This is a bit of a period romance, but it is more about the petulant, misguided and ironic paths love can take. Modern lovers are faced with differentThis is a bit of a period romance, but it is more about the petulant, misguided and ironic paths love can take. Modern lovers are faced with different problems than those we encounter here, but the basic contrariness of human beings hasn’t changed much. We do always seem to want what we cannot have, cast our lot into futures that do not ever arise, and disdain the good natured and affable for the pretty and enticing. Sometimes we get what we ask for, which can be the worst life failure of all.
Beyond her ability to keep me engaged with superb characters and a desire to know what will become of them, E. H. Young has a very charming writing style and a sharp sense of humor.
She stroked the curly wool, she pulled the apprehensive ears, she uttered absurdities and, glancing up to see if Sales were laughing at her charming folly, she saw that he was examining his flock with the practical interest of a farmer. He was apparently considering some technical point; he had not been listening to her at all. She hated that lamb, she hoped he would kill it and all the rest, and she decided to eat mutton in future with voracity.
She also understands the complexities of both love, attachment and obligation:
She knew he could not stand alone, she knew she must continue to hold herself ready for his service, but a prisoner fastened to a chain does not find much solace in counting the links, and that was all she had to do.
I have come to trust E. H. Young for a good story, some life lessons, and a sense of ultimate satisfaction upon closing the book. Happily, she and I are not finished with one another. ...more
This story was on offer as a March Prime read, and I could not resist since it was written by Isabel Allende. Two young lovers are found sleeping (oneThis story was on offer as a March Prime read, and I could not resist since it was written by Isabel Allende. Two young lovers are found sleeping (one completely nude, the other in a wedding dress) at the Guggenheim Museum. The detective who is assigned to investigate the "break-in" finds his job a bit puzzling. Quite a fun read and just the right touch of magical realism to make the story enchanting and not run me off. After all, love can be magical....more
Another Henry James novel scratched off my list, and perhaps the last. I might like to re-read The Turn of the Screw at som3.5-stars, rounded down up.
Another Henry James novel scratched off my list, and perhaps the last. I might like to re-read The Turn of the Screw at some point, but I don’t think I will tackle another. This one is quite adequate in both the story and the characterization, but I suspect I read him more because he was admired by Edith Wharton (I keep trying to discover what she found), than that I fully appreciate him myself.
This is a shorter novel, which I think contributes to its being one of his better works. When he writes shorter pieces, he maintains a kind of discipline and focus that he seems to lose in his longer ones. Catherine, our heroine, is an interesting female character. She is a bit naive when the story begins and remarkably stubborn in the face of her father’s strong dislike of her choice of beaus. As it would happen, we know almost immediately that her father is right, but that does not make his treatment of her palatable in the least.
Her second family member, Aunt Lavinia Penniman, is even worse, in my estimation. I cannot remember when I have disliked a character more. She is thoughtless, self-centered and manipulative; and it delights me that Catherine does not make a model of her behavior.
James is adept at character studies, and Catherine is both interesting and unusual. Like Wharton, he knows the New York upper-crust and I suspect does not like them very much. At least he fails to think their money is their salvation and he knows the dangers that threaten the heart when money becomes the motivation....more
I read this book for IRL book club, and I admit had it not been for that reason I would have bailed very e2 very painful, oh my God let it end, stars.
I read this book for IRL book club, and I admit had it not been for that reason I would have bailed very early on. Definitely not the kind of material that appeals to me. In fact, I think it fails on almost every level. I did not find the characters realistic enough to be engaging, I found elements of the story preposterous, and while the blurb regarding the author lauds her meticulous research, I felt she dealt so little with any historical details that she might have gleaned the facts from a very cursory examination of a school textbook that included life in an early 19th century mill town.
Where it fails the most egregiously, for me, however, is in its understanding of Christianity and God. Our main character, Lily, begins the story set upon seeking retribution from the textile industry that has replaced her father’s farm. She does this with the full conviction that God has sent her to exact punishment. In this endeavor, she sets a fire and is responsible for serious injury to a fellow worker. She never confesses her part in this, but she nurses the injured girl and admits to herself that she must seek God’s forgiveness for what she has done. That apparently makes it okie-doakie. Ah, were it only that simple!
There are numerous bad men in the tale, none of which receive any punishment sufficient to their crimes. In fact, one of them is given a promotion and a chance to leave his wicked ways, and immediately does. But, who among us could believe after all the evidence of his lack of remorse, his predatory attitude and his abuse of power that he would go straight with only a minor talk by some church elders?
Oh well, I could go on, but you get the idea–this is a book for the very young and naive, who can still believe that the good are nearly perfect and the evil are only waiting for the right moment to be inspired to mend their ways. I like my characters to have depth, my religion to have complexity, and my history to have allure. ...more
Stepping into the world of Guinevere Pettigrew is like stumbling upon a county fair when you were on your way to the dentist. You forget all about youStepping into the world of Guinevere Pettigrew is like stumbling upon a county fair when you were on your way to the dentist. You forget all about your obligation because you are having too much fun on the ferris wheel. I only meant to sample the book to see if I wanted to join the buddy read, and I stayed on the ride until the operator said, “sorry, but we are closing for the night.”
Miss Pettigrew lives for a day and we live right along with her, laughing as we go, and hoping she doesn’t get some rude awakening. I imagine Winifred Watson was told one too many times about the things “ladies do not do”; she convinced me we should try them all at least once in life, even if we think we are too old! She gave us a jewel in the person of Miss Pettigrew....more
I love reading Susanna Kearsley because she transports me to another world, just as she does her time-traveling characters, and I spend my time there,I love reading Susanna Kearsley because she transports me to another world, just as she does her time-traveling characters, and I spend my time there, forgetting this world of mine exists. Her books, like the philosophy of her characters, bring you full circle; they give you a sense that there is order and balance in the world and that what we do not achieve in this one, we might achieve in the next.
”It’s all rather like a circle, you know,” she went on, “Life is. You start off in one place and choose your path and when you finish up you find you’re right back where you started from.
I would not argue with anyone that this is light reading, nothing substantive that bends your mind or makes you twist in a knot for meaning–but don’t we need that too? And, I will confess, the past is a place I dearly love to go.
In the words of William Faulkner "The past is never dead. It's not even past." In the words of Susanna Kearsley, If you don’t go looking for the lessons of the past, then the past will come looking for you.
This is not my favorite of her books, and I have read enough of them to have figured out the twist long before it came, but that matters not a whit, because this was a break from life, from the unrelenting pressures of my days, and I could cry over someone else’s problems and not my own. In fact, it was uplifting to know this would have a happy ending, a happily-ever-after for someone, and a chance to fix the past, something the rest of us will never have. Then I find I have reached the last page, and I am back in my own world again, which is as it should be.
The past can teach us, nurture us, but it cannot sustain us. The essence of life is change, and we must move ever forward or the soul will wither and die....more
“We all leave one another. We die, we change–it’s mostly change–we outgrow our best friends, but even if I do leave you, I will have passed on to you “We all leave one another. We die, we change–it’s mostly change–we outgrow our best friends, but even if I do leave you, I will have passed on to you something of myself; you will be a different person because of knowing me; it’s inescapable.”
I was struck by the truth of this; the way each person we care for in life leaves their indelible mark on us and influences the way we react to or think of the next person.
This book transported me back to my own twenties and my first real experience with love. Mine was nothing like Kate’s, but I think each and every one of us has this experience and we never forget it. The first time we love with heart and soul, and the first time we feel the heartbreak that comes with loving the wrong person.
I would have loved these books had I read them when I was in my early thirties and only slightly distanced from this world of men and searching. I think Edna O’Brien has done a marvelous job of capturing that time of a girl’s life. I felt very nostalgic while reading. I also felt grateful, because I know what Kate and Baba do not yet know–there is life after those years of angst, and that life can be splendid.
I will finish the trilogy next month and see if the girls have a happy ending. No doubt a lovely way to start the year.
“Hewey Calloway tries to live a life that is already out of its time. He attempts to remain a horseback man while the world relentlessly moves into a “Hewey Calloway tries to live a life that is already out of its time. He attempts to remain a horseback man while the world relentlessly moves into a machine age. He tries to hold to the open range of recent memory even after that range has been cubed and diced and parceled by barbed wire. He lives in an impossible dream, trying to remain changeless in a world where the only constant is change.” - Elmer Kelton, Introduction
The way Hewey saw it, the Lord had purposely made every person different. He could not understand why so many people were determined to thwart the Lord’s work by making everyone the same.
Hewey Calloway is a man out of time. He is a cowboy in a world that is rapidly becoming infested with automobiles. He likes to believe his way of life is indestructible, but he looks around him and sees fewer men like himself and more like his brother, Walter, who has succumbed to the lure of a farm and responsibilities of a family.
This novel is written in a light and humorous tone, and there is much to laugh at in Hewey. He is marvelously candid and logical, and I found myself rooting for his survival.
He had never seen any harm in an occasional small liberty with the facts, provided the motive was honorable.
I always liked God better when I found Him outdoors. He always seemed too big to fit into a little-bitty cramped-up church house.
Lots of people talk about what the Lord wants. Wonder how many has ever asked Him.
Looks to me like if they want people to pay attention to the rules, the rules ought to make sense.
Therein lies the problem, because the only life that makes sense for Hewey is a free one, and all he sees around him are ways in which men’s freedoms are curtailed. None of the joys of the town can usurp the pleasures of the range for Hewey. He still breaks mustangs, and in many ways he is one.
Despite the humor, there is a current of sadness that runs through this novel for me. It is the sadness of loss. If we are honest, each of us who lives a long life will see our way disappear to make room for whatever changes the future brings. I have felt it myself with the advent of technology. I live with it, even relish parts of it, but I know in my heart that I would trade it in a heartbeat to go back to that world in which a book could only be found at a library, a bookstore, or a drugstore paperback rack; when summer meant pedaling all over town on bicycles with your friends and an occasional milkshake at the pharmacy lunch counter; when Sundays were for church and dinner at Grandma’s and excitement was bag lunch day at school.
The world moves on, and if you do not move with it, it will leave you behind. But, there are worse things than being a “good old boy”, worse things than being an anachronism, provided you can manage to keep the part of you that makes you who you are....more
A romantic and predictable little story from a writer who is able to make it sing. Sometimes we would like to think life can be a fairytale, roads canA romantic and predictable little story from a writer who is able to make it sing. Sometimes we would like to think life can be a fairytale, roads can be retaken, hearts can be mended, messages can pass between hearts beyond years of separation. Alice Hoffman is able to make you a believer in such things, a rare talent indeed....more
Perhaps love for somebody totally unsuitable dies more completely, when it does die, than any other kind of love.
Dulcie Mainwaring is a rather ordinarPerhaps love for somebody totally unsuitable dies more completely, when it does die, than any other kind of love.
Dulcie Mainwaring is a rather ordinary woman. She is neither young nor old, she is naive and trusting but also taking on a bit of the old-lady habit of getting all her thrills in life from living vicariously. She has a mediocre job of compiling indexes, but this puts her in contact with writers and editors and lives that rotate outside her own calm and boring existence. When she meets Viola Dace and Aylwin Forbes at a conference, she becomes a bit insanely interested in the both of them. This interest takes her into some places I would say a person should not go, particularly when her curiosity and nosiness seems to turn a bit into stalking.
Barbara Pym is very good at creating unorthodox characters that somehow still seem normal. [She always seems to call to my mind early days of reading Anne Tyler.] She seems to say to us, “I’d create people who do what you expect, but people never do do what you expect.” At any rate, her creations certainly don’t and it makes the everyday lives they are living far more interesting.
At one point, Dulcie says The whole thing now has the inevitability of Greek tragedy. I laughed aloud. It certainly did in Dulcie’s mind, since she was writing the play as she went, but it truly had more the flavor of Shakespearean comedy to me.
This Pym landed right in the middle for me. It was not as charming as Excellent Women, perhaps because I did not ever fully connect with Dulcie, or as relatable as Quartet in Autumn, which was just so pertinent to the stage of life my contemporaries and I have reached. Still, it was a fun read and I liked the ending. I certainly see more Pym in my future. ...more
This started out a bit slow for me, establishing the characters and the setting took a little time, but it is a Virago Classic, so I knew it was goingThis started out a bit slow for me, establishing the characters and the setting took a little time, but it is a Virago Classic, so I knew it was going to take off eventually–and it certainly did.
The principle story revolves around the children of Albert Sanger, a musical genius who lives a very Bohemian lifestyle, along with his six children from two marriages and his mistress and their daughter. His home is open to visitors who come and go at will, among them another, younger, musician, Lewis Dodd.
Dodd is beloved by all the children, but is particularly adored by the fourteen year old, Teresa (Tessa). With her he has a special bond that is based upon both an unspoken connection that both feel and an abiding love on Tessa’s part. Tessa is the constant nymph of the title. She nurses her love and believes she and Lewis will be together when she is old enough…but, there is a sudden twist of fate and her beautiful and charming cousin, Florence, arrives on the scene.
The situation and Tessa’s life become quite complicated from here and, as the love triangle develops, we witness the struggles of each of these characters to sort out their lives, their feelings, and their willingness to adapt and sacrifice for the other’s needs. Perhaps I should have found these characters unlikable for unsavory, but I did not. I found them hopeful, misguided and pitiable.
If I had any complaint against Margaret Kennedy’s construction, it would be that there are a number of characters in which a great deal of time is invested who then are dismissed far too casually and completely for my taste. I felt I had nurtured relationships and then been told, “oops that isn’t where this story is going after all.” It is a minor complaint, in truth, but it did keep me from giving this the full 5-stars.
This is my second Margaret Kennedy novel. I found them both interesting and compelling, so I will gladly tackle a third someday soon. Her works are not perfect, but they are worthy.
It’s funny how easy it is to make people believe what they want to believe or what they are most afraid of.
The Ballad of Tom Dooley is a song by the KIt’s funny how easy it is to make people believe what they want to believe or what they are most afraid of.
The Ballad of Tom Dooley is a song by the Kingston Trio which probably caught the imagination of everyone who heard it in the late 1950s. It is based, very loosely, on a true story, but if you try to make sense of it from just the lyrics of the song, you will be destined to failure.
What Sharyn McCrumb has done is research the events and subsequent trial of Tom Dula, the actual man hanged in North Carolina for the senseless murder of Laura Foster, and reconstructed a version of the story that makes sense from the known facts. She is convinced that she got it right, and she well may have.
The story is character driven, and McCrumb, herself, compares it to Wuthering Heights, with Ann Melton and Tom Dula easily seen as Kathy and Heathcliff-like lovers. I have heard it said that one person always loves a little more, and perhaps that is true. In this case, maybe sadly so. This novel explores what can happen when a psychopath, a narcissist, a handsome layabout and a promiscuous girl become entangled in too close quarters and the results are manipulation and tragedy.
For the last few days, I needed a break from any reading that required close concentration or careful thought, and this book filled the bill. It was very enjoyable, like reading a murder mystery, but much more centered upon the psychological aspects of the characters themselves. We knew Tom Dula would be hanged at the outset, so this book was much more about the journey than the destination. I will not hesitate to read McCrumb again, right now I have got to try to stop singing.
“Hang down your head, Tom Dooley, hang down your head and cry. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you’re bound to die.”...more
E. H. Young is masterful at creating characters that raise your ire, draw your admiration, or capture your heart. I found all of these while reading JE. H. Young is masterful at creating characters that raise your ire, draw your admiration, or capture your heart. I found all of these while reading Jenny Wren. I think the horrible Aunt Sarah was marvelously written and I have a new hero in Mr. Cunningham.
Louisa Rendall is recently widowed and has opened a boarding house, where she lives with her daughters, Jenny and Dahlia. Louisa married above her station, but she never acquired any of the graces of the class she entered; in fact, she has clung to the coarseness of her origins. Her daughters, due to their father’s diligence, have become well-educated young ladies. The class distinction is one of the prevailing themes explored in the book, and with it the question of what matters most–a good heritage or a good heart.
Young has a beautiful, engaging style. She brings all the senses to play in her writing and I felt both emotionally involved and physically present in Jenny’s life.
The sunlight was on him as he looked up at her and she gave a little stifled cry and stood still. The leaves of the birch trees were like myriads of golden coins held in clusters on silver wands: they moved on a light breeze that gathered and then scattered the scents of summer, and the sunshine brought out the smells of warm earth and resin. The sound of a tug hurrying down the river, the distant clanging of tramcar bells on the road near the docks seemed to make walls round the wood: the sun was shining, it was high summer, they were in a world of their own and no one else existed.
Young poses many questions that most of us are forced to answer during our lifetimes. How long should a person be required to pay for a mistake made in youth? How do we know true love from infatuation? What should we seek in a partner? Do we always know what is best for us? And what pleasure do the nosy and malicious get out of exposing others’ faults? The first three questions carried much more weight at the time when this was written, as divorce was difficult if not impossible and being seen in the wrong company could ruin a girl’s reputation forever.
This is my third E. H. (Hilda) Young novel, and I am anxious to get to the rest of them. Wow, I keep adding these remarkable women writers to my repertoire. Hilda, meet Rumer, Elizabeth, Magda and Margaret....more
When Bob posted his idea for a challenge around the Publishers Weekly lists of Bestselling Novels in the United States, I scurried off to find my two When Bob posted his idea for a challenge around the Publishers Weekly lists of Bestselling Novels in the United States, I scurried off to find my two books…one I felt would be outside my comfort zone and one that I suspected would be a 5-star read. For my iffy genre book, I selected from 1900 a romance that was the #1 best-seller for that year. The book was To Have and To Hold: Mary Johnston by Mary Johnston.
Set in Jamestown, Colonial Virginia, in 1621, Captain Ralph Percy. an English gentleman, reluctantly travels from his holding outside Jamestown proper to meet with a ship bringing wives to settlers. Percy feels the pressure to marry but not the inclination. The women arriving are from the lower classes, but “good” girls. Among them is a firebrand, Jocelyn Leigh, who provokes another man by spurning his attentions and thus gains Percy’s protection. She is not, of course, who she ought to be. As he finds out after he has married her, she is traveling under an assumed name, is a lady, and is fleeing a dangerously well-connected man.
You can almost guess where it goes from here, can’t you? However, Mary Johnston does a fine job of creating her hero. Captain Percy is both likable and capable, and up to handling almost any problem that comes his way. Johnston includes piracy, sword fighting, Indian attacks, political intrigue, and class struggle in her story and most of it moves with enough pace to keep the reader engaged.
When I was fourteen years old, this would have been among my favorite books, I am sure. It conjures the great swash-bucklers of the movies like Errol Flynn, or a more modern reference of Kevin Costner as Robin Hood. White knights on remarkable steeds, unimaginable obstacles and a love that defies all odds--what not to like for a fourteen year old.
While Percy, his devoted servant, Diccan, and the minister Jeremy Sparrow seem quite well-developed; the lady Jocelyn never steps beyond her role as damsel in distress, and Lord Carnal (rather telling name, is it not?) is almost a caricature of a villain. His motivation for pursuing the lady is difficult to understand, since it is apparently only tied up in her extreme beauty, which is apparently worth risking life, limb and fortune for. Again, one must think of Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham, longing to possess Maid Marion.
That this is the book that was 1900s #1 best seller is a bit telling, I think, about the women of the time. I cannot see men reading this book in droves, so I must assume it was women who propelled it to the top of the list. These women must have been dreaming of romantic encounters with someone who would sweep them up and save them from the lives they actually led. I’m pretty sure none of them ever met anyone like Captain Percy, but I suspect most of us would hop into the boat with him and sail away given the chance.
A bit of fun and a nice peek into the past, so thanks, Bob, for the nudge. ...more
A lovely collection of stories, set at Christmastime and full of characters in search of peace on earth and good will toward men.
Christmas at ThompsonA lovely collection of stories, set at Christmastime and full of characters in search of peace on earth and good will toward men.
Christmas at Thompson Hall - Mrs. Brown and her husband are traveling to Thompson Hall for Christmas when he insists, because he feels ill, on an overnight stop. What starts as Mrs. Brown’s intent to make him a mustard plaster turns into a comedy of errors that left me laughing aloud.
Christmas Day at Kirkby Cottage - a bit of intentional misunderstanding and painting oneself into a corner that it is hard to get out of. This one required putting yourself back into Victorian times, since the difficulties that arise would never happen today. As is appropriate for Christmas, “all’s well that ends well.”
The Mistletoe Bough - I truly enjoyed this sweet tale of lovers, once engaged and now parted, who need the slightest push to find themselves under the mistletoe again.
Not if I Know It - This story is about regret and forgiveness. A quarrel that could rankle and become important is healed by a devoted wife/sister and an appropriate Christmas message from the local parson.
The Two Generals - An atypical Trollope story, this one is set in the United States. It is the story of two brothers during the American Civil War, both in love with the same girl and fighting on opposite sides of the conflict. I particularly love this period in novels and stories, and I thought Trollope did an excellent job of dealing with the setting and events. It is, of course, a love story and not a history. ...more
How fragile our lives are anyways. How quickly things can change forever.
This is a splendid book, full of human trial and victory, and singing witHow fragile our lives are anyways. How quickly things can change forever.
This is a splendid book, full of human trial and victory, and singing with love and endurance. I developed a deep respect and admiration for Sarah Prine. Living in the Arizona Territory in the second half of the 19th Century would have been a challenge that not everyone could survive. In fact, Sarah herself says
Anyone who hasn’t got some backbone has no business trying to live in the Territories.
I am pretty sure that there is no one who reads and appreciates this book who doesn’t end up in love with Captain Jack Eliot. He is the kind of man who would not escape the adoration of a woman or the approbation of a man. He is an enigma and an awakening for Sarah, and we are so privileged to see him through her eyes, for we recognize his wonderful character while she is still discovering it. His superb characterization is what makes this book a 5-star read. Like Sarah, I found myself always peering into the distance, waiting for Captain Eliot to return.
Captain Elliot has this recklessness about him, and a way of holding on that you don’t know he is holding on, and a way of laughing that is like he takes pleasure in the act of laughing itself. He is better to have around in a scrap than a trained wildcat, though.
All the secondary characters, Sarah’s mother, Jack’s father, Savannah and Albert, the brothers, the children, the myriad of people who pass through Sarah’s life, are painted with exacting care. We are given every sort of strength and weakness, tenderness and meanness alive in the human race, and it was hard to imagine the hardships and tribulations these people, particularly the women, endured.
I marked dozens of passages to remember, for Nancy Turner puts words of wisdom into Sarah’s diary entries that even Sarah does not wholly grasp the sageness of. In fact, one of the most appealing things about Sarah is that she is often still so innocent and naive for a woman who has had such a harsh and serious life experience; and that she has that ability of children to see right into the heart of things and people.
A few of my favorites:
…this has hurt my heart and spirit more than all the other trials, for being forsaken is worse than being killed.
The likes of her isn’t going to listen nor be changed in the mind just from hearing sense. Some people sense is wasted on, and that’s purely a fact.
After a couple of hours the children began playing. They just cannot be sad too long, it is not in them; as children mourn in little bits here and there like patchwork in their lives.
Sometimes I feel like a tree on a hill, at a place where all the wind blows and the hail hits the hardest. All the people I love are down the side aways, sheltered under a great rock, and I am out of the fold, standing alone in the sun and the snow. I feel like I am not part of the rest somehow, although they welcome me and are kind. I see my family as they sit together and it is like they have a certain way between them that is beyond me. I wonder if other folks ever feel included yet alone.
It seems there is always a road with bends and forks to choose, and taking one path means you can never take another one. There’s no starting over nor undoing the steps I’ve taken.
It fascinated me to think that Nancy Turner based this upon an actual diary left by her own ancestor, and that there was an element of truth to Sarah's experiences.
I am happy that there are two more books featuring Sarah to follow this one. I enjoy Nancy Turner’s writing style and her beautiful descriptions and characterizations. I do not, however, expect the next two will be able to hold up to this one. It is so hard to make lightning strike twice in the same place–let alone three times, and this book is pretty darned perfect to me. And, for anyone who has read it, there is an obvious reason to not expect the same delight can carry through.
My sincere thanks to my friend, Lori, for recommending this book to our little reading group. I am excited that there will be discussion of it and I will not have to let go of these people or this place quite yet....more
In this, Maggie O'Farrell's second published novel, our narrator, Lily, meets Marcus and falls immediately, and somewhat foolishly, in love. She knowsIn this, Maggie O'Farrell's second published novel, our narrator, Lily, meets Marcus and falls immediately, and somewhat foolishly, in love. She knows little or nothing of him before she is swept into being his flatmate, replacing his ex-girlfriend, Sinead, by both occupying her room and becoming his lover. She thinks this should be ecstasy, but somehow the girl before her haunts every inch of the flat and her life, and Marcus is more than a little evasive about what happened between them, how long they were together, and what happened to Sinead in the end. The other flatmate, Aiden, is just as silent on the subject, but Lily sees Sinead in every room and Sinead seems to want to tell her something.
She turns away. The flat seems sticky with Sinead’s fingerprints. She doesn’t know what to do.
As the story unfolds, it seems to be Lily’s story, but, the way Rebecca is about the first wife and not the current Mrs. de Winter, this story rapidly becomes Sinead’s story, not Lily’s.
As I read, I kept asking myself what this novel was really about, beneath the plot, where Maggie O’Farrell always hides the gold. This novel might be about infidelity, impulse, compulsion, an inability to see someone else clearly or maybe it is about our need to cling to the image we have created of someone vs. the person they really are. It might also be about the way we can overlook what is good around us by reaching for a perfection that isn’t there or even possible. But I decided this is what this book is really about–the points of collision.
There are always points of collision–moments at which it is possible to say, yes, if I had done that differently or I had been standing slightly to the right or I had left the house two minutes earlier or if I hadn’t crossed the road just then my life would have taken a completely different course.
Each of the characters here, Marcus, Lily, Aiden and Sinead, experience moments that seem careless or unimportant, but which define their lives and influence their futures. If you think about your own life, you will realize it is littered with such points. When I was setting out on my career, I was offered a choice of jobs in San Diego, Dallas, or Washington D.C. I chose D.C., met the man I was to marry, and had a life I could never have expected. The reason I chose D.C. was based on a chance remark a friend made to me the night before I turned in my decision...up until that moment, I had planned to accept the position in Dallas.
This is Maggie O’Farrell’s second novel and the only one of hers I have read that shows a slight need of polish. It is quite good, and held my interest throughout, but I believed the attempt at the ending to project the future and put a bow on was a mistake. It could have been left without the last section, allowed the reader to decide, and profited from the decision. I think the Maggie O’Farrell writing today would have done just that.
I’m glad I read it. It completes my voyage. I have read all of the novels and now have only the memoir left to me. I will be excited every time a new novel is penned from here out. I will be anxious to hold them in my hands and sail off with her again. A rare and wonderful writer.
When I began this novel, what struck me right away was how little I knew about 1979 Kurdistan. I wonder if I even knew Kurdistan was a place or the KuWhen I began this novel, what struck me right away was how little I knew about 1979 Kurdistan. I wonder if I even knew Kurdistan was a place or the Kurds a people back then. I imagine my mind would have still been focused on Southeast Asia and the sorrow of coming out of the Vietnam War.
Gian Sardar draws on her own intimate knowledge of the place and the people in writing this novel, which follows the trip of an American girl, who is a photographer, on a visit to the country with her Kurdish boyfriend, ostensibly to attend a family wedding. It is a frightful place to be at this time, and the fright I felt for her and for this family was quite real. You could tell the story was grounded in actual experiences and memories, some of them Gian’s own, and some those of her own Kurdish father and her American mother.
It isn’t a perfect novel. At times it is too slow, and at other times too repetitive in its efforts to impress upon us the danger that is around every corner. There were moments in the book that didn’t feel quite real, or maybe the right word would be genuine. Most of those had to do with the romantic angle. I am not a fan of romance novels, however, so this might have worked perfectly for someone who is. What did work marvelously was Sardar’s connection to the area itself. The descriptions of the terrain and the culture were beautifully written and often fascinating. The Kurdish characters felt very real to me, as did the fear and the sense of foreboding that were present from the moment the couple landed on Iraqi soil. I have one other objection, but it would be impossible to account for it here without a spoiler, and I try very hard never to ruin a book for any future reader, so I will just count that one silently.
The point in selecting this novel was to read something outside my normal reading preferences. This was a different culture, a different genre and a different time period than I usually choose, so it filled the bill. It was a perfectly satisfactory read, and earns a 3.5 star rating, which I rounded down....more
Whenever I read Elizabeth Taylor, I am struck by how her books are about nothing. They are about the mundane, everyday lives, of everyday people. And,Whenever I read Elizabeth Taylor, I am struck by how her books are about nothing. They are about the mundane, everyday lives, of everyday people. And, then, suddenly you realize they are about everything–for they are about human interaction, love, loss, deception, self-deception–all the things that make up our own everyday existences.
When we first meet Harriet and Vesey, they are eighteen years old, with the rushing hormones and confused feelings that are easy to recognize in that age, if you have been there. They play hide and seek with the younger children and slip away into barn lofts, where they are timid and uncertain with one another; they share a first kiss; they try on adult feelings and do not know what to do with them. When they part company, there is too much unfinished business and imagination in the spent summer, and you can feel that this will be a summer that influences lives.
Harriet soon meets and marries another man, Charles, who has suffered his own heartbreaking rejection. When he discovers she has mementos of Vesey, he latches onto that and allows it to breed a jealousy in his heart. He imagines her always loving another man. She imagines what life with Vesey might have been, versus the reality of life with Charles.
“For it was Vesey who had undermined their life together, the idea of him in both their heads.”
Needless to say, Vesey re-enters the picture and what transpires is what makes this book so poignant. There is a daughter to Harriet and Charles, a sixteen year old, who also figures into the equation, and the misunderstanding, miscalculations, and utter confusion are so realistic they make you wonder if any one of these people knows the least thing about one another or even about themselves.
“Our feelings about people change as we grow up; but if we are left with an idea instead of a person, perhaps that never changes. After every mistake Charles made, I suppose you thought ‘Vesey wouldn’t have done that.’ But an idea can’t ever make mistakes. He led a perfect life in your brain.”
I love Taylor’s penchant for understatement and her ability to weave a tale that seems at times to be going nowhere specific, when she has, in fact, a very specific destination in mind at all times. I did not find any of these characters overly likable, but I found all of them exceedingly real and truly pitiable. Taylor seems to say that we are all struggling for happiness and fulfillment, but we are so flawed, along with the others around us, that we can never recognize it when we find it, nor can we ever hold on to it for long.
I would probably give Elizabeth Taylor the “least appreciated great author” award. At the very least, I know she would be in the running. ...more
Donald Ross is a pilot, trained by the Royal Air Force and then polished and honed flying the northern route in Canada after the war. A no nonsense maDonald Ross is a pilot, trained by the Royal Air Force and then polished and honed flying the northern route in Canada after the war. A no nonsense man, raised by a school-marm aunt, always capable and infinitely trustworthy, he is hired by an Oxford don, Mr. Lockwood, to pilot an archaeological expedition to Greenland at an ancient Viking settlement called Brattalid. Mr. Lockwood has an overbearing daughter who insists on accompanying her father on the trip, and it becomes immediately evident that she and the pilot will make up the most interesting part of this story.
This novel is not very like the Nevil Shute’s I know so well, even though it is written in his easy-going, detail-rich, captivating style. It contains a bit of magic realism, although when it was written that phase had yet to be coined. I was okay with that element, but it did seem to turn the novel from one kind of story to quite another. The transition seemed somewhat abrupt, as up to that point, the book was stark realism and detail. The extraordinary details of the flight and the obstacles of the trip, in fact, made me feel as if I were flying with this company of travelers. So, while the first 3/4 of the book worked well for me, the ending seemed weak.
An Old Captivity isn’t Shute’s best work, although it is completely adequate. It is obvious Nevil Shute understood the mechanics involved and also the mental and physical strength necessary to pilot under these conditions, and the sort of person who would be willing to take on such an adventure. I cannot help admiring the courage of those who would undertake such a potentially perilous journey in search of knowledge for mankind.
While I hope to keep reading his books until I can say I have read them all, I keep hoping there is just one more of his true masterpieces out there that I haven’t touched yet, but despairing of such a discovery. ...more
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