Category: Fiction

Magician’s Wife

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Moore, Brian. The Magician’s Wife. Penguin, 1998.

Reason read: Algeria celebrations its Revolution Day in June.

We begin Magician’s Wife in 1856 France. Emmaline Lambert stands in the shadow of her famous magician husband, Henri Lambert. Her personality dims next to the brilliance of her husband’s growing notoriety as an illusionist and inventor. The crowds are agog over his inexplicable trickery. Emmaline almost becomes a cliche being described as uneasy, nervous, foolish, and unsure; acting with trepidation and panic. But in reality, she is just a lonely woman without intimacy in her marriage. It is all about the choices you make in life. Emmeline admits she married a man she did not love. Upon being summoned to the opulent estate of Napoleon III the Lamberts meet dashing Colonel Charles Deniau. Like tendrils of relentlessly advancing vines of kudzu, the Colonel ensnares Emmeline Lambert’s confidences little by little. France has a mission for Henri: in an effort to increase France’s empire and conquer Algeria, astound the Bedouins of North Africa. Frighten them into submission. Is Emmaline falling in love with Deniau? Will she convince her husband to perform the ultimate illusion for the sake of domination?

Author fact: Moore also wrote The Doctor’s Wife which I am reading for the Challenge. I am sensing a pattern here.

Book trivia: The Magician’s Wife was inspired by true events.

Music: “Marseillaise.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “North American Notes: Algeria” (p 159).

Accidental

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Smith, Ali. The Accidental. Pantheon books, 2005.

Reason read: I have no freaking clue when I am reading this book. I already one book from the Scotland chapter.

Is this a cautionary tale about the dangers of miscommunication, assumption, or dysfunctional family silence? The Smith family, on holiday in Norfolk, England, find a beautiful woman on their doorstep announcing her car has broken down. She soon stays for dinner then stays the night. She learns their names: Eve, a writer on the brink of literary success; Michael, a philandering professor; Magnus, a teenager wrack with guilt over a school prank gone horribly wrong; Astrid, a typical twelve year old girl bored with life; everything is substandard in her eyes. The family learns her name, Amber. No one recognizes her from anywhere. Either the Smith family cannot or will not ask each other what they know about the mysterious stranger. Based on their preconceived opinions about each, other each family member makes a blind assumption. Amber is a friend of Eve’s. Amber is Michael’s next “bit ‘o fluff on the side,” maybe one of his latest students he to shag? Amber is a teacher from Magnus or Astrid’s school. Each family member sees a situation from a completely different point of view and that’s when the lies start. Without confirming anything about Amber, the Smith family starts to let the woman integrate herself into their daily lives until it is too late to extract her.

Author fact: Smith is a Scottish writer. I am also reading Hotel World for the Challenge.

Book trivia: The Accidental” could be a movie. It has a little of everything.

Favorite part of the book: when Smith explains the entire Ah-Ha video for “Take On Me.” She captured every minute of my sister’s favorite song.

Music: Elton John, Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now,” “smooth Operator, Beatles, Barbara Streisand, Chris Montez’s “The More I See You,” Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army,” Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet,” Four Seasons’ “December 1963 (Oh what a Night),” Ray Stevens’ “Misty,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Marianne Faithfull, Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen,” and Mick Jagger.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter “Scotland: More Than Haggis, Kilts, and Ian Rankin” (p 200).

Sea Glass

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Shreve, Anita. Sea Glass. Little, Brown and Company, 2002.

Reason read: June is Small Town Month and Sea Glass takes place in a small town in New Hampshire. Even though I read this years ago I am sticking to my rule: if I don’t remember the plot or major characters I have to reread it.

The backdrop to Sea Glass is 1929 New England, specifically on the coast of New Hampshire. Each chapter reveals the perspective of a different character; like a viewfinder, clicking through their lives one by one. Honora Beecher finds herself in a rundown cottage, married to a typewriter salesman she met at her teller job at a bank. Sexton provides for Honora and she loves him, despite him being a virtually stranger. Little by little, Honora’s world expands as she meets the various residents of her (fictional) seaside town. When the stock market crash of 1929 explodes, true personalities are revealed. Shreve is a magician; making readers change their minds about characters. Vivian starts off as a snob while Sexton is admirable. McDermott appears untrustworthy and untethered to life. As with all Shreve novels, the ending is not Hollywood and yet we keep coming back for more.

Characters:

  • Alan – brother of Honora; went to the McKenzie Boys School
  • Alphonse – 11 years old; one of six children; mother is a widow; works in the Ely Falls mill on the bobbins; father died when he was eight; doesn’t know how to swim; wears his sister’s sweater when it’s cold.
  • Alice Willard – mother of Honora
  • Arnaud Nadeau – father is a mule spinner; wears a sweater once belonging to his mother; millworker
  • Asa Whitlock – hotel guest and friend of Vivian
  • Arthur Willet – maybe makes his millions from a diamond mine
  • Augustin – brother of Alphonse
  • Bernice Radcliffe – sick of raisins
  • Bobby Kellogg – a friend of Vivian’s
  • Camille – sister of Alphonse
  • Cedric Nye – from Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Charles – brother of Honora; went to the McKenzie Boys School
  • Charles – from Syracusa
  • Cyril Whittemore – radio actor
  • Delaney – mill worker
  • Dickie – was engaged; moved to Indianapolis after the stock market crash; works for a shirt company; stayed with a man named Johnny Merrill
  • Dorothy Trafton – acquainted with Vivian
  • Eileen – McDermott’s sister
  • Emma – Charles’ infant daughter; died in the explosion
  • Estelle – a woman back home.
  • Evanthia Blanchette – Alphonse’s mother; works of the same floor as McDermott
  • Evelyn – Charles’ wife
  • Father Riley
  • Floyd Holmes – owns the party house
  • Franco – desk manager
  • Francois Boutet – millworker; short
  • Georgia Porter – from Washington; her father is in politics
  • Gerald – friend of Vivian’s; homosexual
  • Harold Willard – uncle of Honora; went blind in the explosion
  • Harlan Quigley – from New York
  • Harold Hurd – mill boss
  • Honora (Willard) Beecher – newly married to Sexton
  • Ima Thurston – drunk party-goer
  • Jack Hess – store owner; has a sister named Arlene
  • John Sevens – hotel guest
  • Joshua Cutts – lives at the beach all year long
  • Lester Simms – a friend of Vivian’s
  • Louis Desjardin – friend of Aphone’s brothers
  • Madame Derocher – a cook at a boarding house
  • Marguerite – Honora’s aunt; died in childbirth
  • Marie-Therese – sister of Alphonse
  • May – found a lump in her breast and had a mastectomy
  • McAllister – Penderton millworker; drunk
  • McDermott – a twenty year old mill worker who frequents prostitutes and smokes; has an ulcer; father abandoned the family when McDermott was twelve; has a sister Eileen (19); brothers are Eamon (went to Texas) and Michael; had a girlfriend named Evangeline (redheaded weaver) who got pregnant by another man; mother died of a stroke; a little deaf; first name is Quillen but everyone calls him by his last.
  • Mironson – a man from the Trade Workers Union; from New York
  • Nat & Hunt Chadbourne – brothers who invented the ball bearing and are millionaires
  • Natalie Nye – Cedric’s wife
  • O’Reilly – millworker
  • Ouellette – millworker; has eight kids
  • Paul Tsomides – millworker; brother owns a market; injured in a raid
  • Phillip – brother of Honora; went to the McKenzie Boys School
  • Ross – has bad teeth and also works at the mill; married to Rosemary;
  • Sam Coyne – always late for school
  • Sean Rasley – works in the mill as a weaver
  • Seth – Honora’s younger brother; died in the explosion
  • Sexton – newly married to Honora; typewriter salesman; Mr. Fosdick is his boss;
  • Sister Mary Patrick – non at school
  • Schwaner – mill worker
  • Sylvia – hotel guest
  • Teddy Rice – Vivian, in a fit of rage, hit him on the ankle with a tennis racket.
  • Tilly Hatch – a friend of Vivian’s
  • Verna Willet – married to Arthur; wears sapphires instead of diamonds
  • Vivian Burton – smokes; a snob from Boston; 28 years old; birthday is in September; mother left when Vivian was eight; her father and his new wife went to vacation in Italy; has a housekeeper named Mrs. Ellis;
  • William – Honora’s father; died in the explosion

Author fact: Shreve is a New England author.

Book trivia: I didn’t realize Sea Glass is the third installment in a trilogy about Fortune’s Rocks, the fictional New Hampshire town. Pilot’s Wife and Fortune’s Rocks round out the series.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Small-Town Life” (p 203).

Prisoner’s Base

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Stout, Rex. Prisoner’s Base. Bantam Books, 1952.

Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of Stout’s birth month (December).

Prisoner’s Base begins in the month of June…on the exact date I started reading.

A woman invites herself to stay at Nero Wolfe’s townhouse. It is all very mysterious as the woman is well familiar with the layout of the place and its inhabitants, yet she does not seem to care that Wolfe is not fond of women. Nevertheless, she offers to pay $50 a night. Archie, unbeknownst to his employer, takes the woman in. Thus begins Prisoner’s Base and the story of Priscilla Eads. Wolfe callously turns Ms. Eads away deciding not to take a case she doesn’t have. Needed a place to stay is not a mystery or a crime. Hours after her dismissal Ms. E is found murdered. Anger on Archie’s part and guilt on Wolfe’s prompts Wolfe to solve her murder…for Archie’s sake. It turns out to be a complicated case. Ms. Eads had a target on her back. As the primary heir to a towel company, she stood to inherit 90% if she lived to see her thirtieth birthday. She was murdered a week shy. Any number of people stood to gain something by her demise. Was it her ex-husband who claimed he had a right to 50% of her inheritance? Was it the other company shareholders who would gain her shares if she died?

As an aside, one of my favorite moments was when Archie mentioned having apple pie with cheese. One of my favorite things in life is a slice of warm apple pie with a thick slab of cheddar cheese laid purposely on top.

As an aside, Rex Stout is proof that not every character needs to have a full name and backstory (Shreve!), especially if the reader is to never encounter that character again.

Author fact: Rex Stout’s working title for Prisoner’s Base was Dark-Base.

Music (in introduction): “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis.

Book trivia: Introduction to Prisoner’s Base was written by William L. DeAndrea.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Can You Forgive Her? Vol 2

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Trollope, Anthony. Can You Forgive Her? BiblioBazaar, 2008.

Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of Anthony Trollope’s birth month in April.

When we rejoin Alice Vavasor she is still annoyingly waffling between two men, committing to neither. One is her cousin George Vavasor, who seems to only want Alice’s hand in marriage to gain access to her money (which she gives him freely, by the way). But, George wants more. His grandfather is not dying fast enough and needing money for his seat in Parliament grows more and more desperate. When the old man finally dies, George is driven to violence and breaks his sister’s arm.
The other suitor is Mr. John Grey who seems to be if not without fault, has very little.
I was disappointed to find volume two did not move any of the relationships any closer to resolution. Alice was still oscillating between George Vavasor and John Grey to the point where to two men came to blows over the woman.
Lest us not forget Mrs. Greenow. In volume two of Can You Forgive Her? this fickle lady was still refusing Mr. Cheesacre. But, the most beautiful relationship was between Mr. Palliser and his wife. Palliser sacrificed his political career to save his marriage.

Trollope continues to amuse me with his odd character names like Mr. Scuby (pronounced Scrubby) and Cheesacre (pronounce cheese-acre).

Favorite slight: a pettifogging rascal.
Favorite quotes, “The cicatrice began to make itself very visible in his face, and the debonaire manner was fast vanishing” (p 271).

Author fact: Anthony Trollope died on December 2nd, 1882.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).

Naked and the Dead

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Mailer, Norman. Naked and the Dead. Signet Book, 1948.

Reason read: Germany surrendered on May 8th 1945. Read in honor of that historic day.

Meet General Cumming, arrogant and blundering. Gallagher is only twenty years old with a pregnant wife back home. Look out for Sergeant Croft because he is mean. Red grew up in a mining town. The idea that any man, from any walk of life, can experience the horror of war as equals.
Norman Mailer takes you inside the mind of a solider. The long nights in a foxhole keeping watch and the raging thoughts that go through a soldier’s head: paranoid about the enemy’s location, wondering about his girl back home. The twisted sense of right and wrong: a soldier can be devastated after the torture and killing of an insect, but feel nothing for doing the same to his Japanese enemy. Writing letters back home: being diplomatic about what a soldier could or could not say. Even though they were not sure what they were fighting for, a soldier could not admit that to his family. By stepping back in time before each character became a soldier was a way for Mailer to humanize his characters even further. Some escaped fatherhood by enlisting. Others needed to prove their toughness for fear of seeming too sensitive and weak as little boys.
Mailer’s attention to detail brings his reader right into the jungle fighting. The way water seeps into greased “waterproof” shoes. The way a forty pound pack gets heavier with the weight of water. What they carried and how they carried it. Obviously, Mailer speaks with experience. Heartbreakingly so.

Quotes to quote, “Dalleson was no problem; he even had potentialities for being a good man” (p 65), “In the war you keep on moving” (p 202).

Music: “Pennies From Heaven,” Tchaikovsky, “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” “I Love a Parade, the Beat of a Drum,” “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead, You Rascal,” “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” and “Roll Me Over.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “World War II Fiction” (p 252). Also, from More Book Lust in the chapter called “You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” (p 237).

Trainspotting

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Welsh, Irwin. Trainspotting. W.W. Norton & company, 1993.

Reason read: in the month of May there is a festival in Scotland called the Beltane Festival.

Gritty yet moving. Violent yet tender. Lonely yet loud. Animally human. How can anyone fully explain the phenomenon that is Trainspotting? Once you get the hang of the narrative the characters come alive. All their faults laid bare. They are disgusting and darling all at the same time. Hideous and hilarious. The black humor and absurd situations had me giggling and then glancing around to see if anyone was offended.
In the absence of a plot this is the story of addictions told from the point of view of addicts and the people who circle their periphery. To describe the kind of desperation addiction can create – when trying to find a viable vein, one character resorts to injecting their privates. Revenge is brutal. Sex is raw and callous. No one is really all that likeable until you find yourself thinking of them long after you close the book. A certain kind of magnetism…like a train wreck.

Lines I liked, “Any port in the storm, and its raging in here behind my face” (p 17) and “I wish I hadn’t waited to long to become a human being” (p 262).

Music! So much good music!: George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord,” Dire Straits’ “the Sultans of Swing,” “Billy Don’t Be a Hero,” “Save the Last Dance For Me,” “Rollin’ Down the River,” “The Wanderer,” “Jolene,” Rod Stewart, Rupert Holmes’s “Escape (the Pina Colada Song,” T’Pau “Chin In your Hand,” The Pogues, Claire Grogan’s “Don’t Talk to Me About Love,” Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control,” Lou Reed’s “Heroin,” Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me?” Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” The Smiths’s “There is a Light That Never Goes Out,” Kylie Minogue, The Velvet Underground, Nico, the Clash, Status Quo, John Cale, David Bowie’s “The Golden Years,” Elvis, Wolfe Tones’ “Banna Strand,” the Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues,” Elvis Costello, Simple Minds, James Connolly’s “Boys if the Old Brigade,” “A Scottish Soldier,” Wet, Wet, Wet, “Auld Lang Syne,” Peter Gabriel, Proclaimers’ “Sunshine on a Leash,” U2, Iggy Pop, Frank Zappa, Moon Unit Zappa, “Danny Boy,” “Roses in Picardy,” and a bunch of Neil Diamond’s sings: “Song Sung Blue,” “Forever in Blue Jeans,” “Love on the Rocks,” “Sweet Caroline,” and “Beautiful Noise.”

Pitted

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Cleary, E, M. Pitted. EverWhen Stories, 2026.

Reason: as a member of LibraryThing’s Early Review program I get to read interesting stories. This is one of them.

Mothers have complicated relationships with their daughters. At thirteen, Alice does not understand her mother at all. Left to take care of her younger brother and run the household, Alice resents her mother’s long hours as a surgeon at the hospital. She quietly keeps track of all the times her mother has offended her and looks for ways to even the score. One day she seizes her chance and defiantly eats a peach pit. Everything changes.
Thus begins E.M. Cleary’s short story, Pitted. It is a mere twenty-four pages long but packed with themes of trust and love. Every relationship needs a hero and Alice finds hers in the unlikeliest of places.
You can find more short stories at E.M. Cleary’s website.

Natalie connection: I am reminded of Natalie’s song “Tell Yourself” a song about a young thirteen year old girl struggling to come in her own. It’s a tough age to be.

Under the Beetle’s Cellar

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Walker, Mary Willis. Under the Beetle’s Cellar. Crimeline, 1996.

Reason read: Walk was born in the month of May. Read in her honor.

Eleven small children, specifically the first born in each of their families, have been taken hostage by a cult leader convinced the end of the world is coming soon. Samuel Mordecai had buried the children and their school bus driver in a bus in the ground forty five days earlier in an effort to “purify” them. When we join the story the end of the world is in five mere days and FBI negotiators are no closer to a viable rescue. They do not even know where the children are being held. As a last ditch effort, is up to reporter Molly Cates to get inside Mordecai’s head and convince him to release the children. She has interviewed him before. Molly starts with Mordecai’s adoptive grandmother to get a sense of how the woman raised this fanatic cult leader. When Molly learns Mordecai was abandoned at the edge of a high school she sees an opportunity to get further inside his head by finding his birth mother. It is a gamble, but it just might work, but can she do it in time?
Small irritation. Molly meets with a Dr. Asquith who starts off with an accent (ah = I, mah = my) but he loses that accent within one paragraph and pronounces I and my without inflection.
My other small irritation is the use of brand names like Coors, Snackwells, and McDonald’s. If a business were to become obsolete, the story would not hold up and would appear dated. Does everyone know the Snackwell brand?

Author fact: Walker died at 81 years old in 2023.

Book trivia: Under the Beetle’s Cellar is the second Molly Cates thriller. Once again, sigh, I am reading them out of order. Go figure.

Playlist: Cat Stevens’ “Morning Has Broken,” “La Bamba,” Rolling Stones, “The Wheels on the Bus,” Mick Jagger, and “100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”

Confessional: I dated someone in high school who loved Revelations 6:8. He could quote the passage about the pale horse, death and hell and did so all the time.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 117). I have to argue is this really a mystery? We know who kidnapped the children and we know why. The only mystery is will Molly Cates get Samuel Mordecai to free the children?

River Angel

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Ansay, A. Manette. River Angel. William Morrow, 1998,

Reason read: Wisconsin became a state in the month of May.

In the fictional town of Ambient is a tight-knit community. You will get to know Shawn and his son, Gabriel. Shawn’s brother, Fred, wins the prize of caring for Gabriel after Shawn skips town, leaving the chubby ten year old behind. Gabriel’s personality is restricted to the fervor of religion and the preoccupation with food. Fred’s wife, Bethany, is less than thrilled to have another male in the house. She has enough on her hands with her husband’s father, Alfred, and own two boys, Pete and Robert John from different fathers.
Then there is Lorna Pranke, the police chief’s wife. Joe Kimmeldorf, the Mader family: Ruthie, Cherish and Gwendolyn. Father Oblerling, Mr. Shuckel, John Grosshuesch, Maya Paluski, Marty, and Anna Grey Graf and Anna’s husband Bill and daughter Milly.
Ambient is an unsightly rundown town that is unashamed to bare its dirty knickers. But at the heart of is charm is an old legend about a river angel. A boy, supposedly drowned in a river ends up in a barn, looking like a sleeping angel. Anday admits River Angel is more about the community than the legend.

Confessional: I did see a similarity between the town of Ambient and my hometown. Rich people from “away” worm their way into the community and start calling the shots with their money doing all the talking. They buy their way into changing all the rules and the way of life.

The only line I liked, “…she wore red lipstick that stuck like a miracle to the complicated shape of her mouth” (p 13).

Author fact: Ansay also wrote Vinegar Hill which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: I read this book way too fast because none of the characters grew on me.

Music: Stille Nacht,” “Die Kinderlein Kommen,” “Amazing Grace,” and Pink Floyd.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Big Ten Country: the Literary Midwest (Wisconsin) (p 25).

Power Without Glory

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Hardy, Frank. Power Without Glory. Vintage Classics, 1950.

Reason read: Frank Hardy was born in March in Southern Cross, Australia. Read in his honor.

Power Without Glory is written in three parts:
Part One (1890 – 1907): The Road to Power. As John “Jack” West climbs the power ladder he learns the art of bribing the police to turn a blind eye to his illegal activities of running a gambling tote; hidden behind the front of a tea shop where no one ever bought any tea. When the shop become too hot, Jack moved his operation to a wood and coal storage yard that was surrounded by high wooden fences, barbed wire, and houses that Jack ingeniously bought for his employees. Piggy, Cauliflower Dick, One Eyed Tommy and the Ape could keep watch over the entire complex. Soon, bribery is not enough to keep Jack’s activities under wraps. He resorts to the threat of violence to keep his underlings and the authorities in line. As his “influence grows and grows it isn’t long before the idea of murder enters Jack’s mind.
Part Two (1915 – 1931): Abuse of Power. West now lives in a fancy mansion with his wife and four children. He not only controls the police but government officials as well. But it is not enough for West. He joins the Australian Imperial Forces as a soldier to gain more followers. As his power grows stronger so does his bafflement when people cannot be bought or intimidated. One such person he cannot control is his wife, much to his increasing resentment. The trouble with achieving anything is that success will have you asking what is next? Where do I go from here? When you reach the very top of success, where do you go from there?
Part Three (1935 – 1935): The Decline of Power. Everyone starts to defy John West, the once all-powerful tyrant. It begins at home with his wife and three children turning their backs on him. The betrayals are explained away as his wife betrayed him with another man and his children are willful and spoiled. As every slight grows stronger West loses his grip on power. His feared rein becomes diminished and impotent.

As an aside, this is the second book I have read in the month of April about a young man hearing the call to fight fascism in Spain. Ben Worth’s demise is no different than that of the young men in Journey to the Frontier.

Lines I liked, “tonight’s interview revived his faith in the power of the bribe” (p 67), “Power of the kind that John West was amassing – power for its take and domination over other people for the sake of domination, presupposes the ability to take reprisals” (p 117), “The more blood and hair that flew the better he enjoyed himself” (p 125).

Author fact: Frank Hardy is a sort of wonder child. He left school when he was thirteen and twenty-seven when he began a writing career.

Book trivia: Power Without Glory was originally a self-published work.

Music mentioned, “Here the Conquering Hero Comes,” “The Rose of No Man’s Land,” “Tipperary,” Beethoven, Dvorak, Fritz Kreisler, Chopin, “The Wearing of the Green,” “Liebesleid,” “O Promise Me,” and “The Internationale.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Australia, the Land of Oz – Fiction” (p 29). Confessional: I originally crossed this off my list because it is out of print and I was having a really hard time finding it. Yay for interlibrary loan!

Birds Without Wings

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De Bernieres, Louis. Birds Without Wings. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.

Reason read: In Turkey there is a day in April called Children’s Day.

De Bernieres introduces a mystery within the very first few pages of Birds Without Wings. You do not know what Ibrahim did to the beautiful Philothei. You do not know what the narrator did to his son Karatavuk except to say he/she lives in shame. Throughout Birds Without Wings the reader is introduced to a myriad of characters. The Dog – a mysterious stranger whose smile gives nightmares to children and adults alike. Mustafa Kernal – the teenager in Military Training School. Karatavuk, Mehmetak, Polyxeni, Ayse, Stamos, Snowbringer, Leech Gatherer, Tamara, Broken-Nosed, Rustern Bey, Charitos, Yusufthe Tall, among others. At the center is Philothei, betrothed since childhood to Ibrahim. Ever since childhood she has been beautiful beyond measure.
This is a story of human nature in the midst of prejudice and hate, war and relationships. Told from the perspective of a myriad of characters, Birds Without Wings is tragic and heartbreaking and beautiful all at once.
De Bernieres knows human relationships, especially marriage. I had to laugh at this situation: when a wife is unhappy with her husband he might get a little too much pepper in his food. After doing a bad thing the husband thinks I am going to get too much pepper in my food again tonight. But a husband a;ways has more power. He can put aside his wife and get a new one if he thinks she has been adulterous.
As an aside, I wish I had paid attention to all the bird references from the beginning of Birds Without Wings. There were so many! Sparrows, seagulls, ducks, doves, goldfinches, pigeons, partridges, nightingales, robins, owls, blackbirds, songbirds – they all soar (or cannot) and sing and escape cages. Of course, the ultimate little bird is the lovely Philothei who states plainly, “I have found that perfection is not enough” (p 463).

Author fact: Louis De Bernieres also wrote Corelli’s Mandolin but I am not reading it for the Challenge. Birds Without Wings is my only De Bernieres book.

Quotes to quote, “There comes a point in life where each of us who survives to feel like a ghost that has forgotten to die at the right time…” (p 3). What about this quote, “Nowadays no one would say, “I think we’ll remove all these people from their homes and send them to another country” (p 487)?!

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Digging Up the Past Through Fiction” (p 79) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Turkish Delights” (p 238) which always makes me think of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

Can you Forgive Her?

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Trollope, Anthony. Can You Forgive Her? Oxford University Press, 1900.

Reason read: Trollope’s birth month. Read in his honor.

Can You Forgive Her? is the first instalment in the Palliser or Parliamentary series and follows three parallel stories about dating and marriage. All the single women in Can You Forgive Her? are in relationships with men of varying repute. This was an era when virtual strangers could tell a person who to marry or how to live one’s life. Antiquated norms made for a humorous read.
And speaking of humor, I was surprised to find there was a little humor sprinkled throughout Can You Forgive Her? Take, for example, the description of the green room being an abomination and ugly with deformed furniture. I could picture the space and found it worth a chuckle. Or, how about this insult? “…false tongued little parasite that she was” (p 413). Beyond humor, even more surprising was the element of violence and danger when George Vavasor is caught in a robbery.
All in all, I found Alice Vavasor to be an annoying character. She was torn between marrying two different fellows and her reasoning for how she treated each of them was irksome. I don’t think I would have made it through all three volumes of Can You Forgive Her? without the occasional narration of Sage Tyrtle from Quirky Nomad. The expressive way she reads is very funny. Too bad she doesn’t read the whole thing!
As an aside, I found the fox hunt scene particularly disturbing.

Natalie connection: when Lady Glencora (?) has the conversation about age and growing old I immediately thought of Natalie. According to Lady G twenty-five years of age seems ancient. On her album, Leave Your Sleep, Natalie revised a poem by Laurence Almatedema which has the line, “When I am getting old at nearly twenty-eight or nine, I’ll buy myself a little orphan girl and bring her up as mine.”

Quotes to quote, “Alice sat silent, not knowing what to say in answer to this charge brought against her, – thinking perhaps, that the questioner would allow his question to pass without an answer” (p 218). Like Alice, I have been in that situation many a time. Here’s two more quotes that I liked, “there can be no guilt in her remembrance” (p 295) and “All is right as a trivet” (p 421). Can someone please explain what that means?

Author fact: Anthony Trollope was born on April 24th, 1815.

Book trivia: Can You Forgive Her? is in the public domain so I listened to a great deal of it on LibVox. It was narrated by a variety of readers. My favorite was the woman who would sigh loudly after each chapter she finished.
For the print trivia – I was amused by the advertisements on the inside cover: Beetham’s Glycerine and Cucumber, Cadbury Cocoa, and Ward Lock and Co.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).

Elegy for Easterly

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Gappah, Petina. Elegy for Easterly: Stories. Faber and Faber, 2009.

Reason read: Zimbabwe gained its independence in April.

The short stories:

  • At the Sound of the Last Post – Esther is attending the funeral of her philandering husband.
  • Elegy for Easterly – Martha Mupengo is pregnant has been moved into a house where a murder-suicide had occurred.
  • The Annex Shuffle
  • Something Nice From London – a brother who bled his family dry emotionally and financially is finally dead.
  • The Mupandawana Dancing Champion – who knew the man could dance until he died?
  • In the Heart of the Golden Triangle – what would you put up with to stay seated in the lap of luxury?
  • Our Man in Geneva Wins a Million Euros – a man, seeing the World Wide Web for the first time, gets caught up in its excesses.
  • The Maid From Lalapanzi
  • The Cracked, Pink Lips of Rosie’s Bridegroom – guests surmise when the bridegroom’s new wife will meet her demise.
  • My Cousin-Sister Rambanai – an Americanized daughter comes back to her homeland for her father’s funeral.
  • Aunt Juliana’s Indian – good help is hard to find.
  • the Negotiated Settlement – Sometimes a tragedy can alter the course of a marriage, for better or for worse.
  • Midnight at the Hotel California – I loved how the all-commodity broker described his job, “…if it can be bought, it can be sold, and if it can be sold, I am your man” (p 208). Did anyone else think of the movie Say Anything?

Quotes I loved, “I thought I loved him; but that was in another country” (p 8), “And we had no jam for our bread, no milk for our tea while Peter drank away our father’s inheritance in London” (p 75), “Fame is an elastic concept especially in a place like this, where we all know the smells of one another’s armpits” (p 91).

Music: Oliver Mtukudzi, Michael Jackson, Bhundu Boys, Alick Macheso, Andy Brown and the Storm, System Tazvida and the Chazezesa Challengers, Cephas Mashakada and Muddy Face, Boyz II Men, Hosiah Chipanga and the Broadway Sounds, Mai Charamba and the Fishers of Men, Simon “Chopper” Chimbetu and Orchestra Dendera Kings, Tongai “Dehwa” Moyo and Utakataka Express, Bob Marley, Chamunorwa Nebeta and the Glare Express, Lumumbashi Stars, “Bhutsu Mutandarikwa,” and the Eagles’s “Hotel California.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Zipping Through Zimbabwe/Roaming Rhodesia” (p 268).

Wake Up Dead

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Smith, Roger. Wake Up Dead. Henry Holt and Company, 2010.

Reason read: Jan van Riebeck founded Cape Town on April 6th, 1652.

The bad guys abound in Wake Up Dead. Even people you do not expect are violent, savage people who aren’t above torture, sodomy, and other nefarious activities. But that is life in South Africa’s Cape Town. Gun runners, drug fiends, gangsters, petty thieves, prostitutes, doctors who keep amputated body parts in the freezer, and just plain greedy individuals all prowl the pages of Wake Up Dead. Disco, Afrika, Piper, the cannibal, Maggot…they all have a score to settle with someone. At the center of the story is Roxanne Palmer, a beautiful American ex-model now married to a criminal. Everyone needs something from Roxy. Money her gun-running dead husband owes Billy Afrika. Piper needs Roxy to lead him to Afrika to finish a botched murder attempted when they were children. Disco thinks Roxy will lead him to a boatload of cash so he can steal to support his out of control drug habit. Throw in a serial killer lobbing off blonde heads and you have yourself a thriller. There is so much violence in Wake Up Dead I lost track of the dead, but I enjoyed Roxy’s strength. I cheered for her redemption.

As an aside, it is interesting to read about the practice of witchcraft in three books at the same time. The Cruelest Journey and Birds Without Wings have a witch presence as well.

Line I liked the best, “Nothing like hating someone to give you a reason to go on living” (p 279).

Author fact: Roger Smith had no way of knowing MySpace was not timeless.

Book trivia: This could be a movie with all of its violence, sex, drugs, and even a little romance.

Music: Celine Dion’s “The Power of Love” and “Because You Loved Me”, Barry White, Nirvana, J Lo, Britney, Three Tenors, Ludacris, Chet Baker’s “Old Devil Moon,” “Abide with Me,” Bob Dylan’s “Death is Not the End,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” Courtney Love, and “Happy Birthday.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “South Africa” (p 215). Interestingly enough, Pearl said somewhere that she didn’t like violence (maybe it was in the Lee Child chapter?), but anyway, holy cow there is a LOT of violence in Wake Up Dead. Even the everyday descriptions of things are crude and rude.