Well this weekend we get to escape our northern climate to visit my parents in Southern California, so that should be a nice warm break. So excited, woohoo, feel like we paid our dues. There’s a bit of snow here on the ground, which makes it seem like we went from summer directly into winter, though leaves are still on the trees or falling to the ground, mixing with the snow, which is confusing. But apparently fall and milder temps are forecasted to make an appearance next week, so hold on to your hat.
Meanwhile the book festival is going on here — sadly I’m going to miss most of it — but I was able to meet Canadian author Esi Edugyan this week, who spoke about her new novel “Washington Black.” She signed a copy for me and I’m stoked to read it. The novel sounds like it begins as a historical, slave narrative and turns into a tale of adventure and scientific exploration. Wow, it’s receiving some high praise and has made the shortlist for both the Man Booker Prize and Canada’s Giller Prize. I can’t help but think it’s going to win the Giller, which will be announced in mid-November. So I hope to read it before then. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a few reviews of what I finished lately.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens / 384 pages / Putnam / 2018
For the most part I enjoyed and admired much of this debut novel about a young abandoned girl (named Kya) surviving on her own in a shack at the edge of the coastal marsh in North Carolina. Her mom skips town, then her siblings trail off and eventually her drunk, abusive dad. To locals, she’s known as the Marsh Girl, for living amid the wild landscape. Much of the story is about her isolation and how it influences her behavior over the decades.
To me, something about the story had a sort of “To Kill a Mockingbird” feel to it — perhaps because it’s set in a rural Southern landscape and is a coming of age tale of a young girl in the 1950s and ’60s that also has a murder mystery and a court case to it. Her lawyer Tom reminded me a bit too of an Atticus /Gregory Peck-like figure in “To Kill a Mockingbird” — as the girl becomes the prime suspect in the death of the town’s star quarterback after he is found deceased in the marsh.
“Where the Crawdads Sing” is an easy, quick read, which follows Kya’s romantic relationships with two boys over the years and her friendship with an African American couple that sells her gas for her little boat and befriends her. The story is often beautiful in its renderings of its coastal marsh setting and Kya’s life. The author, who was previously known for her nature writings about Africa, grew up in Georgia and North Carolina, which obviously runs in her blood, judging from her vivid descriptions of the plant and wildlife in the novel.
Although some parts of the story seemed a bit of a stretch in believability — of a 6-year-old (at the beginning) surviving in the wilds without much food… not going to school etc., I went with it. Though by the very end I sort of thought the story went a bit too far — too nicely tied up or sweet or too much about poor Kya’s aloneness, but still I liked much of the world it created and I fell into its storytelling easily and quickly. All in all, it was a debut that swept me up pretty willingly.
Varina by Charles Frazier / 368 pages / Ecco / 2018
This historical novel pleasantly surprised me in consuming me with its story about the real life of Varina Howell Davis, the First Lady of the Confederacy. Little did I know that her story would be such a tale, especially in the hands of author Charles Frazier, who returns to the subject of the American Civil War some 20 years after writing his prize-winning book “Cold Mountain.” Wow I should have known it would be good.
Apparently in marrying a Mississippi landowner and widower twice her age, Varina Howell thought she would be living a quiet, secure life on a cotton plantation having children. But when her husband Jefferson Davis, a war hero from the Mexico War, ends up pursuing politics, her life takes a much different turn …. eventually putting her in the center of one of the darkest moments in American history when he becomes president of the Confederacy and the nation splits in two. Uh-oh.
The story unfolds as Varina is looking back on her life in 1906 and recounting it in episodes to a freed slave who she once rescued from the streets of Richmond to live with their family. Unlike her husband, Varina had mixed feelings about slavery and the War, and even projected its failure, though looking back, she acknowledges her guilt and complicity, believing that “being on the wrong side of history carries consequences.”
The novel jumps back and forth in time amid her life but what particularly riveted me was Varina’s flight out of Richmond with her six children and a few aides in tow as the South is about to collapse. They escape by railway and then in an ambulance wagon and on horses heading south as fugitives trying to make it to Florida and then escape to Cuba. Danger seems to lurk everywhere as they journey for weeks with a bounty on their heads. They run into a few survivors paranoid after the Union’s scorched-earth tactics and with people resorting to barbarism. It’s a dicey time (slightly reminiscent of Inman’s journey home in “Cold Mountain”) and you know their prospects aren’t going to turn out well from history, but you’ll want to stay tuned to Varina’s life in the aftermath of the war.
It surprised me her strength and longevity and what she ultimately learns over the course of her 80 years — among other things: that the right side of the War won. Varina stood by her husband after he was arrested but also spent little more than half of their 45 year marriage with him. Their marriage was a challenging one, and five of their six children died before Varina passed away in 1906. Oh it was hard and there was a lot to mourn, grieve, and feel guilty about. Late in life, after her husband’s death, she earned her living writing for publications in her adopted hometown of New York City, where she was friends with General Grant’s wife, Julia, and knew such figures as Oscar Wilde and Booker T. Washington.
Varina’s was a tragic and complex life that seemingly came a long ways. Apparently she was quite educated and well read, could read Greek, though she grew up in Mississippi where her husband’s family owned slaves. Many of them seemed like close family to her, but she never in the book absolves herself from the complicity of being on the side of the Southern states during the War.
I found Varina fascinating — flawed but sympathetic too. In the retellings of her life story, the novel reflects on the institution of slavery and her marriage to a man who comes off — as one reviewer put it — as a “delusional egotist whose skewed sense of honor cost countless lives.” It’s a book that’s well done, thoughtful, and in various ways beautifully written. Although it’s not a quick read and shifts around a bit unevenly, I think it’ll be one of my favorites of the year … as it enlightened me and piqued my interest to a great extent. I first listened to the audiobook of it, which is excellent, and then when it expired too soon, I read the novel from the beginning. I guess that’s when you know a book is excellent.
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn / audiobook / pub date 2006
Yes I finally got to this debut crime novel by the author of “Gone Girl,” which was turned into a eight-part TV miniseries this past July starring Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson among others. I listened to the novel as an audiobook, which worked well and kept my interest for most of the novel. You probably know the story is about a reporter named Camille Preaker who returns to her small town in Missouri to cover the brutal murders of two young girls. Along the way she must unravel secrets about her own past — and those of her family’s — to get to the bottom of the story and survive her homecoming.
What started out to me as a fairly interesting crime mystery with a flawed protagonist — sort of dissolved into an improbable soupy mess by the very end. I’m not sure I believed all of the whodunit, or that the extra plot twist made much sense to me. It was over the top, but then again that was the craziness of “Gone Girl” too. I watched one episode of the miniseries, but I’m not sure I want to continue to fathom actress Patricia Clarkson as the creepy Mother. After all, she was the nice lady in the 2003 movie “The Station Agent.”
Last but not least, I can report that I saw the movie “A Star Is Born” over the weekend. And for sure, it’s got some entertaining and powerful musical performances in it. Lady Gaga as a singer named Ally puts her voice to the test in impressive fashion, and Bradley Cooper, as an aging musician, is none too shabby either. One could probably lose track of time just looking into his eyes and shaggy face.
Yet despite all that — my husband and I found the script a bit waning or weak and dated: and perhaps the paternalistic story a bit ill-timed. Maybe because of all the hype and critical praise, I was expecting the movie to be Unreal fantastic (movie of the year kind of stuff), and when it was just okay enjoyable, it seemed a bit less. For those who had similar reactions, you might like some of what reporter Libby Hill had to say in her Los Angeles Times article “A Star Is Born Dims in the Shadow of Kavanaugh Confirmation,” which I thought made some good points.
Still “A Star Is Born” is an entertaining movie (though a bit dark too), but maybe just temper your expectations.
That’s all for now. What about you — have you seen this movie or read any of these novels — and if so, what did you think?
