Tag: Fiction

Thing About My Uncle

gr4c5Leave a comment

Stavros, Peter J. The Thing About My Uncle. BHC Press, 2024.

Reason read: Occasionally I am asked to review books for LibraryThing’s very cool Early Review program. This is one such book.

I don’t know as if I believe the fourteen year old narrator. What kid uses the words forthwith or flummoxed or nary? Sometimes Rhett is an adult looking back and sometimes he is a teenager in the here and now. In the beginning I was put off by the tired-seeming plot: teenage kid always in trouble (but secretly a good, albeit misunderstood, kid). You know the kind who desperately need straightening out, but really don’t. Mom is at her wits end so sends said kid (Rhett) to a gruff, tattooed, loner family member who has mysteries of his own. He lives disconnected from society with barely any internet or television to entertain a teenager. Only there is no mystery to Uncle Theo. What you see is what you get. Three nights in a row he serves up wild “game” his hunting buddies gave him in exchange for “produce” from his extensive garden. Don’t go into the garden; do not go into the garden Uncle Theo tells Rhett. Gee, I wonder what Theo is growing? As a book for young adults, I suspect the plot will be just as transparent for them as well. You know that Theo’s secrets are going to be revealed in a dramatic way. You know Rhett is going to love being in the country. What you don’t know is how they will get from point A to point B. Well worth the read.

My only complaint: Rhett goes on and on about his mom’s famous tuna melt dinner. When Rhett wants to surprise his uncle with this meal a whole drama unfolds but Rhett still manages to make the dish…and in the end nothing is said about it. Yes, the events leading up to the tuna melt overshadow the actual meal. I get that. Realistically, Rhett could have skipped making the tuna melt after all that drama.

Book trivia: the cover of The Thing About My Uncle is beautiful.

Dead Man’s Walk

gr4c5Leave a comment

McMurtry, Larry. Dead Man’s Walk. Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Reason read: McMurtry celebrates a birthday in June. Read in his honor.

As a prequel to Lonesome Dove, this is the reader’s first introduction to Call and Gus and their budding friendship. Together they join an expedition from Texas to New Mexico. They, along with 200 other men, cross a landscape fraught with danger at every turn. Apache and Comanche natives that could steal a captain’s horse or thirty without a sound; slit your throat without disturbing a single sleeping comrade. Mexican armies trying to defend “their land” from the Texans. Hunger and thirst at every mile. There are so many ways to die: falling over a cliff, drowning in a river, bleeding to death as a result of a scalping or throat cutting, arrow or lance through the heart, hanging, burning, whipping, suicide, starvation, freezing, exhaustion, thirst, firing squad, crushed by a horse, snake bite, spider bite, suicide, being run down by a buffalo, or gored by a bear. Things turn from bad to worse when the Rangers are captured and forced into a dead man’s walk across the desert in leg irons. Be forewarned – only a few will survive.
Please keep in mind, Dead Man’s Walk was published in 1995 and takes place years before one needed to be politically correct. In the spirit of authenticity of the era, one will have to endure racism and sexism on multiple levels. In contrast, McMurtry several times acknowledges native ownership of the land Call and Gus travel.
The opening line of Dead Man’s Walk reminded me of a line from Josh Ritter’s song “Myrna Loy” for she had a wolf pup at her heels and a snow white rabbit huddled in her arms. It wasn’t a 200lb prostitute carrying a snapping turtle by the tail…but close.

Book trivia: Dead Man’s Walk is a prequel to Lonesome Dove. Someone mentioned that if you read Lonesome Dove before Dead Man’s Walk you figure out who survives in Dead Man’s Walk.

Author fact: I am reading seven books by McMurtry.

Setlist: “Barbara Allen”, “Buffalo Gals”, and Verdi’s Nabucco.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Western Fiction” (p 240).

Wild Sheep Chase

gr4c5Leave a comment

Murakami, Haruki. A Wild Sheep Chase. Vintage International, 1989.

Reason read: in early June the running community celebrates a national run day. Murakami is an experience marathoner. To celebrate running and Murakami’s athleticism, I am reading A Wild Sheep Chase.

Hidden in the midst of The Wild Sheep Chase are mysteries. Early on, the nameless narrator receives a letter from someone he didn’t want to think about. He throws the letter away without opening it. As the reader, are we supposed to remember this letter? Is it important later on? I’m thinking it must be or it wouldn’t have been presented in such a way. Right? Wrong assumption. This nameless protagonist has been issued a threat – find a unique sheep with a star on its back or else. The blackmail is terrifying in an unspecific way. Get use to the vagueness of A Wild Sheep Chase. No one has a proper name. Not the narrator, ex-wife, girlfriend, business partner, or even the strange man dressed in a sheep suit.
The entire time I was reading A Wild Sheep Chase I thought it could be a video game…either that or a fever dream. You find yourself questioning chaos versus mediocrity. The negating of cognition. Part I begins in November of 1970. This date is important but you won’t realize it until long after you’ve closed the book. Like I said, fever dream.

As an aside, I was struck by this line, “…an epidemic could have swept the world…” (p 307). It was published 31 years before Covid-19 blanketed the entire world with its deadly power. Here is another line I liked, “No matter how much speed we put on there was no escaping boredom” (p 100).

Author fact: Murakami won the Norma Literary Newcomer’s Prize for A Wild Sheep Chase.

Book trivia: A Wild Sheep Chase is part of a trilogy called The Trilogy of the Rat. I am not reading the other books in this trilogy.

Setlist: Bach, the Beach Boys, Beatles, Beethoven, Benny Goodman’s “Air Mail Special”, Bill Withers, Boz Scags, Brothers Johnson, the Byrds, Chopin, Deep Purple, the Doors, “Johnny B Goode”, Johnny River’s “Midnight Special”, Maynard Ferguson, Moody Blues, Mozart, Nat King Cole, Paul McCartney, Percy Faith Orchestra’s “Perfidia”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, the Rolling Stones, “Secret Agent Man”, “Star Wars”, and “White Christmas”.

BookLust Twist: First from Book Lust twice in the chapters “Japanese Fiction (p 131) and “Post Modern Condition” (p 190). Also in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Japanese Journeys” (p 117). I see this BLTG addition as a cheat.

Easy Way Out

gr4c5Leave a comment

McCauley, Stephen. The Easy Way Out. Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Reason read: McCauley celebrates a birthday in June and it’s Pride month. What better way to honor both occasions than by reading The Easy Way Out?

Patrick O’Neil has been called the anti-hero and I have to admit, when I read that I thought of Taylor Swift (I love that song…only Dermot Kennedy’s version). Patrick is not exactly the best lover to his partner, Arthur. He isn’t the best brother to Ryan and Tony either. He is an even worse travel agent. How he manages his relationships, both personal and professional, is a conundrum. In all honesty, I didn’t like any of the characters well, except Sharon. Everyone was someone who took the easy way out (hence the title of the book). Am I supposed to applaud Patrick for finally not compromising his feelings? The way he did it wasn’t admirable either.
As someone who took the easy way out because I thought I knew what I wanted, I have learned that life isn’t always lived in regret. I do have my moments of oops, but for the most part I do have my share of gratitude for the mistakes I’ve made and how it all turned out.

As an aside, did anyone else notice the multiple comments about global warning?

Lines I liked, “I sometimes worried that he might suddenly disappear, especially when I’d been spending a lot of time fantasizing about leaving him” (p 19) and “I was in that oddly euphoric state that accompanies fasting, sleep deprivation and natural disasters” (p 281).

Book trivia: I could easily see this as a movie.

Author fact: I have three MCauley books to read. Man of the House and Object of My Affection are next.

Setlist: “Ill Wind”, “Put the Blame on Mame”, “MoonSlide”, “The Shadow of Your Smile”, Richard Tauber, Ben Webster, Mozart, La Traviata, “Surrey with the Fringe on Top”, “Hello Dolly”, Uccini, and “La Vie en Rose”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in two different chapters. First, in “Gay and Lesbian Fiction: Out of the Closet” (p 93) and again a few chapters later in “My Own Private DUI” (p 165).

War and Remembrance

gr4c5Leave a comment

Wouk, Herman. War and Remembrance: Vol. 1. Little, Brown and Company, 1978.

Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of Memorial Day in May.

War and Remembrance: Vol 1 covers the Americans at war from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and even though it picks up where Winds of War left off, Wouk assures his reader that War and Remembrance can be read independently of Winds of War. I disagree to a certain degree. In Winds of War we have gotten to know the Henry family very well. You can’t help but get tangled in their lives. There is something about this passionate family! We have followed their adventures in love and war. Torrid affairs and wild ambitions have led each family member through various trials and tribulations. We rejoin Victor as he struggles to understand his feelings for the young and beautiful Pamela while traveling across the globe from the Soviet Union to Manila and Hawaii. His time on the Northampton set my teeth on edge. Natalie and Byron still haven’t rendezvoused on American soil. Natalie is still trapped in Italy with the young son Byron has never seen. Warren and Janice have welcomed a baby into their family, too, but Warren is always away, piloting top secret missions. Rhoda can’t decide between an absent husband and a totally different man, one more than willing to be there in the flesh. Like Winds of War, Wouk will take his reader to intimate places most are unlikely to go, like the belly of a thin-skinned submarine.
Military politics can be a fine line to balance upon. It can have career-ending ramifications to reject a vice admiral’s invitation to tea, for example. Wouk recreates military conversations that are fraught with tension and innuendo. His characters vibrate with drama. War and Remembrance is every bit as exciting as Winds of War.

Confessional: by now you know that I sometimes get hung up on the details. Here is one: Warren and Byron are sitting on the lawn, drinking beer straight from cans. Dad comes out and Warren produces a “frosty glass” for him. To create a “frosty glass” one has to chill the glass, most likely in a freezer. Why would they have such a glass out on the lawn while they are drinking straight from the can?
Second confessional: I knew something was going to happen when Warren’s mission does not go as rehearsed; when they alter the plan from what they practiced. That sense of foreboding was pungent.

Line I liked, “This isn’t the war we trained for, but its sure as hell the war we’ve got” (p 45).

Author fact: Wouk lived to be 103 years old.

Book trivia: War and Remembrance was dedicated to Abraham Isaac Wouk who didn’t make it to his sixth birthday.

Playlist: Bing Crosby, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “Boogie Woogie Washer Woman”, “Der Fuchrer’s Face”, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, “Hut-Sut Song”, “Lili Marlene”, “Reactionary Rag”, “Rozhunkes mit Mandlen”, “Three O’Clock in the Morning”, “Yah Ribon”

Nancy said: Pearl called War and Remembrance good fiction.

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

Groves of Academe

gr4c5Leave a comment

McCarthy, Mary. The Groves of Academe. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952.

Reason read: Mary McCarthy was born in the month of June. Read in her honor.

Meet Henry Mulcahy. He is a middle-aged (42) professor who teaches literature at a small progressive college in Pennsylvania. Taught literature, I should say. His contract was not renewed for the upcoming term. There is a philosophical argument to be had: is it better to be fired or just not have your contract renewed? Is there a difference? Is there a more acceptable option? Henry “Hen” Mulcahy thinks President Maynard Hoar has it out for him. The sad thing was I didn’t care. When it came to intellectual liability, I thought they all were floating in egotistical backwater.
McCarthy is a crafty one. You are led to believe one thing about a character, but then, as the story unfolds, you hear the truth is something quite different. The reader is drawn into the manipulation. Mulcahy seems like a genuine person until you realize how far he is willing to go in order to save face.
McCarthy captures the snootiness of academia perfectly with all of its Proustian and Jamesian context. If Groves of Academe was a baking game show and the challenge was satire, McCarthy would have failed because her secret ingredient was too secret. The flavor was lost behind too many other ingredients like religion, philosophy, politics, literary greats, psychology, and let us not forget, human emotions like jealousy, competition, and hubris. At face value, Groves of Academe is a story about a man who doesn’t want to lose his job.

Author fact: McCarthy taught at Bard and Sarah Lawrence. Groves of Academe are based on McCarthy’s experiences teaching at these institutions.
Quote I wonder if she heard somewhere for real, “I had the misfortune to be born into the upper classes and I cannot respond to the suffering when the sufferer is base” (p 213). The attitude is the poor are free of money guilt…lucky them. Here’s another line I didn’t understand, “…her violent thrusts against the modern…” (p 227).

Book trivia: The first chapter of The Groves of Academe was featured in The New Yorker in 1951.

Playlist: Bach

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the very obvious chapter called “Academia: the Joke” (p 3).

Last Chronicle of Barset

gr4c5Leave a comment

Trollope, Anthony. The Last Chronicle of Barset. Illustrated by G.H. Thomas. Classic Books, 2000.

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

While The Last Chronicle of Barset technically can be read as a stand-alone book, there are a few subplots left over from Small House at Allington. Lily Dale’s relationship with Johnny Eames, for one. The main thread of the story is Reverend Josiah Crawley. Did he steal a cheque for twenty pounds? Who cares? Admittedly, I found the Last Chronicle of Barchester to be a bit of a bore. I was pleased when the entire saga mercifully came to a close. The plot was too slow for me. It plods along in a slow meandering way with all of the subplots. Made worse was Trollope’s habit of repeating himself. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of gossip and scandal, romance and betrayal. I just didn’t care for many of the characters.

Author fact: The Last Chronicle of Barset was published in 1867 when Trollope was fifty-two years old.

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

Cement Garden

gr4c5Leave a comment

McEwan, Ian. The Cement Garden. Simon and Schuster, 1978.

Reason read: McEwan celebrates a birthday in the month of June. Read in his honor.

Put your mind right before you read The Cement Garden. If you think of it like Lord of the Flies by William Golding, only Lord of the Flies family-style, you will be fine. Cement Garden is dark. Really dark. It deals with really difficult subjects. A family of four children, the youngest being six and the oldest, fifteen, are left alone for the summer. The do not have neighbors, teachers, parents, relatives, town officials, anyone to look after them. No one knows these four are alone. They don’t have many friends, either. Left to their own devices a quiet chaos within the house ensues. Told through the fourteen year old character of Jack, McEwan’s psychological exploration of naivety and stunted societal growth is captured in the themes of death, sexuality, and relationships as the children do not know how to deal these things. The death of their mother, coming of age impulses, and interactions with the outside world confound them and they react inappropriately. Beyond death, sex, and interpersonal relationships, the subtle emotional themes of grief, jealousy, and love are also probed. It’s a blessing that is mercifully short.

Pet peeve: I can sometimes get obsessed with details. The siblings are in Julie’s room when they pull down Sue’s pants. So when Jack wanted her to get dressed, why did he throw her skirt at her? Why wasn’t it a skirt of Julie’s? Why wasn’t it the pants they originally removed from Sue?

Author fact: So far I have read Atonement, Cement Garden, Amsterdam, and Comfort of Strangers. I have five other novels on my challenge list.

Book trivia: The Cement Garden is McEwan’s first novel.

Playlist: “Happy Birthday”, “Greensleeves”, and “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” by the King Cole Trio.

Nancy said: Pearl didn’t say anything specific about The Cement Garden.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Ian McEwan: Too Good To Miss” (p 149).

Winds of War

gr4c5Leave a comment

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

gr4c5Leave a comment

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

gr4c5Leave a comment

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

gr4c5Leave a comment

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

gr4c5Leave a comment

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

gr4c5Leave a comment

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

gr4c5Leave a comment

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).