A Gaggle of Book Reviews

Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is a new novel by Sarah Felix Burns, published by Inanna Publications of Canada. The story is a mix of real historical events and places, combined with a fictionized storyline of a woman which reads like a memoir, moving back and forth between the past and the present day. Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is a deeply moving and haunting book that will stay in your thoughts long after you put it down. It is not an easy read, but it is one will help you understand the lives of others, and be grateful for your own life.

Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is divided into 4 parts, each section dealing with the emotional growth of Clemance, our narrator and main character. Clemance is trying to cope with a multitude of emotional baggage that all comes to a head when she is taken off her anti-depressant due to an unexpected pregnancy at 42. The book is dedicated to all those who "battle the demons of guilt, shame, addiction, and mental illness", all of which are present in Clemance. Sarah Burns’ writing deftly brings us inside the mind of a woman trying to cope with her present life and her past life, as the demons of her past haunt her daily.

The town of Jackfish, Ontario is was a real town, one that was kept alive through the fishing and logging industries; it was abandoned when trains started using diesel, and no longer needed to stop in Jackfish for coal. Sarah Burns has adapted Jackfish to fit her story, just as she has utilized other real people, places, and events to create a book that feels incredibly real. The rawness of emotion in Jackfish, The Vanishing Village also pulls the reader into the story, Clemance’s story tugs at you.

I had to put down Jackfish, The Vanishing Village a few times during the time I was reading it. Though I am a fast reader, it took several days to read this book; I needed to intersperse it with other, lighter fare. Clemance, her husband Bernie, her friends, and her family are drawn so clearly they jump to life, and the story follows these intense characters. Just as this is not a light read, it is not an easy read, either. Clemance’s life was not an easy one prior to her marriage and pregnancy, and the medication-free pregnancy is triggering memories of those hard times.

Switching back and forth between the present and the past is not easy for authors, nor for the reader. However, in Jackfish, The Vanishing Village, Sarah Burns has written segues that help us understand why Clemance’s mind drifts to the past from the present. The flashback style works so well because we can see inside Clemance’s mind and understand what she is thinking. There are many mysteries locked within Clemance’s brain, though, and we uncover them slowly as she is ready to deal with them. We, the readers, also grow to really like Clemance, and her earlier actions are easier to accept when we have developed a relationship with her.

Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is an amazingly intricate and intense book, one that truly feels real. If you are a memoir buff, and are considering reading some fiction, this is the right book for you! If you enjoy women’s fiction or literary fiction, you will not be able to put down Jackfish, The Vanishing Village. If you are very sensitive and easily troubled, I would not suggest this book. That said, I am incredibly glad that I read Jackfish, The Vanishing Village, it put my own troubles into a new perspective, and also helped me understand Clemance’s world, and the world of others struggling with abuse, addiction, poverty, and mental illness. Clemance’s life story is one that I will never forget, one that others should read.

I recently reviewed two memoirs, mentioning that they read like novels. Now we have found a novel that felt like a memoir. In The Last Cowgirl: A Novel, Jana Richman has brought her main character, Dickie Sinfield to life through a combination of contemporary narrative and flashbacks to childhood memories. The Last Cowgirl is a book about a woman coming to terms with her childhood on a cattle ranch, and her life in the 30 years since she left it.

When she was 7 years old, Dickie’s father George moved the family from a suburb of Salt Lake City to a ranch in the rural town of Clayton, complete with cows and horses. Dickie tells us at the beginning of the novel:

Since then – nearly forty-six years ago – I’ve blamed anything that needed blaming on what Annie refers to it as Dad’s “Gil Favor complex.”

Dickie’s older brother Heber thrived, loving the change, while older sister Annie and mother Ruth ignored the move, continuing to be fashionable and ladylike. Dickie was stuck in the middle, and ended up torn between the two extremes. While she would say that she hated life in Clayton, she loved riding in the wilderness with her new friend Stumpy and helping their neighbor, Bev, with her garden and ranch. Dickie was a sensitive child who had thrived on orderliness of the green grass, sidewalks, and curbs, and felt out of her element in the relative wilderness of Clayton. Dickie’s character comes across well in this quote about her unsettled feelings during childhood:

It was the last three words that got to me. The three words I’d been hearing my entire life. Dropped off a horse onto her head. She’ll be fine. Dragged by a steer. She’ll be fine. Lost in the mountains. She’ll be fine. Branded. She’ll be fine. Shot at. She’ll be fine. At what point, I wondered, do the actions of grown-ups add up to a child who actually won’t be fine?

Dickie leaves Clayton right after graduation with a college scholarship for a journalism program, then leads a very orderly life in Salt Lake City as a prominent writer for a Mormon newspaper. She has a house, a yard with a garden, a couple friends, and a neighbor who she has been casually dating for over 10 years. Dickie’s orderly life is reminiscent of her suburban life prior to the move to Clayton. She has also tried to leave behind any emotional messiness; we are left only with hints about a past relationship. Dickie’s liberal beliefs set her apart from most of the people at work and help her keep her distance from others, making her life very compartmentalized. The Last Cowgirl challenges its narrator to let go of her control, and brings the reader along for the wonderful ride, galloping beside her.

Using Dickie’s voice to tell the story, Richman makes The Last Cowgirl very personal. As we read her memories from childhood, we build a strong connection with her. Dickie’s friends, family, and neighbors become like friends to us as we see them from her childhood through her adulthood. Richman writes very detailed descriptions, and while I’ve never been to Utah, I can now picture the landscape around the ranch in great detail; Richman has painted vivid images that have stayed in my mind long after I closed the book. My mind’s eye is stuck on a hidden canyon with wild horses…

I’m glad I took The Last Cowgirl off my shelf on a day when my daughters weren’t home, because nothing could make me put it down! As it was, I ignored my husband, dogs, and computer while I was caught in the world Richman spun around Dickie Sinfield. The Last Cowgirl had me laughing, crying, and reading quotes out loud, completely enraptured by the story. Make sure you’ve got some free time when you pick it up, you won’t be able to put it down.

I strongly recommend reading The Last Cowgirl, not only so you can read about Dickie’s unique childhood escapades, but also to read her journey from keeping everyone at arm’s length to trying to achieve happiness. As you follow your own trail, spend a few hours reading The Last Cowgirl to help bring you some smiles along the way.

This book was received from the publisher for review

The Crazy School, by Cornelia Read is a novel and a mystery centering on the world inside a residential school for troubled teens, one that comes with very troubled staff as well. It isn’t often that my previous careers get pulled into my book reviews. However, my previous job working as a teacher in a residential school for children with emotional and behavioral disorders gave me a touchstone for the world in The Crazy School. There are many differences between The Crazy School and where I was teaching on many levels – it’s private rather than state-funded, it has teenagers rather than youngsters, and the discipline is very different. However, having experienced the world of teaching children with these problems helped pull me into the novel quickly.

Our narrator in The Crazy School is Madeline, a woman who was pulled to the Berkshires (aka Western Massachusetts) for her husband’s work, but then the job disappeared. She starts teaching at the Santangelo Academy – a private school that is used as a “last chance” for teens with emotional disorders and wealthy parents. Madeline is disturbed by the rigid discipline as well as the required therapy for teachers in addition to therapy for students. She is a bit of an outsider – the most recent hire as well as the only one who lives off-campus, in an apartment with her husband.

When you teach troubled children, you often end up with attachments to certain kids, and want to protect them. Madeline has a few students she really likes, and when one of them puts his hand through a window, she ends up wanting to protect him, but stifled by the rigid structure of the school. Madeline begins to question the structure as well as the founder, and finds herself deeply involved in the inner workings of the school and the mysteries that surround it.

In The Crazy School, Cornelia Read has created a large cast of characters, all of whom have life breathed into them. Madeline has so many different sides, she truly feels real. There are mysterious airs around many of the teachers, and given the diagnoses and medications given to the students, do we know what they are really thinking? Madeline has made a few friends she thinks are like-minded within the cadre of teachers, but are they all friends, or are some of them spying on them as they find hiding places to drink caffeine and smoke a cigarette? As we delve into the depths of the mysteries surrounding Santangelo Academy, we are investigating a horrible event involving the students as well as the backgrounds of the staff. There are twists and turns in this novel that left me completely surprised – but as I looked back, I could see the subtle hints that lead to the answers Madeline has found.

I found The Crazy School to be a truly unique book. I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it. It’s a mystery, and yet it is not a traditional mystery. It’s a novel about a boarding school, but it’s a very unusual boarding school. The characters are well-developed, and yet they still hide secrets from us. If you don’t usually read mysteries, but are attracted to Literary fiction or Women’s Fiction, you should definitely try The Crazy School!

This novel was received from the publisher for review.

Beginner’s Greek, by James Collins reads like an old-world romance brought into the modern world. Parts of it even read like a Greek tragedy, with the Fates intervening in lives before the two main characters can be together. The Chorus of supporting characters play roles that will keep the characters apart, and then bring them together. The need to do the Right Thing in so ingrained in the main character, Peter, that he thinks of everyone else’s happiness before his own. Peter’s deep-seated belief in romance fits with his honorable nature. At its heart, Beginner’s Greek is a novel about true love that runs deep, despite the twists of fate.

We first meet Peter Russell when he is on the plane flying from New York to LA. He has the heart of a true romantic, and is convinced that his true love will sit next to him on the plane. He has a feeling that this flight will be of great importance to his life. We wait with him, as traveler after traveler passes his row. When Holly sits with him, his observations and descriptions of her remind me of charming old world gentlemen, though he’s in his mid-twenties.

Peter and Holly bond over the book she is reading, and the magical “click” happens between them, connecting them into the magnetic pull of love at first sight. Of course, the Fates must intervene and work their magic, so Peter loses the piece of paper with Holly’s number on it. Unfortunately, she didn’t give him her last name, and therefore he has no way of contacting her. He tries everything he can think of to track down the number, and then he needs to return to his life in New York without having contacted her.

We skip ahead a few years, and find that Peter and Holly have been pulled together again, but there are always circumstances and honor keeping them from being involved. Peter is a kind, gentle soul, and isn’t capable of the devious machinations required to gain what he most desires, though there is a reasonably easy way of doing so. Peter’s depth of character and sense of honor make the reader wish that there were Peters out there for all of us! We also want to stand with Peter, and struggle with him – what choices would we make if we were in his place?

James Collins creates wonderfully flawed characters, and the imperfections give them life. Almost all the characters have areas in which they are deeply flawed, and other areas which are admirable. As time passes, we find that the machinations of the supporting characters leads to their (inevitable?) downfall or their turn toward honorable behavior. One scene in particular reminds me of myths in which Zeus is angry with a mortal – vengeance is wrought from above!

I cannot say enough good things about Beginner’s Greek. It’s got a feel that just warms your heart. Even when things aren’t going well for the main characters, James Collins writes such beautiful descriptions of their lives, their romantic thoughts, and Peter’s chivalrous behavior that you have the belief that the author and characters will do the Right Thing, and everything will end well.

If you enjoy the feel of black and white movies, old world romance, deus ex machina, or simply that true goodness is rewarded in the end, you will love Beginner’s Greek. If you like literary fiction, you will also love this novel – this is omniscient narrator done well! I highly recommend Beginner’s Greek to everyone – I wish I could give it to all the readers on my shopping list!
(as of 12/20/2007, this book is available for pre-order, and will be released in January, 2008)

This book was received from the publisher for review

I received Channeling Mark Twain: A Novel, by Carol Muske-Dukes from the lovely Felicia over at Writers Revealed for a podcast, but she has switched from podcasts to written interviews for now.

The idea behind Channeling Mark Twain fascinates me – the story of a young woman, fresh out of graduate school in the 1970s, trying to help the female inmates of Riker’s Island off Manhattan. She starts by bringing money collected for bail, then works in the After-Care (trying to help released prisoners get jobs), and she starts to teach a Poetry class. This is a somewhat autobiographical novel about life in the 70s, pimps, prisoners, and corrections officers.

Little did I know that Channeling Mark Twain would challenge me on so many levels. (more…)

I read two books one after the other that pulled me towards islands and home – The Land of Mango Sunsets and The Lace Reader. On the surface, they are very, very different – one is about a Manhattan Society woman and the other is about the history of lace and the women who create and “read” it (like fortune telling). However, both books are about women coming home to themselves, rediscovering family, and succumbing to the lure of the island. They are both beautiful stories that will touch your heart. Take a day with a lounge chair and some boat drinks, and read them both – you won’t be able to put either one down.

The Land of Mango Sunsets: A Novel is a beautiful book by Dorothea Benton Frank. Miriam is a Manhattan society woman who has fallen out of favor since her ex-husband left her to marry his mistress and raise their children. At first, Miriam is most concerned about proper behavior and the importance of moving up within the society of wealthy volunteer women. She is somewhat estranged from her children & grandchildren, and has her parrot Harry and her gay third floor tenant Kevin for friends. However, she is so caught up in what she believes she should be doing that she doesn’t see her loneliness.

Things begin to change for Miriam after renting her second floor to a new tenant and taking a trip a visit to her childhood home – an island off the coast of South Carolina. Her mother is there focusing on organic foods, gardening, and living green. Miriam is put off by this “hippie living”, especially when her mother and a friend share a joint during a walk on the beach. After she returns to Manhattan, she begins her metamorphosis – from “prissy” Miriam to a more relaxed “Mellie”. As these changes progress internally, Mellie opens herself up to her family, working past the pain from the divorce years ago.

This story pulls you into Miriam/Mellie’s life, and holds on to you until you are finished reading. If you have been in pain or closed off from the world in any way, her story will inspire you. I was lucky enough recently to see a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. Just as the butterfly takes time to dry its wings and strengthen them, the characters in The Land of Mango Sunsets emerge from their cocoons, and huddle together before spreading their wings. It’s a beautiful story that I doubt you’ll be able to put down!

The Lace Reader is a novel by Brunonia Barry. Towner Whitney is much younger woman than Miriam, but she is also called back to her childhood home, this time by the disappearance of her great-aunt and mother figure, Eva. The novel starts with a passage from “The Lace Reader’s Guide” – a guide to the reading of fortunes in lace. The quotes continue throughout the book, along with the narrator’s memories of her Aunt reading lace, and reading lace herself. The Lace Reader website does a great job of explaining the world in which Barry has set the story – Salem, MA and the surrounding towns in the 1990s with some poetic license thrown in (the island home, Yellow Dog Island, is not a real island off of Salem, though the Miseries, Children’s Island, and so many other landmarks are).

I’ve got to believe that Barry lives or lived in the area. There is one scene where Towner’s brother Beezer and his friends showing his fiancée Anya the statue of Salem founding father Roger Conant near the Salem Common. At a certain angle, it looks like he is, um, pleasuring himself. Driving past that statue for years as a teenager myself, I thought my friends and I were the first ones to notice it! There are so many little truisms in the story about the area, it calls to me as someone who has grown up on the North Shore, and then moved back.

Barry has created a world within The Lace Reader that is a rollercoaster of emotions and self-discovery. Towner returns to her hometown and home island after years hiding from them. She finds herself needing to face the demons that had her in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager, demons she has hid from for so many years. Just as Towner needs to face reality and the past, the town does as well – there are modern-day Calvinists trying to persecute the witches who have found sanctuary in today’s Salem.

As a reader, one wonders about Towner’s opening paragraph in Chapter 3:

My name is Towner Whitney. No, that’s not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time

I am a crazy woman, … That last part is true.

At first, one discounts this – sure, she had been in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager, but that was years ago. As the story unravels, however, and Towner’s first person narrative is interspersed with Detective Rafferty’s narrative, it becomes more foggy – what is true? We see how Towner’s mother, May, has dealt with her sister’s physical abuse – she runs a sanctuary on Yellow Dog Island for abused women and children. Towner herself has had electric shock therapy to rid herself of visions, leaving large gaps in her short term and long term memories. What is true memory, and what is made up as protection?

Towner’s family is filled with “Lace Readers” – women who can see a person’s future in the lace. Her Great-Aunt Eva had done so professionally to much success, and Towner is also graced with the gift, though she refuses to use it if at all possible – she sees only destruction and death. It is really only in a town such as Salem (with psychics and witches everywhere) that refusing to use such a talent is seen as a character flaw. It is fascinating that even as Towner tries to avoid the lace, we see her world spread out for us like a piece of lace – which threads lead toward the answers the characters and the readers seek, and which ones are tricksters, leading to a dead end. The Lace Reader keeps us following the patterns until the very last words of the last page – “The End”. There is no way to put it down until you have read it all.

Please do yourselves a favor and pick up The Lace Reader and The Land of Mango Sunsets soon. Transport yourself to an island, and find the world there.

This evening at 6pm Eastern time, I am lucky enough to be a participant in the Writer’s Revealed podcast with author Dani Shapiro. We will be discussing her book, Black & White.

Black & White is an intense, beautiful, and haunting book. I could not put it down, and was completely engrossed in the story of Clara, a girl whose mother became famous for nude photographs of Clara. 14 years have passed, and Clara lives far from her mother and sister, in another world on an island in Maine – she disappeared from their lives when she ran away at 18. Her old world as an ambivalent model for her mother in NYC and her new world as a stay-at-home mom in a small town collide when her mother is dying of cancer.

Please tune in to hear the discussion on the podcast! Here is the link to the podcast

This is an amazing book that I highly recommend, especially for anyone who had dealt or is dealing with imperfect mother-daughter relationships.