Amodini's Book Reviews

Book Reviews and Recommendations

Book Review : Harmless as Doves

Written By: amodini - Aug• 08•12

[amazon_link id=”0452297869″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Harmless as Doves: An Amish-Country Mystery (Amish-Country Mysteries)[/amazon_link]Title : Harmless as Doves
Author : P. L. Gaus
Genre : Mystery
Pages : 224
Publisher : Plume
Source : Publisher ARC
Rating : 4/5

Bishop Leon Shetler is the religious leader of his people, a small Amish community. His placid serene world is upset one day when an Amish young man Crist Burkholder confesses to the murder of Glenn Spiegle. Crist loves 17-year old Vesta and she him, but Vesta’s father, close-minded Jacob Miller has arranged her marriage with Spiegle, a wealthy Amish convert 20 years Vesta’s senior. Vesta and Crist rebel, and when Crist has an altercation with Speigel on the issue, Speigel is found beaten brutally to death.

People talk and point fingers at the unholy influence of Darba Winter’s Rum Room, a little barn area where Amish kids have an opportunity to see the wild side, i.e.; a room with a tv, vcr, computer etc. Besides this Darba’s husband Billy is good friends with Speigel and has helped settle him in the Amish community. Sheriff Bruce Robertson and the rest of the policing community have trouble believing that Crist has actually murdered Speigle, and when the evidence backs this up, Robertson realizes that something bigger is afoot. Meanwhile Jacob Miller is killed while in Pinecraft, a little vacation spot, where the Amish go to enjoy the beach. Robertson then calls upon Sgt. Ricky Neills and Professor Michael Branden to help unearth the truth.

I haven’t read P.L.Gaus before and the last time I read a book about the Amish community it was Jodi Picault’s “Plain Truth”. Gaus’s writing style is slow and meticulous; he describes people, their surroundings and their thoughts in great detail, which helps one steep in the atmosphere. I do appreciate this kind of languorous writing because it gets me, as a reader, firmly ensconced in the story and the lives of the characters, and once you are in and hooked, you stay. As I did.

The story took its own time, even though the muder occurred early on. Gaus does a good job describing the Amish culture and the interactions and influences on the community from outside, “English” world. He fleshes out Shetler, his wife Katie characters and sheds light on Crist and Vesta’s predicament. I didn’t quite get Pastor Cal Stroyer and his daughter Rachel’s issues with Robertson – possibly because I haven’t read the other books in the story? Then there was Michael’s wife Caroline’s remorse over having killed a man in self-defense – probably also a reference to past events in a previous book. Barring these minor references, which don’t really impact the story, this book stands quite well alone.

I thought that the book did have a religious undertone, with Bishop Shetler harping on about being thankful – be “as wise as serpents and harmless as doves”, and the need for remorse and forgiveness. Also the murder mystery is straightforward, no loopholes and no surprises, once you know how it happened, so that was a tad disappointing. Overall though this was a good read, and well worth the time.

New Books : Age of Desire by Jennie Fields

Written By: amodini - Aug• 01•12

[amazon_link id=”067002368X” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Age of Desire: A Novel[/amazon_link]I’m excited to be previewing “Age of Desire” by Jennie Fields. A review will follow shortly. Meanwhile here is a little about the book and a Q&A with the author.

The Age of Desire transports the reader to Edith Wharton’s life in the Gilded Age: glamorous salons and literary banter in Paris and parties with Henry James and Teddy Roosevelt at her elegant estate in Massachusetts. But, the real heart of the book is Wharton’s relationship with the little-known woman named Anna Bahlmann, Edith’s governess, and the affair threatened her most profound friendship.

Q&A with the Jennie Fields:

The relationship between Edith and Anna is very complex. Did you always plan on making their troubled friendship central to the book, or did it grow out of your research?

It wasn’t until three months into the writing of the book that I decided to add a secondary protagonist, someone who could view Edith objectively.  Anna Bahlmann seemed the perfect character as she was with Edith on and off since her days as Edith’s governess until the year Anna died in 1916.  To have kept Anna with her so long, I assumed they must be very close, but biographers had hardly mentioned her. Then after I’d already written many chapters of the book, a miracle occurred.  Over 100 letters from Edith to Anna which had been moldering in an attic came up for auction at Christies! Everything I supposed about their relationship was true.  They were loving and close since Edith’s childhood, and she trusted Anna with a great deal.  I grew more and more intrigued with this shadowy figure.

Questions began to arise.  Why, for instance, during the summer after the onset of Edith’s affair with Morton Fullerton, was Anna suddenly sent to Europe on a trip that was considered a gift from Edith?   Earlier, in letters to other people, it was clear Edith was upset and even annoyed when Anna wasn’t around to help her, so why was it arranged for them to be suddenly so much apart? Though I have no hard evidence that Anna was disturbed by Edith’s relationship with Fullerton, many events suggested she’d been sent away.  I wanted Anna to be the book’s conscience.  If Edith was unhappy, disturbed by her splintering relationship to Morton, it made sense she’d send Anna off on a trip.
Another intriguing coincidence is that I had created a warm alliance between Anna and Teddy.  After I’d written most of the book, I found letters from Edith to others that said that Anna was a calming influence over Teddy on his worst days, the only one patient enough to sit with him, that he was asking for her—exactly as I had written it.

Anna supports Edith’s writing as a typist, early reader, and—in a way—editor. Did Edith ever include Anna in her Acknowledgements? How did Anna’s involvement in Edith’s work complicate their relationship?

Though she never acknowledged Anna publicly as far as I know, in letters directly to Anna, she thanked her.  In fact, in one letter early in Edith’s writing career, she sent Anna the check she received for a story saying, “The story is so associated in my mind with the hours that we spent in writing it out together, & I owe its opportune presentment & speedy acceptance largely to the fact that you were here to get it written out at a time when I could not have done so, that I have a peculiar feeling about your having just this special cheque & no other as a souvenir of our work together.” 
In her published biography, A Backward Glance, she spoke warmly about her relationship to Anna when she was a child “my beloved German teacher, who saw which way my fancy turned, and fed it with all the wealth of German literature, from the Minnesingers to Heine.”
But in a later autobiographical fragment that was never published she said, “My good little governess was cultivated & conscientious, but she never struck a spark from me, she never threw a new light on any subject, or made me see the relation of things to each other.  My childhood & youth were an intellectual desert.”
If she is referring to Anna in this sentence, (I hope she is not) it saddens me a great deal.  In any case, I believe Edith saw Anna as something of a servant.  She certainly did straddle Edith’s world and the world of the household staff, as beloved and essential as she seemed to be.  At the same time, Edith generously took Anna on foreign trips, out to dinner and to the theatre with her.  Without Edith, her life might well have been merely that of a teacher. As I have written Anna, she sees her place in life as a helpmate and accepts that Edith is the chosen one.  She is proud of her association with Edith and content with her place in life.

Edith Wharton is one of your favorite writers. How did that influence your writing?

Well, I must say, I felt very conscious of the language I used.  I wanted it to be appropriate to the era, hard-working and beautiful all at once.  I could never dream of writing as exquisitely as Edith.  I often get chills when I read her writing.  If angels could write, they’d write as she did.  The music of her language is instructive and breathtaking.  But I tried to write in a way that I felt might please her.  Also, I often started my writing sessions by reading a few pages of one of her books.  I never get tired of her books, no matter how often I read them.

The book follows Edith’s sexual awakening. What was it like writing sex scenes for such a well-known writer?

Not many people know this, but when Edith died, among her effects, her literary executor found some pornography that she’d penned.  There was nothing shy about this work.  It was bold, shocking, and also, of course, exquisitely written.  While I did not use any of the language of this piece (named Beatrice Palmato, for those who are curious—and yes, it’s on the internet) it did instruct me as to how she viewed sex and passion, and gave me insight into what excited her.

Paris figures heavily into the book. What did the city mean to Edith? What’s your relationship to Paris and did it figure into the writing of the book?

Edith adored Paris.  It was everything that New York wasn’t: culturally oriented, worldly, beautiful.  She found New York society closed and stifling.  She blossomed when she finally moved to France full-time, and her devotion to France is clear in how she helped the women of France during World War I with her workrooms and charities. (France awarded her the Cross of the Legion of Honor for her work during the war.) She had loved Paris as a child, and even more as an adult.  And of course, she fell in love with Morton while in Paris. That would forever insure a place for Paris in her heart.
There was a period where I did not like Paris.  I found it jostling and sad.  But about the time I began the book, I also began a new relationship to Paris, and fell in love with it all over again.

By the end of the book, Edith’s husband Teddy is not a very sympathetic character. Did you know much about Teddy when you began this project? Did you find yourself taking sides?

I knew nothing of Teddy when I took on the project, but it wasn’t long before I discovered that he suffered in later life from Manic Depression at a time when people didn’t know what to make of that or how to treat it.  Truthfully, I see Teddy as a very sympathetic character who married a woman unsuited to him, and then, distraught, fell victim to mental illness (which seemed to run in his family.)  If Teddy could have spent his later years at the Mount with his pigs and horses, he might have been a much happier man. Edith was an intellectual.  Teddy was anything but.  Yet,  he adored Edith.  And for a long time, he was a kind and patient husband to her.  Thinking of Teddy’s life saddens me.

You were an advertising creative director before becoming a novelist. Both are creative, but in different ways. How did your past career help in your current one?

My advertising career has affected my fiction writing in myriad ways.  For one thing, I am always conscious of trying to tell a story in the least words possible.  After years of cramming twenty thoughts into thirty seconds, one gets pretty good at writing minimally! Advertising also taught me to be disciplined, to work well under strict deadlines, and to work every day.  What I loved in advertising also interests me in my fiction:  to solve puzzles.  The tighter the strictures of the assignment, the more intrigued I am. I love being creative in a small box. This came into play with this book.  I had to tell a story that already existed but I had to shape it into a book. It was a Rubik’s Cube.  The elements were all there, but they needed to be twisted into the right order to create a satisfying pattern. Also, I was forced to read between the lines.  Edith kept such clear diaries; her life was mapped out almost daily.  But what reallyhappened at the theatre that night?  Why did Anna leave at that time for New York?  Why did Morton act the way he did?  It was a delicious puzzle and I very much enjoyed solving it to my satisfaction.  I hope I’ve done Edith’s life justice.

What’s your writing regimen?

Generally, I walk in the mornings and do errands.  I write in the afternoons.  Usually I read starting at 1 or 2 pm.  (While I was working on THE AGE OF DESIRE I always read something by Edith). Then, with a strong cup of tea I get down to work by three. I write in my writing room, a large old sleeping porch with windows on three sides overlooking my backyard.  I sit in a comfortable chair with an ottoman, my MacBook Pro on my lap.  I rarely write more than three hours at a time, usually less.  But it’s extraordinary what three dedicated hours can generate as far as pages.  If I get five good pages a day, I’m thrilled.  But not every day can be a successful day.  I always take weekends off—perhaps a holdover from my years in advertising.  My brain needs time to recharge!

What’s next for you?

I am writing a book about a woman caught up in the radical anti-war movement of the 1960s.  She is a woman in her late thirties who married young and had no youth.  She goes back to college, and gets drawn into the Weather Underground.  I’ve always been intrigued with how people who were advocates of anti-violence could justify their increasingly violent activities.

Wordless Wednesdays #10

Written By: amodini - Jul• 25•12

Banff, Canada

Book Review : Earth Unaware

Written By: amodini - Jul• 17•12

[amazon_link id=”0765329042″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Earth Unaware (Formic Wars)[/amazon_link]Title : Earth Unawares
Author : Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston
Genre : Sci-fi
Pages : 368
Publisher : Tor
Source : Netgalley/Publisher ARC
Rating : 4/5

Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow are two of my favorite sci-fi books. Although I haven’t been able to move further into the series because I didn’t like where they were going, I do think that Orson Scott Card is one of the best sci-fi writers around today. In Ender’s Game we know that earth is fighting the war against the buggers, and the Formic wars are mentioned, but other than that we don’t get much backstory. Earth Unaware is the 1st book of the Formic Wars, a new series which forms a prequel to Ender’s Game, so this was a must-read for me.

There are three parallel tracks here – the first is of a mining ship El Cavador, the second of a ship conducting tests for the Jukes corporation, and the third is of an elite commando squad, the MOP, led by Wit O’Toole. The first two storylines are fleshed out pretty well, but the third is a little disjointed and I’m hoping it’ll come into play in the next book of the series – no doubt the MOP will become the basis of the training academy that Ender is sent to.

Free-floating miner families mine asteroids in the Kuiper belt, and one among them is the El Cavador family. It is unceremoniously “bumped” from the asteroid it has been mining by a Juke corporate ship, when Lem Jukes, captain, decides to use the asteroid as target practice for testing out the new Juke developed glaser (gravity laser). Crippled by the unexpected attack, El Cavador’s crew tries to make repairs to the damages from the Juke ship. Meanwhile Victor Delgado, a young fixer-upper/inventor from El Cavador detects a fast moving alien ship coming right at them. It turns out to be a scout ship for the actual mothership, but even so does some damage to the already floundering El Cavador. In their brief encounter with the scout ship, the El Cavadorians discover that the ship is manned by human sized ant-like creatures they term hormigas.

As the alien mothership nears it disrupts communication signals and El Cavador is unable to warn other miner ships of the danger. It looks like the aliens are headed for earth, and if there is no communication, earth will be caught unawares. Victor hatches a plan to warn earth, but it is risky and may not work . . .

Meanwhile on earth, Captain O’Toole is recruiting men for the MOP from elite battle squads around the world – Israel, India etc. It is interesting that the MOP land in Mumbai and try to recruit from a highly regarded Indian commando unit. Other than that I thought there was too much gun/manuoevre related detail for a sci-fi book, especially since it doesn’t actually go anywhere in this book. I pretty much speed-read my way through the MOP story, glossing over the tactical war-related bits.

I quite liked this book, for the detail, the descriptions and the engaging storyline. Vintage Orson Scott Card. Victor is a great protagonist – young enough for nascent romance, brave enough to stand upto an invincible foe, and selfless enough to sacrifice his welfare for the greater good. The only chink in the armor, as I said, was the MOP angle which seemed to dither too long on unimportant details.

This was a great read; I look forward to reading the next book of this prequel series.

Book Review : A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar

Written By: amodini - Jul• 11•12

[amazon_link id=”1608198111″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar: A Novel[/amazon_link]Title : A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar
Author : Suzanne Joinson
Genre : Women’s
Publisher : Bloomsbury
Pages : 384
Rating : 3.5/5

The book has two parallel tracks, each running independently until the later half of the book where we begin to glimpse tenuous links. In the first in 1923, Evangeline has set off for a trip along the Silk Route with sister Elizabeth, and Lizzie’s friend Milicent Frost. Eva is not a believer, unlike Milicent and Lizzie who are filled with missionary zeal, although she pretends to be one to be allowed on the arduous journey. The book starts off by putting us right in with the three who happen to witness and help an 11 year old girl give birth on the road. The young mother dies, but the baby is saved. Unfortunately the local people decide to hold the three foreign-looking women responsible for the death and place them under house arrest.

The baby becomes Eva’s responsibility. As the three women wait for the trial, they negotiate the everyday vagaries of Mohammed’s household with his many wives and their children. Eventually the three rent a house outside the village for themselves. However the villagers are increasingly hostile, their missionary organization has refused to help and Milicent and Lizzie seem to be drowning in deep religious fervor, endangering their survival in Muslim Kashgar. To Eva it seems like she may never be able to make it to England ever again.

The second track is set in modern day London telling us Freida Blaekman’s tale. Tired of her travel and work and unhappy with her personal life, Frieda meets Tayeb, a middle-aged illegal immigrant who lands up on her stoop, seeking shelter. Freida has recently been bequeathed the contents of a cottage from a mysterious Irene Guy, and Tayeb helps her unravel the mystery.

I was looking forward to this book because of its female-centric theme and expected a book similar to Tracy Chevalier’s feminist tales. The allusion to cycling drew me in, with the close connection between cycling for women and the evolution of women’s dress from the corseted gowns to the relatively comfortable pantaloons. Eva takes her bicycle on the journey:

“Why do you want to bring it?” Lizzie asked, but I don’t think I answered her. I did not tell her that it was my shield and my method of escape; or that since the first time I pedaled and felt the freedom of cycling, I’ve known that it is the closest I can get to flying.”

and Freida has found it to be her mode of deliverance :

This was when Frieda had discovered that it was possible to run away on a bike. Cycle, wheels fast, move fast, keep moving, go go go until you are far away . . . Keep riding, riding away. If you cycle fast enough you fly.

Interestingly both women, separated by generations, want to be free, and by inference empowered, and see cycling as a way of achieving it. While this is a well-written book and a decent read, I did not find the prose or the intention as lucid as Chevalier’s. I did find Eva’s situation surreal and her too passive a heroine – she acted, but only under the most trying circumstances. I liked Freida more.

On the plus side the settings are beautifully described, and the village of Kashgar and the surroundings of the three English women come to life in Joinson’s prose. The clash between the cultures and religions is interestingly portrayed. This book does sketch out the travails of women now and then, and their search for independence, and it makes for a thought-provoking, if melancholic read. If you’re looking for a woman’s travelogue (theres a cycle on the cover and it in the title!) with uplifiting notions of feminist belief or action, this is not it. Rather, it takes the “cycling theme” and it’s notional baggage and uses it to tie together the stories of women in two different times. Fans of women’s fiction will be pleased.

Book Review : Imperfect Bliss

Written By: amodini - Jul• 03•12

[amazon_link id=”1451623828″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Imperfect Bliss: A Novel[/amazon_link]Title : Imperfect Bliss
Author : Susan Fales-Hill
Genre : Chick Lit
Pages : 304
Publisher : Atria Books
Source : Netgalley/Publisher ARC
Rating : 2.5/5

Imperfect Bliss is supposed to be based upon Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and the reality television show The Bachelorette. So we have Mr. & Mrs. Harcourt aka Mr & Mrs. Bennett, and their four daughters Diana, Victoria, Charlotte and Bliss. Their pretentious mother Forsythia has one goal for all her daughters – that of marriage. While Diana and Charlotte have learnt well from their mother, Victoria and Bliss think like their patient, long-suffering professor father. Bliss, or Elizabeth is the heroine. She is newly divorced from politician husband Manuel Soto, has a four year old daughter Bella, and has moved in with her parents to pursue a Phd in history.

Bliss is vocal in her displeasure when Diana becomes the star of a reality television show “The Virgin“ while Victoria and Harold Harcourt are indifferent. As shooting for the tawdry show begins, much is made of the family and the family home, and Bliss and Bella are drawn in willy-nilly. Bliss becomes almost friends with Wyatt Evers, the show anchor and Dario Fuentes, the producer, although she doesn’t quite trust the two. Her ex-husband has announced that he is marrying his girlfriend and Bliss must break the news to Bella. So this is a very rocky personal, financial and emotional time for Bliss, one which she might not recover from.

I’m a Jane Austen fan and Pride and Prejudice is one my of all time favorites. However the resemblance to Pride and Prejudice seemed superficial; while the Harcourts are in number and gender similar to the Bennett family, and Forsythia with all her prim-and-properness , might be a direct descendant of Mrs. Bennett, Bliss was not what I’d expected out of a Lizzie-like heroine. For all her talk on feminism, women’s issues and empowerment, Bliss seemed way too focused on counting the days of her celibacy, and having wet dreams about her ex-husband . She seemed confused about her romantic decisions and could not break her attachment to her ex, although he seems a cad.

Because the story hinges on a reality television show I expected some description of what passes for television these days, but the book went into it further than that. The shooting of “The Virgin” takes centre stage with Bliss either a spectator, nodding in disbelief at the lengths her mother and sister will stoop too or joining them as they visit foreign countries. The story-line then got repetitious with one shoot following the other. On the plus side, I did like the cover – thought it very well-done. Also, it is interesting that the author brings in issues of race; Forsythia is from Jamaica and married to a Caucasian British professor. Thus the daughters are mulatto. Bliss’s research topic is about the treatment of slave children, specificall y those that Thomas Jefferson has with his slave vs. those of a French planter’s.

The writing goes into great detail with descriptions, which is nice, but is also rife with pop-culture references, and could have used some editing. I had expected a fun-filled romp of a book, with the premise, but given that I couldn’t root for Bliss herself, this book didn’t quite work for me. This is a standard romantic storyline where the heroine must find a mate; here she also has three suitors to choose from – each more handsome than the next. It is pure chick-lit, where the heroine’s ideal man is not only sensitive and caring but has the physique of a body-builder, so this might fit the bill if a quick, easy beach read is what you are looking for.

 

New Books : Every Day Every Hour by Natasa Dragnic

Written By: amodini - Jun• 30•12

[amazon_link id=”0670023507″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Every Day, Every Hour: A Novel[/amazon_link]This book, a translation of the original was published last month. Here is a little about it (per publisher mail):

Every Day, Every Hour is a debut novel from a fresh, new international voice in literature, Nataša Dragnić with faithfully done translation by Liesl Schillinger. Every Day, Every Hour is a love story told with astonishing perspective and nuance.

Set in Makarska, a small coastal city in Croatia , in the early 1960s, Dragnić’s tale begins when five year-old Luka, smitten by a new classmate, Dora, faints in excitement. Waking him with a kiss, Dora and Luka become inseparable over the next few years, wandering the shores of their town as Luka learns to paint, until one September day, when Dora must move with her parents to Paris, leaving Luka behind in Croatia. After sixteen years apart, Dora and Luka meet again by chance in Paris . Luka is now an artist, and Dora an actress. They spend three wonderful months together, which they suppose is the beginning of a whole life together. First, Luka needs to settle a few things back in Croatia . He returns to Makarska with the promise of returning to Dora as quickly as possible. Luka is not heard from again.

Every Day, Every Hour explores the loneliness of being human, and how those who suffer it to the extreme survive. A wonderful love story that readers of David Nicholls, Audrey Niffenegger, and Paolo Giordano will devour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nataša Dragnić was born in 1965 in Split , Croatia . In 1995, she finished her language and literature studies (German, English, and French) and then attended the Croatian School of Diplomacy. She presently lives in Erlangen , Germany , where she gives language lessons at the university. Every Day Every Hour (written originally in German) is her first novel, the rights of which have been sold to more than 28 countries.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR:
Liesl Schillinger grew up in American Midwestern college towns, where she learned French and German as a child, and spent summers in Europe . After Yale, where she studied comparative literature and learned Russian and Italian, she joined the English supplement of Moscow Magazine. She has been a freelance writer for two decades, publishing criticism, essays, features and other works in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and other publications in the U.S. and abroad. Schillinger’s translations of German and Italian short stories have appeared in Words Without Borders and Tin House. Her neologisms blog, “WordBirds,” appears weekly on The Faster Times.

Book Review : The Age of Miracles

Written By: amodini - Jun• 25•12

[amazon_link id=”0812992970″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Age of Miracles: A Novel[/amazon_link]Title : The Age of Miracles
Author : Karen Thompson Walker
Genre : Dystopian/Sci-fi
Publisher : Random House
Pages : 289
Source : Netgalley/Publisher ARC
Rating : 4.5/5

Lately I’ve been reading books which I would normally have not read – you think the book is of a particular genre but it turns out to be quite something else. I’m glad though for having been able to read these different genres – they are great books and I’m the richer for having read them. There was Exogene by T.C. McCarthy which seemed like a sci-fi adventure set in a genetically-modified future, but which read like a war-novel instead. And then there is “Age of Miracles” which I requested via NetGalley because of its astounding sci-fi premise. As it turns out, sci-fi is but a backdrop for this wonderful coming-of-age novel.

As I write this, in today’s world, we face a number of environmental challenges. The earth’s climactic patterns are changing, some say due to man’s ill-treatment of the earth. Global warming is on the rise, human waste is piling up, polluting the land and choking natural water systems. Imagine that in addition to all these slow changes there is one sudden, totally unanticipated change – a shift in the earth’s rotation causing our days to no longer be sunlit and our nights to no longer be starry. This is the world this novel is set in.

Julia, the heroine of this novel, is an 11 year old middle-schooler negotiating her schooldays with the help of best friend Hanna. It is during this time that the rotation of the earth changes leading to an influx of minutes into a regular day. The days get larger, initially by a few minutes each day, but the cumulative effect causes the traditional day length of 24 hours to increase by hours, by days and then by weeks.

At the beginning, people stood  on street corners and shouted about the end of the world. Counselors came to talk to us at school. I remember watching Mr. Valencia next door fill up his garage with stacks of canned food and bottles water, as if preparing, it now seems to me, for a disaster much more minor.

Initially befuddled, governments and government agencies – schools, offices, hospitals etc. decide to stick to “clock-time”, i.e.; a 24 hour time cycle even though the sun could now set in the middle of the “night” and “dawn” could be dark. Some people, the “real-timers”, decide to go by the sun, but are gradually shunned, leading them to migrate to communes. The sun’s changing rhythms have an effect on most earthly things – the earth’s protective atmosphere burns up, global warming increases, animals change migratory patterns and die mysteriously; there is societal unrest and unforeseen sicknesses. Most people worried, start anticipating the worst; they stockpile supplies, rebuild shelters to guard against the end of civilization, and migrate to be close to families and religious houses. Julia’s own hyper-paranoid mother stocks up, “a rising tide of condensed milk and canned peas” in their cupboards. In between all this, Julia must negotiate her way through fragile friendships, loneliness, death, nascent love and exhilaration.

This book is Thompson’s debut, but reads like it was written by a seasoned writer. Even though I presume that coming of age novels with their personal, mini-scale conflicts are not my cup of tea, I was engrossed. The writing flows; I stopped every couple of paragraphs, rereading her meticulous prose, wishing to commit it to memory. This is that kind of book.

With the great attention to detail, the characters in the book come to life. The events in Julia’s life, as told from her point of view, are so beautifully narrated that I’m there with Julia every step of the way. Julia is finding her way through a very curious time in earth’s history, but even as the world seemingly collapses into chaos it is her story that holds interest.

It was that time of life: talents were rising to the surface, weaknesses were beginning to show through, we were finding out what kind of people we would be. Some would turn out beautiful, some funny, some shy. Some would be smart, others smarter. The chubby ones would likely always be chubby. The beloved, I sensed, would be beloved for life. And I worried that loneliness might work that way, too. Maybe loneliness was imprinted in my genes, lying dormant for years but now coming into full bloom.

Julia herself, is a very sympathetic character, an introvert who just wishes to meld into the background and remain there in peace; you like her very easily. Julia’s story is the story of her family – her parents and grandfather, her friends – Hanna and Seth Moreno, the boy she secretly adores, her neighbors with their peculiar idiosyncrasies, and her schoolmates with their careless callousness. This is the story of her struggle to stay grounded amid the upheaval they bring, in an uncertain world.

This is a gorgeous book and my pick for 2012, smack dab in June. Highly recommended.

Book Review : Little Night by Luanne Rice

Written By: amodini - Jun• 22•12

[amazon_link id=”0670023566″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Little Night: A Novel[/amazon_link]Title : Little Night
Author : Luanne Rice
Genre : Women’s Fiction
Publisher : Pamela Dorman Books (Viking)
Pages : 321
Source : Publisher
Rating : 3.5/5

Clare has been cut off from her once close sister Anne for more than 20 years. She has also served 2 years for allegedly attempting to kill Anne’s controlling husband Frederik. Now 18 years after her release she has settled into a placid, bird-watching life in New York. Her life has unraveled but she is at peace with herself, or so it seems. Now, Clare’s niece Grit has unexpectedly come visiting and Clare realizes that the sister she has forgiven is still caught in a bad situation.

This book is about domestic violence and Rice’s description of situations which foster abuse kept me reading. She describes such situations realistically – it is not only physical violence that is damaging, it is also verbal insinuations and mental coercions that make life hell. Her description of Anne and Frederik’s life from Anne’s diary truly show how abusive relationships can look normal to a casual passer-by but cause the vicitims to remain on tenterhooks awaiting the next outburst of violence. Besides that, truly heartbreaking are the effects of all this on the children. Anne’s kids, Grit and Gilly, helpless witnesses to domestic violence, receive bad treatment not only from abusive Frederik but also from Anne.

She had grown up in the cycle of violence, understood how being abused once made it more likely you would feel so bad about yourself you’d let it happen again. You’d get used to accepting terrible treatment. Almost worse, if you didn’t get help, you could turn into a batterer yourself.

The novel takes some time getting to the crux of the problem. Even though Grit moves in with her aunt she takes her time spilling the beans, and I was a little taken aback with the restraint shown by Clare as she goes about bird-watching instead if demanding answers of Grit about Anne, the sister she has been longing for all these years. Clare also seemed frail and vulnerable and living life at a distance afraid to commit, which seemed a realistic portrayal. Grit character was well-sketched; her spying habits and her lies tied in well with her tortured character.

I did find certain things in the book a little clichéd. Also, I understand that Rice tries to give us a clearer picture, but some backstory telling seemed exactly that – more tell and less show, which takes away from the novel. Clare’s character seemed quite forgiving towards her sister given that it was Anne’s false testimony that helped put Clare in jail. She seems to absolve Anne of all responsibility – a little too saintly and hard to take, and something which might be food for thought post-read.

I would recommend this novel to all my readers. It is a thought-provoking book, and well-worth the read, and I read it very quickly, almost in one sitting. The book has a gorgeous cover, which Rice tweets (in response to mine) is of Poet’s Walk in Central Park.

New Books : The Orphanmaster by Jean Zimmerman

Written By: amodini - Jun• 18•12

[amazon_link id=”0670023647″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Orphanmaster[/amazon_link]Historical thriller “The Orphanmaster” releases June 19th. Here is an interview with the author :

You’ve had considerable success as a writer of nonfiction. How did it feel to make the transition to fiction?

I’ve always considered it an incredible privilege to write nonfiction, as you get to snoop in private lives via letters, diaries, etc., in order to tell your story. That said, in writing on some historical subjects, particularly the lives of women, these sources are not always readily available. I found that I could use the research I had done and expand upon it imaginatively in a way that was extremely satisfying.

To produce its powerful effects, THE ORPHANMASTER mingles historical fact with some imaginative storytelling. What are some of the more surprising discoveries that you happened on in your research?

I found a map that was drawn in 1660, the first street plan of Manhattan , which conveys every street, structure, meadow and garden in the settlement. It was the world of my characters, and it was the geographical jumping-off point of my work. Also vital was the discovery of the orphanmaster function, an official job that was needed because of the dire trend toward parental deaths through sickness, shipwrecks or Indian incursions. And I also was surprised to learn about the sport of pulling the goose!

Your novel goes rather hard on one of your real-life historical figures, Governor Petrus Stuyvesant. Why were you so rough on him?

Stuyvesant was a complex man. Not readily likable because of his high-handed policies—no one wanted the taverns shut on Sundays!—he also created order in a time when New Amsterdam was going a bit out of control. He was somebody whose domineering personality would definitely create friction with the other characters I portray. Historically, he was so hated that the colonists refused to fight alongside him to resist the English takeover in 1664.

One of your nonfiction books concerns a colonial-era she-merchant similar to THE ORPHANMASTER’s heroine, Blandine van Couvering. What are the major differences between the fictional heroine and her real-life precursor?

For my earlier book, The Women of the House, I researched a trader named Margaret Hardenbroeck, who through smarts and sheer force of will became the richest woman in the colony that would become New York . She-merchants were common in New Amsterdam , where there were roughly two hundred female traders out of a population of 1,500 settlers—a very high percentage. Women such as Margaret Hardenbroeck (and Blandine van Couvering in THE ORPHANMASTER) loved the excitement of commerce, especially the high-end, high-status commodities like fur. Blandine is a young merchant, still earnestly trying to work her way up. But she feels the thrill of trade in her bones.

Blandine knows a surprising amount about seventeenth-century armaments and, by extension, so do you. How did you come by your expertise?

Research is a writer’s best friend, an area of my work that I have come to love and rely upon in nonfiction. And weapons are a fascinating subject to learn about. They were crucial to the lives of the people of the New Netherland frontier. Although not much of a gun freak myself, I read in the field and consulted with people I know who are knowledgeable.

In Blandine and in the villain Martyn Hendrickson, you present an interesting theological diptych: one atheist whose character we find ourselves admiring and another who is utterly contemptible. What thoughts did you mean to suggest by introducing the implied comparison between the two?

While Martyn has abandoned God altogether, or has completely subverted Christian ideals to his own twisted ends, Blandine is in quest of a new definition of God. Ever since the incomprehensible tragedy of losing her parents and sister in a shipwreck, she no longer finds the idea of God as personal savior compelling. Blandine is a questing soul, searching for a new belief system, while Martyn has settled upon a particularly vicious form of nihilism.

In a fairly early chapter, you ask, “How does the superior man live in a godless world Nice question. Any answers?

Drummond’s hallmarks are courage, kindness and reserve. He feels the need to change the picture, to change his idea of god, so he does not, indeed, inhabit a godless world. In this, he attempts to align himself with a larger order, terrible and immense, that he especially perceives in the staggering beauty of the natural world.

Your hero, Edward Drummond, observes that in an old-world cathedral it’s easy to believe, whereas in the American wilderness it is supremely difficult to maintain that God exists. And yet, historically, America ’s religious revivals have been especially vigorous in remote, rural areas, where God is felt to be present in the silence of the natural world. Is Edward just wrong, or is there some way to defend his observation?

We have to remember the seventeenth-century first-growth wilderness that confronted Drummond was very different from the tamer, well-explored woods and cultivated farmlands of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Great Awakenings. God for Drummond cannot be defined in human terms, since that would be a prideful distortion of such immensity. Rather, he sees the sacred as “[a]n entity, an endlessness, a totality.”

THE ORPHANMASTER features scenes of horrific violence and mayhem—possibly off-putting to some, certainly engrossing to others. What emotions do you yourself experience when writing these portions of your novels?

It’s really more about telling the story, getting the characters right, considering how they relate to each other. That’s what makes creating a thriller exciting and powerful. At the same time, I myself did feel challenged at some points in the writing, and sad when some characters suffered or didn’t survive.

Drummond’s idea of God is strongly shaped by his reading of Baruch Spinoza. For the uninitiated, can you briefly explain Spinoza’s philosophy of religion and why it might appeal to someone like Drummond?

Drummond has lived a full life and has seen violent and challenging things. He is embittered and yet still searching for meaning. Spinoza was the supreme rationalist. He wore a signet ring with the inscription “cautiously,” and proposed treating theological questions in the same way a mathematician, for example, might treat a triangle. In Spinoza’s view, which Drummond is coming to adopt, the old-world god has ceased to exist, to be replaced by a more abstract, less personal but more powerful sense of the sacred.

One of your minor characters opines, “The day when a corporation is accorded the same standing as a country, with all the rights attending to that status, will be a sad day indeed.” That also sounded like a somewhat “presentist” comment to us. Any thoughts?

Since all writers exist in the present, all writing is unavoidably presentist. I would say that it is natural to use your current-day intellectual framework even when you write about the past. It would be dishonest not to. And it can be fun to enliven a historical text with sidelong glances at the modern. But I also believe the rules are different for fiction, nonfiction and memoir. At times I enjoy engaging in what I hope is a playful insouciance.

Are there other ways in which you think your novel can be read as a commentary on present-day America ?

At the time of THE ORPHANMASTER, eighteen languages were spoken in New Amsterdam . The makeup of Manhattan is much the same today—immigrants, businesspeople, criminals, orphans, women striving to make something of themselves. The novel addresses in some part how the various ethnicities and races get along with each other. The heroine and hero of the book are the ones that show the most tolerance, understanding and sympathy for other people, even those not like them superficially. This is our mandate for today as well.

What remains today of Blandine and Drummond’s New Amsterdam ?

The Manhattan of today is still haunted by the ghost of New Amsterdam . New York ’s commercial imperative and devotion to progress have buried the past in cement, but the streets of the past exist largely as they did. You can walk Stone Street , Pearl Street or Broadway and see just where Blandine kept her dwelling-house or where she made her way across the canal at low tide. You can feel a poignant vestige of what was, and if you imagine intently, still hear the creaking of the Dutch windmills.

What are you working on now?

A novel about a girl who was raised in the wild, displayed at a sideshow in Virginia City , Nevada , and adopted by a well-to-do couple in 1875 Manhattan to be trained up as a debutante. Mysterious killings ensue, and she must track down the murderer before he gets to her. A darker side of the Gilded Age.

What inspired you to center your book on the year 1663?

It was a period of transition and discovery, danger and excitement. Colonists were arriving in Manhattan to create new lives for themselves. Beaver was king, and fortunes were being made in the fur industry. I chose the precise year because the frictions between Holland and England were about to play out in a way that ultimately gave us the culture we have today.