Tag: america

Review: Lost Lake

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Lost LakeSarah Addison Allen, Lost Lake

The tiny vacation resort of Lost Lake in Suley, Georgia, means different things to different people. For Eby Pim, it’s a tangible reminder of her happy life with her now-deceased husband, George; but it’s also an increasingly burdensome property to maintain, and Eby has decided to sell it. For Eby’s longtime friend and constant companion, Lisette, Lost Lake is a refuge, and she vows she’ll never leave. And for Kate Pheris, widowed one year ago and just now waking up from her grief, Lost Lake is a memory of the best summer she ever had. When Kate impulsively decides to revisit Lost Lake with her daughter, Devin, she is immediately drawn to Eby and the other colorful inhabitants of the surrounding town. Kate and Devin’s arrival also catalyzes several important changes in Suley, including the resolution of a long-buried tragedy and the banishing of an old ghost. Eventually Kate is able to help Eby create a new future — and maybe even find one for herself.

As a longtime fan of Sarah Addison Allen, I couldn’t resist buying her newest book immediately (in hardcover, no less!) and devouring it as soon as possible. Fortunately, this book contains all of SAA’s trademark elements: a community of strong women with interconnected lives, decades-old secrets that are gradually revealed, understated romance, and a hint of magic. I especially loved the flashbacks to Eby’s life with George in Europe; they were so romantic and lavishly described that they made me want to hop on the next plane to Paris! I wasn’t terribly fond of the storyline with the alligator…I don’t want to spoil the book, so I’ll just say that the magical element was a bit too prominent for me. Overall, this is not my favorite SAA novel (that would be The Sugar Queen), but it is a lovely, relaxing read that I would definitely recommend to fans of this genre.

Review: Lexicon

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LexiconMax Barry, Lexicon

Emily Ruff is a teenager living on the streets of San Francisco, subsisting on the change she earns by fleecing people at cards. So when she is approached by a mysterious organization that wants to send her to a special boarding school, all expenses paid, she jumps at the chance without asking too many questions. When Emily arrives at the school, she learns that its purpose is to train poets, an elite group of individuals who can use words to “persuade” people to do anything. Emily learns that people can be divided into segments based on their personality type, and each segment responds to a unique set of words. The poets want Emily because they have ascertained that she is more than usually persuasive. Meanwhile, Wil Parte is on the run, accompanied by a renegade poet called Eliot — but he doesn’t know who he’s running from or why they’re looking for him. Both Emily and Wil must eventually face violence and impossible choices as the connection between their stories becomes evident.

I picked up this book because I loved the premise, which is essentially that words have power (something book lovers already know!). Max Barry has imagined a world in which the masses can be controlled by an elite few with words alone — a world that is frighteningly close to our own. For me, the book’s biggest strength is how plausible it is; with our private lives increasingly made public through the Internet, it’s very easy to imagine governments and other powerful groups using that private information for their own ends. The book also reads extremely quickly and is chock-full of action. However, the book was a little too graphic for me, in terms of both sex and violence. And more importantly, I feel like Barry missed a great opportunity to explore some interesting philosophical questions in the novel. Clearly the poets are to some extent sinister, and the villain of the book is quite obviously the villain; but even the so-called heroes do a lot of morally questionable things, and their behavior is never really called to account. The book has a happy(ish) ending, and I just don’t think it’s justified. Still, this is a fun read if you’re interested in the premise, but I’d recommend getting it from the library rather than buying.

Review: Fer-de-Lance

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Fer-de-LanceRex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

This novel introduces the famous detective team of Nero Wolfe, an eccentric genius whose skill in detection is rivaled only by his fondness for orchids, and Archie Goodwin, his streetwise secretary. Although they live in comparative luxury, Wolfe and Archie have not been immune to the effects of the Great Depression, and they certainly won’t turn down any opportunity of making some hard cash. So when a worried Italian woman comes to their doorstep asking them to track down her missing brother, they are eager to take the case. Due to Wolfe’s obese build and strange fears of the outside world, he refuses to leave his home; so it’s up to Archie to investigate the man’s disappearance. He soon discovers, however, that the missing Italian man is just one piece of a much larger puzzle involving the sudden death of a prominent university professor. While Archie collects evidence, Wolfe applies his considerable talents to solving the mystery.

This is my first encounter with Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, but it certainly won’t be my last! I loved Archie as the narrator; his wry, amusing voice reminds me of the fast-talking banter of the great screwball comedies of the 1930s. It was great fun to see the investigation through his eyes, as he applies his own special brand of persuasion to the various suspects and interested parties. Nero Wolfe, by contrast, is significantly less interesting, since the inner workings of his mind remain largely mysterious. He did have some funny moments, though, and I liked his extremely formal patterns of speech. He and Archie make a nice contrast in that regard, since Archie is full of contemporary slang and has an almost aggressively casual tone. As for the mystery itself, it is quite well-plotted, even if the solution isn’t very surprising. The only thing I disliked was that the book keeps going after the culprit’s identity is revealed. For me, the fun of reading a mystery is trying to solve it; once the solution is discovered, I don’t want to read a long denouement about how the guilty party was finally caught. So I thought the end dragged a bit; but other than that, I enjoyed this mystery and look forward to reading more in the series.

Review: Dear Mr. Knightley

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Dear Mr. KnightleyKatherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

Samantha Moore has been in and out of foster homes her whole life. Now, at age 23, she’s living at a group home called Grace House, but she’ll soon have to leave unless she can find a way to go back to school. One day she gets a surprising offer: if she can get into the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, an anonymous donor will pay her tuition and living expenses. The only condition is that she must write regular letters detailing her educational progress to the donor under the name Mr. Knightley. Samantha is reluctant at first, particularly because she feels much more connected to fiction than journalism. Indeed, her closest friends growing up were the classic novels that kept her company through dark times, and she frequently hides in the world of books when real life is confusing or difficult. Still, Sam agrees to the deal, and through her letters to “Mr. Knightley,” she is finally able to face her past — and her future.

Despite what the title might suggest, this book is not a Jane Austen spinoff; rather, it’s a contemporary reimagining of Jean Webster’s novel Daddy-Long-Legs. My overall opinion is that the original is far better, but I can’t get into more depth without SPOILERS for both books, so skip the rest of this review if you don’t want to know how they end! … OK, so if you’re still with me, what happens is that Samantha eventually falls in love with “Mr. Knightley,” who turns out to be the handsome mystery novelist who’s been keeping Sam company throughout the book. He knows everything about Samantha, whose letters to him have been more like a diary, yet he doesn’t confess his true identity until the very end of the book. There’s this huge power imbalance between him and Sam, and the book never really addresses it, and I just couldn’t buy it as a romantic or satisfying ending at all. For some reason I didn’t mind it as much in the original – maybe because of the time period in which it was written? So I had a huge issue with the core of the story, and I also didn’t like the author’s writing style. It’s a very readable book, and if you like Daddy-Long-Legs you may enjoy this one too, but I was disappointed.

Review: The Impersonator

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Impersonator, TheMary Miley, The Impersonator

Leah Randall is a talented but impoverished actress who has worked on the vaudeville circuit her whole life. During the course of one performance, she notices a strange man watching her intently. Eventually this man, Oliver Beckett, approaches her with an astonishing proposal. He tells Leah the story of his niece, Jessie Carr, heiress to a substantial fortune, who vanished from her home several years ago without a trace. Leah bears a striking resemblance to Jessie, so Oliver proposes a scheme: Leah will pose as Jessie and return “home” to claim her inheritance, which she will then split with Oliver. At first Leah wants nothing to do with it, but when she is fired from her vaudeville act and can’t get other work, she eventually reconsiders. With Oliver’s help, she assumes Jessie Carr’s identity and travels to the Carrs’ home in Oregon. But the more time she spends with the Carrs, the more she becomes determined to discover what really happened to Jessie all those years ago.

If you read that plot summary and thought, “That sounds an awful lot like Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey,” well, you’d be right. The premise is exactly the same — Miley even acknowledges that Tey’s novel was the main inspiration for her own — but I enjoyed Miley’s novel in its own right. I especially liked the period details about vaudeville, speakeasies, and other highlights of life in the 1920s. There were even references to some Supreme Court cases of the era, which I appreciated as a law school survivor. I also liked Leah’s narrative voice: she’s plain-spoken, independent, and very aware of both her talents and her flaws. The thing is, though, Brat Farrar is still by far the superior book. Miley’s novel is a bit disorganized at times, including several subplots that are more distracting than intriguing. I also hated the romantic aspect of this book; it was unbelievable and underdeveloped. I did enjoy the book overall and found it very readable, but if the premise sounds interesting to you, you should really just read the original instead!

Review: The Perfect Match

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The Perfect MatchKristan Higgins, The Perfect Match

Practical, reliable Honor Holland has been in love with her longtime best friend, Brogan Cain, since high school. But when she goes to the gynecologist on her 35th birthday (because that’s the kind of girl she is), the doctor tells her that she should think about having children soon if she wants to be a mom. Honor realizes it’s time to get serious about her love life, but her hopes for a romance with Brogan are dashed when he rejects her. Meanwhile, Tom Barlow is a British college professor whose visa is about to expire. He’s desperate to stay in America to be near his “almost-stepson” Charlie — even though Charlie is a sullen, withdrawn teenager who seems to want nothing to do with him. With a little help from some matchmaking friends and family, Honor and Tom decide to form a marriage of convenience; this will enable Tom to stay in America, and Honor will get a chance at motherhood. But all too soon, sparks start flying between them. Can Honor and Tom move past their baggage and insecurities to turn their fake relationship into something real?

I’m a big fan of Kristan Higgins’ light, witty contemporary romances, and this book is no exception. It’s a sequel of sorts to The Best Man, and there are welcome cameos from Honor’s sister, Faith, and the rest of the Holland clan. I really like books that feature big, rambunctious, mostly functional families; it’s very rare in fiction, unfortunately, and I found it a refreshing change. I also tend to enjoy the “fake relationship becomes real” romantic trope, although here I was a little confused about the setup. Honor agrees to marry Tom on the condition that they will both give the marriage a real effort, to see if something can grow between them. But that seems like an awfully big risk to take, especially since Honor is hoping to get a child out of the deal. Aside from that, though, I have no complaints! The romance is very well-written and well-developed, as usual in a Higgins novel. There are a few “adult” scenes, but nothing too explicit. I even liked Charlie, even though I usually hate the way children are portrayed in adult novels (too precocious, too sickeningly sweet, too much of a blatant plot device rather than a real character). All in all, I’d definitely recommend this book to fans of contemporary romance! You may want to pick up The Best Man first, but it’s definitely not necessary to follow this book.

Review: Dreamers of the Day

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Dreamers of the DayMary Doria Russell, Dreamers of the Day

This novel, set in the early 20th century, is narrated by Agnes Shanklin, a schoolteacher who has spent her entire life caring for her domineering mother. But when the influenza pandemic of 1918 carries off most of her family, including Mumma, Agnes finds herself unexpectedly inheriting a substantial sum of money. Though she is grieved by the multiple deaths in her family, she is also finally free from Mumma’s influence. Impulsively, she decides to see the world and books a trip to Egypt. There she meets several prominent British officers and diplomats, who are in Cairo to come to an agreement on Middle Eastern policy. Agnes is drawn into their social circle and mingles with the likes of Winston Churchill and Thomas Edward Lawrence, now famously known as “Lawrence of Arabia.” She also meets a German called Karl Weilbacher, who is handsome, kind, and attentive, but may not be all that he seems. Ultimately, the people Agnes meets and events she witnesses in Egypt will have a profound effect on the rest of her life.

After finally reading and loving Doc, I was eager to try another book by Mary Doria Russell. This one was very readable, and the insights into the Cairo Conference of 1921 were fascinating. It’s a historical event that still has obvious ramifications for our world today, covering issues such as a Jewish homeland in Palestine, the territorial boundaries of new nations like Iraq, and the amount of influence Western countries should continue to have in the Middle East. I enjoyed Russell’s depictions of real historical figures in this book, particularly Churchill, wo made me laugh even at his most exasperating. I didn’t like this novel nearly as much as Doc, however, mostly because I found it too preachy. Agnes is an extremely opinionated character, and due to a strange framing device in the novel, she narrates from a quasi-omniscient perspective. Because of this, she judges the events of her time from a 21st-century point of view, which I find very irritating in historical novels. And since Western involvement in the Middle East is still a very complex and controversial issue, I didn’t appreciate Agnes’ more simplistic perspective. But even though this aspect of the book rubbed me the wrong way, I think it’s still worth a read for people interested in the time period or in the creation of the modern Middle East.

Review: Doc

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DocMary Doria Russell, Doc

This is a novel about the legendary Doc Holliday, known to history for his involvement in the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. But this book isn’t about that particular historical event; rather, it’s about who Doc Holliday really was, or at least who he might have been. It starts with John Henry Holliday’s childhood in Georgia: how he survived the aftermath of the Civil War and Sherman’s march; how he loved music and the finer things in life; and how he was profoundly affected by his mother’s death. It describes how he became ill with the disease that eventually killed him, and how his health forced him to seek a more arid climate out West. Finally, it depicts his life in Dodge City, Kansas, and the friendships and relationships he formed there, particularly with Kate Harony — an educated, passionate, and temperamental whore — and with a taciturn lawman named Wyatt Earp.

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, and this book is a perfect example of why. It brings the Wild West to life in an extremely vivid way, particularly the struggles of a frontier town in an era where the law offered very little protection to its citizens. I was fascinated by the political machinations at work in Dodge, where social issues like prostitution and Prohibition were intimately entangled with the local economy, and where political elections were often decided over a hand of cards. The characters in this book are as well-depicted as the setting: I felt like I truly got to know Doc and Wyatt, what made them tick, and how they managed to rise above their time while also being defined by it. They are both admirable characters, but Russell doesn’t shy away from describing their very real flaws. Overall, this book transported me to another time, and I absolutely loved it. Definitely one of my top reads of the year!

Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes

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Something Wicked This Way ComesRay Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

A week before Halloween, Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show creeps silently into Green Town, Illinois, in the middle of the night. To most of the town’s inhabitants, the show is a carnival like any other, with its sideshows, rides, and circus freaks. But 13-year-old best friends Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway suspect that something more sinister is at work. The carnival seems to lure unwary visitors into its depths, and those who fall under its spell will never be the same again. It’s up to Jim and Will — and Will’s father, an unassuming librarian who worries about his age and his relationship with his son — to uncover the dark secret at the heart of the circus and to prevent it from ensnaring more victims.

I don’t usually read horror novels, but I was interested in this book because of its classic status (and, frankly, because of its Shakespearean title). Unfortunately, this novel really didn’t work for me, but the problem wasn’t the story at all — it was the writing style. The prose is gratingly faux-poetic, overblown, and melodramatic. Words are often used in unconventional ways (nouns being used as verbs and the like), which can be an effective stylistic choice, but in this case I found it incredibly distracting. I also found the dialogue completely unrealistic and stilted. It’s a shame, because I actually do think the basic story is fascinating and could have been very effective in the right hands. I’m definitely not enthusiastic about trying more Bradbury after this — and I’m wondering how well Fahrenheit 451 would stand up to a re-read!

Review: The Roman Hat Mystery

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The Roman Hat MysteryEllery Queen, The Roman Hat Mystery

In 1920s New York City, crowds have been thronging to see the latest Broadway hit, a sensationalist gangster play complete with flashing lights and gunfire. But little did the audience members of the Roman theater suspect that a real murder would be committed during the second act! Inspector Richard Queen of the local police is on the scene almost immediately, with his curious son Ellery in tow. In examining the victim’s body, they soon discover an interesting anomaly: despite being dressed in full evening clothes, the dead man wasn’t wearing a top hat. The police scour the Roman theater from top to bottom and search all the audience members as they leave the premises, but the hat is nowhere to be found. While Inspector Queen and his fellow police detectives identify the corpse and discover his involvement in a blackmailing scheme, Ellery applies himself to the mystery of the missing hat — and deduces the identity of the murderer as a result.

I really enjoy classic mysteries from the early 20th century, so I was excited to read this first Ellery Queen novel. Overall, I was very impressed with the mystery plot itself; the solution is tight and hangs together well, although part of the motive is concealed from readers until the very end. (Historical racism is also an aspect of the solution, which can certainly be offputting for contemporary readers.) I also liked the way in which the police were depicted as they investigated the murder: far from being bumbling idiots, they approach their job intelligently and methodically. I was especially tickled by the introduction of the district attorney as a character. Most mystery novels focus solely on catching the killer — never mind if s/he can actually be convicted in a court of law! I wasn’t as impressed with the characterization of the detectives, however. Inspector Queen was more central to this book than Ellery, but he didn’t seem to be consistently depicted, and Ellery was barely fleshed out at all. Presumably, though, more character development occurs in subsequent books, and I’d certainly be willing to read more Ellery Queen novels.