Book Reviews, published by Elle magazine
March 2003
The Hazards of Good Breeding, Jessica Shattuck
Caroline Dunlap,
just graduated from college, is responsible for her brother
Eliot after their mother's nervous breakdown. Jack is an emotionally
distant father who does the right thing out of a sense of duty rather than
of feeling. This cast could have been compelling, but their story feels
more like a sociological study of the upper class than a novel.
Wonder When You'll Miss Me, Amanda Davis
A devastating and
beautiful novel about the journey of Faith Duckle, who
comes to peace with herself after being driven to the brink of madness by
her alcoholic mother and the horrific abuse of her high school classmates.
When the story opens, we learn that our heroine has just had a transforming
experience and dramatic weight loss, which she desperately hopes will
translate to a higher rung on the school social ladder. In the perpetual
story of adolescent angst, nothing ever changes. Through flashbacks, the
author lets us feel the horror that drives Faith to the edge, yet at the
same time she manages to avoid overly graphic descriptions. To help
herself
cope, Faith creates an alter ego, the Fat Girl, who serves as a mirror into
the dark recesses of Faith's soul, urging revenge against those who hurt
Faith the most. After attacking one of the boys at school, dying her hair,
and adopting the name of Annabelle, Faith runs away to the circus, talking
them into letting her stay on as a laborer, working for nothing but food and
a bed. At the circus, Faith is judged only by how hard she works; her past
doesn't matter, and she is finally able to achieve some semblance of peace
with it.
January 2004
Something
Rising by Haven Kimmel
"Do you know what kind of life I could have had?" is the oft-repeated
question of Laura, the pity-inducing mother of Something Rising. The book
is a study in contrasts between Laura and her younger daughter, Cassie, both
of whom live difficult lives taking care of others. Laura's life is
ultimately the result of her own choices, while Cassie's is one thrust upon
her, the caretaker of her broken family, including a slightly mentally ill
older sister, which she does unflinchingly, and without complaint.
At the age of seventeen, Laura chases after Jimmy, leaving behind her
wealthy fiancé and a life of could-have-beens. Jimmy is a pool hustler,
and
as reliable as any gambler. He comes and goes as he pleases, leaving his
wife and two daughters to fend for themselves. Eventually he leaves them
for the fiancée he had before his fling-induced marriage to Laura. Cassie
then picks up his vocation and becomes a champion pool-player in her own
right, hustling her own father. The story is a captivating one, inviting
the reader to empathize with Cassie without ever pitying her plight. The
end allows Cassie to find closure and answers Laura's question with a
gratifying conclusion.
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
The story of an Italian family in the Bronx which cannot be torn apart by
prison, death, divorce or remarriage is told in a series of vignettes in
Sacred Time. Ursula Hegi writes six chapters, each from a different
character's point of view spanning 1953 to 2002 in the Amedeo family.
Three
of the chapters were previously published as short stories, and the author
manages to keep their independent natures as well as blending all of them
together to seamlessly tell the story. Anthony is the only male grandchild
and he starts the tale from his point of view at the age of seven, having to
deal with his twin cousins, Belinda and Bianca when they move in with their
mother into his family's tiny apartment because their father is Elsewhere,
the family's euphemism for prison. Bianca falls from the window to her
death with Anthony as the only witness. The unasked question that haunts
everyone thereafter is whether or not he pushed her. Anthony never
answers,
but spends his life feeling guilty for whatever his role is, choosing life
paths to alleviate the guilt rather than to make himself happy. The rest
of
the family has their own secrets, leading them all to roadblocks on their
roads to (mostly) happiness.
The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
"Anyone in the neighborhood could tell you how Michael and Pauline first
met." is the opening line of the Amateur Marriage, the tale of the slightly
starred-crossed lovers who never should have married in the first place.
The day they met was the day Pearl Harbor was bombed and they were swept up
in the fervor that the rest of the country was, imbibing them with a passion
that otherwise would not have existed. Michael enlists to impress Pauline
then the two of them stay together out of a mixture of pity, comfort and
convention. The book is organized so that each chapter gives a snapshot of
their life, a different time, but always the same problems: opposite
temperaments and aspirations, Pauline runs hot and cold and wants a
comfortable life in the suburbs while Michael is steady and calm, preferring
his life in the Polish neighborhood he grew up in. He gives into her,
finding it the easiest way to live, but not without resentment. When their
oldest daughter runs away at the age of seventeen, it merely becomes a
metaphor of the essential piece that is missing from their own marriage.
Ultimately it is a satisfying look at one marriage that could represent so
many: original yet still generic.
December 2004
Victorine by Catherine Texier
This lushly written book made me want to wipe the sweat from my brow from
the colonial Vietnam humidity of the setting. Victorine is the heroine who
is trapped in a marriage from an unintended pregnancy. While her husband
is
nice enough, despite his philandering, she feels trapped, wondering if that
is all life is supposed to be: marriage and children? A chance meeting
with
her child-hood crush, Antoine, gives her the opportunity to leave it all
behind and see if she can figure out what her life should have been like.
Victorine's character is wonderfully three-dimensional. The reader feels
her indecision and guilt for leaving her children behind, and she is never
made out to be courageous for taking the path less traveled. While her
lover is not exactly as she imagined he would be, Victorine has the strength
of character not to blame him for her actions or for their less than ideal
living situations in the tropics. My only complaint would be that Texier
does not flesh out Antoine as much as our heroine and we therefore do not
fully understand why he has tracked her down and seduced her other than a
fifteen-year long crush.