Category: Fiction

Winds of War

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Wouk, Herman. Winds of War. Simon & Schuster, 1974.

Reason read: Memorial Day is in May. Read to remember those no longer with us.
Confessional: I read most of this as an ebook. I made a lot of notes and highlighted many passages, but had to return it before I could transfer the information here.

The year is 1939 and Germany busily bullies the world into a clash that would later become the infamous World War II. The advances of Hitler into Poland and eventually England, France, and the Soviet Union indicate a man hellbent on world domination; all the while citing the “Jewish problem” as his justification and motivation. Wouk will take you on a panoramic journey through the intimate details of war. You will have a front row seat in the war room; be a voyeur in the bedroom; sit elbow to elbow in the libraries of world leaders as they speak in hushed tones about counterattacks. With a book this size (Winds of War is over one thousand pages long in paperback format), I wanted to make sure I kept track of all of the different characters. I wasn’t sure who was going to be worth remembering, real or imaginary. At the center is Berlin attaché Victor Henry (“Pug”), his glamorous but bored wife, Rhoda, and their three adult children. Winds of War begins when the parents are relocated with Germany on assignment. The three children, Byron, Warren, and Madeline are scattered across the globe. Pug desperately wants to captain a battleship but being relegated to serve as Naval attaché in Berlin has afforded him the opportunity to see the war fold out firsthand. As he gains the unusual trust of President Roosevelt he travels the world, gaining insight on future enemy tactics. Indeed, many real political powerhouses make an appearance in Winds of War.
A note about Winston Churchill: It is interesting to see how time blunts the sharp edges of an unfavorable reputation.
It is also interesting to see the varying opinions about the start of the war. Byron and his girl, Natalie, didn’t take it seriously until they were strafed in Poland and Natalie began to have troubles getting her Polish uncle out of Italy. Byron’s mother only had superficial societal concerns when Pug couldn’t accompany her to the opera. I mentioned she was the epitome of the bored housewife, didn’t I? She becomes even more cliché as the story progresses.
Separating fact from fiction: Did Hitler really have a remarkable smile?

Wouk certainly loved his women characters. As an aside, have you ever noticed that a woman’s breasts can be described with abandon (dressed or undressed), but barely (pun intended) anyone writes about the size of a man’s privates? Wouk is no different in the way he romanticizes the female body. Here are the breasts of Wouk: creamy breasts, pretty bosom, ample bosom,

Quotes to quote, “So they stood together, watching the Luftwaffe start its effort to bomb London to its knees. It was the seventh of September” (p 422).

Author fact: Wouk won a Pulitzer for The Caine Mutiny.

Book trivia: Winds of War has been made into a mini series starring Ali MacGraw and Robert Mitchum. Of course I haven’t seen it. Confessional: I confuse Ali MacGraw with Ali Sheedy.

Playlist: “The Star Spangled Banner”, Chopin, “Star Dust”, Liszt, “Deutschland Uber Alles”, “Three O’clock in the Morning”, “Horst Wessel Lied”, “Bell Bottom Trousers”, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”, “Auld Lang Syne”, “This Can’t Be Love”, Bach, Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, “There Will Always Be an England”, and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”.

Nancy said: Pearl called Winds of War good fiction.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “World War II Fiction” (p 252).

Giants in the Earth

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Rolvaag, O.E. Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie. Translated by Lincoln Colcord. Harper & Brothers, 1927.

Reason read: a celebration of spring and Minnesota became a state in May.

Volume One of Giants in the Earth was published in Norway in 1924. The second volume was published a year later. Vern Lewis Parrington (editor) wrote an introduction. Rolvaag wrote the foreword. Forty-six pages later we begin the story…Per Hansa is moving his family from Minnesota to the the Great Plains of the Dakota Territory in the hopes of putting down roots.
A lot of comments have been made about Beret and her mental illness. Her uncontrolled fear of the Midwest was justified. She was in a strange land without the comfort of true community. There was an underlying fear of Indians – fear and fascination in equal measure. I am reminded of the 10,000 Maniacs’ song, “Gold Rush Brides” written by Natalie Merchant. The lines, “The land was free and the prices was right”, and “Who were the homestead wives? Who were the gold rush brides? Does anybody know?…Accounts of madness, childbirth, loneliness, and grief” are particularly poignant. When Beret uncovers an evil secret wrongdoing her husband committed she starts to question their entire relationship. She fears that evil everywhere and her husband seems oblivious to her growing concerns. No one in the community notices her distress until it is beyond breaking. They even make fun of her nonsense. Were they distracted by opportunity? Were they preoccupied with adversities such as the strain of long, harsh winters and plagues of locusts in the summers? Did they want to slough off their old world identities identities in the new world by choosing new names? The question becomes how does one honor traditions of Norway while forging a new existence in America?

Quote to quote, “But it was easier to warm his body than thaw his soul” (p 277).

Author fact: Rolvaag was born in 1876 on the island of Donna almost in the Arctic Circle.

Book trivia: The title comes from a Bible quote.

Nancy said: Pearl said Giants of the Earth is one of the earliest sagas written about the immigrant experience (More Book Lust p 123).

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Immigrant Experience” (p 123).

The Odd Women

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Gissing, George. The Odd Women. Stein and Day, 1968.

Reason read: Read in honor of Mother’s Day.

Society is the name of the game in The Odd Women. Think Victorian and you have The Odd Women in a nutshell. It is all about the sociable attitude and the intelligent female society: women live in shame if they do not marry a man who has a sense of honor (and carries gloves and a walking stick). There is a subtle analysis of the institution of marriage.
As an aside, I found myself getting increasingly annoyed by Edmund Widdowson’s behavior when he would not allow Monica to see her friend Milly alone. By the time he consented to let her see her friend for just an hour I was seething. Edmund insists on them always being together and criticizes her friends. It reminded me of the classic behavior of an abuser: alienating one from their friends and family, always wanting to be together, the possessiveness that turns rageful (my word). Meanwhile, there is Everard Barfoot and Rhoda. Rhoda fears that marriage would interfere with the best parts of her life. All in all, I did not care for Gissing’s barely veiled attitudes towards women’s love of fashion and gossip.

Lines I liked, “If I could move your feelings, (p 29), and “Not a word reached her understanding” (p 30), and “I would go any distance to see you and speak with you for only a few minutes” (p 67). That last line, while incredibly romantic, is also very telling.

Author fact: George Gissing helped a prostitute while he held a teaching position. He was later fired for the act, but he married the lady of the night.

Book trivia: the introduction to The Odd Women was written by Frank Swinnerton.

Playlist: “The Blue Bells of Scotland” and Schubert.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 62).

Odd Woman

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Godwin, Gail. The Odd Woman. Ballantine Books, 1974.

Reason read: I needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading challenge in the category of a book that takes place in the Midwest. The Odd Woman opens in a midwestern town. This is also a companion read for another book I am reading in honor of Mother’s Day.

On the outside, Jane Clifford has everything going for her. She is a respected professor, teaching Women in Literature (the British section) at a Midwestern college, but secretly Jane is a neurotic mess. She lives vicariously through the beloved characters of literature; every character is either a friend or a mentor or a villain. She gets all of her advice from these imaginary people. Poor Jane doesn’t know how to relate to people in the real world, especially her own mother. The death of her stylish grandmother sends Jane down upsetting memory lanes especially when she returns to her childhood home for the funeral.
To make matters worse, Jane’s love life revolves around a married man who has no plans to leave his wife. Gabriel patronizes Jane by being controlling and condescending and like a good girl, she puts up with it. He gently admonishes and corrects and chides. Pay attention to the language Godwin uses about Gabriel and his hands. He is always “trapping” Jane’s hand in his own. He holds all the cards because he is the married one.
In the end I didn’t know whether to cheer on Jane or cry for her.

Quotes that had me thinking for days, “If Jane Austen were putting me in a novel, how would she define me?” (p 27), and “Jane, face it: we are all just basically neurotic creatures trying to get through our days and nights” (p 46).

Author fact: Gail Godwin reported for the Miami Herald.

Book trivia: The Odd Woman is a bit dated. Written when flying meant you could sit wherever you wanted and planes had magazine racks.

Playlist: Mozart, Al Martino’s “Here in My Heart”, Glenn Miller’s “Little Brown Jug”, The Ink Spots’ “If I Didn’t Care”, and Nat King Cole’s “Somewhere Along the Way”.

Nancy said: Not only did Pearl suggest reading The Odd Women and The Odd Woman together as “companion reads, Godwin practically insisted upon it as well, albeit in a much more subtle manner. I found it a disappointment to do so. In The Odd Woman Godwin revealed a spoiler in The Odd Women that I wasn’t prepared to absorb. I did not want to know Monica died.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 62) because Jane in Odd Woman is using George Gissing’s Odd Women in her Women in Literature class. Also in the chapter called “Mothers and Daughters” (p 159).

Small House at Allington

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Trollope, Anthony. Small House at Allington. Illustrated by John Everett Millais. Robert Hays, LTD Rosebury House, Breams Buildings, E.C.4. 1925.

Reason read: Trollope’s birthday is in April. Read in his honor.

Here is an ah-ha moment for you: you cannot have a small house without the presence of a big house. Here is another: croquet is best played by the light of the moon.
Trollope is a bit like my mother when she hasn’t talked to another living soul in over three months. Her main story takes forever to tell because she is sidetracked with subplots and tangled details. She goes down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, all the while getting more bogged down by superfluous minute he-said, she-said that have nothing to do with the point of the story. Trollope’s side stories in Small House at Allington have nothing to do with the main plot and are mostly ignored by reviewers. Some would argue Trollope is masterfully setting up his next series by introducing minor characters like Plantagenet Palliser and Lady Glenora (Duke and Duchess of Omnium) as they will be focal to the Palliser Series. But I digress.
The basic plot of Small House at Allington is one of relationships and a society full of gossips. Lillian (Lily) and Isabella (Bell) Dale are sisters with different successes in romance. Bell marries the local doctor while Lily falls for Adolphus Crosbie. Crosbie only cares about social status and when a more prosperous match comes along he leaves Lily. Enter Johnny Eames, the childhood friend with a secret crush on Lily. His outrage over Lily’s abandonment prompts him to violently attack Crosbie when their paths cross. Despite this show of valiant devotion, Lily proclaims her everlasting love for Crosbie and cannot be swayed.

Here is a master description of someone’s face: “…face was destroyed by a mean mouth with thin lips” (p 4). Can’t you just see it?

Author fact: many people believe Trollope modeled Johnny Eames after himself.

Book trivia: Small House at Allington was originally published as a serial from September 1962 to April 1864.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 20).

Easter Parade

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Yates, Richard. Easter Parade. Delacorte Press, 1976.

Reason read: Richard Yates was mentioned in More Book Lust in the siblings chapter for The Easter Parade and April is National Siblings Month. Also, Easter is traditionally in April. A couple of reasons for reading Easter Parade in April.

Easter Parade is an easy read about two sisters and their very different lives. Sarah Grimes marries quickly and has three children while Emily Grimes focuses on her career. Neither has a happy existence as each sister is deeply flawed. Easter Parade has been described as Yates’s most autobiographical novel. Many, if not all, of the characters are loosely based in real people in Yates’s lifetime. For some individuals, the veil that separates fiction from reality is spider web thin and they are easily identifiable. Many other details are just as transparent; right down to the name of the house on Long Island.
It has been determined through other documentation that Richard had based the character of Emily on himself. Interesting. I say interesting because I found Emily to be a sad and lonely woman. She bounced from one meaningless sexual encounter to another. Her relationships are shallow and fleeting because she is miserable at picking men or keeping friendships. At times I wanted her to find love while other times I was annoyed by her shrill personality.

As an aside, I want to know if Irving Berlin say his greatest fear is to reach for something and it isn’t going to be there? That is such a profound image. What do you take for granted? A favorite pen? An old lover? What will you reach for and discover its absence?

Favorite phrase, “…the room exploded into clarity” (p 150).

Author fact: Yates also wrote Revolutionary Road. I hope to be reading that in a few years.

Book trivia: Easter Parade addresses uncomfortable topics such as domestic violence, erectile dysfunction, alcoholism, and even hints at incest.

Setlist: “All the Things You Are”, “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”, “Bye Bye Love”, Chopin, Everly Brothers, “Look for the Silver Lining”, Sinatra, “Welcome, Sweet Springtime”, and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”.

Nancy said: Pearl called Easter Parade “perfection” and a book to be read with Off Keck Road by Mona Simpson and Our Kind by Kate Walbert. Confessional: I have already read Simpson so I will have to go back and read the review.

BookLust Twist: only from More Book Lust but mentioned quite a few times. First, in the chapter called “Literary Lives: the Americans” (p 145), then in the chapter called “Men Channeling Women” (p 166). Also mentioned in the chapter simply called “Sibs” (p 199). Lastly, The Easter Parade is included in “Two, or Three, are Better Than One” (p 226). Four times in one book! I think Pearl liked this one.

I Know This Much Is True

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Lamb, Wally. I Know This Much Is True. HarperCollins, 1998.

Reason read: March is considered Family Month. Brothers are family. Read in honor of brothers everywhere.

Thomas and Dominic. Identical twins.
Dominic’s life reminded me of a country song. You know the ones where anything that could go wrong eventually does. Consider: Dominic spent his entire life worrying about three things. One, who was his father? By not knowing his father Dominic feels he does not know himself. As a child he dreamed of his biological father and fantasized about the day this mystery man would swoop in and save him and Thomas from their abusive stepfather, Ray. Two, Dominic was convinced his mother loved his brother more. Maybe she really did because of Thomas’s mental illness. On her deathbed she makes Dominic promise to look after Thomas, all the while refusing to reveal the true identity of their father. Three, Thomas’s mental illness could be hereditary and sooner or later Dominic would inherit his brother’s schizophrenia. Was he just as crazy as his brother and just not know it? All of these worries weigh on Dominic as he tries to cope. In giving up his own life to fulfill the promise he made to his mother his marriage falls apart and he quit his job as a history teacher (ironically, it is history that sets him free).
In order for this story to be successful the reader needed to be grounded in the current events of the time, otherwise Thomas’s internal angst doesn’t make sense. Eric Clapton’s son falling from a window. Desert Storm. The beating of Rodney King. The world on fire. In addition to these unsettling times, Lamb throws in some equally difficult subjects like racism, AIDS, post traumatic stress suffered by veterans, diabetes, and of course, the complicated system of treating mental health.
I deeply love flawed characters; ones who find a way to change just enough that by the end of the book they are going to be okay, even if it is only somewhat okay. They haven’t gone from devil to angel but their lives are not the disaster they once were.

As another aside, the next time I am feeling threatened by anyone I think I want to try Dominic’s trick of protection – look your tormentor directly in the eye without flinching.

Author fact: Lamb also wrote She’s Come Undone, another fantastic book.

Book trivia: this is a reread for me. I remember being intimidated by the number of pages. Some things never change.

Playlist: Aerosmith, “Age of Aquarius”, Beatles, “Beautiful Dreamer”, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley’s “One Love”, “Cool Jerk”, “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hunka Hunka Burning Love” by Elvis, Eric Clapton, “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”, “Good Lovin'”, “Happy Birthday”, “Hot Diggity Dog Diggity”, “I Shot the Sherriff”, Indigo Girls, John Lennon’s “Instant Karma”, “Marzy Doats” The Monkees, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, “Night Moves”, “Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown”, Olivia Newton-John, Question Mark and the Mysterians’s “Ninety-Six Tears”, Rolling Stones, Sam the Sham and the Pharaoh’s “Wooly Bully”, “The Boys are Back in Town”, “Three blind Mice”, Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”, Verdi, “Wild Thing”, Willie Nelson’s “Heartland”, and Yanni.

Nancy said: Pearl called I Know This Much Is True an interesting portrait of therapists. She said more than that but you should check out Book Lust or More Book Lust for more.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Shrinks and Shrinkees” (p 221). Also from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Oh! Brother” (p 180).

Turtle Moon

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Hoffman, Alice. Turtle Moon. Berkley Trade, 1997.

Reason read: Alice Hoffman was born in the month of March. Read in her honor.

In a nutshell: a woman runs away from her abusive husband, taking her infant daughter to Florida. It is not a spoiler alert to say she doesn’t stay hidden for long and winds up dead. The daughter goes missing. Another woman in the same apartment complex has a surly son who has also gone missing. Police think this is not a coincidence. Now mom needs to find the identity of the murdered woman, find the missing baby, and clear her son’s name in the process. The magical realism in this story is an angel sitting up in a tree. This other-worldly figure of bright light doesn’t factor into the story all that much. As an aside (albeit a snarky one), another element of magical realism could be the jetlag Lucy claims to experience traveling from Florida to New York…which are in the same time zone.

Confessional: I am a stickler for human nature that makes sense. I didn’t get Julian Cash at all. I got Lucy Rosen even less. I’ll tackle Julian first. As a former foster kid, Julian is riddled by guilt over a car accident he survived, but his cousin did not. Hence the angel in the tree. Julian is now a K9 cop with very little to say. The chip on his shoulder is the size of a boulder. He has so many issues that he is described like an exaggerated caricature. As mentioned before, a young mother has been murdered and her under-two-year-old baby has gone missing. It’s up to Julian and his vicious dogs to find the infant. Except, Julian falls for Lucy and decides he needs to drive her car from Florida to New York. And speaking of Lucy. Her angsty son has been fingered for the crime so she figures the only way to clear his name is to find the real killer. She doesn’t know the baby-mama’s name but what a coincidence! She was married to someone Lucy went to high school with in upstate New York! The story really started to fall apart when Lucy traced her Florida neighbor back to her hometown because I didn’t care for Lucy’s treatment of her ex-husband, Evan. Evan has moved on and is even dating someone new, yet Lucy doesn’t see anything wrong with 1) staying with Evan, 2) borrowing his car (because remember, she left hers in Florida), 3) making Evan take her to their high school reunion (?!) even though he had plans to take the girlfriend), and 4) inviting Julian into Evan’s home to take a shower and have breakfast.

Lines I liked: none. I cannot quote without permission.

Author fact: I have officially finished the Hoffman collection within the Challenge: Blue Diary, Illumination Night, White Horses, and The Drowning Season join Turtle Moon on the finished shelf.

Playlist: Guns N’ Roses, and Vic Damone.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “A…is For Alice” (p 1).

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All

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Gurganus, Allan. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Ivy Books, 1989.

Reason read: There is a day in March called “Hug a G.I. Day”. I don’t remember where I read that, but that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Do not be intimidated by the length of this book. Miss Lucille Marsden will keep you entertained through every single page. Even when she is telling you about the horrors of war, she will keep you riveted every paragraph. Even when the story is not from her point of view, she will have you glued to the sentences. Within Lucy’s monologue Gurganus lays out the entire southern society from before the Civil War up to the mid-1980s when Lucy is almost one hundred years old. History breathes in and out with every colorful sentence; from the recognition of Baby Africa and every aspect of owning another human being to life in a nursing home.
Lucy herself is a treat. Married at a mere fifteen years old, she saw the world with a sensitivity and sweetness. She cared about where people came from (Castalia from Africa) or how displaced a foreigner can feel (Wong Chow from China). Even though her husband was in his fifties when they married, Lucy became a baby factory having nine children in eleven years. Her marriage was painful as her husband could be very abusive. Sleeping with a hatchet was not out of the question for Lucy. But I digress. Take your time with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Know that every character serves a purpose at the moment of introduction but may not need remembering a hundred pages later.
Confessional: I was not sure I knew what to make of William Marsden. His story jumped around quite a bit. In the beginning I thought it was poignant how Captain Marsden mourned the loss of a childhood friend more than his love for his own children. Death has a funny way of elevating one’s stature to martyrdom.

As an aside, Lucille never says the word clock. She always refers to Seth Thomas like it is an unspoken prized possession.

Line I liked, “We all need to stay a little mad” (p 15). Amen. Here’s another, “You force exposed words to spell what you want” (p 133). And another, “Fear can be the start of the truest love” (p 468).

Author fact: the only other book I am reading by Mr. Gurgangus is Plays Well with Others.

Book trivia: each chapter of The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All begins with a quote from the Bible.

Playlist: “Aida”, Bizet, Debussy, “Dixie”, “Frozen Charlotte”, Gounod, Handel, “He was Despised”, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”, “Last Rose of Summer”, “A mighty Fortress is Our God”, “The Old Reb”, “Royal Fireworks”, “Sheep May Safely Graze”, “Sherman’s Barbequeing Mother”, “The Shoe Fits”, Stephen Foster, the Supremes, “The Tailor and the Leg”, Wagner, “When the Colors Change” “Who’s Sorry Now”, “Work for the night is Coming”, and “Yankee Doodle Dandy”.

Nancy said: Pearl called Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All “pure gold” (Book Lust p 12).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “And the Award for Best Title Goes To…” (p 12). Pearl could have included Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All in the chapter called “Men Channeling Women” as well.

Ballad of the Sad Cafe

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McCullers, Carson. The Complete Novels: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Literary Classics of the United States, 2001.

Reason read: the infamous fight between Miss Amelia and Marvin Macy occurred on Groundhog Day, my birthday.

The question of nurture versus nature. Every major character with The Ballad of the Sad Cafe has a tendency to instigate and agitate. Everyone stirs up trouble in one way or another. Did the impulse to do this come from something nefarious in childhood or were they born to rattle cages from the very beginning? Miss Amelia Evans is a person who, if she didn’t completely understand a situation well enough to have an opinion about it, ignored it completely. Cousin Lymon is a southern Iago, prone to stirring things up with cruel intentions. When Marvin Macy comes to town it is like two criminals recognizing themselves in total strangers; they are kindred spirits, born to raise hell as a team.
Confessional: Everything about the story was sad. I think that was because you didn’t really know why everyone was so uncaring and cruel.

Author fact: McCullers was always in poor health. She ended up passing away at the age of fifty.

Book trivia: Ballad of the Sad Café was reimagined an a film in 1991 starring Vanessa Redgrave.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the simple chapter called “Southern Fiction” (p 222).

Long Finish

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Dibdin, Michael. A Long Finish. Pantheon Books, 1998.

Reason read: Dibdin was born in March. Read in his honor.

Do you like wine or truffles? This is a murder mystery centered around both delicacies in Alba, a small hill town in northern Italy. Aurelio Zen has been sent from the big city of Rome to aid in an unusual case. Instead of finding the real killer, he is to clear the name of a winemaker accused of (and jailed for) killing his father. Only when Zen gets to Alba, the murder case of Also Vincenzo is “solved” without his contribution or nosey interference. Strange. When the authorities try to rush him out of town he grows even more suspicious and decides to stick around. The town intrigues him and he is no hurry to leave. It becomes even more mysterious when subsequently two more people die. One by suicide and one by accident…or so it seems.
The more I read about Zen the more I remembered his character from Cosi Fan Tutti. He is still a very complicated man. He is prone to sleepwalking to the point of serious injury. When he starts receiving strange calls he doesn’t know about phone devices that can disguise voices. As a police officer, this detail surprised me. He has the ability to become unglued at a moment’s notice. An act or truth, I could not tell. He might have fathered a child out of wedlock. He doesn’t always have the best intentions but other times he will surprise you.

What exactly is a “powerful but lazy wind” (p 155)?

Author fact: Dibdin passed away in 2007.

Book trivia: Long Finish is the sixth book in the Aurelio Zen series.

Playlist: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Ciao, Italia!” (p 46).

Mr. Darwin’s Shooter

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McDonald, Roger. Mr. Darwin’s Shooter. Random House, 1998.

Reason read: Charles Darwin was born in February. Read in his honor.

Meet Syms Covington. Raised in Bedford and by the age of thirteen, left home and went to sea. This is no ordinary boy. Grown to reach six feet tall, Syms looked like a man. By fifteen years of age he was in the service of Charles Darwin as his hunter and collector about the HMS Beagle. In later years, Covington grapples with his religious beliefs which are in direct conflict with Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
Confessional: reading Mr. Darwin’s Shooter was like walking down a gravel road barefoot. Much of my effort was spent gingerly picking through the sentences, hoping to land on ones more comfortable and less complicated. McDonald chose to cram a lot of sharp edges into his short book. The running commentary on 19th century culture and society was important to keep the reader grounded in the time period, but ended up ensnaring and slogging the plot. Here is how I know I book will not hold my interest – I can’t remember what was happening when I left off reading. I don’t remember the last character on the page or what they did or said. Darwin isn’t even introduced until nearly 150 pages in.

Here is the most perfect line to describe anticipation, “A story tingled his arms to the fingertips and shook his shanks down to his toes with anxiety and restlessness” (p 8). Brilliant.

Author fact: Other reviewers have hinted at comparisons between McDonald and Stevenson, Melville, and Doctorow.

Playlist: Barley Mow, To Be a Pilgrim, A View to a Kill, Old Greensleeves, and A-Hunting We Will Go.

Nancy said: Pearl thinks Mr. Darwin’s Shooter is remarkable.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Galloping Through the Galapagos” (p 88).

Sugaring Off

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French, Gillian. Sugaring Off. Algonquin, 2022.

Reason read: I needed a book for the Portland Public Library 2024 Reading Challenge and was struggling to find something from the North Star Award nominee list. I am nowhere near being a young adult. Sometimes I wonder if I ever qualify as adult, but that is a whole other story. I found this book and decided it fit.

The backstory: Joel Dotrice was arrested ten years ago for fracturing his daughter’s skull when she was seven years old. Imagine this – he threw her down the stairs. On purpose. Partially deaf ever since, Rochelle “Owl” Dotrice has lived with her uncle and his wife. They own a maple sugaring farm in the mountains of northern New Hampshire and life seems pretty routine…until the Dotrice family gets notice that dad has made parole and Seth hires a teen named Cody to help with the sugaring.
Whether French was intentional or not, in the beginning of Sugaring Off I felt the story of Owl moved slowly, like cold sap moving through the trunk of a maple tree. As the story heated up, like sap to syrup, it began to flow faster with more flavor and intensity. Having said that, I am not a fan of overly dramatic descriptions of characters or plots. I feel they are ploys to get the reader crack open the book. The inside cover of Sugaring Off describes Cody as “magnetic and dangerous.” Spoiler alert! For the first two thirds of the book Cody is a sullen and silent cigarette-smoking teen who wants nothing more than to stay away from adults and maybe take Owl’s virginity. Oh yeah, she’s attracted to him, too. The real threat seemed to be daddy making parole. Would he come back for revenge? It was Owl’s testimony that put him away.
As an aside, I understand why the parole of Owl’s father was pivotal to the plot, but I felt it was unnecessary trickery in the face of Cody’s mystique. More could have been done to build up Cody’s “dangerous” character because Seth’s outrage about Owl’s relationship with the teen was misplaced. If Seth thought Cody was such a threat, why did he let Owl work so closely with him? What happened to big bad dad? He drifted out of the story as more of Cody’s dark past was revealed. This was written for teens and so I thought like a teen and questioned everything.

Darkest England

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Hope, Christopher. Darkest England. MacMillan, 1996.

Reason read: Hope was born in February. Read in his honor.

In the darkness of the great unknown lies the expectancy of necessary exploration; the desire to fill the void with answers to questions not yet asked. This is the mystery of David Mungo Booi, the orphan child who survived a fire as an infant. He has gone to seek help from the Queen of England to find suitable land for his tribe’s expansion. Booi has subsequently disappeared. His journals are all that is left. They are returned to the tribe in a brown suitcase carried by a white woman in a blue hat.
What became of the boy after his entire family was burned to death? Where can one find the King of Bongo-Bongo-Land? What is the true color of ostrich bile? Could a settlement in England be established? Can Humpty-Bloody-Dumpty be put back together again? What is the answer to cultural identity if there is only muscular gloom? The belief that if you had been to Cape Town you knew the ways of the world. What is the Great Paper? Does Old Auntie with Diamonds in Her Hair know the truth? Speaking of truth, I wanted to laugh more when reading Darkest England. I wanted the satire to be bitingly funny. Instead I found it to be more dark than snark. In hindsight, the prison scene was kind of funny. Steel bracelets around ones wrist, being taken from one place to another in a “courtesy” vehicle, the stark “apartment”, having a toilet next to the bed was a luxury, and best of all, the devotion to privacy – all doors locked behind us.
The ability to speak English was a well-treasured accomplishment of our narrator, Booi. He repeats often that he is the only English speaking individual among the tribe and he is self-taught.

Maybe if I had bonded with any character it would have made a difference. I’m not sure I liked anyone even a little bit.
Phrases I loved, “for crying in a bucket”,

Author fact: While Hope has written a bunch of other stuff, this is the only thing I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: I am not allowed to quote paragraphs from Darkest England.

Nancy said: Pearl called Darkest England a lighthearted satire. See if you agree.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “South African Fiction” (p 216).

World at Night

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Furst, Alan. World at Night. Random House, 1996.

Reason read: Furst was born in February. Read in his honor.

We begin The World at Night on the 10th of May in 1940 before dawn. Jean-Claude Casson, film producer of forty-two years of age, is in bed with his assistant, Gabriella Vico. The phone rings…it’s Casson’s wife. Marie-Claire wants to talk about the dinner party she and Jean-Claude are throwing that night. Does this not sound like the start to a torrid romance novel? Far from it (although there is passion within the pages)! By the end of the first chapter Casson has received a telegram recalling him back to active duty. The Germans are on the move and will occupy France shortly. Without warning Corporal Casson is pulled into a completely different life and, after three months when he returns home to Paris, the old life he left behind has completely vanished. As a movie producer he needs a way to stay useful in the eyes of the enemy. What can he do to earn a living during the German occupation? Somehow, in some way, this line of work makes him the perfect recruit for espionage. The only convincing he would need would be political. Which side are you on, boy? This question becomes pertinent when a simple lie traps Jean-Claude. He realizes no one is one hundred percent evil or one hundred percent good which makes the danger all that more a stark reality. You don’t know of whom you should stay clear or who you can trust.
If you are looking for a spy thriller with lots of violence, The World at Night is not for you. The dangers are subtle and barely suggested. Instead, Furst is a master of detail. From fashion and the automobiles to the food and drink and music, the culture of Paris lives and breathes alongside its society. Furst’s imagery is perfection: what do you picture when he describes a young woman as having “hen-strangler hands”? Furst takes you into 1940s Paris with love. A commentary on authenticity. I believe authenticity comes from the ability to faithfully mimic primary sources; the ability to take first-hand accounts and recreate them exactly. Once you see faithful details repeated you assume a truthful interpretation. Such is The World at Night.
Speaking of characters and love, I could not help but fall in love with Jean-Claude Casson. His mature passion for beautiful women and the way he makes each one feel as though she were the only one in his life…sigh. When he finally settles on one particular woman you root for them to be together.

As an aside, when Casson had to turn in his automobile I needed to look up the Simca 302. I found it is a sexy looking car. Perfect for Casson. Then there was the German Horch 853. Can you imagine that thing bombing down the road today? What about the Citroen Traction Avant?
Another aside, did Furst name his book after Christopher Isherwood’s The World in the Evening?

Line I loved, “It was like being hugged by a wine-soaked onion” (p 161).

Author fact: Furst has been compared to Graham Greene, John le Carre, Somerset Maugham, Flaubert, and Balzac.

Book trivia: my copy of World at Night included a segment on the research Furst conducted to write an accurate account of Paris during the early stages of World War II. It also included a list of suggested reading. I found it curious that even though I am reading some of the same authors Furst recommended (Isherwood and Gilbert), I am not reading the exact titles.

Setlist: Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, Beethoven, “Begin the Beguine” (as an aside, I can remember my father telling me this was my grandmother’s favorite song), “Body and Soul”. Johnny Hess, “Marseillaise”, “Mood Indigo”, Stephane Grappelli, and “Time on My Hands”.

Nancy said: Pearl describes the plot better than some reviews I have read.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “We’ll Always Have Paris” (p 255).