Fiction – Book Barmy

The Names by Florence Knapp

I have to say this is a debut novel that actually deserves all the hype. I just finished reading The Names and found it unputadownable (and yes, I am going to stick with that word, thank you very much).

The story opens with Cora who’s torn about which name to give her newborn son on his birth certificate. When she gets to the registry office, the story splits into three parts, following what their lives could’ve looked like had she named her son one of three names: Gordon (after her abusive husband), Bear (yes, like the animal), or Julian (classy, artistic).

Each name leads to an entirely different life, not just for the newborn, but also for Cora, her daughter Maia, and a constellation of relationships which change and morph with every choice.

Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams

I read this beautiful novel when it first came out in 2015 (a gift from my sister) and somehow never kept any notes about it. I remember inhaling it in two or three evenings and putting it on my shelf as a definite keeper book. I also recall it was beautiful, romantic, and full of mystical symbolism – ahh the Irish.

Then, the other night I watched the fairly recent film adaptation starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Bonham Carter, and Gabriel Byrne (great cast right?)

The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin

I’ve been under the weather. A nasty, congestive cold with endless coughing which racks the lungs. So I needed a read that was light, yet entertaining — in order to get through what has turned into a couple of weeks. But, stop, enough complaining – and let me tell you about The Booklover’s Library.

In Nottingham England, widow Emma Taylor desperately needs a job to support herself and her young daughter, Olivia. Legal restrictions prohibit married women, or even widows with children from most employment opportunities. Emma eventually persuades the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s library to take a chance on her.

But first, let me do a Book Barmy digression here, okay?

Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

Crooked Heart is unlike any novel I’ve read about WWII – it is both compelling, and at times, wickedly humorous. It doesn’t so much focus on the Blitz or the war itself, but on the people who have to get by in the mess and ruins. And what people these are! Unscrupulous, cheating the system, and finagling their way through the tough times.

But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself…

The Black Wolf by Louise Penny

This is the twentieth in Ms. Penny’s beloved Gamache series, and it doesn’t miss a beat.

Picking up where The Grey Wolf left off, The Black Wolf is both chilling and prophetic installment in which Inspector Gamache realizes the domestic terror plot he risked everything to stop was only the beginning.

(Note: The Black Wolf is a continuation of The Grey Wolf, so it’s important they be read in order.)

Gamache, has retreated to the quiet refuge of Three Pines while he recovers from the injuries he sustained during the pursuit of the the Grey Wolf.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

I chose this short Christmas novella with the perfect cover during a cold and windy night over the holidays.

Brief but breathtaking, Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and is set in the days leading up to Christmas.

Bill Furlong is living a quiet, simple life in Ireland. He’s a happy man and dotes on his wife and five daughters. They have enough to eat and aren’t living on credit. The town has known hard times, factories are closing, and people are being laid off. Mr. Furlong is making ends meet by delivering coal and firewood to the townspeople.

Bedtime Stories Edited by Diana Secker Tesdell

We’ve been rearranging our guest room in preparation for some lovely visitors coming over the holidays. Found some some nice bedside tables and got rid of a bookcase that was much too large for the small room.

In clearing out the books from that bookcase, I found this lovely little volume, which I kept near the bed for guests. It’s from the Everyman’s Library Pocket Classics Series which was founded in 1906 by the famous Joseph Dent, a visionary publisher. He promised ‘infinite riches in a little room’. Lovely to hold, these little books have sewn bindings (quite rare), come with attached bookmark ribbons (love those) and beautiful covers. And each comes with the famous archaic quote

Everyman,

I will go with thee,

and be thy guide,

In thy most need, to go by thy side

But enough about the printing publication, what about the book itself?

The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The Sequel is aptly named, as it is truly the sequel to The Plot.

I’ll start with commenting on The Plot which is the first book in this series. You must read it first, so you’ll understand Anna’s story as a whole. Jake is a novelist who experienced early modest acclaim, but he hasn’t been able to replicate that success in his subsequent books.

He is now a writing instructor at small, second-rate writing program in Vermont. Jake borrows a plot idea from a student and expects no one would ever notice. But someone does and begins sending him notes threatening him. The anonymous notes torments him and he perpetually worried that he would be exposed. His wife, Anna has steps in to take care of things for Jacob. And in the end, laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. But there is so much more to this book than this simple recap. My full review HERE

Letters from Yellowstone by Diane Smith

Once I finished The Correspondent, I was reminded of another epistolary novel which I once started but never finished. So, I unearthed Letters from Yellowstone and finished it over the next two evenings.

In the spring of 1898, A. E. (Alexandria) Bartram—a spirited young woman with a love for botany—is invited to join a field study in Yellowstone National Park. The study’s leader, a mild-mannered professor from Montana, is less than pleased to discover that A.E. is actually a woman.

Once he and the other scientists overcome their shock, they forge ahead on a summer of research and adventure. They move from Mammoth Hot Springs to a camp high in the back country. They struggle with weather, rugged terrain and each other. As they make their way collecting amid Yellowstone’s beauty, the group is conflicted by differing views on science, nature, and economics.

This compelling story of a woman botanist and the assorted characters she meets during her Yellowstone summer drew me in from the beginning. And while some of the letters do slow down the pace, Ms. Smith does an admirable job with the epistolary format, language and manners of that time period,

Letters from Yellowstone contains bits of humor and much excitement, but most interestingly, it’s also a love letter to the joys of botanical discovery, as well as a thoughtful reflection on environmentalism, Native American displacement, and feminism at the dawn of a new century.

N.B.: The book does a wonderful job introducing non scientific readers to the wild flowers, plants, trees and wildlife of Yellowstone ~~ which can be viewed online at the National Parks Service websites.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Everyone, and I mean everyone, in the book world has been talking about The Correspondent. So when my reserve came through from my library, I raced over to get it and set aside my current books to dive right in.

Book Barmy readers know I adore epistolary novels — those written in the form of letters and/or emails. They can be tricky and often clunky, but Ms. Evans has masterfully nailed this one.

The Correspondent is centered on Sybil van Antwerp, aged 72 when we begin reading her letters, she’s crotchety and outspoken, intelligent and well read, independent and set in her ways. She lives alone and has just found out she will be losing her sight gradually over the next few years.

I was immediately pulled in to this uncompromising catalog of letters that through small reveals unfolds Sybil’s life, loves, regrets, guilt, and culpability. She’s made a few horrendous and life altering mistakes in her time, for which she has gut wrenching guilt. Sybil makes amends where she can, but that’s not always possible. In short, she lives just as we all do, trying the best she knows how.

Learning about her complexities, as well as her backstory was one of those wonderful reading experiences which I call the “book tingle”. (She often mentions the books she’s reading — her tastes are very similar to mine – could she be my new best friend?)

She maintains a correspondence with several writers including Ann Patchett, Joan Didion, who she calls a friend, and George Lucas among others. Sybil maintains because she writes physical letters, sent through the mail – attention must be paid, and she inevitably gets replies.

Sybil’s letter to Larry McMurtry after re-reading Lonesome Dove for the third time – left me choked up and nodding in agreement as it’s one of my all time favorite books:

“I am an old woman and my life has been some strange balance of miraculous and mundane.” Regarding the ending of Lonesome Dove and the bitter disappointment of the characters: “What I had seen those years ago as a lack of mercy became to me a presence of courage — to hurt them! To leave them in dismay! It was courageous because it was unbearable but it was true.”

I devoured this novel in two days and got lost in her life story where nothing was ever black or white, but always varying shades of grey.

Sadly I must return this copy to the library, but plan to purchase The Correspondent, not only to re-read but to add my collection of beloved epistolary novels. It will be happy alongside 84 Charing Cross Road, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, and Love and Saffron.

Please treat yourself to this moving, funny and exquisitely written novel.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from The Correspondent- (which I am sure to underline once I have my own copy):

I didn’t know it was happiness at the time, because it felt like busyness and exhaustion and financial stress and self doubt.

Remember: words, especially those written, are immortal. [the] simpler value of the written letter, which is, namely, that reaching out in correspondence is really one of the original forms of civility in the world

I have found it to be absolutely astounding, all the trouble living has turned out to be. Things nobody ever warned me about.
I wish someone would have thought to say to me, earlier on, ‘Sybil, over and over again serpents will emerge from the bottom of the sea and grab you by the feet.’ Of course I didn’t say anything of the sort to my own children, and I probably never would.