This is supposed to be a modern take on Jane Austen's classic novel. Unfortunately it's been at least 25 years since I read the original so I cannot remember it well enough to compare. However, I found that Trollope certainly captured the old fashioned formal language well. And though the characters used modern amenities - iPods, sports cars, YouTube, etc. they still felt rather old fashioned to me.
The story centres on Elinor Dashwood - a serious, reliable architecture student who, when her father dies suddenly, is the self appointed caregiver for her flighty mother, Belle, her even flightier sister, Marianne, and her rebellious teenaged sister, Margaret.
When the father dies, the women are cast out of their home by the "evil" wife of their father's son from a prior marriage. This is despite the fact that the women have lived in this ancestral home for their whole lives. They are taken in by other sympathetic relatives because it appears only Elinor is capable of finding practical employ.
Both Marianne and Elinor appear to fall in love with the wrong man and we see how differently they cope with it. There are a cast of entertaining characters in their new home - in particular the always affable, businessman John and his overbearing but kindhearted mother-in-law, Mrs. Jennings. Less likeable but equally entertaining are Lucy and Nancy, two gold digging god-daughters of Mrs. Jennings' late husband. Lucy, in particular, gets in the way when she plans to marry Elinor's love interest, Edward. Marianne instead falls for the handsome, but troublemaking John Willoughby though she is sought after by the reliable and caring Bill Brandon.
In the end all of the various threads are neatly woven together. This is an entertaining, though not fantastic, read. And much simpler than slogging through the original.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Monday, July 14, 2014
What I read on my vacation
All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner
I always eagerly await Weiner's new releases but I have to say this time I was disappointed. It seemed like she was trying too hard to be accepted as a "serious writer" and thus strayed from her lighter, and in my view more entertaining, stories.
In this book, Allison Weiss is a woman in her mid-thirties who finds herself addicted to pain killers. She started them after dental surgery and an injury, but due to pressures with her job, her marriage and her daughter keeps renewing them through different doctors and eventually ordering them illegally over the internet. She finds they allow her to face financial pressures (she is suddenly the primary breadwinner when she was supposed to be a stay at home mom but her husband's journalism job is not that lucrative and a book deal he thought he had fell through while her blogging about the life of a mother has taken off), her father's Alzheimer's diagnosis and taking care of her mother who has always been dependent on him, and a hyper sensitive pre-schooler.
For a long time she is able to hide her problem from those around her but eventually mixing painkillers with wine catches up with her and she is "caught" by her daughter's kindergarten teacher. When she is confronted by her husband he checks her into a rehab centre and we watch how she struggles with that - trying to differentiate herself from the other women in the program.
Eventually she gets clean, though there are consequences...
While there were some witty passages, I felt Weiner's trademark humour and fun reading was not as prominent as I like in her books. I read her books to escape and this one was just a bit too serious for my taste, but not deep enough to qualify as great literature. Weiner does write well and I guess if I hadn't chosen this expecting something lighter, I would have enjoyed the book more.
Nantucket Sisters by Nancy Thayer
Thayer did not disappoint me in delivering a great beach read that I could escape into while on vacation.
Maggie Drew and Emma Hudson meet in Nantucket the summer they are 5 years old and become inseparable summer friends though Emma's parents would prefer she hang out with "her own kind" rather that the daughter of the local seamstress. Despite parental interference the friendship holds through their teenage years and early twenties, even when Emma falls in love with Maggie's older brother, Ben.
However, their friendship is tested when both become enchanted by the smooth Wall Street trader, Cameron Chadwick. Even though there are ups and downs, in the end each of the girls gets the guy she was meant to be with, and their young daughters start a friendship that looks like it will last as many years.
After this book all I read on vacation were very inexpensive romance e-books which all followed the same pattern - girl meets boy, fights falling for boy, falls for him anyway and after several miscommunications and misunderstandings they get together in the end and everyone lives happily ever after. None were worth mentioning by name but they served the purpose of keeping me entertained without having to concentrate too much while I was on vacation.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Summer means beach reads!
Over the past couple of days I read two of my favourite "summertime" authors. Both of them write easy to read, engaging, and intelligent novels.
The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand
I have read most of Hilderbrand's Nantucket based books and I'd say this was one of her better ones. The story centres on Dabney, a woman in her early 40s who is the face of Nantucket's Chamber of Commerce. She is married to a Harvard economics professor, Box, who spends his weekdays in Boston and they have one daughter, Agnes, who lives in New York. Dabney also has her quirks - she has a strange phobia which means she will not leave Nantucket unless her life depends on it (though she did do an undergraduate degree at Harvard) and she is a very successful matchmaker (she sees a pink, good, or green, bad, aura around all prospective couples).
Dabney's life is thrown into chaos when her high school sweetheart, and Agnes' biological father, Clendenin, returns to the island. They have not been in contact with each other for over 25 years as Clen left the island to pursue his dream of becoming a foreign correspondent and Dabney's phobias did not allow her to follow him. After he left she found out she was pregnant, and told him, but he did not return. Box adopted Agnes and they did not tell her who her real father was until she was 16.
Agnes also returns to the island for the summer. She is engaged to a much older, wealthy man who is very controlling. She has also heard rumours he was abusive to his first wife and she is trying to figure out what to do. Dabney of course saw the green aura around them and instead tries to push her toward a dental student who is working on Nantucket for the summer.
Clen's appearance makes Dabney physically ill - at least that what she thinks. And we follow the characters for the course of a summer and fall to see how the various relationships resolve.
The One & Only by Emily Giffin
Shea is a 30 something woman who has never left her home town in Walker, Texas. She is employed by the Walker University athletics department and has been obsessed with the Walker football team for her entire life. She is dating a former Walker football player but is not terribly enthusiastic about him. The story starts at the funeral of the mother of Shea's best friend Lucy. Lucy's father also happens to be the Walker coach. The funeral causes Shea to take stock of her life.
So the book follows her decision to pursue her dream of sports journalism, date Walker's only Heisman trophy winner and fall for Lucy's father. There's not really much more to the story but the characters are generally likeable (except for the ones who are meant not to be) so I really wanted to find out what happened to all of them. This is a well written, easy read for a lazy summer day.
The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand
I have read most of Hilderbrand's Nantucket based books and I'd say this was one of her better ones. The story centres on Dabney, a woman in her early 40s who is the face of Nantucket's Chamber of Commerce. She is married to a Harvard economics professor, Box, who spends his weekdays in Boston and they have one daughter, Agnes, who lives in New York. Dabney also has her quirks - she has a strange phobia which means she will not leave Nantucket unless her life depends on it (though she did do an undergraduate degree at Harvard) and she is a very successful matchmaker (she sees a pink, good, or green, bad, aura around all prospective couples).
Dabney's life is thrown into chaos when her high school sweetheart, and Agnes' biological father, Clendenin, returns to the island. They have not been in contact with each other for over 25 years as Clen left the island to pursue his dream of becoming a foreign correspondent and Dabney's phobias did not allow her to follow him. After he left she found out she was pregnant, and told him, but he did not return. Box adopted Agnes and they did not tell her who her real father was until she was 16.
Agnes also returns to the island for the summer. She is engaged to a much older, wealthy man who is very controlling. She has also heard rumours he was abusive to his first wife and she is trying to figure out what to do. Dabney of course saw the green aura around them and instead tries to push her toward a dental student who is working on Nantucket for the summer.
Clen's appearance makes Dabney physically ill - at least that what she thinks. And we follow the characters for the course of a summer and fall to see how the various relationships resolve.
The One & Only by Emily Giffin
Shea is a 30 something woman who has never left her home town in Walker, Texas. She is employed by the Walker University athletics department and has been obsessed with the Walker football team for her entire life. She is dating a former Walker football player but is not terribly enthusiastic about him. The story starts at the funeral of the mother of Shea's best friend Lucy. Lucy's father also happens to be the Walker coach. The funeral causes Shea to take stock of her life.
So the book follows her decision to pursue her dream of sports journalism, date Walker's only Heisman trophy winner and fall for Lucy's father. There's not really much more to the story but the characters are generally likeable (except for the ones who are meant not to be) so I really wanted to find out what happened to all of them. This is a well written, easy read for a lazy summer day.
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Two Recent Books
Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole
This is a really quick and interesting read. The books is narrated in the first person by a young medical student studying to be a psychiatrist, whose name we never learn. He was born in Nigeria but has lived in the US for many years and returns for his first visit. He left after some sort of personal tragedy which caused him to be estranged from his mother but we never really learn the details of that either.
It is fascinating to see Nigeria through the eyes of someone who once lived there comfortably but now filters all he sees through North American sensibilities. He is now taken aback by the extent of the corruption (he sees internet fraudsters in action at local internet cafes and is approached for bribes for just about anything he does). He is also disappointed by the terrible lack of displays at the local museum - he feels Nigerian history, culture and art is better documented in museums in London and elsewhere. He also has trouble truly connecting with his former friends - though he does have a good relationship with his aunts and uncles. There are also cultural advances that surprise and delight him - a woman reading literature on a bus, a sophisticated music school (unfortunately only accessible by the most wealthy Nigerians) and a well stocked book store. The story is interspersed with photographs taken by the author which appropriately illustrate his impressions of the country.
At the end the narrator is still torn about whether he can return to the country permanently or not - and it is easy to understand his mixed feelings.
It's Kind of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
This is a sad but hopeful story about a depressed teenager who thinks of committing suicide one night but instead calls a suicide hotline and is encouraged to check himself into a local hospital's psychiatric ward. The author clearly illustrates the devastating effects of too much pressure on a teenager in today's competitive environment.
Craig devoted himself to the sole purpose of getting accepted at a prestigious Manhattan high school - but as soon as he gets there his life begins to unravel. He gets in with a group of less than desirable friends, develops a crush on his best friend's girlfriend and feels totally incapable of achieving the marks he wants. His worry spirals and he becomes unable to sleep and eat.
In the hospital, faced with others who have had lifelong struggles or new ones like himself, he learns about himself and finds that art grounds him. After five days he makes friends, changes his life goals, settles into appropriate therapy and medication and we come away feeling he'll have to struggle with depression and anxiety forever but that he'll have the inner tools he needs to survive.
This is a really quick and interesting read. The books is narrated in the first person by a young medical student studying to be a psychiatrist, whose name we never learn. He was born in Nigeria but has lived in the US for many years and returns for his first visit. He left after some sort of personal tragedy which caused him to be estranged from his mother but we never really learn the details of that either.
It is fascinating to see Nigeria through the eyes of someone who once lived there comfortably but now filters all he sees through North American sensibilities. He is now taken aback by the extent of the corruption (he sees internet fraudsters in action at local internet cafes and is approached for bribes for just about anything he does). He is also disappointed by the terrible lack of displays at the local museum - he feels Nigerian history, culture and art is better documented in museums in London and elsewhere. He also has trouble truly connecting with his former friends - though he does have a good relationship with his aunts and uncles. There are also cultural advances that surprise and delight him - a woman reading literature on a bus, a sophisticated music school (unfortunately only accessible by the most wealthy Nigerians) and a well stocked book store. The story is interspersed with photographs taken by the author which appropriately illustrate his impressions of the country.
At the end the narrator is still torn about whether he can return to the country permanently or not - and it is easy to understand his mixed feelings.
It's Kind of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
This is a sad but hopeful story about a depressed teenager who thinks of committing suicide one night but instead calls a suicide hotline and is encouraged to check himself into a local hospital's psychiatric ward. The author clearly illustrates the devastating effects of too much pressure on a teenager in today's competitive environment.
Craig devoted himself to the sole purpose of getting accepted at a prestigious Manhattan high school - but as soon as he gets there his life begins to unravel. He gets in with a group of less than desirable friends, develops a crush on his best friend's girlfriend and feels totally incapable of achieving the marks he wants. His worry spirals and he becomes unable to sleep and eat.
In the hospital, faced with others who have had lifelong struggles or new ones like himself, he learns about himself and finds that art grounds him. After five days he makes friends, changes his life goals, settles into appropriate therapy and medication and we come away feeling he'll have to struggle with depression and anxiety forever but that he'll have the inner tools he needs to survive.
Monday, June 2, 2014
Fields of Exile by Nora Gold
This was a great novel by a relatively new author. Gold tackles a difficult subject in a balanced way without coming across as preachy.
Judith is a Canadian woman who moved to Israel and has been working there in a series of jobs. Though she is not financially successful, and her father thinks she is also not socially successful since she remains single, she is very committed to the country. She feels it is her home - though she is left leaning and demonstrates against many government policies in the territories. Judith returns to Canada to be with her dying father and on his death bed promises to complete her MSW in Canada.
She enrols in the fictional Dunhill University. There she quickly makes friends with both fellow students and a professor, Suzy. Suzy appoints her to be co-chair of the school's anti-oppression committee and Judith's life begins to unravel when they invite a keynote speaker who favours violence against Israeli and Jewish civilians to further the cause of the Palestinians. Judith's boyfriend encourages her to keep her head down and finish her degree quickly. And she tries too...but eventually is faced with one too many demonstration and takes a stand. She quickly learns who her real friends are and it all comes to head at an Anti-Oppression Day rally which has dire consequences for her.
The pace of the book is good, the writing is fluid and the characters are all interesting (whether they are likeable or not). I highly recommend this book for a fictional account of very real issues.
Judith is a Canadian woman who moved to Israel and has been working there in a series of jobs. Though she is not financially successful, and her father thinks she is also not socially successful since she remains single, she is very committed to the country. She feels it is her home - though she is left leaning and demonstrates against many government policies in the territories. Judith returns to Canada to be with her dying father and on his death bed promises to complete her MSW in Canada.
She enrols in the fictional Dunhill University. There she quickly makes friends with both fellow students and a professor, Suzy. Suzy appoints her to be co-chair of the school's anti-oppression committee and Judith's life begins to unravel when they invite a keynote speaker who favours violence against Israeli and Jewish civilians to further the cause of the Palestinians. Judith's boyfriend encourages her to keep her head down and finish her degree quickly. And she tries too...but eventually is faced with one too many demonstration and takes a stand. She quickly learns who her real friends are and it all comes to head at an Anti-Oppression Day rally which has dire consequences for her.
The pace of the book is good, the writing is fluid and the characters are all interesting (whether they are likeable or not). I highly recommend this book for a fictional account of very real issues.
Monday, May 26, 2014
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
I suppose it's not surprising that a book about depression and suicide is a depressing read. But, as usual, Toews writes well so I wanted to read to the end despite the topic.
The book is written from the perspective of Yoli, the younger sister of an unconventional Mennonite family from small town Manitoba. As an adult, Yoli is trying desperately to keep her older sister, Elf, from killing herself after several unsuccessful suicide attempts. Superficially, Elf appears to be the better adjusted - she is a world renowned pianist, involved in a stable relationship with a supportive man. Yoli has been divorced twice and has one child from each of the men. She is also a semi-successful writer of teen rodeo novels who is struggling to finish her first "serious" book.
The girls both struggled in the confines of their restrictive Mennonite community and were often condemned by the town elders. Their father also suffered and eventually took his own life. My favourite character was the girls' mother. She is strong and adaptable despite losing her husband and many siblings and having to face her daughter's mental illness.
This is in the end a story of struggling through life, and mental illness, and trying to figure out how to move on after tragedy. It's also a study in the influence of family relationships and history on one's own life. It's equal parts uplifting and depressing, but in all I really enjoyed it.
The book is written from the perspective of Yoli, the younger sister of an unconventional Mennonite family from small town Manitoba. As an adult, Yoli is trying desperately to keep her older sister, Elf, from killing herself after several unsuccessful suicide attempts. Superficially, Elf appears to be the better adjusted - she is a world renowned pianist, involved in a stable relationship with a supportive man. Yoli has been divorced twice and has one child from each of the men. She is also a semi-successful writer of teen rodeo novels who is struggling to finish her first "serious" book.
The girls both struggled in the confines of their restrictive Mennonite community and were often condemned by the town elders. Their father also suffered and eventually took his own life. My favourite character was the girls' mother. She is strong and adaptable despite losing her husband and many siblings and having to face her daughter's mental illness.
This is in the end a story of struggling through life, and mental illness, and trying to figure out how to move on after tragedy. It's also a study in the influence of family relationships and history on one's own life. It's equal parts uplifting and depressing, but in all I really enjoyed it.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Two very different books...
The last two books I read were polar opposites - but each enjoyable in its own way.
In Paradise by Peter Matthiesen
This novel is about Clements Olin, an American professor of Polish descent who specializes in Holocaust studies. He joins a diverse group of people for a one week retreat at Auschwitz Birkenau which is intended to "bear witness". Initially he is unsure what he can offer to the group, but he is interested in exploring the mysterious past of his mother who was left behind in Poland while he was taken by his father and aristocratic grandparents to a new life in America.
The group at Auschwitz, led by a Buddhist is diverse - it includes survivors, descendants of survivors, Germans and Poles who are trying to understand how their people could have been part of such horrors, Christians and Jews, young and old. There is a great deal of tension between the various factions and even amongst them. Some are very angry - others have made an uneasy peace with what has happened.
Professor Olin is haunted by ghosts - including one of his mother, grandmother and aunt - who his family refused to talk about, ostensibly to save his father from the pain of losing her. But as Olin digs into it he discovers his grandparents and even his father may not have been so innocent and almost certainly were aware of the fate they left her to when they took him away.
Another interesting aspect of the book is the strange relationship Olin develops with a novice nun. One gets the impression he is afraid to bond with a woman who can actually commit to him.
Though grave, the books is not depressing and moves at a manageable pace. I quite enjoyed it.
Boston Cream by Howard Shrier
This is a crime novel which is a genre I rarely read but it's on my book club list as the author is coming to speak to us. Part of a series, the protagonist is Jonah Geller, a somewhat bumbling Jewish private investigator who is a disappointment to his high achieving parents. In this case he is asked by an Orthodox Jewish man to locate his son, a promising doctor in Boston, who has mysteriously disappeared. Geller heads off to Boston with his attractive, lesbian partner, and they are on the case together until she is also abducted. Geller then brings in the "big guns", a recovering contract killer, to help solve the mystery of the doctor and get his partner released.
The story is entertaining, and not entirely predictable as some mysteries are. The characters are amusing and likeable. The book won't stay with me for long but it was a pleasant enough way to pass away an afternoon.
In Paradise by Peter Matthiesen
This novel is about Clements Olin, an American professor of Polish descent who specializes in Holocaust studies. He joins a diverse group of people for a one week retreat at Auschwitz Birkenau which is intended to "bear witness". Initially he is unsure what he can offer to the group, but he is interested in exploring the mysterious past of his mother who was left behind in Poland while he was taken by his father and aristocratic grandparents to a new life in America.
The group at Auschwitz, led by a Buddhist is diverse - it includes survivors, descendants of survivors, Germans and Poles who are trying to understand how their people could have been part of such horrors, Christians and Jews, young and old. There is a great deal of tension between the various factions and even amongst them. Some are very angry - others have made an uneasy peace with what has happened.
Professor Olin is haunted by ghosts - including one of his mother, grandmother and aunt - who his family refused to talk about, ostensibly to save his father from the pain of losing her. But as Olin digs into it he discovers his grandparents and even his father may not have been so innocent and almost certainly were aware of the fate they left her to when they took him away.
Another interesting aspect of the book is the strange relationship Olin develops with a novice nun. One gets the impression he is afraid to bond with a woman who can actually commit to him.
Though grave, the books is not depressing and moves at a manageable pace. I quite enjoyed it.
Boston Cream by Howard Shrier
This is a crime novel which is a genre I rarely read but it's on my book club list as the author is coming to speak to us. Part of a series, the protagonist is Jonah Geller, a somewhat bumbling Jewish private investigator who is a disappointment to his high achieving parents. In this case he is asked by an Orthodox Jewish man to locate his son, a promising doctor in Boston, who has mysteriously disappeared. Geller heads off to Boston with his attractive, lesbian partner, and they are on the case together until she is also abducted. Geller then brings in the "big guns", a recovering contract killer, to help solve the mystery of the doctor and get his partner released.
The story is entertaining, and not entirely predictable as some mysteries are. The characters are amusing and likeable. The book won't stay with me for long but it was a pleasant enough way to pass away an afternoon.
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