The Get Away

Julia is a woman who needs to get away from her life.  Her husband has just committed suicide after being outed as "The Midwestern Bernie Madoff".  As a corporate officer, Julia will face some of the blame and possibly prison.  Suddenly, Adrian knocks at her door.  He offers her the opportunity to care for his aging mother in her home, a mansion in northern Minnesota.  Julia knows who Adrian's mother is because she is a famous author.  Julia also knows that this famous author died years ago. 

And so begins The Vanishing by Wendy Webb.  The story is set mostly in the mansion, known as Havenwood.  To get there, Julia has to surrender her cell phone, her credit cards, and anything that would allow anyone to trace her to her old life.  Figuring that this might not be so bad given her present circumstances, Julia agrees to give it a try.

Once at Havenwood, Julia immediately senses strange happenings.  It seems that people in pictures on the walls can speak, and sometimes she thinks that she is hallucinating scenes from the past.  She dismisses it a side effect of discontinuing her anti-depression medication, and the fact that she is in a really old, beautiful yet creepy house, caring for a woman who the world believes is dead.

This story has a lot in common with The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, where the narrator spends time with an aging author and eventually draws out the scariest tale yet, one that happens to be true.  It also is similar in many respects to Webb's earlier book, The Tale of Halcyon Crane, which was set in a haunted mansion on Mackinac Island.  However, The Vanishing has enough twists and turns to distinguish it from those other stories, and to keep the reader turning the pages.

There's something about The Tale of Halcyon Crane that seems to appeal to you.  Yes you.  Although it was never a best seller, my review of that book has been among my top 10 posts in terms of page views for at least the last year.  If you liked Halcyon or Thirteenth Tale, then grab The Vanishing and start reading.  Yes, some of it is predictable.  Yes, there are improbable plot twists.  As Webb says in her acknowledgements, she's "not trying to define a generation, right any great wrongs, or change the way you think about the world or your place in it.  [She] just want[s] to craft a good story that will delight you, entertain you, grab you and not let you go, and send some shivers up your spine along the way."  That she does.

I requested and received a free electronic copy of The Vanishing and agreed to review it.  Other than that, no promises were made and no payments were received.

Next Up:  The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie

Still Listening to:  Manson:  The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn

Party Crashers

While the Torrington-Swift family was in the midst of preparing for the daughter, Emerald's, birthday party, they got quite a shock.  There had been a train crash on a branch line near their isolated old mansion in the English countryside, and the survivors were walking to the family home for shelter.   Thus the title of Sadie Jones' novel, The Uninvited Guests.

There is one uninvited guest who stands out from the others, and who works to ingratiate himself with his hosts.  This survivor, Charlie Traversham-Beechers, seems to have some relationship with Emerald's mother, Charlotte, which Charlotte is not eager to explain.  As time goes on, the Torrington-Swifts begin to think that there is something strange and a little frightening about the uninvited guests, and Charlie Traversham-Beechers in particular.

The Uninvited Guests is a ghost story, set in a crumbling estate in 1912.  The Torrington-Swifts are in danger of losing the home, and can no longer afford to heat a whole wing of it.  There are three children in the family, Clovis, Emerald and Imogene, who is more often referred to as "Smudge".  The guests who are actually invited to the party include Emerald's friend, Patience, Patience's suddenly handsome brother, Ernest, and a wealthy neighbor who seems to be interested in Emerald, John.

When I first read of the train crash on the local line, and the passengers needing a place to stay, I thought of Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin, where the travelers found shelter in the Lake of the Coheeries when their train broke down.  In The Uninvited Guests, Jones worked to create the mystical, other worldly feel of  Winter's Tale, but the story was going in so many directions, that it didn't really work.  Why the kitten?  Why the pony?  Why the paternity question? Why, while we are at it, did we need an unused wing of the house?

If you are interested in reading a ghost story set in an old mansion, I would recommend that you try The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters or Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.  If you read and loved all of those and still want more, then give The Uninvited Guests a try.

Next Up:  The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

Still Listening to:  Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Author Stalking

The most simple description of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, would be that it is a story about a boy who finds a book that he loves, and when he can't find any more books by the same author, he tries to find out why the author's works are unavailable.  The boy is Daniel, and the author is Julian Carax.  The story takes place in Spain, during and after its revolution.  It has hints of a ghost story, a Spanish language soap opera, and a mystery, but what I really think Shadow is, is a story about boys who attended high school together, and the grudges and friendships that they held on to from high school until death.  Much of the story takes place in the crumbling estate of a formerly wealthy family, but other interesting settings include a maze like cemetery of forgotten books and a hospice where one just might find a prostitute.

This was a fantastic story, with interesting characters.  Daniel's friend, Fermin, is funny, tragic, likable, obscene and true, all at once, and he quickly became one of my favorite characters that I have read or heard in a long time.  I listened to the book in audio form, and benefited from the reader's pronunciation of the names (Julian is "Hoo-li-on", and Bea is "Bay-ah", for instance), but for some reason, hokey music played whenever something important was happening, which contributed to the soap opera feel.

My friend, Ann, recommended this book to me, but she said that she thought that it was about 100 pages too long.  Knowing that, I kept waiting for the boring part to come.  It never did.  I also kept thinking that I knew what was going to happen next, only to be surprised by what occurred.  There were some obvious twists that I didn't see coming, which is a credit to the author.

One thing that I didn't like about the author's style, is that he incorporates an 80 page letter from one of the characters into the story, in order to tell the story more fully than Daniel may have otherwise been able to discover.  I complained about Jonathan Franzen employing this technique in Freedom as well.  In both Shadow  and Freedom there was an awkwardness to the new point of view that just didn't work.  Throughout Shadow, Daniel's father is a bit of a shadow himself, in that the action takes place around him, but he is left in the dark as to what is happening.  I would have preferred if the 80 page letter had instead been a 1 page letter saying "Talk to your father - he knows more than you think" so that what was told in the letter could have been detailed in a conversation between Daniel and his father.  This would have both strengthened the relationship between Daniel and his father, and given the father a lacking dimension.  My guess is that Carlos Ruiz Zafon tried something like that, but found that the back story could be explained more fully through the letter.

Shadow is action packed, and charming.  According to Wikipedia, it is one of the  best selling novels of all time.  Anyone who has ever loved a book and felt connected to the author will understand Daniel's determination, and will root for his success.

One more down for the Support your Library Challenge!

Next up on CD: The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer

Still Reading:  A Moment in the Sun  by John Sayles.  I'm 67% complete . . .

The Book Group Report - 6

Do you have any idea how many book groups call themselves "The Eclectic Book Group"?  Lots and lots of them.  As such, I need to start calling my book group something else.  We don't call ourselves anything, other than "book group".  I will try to come up with something clever, but in the meantime, I think it will just have to be "my book group" that I talk about.

Any how, my book group met tonight to discuss The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.  As you know, I really liked this book, and I have tried not to give away any plot twists while blogging about it.  We had 10 people here tonight, and all but one had read at least part of the book.  Two people were about half way through, and seven of us finished it.

The consensus was that The Little Stranger was a great book.  A few people found it too frightening to read at night, but others read the whole book through wondering when the scary part was going to come.  A primary point that we discussed was why the strange events started occurring.  Did Dr. Faraday's appearance trigger them?  Was it bringing Betty in?  We couldn't decide, but felt that it was one or the other.  The cause of the final tragedy in the story (which I don't want to give away) was also a hot topic.  We were equally divided between whether its cause was human or of another world.  We also discussed the ages of the characters, as the setting and their mannerisms aged them much beyond their years, in a way that was clearly intentional.  We are all in our forties, and reading the descriptions of Mrs. Ayers as a decrepit old woman, even though she was not yet fifty, caused some reflection on how (we hope) we seem a lot younger than her. 

Most of us really liked the descriptions of the house, and I have to say that my fellow book clubbers also heart crumbling estates.  My copy of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield went home with one member, and my guess is that others will borrow it later.

Next up:  The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas.  This book came out in 1996, and I have a vague sense that I read it around that time.  I guess I'll find out how familiar it is as I read it next month.

Still reading:  Sunnyside by Glen David Gold

Still listening to:  Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

I Heart Crumbling Estates

When I was posting about The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters in November, I looked again at the Amazon review of that book, to confirm that it really did have spoilers.  The next time that I went to Amazon, it told me that since I had recently looked at The Little Stranger, I might also like The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.  Now Amazon has led me astray with shaky recommendations in the past, but since The Thirteenth Tale was sitting in my nightstand waiting for me to read it, I checked out the editorial reviews to see what they said.  Based on those reviews, I was a little worried that The Thirteenth Tale would turn out to be an earlier, better version of The Little Stranger that I had somehow missed.  They said that The 13th  was a ghost story, set in a "haunted ruin of a house" in England, and was full of family secrets.  Does that sound a little familiar to you?

After reading The 13th, however, I have to disagree.  The 13th is not a ghost story, nor a mystery, nor a fairy tale, but instead is a crazy blend of the three.  It is certainly set in a crumbling estate in rural England, like The Little Stranger, but where the Ayers family in TLS was eccentric, the Angelfield family in The 13th is mentally ill.  The story teller in The 13th is Margaret Lea, who although she is our narrator, is actually reporting the story that she is hearing as The 13th unfolds.  As in TLS, there is a kindly housekeeper, who understands the family and their problems perhaps better than the family itself does, and a doctor, who races to misdiagnoses.

Margaret hears the story of the Angelfield family when she is hired to write the biography of a reclusive writer who has attained celebrity status.  This writer knows how to keep Margaret and the reader interested by doling out little morsels of truth, which in this case are more interesting than any fiction. 

If you are a fan of a true ghost story, this book may be a disappointment to you.  However, if you liked The Little Stranger, like I did, and want to read something else along those lines, The 13th  is a great find.  And now I have a new "mini-genre" to follow, which I didn't even know I liked three months ago - 20th century stories set in crumbling estates in rural England and the crazy families that inhabit them.

Next Up on CD:  Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
Next Up in Book Form:  Enemies of the People by Kati Marton

The Unspoiled Little Stranger

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters is not the type of book that I normally read.   It is surprising that I even stumbled upon it, but I'm glad that I did.  It was named one of the top 100 books of the year by the New York Times in its 2009 Notable Books List, which may be where I first heard about it.  Each year, I eagerly await the Notable Books List, which usually comes out around Thanksgiving.  This year I read lots of books on the list, but of the books that I have blogged about, The Little Stranger, Museum of Innocence, Wolf Hall, and Columbine were named Notable Books of 2009.

The Little Stranger is an old fashioned ghost story.  It is set on an estate in rural England after World War II.  While the story must take place in 1949 or 1950, it feels more like it is taking place in the 1800s.  The Ayres family is committed to dated ideas of class and the formalities that proper people follow.  They are also economizing by not running their generator, and depending on candlelight for much of the story.  Our story teller is the family doctor, Dr. Faraday, whose mother worked for the Ayres family when she was young.  I remember hearing in high school that normal people go crazy, but rich people get eccentric.  The Ayres family is plenty eccentric. 

I listened to this book on CD in my car, and I loved it so much that I was constantly on the look out for opportunities to drive somewhere by myself.  This book was especially good to listen to since it is a ghost story, and stories like that are more often heard around a camp fire than read.  The important thing for me to tell you about The Little Stranger is to not read anything else about it.  The New York Times review and the Amazon Editorial Reviews are full of spoilers that I wish I hadn't read.  So trust me on this one.  Go get it and read.  We can talk about the plot later.  I think that this will be my choice for The Eclectic Book Group to read the next time it is my pick, so I will write more about it then.

Next Up on CD:  Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. 

Still waiting for:  The Hidden by Tobias Hill.  I was really interested in this book after reading the NYT review last year, but apparently no one else was.  My library doesn't have it, and had to order it from another county.  In fact, there are only 4 copies of it available in libraries in the entire state of Michigan.  I requested it last Sunday and am still waiting to get it, which puts me in a strange place because I don't want to start reading another book.  Sometimes when the library gets a book from a different library one is only allowed to borrow it for one week.  That means that if I start something new, I'll have to drop it in the middle, and read The Hidden when I get it.  I know that I should take it as a warning that so few libraries have it, and I probably shouldn't expect it to be very good, but I want to try it anyhow.

Free At Last!

After about 3 weeks of reading, I finally finished Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, and I have to say, I don't get it.  Not the story, mind you, the story is easy enough to understand.  I don't get the flurry of attention that this book has received, as it just didn't leave me all that impressed.

In 2001, The Corrections by Franzen came out with a similar media flurry.  Everyone was talking about it, from the New York Times to Oprah, and I had to read it!  When I finished that book I was also disappointed.  I had expected it to be life changing, but the only change was my realization that compared to the Lambert family, my family was really not all that screwed up after all.  But then, I kept thinking about The Corrections over the ensuing years, and finally, in 2009, I re-read it and I really liked it.  I think that maybe my expectations were too high when I first read it, and then when I re-read it I could see it for the great piece of literature that it actually is.  My feeling at this point, however, is that Freedom is not nearly as good as The Corrections. 

While reading The Corrections, I felt a bit like a malevolent grandmother, changing her last will and testament from month to month based on which of her grandchildren is "best".  The three adult children in the novel, Denise, Chip, and Gary, all took their turns being at the top, and at the bottom, of the best kid list.  They all made supremely stupid decisions that impacted years of their lives.  But, unlike the characters in Freedom, they all also made good decisions, and you could feel that at the heart of the matter, they were all good people who had complicated relationships with their parents, siblings, and significant others.

I was disappointed with the way the characters are developed in Freedom.  Even Walter and Patty, the husband and wife who are the main characters, are sort of one dimensional. Jessica, Richard, Lalitha, and Patty's siblings are all weakly characterized, and only Richard is really necessary to the story.  The development of Patty is  through her "autobiography", which takes up about 200 pages of Freedom.  Supposedly, Patty's therapist asks her to write about her life, and that autobiography becomes part of the novel.  What bothers me about this is that throughout the autobiography, Patty refers to herself as "Patty" and the voice of the story teller is no different from the voice of the narrator for the rest of Freedom.  In the second part of the autobiography, Franzen, through Patty, weakly apologizes for the limited use of first or second person, claiming that athletes, like Patty, always refer to themselves in the third person.  This comes off to me as lame, and I think that the autobiography could have been improved if Franzen had taken two days or two weeks or two months to re-write it with a different voice, with Patty speaking of herself as "I".

It also seemed to me as if Franzen found that he was writing characters that even he could not like, and that a change had to be made.  Up until Joey asks his dad, Walter, for help, somewhere around page 350, all of the characters are making bad decisions that don't seem consistent with their proclaimed visions of their selves.  Then, all of a sudden, when Joey asks for help, everything turns, and everyone starts getting along.  Maybe I've read the book too recently, and it will make more sense to me later, but for now, that turn is too awkward, and too complete. 

My other problem with the book, is that some inner part of me is a conspiracy theorist, and I can't help but think that this whole book is propaganda for a fight against overpopulation.  In Freedom, Walter is very concerned about fighting global overpopulation, and he comes up with a plan to fund a campaign against it.  The plan is that his friend, Richard, who is a rock star, will get other rock stars together to get young adults (i.e. people without kids yet) to start talking about overpopulation.  He feels that if he can just get overpopulation back onto nationwide consciousness, people will talk about it, and begin to take steps to address the problem.  Hear me out here.  Isn't Franzen, himself, really playing the role of Richard, in using his star power to get his readers talking about overpopulation?  Do you think Oprah could also be into fighting overpopulation?  She doesn't have any kids. . .and how else could you explain her picking this book, as soon as it came out, even after Franzen so blatantly snubbed her when she picked The Corrections?

All I can say is stay tuned to this blog, and if Freedom has the same power to stay in my thoughts as The Corrections does, then 7 or 8 years from now I will re read it, and apologize for my earlier (i.e. current) ignorance.

Next up:  Columbine by Dave Cullen

Listening to:  Yes, after The Memory Keeper's Daughter ended, I missed listening to something in the car!  My kids are at different schools now, so as part of my chauffeur duties, I spend about 45 minutes in the car alone each day after dropping off and before picking up kids.  So, now I am listening to The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, and I am really liking it!