Monday, February 26, 2018

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas- Book Review

The hype on this book was pretty exciting. People were calling it the spiritual successor to The Handmaid’s Tale, so I was naturally excited. It was one of the Book of the Month selections the month after I had stopped subscribing to the service, so I knew it should be on my radar. After reading it, while I would not compare it to Handmaid’s, it is an incredible work of women’s lit on motherhood and loss.

The chapters are told from different perspectives and are named by what the woman represents- Daughter, Mother, Biographer, and Mender. What we know is abortion is illegal in the US and a new law is about to take effect requiring two (a man and a woman) to raise one child. It is sometime in the near future.

The Daughter has been having sex with a boy in her class who quickly moves on from her when he gets bored with her. He leaves her not knowing she is pregnant. The daughter does not want to keep the child and now must figure out what to do.

The Mother is the mother of two in a marriage which is failing. Her children continue to get on her nerves and are growing into this world where clearly males are in charge. She longs to get out of her family, but is completely stuck.

The Biographer is a teacher and a writer. She has been trying to become pregnant by in vitro fertilization and other methods, but is beginning to run out of time and money. The law is changing and if she does not get pregnant, she will be out of time to be a single mother. She longs to be a mom.

The Mender has been labeled the town witch. She performs natural abortions for those seeking her help. Recently, she has given a drink to induce labor to the local principal’s wife, who died shortly after she drank the tea. The Mender will have to fight for her life in a court which has banned any type of abortion.

As the story goes on, the 4 women’s lives will become intertwined with one another as they live their lives within this town.

There are parts of this book which are slow moving, but at the conclusion of the book, I found those parts to be more deliberately slow to draw out relationships or struggles within the women. Their characters become more and more alive as the story progresses and as the world becomes fuller. We see there are no easy answers or black and white answers within this world, even though the country has decided to make the abortion issue black or white.

As much as this is about motherhood and children, it is also very much about the loss of children/family. I will not give too much away as some of it lies in spoiler territory, but I can safely talk about the Biographer. She longs for motherhood and we see her heartbreak as her chances for such become slimmer and slimmer. She begins to get desperate and makes some questionable decisions. She is recognizing though that the family she longs for will not be, so she must wrestle with that loss of the child that never was.

This is overall an incredible book. I can see some being turned off by it because it approaches abortion directly and does not give a quick or easy answer. These women struggle and their world is very much against them, with the Mender, quite literally. There cannot be a happy ending for these women in this world and we recognize that from the very beginning of the book.

I gave this one 4 stars.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

The Adulterants by Joe Dunthorne- Book Review

If you are a regular reader of my blog or of my reviews, you know my love for Tin House books. I tend to enjoy them because they stick with me and continue to unfold the more I think about them. I was excited to receive a copy of The Adulterants from them for review, but I will say it has not been my favorite.

The book flows, almost dream like as Ray Morris goes from place to place throughout the book. He goes from cheating on his wife, Garthene, to being part of a looting incident, and into other conversations and adventures.

Ray is in a state of arrested development as he must grow up, but almost refuses to. He is not a man of great character (in the book) and at times can be almost unbearable. He is a guy you want to see fail.

As a praise, I would say that is a draw of this book. Ray is not great. Through his immaturity, we are forced to examine our own lives. We ask the questions around what makes one grown up?

The drawback is it is difficult to be with Ray. There are anti heroes who are terrible, but kind of fun to be around and there are anti heroes, who you do not want to spend much time with. For me, Ray was the later. I didn’t care if he succeeded or even got his comeuppance. It was a tough read for me.

I gave this one 3.5 stars.

Monday, February 12, 2018

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones- book review

There were a few books I anticipated for the first quarter of 2018 and this one was on the top 5. Then Oprah picked it as her book for this month and I knew it had to be a hit. I have to write, I picked it up to read on Friday afternoon and was done with it by Saturday afternoon reading it without any interruptions from other books. That is how much I enjoyed this book.

The book centers on Roy, Celestial, and Andre. Roy and Celestial are married and have known each other since college. Andre has known Celestial since birth and introduced Roy to Celestial as Andre and Roy were “boys.”

Celestial and Roy have a rocky marriage which becomes tested when Roy is arrested for rape, which he did not do. He has to serve out a sentence, during which Celestial’s life goes on. Andre is still in the picture and he and Celestial become a bit closer.

As the years pass, Roy writes to Celestial that he is coming home. How does one re-enter into a life, when life has been passing you by?

The great thing about this book is there are no innocent characters. There is not a character you feel sorry for, although you can side with each person at one time or another, which is incredible writing. Roy, Celestial, and Andre all have deep flaws, yet are just trying to get by in life with a very complex situation.

While my only minor criticism is that at times, this plays out a bit soap opera like, it is very minor. The book explores the complexity of love, marriage, what family is, and how every choice (even if it is not your choice) has implications and complications. For example, Roy is imprisioned, not by his choice, but due to a slanted justice system- does he really expect Celestial to sit still and wait for him? Does he really expect things to stay exactly the same? He was not a great guy to begin with, wouldn’t that come into play? These are all questions the book wrestles with.

The entire story is told from one of the 3 characters with brief intervals where the book is told through letters. While the straight prose portions told you exactly how characters were feeling, I found the letters just as revealing as pain is shared through these letters. Sometimes months pass before another letter arrives and the reader is left to fill in the blanks.

I cannot recommend this book enough. This is definitely one of the top 10 contenders already. I gave this one 4.5 stars.

Friday, February 2, 2018

The Dry by Jane Harper- book review

I purchased The Dry within weeks of its release and simply sat on it. It was added to the TBR pile that kept getting bigger and The Dry sat for almost a year. A week or so ago, I wanted to read a good mystery/thriller and there was The Dry just staring at me. I cannot believe I sat on this one for so long because it lived up to all the rave reviews.

In an Australian small town, a man shoots his wife and child leaving one child alive and then shooting himself in the head down the road. It seems an open and shut case, but the man’s father doesn’t think it is all that simple and ensures the man’s childhood friend comes back to town with the simple note “I know you lied and Luke lied.”

Aaron Falk returns to the town who had driven off he and his father years ago. Aaron and Luke were the prime suspects of the death of a young girl back in his teens. The town has not forgotten.

As Falk looks into the death of his friend, he begins to see patterns which connect deeply to his past. As he investigates, the town begins to also remember his past and aggressions begin to gain and gain. Falk is now on a timeline to solve this mystery before the anger from the past catches up to him.

I will warn readers, this is a slow moving mystery. There are no great shootouts or car chases or anything like that. This is a slow simmer in a small town who remember years ago and holds resentment no matter how long time has past. This is more of a character study of small town life than deep mystery.

That does not mean the mystery is irrelevant. The past mystery will overtake the present one the more Falk remembers, but that was perfectly fine in this book. The past mystery will show how the town really doesn’t care that Luke and his family died. For them, it is sweet justice.

The characters are incredibly alive in this book. This town lives and breathes. You can almost feel the dryness of the land and the farms surrounding it. The simmering tension just gets to the reader the more the book goes on. Even the ending plays into this a bit.

I really enjoyed this one, but again, it is a slow burn. I gave this one 4 stars.