Patti's Pages
Taking Looks at Books
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.
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