THE SAFEKEEP by Yael van der Wouden

Isabel lives alone in her family home in the Netherlands in 1961.  She has a sharp tongue and doesn’t mind using it, even with strangers like her older brother’s new girlfriend, Eva.  When her brother has to leave the country for a month on business, he insists that Eva stay with Isabel.  Isabel can’t really object, although she does try, because she has no claim to the house, which will eventually belong to her brother.  For the first two weeks these two women are like oil and vinegar, but then things change when Isabel comes in from a date and describes her discomfort with the whole evening.  Their détente segues into desire for one another that both view as forbidden, although Isabel’s younger brother lives with his male lover. This development, however, is not the most jaw-dropping aspect of the novel.  A startling disclosure--well past halfway through the novel--changes the whole timbre of the book, rewarding your patience for sticking with it.  This book may not be a thriller, but it definitely has a twist that I did not see coming.  I failed to pick up on several clues that could have prepared me for the unexpected revelation, and I was glad to have an electronic copy so that I could go back and search the pages I had already read.  The manner in which the plot unfolds is exquisite.

BEAUTYLAND by Marie-Helene Bertino

Adina is secretly an extra-terrestrial in a human body, born to a human mother, and has been sent to report on the life of earthlings. She communicates with her alien people by fax surreptitiously.  Her communiques are filled with keen observations, although occasionally she draws an errant but humorous conclusion.  She sends wise reflections on irrational human behaviors, customs, and beliefs to her superiors, but their replies are terse and not exactly encouraging.  Even so, Adina longs to fit in with her human counterparts but is an alien in numerous ways.  When asked to report on a sporting event, she describes the grass, the players, their interactions with the coaches, but nothing about the outcome.  Her response to her exasperated editor is that everyone knows the outcome, and her readers surprisingly agree.  Adina eventually discovers that her missives to another world are of interest to her fellow humans on Earth, and she receives a more positive response from her human audience than she ever received via fax. One thing that I did not like about this book is the format.  I prefer traditional chapter breaks, but this novel, although the timeline is sequential, has a break every few paragraphs, making it feel a little choppy to me.  Still, I found Adina’s story tender and hopeful about humankind in a way that Theo of Golden is not.  It also does what Orbital failed to do, which is move you.

BAD BAD GIRL by Gish Jen

If you think that Gish Jen’s novel about her mother will be a loving homage, guess again.  Her mother endured the Japanese occupation of Shanghai during WWII, then emigrated, by herself, to the U.S. after college, and obtained her master’s degree.  She then got married before completing her dissertation for her PhD and raised five children, with Gish being the second, following her brother Reuben.  However, Gish’s memories of her mother, who died in her 90s during Covid, are anything but fond.  While Gish was a child, her mother beat her regularly.  Even as an adult, Gish was constantly seeking attagirls from her mother, but none were forthcoming.  Gish’s mantra seems to be “Look what I did for you, and you didn’t even thank me.”  Then there’s Gish’s “beloved father,” also Chinese, who beat her with a metal stake to the point that the injuries kept her out of gym class for three months.  I cannot fathom why she adored him.  There was one humorous anecdote where Gish and a female classmate lobbied to be allowed to take shop in school.  They were granted the concession of being able to use the shop after class, and the shop teacher is a riot.  However, this one incident does not salvage this otherwise very depressing novel.  I suppose that writing this novel was cathartic and validating for the author, but reading it was not a pleasant experience.