Our Tragic Universe

Flower!

Ah! Cover magic works again. This cover was too delicious to pass up. I had to look. Yahoo! It's a new book by Scarlett Thomas, Our Tragic Universe. Isn't it great to come across a book by an author you like that you didn't know about? Oh happy day. I have already read The End of Mr. Y and loved it. That one is a fascinating novel about an unread book, science, death, time travel and brilliant writing. It's also another A+ cover. Before that there was the brilliant PopCo where Alice must solve the riddle of the anonymous notes with her codebreaking skills and at the same time stop the power hungry corporation and find her missing father.
Writer Meg Carpenter's Tragic Universe is stuck in a boring relationship, wildly attracted to a 65 year old professor, broke, her career is a hand to mouth mish-mash of teaching writing, freelance work, ghostwriting and Ya thrillers written under a pen name. She does have a Serious Literary Novel in the works but it is way past deadline and keeps expanding and then shrinking back to the same 43 words on a regular basis. Her friends lives are on a similar level of dysfunction. When Meg is offered a job reviewing The Science of Living Forever she is eager to take the assignment. A girl's got to make a living right? It turns out that The Science of Living Forever wasn't sent to her by an editor to review but instead by some maybe mystical force that might now be bringing a level of coincidence into her life that is bordering on the magical.

That's it for the usual will Annie end up happy and save the farm storytelling stuff in Our Tragic Universe. Then? Nothing but questions. Big nature of things and what is fictions kinds of questions. Now the page turning begins. An idea novel that is a page turner? Nontraditional storytelling that I ate up? Seriously? Oh yes my friend and there's knitting too! This is unconventional fiction that is funny and energetic. It's got all the big elements of book boredom for me: science, philosophy and intellectual ruminations. With Scarlett Thomas behind them I can cheer. I was fascinated. The more novels she writes the smarter and more entertained I become.

Our Tragic Universe made me sad. I'll never be able to read it again for the first time. ~Sob~

Happy

P.S. When I went to Houghton's web site to get the link to Tragic I saw that they had a book trailer for the book. I watched it. It was the first time I ever watched a book trailer. Are they all like this because that was a long 2 minutes and 17 seconds let me tell you. It consisted of shots of the book being set down in public places for people to find and read with some tinny background song playing. OK. There is an intense level of delight in getting a free book but the old lady librarian in me doesn't want to find books lying around outside and the Lysol loving cootie killer in me doesn't want to pick something up outside that has been who knows where and for how long. The bookseller in me laughs out loud that people at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Fenton Mud think that this book drop was a Marketing Plan. Can't you just picture the meeting that led to this plan being given the green-light? I wish I could convince myself that some intern can up with this brilliant idea and not a marketing professional. In the catalog where Our Tragic Universe was originally listed there is a heading for advertising. This plan allowed them to check off that box. Good job guys. I'm sure this Marketing Plan led to some good numbers.

The Wet Nurse

Flower,

"Mammy how I love, how I love you my dear old mammy." Sorry I could not stop humming that while I was reading The Wet Nurse. Not since Jayne Mansfield have breasts done so much for a career.


I did pick this book up on purpose. Am I expecting? No. Am I contemplating a career change? Yes, but nothing in the diary field. I had made a note of The Wet Nurse when the hardcover came out that I wanted to take a look when the paperback was released. It was, I did and I purchased. Why? Historical interest. It certainly was not this dreadful cover that tempted me. Take a look at that. It makes those God-awful covers on the Barnes and Noble Classics look attractive.

After a lifetime's worth of reading historical fiction and 19th century writers like Dickens, Trollope, Collins, Oliphant, Gaskell, etc I knew what a wet nurse was but that was all I knew. The wet nurse is an unexamined staple of period novels. Typically even the second upstairs parlor maid will have more character development and plot importance than the wet nurse. Sue me I was curious. My attitude is the give away that I did not expect to...well, respect this novel. I assumed from the cover, the subject matter and the prosaic title that I would get a few facts on milk production as a livelihood, average writing and maybe some entertainment. Why? What was it about a novel whose main character lactates for a living that made me prejudge ? Am I a snob?

Am I just the tiniest bit disappointed that I enjoyed The Wet Nurse from end to end? Absolutely not. My snottiness was defeated. Author Erica Eisdorfer has done a very good job. Her main character, Susan Rose, is an illiterate country girl forced to go to London to hunt down her missing son. She is able to get a position in a household and is soon given the opportunity to better her salary by becoming the wet nurse. Susan is what Dickens would have described as a 'jolly' girl. My Mom would have said that she was no better than she should have been. She is good hearted, lusty and true but not above scheming and larceny to get ahead and recover her son. You know that if Susan is going to earn herself a happy ending she will have more than her share of adventures, heartache, horrifying employers and brutality to endure. Susan is the strength of this book, not the plot.

At the end of each chapter is a somewhat abrupt interruption of the story while Susan's clients explain why she was needed in each job. These were my favorite parts of the novel. As informative as these sections were they also help the novel. They add a little balance to the story by bringing in a touch of Upstairs Downstairs to the book and with each explanation Eisdorfer brought a subtle reminder to us about how difficult surviving Victorian England was for adults and children. They also served to reinforce our view of Susan's independence and resilience.

The Wet Nurse defied my snobby this-will-be-all-cheese expectations and lived up to my desire for knowledge.

Happy

Trespass

Flower!

For the most part I am a live and let live reader. If you can barely wait the 20 minutes it takes for the next James Patterson to appear that's okay with me. Got that Dave Eggers monkey on your back? I'll give you a ride home anyway. Don't think that Rose Tremain is a Great Writer? Our friendship must end. That's all there is to it. If you haven't read her we can still be pals but don't think that I am ever going to stop trying to make you read her. (Believe it when I tell you I am the Michael Phelps of nagging.) When you do read her---and yes there will be a when not an if---you will see the power that is Rose Tremain. If you don't....then find a new friend or fake it.

Tremain's new novel is Trespass. Set in the Cevennes region of France, Trespass is about grotesque family relationships, collusion, shame, deception, land disputes, revenge with a capital R and a nasty discovery on the river bank. Successful garden designer Veronica Verey and her less successful painter partner Kitty are among the many Brits who have made this area their second home. Veronica's brother Anthony is a rich, disillusioned, 60-ish retired antiques dealer who moves in with Veronica and Kitty while he hunts for a suitable home/showcase in the area for his beloved antiques. His interest in possibly purchasing a dilapidated farmhouse is the catalyst for the events of the novel. It was the childhood home of siblings Aramon and Audrun. Aramon is an addict letting alcohol lay waste to his life. Audrun is surrounded by cocoon of bitterness and destruction.

The novel is organized by chapters that each end with a revelation and begin with renewed suspense. It's a very literary take on the Victorian serial. All these revelations fall out of the story with the same sort of logic as a sweater unraveling. Each pull leads to another in an unstoppable line. Each one adding just a little more weight, a little more unhappiness, a little more ugliness until the fabric is gone and all is revealed.

The physical and mental landscape of Trespass is well populated. Tremain excels at creating fully realized worlds. Among her best are: seventeenth century England in Restoration and the Danish court in Music and Silence, the New Zealand gold rush of the mid 19th century in The Color and contemporary immigrant life on England in The Road Home. In Trespass her dazzling skills take you in seconds from this France of British holiday homes and eccentrically quaint locals to grasping interlopers and home grown subversives. It's like going from Peter Mayle to Hans Fallada at the speed of a sentence. When I am lucky enough to be reading a novel by Rose Tremain I am deliciously overtaken by a writer who understands human behavior and desire and can write about those things in a the context of a story brilliantly. Her writing doesn't lecture to me, it invites me in to discover.

Happy, Happy, Happy

P.S. I read the Brit edition of Trespass. It's due out here in October. Which cover do you prefer? I think the Brit cover better represents the novel. The U.S. cover is attractive and conveys an air of mystery but it does nothing to reinforce or even convey what trespassing means.

Russian Winter

Flower, my friend.

The cover got me. I had to stop and look. It's pretty isn't it? Even though there is nothing at all original about the art. The cover beckons but alas it does not fulfill. It's unfinished. It's the start of a beautiful cover and yet it's oddly blank. The flat clarity of the figure verses the worn depth of the background surface don't mesh. They fight each other instead of complimenting each other. Sadly that turned out to be a prophecy for the novel.


Russian Winter is a cradle to grave story of Nina Revekaya a once great ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet now living out her remaining days in Boston with only her maid for company. Her past comes to light when she decides to auction her jewels for the benefit of the Boston Ballet Foundation. Her secrets are pursued by a young associate from the auction house and a professor of Russian who believes that Nina can explain the mysteries from his own past.

The sections of the novel about life in Stalinist Russia and those regarding everything to do with ballet, both the work and the rewards, were very interesting. Author Daphne Kalotay has done her research. The lives of the artists, the fearful politics, the efforts of creativity under a repressive regime, Kalotay successfully builds a you-are-there world for all of that and love affairs, betrayals and heartbreak. However as often happens with stories that straddle the past and the present none of the contemporary elements of the novel come close to capturing your attention and involvement to the same degree as the historic elements do.

You won't be reading Russian Winter for the plot. It's old fashioned, picaresque and all ready to be Audrey Hepburn's greatest screen triumph of 1958. It's also entertaining but if you haven't figured out what will happen by page 62 you need to hang up your toe shoes. You will be reading Russian Winter to be enveloped in a specific moment in history in a fascinating backstage environment.

Happy

The Gendarme

Flower!

Why do you pick up a book? What makes that book alluring as opposed to the one next to it? Everyone has their sucker points. I'm a sucker for: maps, unique type styles, fabrics, patterns, shoes with no feet in them (But never, never ever feet with no shoes on them!), dishes, tea kettles and tea pots, partially revealed figures and the just plain pretty. Since I buy lots of books there must be an awful lot of covers that peak my interest. Of course you may judge a book worthy of picking up by it's cover but you don't always buy it. I did touch and then buy The Gendarme by first time author Mark Mustian. I had not heard anything about this novel prior to seeing it displayed in an independent bookstore but the cover is so striking (shades of the National Geographic Afghan girl) and so simple that I was compelled to grab it and have a look. If my local chain store was stocking this title at all it was not in one of the many piles of books nor was it faced out in the new fiction section so it did not get my attention.


The gendarme is Emmett Conn. Emmett is a World War I vet near the end of his life. Although he's suffered from memory problems since being injured during the war that prevent him from remembering much of that experience and his life before it, the war has defined his life. Now strange dreams that may or may not be hidden memories from that time are intruding on his life. In these dreams his status as a soldier is confused. He is a gendarme escorting Armenians out of Turkey. He is 'Ahmet Kahn' and he is desperately in love with a young refugee named Araxie. In Emmett's 'real' life his relationships with his grown daughter and grandson are typically complicated and in need of repair. To heal, understand and forgive himself for what may have been his participation in the Armenian Genocide, Emmett must extract the truth of his life from within these illusive and disturbing memories and dreams.

This was an excellent novel. The different periods were brought off beautifully. It was appealing to my love of historical fiction and the contemporary setting was successful as well and so did not suffer by comparison. This is not a history of the genocide but the elements of it that are incorporated into the plot are written with enough authority to capture the level of horrors of that experience. Mustian also writes movingly and believably about Emmett's two lives. The book is told in the first person so our travels with Emmett could very easily have become a tiresome litany of I, I, I and that does not happen. Emmett stays a provocative character throughout the book. Not every character is as fully realized as Emmett and Araxie are but the strength of your interest in the two of them makes up for that lack. Good job Mark Mustian!

Congrats to the wily cover designer of The Gendarme. You tempted me with your mad skills (or mad skillets as my niece says) and it paid off big. And. By the way, how much do you love the word gendarme anyway? Don't you want to keep saying it? Gendarme. Great title choice. That makes The Gendarme a triple threat: terrific novel, gorgeous cover and wonderful title.

Happy

P.S. That cover art reminded me of another recent triple threat novel, The Heretic's Daughter. Look here my friend. They are practically twins.

The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise

Hi Flower.

As a lover of historical fiction when I think of the Tower of London I think of the classics: missing princes, the rack, religious zealots, adulterers, years of imprisonment followed by beheadings and of course jewelery. It does not conjure up for me visions of hearth and home. Well there you have my ignorance because people do actually live there. Wouldn't that be great? For Rent: 3 bedroom, 1 bath with exposed stone, dank air, small windows, moat view and access to the battlements. Usurpers to the throne need not apply.


Following the mode of countless novels and every child's favorite, The Cross-Section Diagram-- and who doesn't love those by the way? They are perfect for extra nosy me!-- The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise slices away a chunk of the Tower to reveal a handful of its apartment dwellers. Among these locals there is a grieving Beefeater and his wife, a newly pregnant barmaid from the Rack and Ruin, a writer of erotica the Reverand Septimus Drew, a philandering Ravenmaster and a ticket inspector---and that's not even the zoo part. The zoo is set up by Balthazar, the Beefeater, by royal decree to house the exotic animals gifted to the Queen. And the Tortoise? He is Balthazar's 108 year old pet and don't blink, he's going to 'run' away. How all of these people and animals come together to end up with a happily ever after is what makes up the winsome wackiness of The Tower.

In her first book, The Matchmaker of Perigord, author Julia Stuart created a world you wish you could live in for the lovelorn matchmaking barber Guillaume. Amour-sur-Belle was a kind of Northern Exposure meets Chocolat. It was sweetly eccentric. The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise takes those qualities and adds more heart and humor. There are moments when the charm of The Tower is more dead weight than light weight but at those times your infatuation with the characters carries the day. This was such an engaging novel. Being transported to London to spend time with Balthazar and Co. put me in a happy place.

Happy

Buddha's Orphans

Flower!

I looked forward to reading Samrat Upadhyay's sophomore novel, Buddha's Orphans. His first novel, The Guru of Love was one of my favorite books when it came out in 2003. He has also published two collections of short stories: Arresting God in Kathmandu in 2001 and The Royal Ghosts in 2006 but I am not a fan of that form so I passed on those and complained that they were not novels.

Buddha's Orphans follows a pair of lovers through four generations of unsettling, chaotic Nepalese history. Abandoned as a baby, Raja's young life is a pillar to post affair taking him in short time through 3 separate families each in desperate straits from either economic or psychological disturbances. Early in his life Raja meets his one true love, Nilu. Despite an alcoholic parent, Nilu's life is idyllic compared to Raja's struggles for security. Nilu's family is stable and comfortable enough to assure her a measure of happiness in life. It's not giving anything away to let you know that the two marry. After that? Read it and find out for yourself.

There is no doubt that Upadhyay is a gifted novelist. In Orphans he takes you from the simplest tranquil moments to heartbreaking personal and political upheaval in a few quick words. There are a couple plot coincidences that make the story move along neatly but those are minor quibbles. The exotic locations and culture (for this American reader) have an effulgence even when they are hostile to the characters that makes me want to read more of Upadhyay's writing---but still not his short stories, sorry. However this novel isn't just a mishmash of it happens everywhere story line inserted into a unique location. Buddaha's Orphans is a life and family affirming story beautifully told.

Happy