Family – Page 3 – Finding My Wings

Elizabeth Strout returns to form

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout(Random House, 2016)
In 40 words or less: Lucy, long estranged from her family, is visited by her mother during a lengthy hospital stay. Bit by bit they rebuild a relationship, revisiting Lucy’s childhood in Illinois and the silence and isolation that sent Lucy in search of herself.
Genre: Fiction
Locale: New York
Time: Primarily 1980s
Read this for an aching look at the mother-daughter relationship.

After Elizabeth Strout burst on the scene in 2008 with Olive Kitteridge, the bar was set very high for any future writings. When The Burgess Boys appeared in 2013 early critics were pleased, many readers not as much. Like The Burgess Boys, My Name is Lucy Barton is a novel, not short stories. But in Lucy Barton and her mother, we have imperfect and complex characters that have been carrying steamer trunk-sized baggage with them for decades.

Set in a New York hospital the 1980s, the rhythm of hospital and family life are very different from today. While Lucy has built a family and career of her own, her children rarely visit the hospital, her husband is caught up in his parenting responsibilities and averse to hospitals.

Convalescence is slow. Days run one into another marked by visits from doctors, diagnostic testing, and nurses on their own schedules. After several weeks, her mother just appears to Lucy’s surprise. One in the bed, the other in the side chair, they revisit Lucy’s childhood and the small town where her family still lives, still outsiders in many ways.

Little happens in this book. While they speak of the others in their small town, their peculiarities and slights, the acts that crippled Lucy are never spoken aloud. Smart and a talented writer, Lucy’s family never understood her gifts. She was the poster child for low self-esteem.

After leaving the hospital, the understanding gained from her mother’s visit finally allows Lucy to see herself and those around her in a new light. And she continues to transform for the remainder of the book.

If you enjoyed Olive Kitteridge, My Name is Lucy Barton may be worth a look.

‘A Great Reckoning’ is another reason to love Louise Penny

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books, August 2016)
In 40 words or less: Penny’s twelfth novel featuring Armand Gamache is much more than a mystery. In the twilight of his career, Gamache wants to leave a legacy. Strength of character, forgiveness, and the importance of community are at the heart of A Great Reckoning.
Genre: Mystery
Locale: Quebec
Time: Contemporary
Read this for a well-constructed mystery and so much more – to meet people you’d like to know, in a place you’d like to call home.

I’ve always been a mystery fan. There was a period I spent more time with Nancy Drew than my neighborhood friends. In recent years there has been only one mystery writer that I’d drop anything to read. Louise Penny.

A Great Reckoning is a beautiful book with a specifically moral point of view. Penny’s main character, Commander Armand Gamache, has left his position after decades as head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec. He and his wife have settled in Three Pines, an idyllic community virtually off the grid and not on any map. Save for the occasional murder, Three Pines is perfect – oddball neighbors, a B&B, cafe and a bookstore – but Gamache is not ready to retire.

Faced with a variety of career options, he decides to head up the Sûreté’s academy, the residential training facility for all cadets. Gamache was instrumental in rooting out major corruption within the Sûreté, facing serious injury in the process. Before retiring he wants to alter what he sees as a corrosive training climate that creates divisive elements from the start.

Just before he takes up this new position, a map appears in Three Pines, apparently dating back about one hundred years. Hand drawn, it bears a resemblance to the local area with some unusual additions. Gamache brings it with him to the academy, giving copies to several of the cadets in the hope they will work together to explain its symbols.

And, of course, there is a murder. In this case, one of the academy’s professors is killed after the building has been secured for the night. Gamache took the appointment with concerns about the ethics of some of the staff and even brought a discredited former colleague to serve as an example. There is no shortage of suspects.

Penny is her element when she takes Gamache’s students to Three Pines. As a reader, I couldn’t wait to see what would happen when they met the locals. The portrait of local life, modelled on the community in which Louise Penny and her husband live, could easily carry a novel without the addition of a mystery.

Sense of place is vital in all of the Three Pines mysteries. In A Great Reckoning, both the academy and Three Pines are intentional communities. Cell phones, the internet, and unexpected visitors play very specific and controlled roles. In Penny’s novels, human interaction, individual histories, and human frailties are key.

I’m never one to include “spoilers” in a review. But I will tell you that Armand Gamache’s personality and outlook are in large measure based on Louise Penny’s husband, the former head of hematology at the Children’s Hospital in Montreal. Sadly, he has been in failing health for several years. Having heard Penny speak at Book Expo last May in Chicago, both her husband and Gamache are strong, smart and well-loved.

Three summer short takes

I’ve been savoring my reading time this summer. With all my book groups on hiatus until September, it feels like an “all you can read buffet.” Since reading isn’t all I do, please accept this group of “In A Nutshell” assessments, with a few extra words thrown in. Some full-length reviews are coming soon!

The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood (W. W. Norton & Co, August 2016) (Advance copy)
In 40+ words or less: After the end of her marriage, Ava is encouraged to join a book group of disparate members. Monthly, one member leads the discussion on his/her most meaningful book. As Ava tries to restart her life, her daughter Maggie is in Paris engaging in destructive behavior, deceiving her family in the process. Hood’s novel focuses on the importance of family, friendship, and love in creating a meaningful life.
Genre: Fiction
Locale: Providence and Paris
Time: Now
Read this for a novel about the resilience of the parent/child relationship, even when all seems lost. The book club and the choice of discussion titles are key to Ava’s re-emergence and provide a vital plot twist.

A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan (Simon & Schuster, 2015)
In 40+ words or less: When her husband must make a career change, Alice steps up moving to an edgy book-related start-up. Exhilarating at first, Alice discovers it’s not as advertised and far from family-friendly. Everyone – her husband, children, and parents – need her so something’s got to give.
Genre: Fiction
Locale: New York metro area
Time: Now
Pick this up for a modern family story with some great bookish quirks.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (Penguin, 2013)
In 40+ words or less: A young woman, desperate for a job, becomes the personal companion for a high-flying young businessman profoundly injured in an accident. Opposites in temperament, interests, and world views, they transform each others’ lives.
Genre: Fiction
Locale: Great Britain
Time: Now
There’s a reason so many people have read it. May not stand the test of time but well worth an evening or two. A better choice than the movie. Jojo Moyes tells a good story.

Road trip audiobook – Part 1

IN A NUTSHELL

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough, narration by the author (Simon & Schuster audio, 2015)
In 40 words or less: There’s far more to the Wright brothers’ story than the first flight at Kitty Hawk. McCullough brings the family to life and sets them in the context of their times. His narration provides the gravitas the story deserves.
Genre: History/Biography
Locale: Ohio/NC/Europe
Time: Late 19th – Early 20th centuries
Read this to understand the genius and persistence of the Wright brothers and the family that inspired and stood behind them in their work.

Several things need to work well for an audiobook to be a good choice – the subject, the reader and the quality of the material. When you are choosing a book for more than one person to listen to on a road trip, the stakes are higher. Knowing that our tastes differ, I had several selections. The Wright Brothers was not the first pick but within minutes we were hooked.

Orville and Wilbur Wright’s successful flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903 is credited with launching the age of flight. The brief paragraphs about this achievement in most history books tell of brothers that began as bicycle builders who parlayed their mechanical knowledge to create the first successful airplane. The brothers and their siblings were raised in a household where reading books on all subjects from classical philosophy to mathematics to contemporary literature was the primary activity. Throughout their lives, Sundays were reserved for reading and contemplation, a tribute to their minister father who instilled in them their love of learning and persistence of purpose.

The flight at Kitty Hawk was barely heard of beyond those working on the project for more than five years. Politics and scientific jealousies sent the Wrights to Europe looking for support and a market when U.S. government officials created stumbling blocks or ignored them outright for several years. Throughout it all, the Wrights remained fixtures in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio and maintained their bicycle shop as an ongoing concern. From beginning to end, their sister Katharine provided personal support and business guidance critical to every success they had, often sacrificing her own aspirations.

David McCullough’s deep and expressive voice is perfect for telling the story as he wrote it. The only downside to listening to the audiobook is the lack of photos and a map. I had given an autographed copy of the book to my father, so upon our arrival at his home, I was able to look at the photos. Having a map handy is a great reminder of the very narrow spit of land that was so important to the birth of modern aviation.

Whether your interest is in history, aviation, the power of genius or just a great story, David McCullough’s The Wright Brothers will fit the bill.

Kelli Estes tackles 1880s racism and violence

IN A NUTSHELL

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes (Sourcebooks, 2015)
In 40 words or less: Parallel stories of a young Chinese woman in the 1880s a modern young woman, determined to find her calling are brought together at her family’s century-old island home.
Genre: Fiction with historical underpinnings
Locale: Seattle and nearby islands
Time: 1886 -1895 and the present
Read this fictional account to spark your interest in the truth about the expulsion of the Chinese in the northwest.

In the 1840s the U.S. was in desperate need of laborers to support the mining camps and build the railroads. Chinese men were welcomed along the West Coast for this express purpose. So long as they were not integrated into the communities and didn’t take “American” jobs, they were tolerated. By the early 1880s organized efforts began to undermine their ability to work and to send them back to China, preferably at their own expense.

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk opens on one of the most horrific days in Seattle’s history. Armed mobs are entering Chinese enclaves, kidnapping the residents and looting their possessions before taking them to the docks. Mei Lien, her father and grandmother operated a small store. Understanding the danger for young Chinese women, her father has had her live as a young boy and kept her by her grandmother’s side and in the store. After a violent confrontation, they are placed on a ship, allegedly to be sent to China. Late that evening, Mei Lien overhears the ship’s captain planning to throw all the people overboard to their deaths. After sharing this information with her father, he decides she must be saved and pushes her over himself, in the hope that she can swim to shore and be saved.

Inara Erickson is the youngest child of a prominent Seattle shipping family. Having just graduated from college, her father is “helping” her find employment. A family tragedy kept Inara away from Orcas Island for many years. Her aunt’s death brought her back to the one place she felt at home. Rather than follow her father’s path, she undertook to turn the family homestead into a bed and breakfast. While uncovering the original staircase, one tread was unlike the others. Underneath the board was an intricately embroidered silk sleeve. Finding the sleeve begins her road to discovery about family, history, honesty and forgiveness.

As she went into the water, Mei Lien was seen by the local postman and fisherman. Joseph rescued her and brought her to his small cabin, nursing her back to health. Though skeptical about her story, the murmurings among his neighborhoods and in town showed her concerns to be warranted.

Not surprisingly, Kelli Estes weaves these stories together to create this novel. Mei Lien’s story is fascinating and tragic. Her isolation as the only survivor from her family and prey to the racism in the community is heartbreaking. Island life was difficult at that time under the best of circumstances. Inara’s story has the clichéd elements of true love at risk due to family skeletons. But by having the modern story Estes is able to provide broader historical details on Mei Lien’s life through Inara’s research using the vast resources of the internet. The present day story also offers the opportunity for restitution and reconciliation.

Kelli Estes deserves a lot of credit for bringing the anti-Chinese riots and expulsions to a wider audience. Mei Lien, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, is a wonderful character I won’t soon forget.

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