This novel by a a Canadian author who was unfamiliar to me was an extremely pleasant surprise. I had a hard time putting the book down.
The story begins when the matriarch of the family, Kate, goes over a waterfall in the Thunder Bay area in a barrel. She lives, but ends up in a coma and an internet sensation. Subsequent chapters are written from the perspective of her many family members as they struggle to figure out why Kate did what she did and whether they should have been able to predict and then stop it.
First we meet Finn. She is the "prodigal" daughter who escaped Thunder Bay to pursue her dreams in Toronto. At least that's how it looks on the surface. In fact she works from home, writing warning labels for a myriad of products and has little social life to speak of. She has not had a relationship since she left Thunder Bay in a huff several years earlier in part because her twin sister Nicki had an affair with her long term boyfriend Dallas and ended up bearing him a son.
Nicki is a hairdresser living with her parents and working out of their garage. She has four children by three different fathers including, sixteen year old London whose perspective is often shared in the book too. Nicki is married to Hamish (who is not the father of any of the children), a bootlegger who unknowingly provided Kate's barrel for her trip over the falls.
Shawn was a homeless boy who Kate adopted when he was a teenager and ended up in her yard after riding the rails for several years. At first he expected to spend a few weeks with the family, steal what he could and set out on his own. But he came to love the family and they came to love him so he stayed and he is perhaps now the most devoted of Kate's children. All is not well with him though as his marriage with his high school sweetheart, Katriina, is in disarray. She keeps miscarrying (though they have two sons) and has started cutting herself to cope with the pressure of always being perfect in Shawn's eyes. Several chapters are also seen from Katriina's perspective.
Walter, Kate's husband, has been in love with her since childhood when they lived on neighbouring farms. Dubbed "waiting Walter" by Kate he seems to have spent his life enduring her mysterious disappearances and then being her rock when she resurfaces. He has his flaws though - fiercely in love with Lake Superior, he spends months at a time giving tours or servicing ice fishing camps. He has known for years that something is not quite right with Kate, but he has tried his best to ignore it and to keep it from the children.
London, Kate's granddaughter has become obsessed with sharks and enters into an internet relationship with a celebrity marine biologist - at least she thinks so. She thus becomes focused on chasing him down when he is making an appearance in Duluth, not far from Thunder Bay. Much of the climax of the book takes place when London finally convinces an unlikely family member to accompany her to Duluth. She's devastated when her marine biologist has no idea who she is - and turns out to be a bit of a fraud. However, the secrets she learns about her family and how much they all mean to each other are far more valuable.
Ultimately this is a story of the bonds of family, the secrets between family members and the harm they can cause and how, in moments of crisis, it is often only our crazy family members that we can turn to. The book is well written, all of the characters are flawed but endearing and the story is well paced. All in all it makes for a great read.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Friday, November 4, 2016
Carry Me by Peter Behrens
It's a bit hard for me to summarize my feelings about this book. Overall I was really intrigued by the story, but at times it was hard slogging.
The novel is narrated by Billy Lange who is looking back on his life at some indeterminate time (probably about the 1970s). Billy was born in 1909 on the Isle of Wight. His father was the skipper of the racing yacht belonging to a wealthy German-Jewish baron, von Weinbrenner, who, with his wife and daughter, spend one month a year on the island. The rest of the year Billy and his family live in the home and take care of it for the baron.
Billy is born one year after von Weinbrenner's daughter Karin and is instantly drawn to her - she seems so adventurous and sophisticated to the younger boy, who is after all the child of her family's employees.
Billy's father is German, though really only in name having been born to a German sailor and his Irish wife miles off the coast of Acapulco and registered as a German upon hitting land. Had he been born days later he would have been a US citizen which would have changed the course of his life and that of his family. Upon the outbreak of World War I Billy's father is arrested and accused of being a German spy (primarily because part of his job was tracking sailing boats with a pair of binoculars). As the von Weinbrenners are no longer welcome in the UK, Billy and his mother struggle to survive, eventually returning to his mother's home in Ireland where Billy also makes his first friend (Mick who appears on and off later in his life) and meets his paternal grandmother.
When the war is over Billy's father is released, but deported back to Germany. The von Weinbrenners take them in and give Billy's father a job running their newly formed horse racing operation.
From there we follow Billy and Karin's lives in the interwar years - watching the horror of the rise of Naziism.
The novel, though narrated from a later date, alternates between the early story and 1938 when Billy and Karin are planning to escape Germany. Along the way he paints a terrible picture of the rise of anti-semitism and its impact on Karin's once powerful family. He sort of off handedly tells us how the Jews he met along the way fared during the war; somewhat downplaying the horror of most of their experiences.
What Billy and Karin share from childhood is an interest in the American west - in particular, El Llano Estacado which they read about in German language children's novels. Eventually they fulfil their wish to travel there but it is not the idyllic escape that Billy expects.
In the end, I think I recommend this book, but you have to be prepared to give it some time to warm up and some patience for the less engaging sections.
The novel is narrated by Billy Lange who is looking back on his life at some indeterminate time (probably about the 1970s). Billy was born in 1909 on the Isle of Wight. His father was the skipper of the racing yacht belonging to a wealthy German-Jewish baron, von Weinbrenner, who, with his wife and daughter, spend one month a year on the island. The rest of the year Billy and his family live in the home and take care of it for the baron.
Billy is born one year after von Weinbrenner's daughter Karin and is instantly drawn to her - she seems so adventurous and sophisticated to the younger boy, who is after all the child of her family's employees.
Billy's father is German, though really only in name having been born to a German sailor and his Irish wife miles off the coast of Acapulco and registered as a German upon hitting land. Had he been born days later he would have been a US citizen which would have changed the course of his life and that of his family. Upon the outbreak of World War I Billy's father is arrested and accused of being a German spy (primarily because part of his job was tracking sailing boats with a pair of binoculars). As the von Weinbrenners are no longer welcome in the UK, Billy and his mother struggle to survive, eventually returning to his mother's home in Ireland where Billy also makes his first friend (Mick who appears on and off later in his life) and meets his paternal grandmother.
When the war is over Billy's father is released, but deported back to Germany. The von Weinbrenners take them in and give Billy's father a job running their newly formed horse racing operation.
From there we follow Billy and Karin's lives in the interwar years - watching the horror of the rise of Naziism.
The novel, though narrated from a later date, alternates between the early story and 1938 when Billy and Karin are planning to escape Germany. Along the way he paints a terrible picture of the rise of anti-semitism and its impact on Karin's once powerful family. He sort of off handedly tells us how the Jews he met along the way fared during the war; somewhat downplaying the horror of most of their experiences.
What Billy and Karin share from childhood is an interest in the American west - in particular, El Llano Estacado which they read about in German language children's novels. Eventually they fulfil their wish to travel there but it is not the idyllic escape that Billy expects.
In the end, I think I recommend this book, but you have to be prepared to give it some time to warm up and some patience for the less engaging sections.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
This book got a lot of hype, and while I enjoyed it, I didn't like it as much as many of its reviewers. The premise was interesting - the story followed 7 or 8 generations in two branches of an African family (originating on the Gold Coast in what is present day Ghana). Two half sisters had vastly different lives - one, Effia, started out with an unhappy relationship with her mother, only to discover the woman she thought was her mother was not. In fact, her father had a relationship with a housemaid who started a fire in their home on the day of Effia's birth abandoning her in the care of her father and step mother; leaving only a stone necklace. The second, Esi, is later born to Effia's mother with her husband and has a very happy childhood.
The girls' paths then take very different turns. Effia is married off to the British governor at the time and lives life in a castle. Esi is stolen from her home and sold into slavery; passing through the castle's dungeon on her way to America.
Subsequent chapters alternate in telling the stories of Effia and Esi's descendants. Effia's descendants live in Africa for the most part where they live through the impacts of tribal warfare, colonization and ultimately revolution and independence. It is only her great, great, great grandson who eventually emigrates to America; of course as a free man. Esi's descendants live in slavery, escape from slavery only to be imprisoned in the south (it seems for the "crime" of being black), and then live in poverty in Harlem. It is only the last generation who escapes the cycle of poverty with a university education. Of course the final generations ultimately meet up without knowing the connections (which was very predictable so I'm not giving anything away).
There were a couple of problems I had with the book. First, to me it read more like a collection of interconnected short stories. I would have liked to see better development of the relationships between the different generations. And while I understood why the author alternated chapters between the two different branches of the family in order to tell both stories chronologically, I found myself often forgetting what happened in the previous generation by the time I got to the next instalment on that branch. I had to rely heavily on the family tree at the front of the book, but even that left me with questions that could only be answered by rereading. The chapters somehow needed to better tie in the previous ones. Also, I couldn't help but feel this type of story had been done before, for example in The Book of Negroes. While the author clearly did a lot of research and had an interesting premise, it just didn't feel that original to me.
All in all, I'm not sorry I read the book, but I was a bit disappointed after the hype it received.
The girls' paths then take very different turns. Effia is married off to the British governor at the time and lives life in a castle. Esi is stolen from her home and sold into slavery; passing through the castle's dungeon on her way to America.
Subsequent chapters alternate in telling the stories of Effia and Esi's descendants. Effia's descendants live in Africa for the most part where they live through the impacts of tribal warfare, colonization and ultimately revolution and independence. It is only her great, great, great grandson who eventually emigrates to America; of course as a free man. Esi's descendants live in slavery, escape from slavery only to be imprisoned in the south (it seems for the "crime" of being black), and then live in poverty in Harlem. It is only the last generation who escapes the cycle of poverty with a university education. Of course the final generations ultimately meet up without knowing the connections (which was very predictable so I'm not giving anything away).
There were a couple of problems I had with the book. First, to me it read more like a collection of interconnected short stories. I would have liked to see better development of the relationships between the different generations. And while I understood why the author alternated chapters between the two different branches of the family in order to tell both stories chronologically, I found myself often forgetting what happened in the previous generation by the time I got to the next instalment on that branch. I had to rely heavily on the family tree at the front of the book, but even that left me with questions that could only be answered by rereading. The chapters somehow needed to better tie in the previous ones. Also, I couldn't help but feel this type of story had been done before, for example in The Book of Negroes. While the author clearly did a lot of research and had an interesting premise, it just didn't feel that original to me.
All in all, I'm not sorry I read the book, but I was a bit disappointed after the hype it received.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
By Chance Alone by Max Eisen
This memoir of a holocaust survivor should be required reading for all high school students (and anyone else who has graduated high school and has never received a proper holocaust education). Max Eisen is now in his eighties and living in Toronto. He has devoted his post retirement years to holocaust education in schools, with police organizations and through the March of the Living. The last time he saw his father, when they were separated at Auschwitz, his father blessed him then asked him to tell the world their story if he survived. No doubt Mr. Eisen's father is immensely proud of the work his son has carried out in his memory and in the memory of all other victims.
Max was born in a small town in Czechoslovakia, near the Hungarian border. He lived with his extended family of parents, paternal grandparents, aunts, uncle and siblings. He was mischievous, not happy in school, but adored working the orchards with his grandfather. He had a wide group of friends and by all accounts a normal, happy childhood. He spent idyllic summers with his mother's extended family in a nearby town.
This all changed in 1944 when his town, which by then had been handed over to Fascist Hungary, liquidated its Jews and sent them by cattle car to Auschwitz. Prior to this his mother's family had been sent to Madhausen where they were exterminated - though first sent the propaganda postcard about how happy they were farming in the East. So until arrival at Auschwitz Max was quite naive about what was happening though it was relatively late in the war. At selection, his mother, younger siblings, aunt and grandparents were immediately sent to the gas chambers. His father and uncle became his "guardian angels" as he navigated the brutal work and living conditions, though eventually they too were taken from him.
By chance, as the title suggests, a severe beating on his head likely saved his life. He was sent by an under Kapo to the camp hospital and there a Polish political prisoner doctor first nursed him to help then put him to work in the hospital - saving him from certain death. They were together until separated on the death march in 1945.
Somehow Max managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the death march and was eventually liberated by an American army unit from Ebensee at the end of the war. He dragged his ill body back to his home town only to find his home had been taken over by neighbours who wanted to have nothing to do with him - except for one kindly woman who was now the mayor's wife. She recognized how ill he was and arranged to have him hospitalized. He then spent a couple of years at a school for orphans set up by the American Joint Distribution. However when the communists took over Czechoslovakia he was caught trying to escape and imprisoned again. By further chance a connection of his was able to get him released from prison and he made his way to a DP camp in Austria and eventually to Canada.
Max was fortunate enough to find employment and a wife whose family took him in and helped him rebuild his life. It was years before he could fulfil his promise to his father and speak about his experiences, but now that he has started he tells a mesmerizing tale. I also loved how he maintained his connections with his past - two cousins who were the only other survivors of his extended family, the family of the doctor who saved his life in Auschwitz and even one of the American soldiers who liberated him. And most importantly he defied the Nazis by having children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
The book is well written and hard to put down. And a must read since there are so few with first hand knowledge left to tell their stories.
Max was born in a small town in Czechoslovakia, near the Hungarian border. He lived with his extended family of parents, paternal grandparents, aunts, uncle and siblings. He was mischievous, not happy in school, but adored working the orchards with his grandfather. He had a wide group of friends and by all accounts a normal, happy childhood. He spent idyllic summers with his mother's extended family in a nearby town.
This all changed in 1944 when his town, which by then had been handed over to Fascist Hungary, liquidated its Jews and sent them by cattle car to Auschwitz. Prior to this his mother's family had been sent to Madhausen where they were exterminated - though first sent the propaganda postcard about how happy they were farming in the East. So until arrival at Auschwitz Max was quite naive about what was happening though it was relatively late in the war. At selection, his mother, younger siblings, aunt and grandparents were immediately sent to the gas chambers. His father and uncle became his "guardian angels" as he navigated the brutal work and living conditions, though eventually they too were taken from him.
By chance, as the title suggests, a severe beating on his head likely saved his life. He was sent by an under Kapo to the camp hospital and there a Polish political prisoner doctor first nursed him to help then put him to work in the hospital - saving him from certain death. They were together until separated on the death march in 1945.
Somehow Max managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the death march and was eventually liberated by an American army unit from Ebensee at the end of the war. He dragged his ill body back to his home town only to find his home had been taken over by neighbours who wanted to have nothing to do with him - except for one kindly woman who was now the mayor's wife. She recognized how ill he was and arranged to have him hospitalized. He then spent a couple of years at a school for orphans set up by the American Joint Distribution. However when the communists took over Czechoslovakia he was caught trying to escape and imprisoned again. By further chance a connection of his was able to get him released from prison and he made his way to a DP camp in Austria and eventually to Canada.
Max was fortunate enough to find employment and a wife whose family took him in and helped him rebuild his life. It was years before he could fulfil his promise to his father and speak about his experiences, but now that he has started he tells a mesmerizing tale. I also loved how he maintained his connections with his past - two cousins who were the only other survivors of his extended family, the family of the doctor who saved his life in Auschwitz and even one of the American soldiers who liberated him. And most importantly he defied the Nazis by having children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
The book is well written and hard to put down. And a must read since there are so few with first hand knowledge left to tell their stories.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty by Ramona Ausubel
Another strange book recommended by the New York Times book review, but interesting enough that I made my way through it.
The book begins in 1976 on Martha's Vineyard. Fern and Edgar are spending their summer at their vacation home with their three children, nine year old Cricket and six year old twins, James and Will when they are advised that all the family money they had been living off of was gone. Fern becomes very concerned and wants Edgar to take over the helm of his father's steel business in Chicago. But Edgar has never wanted that life - though he has happily lived off his family's money, he is embarrassed by it and is in the process of completing the publication of a book which delves into the horrors of making your money off the backs of poor miners and other workers. This leads him to find solace in the arms of another woman, Gloria.
When the family returns to Boston, Edgar tries to set up a bizarre dinner where he will again hook up with Gloria but will hand over his wife to her husband. Not surprisingly Fern is horrified and kicks Edgar out of their home.
Every second chapter the books goes back in time and we learn how the families made their money (Fern's is old plantation money earned off the backs of slaves; Edgar's parents are self made and very ostentatious in their lifestyle and spending habits). We also learn how Fern and Edgar met; about Fern's twin brother who was mentally unstable (and how she blames her parents for his fate); about Edgar's time in the army (coddled as a result of his father's connections) and about the birth of the children.
When we return to the present Edgar has decided to escape on a sailing adventure with Gloria while Fern embarks on a completely odd cross country drive with a giant of a man who she has just met. Neither knows the other is gone so the three children are left to fend for themselves. Cricket seems to be the most capable of anyone in the family and actually manages to not only keep her siblings alive but to get them to school looking normal so that no one suspects the children are on their own.
The remainder of the book fills in more about the past - and the love/hate relationship with money. And we follow the week long adventure of both parents and children as they all try to sort out how they should deal with their future now that they can no longer live off of Fern's family money. There is some sort of resolution in the end, but it is no more sensible than the lives of the family members ever were.
The book begins in 1976 on Martha's Vineyard. Fern and Edgar are spending their summer at their vacation home with their three children, nine year old Cricket and six year old twins, James and Will when they are advised that all the family money they had been living off of was gone. Fern becomes very concerned and wants Edgar to take over the helm of his father's steel business in Chicago. But Edgar has never wanted that life - though he has happily lived off his family's money, he is embarrassed by it and is in the process of completing the publication of a book which delves into the horrors of making your money off the backs of poor miners and other workers. This leads him to find solace in the arms of another woman, Gloria.
When the family returns to Boston, Edgar tries to set up a bizarre dinner where he will again hook up with Gloria but will hand over his wife to her husband. Not surprisingly Fern is horrified and kicks Edgar out of their home.
Every second chapter the books goes back in time and we learn how the families made their money (Fern's is old plantation money earned off the backs of slaves; Edgar's parents are self made and very ostentatious in their lifestyle and spending habits). We also learn how Fern and Edgar met; about Fern's twin brother who was mentally unstable (and how she blames her parents for his fate); about Edgar's time in the army (coddled as a result of his father's connections) and about the birth of the children.
When we return to the present Edgar has decided to escape on a sailing adventure with Gloria while Fern embarks on a completely odd cross country drive with a giant of a man who she has just met. Neither knows the other is gone so the three children are left to fend for themselves. Cricket seems to be the most capable of anyone in the family and actually manages to not only keep her siblings alive but to get them to school looking normal so that no one suspects the children are on their own.
The remainder of the book fills in more about the past - and the love/hate relationship with money. And we follow the week long adventure of both parents and children as they all try to sort out how they should deal with their future now that they can no longer live off of Fern's family money. There is some sort of resolution in the end, but it is no more sensible than the lives of the family members ever were.
Friday, October 7, 2016
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
After reading a heavy book about cancer treatments, this was a nice light escape. It's a modern day telling of Pride and Prejudice, but much easier to digest.
We follow the lives of the Cincinnati Bennet family. The two oldest daughters, Jane and Liz, return from New York following their father's bypass surgery. Jane is a yoga instructor, Liz a magazine writer. The girls discover their family home in disarray - their father is incapacitated due to the surgery; their mother has a shopping addiction and is otherwise solely focused on the lunch she is organizing at the country club. Middle sister Mary is working on her third online degree and hardly ever leaves her room while the two youngest, Kitty and Lydia, do little other than cross training. Liz also quickly discovers that her father has nearly bankrupted them.
In addition to the family drama, like in the original work, Jane quickly falls in love with a doctor, Chip Bingley though the relationship is obviously plagued with misunderstanding. Liz is smitten with the unlikely Fitzwilliam Darcy - who on first glance is rude and judgmental. The youngest Lydia falls for a transgendered man and Kitty for a black man, much to this dismay of their racist and homophobic mother.
The drama comes to an end on the reality show, Eligible (think The Bachelor) where Chip was a contestant prior to meeting Jane. If you have read the original the happy endings are no surprise, but the book is fun to read nonetheless.
We follow the lives of the Cincinnati Bennet family. The two oldest daughters, Jane and Liz, return from New York following their father's bypass surgery. Jane is a yoga instructor, Liz a magazine writer. The girls discover their family home in disarray - their father is incapacitated due to the surgery; their mother has a shopping addiction and is otherwise solely focused on the lunch she is organizing at the country club. Middle sister Mary is working on her third online degree and hardly ever leaves her room while the two youngest, Kitty and Lydia, do little other than cross training. Liz also quickly discovers that her father has nearly bankrupted them.
In addition to the family drama, like in the original work, Jane quickly falls in love with a doctor, Chip Bingley though the relationship is obviously plagued with misunderstanding. Liz is smitten with the unlikely Fitzwilliam Darcy - who on first glance is rude and judgmental. The youngest Lydia falls for a transgendered man and Kitty for a black man, much to this dismay of their racist and homophobic mother.
The drama comes to an end on the reality show, Eligible (think The Bachelor) where Chip was a contestant prior to meeting Jane. If you have read the original the happy endings are no surprise, but the book is fun to read nonetheless.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Alice & Oliver by Charles Bock
This book was interesting, but very depressing - all the more so because it is based on the real life experiences of the author's late wife.
When baby Doe is just a few months old her mother, Alice, takes ill and is diagnosed with fairly advanced cancer. Most of the book deals with Alice's fight to survive - multiple hospitalizations, radiation, chemotherapy and eventually bone marrow transplants. In addition to feeling her enormous physical pain, we see the emotional pain she endures; particularly protracted separations from her infant daughter as her immune system is not strong enough to withstand catching any germs a baby is likely to carry. Apparently many of the hospital and treatment scenes are based on journal's kept by the author's wife as she underwent cancer treatment.
Certain chapters are written from the perspective of Alice's husband, Oliver. We see how he struggles trying to be the primary caretaker for his wife and child while at the same time juggling the financial strain of Alice's treatments. He expends much energy trying to ensure proper insurance coverage. There are also weird interludes where Oliver visits with prostitutes - I suppose illustrating his desperate need for escape and companionship of some sort.
One of the nice aspects of the book is the support Alice and Oliver receive from Alice's mother and their various friends. Alice's mother takes on care of the her granddaughter while her friends rotate shifts by her bedside to ensure her comfort and, at times, safety when nurses cannot constantly assist her in her weakened state. Oliver's friends try to help keep his business afloat thus ensuring continuity of insurance coverage - however, by the end we feel they have not been as supportive as Alice's friends.
My biggest problem with the work is that it was somewhat weird in its writing style - it jumped around a lot and there were certain scenes that either didn't work for me or I simply didn't understand what they were getting at.
The final chapter is from the perspective of Doe many years later when she is a teenager. It is in this way that we learn the outcome of the story - both what happened with respect to Alice's health and how Oliver and Doe came through it all.
In all it was an interesting book, but very depressing so make sure you are in the mood for that kind of story. You also need to be prepared to ignore or skim over the weirder parts.
When baby Doe is just a few months old her mother, Alice, takes ill and is diagnosed with fairly advanced cancer. Most of the book deals with Alice's fight to survive - multiple hospitalizations, radiation, chemotherapy and eventually bone marrow transplants. In addition to feeling her enormous physical pain, we see the emotional pain she endures; particularly protracted separations from her infant daughter as her immune system is not strong enough to withstand catching any germs a baby is likely to carry. Apparently many of the hospital and treatment scenes are based on journal's kept by the author's wife as she underwent cancer treatment.
Certain chapters are written from the perspective of Alice's husband, Oliver. We see how he struggles trying to be the primary caretaker for his wife and child while at the same time juggling the financial strain of Alice's treatments. He expends much energy trying to ensure proper insurance coverage. There are also weird interludes where Oliver visits with prostitutes - I suppose illustrating his desperate need for escape and companionship of some sort.
One of the nice aspects of the book is the support Alice and Oliver receive from Alice's mother and their various friends. Alice's mother takes on care of the her granddaughter while her friends rotate shifts by her bedside to ensure her comfort and, at times, safety when nurses cannot constantly assist her in her weakened state. Oliver's friends try to help keep his business afloat thus ensuring continuity of insurance coverage - however, by the end we feel they have not been as supportive as Alice's friends.
My biggest problem with the work is that it was somewhat weird in its writing style - it jumped around a lot and there were certain scenes that either didn't work for me or I simply didn't understand what they were getting at.
The final chapter is from the perspective of Doe many years later when she is a teenager. It is in this way that we learn the outcome of the story - both what happened with respect to Alice's health and how Oliver and Doe came through it all.
In all it was an interesting book, but very depressing so make sure you are in the mood for that kind of story. You also need to be prepared to ignore or skim over the weirder parts.
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