she asks for advice on how to break a spell.... when you are fed up with it, it won't affect you anymore.
This book was very difficult to read, there was so much sadness and discord, lonliness, feeling of being rejected, not good enough. Why didn't Bird marry her first boyfriend, the one who loved her and whom she loved? Why couldn't they have lived happily ever after? As she didn't choose that route, she became the wicked stepmother.... rejecting her beautiful step daughter and sending her away in favour of her less attractive, less captivating black daughter. Obviously the book was making reference to the reverence, assumed goodness of "whiteness". Like Bird's husband's family pretended to be white, Birds mother decided to become a man. Would this be safer for her? Why was she so cruel to her daughter?
I never could figure out why the three women, Boy, Snow and Bird could never been seen in mirrors... something to do with them not being what others expected to see? not being real? a spell on them? I started to think that this was possibly a made up story to cover up something else that happened.... like Life of Pi, but that didn't seem to occur. A very puzzling story.
Wednesday, 30 July 2014
Corpse With the Emerald Thumb
by Cathy Ace
This book is by a BC author. It is the third in her mystery series.
The book is about a BC prof whose expertise is forensics. She arrives in Puerto Vallarta for a week holiday with her boyfriend, a retired cop. She is watching him from the condo window as he goes into a grocery store and then the flower shop next door. The next thing she knows he is hauled away by the police for murdering the owner of the flower shop.
She knows he is innocent and despite advice to stay out of it she starts to try to figure out what happened and why. She does take the advice to move from the condo to a local Tequila company/residential development. The local police chief recognizes her as he is taking online courses and has heard of her work. He asks for her assistance and she is only to eager to try to help. She is shocked to learn that her boyfriend has actually visited Mexico on several occasions in the past year, using various passports. When she contacts a mutual friend she finds out he has also been involved with CSIS. She starts to wonder what else she doesn't know about him. Her boyfriend refuses to say anything to the police.
The people at the Tequila place are quite strange, they seem like "lost boys". She finds her building was broken into and searched while she was asleep. She thinks she is making progress to help this man she thought she knew. Then, suddenly she is under arrest as an accomplice to the murder. The young eager police officer found a picture of her and her boyfriend on the Internet.
Fortunately, the Federales who come for her and her boyfriend are willing to her explanation of who committed the murder in question and others.... is is possible that the Federales were contacted by CSIS or the FBI?
It was a easy, entertaining read, a good book for a summer day.
This book is by a BC author. It is the third in her mystery series.
The book is about a BC prof whose expertise is forensics. She arrives in Puerto Vallarta for a week holiday with her boyfriend, a retired cop. She is watching him from the condo window as he goes into a grocery store and then the flower shop next door. The next thing she knows he is hauled away by the police for murdering the owner of the flower shop.
She knows he is innocent and despite advice to stay out of it she starts to try to figure out what happened and why. She does take the advice to move from the condo to a local Tequila company/residential development. The local police chief recognizes her as he is taking online courses and has heard of her work. He asks for her assistance and she is only to eager to try to help. She is shocked to learn that her boyfriend has actually visited Mexico on several occasions in the past year, using various passports. When she contacts a mutual friend she finds out he has also been involved with CSIS. She starts to wonder what else she doesn't know about him. Her boyfriend refuses to say anything to the police.
The people at the Tequila place are quite strange, they seem like "lost boys". She finds her building was broken into and searched while she was asleep. She thinks she is making progress to help this man she thought she knew. Then, suddenly she is under arrest as an accomplice to the murder. The young eager police officer found a picture of her and her boyfriend on the Internet.
Fortunately, the Federales who come for her and her boyfriend are willing to her explanation of who committed the murder in question and others.... is is possible that the Federales were contacted by CSIS or the FBI?
It was a easy, entertaining read, a good book for a summer day.
Sunday, 27 July 2014
We Need New Names
by NoViolet Bulawayo
This is the story of a girl from Zimbabwe. The book starts with her young life in the country as she and her friends roam outside their neighbourhood to steal fruit on the trees, they are very hungry. The kids, despite their hunger, have some very creating games, Find Bin Laden, Country Game, etc. The all have unusual names. The main character is Darling and some of her friends include Bastard, Godknows, Jesus, etc. One of the girls, Chico, who is 10, the same age as Darling, is pregnant by her grandfather. The book can be graphic and brutal at times. At one point the children decide that Chico's belly is impairing her ability to play their games so they try to make the baby come out of her stomache. They are stopped before they hurt her.
Darlings father is away in South Africa trying to find work.We learn that the children used to have homes, and go to school but some fighters came and destroyed their homes and communities. This is why they are not going to school now and why they live in tin huts.
One day the children witness some blacks attacking a white house. They trash the house, and take away the owners. The children take this opportunity to eat the food in the house.
Darling's father returns, very ill, probably with Aids, and dies. Darling had been dreaming of going to America as she has an Aunt there who would take her in. She gets the opportunity to go to America and jumps at it. She misses her mother and friends but not enough to want to go back. When she gets to the States she is shocked by winter and how cold it is.
She does ask to go back to Zimbabwe for a visit but she can't because she is really an illegal alien. She came on a student visa but started working to send money back to her family and we find out that many immigrants are in the same boat. They think they are coming to America for "the good life" but instead they are working many low pay jobs, partly to send money back home, they have to hide from the authorities and if they get sick they don't have access to medical care. Her aunt is constantly dieting and exercising so she will be skinny like the women on TV and in the magazines. The uncle initially watches sports on TV all the time but when his son volunteers for the military he becomes fixated on war stories and news. He starts wandering around in his car.
The family in Africa think she is living a good life in America, they want her to come to visit and she tells them she will but she can't tell them the truth, that if she went back she couldn't get back in to the U.S. As the book ends she is trying to save money to go to university and get a career but she also misses her mother country. She misses or feels disjointed because she can't use her mother tongue. One day she starts writing phrases on the wall in her bedroom.
The book was very graphic and brutal at times. It does a great job of portraying the despair but also the remarkable resilience of the people in Africa. It also portrays the sad plight of the illegal immigrants. I found the book book more sad and upsetting than engaging.
A few years ago I read the book Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. It takes place near the Himalayas and part of the story is about a man who dearly would like to have his son back with him but he thinks his son is having a successful life in America, so he doesn't urge him to return. The son would love to return home but he thinks his father is proud of him and he doesn't want to admit that he is only eking out an existence. He is working in low paying jobs and is essentially homeless., sleeping in empty buildings. I found the Desai book a lot more compelling than this one. You really felt for and cared about the characters in her book. I wasn't really engaged with the characters in Bulawayo's book --- it was a story and things happened but I didn't care about them as much. Maybe I am getting desensitized to these tales with so much tragedy in the world these days.
This is the story of a girl from Zimbabwe. The book starts with her young life in the country as she and her friends roam outside their neighbourhood to steal fruit on the trees, they are very hungry. The kids, despite their hunger, have some very creating games, Find Bin Laden, Country Game, etc. The all have unusual names. The main character is Darling and some of her friends include Bastard, Godknows, Jesus, etc. One of the girls, Chico, who is 10, the same age as Darling, is pregnant by her grandfather. The book can be graphic and brutal at times. At one point the children decide that Chico's belly is impairing her ability to play their games so they try to make the baby come out of her stomache. They are stopped before they hurt her.
Darlings father is away in South Africa trying to find work.We learn that the children used to have homes, and go to school but some fighters came and destroyed their homes and communities. This is why they are not going to school now and why they live in tin huts.
One day the children witness some blacks attacking a white house. They trash the house, and take away the owners. The children take this opportunity to eat the food in the house.
Darling's father returns, very ill, probably with Aids, and dies. Darling had been dreaming of going to America as she has an Aunt there who would take her in. She gets the opportunity to go to America and jumps at it. She misses her mother and friends but not enough to want to go back. When she gets to the States she is shocked by winter and how cold it is.
She does ask to go back to Zimbabwe for a visit but she can't because she is really an illegal alien. She came on a student visa but started working to send money back to her family and we find out that many immigrants are in the same boat. They think they are coming to America for "the good life" but instead they are working many low pay jobs, partly to send money back home, they have to hide from the authorities and if they get sick they don't have access to medical care. Her aunt is constantly dieting and exercising so she will be skinny like the women on TV and in the magazines. The uncle initially watches sports on TV all the time but when his son volunteers for the military he becomes fixated on war stories and news. He starts wandering around in his car.
The family in Africa think she is living a good life in America, they want her to come to visit and she tells them she will but she can't tell them the truth, that if she went back she couldn't get back in to the U.S. As the book ends she is trying to save money to go to university and get a career but she also misses her mother country. She misses or feels disjointed because she can't use her mother tongue. One day she starts writing phrases on the wall in her bedroom.
The book was very graphic and brutal at times. It does a great job of portraying the despair but also the remarkable resilience of the people in Africa. It also portrays the sad plight of the illegal immigrants. I found the book book more sad and upsetting than engaging.
A few years ago I read the book Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. It takes place near the Himalayas and part of the story is about a man who dearly would like to have his son back with him but he thinks his son is having a successful life in America, so he doesn't urge him to return. The son would love to return home but he thinks his father is proud of him and he doesn't want to admit that he is only eking out an existence. He is working in low paying jobs and is essentially homeless., sleeping in empty buildings. I found the Desai book a lot more compelling than this one. You really felt for and cared about the characters in her book. I wasn't really engaged with the characters in Bulawayo's book --- it was a story and things happened but I didn't care about them as much. Maybe I am getting desensitized to these tales with so much tragedy in the world these days.
Saturday, 26 July 2014
The Hundred-Foot Journey
by Richard C Morais
I have had this book for about a year but didn't get around to reading it. Now I seen a movie version will be coming out this summer so I thought I would read it.
This is the story of a young Indian man and his family and their lives as restauranteurs and how he came to be an acclaimed French chef and restauranteur. The family doesn't really fit in, in India. They are Muslims. The father, a high energy, bombastic person starts with a few food wagons and then expands to build a restaurant on the border of the slums and high wealth areas. They are very successful but suddenly the neighbours attack their restaurant and set it alight. The boy's mother, who was much loved by her family especially her husband, is killed in the fire. One of the boy's favourite memories of his mother is of a time he and she had lunch at a fashionable French restaurant in India. The unique flavours impressed him.
The father decides they no longer belong in India and relocates the entire extended family to a house in London, near other family. Things seem to go well until the young man kisses his cousin. A rift develops between the family and the father loads up all his family and they set off on a tour of Europe. The boy enjoys the various foods they experience. During their travels in France they are driving through the Alps into a little village called Lumiere. Their car breaks down in front of a French restaurant, across from a large house that is for sale.
The father decides that they will settle here and he decides to buy the house and set up an India restaurant, with his son, who has little if any cooking experience, as the head Chef. The owner of the French restaurant is outraged at these foreign interlopers and tries everything she can to intimidate them and drive them out, even threatening produce sellers if they deal with him. When she visits the restaurant to "check out the competition" she observes the young chef wipe some spilled food back into the cooking pot. She is appalled and is sure they will be closed by health inspectors. But when she tastes the food she is speechless. She realizes the young chef is a genius.
A confrontation takes place between her and the boy's father and the woman pushes the father in exasperation. He falls against his son, who falls against the stove. His uniform ignites and he is badly burned. The woman comes to apologize and is rebuked. When the son recovers and returns home. The woman returns and offers to take the son on as an apprentice and teach him french cooking. The father is outraged but the boy wants to do it so eventually he walks the hundred feet to the other establishment and begins his apprenticeship.
He initially is only trusted with cleaning, cutting, setting the tables, but the woman teaches and tests him and gradually he is allowed to cook. After a few years he is offered a job at a prestigious French restaurant and as they say.... the rest is history. He goes on to open his own restaurant using his inheritance money and with his sister as a partner.
The young man suspects that his mentor has been a silent promoter for him in his career but she always denies it.
They are very successful. The young man is awarded his first, then second and then his third Michelin Star (his mentor only ever achieved 2 stars).
It was an interesting story. The main character is passionate about food but not all that interesting but the supporting characters, his father, his aunt, his mentor add lots of life and colour to the story. This was a book for those who like food and a happy ending from the ashes.
I have had this book for about a year but didn't get around to reading it. Now I seen a movie version will be coming out this summer so I thought I would read it.
This is the story of a young Indian man and his family and their lives as restauranteurs and how he came to be an acclaimed French chef and restauranteur. The family doesn't really fit in, in India. They are Muslims. The father, a high energy, bombastic person starts with a few food wagons and then expands to build a restaurant on the border of the slums and high wealth areas. They are very successful but suddenly the neighbours attack their restaurant and set it alight. The boy's mother, who was much loved by her family especially her husband, is killed in the fire. One of the boy's favourite memories of his mother is of a time he and she had lunch at a fashionable French restaurant in India. The unique flavours impressed him.
The father decides they no longer belong in India and relocates the entire extended family to a house in London, near other family. Things seem to go well until the young man kisses his cousin. A rift develops between the family and the father loads up all his family and they set off on a tour of Europe. The boy enjoys the various foods they experience. During their travels in France they are driving through the Alps into a little village called Lumiere. Their car breaks down in front of a French restaurant, across from a large house that is for sale.
The father decides that they will settle here and he decides to buy the house and set up an India restaurant, with his son, who has little if any cooking experience, as the head Chef. The owner of the French restaurant is outraged at these foreign interlopers and tries everything she can to intimidate them and drive them out, even threatening produce sellers if they deal with him. When she visits the restaurant to "check out the competition" she observes the young chef wipe some spilled food back into the cooking pot. She is appalled and is sure they will be closed by health inspectors. But when she tastes the food she is speechless. She realizes the young chef is a genius.
A confrontation takes place between her and the boy's father and the woman pushes the father in exasperation. He falls against his son, who falls against the stove. His uniform ignites and he is badly burned. The woman comes to apologize and is rebuked. When the son recovers and returns home. The woman returns and offers to take the son on as an apprentice and teach him french cooking. The father is outraged but the boy wants to do it so eventually he walks the hundred feet to the other establishment and begins his apprenticeship.
He initially is only trusted with cleaning, cutting, setting the tables, but the woman teaches and tests him and gradually he is allowed to cook. After a few years he is offered a job at a prestigious French restaurant and as they say.... the rest is history. He goes on to open his own restaurant using his inheritance money and with his sister as a partner.
The young man suspects that his mentor has been a silent promoter for him in his career but she always denies it.
They are very successful. The young man is awarded his first, then second and then his third Michelin Star (his mentor only ever achieved 2 stars).
It was an interesting story. The main character is passionate about food but not all that interesting but the supporting characters, his father, his aunt, his mentor add lots of life and colour to the story. This was a book for those who like food and a happy ending from the ashes.
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
The Jackal Man
By Kate Ellis
This is the fifteenth book in the series about Detective Wesley Peterson. It is the first book I have read by this author.
The story involves two time frames. One story is about a young governess who comes to work for a widower with a grown son and two young children. She has an affair with her employer and becomes pregnant. He insists she give the child up. She takes drastic measures to get her revenge on the man and his son.
The second story takes place in the present. A serial killer is killing young women. The attacker is reporting to be wearing a dog mask.
In another story a young woman has inherited a "castle". It was the estate where the governess worked. The house is full of Egyptian antiquities. The woman asks an archeologist to come and give her an idea of the value of the collection. As Eqypt is not his area of expertise, he calls in another colleague to document the collection.
As the murders continue the attacker is starting to mimic Egyptian burial rites, cutting out bodily organs and wrapping the victims in linen sheets.
The police try to determine if the attacker is a local skirt chaser or a researcher working on a biography of the Egyptian antiquities collector. The police find out that the modern murders are mimicing four murders carried out on the estate in the time of the governess.A lot of evidence seems to be pointing to the researcher especially when they find he has a book with sketches of the four women killed years before. The police also enlist the services of a profiler.
While Detective Peterson is trying to catch the killer, a former boss of his comes and seeks his assistance in tracking down an Egyptian antiquities theft ring. This seems a minor concern to him given all the murders but he tries to help his boss. It turns out that the researcher was actually stealing items from the estate and planning to sell them.
The book explores the idea of evil.It has many plot twists and then a surprise ending with the appearance of someone who was thought dead. The ending is very disquieting.
In my opinion this is one of the better mystery writers. There is more meat to this story than some and I don't like the stories which get tied up in romantic entanglements.
This is the fifteenth book in the series about Detective Wesley Peterson. It is the first book I have read by this author.
The story involves two time frames. One story is about a young governess who comes to work for a widower with a grown son and two young children. She has an affair with her employer and becomes pregnant. He insists she give the child up. She takes drastic measures to get her revenge on the man and his son.
The second story takes place in the present. A serial killer is killing young women. The attacker is reporting to be wearing a dog mask.
In another story a young woman has inherited a "castle". It was the estate where the governess worked. The house is full of Egyptian antiquities. The woman asks an archeologist to come and give her an idea of the value of the collection. As Eqypt is not his area of expertise, he calls in another colleague to document the collection.
As the murders continue the attacker is starting to mimic Egyptian burial rites, cutting out bodily organs and wrapping the victims in linen sheets.
The police try to determine if the attacker is a local skirt chaser or a researcher working on a biography of the Egyptian antiquities collector. The police find out that the modern murders are mimicing four murders carried out on the estate in the time of the governess.A lot of evidence seems to be pointing to the researcher especially when they find he has a book with sketches of the four women killed years before. The police also enlist the services of a profiler.
While Detective Peterson is trying to catch the killer, a former boss of his comes and seeks his assistance in tracking down an Egyptian antiquities theft ring. This seems a minor concern to him given all the murders but he tries to help his boss. It turns out that the researcher was actually stealing items from the estate and planning to sell them.
The book explores the idea of evil.It has many plot twists and then a surprise ending with the appearance of someone who was thought dead. The ending is very disquieting.
In my opinion this is one of the better mystery writers. There is more meat to this story than some and I don't like the stories which get tied up in romantic entanglements.
Sunday, 20 July 2014
All the Light We Cannot See
By Anthony Doerr
This is a world war II story that centers around the lives of two young people: a young blind girl in Paris and a young orphan, who lives with his sister at an orphanage in Germany.
The young girl's mother has died. Her father wants her to be able to navigate her way in the world so he builds her a model of their immediate neighbourhood. He then takes her out into the streets and helps her learn how to navigate her way around. Her father is the locksmith for Paris museums and issues keys to employees every day. As the German invasion of Paris is imminent her father is called to the Director's office and given an assignment to take his daughter out of Paris to a friend of the museums. They had planned to take a train but the trains don't arrive so they walk all the way to the man's house. When they arrive they find the house abandoned. Not knowing what else to do they decide to head to St. Malo on the Normandy coast to seek safety with the Girl's strange uncle. He is scarred from the first world war and won't leave his house. He also has panic attacks. He welcomes the girl and her father warmly.
We find out that the Paris museums are thought to have a rare diamond and that they have sent this diamond out of the city, possibly making forgeries to trick people who might be seeking it. The girls father was given one of the diamonds and has hidden it inside a model of the Uncle's house. One day he is contacted to ask to return to Paris. He leaves the diamond in the little model and is never heard from again.
Meanwhile the young German boy Werner is a precocious young man. He finds a radio that has been thrown away and brings it home and fixes it. He and the other inhabitants of the orphanage enjoy listening to the broadcasts. The boy especially enjoys some stories he hears spoken by a man who also plays music at times. Werner gets books to teach himself more about radios and other things and is successfully in getting selected to a very special school your young men. This quasi-military school is straining young men to the nazi philosophy. It is a brutal place but one of Werner\s teachers notices his skill and knowledge and gets him to be his assistant to build radio signal triangulating equipment. This role keeps Werner from being abused.
As the war goes on Werner moves to Berlin to help build more of the equipment but as the German defeats increase he is tasked with going on the road to track down radio signals.
Marie-Laure is looked after by her uncle and his housekeeper. The housekeeper and some other ladies start to plan ways to sabotage the Germans who have arrived in their town. She later convinces the uncle, who has a radio hidden in his attic, to join the resistance activities and he finally agrees to do so.
The housekeeper dies and then the uncle is arrested. Marie-Laure is all alone in the house with no food and very little water. She is terrified, especially when a German officer comes to the house looking for the diamond. He is seeking it for its purported healing properties (he has advanced cancer) not for the glory of the Third Reich.
Although it is dangerous, Marie-Laure reactivates her uncles radio and reads from her braille book. Werner hears her signal, but is reminded of the man he used to hear on the radio so he does not turn her in. In the end he turns up at her home and saves her from the German officer.
This was a very engrossing novel, another amazingly well written story. The author did a wonderful job of portraying the climate and life during the war and it was ingenious how he wove all the elements of the story together. I was very impressed.
This is a world war II story that centers around the lives of two young people: a young blind girl in Paris and a young orphan, who lives with his sister at an orphanage in Germany.
The young girl's mother has died. Her father wants her to be able to navigate her way in the world so he builds her a model of their immediate neighbourhood. He then takes her out into the streets and helps her learn how to navigate her way around. Her father is the locksmith for Paris museums and issues keys to employees every day. As the German invasion of Paris is imminent her father is called to the Director's office and given an assignment to take his daughter out of Paris to a friend of the museums. They had planned to take a train but the trains don't arrive so they walk all the way to the man's house. When they arrive they find the house abandoned. Not knowing what else to do they decide to head to St. Malo on the Normandy coast to seek safety with the Girl's strange uncle. He is scarred from the first world war and won't leave his house. He also has panic attacks. He welcomes the girl and her father warmly.
We find out that the Paris museums are thought to have a rare diamond and that they have sent this diamond out of the city, possibly making forgeries to trick people who might be seeking it. The girls father was given one of the diamonds and has hidden it inside a model of the Uncle's house. One day he is contacted to ask to return to Paris. He leaves the diamond in the little model and is never heard from again.
Meanwhile the young German boy Werner is a precocious young man. He finds a radio that has been thrown away and brings it home and fixes it. He and the other inhabitants of the orphanage enjoy listening to the broadcasts. The boy especially enjoys some stories he hears spoken by a man who also plays music at times. Werner gets books to teach himself more about radios and other things and is successfully in getting selected to a very special school your young men. This quasi-military school is straining young men to the nazi philosophy. It is a brutal place but one of Werner\s teachers notices his skill and knowledge and gets him to be his assistant to build radio signal triangulating equipment. This role keeps Werner from being abused.
As the war goes on Werner moves to Berlin to help build more of the equipment but as the German defeats increase he is tasked with going on the road to track down radio signals.
Marie-Laure is looked after by her uncle and his housekeeper. The housekeeper and some other ladies start to plan ways to sabotage the Germans who have arrived in their town. She later convinces the uncle, who has a radio hidden in his attic, to join the resistance activities and he finally agrees to do so.
The housekeeper dies and then the uncle is arrested. Marie-Laure is all alone in the house with no food and very little water. She is terrified, especially when a German officer comes to the house looking for the diamond. He is seeking it for its purported healing properties (he has advanced cancer) not for the glory of the Third Reich.
Although it is dangerous, Marie-Laure reactivates her uncles radio and reads from her braille book. Werner hears her signal, but is reminded of the man he used to hear on the radio so he does not turn her in. In the end he turns up at her home and saves her from the German officer.
This was a very engrossing novel, another amazingly well written story. The author did a wonderful job of portraying the climate and life during the war and it was ingenious how he wove all the elements of the story together. I was very impressed.
Hunting Shadows
by Charles Todd
This is the 16th title in the Inspector Rutledge mystery series. I have read about 1/2 dozen of them. These are quite reliable mysteries, they keep you guessing. This one involves the deaths of two men by sniper shots in two different towns. Rutledge can't figure out why they would be killed nor how the two victims could be connected.
Rutledge at first thinks he has his man, but then that person, professing his innocence tags along with him as he investigates further. He ends up identifying two murderers. We learn that the two original victims were blamed for the death of a third victim, a young woman. We also learn of a family secret.
These stories are interesting because of the descriptions of the characters, the English landscape and of life in England following the second world war. Soldier carrying war wounds and war memories figure frequently in the stories. Hamish, the dead soldier who used to torment Rutledge is still around but Rutledge doesn't seem so rattled by him anymore.
This is the 16th title in the Inspector Rutledge mystery series. I have read about 1/2 dozen of them. These are quite reliable mysteries, they keep you guessing. This one involves the deaths of two men by sniper shots in two different towns. Rutledge can't figure out why they would be killed nor how the two victims could be connected.
Rutledge at first thinks he has his man, but then that person, professing his innocence tags along with him as he investigates further. He ends up identifying two murderers. We learn that the two original victims were blamed for the death of a third victim, a young woman. We also learn of a family secret.
These stories are interesting because of the descriptions of the characters, the English landscape and of life in England following the second world war. Soldier carrying war wounds and war memories figure frequently in the stories. Hamish, the dead soldier who used to torment Rutledge is still around but Rutledge doesn't seem so rattled by him anymore.
Saturday, 12 July 2014
The Orchardist
by Amanda Coplin
This is a book that I picked up quite a while ago, the reviews were very good. However, for some reason I never took it up to read. I am glad that I finally decided to read it, it is a book that will stay with me for a long time.
At the turn of the century a reclusive orchardist, who lives in the pacific northwest, finds two you girls, both of whom appear pregnant hanging around his farm. They won't come into his house but they will eat the food he leaves for them.
Talmadge has had a sad and lonely life. His mother brought he and his sister to this land but she died young leaving the young people on their own. And then, one day Talmadge's sister goes for a walk into the woods and never returns. He is haunted by her absence.
He continues to be kind to the young girls and learns that they have run away from a man who was abusing them, having sex with them and selling them and other girls to men for sex. Talmadge eventually enlists the help of a woman friend from the town to help to get the girls into his house when they go into labour. One of the girls was pregnant with twins but loses them both. The other girl, Jane, gives birth to a a baby girl Angelene. Jane tries to get Della interested in helping with the girl including nursing her but Della ignores the girl.
One day the man the girls ran away from comes looking for them as someone has told them they are at Talmadge's. The girls run away into the forest and hang themselves. Jane dies. Della almost dies. Talmadge finds the baby where Della hid it. He choses to raise the baby and takes good care of her, with advice from his lady friend.
At times some horse rustlers arrive on the property with horses they have captured. Della is very interested in the horses and the wranglers and then goes off with them, against Talmadge's wishes. Della leads a very independent almost wild life. She works hustling horses, gambling, cutting down trees.
Talmadge and the child have a good life, he teaches her how to tend the orchard and lets her have her own garden with full independence as to what to grown. He keeps listening for word of Della and even tries to track her down. Angelene seems puzzled ad even jealous by the time Talmadge spends thinking about Della. She has absolutely no interest in Della.
Then he finds out that Della has confessed to a murder and is in jail in a nearby town. He goes to see her but is not able to see her as she is in isolation for attacking another prisoner (the man who abused her). Talmadge tries to give her an opportunity to escape from prison but she won't take it as she still wants to kill her abuser. As a result Talmadge and another man he asked to help receive small jail sentences for plotting to help her escape. Even when he gets out of prison he worries about Della and is devastated when he finds out she has been killed in an accident at the prison. When Talmadge dies he leaves all his property to Angelene who sells the farm to a family. She is shocked when she returns a few years later to find the orchard had been sold and is not well tended.
This was a very interesting book. Most of the book is told simply in the actions of the characters. We rarely get an idea as to what they are thinking. We never really understand what would have caused Della to leave the safety of Talmadge's orchard and care for a life of danger and poverty. The disregard that Della and Angelene feel for each other is understandable. Although they are relations they don't really develop any relationship with each other til the end of the book. This is largely Della's fault, if she had been kind to the child, she might have reciprocated. The contrast of the innocent and kind orchardist and the wild, almost feral girls is fascinating.
This was a very powerful book, leaving one with lots to think about.
This is a book that I picked up quite a while ago, the reviews were very good. However, for some reason I never took it up to read. I am glad that I finally decided to read it, it is a book that will stay with me for a long time.
At the turn of the century a reclusive orchardist, who lives in the pacific northwest, finds two you girls, both of whom appear pregnant hanging around his farm. They won't come into his house but they will eat the food he leaves for them.
Talmadge has had a sad and lonely life. His mother brought he and his sister to this land but she died young leaving the young people on their own. And then, one day Talmadge's sister goes for a walk into the woods and never returns. He is haunted by her absence.
He continues to be kind to the young girls and learns that they have run away from a man who was abusing them, having sex with them and selling them and other girls to men for sex. Talmadge eventually enlists the help of a woman friend from the town to help to get the girls into his house when they go into labour. One of the girls was pregnant with twins but loses them both. The other girl, Jane, gives birth to a a baby girl Angelene. Jane tries to get Della interested in helping with the girl including nursing her but Della ignores the girl.
One day the man the girls ran away from comes looking for them as someone has told them they are at Talmadge's. The girls run away into the forest and hang themselves. Jane dies. Della almost dies. Talmadge finds the baby where Della hid it. He choses to raise the baby and takes good care of her, with advice from his lady friend.
At times some horse rustlers arrive on the property with horses they have captured. Della is very interested in the horses and the wranglers and then goes off with them, against Talmadge's wishes. Della leads a very independent almost wild life. She works hustling horses, gambling, cutting down trees.
Talmadge and the child have a good life, he teaches her how to tend the orchard and lets her have her own garden with full independence as to what to grown. He keeps listening for word of Della and even tries to track her down. Angelene seems puzzled ad even jealous by the time Talmadge spends thinking about Della. She has absolutely no interest in Della.
Then he finds out that Della has confessed to a murder and is in jail in a nearby town. He goes to see her but is not able to see her as she is in isolation for attacking another prisoner (the man who abused her). Talmadge tries to give her an opportunity to escape from prison but she won't take it as she still wants to kill her abuser. As a result Talmadge and another man he asked to help receive small jail sentences for plotting to help her escape. Even when he gets out of prison he worries about Della and is devastated when he finds out she has been killed in an accident at the prison. When Talmadge dies he leaves all his property to Angelene who sells the farm to a family. She is shocked when she returns a few years later to find the orchard had been sold and is not well tended.
This was a very interesting book. Most of the book is told simply in the actions of the characters. We rarely get an idea as to what they are thinking. We never really understand what would have caused Della to leave the safety of Talmadge's orchard and care for a life of danger and poverty. The disregard that Della and Angelene feel for each other is understandable. Although they are relations they don't really develop any relationship with each other til the end of the book. This is largely Della's fault, if she had been kind to the child, she might have reciprocated. The contrast of the innocent and kind orchardist and the wild, almost feral girls is fascinating.
This was a very powerful book, leaving one with lots to think about.
Monday, 7 July 2014
Dark Moon Walking
by R. J. McMillen
The mystery involves retired police officer, Dan Connor, who is sailing the islands off of Vancouver Island trying to overcome his grief at the murder of his wife. He is surprised to get a radio call from an indian man he had imprisoned years before. The man, Walker, tells him that a young researcher, Clare is missing, and her boat has been sunk. He asks Walker for help finding her.
Clare is safe, but in hiding. She had returned to her boat one day, travelling in a kayak to hear men talking about tracking her down. She runs to the far side of the island and hides out without food or warm clothing.
Walker and Dan find her and take her to safety but not before they see a sleek black yacht that seems to have something illegal going on. The boat has brought crews of men in and sent them out in dinghy's to search for Clare. The boat has large tubes of materials that they initially hide in the water and later bring onto the wharf to load onto other vessels.
Dan tries to get his former police colleagues interested but they have a big international event in Vancouver occupying their attention. the story develops another loaner living in the area is enlisted to keep Clare safe. She contacts Dan to tell him that a local hermit has shown up at her boat mumbling about a dead man with red hair. Clare fears this is her boss.
As Dan doesn't think he can get the police attention that is needed he and Walker discuss how to investigate or stop the black ship. Walker enlists some fellow native men. They disable the ship and the plans of the terrorists start to unravel. It is Dan who figures out that these terrorists will actually be a diversion so that a sniper can carry out an assasination.
This was an interesting mystery. The setting is an interesting part of the story. You feel the environment as much as the action of the story. I enjoyed it.
The mystery involves retired police officer, Dan Connor, who is sailing the islands off of Vancouver Island trying to overcome his grief at the murder of his wife. He is surprised to get a radio call from an indian man he had imprisoned years before. The man, Walker, tells him that a young researcher, Clare is missing, and her boat has been sunk. He asks Walker for help finding her.
Clare is safe, but in hiding. She had returned to her boat one day, travelling in a kayak to hear men talking about tracking her down. She runs to the far side of the island and hides out without food or warm clothing.
Walker and Dan find her and take her to safety but not before they see a sleek black yacht that seems to have something illegal going on. The boat has brought crews of men in and sent them out in dinghy's to search for Clare. The boat has large tubes of materials that they initially hide in the water and later bring onto the wharf to load onto other vessels.
Dan tries to get his former police colleagues interested but they have a big international event in Vancouver occupying their attention. the story develops another loaner living in the area is enlisted to keep Clare safe. She contacts Dan to tell him that a local hermit has shown up at her boat mumbling about a dead man with red hair. Clare fears this is her boss.
As Dan doesn't think he can get the police attention that is needed he and Walker discuss how to investigate or stop the black ship. Walker enlists some fellow native men. They disable the ship and the plans of the terrorists start to unravel. It is Dan who figures out that these terrorists will actually be a diversion so that a sniper can carry out an assasination.
This was an interesting mystery. The setting is an interesting part of the story. You feel the environment as much as the action of the story. I enjoyed it.
Sunday, 25 May 2014
The Storied LIfe of A. J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin
This is a book for lovers of books and bookstores. It is a gentle, loving story of a man and events that change his life.
A.J. is the owner of a small bookstore on an Island somewhere. Most of his business comes in the tourist season. A.J. is spiralling into despair after the death of his wife. He is drinking too much and not looking after himself.
His one love is books, serious literature. A young publishers agent comes to visit him and he is very rude to her.
One day A.J. is drunk and he leaves his prized possession, a rare book, unlocked. When he awakes his messy kitchen has been cleaned but the book is gone. Police searches turn up nothing.
A short time later A.J. returns to his store, which he has left unlocked, to find a toddler, abandoned by its mother. She leaves a note saying she wants her daughter, Maya, to grow up around books. Her body is later found, she drowned herself.
A.J. agrees to look after the child for a weekend, but he comes to love and cherish her and ends up adopting her. The description of how the little girl comes to do her job, reading the children's books in the store and then writing picture reviews of them is delightful. She also gives books to children so that their parents will be convinced to buy them.
A.J. also realizes he really likes the agent he was so rude to. He woes her and eventually they marry. They are having a very happy life, sadly A.J.'s sister-in-law is not. Her husband is unfaithful to her and we find out that Maya is actually a child from one of her husband's liaisons. She had stolen A.J.'s prize book to try to bribe the mother of the child to leave her husband alone. The girl refuses the offer but Maya has defaced the book, so the sister-in-law doesn't return the book to him. Her husband is killed in a car accident and she eventually finds happiness with the local police chief.
Sadly, A.J. is diagnosed with cancer but doesn't feel he can afford the treatment. The missing book suddenly appears and he is able to get surgery but it only gives him a temporary reprieve. The sister and law and her husband buy the bookstore after A.J. dies.
Each chapter of the book makes reference to a piece of literature. After Maya arrives many of the references are addressed to her.
This was a poignant story. Perhaps not a great work of literature, but I enjoyed it.
This is a book for lovers of books and bookstores. It is a gentle, loving story of a man and events that change his life.
A.J. is the owner of a small bookstore on an Island somewhere. Most of his business comes in the tourist season. A.J. is spiralling into despair after the death of his wife. He is drinking too much and not looking after himself.
His one love is books, serious literature. A young publishers agent comes to visit him and he is very rude to her.
One day A.J. is drunk and he leaves his prized possession, a rare book, unlocked. When he awakes his messy kitchen has been cleaned but the book is gone. Police searches turn up nothing.
A short time later A.J. returns to his store, which he has left unlocked, to find a toddler, abandoned by its mother. She leaves a note saying she wants her daughter, Maya, to grow up around books. Her body is later found, she drowned herself.
A.J. agrees to look after the child for a weekend, but he comes to love and cherish her and ends up adopting her. The description of how the little girl comes to do her job, reading the children's books in the store and then writing picture reviews of them is delightful. She also gives books to children so that their parents will be convinced to buy them.
A.J. also realizes he really likes the agent he was so rude to. He woes her and eventually they marry. They are having a very happy life, sadly A.J.'s sister-in-law is not. Her husband is unfaithful to her and we find out that Maya is actually a child from one of her husband's liaisons. She had stolen A.J.'s prize book to try to bribe the mother of the child to leave her husband alone. The girl refuses the offer but Maya has defaced the book, so the sister-in-law doesn't return the book to him. Her husband is killed in a car accident and she eventually finds happiness with the local police chief.
Sadly, A.J. is diagnosed with cancer but doesn't feel he can afford the treatment. The missing book suddenly appears and he is able to get surgery but it only gives him a temporary reprieve. The sister and law and her husband buy the bookstore after A.J. dies.
Each chapter of the book makes reference to a piece of literature. After Maya arrives many of the references are addressed to her.
This was a poignant story. Perhaps not a great work of literature, but I enjoyed it.
Friday, 11 April 2014
Namesake
ByJhumpa Lahiri
This book is about a young man whose parents have immigrated to the U.S. from India. The parents were married in an arranged marriage. When they come to the U.S. the husband is busy with his career. His wife however is very unhappy. She misses the comraderie and support of family in India. When their son is born they are asked for his name but are waiting for a grandmother to send a letter with the formal name. When pressured they give the name Gogol in tribute to the father's favourite author, Nikoai Gogol .
The father was almost killed in a train crash as a young. A fellow passenger who was killed in the crash was reading a Gogal book. The young man waved a page of the book and that is how rescuers spotted him. They don't explain the reason for his name to the boy. When the boy goes to start school the parents decide he should be called by a formal name not the friendly family name. They say his name is Nikhil. The boy is upset at the thought of having to take on a new name. He resists this and the Principal goes against the wishes of the parents and lets him use the name Gogol. In high school Gogol learns of the sad life of his namesake.
His family may be separated from their family in India but they develop connections with other Indian immigrants in the city. The boy and his family have a circle of friends almost exclusively limited to Indian immigrants.
His father eventually tells him how he came to be called Gogol. The boy is very angry that he was not told sooner.
When it comes time to attend university he chooses one away from his parents so he can escape his culture. He also assumes the name Nikhil to start his new life. He studies toi be an architect and has several romantic liaisons. While he is on a holiday with a girlfriend he learns his father has died from a heart attack while tezahing in a distant city. He, his mother and sister are devastated. His despair at his father`s death causes his relationship to collapse. He mopes for a while and then pressured by his mother dates a girl from a family that was friends with his parents. Both he and the girl do this because of stress from their families and to their surprise they like each other and marry. It seems things are going well but then he finds out his wife is having an affair. As the book ends his moither is selling the family hime and plans to spend part of her year in India and part with her children and family friends. Gogol hopes that he will meet someone and maybe even have children. As Gogol comes to help his mother pack and leave for India he finds a copy of a book of Gogol short stories that his father gave him years before.
This book presents an interesting picture of the life of a new immigrant and the way the children tend to draw away from the traditional practices and become part of their new country. I read the author's most recent book The Lowland, earlier this year. The book the Namesake was praised by many as the better book. While I had some trouble with some of the story elements in the Lowland I personally think it was a more powerful and interesting story. With this story, the Namesake, I have to ask... What's in a name, why did the name Gogol make a difference? Does a famous name affect our fate? With this book I have to ask so what.... I can't see that Gogol grew or changed in the book.
This book is about a young man whose parents have immigrated to the U.S. from India. The parents were married in an arranged marriage. When they come to the U.S. the husband is busy with his career. His wife however is very unhappy. She misses the comraderie and support of family in India. When their son is born they are asked for his name but are waiting for a grandmother to send a letter with the formal name. When pressured they give the name Gogol in tribute to the father's favourite author, Nikoai Gogol .
The father was almost killed in a train crash as a young. A fellow passenger who was killed in the crash was reading a Gogal book. The young man waved a page of the book and that is how rescuers spotted him. They don't explain the reason for his name to the boy. When the boy goes to start school the parents decide he should be called by a formal name not the friendly family name. They say his name is Nikhil. The boy is upset at the thought of having to take on a new name. He resists this and the Principal goes against the wishes of the parents and lets him use the name Gogol. In high school Gogol learns of the sad life of his namesake.
His family may be separated from their family in India but they develop connections with other Indian immigrants in the city. The boy and his family have a circle of friends almost exclusively limited to Indian immigrants.
His father eventually tells him how he came to be called Gogol. The boy is very angry that he was not told sooner.
When it comes time to attend university he chooses one away from his parents so he can escape his culture. He also assumes the name Nikhil to start his new life. He studies toi be an architect and has several romantic liaisons. While he is on a holiday with a girlfriend he learns his father has died from a heart attack while tezahing in a distant city. He, his mother and sister are devastated. His despair at his father`s death causes his relationship to collapse. He mopes for a while and then pressured by his mother dates a girl from a family that was friends with his parents. Both he and the girl do this because of stress from their families and to their surprise they like each other and marry. It seems things are going well but then he finds out his wife is having an affair. As the book ends his moither is selling the family hime and plans to spend part of her year in India and part with her children and family friends. Gogol hopes that he will meet someone and maybe even have children. As Gogol comes to help his mother pack and leave for India he finds a copy of a book of Gogol short stories that his father gave him years before.
This book presents an interesting picture of the life of a new immigrant and the way the children tend to draw away from the traditional practices and become part of their new country. I read the author's most recent book The Lowland, earlier this year. The book the Namesake was praised by many as the better book. While I had some trouble with some of the story elements in the Lowland I personally think it was a more powerful and interesting story. With this story, the Namesake, I have to ask... What's in a name, why did the name Gogol make a difference? Does a famous name affect our fate? With this book I have to ask so what.... I can't see that Gogol grew or changed in the book.
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Maisie Dobbs
by Jacqueline Winspear,
This is the first book in a series about a female detective Maisie Dobbs.
The story is kind of unusual, perhaps a bit unbelievable, but maybe it is realistic.
The book opens with Maisie, a female detective, getting settled into her new office. One of her first cases comes from a man who suspects his wife is having an affair as she spends long periods of time out of the house. Maisie follows her and finds out she visits the grave of a soldier (whom she loved).
She finds graves with only the soldier's first names on them, she is intrigued by this.
The story then switches to years prior to the first world war. We are introduced to a young Maisie and her father. He is a widower who uses his horse and cart to sell fresh produce. He loves his daughter but they are very poor. He doesn't want to see her starve or suffer so makes arrangements for her to be hired on as a household worker at the home of one of his clients.
She does her job well and works long hours, but when she discovers the huge library in the house she starts arising even earlier in the morning, 3 am , to have time to sneak into the library to read. She doesn't just read fiction, she reads philosophy and even tries to learn Latin.
One night the family members arrive home late from a party and discover her in the library. She thinks she will be sacked but instead the wife of the household wants to help her. They agree to let her study, under the guidance of a family friend, if she does her studying and coaching on her own time. She eagerly agrees. She is a diligent student and eventually passes the exams to be admitted to a woman's college at Cambridge. Her father is proud of her but afraid of losing her...
She is working on her education but when WWI arrives everyone' lives are turned upside down. The death of one of her former co-workers prompts her to leave her exams and volunteer to become a nurse in the war effort. She works hard in hospitals near the front lines in France, sees a lot of tragedy and is the victim of a tragedy herself. We don't learn the details about this until the end of the book.
Maisie sees a young doctor she met just prior to the war and they fall in love. He asks her to marry him but for some reason she hesitates to say yes. Yes, he is a higher social status than she, but that is not really what bothers her.
Then we jump back to the "present" in the book and find that Maisie's sponsors are concerned about their son who has returned from the war with post traumatic stress. He is thinking of going to live at a farm for soldiers called the Retreat. They want her to check into it for them. As the single named soldiers are also affiliated with this estate she is eager to investigate. We learn that Maisie's teacher/mentor is the person who groomed her to be a detective. Maisie has recruited a young man who has helped her get her office set up to go to the Retreat. At first everything seems fine, the place seems to be helping the men who live there. Then the young "plant' phones Maisie to say that one of the soldiers who had wanted to leave has disappeared. Maisie tells him to get out quickly but when she goes to pick him up at their planned rendezvous place he is not there. She ends up saving him from being murdered for "desertion" by the Major who runs the Retreat. We then learn that Maisie's lover was badly injured in an attack on the hospital where he and she were working and he is an invalid, probably brain damaged.
The author did a fabulous job of portraying the impact of WWI on people. The characters are interesting. The things I wonder about 1) would a serving girl be singled out and sponsored for an education like Maisie was? 2) If this unlikely candidate for education got a university education would she really become an investigator? If you can suspend disbelief in these regards, she has written an interesting mystery tale.
This is the first book in a series about a female detective Maisie Dobbs.
The story is kind of unusual, perhaps a bit unbelievable, but maybe it is realistic.
The book opens with Maisie, a female detective, getting settled into her new office. One of her first cases comes from a man who suspects his wife is having an affair as she spends long periods of time out of the house. Maisie follows her and finds out she visits the grave of a soldier (whom she loved).
She finds graves with only the soldier's first names on them, she is intrigued by this.
The story then switches to years prior to the first world war. We are introduced to a young Maisie and her father. He is a widower who uses his horse and cart to sell fresh produce. He loves his daughter but they are very poor. He doesn't want to see her starve or suffer so makes arrangements for her to be hired on as a household worker at the home of one of his clients.
She does her job well and works long hours, but when she discovers the huge library in the house she starts arising even earlier in the morning, 3 am , to have time to sneak into the library to read. She doesn't just read fiction, she reads philosophy and even tries to learn Latin.
One night the family members arrive home late from a party and discover her in the library. She thinks she will be sacked but instead the wife of the household wants to help her. They agree to let her study, under the guidance of a family friend, if she does her studying and coaching on her own time. She eagerly agrees. She is a diligent student and eventually passes the exams to be admitted to a woman's college at Cambridge. Her father is proud of her but afraid of losing her...
She is working on her education but when WWI arrives everyone' lives are turned upside down. The death of one of her former co-workers prompts her to leave her exams and volunteer to become a nurse in the war effort. She works hard in hospitals near the front lines in France, sees a lot of tragedy and is the victim of a tragedy herself. We don't learn the details about this until the end of the book.
Maisie sees a young doctor she met just prior to the war and they fall in love. He asks her to marry him but for some reason she hesitates to say yes. Yes, he is a higher social status than she, but that is not really what bothers her.
Then we jump back to the "present" in the book and find that Maisie's sponsors are concerned about their son who has returned from the war with post traumatic stress. He is thinking of going to live at a farm for soldiers called the Retreat. They want her to check into it for them. As the single named soldiers are also affiliated with this estate she is eager to investigate. We learn that Maisie's teacher/mentor is the person who groomed her to be a detective. Maisie has recruited a young man who has helped her get her office set up to go to the Retreat. At first everything seems fine, the place seems to be helping the men who live there. Then the young "plant' phones Maisie to say that one of the soldiers who had wanted to leave has disappeared. Maisie tells him to get out quickly but when she goes to pick him up at their planned rendezvous place he is not there. She ends up saving him from being murdered for "desertion" by the Major who runs the Retreat. We then learn that Maisie's lover was badly injured in an attack on the hospital where he and she were working and he is an invalid, probably brain damaged.
The author did a fabulous job of portraying the impact of WWI on people. The characters are interesting. The things I wonder about 1) would a serving girl be singled out and sponsored for an education like Maisie was? 2) If this unlikely candidate for education got a university education would she really become an investigator? If you can suspend disbelief in these regards, she has written an interesting mystery tale.
Saturday, 22 February 2014
Sense and Sensibility
By Joanne Trollope
This book is a modern version of the Jane Austen novel of the same name.
I thought the author did quite a good job of providing a modern version of the tale. The story is set in the present. However, the young girls and their mother still find themselves thrown out of their house upon the death of their father/husband. The family had been living with an elderly family member, he bequeathed the house to the father's step son, who the family has had no contact with. The man supposedly promised his father that he would after his mother and sisters, at the father's deathbed. However, his scheming wife has other plans and convinces him that they must leave.
A distant relative offers them a small cottage. Not a quaint old English cottage but a recently built, but small one, on his estate.
One of the girls, Elinor, falls in love with her stepbrother's brother-in-law much to the chagrin of the girl's sister in law who is totally against the relationship. She and her mother , both of whom are very concerned with wealth and staus, have much better plans for the young man. This does not include marrying a poor girl of no social standing.
Elinor, the only sensible one jn the familh tries to take his abandonment stoically. She realizes they have little money and sets out to find a job to have some income for the family.
Here sister, Marianne, suffers from severe asthma, as did her father. Marianne is rescued when she is having a severe attack by a handsome young man driving an Astin Martin sportscar. She falls for this handsome young man, heir to a neighbouring estate. He later breaks her heart by marrying someone else. This ruins her health and sanity. The family member who has invited the mother and girls to live on his estate has a male friend who spends a lot of time at his property. This man takes an interest in Marianne but she isn't interested in him. He is very nice and kind but the family considers him to old and boring to think of as a potential suitor.
In the end Elinor's beau decides to go against his mother's wishes and follow his heart. He proposes to Elinor and she accepts. This means he will likely be written out of his mother's will but he is convinced they will do okay. Elinor convinces him to go and visit his mother to explain his decision. He does. and the mother relents and gives them some money.
The other sister, Marianne decides that she can accept the offer of marriage from the boring older man. She realizes he is kind and she likes his company. He too suffered from an unfulfilled love. The book shows that while some things have changed since Austen's time, some things--young love, treachery, romance still exist today. A fun read.
This book is a modern version of the Jane Austen novel of the same name.
I thought the author did quite a good job of providing a modern version of the tale. The story is set in the present. However, the young girls and their mother still find themselves thrown out of their house upon the death of their father/husband. The family had been living with an elderly family member, he bequeathed the house to the father's step son, who the family has had no contact with. The man supposedly promised his father that he would after his mother and sisters, at the father's deathbed. However, his scheming wife has other plans and convinces him that they must leave.
A distant relative offers them a small cottage. Not a quaint old English cottage but a recently built, but small one, on his estate.
One of the girls, Elinor, falls in love with her stepbrother's brother-in-law much to the chagrin of the girl's sister in law who is totally against the relationship. She and her mother , both of whom are very concerned with wealth and staus, have much better plans for the young man. This does not include marrying a poor girl of no social standing.
Elinor, the only sensible one jn the familh tries to take his abandonment stoically. She realizes they have little money and sets out to find a job to have some income for the family.
Here sister, Marianne, suffers from severe asthma, as did her father. Marianne is rescued when she is having a severe attack by a handsome young man driving an Astin Martin sportscar. She falls for this handsome young man, heir to a neighbouring estate. He later breaks her heart by marrying someone else. This ruins her health and sanity. The family member who has invited the mother and girls to live on his estate has a male friend who spends a lot of time at his property. This man takes an interest in Marianne but she isn't interested in him. He is very nice and kind but the family considers him to old and boring to think of as a potential suitor.
In the end Elinor's beau decides to go against his mother's wishes and follow his heart. He proposes to Elinor and she accepts. This means he will likely be written out of his mother's will but he is convinced they will do okay. Elinor convinces him to go and visit his mother to explain his decision. He does. and the mother relents and gives them some money.
The other sister, Marianne decides that she can accept the offer of marriage from the boring older man. She realizes he is kind and she likes his company. He too suffered from an unfulfilled love. The book shows that while some things have changed since Austen's time, some things--young love, treachery, romance still exist today. A fun read.
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