Book Reviews
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11/22/63
February 7, 2012
What would you change if you could turn back time? Would your life improve or would it just cause more unforseen problems? This butterfly effect is at the heart of Stephen King's latest opus, 11/22/63.
On 11/22/63 I was a student teacher at Springfield Commerce High School when the principal came into the class to report that President Kennedy had been shot. When one of my favorite authors, Stephen King, wrote a huge book about that history-altering event, I wasn't sure I was up to reliving that moment. But I did.
I should have known that King would use that event in time travel mode to entertain and engross the reader yet again. The book cannot help but be somewhat political as it involves in part Lee Harvey Oswald, his time in Russia and his growing dissatisfaction with the U.S. government and life in general. King includes Oswald's relationship with his wife Marina and how she coped with a new country and a semi-deranged, abusive husband.
As though this is not enough drama and great storytelling, King's main character, Jake Epping, falls in love with a school librarian on his trip to the past. Including a pretty good love story is a departure for King, but it works very well. The reader wonders how Jake is going to bring his love back to 2011 when he returns after his mission.
There are many wonderful, keenly written moments in 11/22/63, but I was struck by how nostalgic I became for the late 50's and early 60's. Sure, people were smoking a lot more then and there was pollution galore, but didn't the frosted root beer taste great? Wasn't the music outstanding?
In Stephen King's long illustrious career, he has written some bizarre, gory, supernatural and far-fetched material, most of which I liked. Just not at night. This book is unique for him and can be enjoyed and appreciated by those readers who may not have chosen to enter his fertile imagination before. This is an adult book with many level of literacy excellence.
Remember, life turns on a dime...
I give the book 4 sock hops.
Happy reading from Beverly!
Only Time Will Tell
January 21, 2012
I
have been on the lookout for a
new Jeffrey Archer novel after having read his book of short stories, "And
Thereby Hangs a Tale.”There it was on the new book shelf just waiting for
me-"Only Time Will Tell.”
Encompassing the years between
World War 1 and World War 11, "Only Time Will Tell” is a Dickens-style tale of
a young man brought up with limited means who has a gift.
Harry Clifton is the boy in
question whose mother Maisie tells him that his father was lost in the war.
Harry is destined to be a dockworker like his father and uncle until he
is discovered by a benefactor and given a scholarship to an exclusive
boys’ school in England.
The description of life in the
boys’ school not only reveals class distinctions but the regimen all students
must follow in their studies, extra-curricular activities and the fierce
competition to get to the next level of education. I found this insight
into the British educational system enlightening.
The method Archer uses to reveal
this complex tale is by introducing each main character in a narrative
told from his point of view. Although it may seem redundant to hear about the
same occurrence from various characters, I found it original and effective.
After all, there’s more than one (or more) sides to every story.
It is clear to me that Jeffrey
Archer is a great story-teller, but he also has a sense of history and is not
afraid if writing sweeping, multigenerational works.
All of this discussion brings me
to the fortuitous conclusion that this is the first in a series , "The Clifton
Chronicles.”What a treat if you like tales of adventure, romance, treachery ,
intrigue and all those good things. 2012 is already looking upbeat for readers.
I give "Only Time Will Tell” 4
Oxford English Dictionaries.
Happy reading from Beverly!
Last Night in Twisted River
November 15, 2011
If you’re in the mood for a long detail-oriented novel in the style of “The Cider House Rules” and “The World According to Garp”, John Irving is the man for you. This prolific author’s latest work “Last Night in Twisted River” is a saga worth the reader’s time.
Covering five decades and encompassing New Hampshire, Boston, Vermont, Toronto and the frozen landscape of Pointe au Barie Station, Ontario, “Last Night in Twisted River” traces the life and times of Dominic Baciagalupo and his son Daniel.Initially set in a logging camp in northern New Hampshire, “Twisted River” begins with a tragedy and never lets up. In John Irving fashion, the characters become entwined in each other’s lives for better but often for worse. Dominic is the cook for the logging crew, and his young son observes and learns from this rough and tumble crowd. Unfortunately , there is an occurrence on the “Last Night in Twisted River” which sends Dominic and his son to Boston where they assume new identities. Thus, Cookie/Dominic Baciagalupo becomes Tony Angel and his son becomes Danny Angel.
The reader must truly be on his toes because in addition to name and identity changes, the author indulges in the technique “in medias res” where the reader is dropped into the middle of a situation unexpectedly. Eventually the reasoning becomes clear, but John Irving demands a lot of attention to his carefully scripted work. He’s a joy to read.
It would be pointless to get into all the subplots and numerous characters along the way, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Irving’s expert storytelling affords insight into the logging industry of northern New England in addition to many religious and political references which makes for an enriching reading experience. A keen sense of humor doesn’t hurt either.
This is another of those long complex novels whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
I give the book 4 black bears.
Happy reading from Beverly!
UNBROKEN
October 13, 2011
In the field of non-fiction, Laura Hillenbrand has distinguished herself with the bestseller “Seabiscuit.” In a relatively short space of time her latest blockbuster “Unbroken” came on the scene. Subtitled “A World War II Story of Survival Resilience and Redemption”, “Unbroken” is the story of Louis Zamperini.
The author, who did exhaustive research on this book, collaborated with Zamperini when he was in his 80’s to get all details possible. Since World War ll veterans are becoming fewer, it was important to note all the memories that could be retrieved. In this case Zamperini’s ordeal occurred in the Pacific when as an Army Air Force bombardier, he was shot down in 1943.
Zamperini and two other crew members were adrift on a makeshift life raft for weeks with basically no life-saving supplies, including food and water. They had to become resourceful and clever with what they could put together to catch fish and birds and even fight off encircling sharks. I think the killing and eating of an albatross or two was a bad luck move, however.
Unfortunately for these three, this was just the beginning of their ordeal. They were captured by the Japanese and sent to a series of POW camps, each worse than the one before. Because Zamperini was known as a world class runner, he was singled out for more intense punishment than the others.
Told in infinite detail, “Unbroken” is a testament to the human spirit which in this case survived under extreme duress. There are pictures throughout the book of Zamperini’s family, aircraft and fellow flyers. The author does not conclude the story with the end of the war and the POW’s release, but explains how difficult re-entry into civilian life was.
I remember watching “Victory at Sea” Sunday afternoons with its soaring music and battle scenes, but I never dreamed as a child that there were thousands of American POW’s held and abused at the same time.
“Unbroken” is a realistic look into one man’s experience that effected us all.
I give the book 4 life jackets.
State of Wonder
Sept. 7, 2011
If it’s been a while since you’ve read a thrilling adventure
story with more twists and turns than the tributaries of the Amazon River, you
must read State of Wonder
by Ann Patchett.
Dr. Marina Singh did not start out to be Survivorwoman in
the Amazon Rainforest; it just worked out that way. As a research scientist,
she was used to being in a lab environment, but her boss sent her to Brazil
to check up on Dr. Annick Swenson. Swenson had been several years deep in the rainforest with her team working
on new fertility drugs and/or a malaria vaccine. She was not communicating,
and her employers were desperate to hear of her progress.
As an aside, I think it appropriate to mention that Patchett
is also the author of the acclaimed Bel Canto so her writing skills should
come as no surprise. The following is an example of the kind of writing one can
expect from Patchett. When Marina
landed in the rainforest, “…every insect in the Amazon lifted its head from the
leaf it was masticating and turned a
slender antenna in her direction. She was a snack plate, a buffet line…”
With that as an example, one can only imagine the vivid
descriptions to come of the Lakashi
tribe, a fight with an anaconda, poison arrows shot her way, and a confrontation
with cannibals.
In addition there is a personal story line with history
going back to Marina’s
days as an intern at Johns Hopkins where she was mentored by Dr. Swenson. There
was a portion of the book that I thought
lagged where Marina was kept waiting in the port of Manaus. It felt like so much treading of
fetid water, but the action began in earnest when Marina finally ventured deep into the
jungle and her long-awaited rendezvous
with Dr. Swenson.
Be sure to join in the adventure; you’ll love State of Wonder.
I give the book 4 mosquito bites.
Happy reading from Beverly!
Place a request on State of Wonder >>
The Weird Sisters
Aug. 24, 2011
“Double, double, toil and trouble.” So spoke the three
witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, for whom The Weird Sisters are named. This
unusual novel by Eleanor Brown is filled
with quotes from Shakespearean plays, which makes the book completely
refreshing, surprising, and fun.
The three Andreas sisters’ father is a Shakespeare
professor in a mid-west college so he
named his daughters for heroines from Will’s plays – Rose (Rosalind), Bean
(Bianca), and Cordy (Cordelia).
Naturally these women have different temperaments and life has carried them in opposite
directions. Rose, the eldest, is an organizer who doesn’t think her sisters
are capable of any decision-making. Bean, the middle child, chose an upscale
life in New York City
and succumbed to materialism, and Cordy, the baby of the family, became a
wandering, aging hippie. The three sisters are reunited due to the illness of their mother and must
face the problems they thought they had
left behind.
Rose’s fiancé has
gone to study in London,
and he wants her to join him. She is torn between her love for him and her fear that her mother won’t be cared for properly in her absence.
Bean has returned from New York with a lavish, stylish
wardrobe and a ton of debt. She sees no
way out, even by using all her wiles.
Cordy seems the most out of the loop since her wandering
existence did not exactly give her marketable skills.
As the sisters help their mother and simultaneously work on their own problems, they are comforted
by the fact that they are in their childhood home with all the memories which that evokes.
Their parents are still their anchor even with advancing age and illness.
The Weird Sisters is an excellent novel. It would certainly
add to the reader’s enjoyment if some of the Shakespearean quotes rang a bell,
but I think it works in any case.
As the Bard said, “All’s well that ends well.”
I give the book 3
9/10 cauldrons.
Emily and Einstein
July 27, 2011
Set in the famous Dakota apartment building on New York’s Upper West Side, Emily and Einstein by Linda Francis Lee is a surprisingly good novel which
could have easily derailed into just so much fluff. What saves this book are the deeper meanings and significance the
author imparts to the two main characters, Emily and her dog Einstein.
Emily Barlow is a feisty, hardworking young lady who
experiences tragedy early in her married
life. Emily’s husband, Sandy Portman, was a privileged young man
whose family’s wealth and status landed
him in the Dakota. We learn about his personality and background through the
eyes of his wife and her dog, Einstein, which
is rather strange. As the story progresses, Sandy turns out not to be a very good person.
After her husband’s sudden death, Emily picks up Einstein
at the local animal shelter where she volunteers. Of course she is at a loss
and grieving, but Einstein apparently senses her neediness and facilitates her
eventual return to a new and improved outlook on life.
Out of necessity, I am leaving out key information that
would be in the spoiler category. As I was saying…Not only does Emily have to deal with the loss of her husband,
but she is being evicted by her mother-in-law
from the fabulous apartment
because Sandy
never bothered to change the deed. Her work at a publishing firm is suffering, and her long lost sister Jordan
descends and is basically no help.
The reader needs to suspend disbelief when reading Emily and Einstein, but the
issues that arise about second chances,
self-worth, and lots of karma are reality-based. A great sense of humor doesn’t hurt, either. I could have done without
all the running scenes in Central Park where
Emily is training for the New York Marathon, but it was something her husband
had always wanted to do, so it did fit into the story line.
Lastly, thanks to the library patron who recommended this
book. I owe you one.
I give Emily and Einstein 3 ½ Milk Bones.
Miles to Go
July 11, 2011
Written as a journal in novel form, Miles to Go by
Richard Paul Evans is the second in The Walk series. It’s not really
necessary to have read the first one, however. The author is glad to fill the
reader in.
Basically Alan Christofferson has set off on a quest of
hope. Through a series of life-changing occurrences, he finds himself
recovering from stab wounds in a Spokane
hospital. All he wants to do is recover enough to walk to Key West, Florida,
to forget the past and look for a reason to live, I guess.
A stranger appears in
his hospital room and offers him a place to stay while he is recuperating. Her
name is Angel. Honestly, it’s Angel. Since Alan is homeless with no prospects
in sight, he agrees. As it turns out, Alan begins to learn about Angel’s background, and he in turn
helps her.
The lack of subtlety and nuance in this book is pronounced. I believe what
the author is broadly hinting at is that there are people in our lives willing
to help out in the most trying times. For example, when he was able to get back
on the road, Alan met Kailamai, a teenage runaway. It is soon revealed that she has had a horrendous childhood and been placed in a series of
foster homes, some of which were inappropriate placements. Through all this turmoil she is somehow
upbeat, independent and a good traveling companion. Alan of course eventually
introduces her to Angel.
After Kailamai, Miles to Go becomes a travelogue about what not to miss at Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and the Crazy Horse mountain sculpture. He’s
not too impressed by the sights or lack of sights in Wyoming. At this point the line between fiction and non-fiction
becomes blurred, and the author has become Alan.
Miles to Go has some spurts of philosophy, good advice and
humor, but the author can’t seem to decide on the focus. He’s walking towards a goal, hopefully meeting more good
souls and fewer thugs. I wish him well, but I don’t think I’ll join him on the
third leg of the trip. Florida is a long way.
I give the book 3 last walks.
22 Britannia Road
June 27, 2011
What happens to refugees of war-torn countries who must run for their lives before an oncoming enemy? Amanda Hodgkinson answers this question in her debut novel, 22 Britannia Road, with great success.
At the heart of this novel is Silvana, who is left with her infant son Aurek in Warsaw, Poland, as the Germans are advancing in
World War II. Her husband Janusz has left to fight and becomes
hopelessly lost. There is nothing for Silvana to do but run for the
woods and hide out until help comes. It is years later when she stumbles
onto a roadway as jeeps roll by. The soldiers tell her the war is over.
How she finds her way to 22 Britannia Road in Ipswich, England, and to her husband and how they try to take up the threads of their life again makes for an important, engrossing, heart-rending tale.
There’s
nothing new about what war does to families. The loneliness, worry,
separation, and loss are unbearable. For Silvana, added to this burden
is trying to assimilate to a new language, new customs, and
a whole new way of life. Her young son was a child of the woods who was
more at home climbing trees and making bird sounds than learning to behave at school in Ipswich.
In addition, her reunion with her husband was not ideal since they both
carried psychic scars, secrets, and haunting memories of the war years.
Of all the themes in this book, the overriding one was the depth of a mother’s love and the lengths she will go to to protect her own. In Silvana’s case, there emerges a surprising dimension to this love.
Through
necessity the author jumps from locale and time periods with multitudes
of flashbacks that break the continuity, but the story is too
spell-binding to be weakened. What I came away with from this gripping
first novel is the love of the homeland, the old country that these
surviving refugees would never see again in addition to their families left behind. An emotional short epilogue just solidified the feeling of loss.
The reader cannot help but be moved by this incredible book. Be one of them.
I give 22 Britannia Road 4 bending birches.
Minding Frankie
May 31, 2011
Maeve Binchy is
a familiar name among readers who enjoy the doings of a close-knit
Irish community in Dublin. Especially in the recent past, Binchy has
focused on a particular group of people who reappear in ensuing books. This is the case in Minding Frankie.
The Frankie in question is a baby girl who was not born into the most ideal circumstances. Her mother did not survive childbirth, and Noel, the alleged father, was in no position to assume a solitary parenting role. Hence, many folk kicked in minding Frankie.
What makes the story work is that these people were in a neighborhood within
walking distance of each other and were able to hand off care of
Frankie in shifts while Noel worked and went to night school to improve
his job skills.
I
will not go through the list of supporting characters who mind Frankie,
but each had his own story to be told and his own particular interest
in this small family unit. A cousin from America arrived and
was the organizer type. She encouraged a recent retiree to go into the
pet-walking business, opened a thrift shop for the church, and worked to
erect a statue of a local patron saint.
The social worker who was in charge of Noel and Frankie’s case was more than diligent and was often popping in to see if the child was indeed well cared for. She had a couple in mind who really wanted to adopt so she was watchful of any transgression on Noel’s part. The fact that he was a recovering alcoholic put more stress on the situation.
If
there is any redundancy in Binchy’s work, it is the fact that many of
the characters from previous novels open restaurants. As I read this
book, I found those familiar characters and had a hard time differentiating them from the new cast starting up the same kind of business.
Nevertheless there is enough new material offered on the reading menu to
make the book a success. It’s all about unconventional families, their
relationships, and the care and love they show each other. It’s what
makes Maeve Binchy so successful. Plus, what’s not to like about a
newborn minded by so many folk?
I give the book Minding Frankie 3 5/8 nappies.
Happy reading from Beverly!
Place a request on Minding Frankie >>
The Weight of Heaven
May 23, 2011
For some reason I have luck with stab-in-the-dark reading choices in the extensive large print collection at our library. In this case the choice I made was The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar. The cover was evocative with a clever design and a somewhat mysterious title. It turned out to be an excellent find.
Frank
and Ellie Benton are well-educated, upwardly mobile Americans who move
to India after the sudden death of their young son. Frank’s work for an
American company brings him to a factory in a small village, which
almost immediately descends into a violent labor dispute. In retrospect
this is the least of his problems. As Frank and his wife try to deal
with the loss of their son as they become accustomed to their new
surroundings, they are embroiled with labor problems,
local customs, and a growing relationship between them and their domestic
help’s son Ramesh. It becomes clear that as Ramesh spends more time
with the Bentons doing his homework, they become more emotionally
attached to him. In fact, Frank treats him as a surrogate son and plies
him with outings and gifts, gestures that upset the child’s father.
What
occurs as the story evolves is that these situations create too much
pressure for Frank to handle, and his relationship with his wife
suffers. He descends into dangerously obsessive behaviors that compound
already shaky situations. Tragedy is inevitable.
How
the author keeps the disparate strands of the story line together is
remarkable. We become more and more involved in the grief-stricken lives
of a couple as well as experiencing the divisions found in the culture,
geography, and class structure of the region. It’s quite a revelation.
I give The Weight of Heaven 3 7/8 maelstroms.
World Without End
May 4, 2011
It
has been 18 years since the publication of Ken Follett’s groundbreaking
historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth. Apparently, he has been
very busy because the sequel, World Without End, weighs in at over
1,000 pages and could be named Book Without End. Nevertheless,
Follett is at the top of his game, and World Without End is as
captivating and informative as its predecessor.
Set
in the village of Kingsbridge 200 years after the town’s cathedral was
built, World Without End is an engrossing medieval tale of the lives
of the four main characters – Caris, Gwenda, Merthin, and Ralph. As
children they witnessed a fight in the forest with an ensuing death and
the hiding of a secret. Each represents a different aspect of medieval
society in the 1300’s to great effect.
This
epic historical novel takes on all-encompassing themes such as the role
of the priory in that period, changes in attitude towards medicine,
innovations in commerce and architecture, and how justice was
administered. Conflicts arose over these changes, and it is through the
eyes of the four main characters that we experience and understand these changes.
For
example, Caris is a nun when the Black Plague descends on the area. At
the time the treatment du jour was bloodletting, which only ensured that
the patient would die more quickly. Caris had read that the plague was
spread by proximity and instituted cloth masks and handwashing. The
prevailing medical minds thought this very akin to witchcraft, and we
all know what the punishment for that is.
As
though there was not enough going on in England, Follett brings the
reader to France, where King Edward is fighting another interminable war
with that enemy. Battlefield strategies are graphically described and
feel quite authentic. There was a lot of barbarity at the time so be
prepared for such details.
Ken
Follett has come a long way since his Eye of the Needle days, which
were quite good. He is now at a whole new level of writing, and I
believe a trilogy is in the works.
If he keeps on writing, I’ll keep on reading his entertaining, informative work.
I give the book 4 loaded longbows.
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