Fiction – Page 13 – Book Barmy

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn

After my last slow, careful reading of Crossriggs, I wanted my next book to be an easier read. But my mind was reluctant to leave the 19th Century. Then, lo and behold, my requested copy of The Jane Austen Project came through from the library.

I dashed over to my branch, and read the back cover blurb as I walked home — (What do you say, you don’t read and walk? It can be done, albeit carefully in a city) — A Jane Austen time travel piece? Why yes — yes please. Book Barmy readers know I’m a sucker for time travel books.

Dr. Rachel Katzman and Liam Finucaneis come from a technically advanced future where food is 3-D generated, there’s been an ecological die off, and time travel has become successful. As part of a scientifically sanctioned journey, Rachel and Liam are selected and rigorously trained to travel back to 1815. Their assignment is to meet and befriend Jane Austen in order to bring back a trove of lost letters, as well as an unpublished manuscript.

The book opens with our couple waking up from their time travel in a damp Surrey field in 1815, and in forthcoming pages we quickly learn the backstory and the premise of their time travel assignment.

In order to meet Jane Austen, their first task is to integrate themselves with Henry Austen, her favorite brother. They pose as brother and sister, William and Mary Ravenswood from Jamaica looking for investments with Henry who owns several banks in 1815 London. They find a flat in London, purchase clothing, hire servants and begin their adventure.

There much to enjoy in discovering The Jane Austen Project first hand, so I won’t tell you much more about the plot — at the risk of ruining it for you. But I will tell you that Ms. Flynn, an Austen scholar, has created a most realistic time of Jane Austen.

Her descriptions are stellar, giving the reader a true feel of the London streets, the stark contrast of poverty versus the gentility, the food, the servants, the country estates, and the clothing — turns out, 19th century men were the true fashionistas.

I sighed in envy over a scene where William and Mary (Liam and Rachel) go book shopping for Jane Austen’s contemporaries at none-other than, London’s Hatchard’s Bookstore which is still in operation today, just as it has been since 1797.

The Jane Austen Project shines with vivid authenticity, the author weaves in colorful details of the Austens’ lives — how they looked, their family dynamics, their travels, and the state of their health. Ms. Flynn also nails the time period details — manners, morals, habits, and gender roles. Mary (Rachel) is a doctor, but can not publicly use her skills when first Henry, and then Jane, falls ill. She must have William (Liam) pose as a doctor and she advises him from behind the scenes.

The usual time travel rules (yes, there are time travel rules don’t ya know) insist travelers do not impact history. But, right or wrong, Ms. Flynn allows her time travelers to be human, interact with the people of the time and indeed effect small changes. When Mary (Rachel) observes her first chimney boy crawling up her chimney to clean it, she is horrified and pays his boss to release the alarmingly young boy to her custody. Then there’s the scene where Fanny (yes that Fanny) is choking and Mary (Dr. Rachel) automatically uses the Heimlich maneuver, unheard at that time. When Henry Austen proposes marriage to Mary, she must put him off for as long as it takes to complete their assignment. Also, there are changes (obviously fictional) to Jane Austen’s later novels, but I’ll let you discover those imaginative bits for yourself

For me, the pure joy of The Jane Austen Project were the scenes with Jane Austen, Henry, her sister Cassandra, and the various friends and family who are (or will become) characters in her novels. If you’re like me, you’ll hold your breath when our intrepid travelers finally get to meet and share tea with Jane.

Jane, herself, is depicted with a quick intelligence, quiet intensity, and a keen ability to read others. And in 1815, she has already published some of her works. Just imagine being a fly on the wall during this scene where Mary (Rachel) and Jane Austen discuss Pride and Prejudice:

She (Jane) laughed. “Life is full of such oddities is it not? How did Mr. Darcy happen to fall in love with Elizabeth Bennet, when he could have had any lady in the kingdom?”

“Because you made her so lovable?”

“Oh, yes, perhaps that was why.”

While the premise of The Jane Austen Project may seem preposterous (and perhaps it is), this is a fascinating re-creation — an escape into the world of Jane Austen — and I loved every moment of my imaginary and wonderful journey.

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Crossriggs by Jan & Mary Findlater

I often roam my favorite book blogs to see what others are reading and recommending. (Just what I need, more to read, but nonetheless, I roam away.)

Both Eden Rock and Heavenali praised a somewhat obscure Scottish novel called Crossriggs.

My library didn’t have a copy, so I turned to our inter library system. My little book had to travel almost 700 miles from the library at University of California, Long Beach — which cost me nothing. (Most every library has an inter-library loan arrangement for its patrons, and may I just say bravo to our public libraries throughout the country, both big and small.) The loan did come with some stringent rules — I could only renew it once, and late fees racked up at $1 per day. So with that pressure, and after taking a moment to admire the beautiful illustration on the cover –“Lady in Grey” by Daniel MacNee, I opened this book and fell in.

The novel opens with introductions to the principal characters in the small Scottish village of Crossriggs, then the first chapter enticingly sets up the plot:

These, then, were the principal characters in our little world of Crossriggs – a world that jogged along very quietly as a rule, and where “nothing ever happened”, as the children say. Then quite suddenly, two things happened. Matilda Chalmers husband died in Canada, and we hear that she was coming home with all her children to live at Orchard House. That was the first event. The next was that the Admiral’s good-for-nothing son died abroad, and young Van Cassilis, his grandson and heir, came to Foxe Hall. Then and there happenings began.

Crossriggs was written in 1908 by by two sisters who together produced novels, poetry, short stories and non-fiction. At the beginning of their writing career, the sisters were so impoverished, their first works were scribbled and submitted on discarded sheets of grocer’s paper.

This is an old fashioned read, reminiscent of Jane Austen but without all the characters. (I always have trouble keeping Austen’s multitude of characters straight*.) Because Crossriggs takes place in a small village, the characters are limited in number and more manageable for the reader.

Alexandra Hope, our main character, practically sparkles off the pages — full of happiness, love and with ambitions and ideas passed down from her vegetarian, head-in-the-clouds, idealist father…called Old Hopeful. Alex is described as rather plain, but brimming with dreams, imagination and mostly energy. A male admirer in the village describes her best:

“‘Alex,’ he said, ‘you have a genius for living! You just know how to do it . . . You’re alive, and most of us, with our prudence and foresight and realisation of our duties, are as dead as stones!’”

When Alex’s widowed sister Matilda comes home with her five children, the household is not only strained for space, but also for money. Alex adores her sister and children, and happily takes on running the now overflowing household and more than her fair share of caring for Matilda’s children. Alex acquires two jobs to bring in the necessary funds to feed and care the now expanded family. Unlike Alex, Matilda is beautiful but meek, lacking the bravery of her sister. She seemed to be always sewing something (thus the beautiful cover).

Their increased family size and the strain upon the household finances does not trouble Alex’s father , Old Hopeful — he leaves the worrying to Alex:

The ordinary limitations of poverty were nothing to a man of Old Hopeful’s temperament; “A handful with quietness! A dinner of herbs where love is! Who would want more? …What I spent I had: what I save I lost: What I gave I have.”

Old Hopeful is a loving father, and while Alex finds him frustrating, her love for him shines through:

Futile, Quixotic, absurd and unsuccessful, as she knew her father to be, she recognized that he had the right of the argument of life.

The reader can sense the authors took great pains to get everything just right – the characters, the village settings, the weather, the change of seasons — all lovingly crafted. Many of the observations are pure delight:

But the house that had once been the Manse remained much the same always — no bow-windows or iron railings there. A tall man (and the Maitlands were all tall men) had to stoop his head to enter the low doorway – an open door it had always been to rich and poor alike. The square hall was half-dark and paved with black and white flags; the sitting rooms, low-roofed and sunny, wore always the same air of happy frugality with their sun burnt hangings and simple, straight-legged furniture. There was no attempt at decoration for decoration’s sake, only an effect which was the outcome of austere refinement in the midst of plenty.

And this description of the beloved Miss Bessie’s eccentric wardrobe:

Miss Bessie’s taste was not coherent, and as time went on, this want of sequence increased. It seemed as if she could not adhere to a scheme even in braid and buttons, for her bodice would be trimmed with one kind of lace, and her wrists (those bony wrists with their plaintive jingle of bangles) with cascades of another pattern. In her headgear especially she was addicted to a little of everything – a bow of velvet, a silk ribbon, an ostrich tip, a buckle, a wing from some other fowl, and always, always, a glitter of beads.

Crossriggs is definitely a period piece and, like Trollope or Dickens, ones reading must slow to a careful pace. The sisters Findlater are excessive in their use of quotation marks. This can get confusing, as not only are conversations in quotes, but the characters thoughts are also in quotes. I found myself thinking “wait a minute did she actually say that?” “Oh no, she was just thinking it…” See how I use the quotations – confusing. Also, there’s a great many exclamation points, which again, is part and parcel of the period.

But this slow reading pace will reward the reader with some priceless observations and tidbits.

…the faint jangle of the door-bell (the Hopes’ door-bell sounded as if it had lost its voice from talking too much).

and this

“Things are so different when looked at from the outside! Of course they are, that is whey we make most of our mistakes in life.”

For me, the best part of Crossriggs was Alex, I really liked her spirit and found myself cheering her at every insurmountable turn. Towards the end, a great trip is planned…and Alex remains Alex as with this rebuttal about needing a new dress:

“Pooh!, Alex cried. Clothes! Why Matilda, there’s the world – the great round, interesting world to see!”

And who could not relate to her ability to escape into books:

…Alex sat by the fire, snatching half an hour of reading before the children all came tumbling in again. Her thoughts were very far away, for she had the happy power of forgetting the outer world altogether when she read anything that interested her.

The plot takes some twists – some expected and unexpected (there’s an accidental death that shook me for hours), but it’s the village life, the characters and the observations that truly shine in this book.

Crossriggs may not be for everyone, but I adored it. It’s a slow, quiet read and spurred by my inter-library loan deadline, I stuck with it and am very happy to have made the effort. It was sad to send this copy of Crossriggs back home to Long Beach. I’m going to find my own copy to add to my library.

*I have a little book called Who’s Who in Jane Austen and the Brontes. I also have one for Dickens. Immensely helpful for all three authors.

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Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty by Ramona Ausubel

Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty presented me with a dilemma — the age old struggle of plot versus characters. Can you like one but not the other?

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The book opens in 1976, with this delightfully written description of Fern, Edgar and their three young children enjoying their summer house on Martha’s Vineyard:

“Summer fattened everybody up. The family buttered without reserve; pie seemed to be everywhere. They awoke and slept and awoke in the summerhouse on the island, ate all their meals on the porch while the sun moved across their sky. They look out at the saltwater cove and watched the sailboats skim and tack across the blue towards the windward beach, littered with the outgrown shells of horseshoe crabs.”

“The children were brown with white, white behinds and they wore anklets of poison ivy blisters. For them the whole point of life was to be wet and dry eight times a day and never clean. There was always sand in the bed and none of them wanted it to end.”

However, at the end this holiday Fern and Edgar discover that their seemingly endless supply of inherited money has run out.

Fern comes from one of the oldest and richest families in Chicago. Her parents are elegant, classy and self assured in their position. Their historic house reflects the worn shabbiness of wealth. Their clothes are old but so well made they last forever. Even their roses reflect this attitude:

“Their rosebushes were so old that some of the branches were a big as ankles and when they bloomed they were just imperfect enough, as if someone had come out at dawn and carefully ruffled them.”

In contrast, Edgar’s family is new money and his mother Mary studies the old money types, attempts to mimic class — redecorating every year and buying only the most current clothes each season:

“If Edgar’s parents could have worn clothes sewn from money itself they would have. Everything they had on was the most expensive version available. Mary wore a silk shift [—-] a mink stole even thought it was summer and yellow heels that had been made for her very feet by an ancient Italian cobbler.”

Ms. Ausubel beautifully weaves this tale set in the 1960’s and 70’s and chocks it full of dark humor, bittersweet ironies, and a string of bizarre vignettes. From Fern and Edgar’s indifferent parents and their lackluster childhoods – we begin to see that wealth – whether old or new – has consequences.

After Fern and Edgar get married they profess to embrace the 1960’s counter culture movement – trying desperately to eschew the wealth that follows them. But after three kids they have settled into enjoying the trappings of their privilege – sailboats, summer houses. When they learn that this accustomed wealth, always safely in the background, is gone — they both fall apart.

“Everything around her — the house, the furniture, the manner of life — was poised to evaporate. She was a soft body trying to prepare herself for the unknown future.”

Fern and Edgar each experience what could be called an extensional crisis. Edgar takes an extended sailboat trip with his mistress, and Fern, learning of the affair, escapes on a cross country road trip with a stranger (a gentle giant of a man- no really, a giant!). In one of the strangest plot twists ever, neither checks with the other and they each take off believing the other is staying home with the children. “Despicable people!” I sputtered out loud as I read these pages (What? Don’t you talk to your book’s characters?).

Their respective journeys are told against the frightening tableau of their young confused children who are afraid of being sent to an orphanage, so pretend everything is normal. The children forge meals from whatever they can find, get dressed, go to school, and play outside as always. No one realizes they are alone. Finally, an astute teacher catches on, and both parents race home. But that’s all I’ll tell you.

I found Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty* often dark, sometimes hilarious, but always captivating. A wonderful treatise on the moneyed privileged and the pitfalls of wealth – both for those who have it and those who once did.

Ms. Ausubel can certainty write and has created way (way) out of the ordinary characters — characters who are shallow, brave, mean, immature, wise. While I often despised the characters, they were real and leapt off the page, working their way into my brain. I devoured this book and whenever I wasn’t reading it – I wanted to be.

*I keep wanting to call it Sons and Daughters of Good and Plenty.

An advanced readers copy was provided by Riverhead books, an imprint of Penguin Random House

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Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

For a long time, I’ve had Orphan Train recommended (actually thrust upon me) by fellow readers, various bookstore customers, and, yes, even my Mom ~~ all opinions I value…but for some reason I never got around to reading it.

After my last two magical-mystical-tour reads, I was ready for some reality. I unearthed my long ignored copy of this popular novel and dove right in.

In case you’re one of the few (like me) who haven’t read this historical novel, I’ll give it a proper Book Barmy review.

It’s 2011 Maine and 17-year old Molly, a Penobscot Indian, has been sent from one foster home to another, from school to school, and has been in and out of trouble. Her most recent crime? Stealing a beat up paperback copy of Jane Eyre from the library.

(Sigh, Jane Eyre really? I’m already on her side, mentally figuring out the cost of a multiple times read mass market paperback to an entire library system, versus the cost of juvie –)

Molly is facing juvenile detention, when her boyfriend, Jack, offers up a solution. His mother, Terry, is a housekeeper for a 91-year old woman, who wants to clear out an attic of memorabilia. Jack suggests Molly do community service hours by helping Vivian clean the attic.

Together they form a prickly friendship and as they go through the boxes and mementos, the book switches narratives to 1929, when Vivian was nine-year old Niamh Power.

Her family emigrated from Ireland to the tenements of New York. Her father was a drunk and her mother depressed (although she taught Niamh excellent sewing skills). With both parents incapable, Niamh takes care of her siblings, especially her baby sister, Maise.

Then a horrible fire leaves Niamh an orphan, and she is herded onto an orphan train. These trains were arranged to take orphans from areas such as the New York tenements and give them to anyone who wanted a child. These children were left with people in the hopes that they would be given a good life. Some were, but many were nothing more than indentured slaves on remote and hardscrabble farms.

The author has created an unforgettable character in Niamh, who brings this little known part of our history alive. As an old woman, she helps the young Molly see that she is not the only orphan to suffer:

“I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again.”

Ms. Baker Kline did an extraordinary amount of research, and as a result, the story comes alive with rich details and colorful descriptions. I knew nothing about this part of history — orphan trains — and it’s as interesting and heartbreaking as it gets.

Orphan Train is a powerful read, both historically and emotionally.

I now join the legions who highly recommend this book.

Now I’m a bit miffed at myself for waiting so long…

N.B. Ms. Baker Kline has new book — A Piece of the World about Christina Olson, the real life model in Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World.

I’ll be reading this very soon.

No waiting this time.

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The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna Van Praag

I was recently surprised to enjoy THIS book about reincarnation. Well, as if on a mission from another universe, another unusual book entered my orbit.

Really liking the cover, I opened this book on my Kindle, and before I knew it, I had read two chapters.

Magic, fantasy – not usually my cup of tea (true confession time, I only made through the first Harry Potter book), but I kept reading well into the night and finished The House at the End of Hope Street the very next evening.

When Alba, an extraordinarily smart woman experiences what she believes is a career-ending event, she wanders the streets with no idea what should happen next. That’s when a large Victorian house pops up out of nowhere, covered in fragrant wisteria and with a sense calm that emanates from within.

Peggy, the caretaker of the house, appears to expect Alba. And oh how the house welcomes her. In this house, the floors are soft under foot, the walls breathe and hug you, and one sees colors when words are spoken. Important notes flutter down from the ceilings for the intended recipient, and the framed portraits of past residents of the house, such as Agatha Christie, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf chat away, giving advice and counsel.

Turns out this magical house has been rescuing extraordinary women, for 200 years. And each woman, including Alba, have 99 nights to stay in the house and turn their lives around.

“If you stay I can promise you this. This house may not give you what you want, but it will give you what you need. And the event that brought you here, the thing you think is the worst thing that’s ever happened? When you leave, you’ll realize it was the very best thing of all.”

Peggy, the 80+ caretaker of this magical house, is my favorite character. She lives in her own private tower of the house, entertains a mysterious lover every Sunday, eats cake for breakfast, and has an invisible cat named Mog.

We also learn the stories of Carmen and Greer, the other residents of the house, who also arrived heartbroken, hopeless, not knowing what to do:

“[each woman] must be allowed to feel her grief, must dive headlong into despair, before she can emerge again, her spirit richer and deeper than before”

One would think that Ms. Van Praag would have trouble creating believable characters in and among all this hocus pocus magic but each character is rendered with realistic layers of character flaws and redeeming talents.

But my favorite part of this book was the rooms that magically fill with objects to suit the occupant. Greer loves clothes so her room is filled with an amazing wardrobe. Alba loves books so her room is filled with the books the house thinks she should read. What’s not to like about that fantasy?

I felt quite buoyed upon finishing this book, believing the magic — that problems can be surmounted, that heartbreak can be lessened, and troubles put in their proper place.

Magic sure, but it’s Magically Delicious

A digital advanced readers copy was provided by Penguin Books via Netgalley.

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The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katrina Bivald

I have enjoyed many books about reading, bookshops and book lovers. So when The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend was compared to The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry — I had high hopes.

In this novel Sara, a Swedish woman, comes to Broken Wheel, Iowa to visit her pen pal and fellow book lover, Amy. But when she arrives in this rundown small town she finds that her elderly friend recently died and left instructions for Sara to stay in her house as long as she wants. Sara, a devoted bookworm tries to hide herself in the books from Amy’s library but soon gets drawn into the town and the lives of its local inhabitants — a motley crew of misfits. These normally insular Iowans gradually warm up to Sara and make her a part of their town. She opens a bookshop and recommends the perfect reads for her new friends and neighbors. Much of the story is about the effect Sara and her reading recommendations have on the inhabitants of Broken Wheel.

The book is interspersed with the past correspondence between Amy and Sara and I really wanted these letters to tell more about their relationship and shared love of reading. But, sadly the letters are stilted and reveal little about either Amy or Sara.

The small saving grace in The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is Sara’s love for books — I had to smile, as Sara explains the difference between the smell of a paperback and that of a hardback — a true book lover.

I also nodded in recognition at this description of Sara’s school experience:

“Others might have found themselves stuck in a tired, old high school in Haninge, but she had been a geisha in Japan, walked along with China’s last empress through the claustrophobic, closed off rooms of the Forbidden City, grown up with Anne and the others in Green Gables, gone through her fair share of murder, and loved and lost over and over again.”

This is a sweet but predictable (and often trite) story of friendship, small-town America, and the love of reading and books. It tries to be life affirming, but instead, wanders into the clichéd.

Reading The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend was an enjoyable, if bland, experience.

I just wished it could have been better.

A digital advanced readers copy was provided by Sourcebooks Landmark via Netgalley.

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Blind Date

I just had a blind date with a book.

Plucked at random from my stack of unread advanced readers copies, I opened The Forgetting Time, by Sharon Guskin knowing very little, apart from this pre-publication blurb:

What happens to us after we die? What happens before we are born? At once a riveting mystery and a testament to the profound connection between a child and parent, The Forgetting Time will lead you to reevaluate everything you believe…

The plot centers around the theory that some people have lived previous lives which they remember as small children but start to forget as they get older.

Four-year-old Noah has fear of water and refuses to take a bath or even wash his hands, he also suffers from nightmares and constantly asks his mom to take him ‘home’ and to see his ‘other mom’.

“Not now Noah? I see. It happened in another time.”

“Yes, when I was big.”

Janie, Noah’s mom, is shaken and confounded by her son’s behavior. This is his home and she is his mom. Noah knows about things he has never been exposed to – the Harry Potter books, lizards, and how to score a baseball game. Is Noah the reincarnation of another boy who died? Janie is skeptical but enlists the help of a Dr. Anderson, who has researched and documented this phenomenon. Together they begin a journey that rattles not only their beliefs about Noah’s situation, but also their own lives.

Really Book Barmy? Reincarnation? No, not for me, you’re thinking. I thought the very same thing, but I must tell you, by the end of the second chapter, I was immediately smitten with The Forgetting Time.

This book has multiple layers. It’s a thought-provoking look into reincarnation. But it’s also a murder mystery. There is much about hurt, fear, aging, and death. But mostly, The Forgetting Time is about the connections humans have with each other. It shouldn’t all work together — but it does – and does so very well.

With her beautiful prose, Ms. Guskin chases away any doubts about reincarnation, and creates a world where we believe in the real possibility that there is life beyond the one, singular one we all have before us.

“You only live once. But was it true? That was the problem, wasn’t it? She had never thought about it in any deep way. She hadn’t had the time or inclination to speculate about other lives: this one was hard enough to manage.”

Interspersed throughout the book are fascinating case studies of other children with inexplicable memories of previous lives. And so the author steadily draws the reader into reality of what is happening to Noah and the possibility of a life reborn.

There is much to think about when reading this novel, lives well (or not so well) lived, death, loss, hope — and the constantly changing human experience.

“…[Dr. Anderson] thought of Heraclitus: a man cannot step in the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.”

When evaluating this blind date, I have never read anything quite like The Forgetting Time – I found it both thought provoking and unforgettable. And while I still don’t know how much I believe in reincarnation — this book left me wanting to believe.

An advanced readers copy was provided by Flatiron Books

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Monticello by Sally Cabot Gunning

I hope you will forgive me, but I will quote a professional review which captures perfectly, the book I just finished — Monticello by Sally Cabot Gunning.

“A brilliant exploration of what it meant to be a slave owner in antebellum Virginia where farming depended on slaves, and their presence in the household gave them an intimacy with family members that could be both comforting and threatening. This story of Thomas Jefferson’s devoted daughter, the indomitable Martha Jefferson Randolph, helps us understand all the complexities and contradictions endured by Martha and her family as they struggle with their consciences and responsibilities toward their families, their plantations, and the people who work for them. Highly recommended as an engrossing tale of a strong woman in tumultuous times, with deftly interwoven historical details that make her trials all the more authentic.”
— Library Journal

Historical fiction fascinates me, but only when the author doesn’t stray too far from actual events. Ms. Gunning based this historical novel on actual correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and his eldest daughter Martha. The author says:

As soon as I came across a letter the fourteen year-old Martha Jefferson wrote: “I wish with all my soul that the poor Negroes were all freed . . .” I was hooked. I read all of Martha’s letters to her father and his to her.

The book follows Martha Jefferson Reynolds, her revered father Thomas Jefferson, and their families as they live their lives and make history at Monticello during the late 1700’s to early 1800’s.

Martha adores her father and wishes nothing more than to work with him to build and manage the Monticello plantation. But her relationship with her father is complicated not only by the entire issue of slaves, but the intimacy between her father the coddled slave, Sally Hemings.

While this strained relationship with her father is crucial to her life, the majority of the book is devoted to her difficult marriage. Martha marries Tom Randolph and over the years, gives birth to 12 (yes 12!) children. Martha and Tom struggle. Tom is often depressed and their financial failures and dependence on Thomas Jefferson further threatens their marriage.

(One reviewer pointed out that Thomas Mann Randolph is portrayed unfairly as a weak, paranoid alcoholic who lived as a parasite on the goodwill of Thomas Jefferson. Despite the fact he served in both houses of the Virginia Assembly, became a Congressman and then Governor of Virginia.)

Monticello plays a wonderful backdrop in this novel. Nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, we see how the gardens were treasured. How Jefferson experimented with crops and imported plant seeds. Descriptions of the clothing, home furnishings, and architectural details of Monticello allows the reader to see it as a true home where Jefferson escaped his political worries and thrived.

But we can’t escape the fact that Monticello was a working plantation with slaves. And, even though Thomas Jefferson spoke out against the institution of slavery, at the same time he owned slaves of his own – and fathered numerous children with one of the them (Sally Hemings).

Monticello (the book) gives insight into this Jeffersonian paradox, and what is today, totally incomprehensible. We see plantation life in all its light and darkness, not to mention the usually caring, but sometimes cruel human interaction of slave and master.

Through Martha’s eyes we see Thomas Jefferson as a beloved father, an architect of our constitution, a renaissance man, and an intellectual. But most importantly, we also see him as just a man, like any other man in any other time period — struggling with the political tsunamis and conflicting morals of his time.

I was thoroughly lost in the pages of Monticello and had trouble putting it down. When I did have to stop reading, (you know meals, sleep, showering, those pesky interruptions) it took me a bit to clear my mind and return to current day life.

Monticello is one of my favorite historic sights and you must visit, but in the meantime you can see Jefferson’s library HERE. (It’s swoon-worthy)

N.B. The day after I finished this book, I purchased this other novel about Martha Jefferson. It was my birthday, I’d hurt my back and I didn’t need any more excuses — and so it goes. Another Jefferson read awaits me.

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The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

For some reason, I’ve been on a dark(ish) thriller reading binge and remembered I had this best seller waiting for me on my Kindle.

A couple of years ago, Mr. Smith was interviewed on NPR where he described his family’s real life crisis which was the genesis for The Farm.

From the interview introduction: In the spring of 2009, British author Tom Rob Smith received a disturbing phone call from his father. “And he was crying,” Smith tells NPR’s David Greene. “He never cries. And he said to me, ‘You’ve got to come to Sweden. Your mom has suffered a psychotic episode, and she’s in an asylum.’ ” Then, Smith’s mother called. She had just been released from the psychiatric hospital in Sweden, and she said everything his father had told him was a lie.

The Farm is about a couple who, like Mr. Smith’s actual parents, retire to the idyllic Swedish countryside. As the novel unfolds, Tilde the mother, has just recently been released from a mental ward and she is carefully and methodically telling her story to her son Daniel. She reveals puzzling circumstances — how she, and his father Chris, moved to the farm, not to fulfill their dreams, but because they had gone bankrupt, losing all their investments in a real estate scheme. Tilde’s story gets darker and more irrational, the crimes she’s witnessed, the conspiracies around her, and how she has been deemed a madwoman.

Tilde’s story is filled with fear and paranoia– sprinkled with some Scandinavian evil (including some shiver-worthy Nordic troll fairy stories). Tilde is a true unreliable narrator –or is she? How much is true and how much is imagined? Why was she admitted for psychiatric observation, and was it justified?

“Paranoia might be a mental illness–or a means of survival.”

All these questions and more will whisper in the back of your head as you read The Farm. At first, I didn’t know what to make of the odd structure of this book, but it gradually caught me up in its web.

The plot does not unfold in real time and there are stories within stories, but Mr. Smith does not let this get confusing. It’s fast paced, suspenseful, and often smart.

“The people you think you have known all your life can be completely different, for different reasons that you have never known anything about.”

But I had some problems with The Farm. The first was Tilde’s voice. She is supposedly “telling” the story throughout the book, but Mr. Smith gives her sometimes unrealistic dialogue. No one speaks like this: “He was trying to soothe me as if I were a startled horse.” or “As he emerged from the gloom of his underground lair.” In the same vein, I just grew tired of the singularity of Tilde’s voice — it goes on for over 200 pages. Mr. Smith breaks it up with Daniel’s point of view, but not nearly enough to prevent the story line from occasionally becoming snooze-worthy.

I hoped that finding the truth to this story was going to be tricky and astonishing, but sadly, I found the ending abrupt and obtuse. As if the author couldn’t figure out how to work out the truth and so just closed the novel with a final incomprehensible chapter. But then again, maybe life isn’t meant to be so neatly packaged.

The Farm is a suspenseful thriller, but with an unsettling ending – perhaps this is the author’s intent.

I think I’ll take a break from these dark thrillers for a bit.

A digital advanced readers copy was provided by Grand Central Publishing via Netgalley.

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Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro

I have always admired Audrey-Hepburn-like-elegance, but alas, my body and temperament opt for comfort. Once, on a daily basis, I achieved tailored and professional — but never elegant.

This appreciation for long necks and sleek evening dresses must have caused me to acquire this book. I found it during my January book clean out and stacked it on my bedside table, unsure, but vowing to give it my 50 page audition.

The other night I picked up Elegance, and was surprised to find myself chuckling at this cute concoction. I’m not a fan of chic lit, but the premise is clever.

The author actually found a book in a second-hand store called “Elegance: A Complete Guide for Every Woman Who wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions” written by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux in 1964. Ms. Tassaro, with permission from Dariaux, wrote this novel based on her find. See? Clever right?

The novel uses the advice from Dariaux at the start of each chapter, such as this from the opening:

What is elegance? It is a sort of harmony that rather resembles beauty with the difference that the latter is more often a gift of nature and the former a result of art. If I may be permitted to use a high sounding word for such a minor art. I would say that to transform a plain woman in to an elegant one is my mission in life.

Our protagonist, Louise, either heeds or disregards this out-dated (and often derivative) advice as she contemplates her own disastrous life.

Louise is an imperfectly real character. Her past is filled with eating issues, difficult parents, failed relationships, and a lackluster career.

Her marriage is over:

It’s been months now – months of conversations, arguments, silences, tears. We have ‘given it one more week’ again and again and again. It’s like trying to amputate a limb with spoon.

Louise is not getting anything from her therapy sessions:

[Therapists] always want to know why; there’s not a lot of difference between a therapist and a four-year old.

She doesn’t have any close girlfriends to talk to, she’s lost, and can’t pinpoint what she really wants.

Then one day Louise finds Dariaux‘s slim volume in a London used bookshop. I just have to share this lovely passage ~~ hail comrade!:

My husband claims I have an unhealthy obsession with secondhand bookshops. That I spend too much time daydreaming altogether. But either you intrinsically understand the attraction of searching for hidden treasure amongst rows of dusty shelves or you don’t; it’s a passion, bordering on a spiritual illness, which cannot be explained to the unaffected.

With Dariaux’s self help book, Louise begins to change herself and her life — much goes well, some does not. She applies a self-tanning cream which turns her orange just before a job interview. Louise unwittingly invests a small fortune at a department store makeup counter and discovers fine lingerie.

Louise not only adapts to high heels, she starts opening up to those around her, breaking out of her shell. She dumps her soul-sucking therapist. She leaves her husband. Friendships are formed and she even lands a new job. In one of my favorite chapters, Louse is invited to a typical English country house weekend, which is described in delicious detail – from the village names to the parlor room games in the evening.

Louise comes into herself and her life — but it is not a fairy tale ending. It’s as imperfect and real as she is. Turns out yes, elegance has it’s rewards but also a price.

Elegance makes for a fun evening, like sharing ice cream straight from the carton with a good friend. A light and fluffy break from those dark thrillers (I’ve had enough of those for a bit) or the nightly news.

Genevieve Antoine Dariaux’s 1964 original advice volume is still in print and available – see more HERE

Elegance is Ms. Tassaro‘s first novel, published in 2003 and she has since had several best sellers in the same realm. See her books HERE.

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