Monday, March 18, 2024

SLADE HOUSE by David Mitchell

As ghost stories go, this one is not particularly gruesome or even scary, but it’s a good one nonetheless, and actually, it’s more of a haunted house story.  Every nine years a small iron door on a narrow street leads to a mansion occupied by a brother and sister who need to consume the soul of another person in order to maintain their immortality.  The intrepid but unwise people who enter the mansion are seeking those who have come before them and disappeared, but their curiosity or quest for closure seems to outweigh their good sense.  Part of the problem, of course, is that most of these seekers doubt that paranormal entities even exist and therefore lack the wariness that might protect them.  Plus, sometimes one of the sibling villains will inhabit a host’s body and masquerade as a helpful guide when in fact they are luring their unsuspecting prey into a trap.  Since each character, except the siblings, is a fleeting entity, I would say that this book is definitely not a character study, but David Mitchell’s writing never disappoints, even with the somewhat repetitive plot.  Each time a new victim starts up the Slade House stairs, I wanted to shout, “No, no, no, don’t go,” but each time some temptation eggs them on.  I have read that this novel is a sequel to The Bone Clocks, but since I do not remember that novel at all, I can assure you that this novel’s supernatural storyline stands on its own quite well, without the prequel.  It may not be a Mitchell’s masterpiece, but I certainly enjoyed the ride.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

BLACK SWAN GREEN by David Mitchell

Jason Taylor is the smart, funny, and especially endearing first-person narrator of this gem, which takes place in a small English town in the 1980s.  Jason has a stammer, which is different from a stutter, according to Jason, and it plagues his thirteen-year-old life almost as much as the bullies at school.  And if these problems weren’t torture enough, his parents’ marriage is on the rocks, and his sister is leaving for college.  (The prospect of a broken home is never really funny, but Jason’s mom hilariously punishes his father for his infidelity with an expensive project that backfires.)  Jason’s numerous adventures fill the pages of this novel, the most telling of which, I think, is when he finds the lost wallet of his primary nemesis.  Another good one is his race through a backyard gauntlet which he has to negotiate in order to join a vaunted school gang, and this obstacle course seems to be a metaphor for the many pitfalls of adolescence which he has to weave his way through on a daily basis.  Jason strives for acceptance into a peer group that is obviously not worthy of him, but, along the way, he learns some valuable life lessons about love, death, bigotry, and honesty—to name a few.  We also discover late in the novel that the burden of guilt weighs him down, even though he really bears no responsibility for the tragedy in question.  In other words, he holds himself to too high a standard at times, and he’s a sensitive kid, writing poetry under a pseudonym in order to avoid ridicule.  My only complaint, and it’s a minor one, is that Jason’s narration is full of contractions, even double contractions, such as “shouldn’t’ve,” that are difficult to read.  I think the author intends for these contractions to lend authenticity to Jason’s voice, but that authenticity would be easier to listen to than to read, and I think Jason would be just as authentic on the page without this distraction.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

ZORRIE by Laird Hunt

Some authors have the talent to produce a novel, or at least a short novel, about a fairly unremarkable life.  Such is the case here.  Zorrie Underwood’s life begins with an unfortunate childhood in Indiana, followed by a job in which she and her co-workers routinely ingest radium while painting glow-in-the-dark clock faces during the Great Depression.  Fortunately, she stays only a few months at the clock factory and does odd jobs to get by until she marries a farmer.  Hers is the type of rural life in which tragedy and misfortune are commonplace, but it is not as sorrowful a story as you might imagine.  On the other hand, bliss and passion to be in short supply.  Zorrie is a hard worker who earns the respect of her community but, after her husband’s death, yearns for a close connection like the one she had with her two co-workers, Janie and Marie, at the clock factory.  Her integrity is unquestionable, but she is not perfect, and she pays dearly for her mistakes and misunderstandings.  Her story flows gently, with a few bumps in the road, so that even her early adventures feel pretty tame, due to the tone of the book.  This is neither an adventure story nor a sob story, but it’s a story that reminds us how everyday lives are full of tales worth telling.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley

So many time travel novels are about someone falling in love with a time traveler.  Such is the case here as well.  Five people are transported from various times in the past to twentieth century London and are collectively known to the title organization as expats.  A bridge—basically a chaperone/housemate—is assigned to each expat to help them adjust, monitor their activities, and report back to the Ministry.  Our narrator, Sarah, whose name I think is mentioned only once, is the bridge for Graham Gore, a nineteenth century naval commander.  All of the expats were presumed dead in their previous lives, and Graham was snatched from a failed Arctic exploration in which all of his fellow shipmates perished.  This is not my favorite time travel novel, as that honor goes to 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  However, I still found it to be a pretty entertaining read.  The two main characters are both charismatic, and the plot kept me engaged, despite the fact that distinguishing the characters was sometimes a challenge.  For one thing, the expats are often referred to by the year from which they were transported, and I found that aspect of the novel annoying.  Gore was 1847 or sometimes just 47, and I had enough trouble keeping up with the other expats, since their impact on the storyline waxed and waned, much less who went with what century or year.  The writing is passable and keeps the plot moving, but I hate foreshadowing in a novel, particularly in a suspenseful one, and there is some of that near the end that is wholly unnecessary.  Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

THE BOY IN THE FIELD by Margot Livesey

Three siblings—Matthew, Zoe, and Duncan—happen upon a badly beaten and barely conscious boy in a field.  This discovery has a marked impact on each of them, as does the realization that their father is having an affair.   Matthew, the oldest, embarks on a quest to determine who attacked the boy.  Sixteen-year-old Zoe becomes romantically involved with an older man.  Duncan, a talented young artists who is adopted, decides that he wants to find his birth mother.  In some ways, this book feels as though it is intended for a young adult audience, but the beautiful writing and zippy pace make for a good read for us older adults as well.  The mystery of who assaulted the boy may be the hub of the story, but the author focuses more on how the three siblings individually process the event and how it affects their lives.  The author also addresses how truth is not always knowable:  the boy whispers one word when they first find him, but the three kids each hear a different word.  A feeling of sadness pervades most of the novel, but the conclusion is almost too saccharine.  I’d rather have that than one that’s too harsh, but not everyone lives happily ever after, either.  The boy in the field serves as a catalyst for the growth of the three main characters, but I would have liked a little more exploration of his backstory.  As is often the case, the character who appealed to me most was an animal--Lily, Duncan’s very perceptive dog.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

MERCURY by Margot Livesey

Mercury is the name of a very special horse—so special that Viv has sacrificed all of her ideals for this horse, which she does not even own.  Like Gone Girl, this novel contains Donald’s perspective, then Viv’s, and then goes back to Donald’s.  These two are married with children, and their marriage starts to go off the rails when Mercury comes to the stable where Viv works.  Her ambitions for Mercury, with herself as the rider, crescendos into an unhealthy obsession.  In fact, obsession is not even a strong enough word.  Viv’s passion for Mercury is more like an addiction.  I devoured this book.  The author drops a few too many broad hints of major trouble on the horizon, but she managed the suspense level really well with good pacing and excellent writing.  A moral dilemma eventually develops for Donald, and that, too, provided motivation for me to keep reading when I should have been doing other things.  Viv, on the other hand, is a somewhat one-dimensional character.  She may love her children, but her love of Mercury trumps everything else.  Donald’s biggest failing seems to be inertia, and he seems to be blind at times to what is going on with Viv.  Ironically, he is an optometrist, but his friend Jack, who manages to hide his blindness from his girlfriend initially, has better vision than Donald when it comes to a person’s true character.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU by Sally Rooney

Whereas Normal People was about one on-again, off-again couple, two such couples inhabit this novel, which is largely epistolary.  Eileen and Simon, who live in Dublin, have known each other since childhood, but Eileen fears that she will lose Simon as a friend if she commits to being his lover.  Alice, Eileen’s best friend, is an author with two successful novels to her credit and is living rent-free in a large house on the coast.  She meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, on a dating app and then spontaneously invites him to Italy with her on a press junket for her latest book.  Alice and Eileen exchange lengthy emails on a number of topics, including the collapse of civilization and the meaning of beauty, until Eileen and Simon finally visit Alice and meet Felix.  While the women are constantly second-guessing themselves, the men seem to know what they want.  In fact, the women do not come across as particularly lovable, and I’m not sure what the men see in them.  Felix is my favorite character. He seems to have excellent insight into the psyches of the other three characters, as his observations usually prove to be accurate.  He may not be book-smart, considering that he has no intention of reading the books Alice has written, but he is able to peel back the layers of everyone else’s insecurities to see what makes them tick.  I love the dialog in this book, and I can hear in my mind the Irish lilt in Felix’s voice.