Accidents of Marriage

Title:  Accidents of Marriage

Author:  Randy Susan Meyers

Publication Information:  Atria Books. 2014. 368 pages.

ISBN:  1451673043 / 978-1451673043

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "Love isn't an excuse for anything but treating someone well."

"All these years .... I've been a prisoner of hope." That is what Maddy realizes about her marriage. She and Ben are married with three children - fourteen year old Emma, nine year old Gracie, and seven year old Caleb. Ben is a successful attorney, and Maddy is a social worker.

Dominating their life is Ben's aggressiveness and anger. These traits make him a successful public defender, but they are destructive towards his family. Maddy has taken to pills to maintain an ability to cope. She walks on egg shells never knowing if, at any given moment, Ben will be the loving, committed man she thought she married or an angry abuser. The children too are "being trained in the fine art of placating an angry man." Essentially, their life is all about Ben and what will make Ben not angry.

Maddy continues to make excuses, to focus on the positives, to take her pills, and to cope. Even that is not enough. One day, a combination of things lead to a terrifying and terrible accident. Fortunately, the children are not in the car, but Maddy ends up in a fight for her life.

How the family copes is the crux of the story. The story is told through the alternating viewpoints of Ben, fourteen year of Emma, and Maddy.

Ben's point of view, not surprisingly, is all about Ben - how the accident affects him, how it's not his fault, and how he will cope. Instead of worrying about his wife whose life is forever altered, he worries about himself. Instead of worrying about his children who are without their anchor in life, he worries about himself. He is a well portrayed picture of a self-centered, self-serving individual.

Fourteen year old Emma is perhaps my favorite character in the book. Reading her point of view makes me wonder what happened to all the grownups in her life. Warranted, her father is worried about only himself, and her mother is in the hospital. What about her grandparents and her aunt? Other sections of the book show that the support exists, but from her point of view, she is floundering alone. She is thrust into the role of caretaker for her younger siblings. She tries a number of coping mechanisms - pills, boys, friends - but finds a way to be there for her siblings and to survive. She's the one you want to reach out and protect.

Maddy's point of view is the toughest one to portray because you get glimpses into what life is before the accident and what it is after.  Before the accident, I have a hard time understanding Maddy's actions. She is a social worker who should recognize the abuse in her marriage. She is independent and has a strong network of family and friends surrounding her. Why does she stay?

After the accident, her actions are impacted by the accident and her relationship with Ben. The two, of course, run together as Ben is a big part of the accident occurring in the first place. Her confusion and injury make it difficult to get into depth as to her perspective. As a result, it is very difficult to connect with Maddy as a character. Since her journey is the anchor for the book, it makes the book a bit difficult to connect to emotionally.

Maddy's confusion and the ending of the book leaves a lot of room to wonder what would you do in that situation. I do appreciate that the author does not try and wrap it into a neat package. Life is not neat, and this book does a good job of capturing the mess and the dysfunction. Unfortunately, with one main character who is not likable and one who is hard to connect to, I enjoyed the story but did not fall in love with it.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Americanah

Title:  Americanah

Author:   Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Publication Information:  Knopf. 2013. 496 pages.

ISBN:  0307271080 / 978-0307271082

Book Source:  I read this book as this month's selection for my local book club.

Favorite Quote:  "She recognized in Kelsey that nationalism of liberal Americans who copiously criticized American but did not like you to do so; they expected you to be silent and grateful, and always reminded you of how much better than wherever you had come from America was."

Americanah travels from Nigeria to the United States and back again. The story travels along three threads - the immigrant experience, the concept and understanding of race and culture, and a love story.

Ifemelu is Nigerian. She comes to the United States to study and becomes an American. She stays for about 15 years. Then, she returns back to Nigeria and becomes an "Americanah" - someone who left and came back different.

In Nigeria, Ifemelu is a young woman like so many others around the world - worried about school, loving towards her family yet embarrassed by them at times, and in love with her boyfriend Obinze. She grows up poor but is able to study at the university in Nigeria. From there, she is able to secure a scholarship to study in the United States.

In the United States, she finds it difficult to find a job and difficult to understand all the cultural differences and racial divides. "It was the commercials that captivated her. She ached for the lives they showed, lives full of bliss, where all problems had sparkling solutions in shampoos and cars and packaged foods, and in her mind they became the real America." She find life to be full of difficulty and obstacles.

She manages to find her way and create a life - a job, an education, a successful online blog, and loving relationships. Yet, she continues to feel herself different and sometimes unsure of who she is. "How can I just be myself? What does that even mean?" As a result, she abandons it all to return to Nigeria after living in the US for about fifteen years.

Upon her return to Nigeria, she reconnects with her old boyfriend, who is now married and with a family. She again finds herself a stranger - an Americanah in this new Nigeria.

To me, this book, more than anything else, is about fitting in and finding your place in the world. I don't think Ifemelu ever quite does that. She never quite commits to creating a fulfilling life in the situation in which she finds herself. Somewhere else and someone else always seems to hold more appeal to her. As such, I find myself getting frustrated with the character and wishing that she would let herself choose.

This theme of being "different" carries through the rest of the book. Her aunt's is a mistress of a general; this sets her apart and different. Ifemelu's mother is on a constant search for a church where she will fit in. Ifemelu's boyfriend Obinze sometimes feels as if her does not belong in his family. His sojourn in England continues that feeling of not belonging. In the United States, Ifemelu finds herself not fitting in with the immigrant population or the "American" population even after living here for over a decade. On her return to Nigeria, she finds herself labeled an "Americanah" and still not belonging.

Underlying this theme is the idea of immigration and of race and culture. Ifemelu's observations on the immigrant experience are enlightening. However, sometimes the kernels of truth get lost in the amount of detail in the book. For example, hair is a big part of her ethnic identity for her. The genetic differences in hair and the cultural importance of hair styles are a key for Ifemelu. Yet, does it really merit a description of several pages to make that point? I want to share in the experience but I don't want to wade through as much detail to find those "a-ha" moments.

The love story - Obinze and Ifemelu - to me is completely unnecessary to the book. The premise of the book is Ifemelu's journey. Obinze goes through his own journey, emigrating to England, being deported, and returning to Nigeria to create what he deems a successful life.

The immigrant experience and the experience of returning "back home" is sufficient to create a powerful story. The love story and particularly the focal point that it becomes towards the end of the book, muddles that main theme. I am still wondering why it is included at all.

In a nutshell, the book has an incredibly strong premise. I loved its observations on the immigrant experience. I did not care as much about the main character or her love story. This leaves my overall reaction somewhere in the middle.

Book Club side note:  This book ended up being a a great book club pick. It led to many discussions about race, cultural and the personal experiences of our very diverse group. We had a reading group guide, but really, the book served as a jumping off point for conversations that went well beyond the book.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Island of a Thousand Mirrors

Title:  Island of a Thousand Mirrors

Author:  Nayomi Munaweera

Publication Information:  St. Martin's Press. 2014. 256 pages.

ISBN:  125004393X / 978-1250043931

Book Source:  I received this book through a publisher's giveaway free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "Sometimes I get this breathless feeling that the war is a living creature, something huge with a pointed tongue and wicked claws. When the tanks rumble past in the far fields, I feel it breathe; when the air strikes start and the blood flows, I feel it lick its lips. I've grown up inside this war, so now I can't imagine what it would be like to live outside it."

Sri Lanka is a small island nation in the Indian Ocean off the coast of India. Geographically, Sri Lanka is only about 25,000 square miles - a little bit larger than the state of West Virginia; its population in about 20 million people - about the population of the state of New York.

The biggest ethnic population in Sri Lanka is the Sinahala. The largest minority is the Tamil. According to legend, the Sinhala claim to be descendants from the earliest settlers of Sri Lanka. The Tamil claim an equally long history in Sri Lanka. The two groups are divided religiously and ethnically.

Sri Lanka became an independent nation in 1948 with the departure of the British control from the Indian subcontinent. Since that time, the relations between the Sinhala and the Tamil have been strained. Riots have occurred throughout the nation's short history, with the Tamil working for an independent homeland and the Sinhala working to keep government control.

In 1983, the country went into Civil War - the government and army representing the Sinhala, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil Tigers) representing the Tamil nationalist interests. The conflict continued for over 25 years until the Sri Lankan army defeated the Tamil Tigers in 2009. Over 25 years of civil war! Over 80,000 people dead!

Island of a Thousand Mirrors paints a hauntingly vivid picture of this civil war. Told through the eyes of two young girls caught on opposite sides of the conflict, the book creates a personal story of war, destruction, and loss. The beautifully constructed narrative takes the reader into the hearts and the minds of these young women and the heartbreaking realities they face.

Through the eyes of these young women, we learn of the war. We also learn a lot about Sri Lanka - the lush tropical environment, education, arranged vs. love marriages, economy, food, and such. The destruction of these becomes yet another victim of the war.

This book does not shy away from any of the atrocities of war. It does not present one side as right or wrong. It does not present the political impact but rather the human impact of the war. It presents the victims on all sides:

Suicide bombers - "What could have led her to this singularly terrible end? What secret wound bled until she chose this most public disassembly of herself? Just moments earlier she had been just another nameless woman in the teeming crowd; now, blown to bits, she was either martyr or mass murderer, according to one's taste. Either way she had attained instant immortality. but what had led her to that moment?"

Families destroyed - "The sound of pure and absolute anguish breaking out from each of us who has paid a price to the demons of war. A sounds forged in the lungs of the mothers whose sons have died unnamed in the fields, the fathers whose daughters have gone to fight."

People who fled the war trying to explain the war to people in their new adopted homeland - "I try to explain. There are no martyrs here, It is a war between equally corrupt forces. I see their eyes glaze over. I realize they do not desire a complicated answer. They wanted clear distinctions between the cowboys and the Indians, the corrupt administration and the valiant freedom fighters, the democratic government and the raging terrorists. They want moral certainty, a thing I cannot give them."

Yet, at the end of it all, the book ends on a note of hope. The losses are incalculable and inconsolable. Yet, hope remains. "When my weeping is spent, when I have no more sorrow to give, I shall celebrate peace. I shall wake up from these long decades of war and begin to see what we can do in peace, what sort of creatures we are when the mask of lion or tiger falls from us."

The book is about the Sri Lankan conflict, but the emotions captured to vividly can be applied to the conflicts in the headlines these days. The author's words are truly universal. I know that the book, the story, the characters, and the narrative itself will haunt me for a long time to come.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Opposite of Maybe

Title:  The Opposite of Maybe

Author:  Maddie Dawson

Publication Information:  Broadway Books. 2014. 400 pages.

ISBN:  0770437680 / 978-0770437688

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through Edelweiss free of cost in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Blogging for Books!

Favorite Quote:  "You just have to remind yourself of what's important. What's really important. I wanted her to be happy. That's what loving somebody is. It's not just the easy parts."

Based on the description of this book, I viewed it as a quick, light summer read. Jonathan and Rosie have been a couple for many years; they have never seen the need to get married or have children. Soapie is Rosie's grandmother, a vibrant woman who raised Rosie. Tony is Soapie's young and handsome caretaker.

Rosie breaks up with Jonathan and moves in with Soapie and Tony, only to find herself pregnant with Jonathan's child. Life gets messy, as it has a tendency to do. What choices will Rosie make?

As I said, based on the description, it sounds like a quick read without much substance or depth - a perfect summer read. That turns out to true to some extent. The story ends exactly where I thought. The characters really don't develop through the story. Each one has one main character trait that is consistently displayed throughout.

Yet, I found myself drawn into the story. The central theme of finding love - in the myriad of forms that it exists - brings cohesion and a greater depth to this story. The crux of the book is to depict love - what it is even when it differs from what you expect, what it is not, and how it can exist in different forms - through a variety of relationships.

Take Rosie and Soapie's relationship. Rosie lost her mother at a young age. Soapie raised her. Soapie is not your typical warm and fuzzy grandmother; yet, she completely changes her life to provide safety and a home for Rosie. That is her expression of love even when it is not what Rosie thinks she needs or wants.

Take Rosie and Jonathon's relationship. They have been together for years. They often profess their love for each other through their words. Do those words translate into loving actions? Is it love? Is it a true commitment? Or is it just a comfortable habit they have both gotten into?

Take Rosie's relationship with her long dead mother. Since her mother died when Rosie was young, Rosie feels that love missing in her life. When she learns more about her mother's death, it raises further questions about that love and what it means for Rosie as an adult.

Take Rosie's relationship with Tony. Is it friendship? Is it something more? Where lies the line between friendship and something more? What impact does it have on a relationship when both exist?

Take Soapie's relationship with George. They have known each other for a long time and share a long history. At this late stage of their lives, they offer each other understanding, companionship, and love despite the other commitments in their lives.

Take Tony's relationship with his ex-wife. They share a child and a love for that child. Is that enough to keep their relationship amicable? Can they put aside their differences for the sake of that shared love?

Take Rosie's relationship with her baby even before the baby is born. Where does that fierce love and protective instinct come from?

For an easy read, the book provided a lot to think about. Even though the story is told through one dimensional characters, the relationships in it draw me in, making me laugh and cry.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Miniaturist: A Novel

Title:  The Miniaturist: A Novel

Author:  Jessie Burton

Publication Information:  Ecco. 2014. 416 pages.

ISBN:  0062306812 / 978-0062306814

Book Source:  I received this book through a publisher's giveaway free of cost in exchange for an honest review. The book was delivered through Edelweiss.

Favorite Quote:  "When you have truly come to know a person, Nella - when you see beneath the sweeter gestures, the smiles - when you see the rage and the pitiful fear which each of us hide - then forgiveness is everything. We are all in desperate need of it."

Seventeenth century Amsterdam is a dark and gloomy place in this book. It is a world of the rich and the poor. It is a world of trade and greed. It is a world of mysterious characters and mysterious happenings. It is a world of strict social and religious rules.

Nella is an eighteen year old country girl who steps into this world upon her marriage to a well known businessman, Johannes Brandt. The marriage has occurred with a bare acquaintance between the two. Nella is a stranger to Amsterdam, to the home and household of her husband, and even to her husband.

As a wedding gift, Johannes presents to Nella a cabinet sized model of his - and now - her home. Supposedly, such a gift on a smaller scale was sometimes presented to children as "a practice instrument so she might learn to manager her larders, her linen, her servants and furnishings." However, Nella is no longer a child and has the actual home of her husband to manage. How then to understand the gift and what to do with it?

Nella decides to decorate the model and seeks out artisans who may make miniature furnishings. Enter the miniaturist. She sees an advertisement and engages a miniaturist  to make a few specific test pieces. She gets more than she bargained for. The miniaturist has an uncanny and unsettling knowledge of Nella's life and the "pieces" she may need. As the cabinet is furnished, so occur changes in Nella's life and household.

The book has a promising start with hints at the mysteries to come. It has somewhat of a dark, Gothic, supernatural feel to it. Johannes is this mysterious character, who gets married but seems not to have much time for his new bride. The other people in Johannes' household seem to have secrets of their own. The house and its miniature model seem ominous. The weather is cold and damp. Nella has the feeling of being watched and the feeling as if there are secrets she ought to know.

Unfortunately for me, I guessed the ending of the book fairly early in the book. I cannot point out what led me to the guess, but I did guess correctly. That dispelled some of the buildup and mystique of the book.

As the book progresses, it also becomes less and less about the mysterious and the supernatural. Rather, it comes into the every day world of individual choices, social norms, and relationships. The mystery of the miniaturist becomes a vehicle for Nella to learn about her husband, her home, and her new life. "I thought she was stealing my life, but in truth she opened its compartments and let me look inside."

By the end, I am not sure what the purpose of the miniaturist is. The character is never really developed with a back story or a resolution of what happens to her. How then to describe her role in the book?

Nella's story and the story of her new household could have been equally successfully told without the somewhat supernatural element. The historical context of the Dutch trade and strict religious edicts along with the introduction of someone new to both was a strong enough premise on which to build the entire story. Was the miniaturist really necessary?

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Girls of August

Title:  The Girls of August

Author:  Anne River Siddons

Publication Information:  Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group. 2014. 223 pages.

ISBN:  0446527955 / 978-0446527958

Book Source:  I read this book because I have enjoyed the author's work in the past but have not read one of her books in a long while.

Favorite Quote:  "I do believe that each of us slept the whole night through without our real lives interrupting our dreams."

The Girls of August should probably be titled The Mean Girls of August. That is how the book reads. The "girls" are Maddy, Rachel, Barbara, and Melinda. They met and became friends years ago.  They spend a week together in August every year. It started on a whim, but became a longtime tradition between the friends.

However, Melinda passed away, and the girls of August have not met in a while. And now comes the introduction of someone new - Baby has married Melinda's husband. She offers the August girls the use of her island vacation home for a reunion. They accept the vacation, but are much less accepting of Baby.

The open minded view says that the other three women agree to the vacation because they are willing to give Baby a chance. The cynical view says that she offers them a private island getaway, and they decide to enjoy it despite her.

Baby starts off with many strikes against her. She is lovely, young, and enthusiastic - more so than the other three.  She is new to the group. She has taken over the place, that in the mind of the other three, belongs to Melinda. The other three have a lot of history with her husband, which transfers to their relationship with her.

All four women come to the island with their own secrets and their own heartaches. Yet, Maddy, Rachel, and Barbara all gang up on Baby and essentially behave like sophomoric mean girls. The problem is that these are grown women with life experiences, families, and careers - they should know better and they should behave better.

This book is short at only a little over 200 pages. The story is rushed and not much of a story at all. The mean girls unite against the new girl. New girl perseveres. Repeat. Repeat some more. Insert some big melodramatic events that may or may not change relationships. Repeat. The end. That's it.

The book is melodramatic from beginning to end. The problems that the girls bring with them are predictable - mourning, illness, marriage, children. The reactions are also expected - anger, alcohol, and resentment - and described at a very shallow level.

The characters are really undeveloped. In fact, the characters of Barbara and Rachel are such that I had trouble keep them and their problems straight. In their wallowing and meanness, all three of the "girls of August" are not particularly likable.

My favorite character of the book, perhaps, is Baby.  Her position of being the new one in a group and of trying to create friendships is perhaps the most interesting especially since the other three have such a strong bond and have been through so much together. The quote from the book movie Dirty Dancing, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner," runs through my mind, but in this book, Baby is definitely in a corner.

Unfortunately, the book never shares her perspective or develops her background or personality until the very end. By then, I want to know more about her, but the book ends.

I have not read a book by Anne River Siddons in a long while, but I do remember enjoying the books. I remember the stories and the characters having some depth and a lot of warmth. This one has none of that. A disappointing re-introduction to the author's work.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Story of Land and Sea: A Novel

Title:  The Story of Land and Sea:  A Novel

Author:  Katy Simpson Smith

Publication Information:  HaperCollins. 2014. 256 pages.

ISBN:  0062335944 / 978-0062335944

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through Edelweiss free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote:  "He cannot keep all his memories and survive."

The Story of Land and Sea is a story of the parent-child relationship and of loss. It takes on the challenges and the heartaches of parenting but not the joys. The story is set in a small coastal town in North Carolina at the time of the American Revolution.

John runs a small store in the town but is a man of the sea. He was a sailor and a soldier, but settled down on shore upon starting a family. He is father to ten-year-old Tabitha, alone since the death of his wife Helen. Tabitha is raised on the stories of pirates and the seas. John takes to the sea again when Tabitha falls ill. He hopes that the sea will bring her joy and health as it did to his wife. This story and parent-child relationship is the least developed of all. Perhaps because of her age, Tabitha is a feature in the story, but not a complete character. This part of the story is about the struggle to raise a young child alone, the lengths to which you would go to protect that child, and about devastating loss.

Asa is father to Helen. He is the owner of a plantation, and raised Helen alone after the death of his wife. Throughout Helen's childhood, he has dreams of her life and of their life together. He heartily disapproves when she takes up with John. The story of Asa and Helen is about the changing relationship between a parent and a child as the child grows. It is the story of what happens when the needs and wants of the parent and the child are not the same. It speaks of the disappointments and heartaches parents undergo because of the decisions of a child. It describes of the indescribable loss of a child's death.

Moll is a slave. Asa gives her as a maid to Helen upon her tenth birthday. Moll's solace becomes her son Davy. She seeks to protect him from the life of slavery that she has always known. Of the three facets of the story, this is the one that captures me the most. Her relationship with Asa is that of master and slave, but resembles a strained, controlled parent-child relationship. As a slave, Moll has no control over most of her life. The descriptions of her different feelings towards her children hinge on that lack of control. Yet, she find strength and self-determination and love. As Davy charts his own course, the book yet again brings in the forces that pull apart parents and children.

The story is not told chronologically, but the constant focus on parenting and loss rather than the time and place provide its own continuity throughout the book:

• "He wonders if fatherhood is easy to men who had fathers."
• "Fathering had no end. There was no stage at which you could no longer improve."
• "Little ones are the lights that ease our blackness, a'n't they?"
• "This is what a mother dreams about at night. She plants herself between these things and her child. She is no defense, but she stands there nonetheless. And that standing is the most protection a man will ever know."

The tone of the entire book can be described in two words - isolated and sad. The descriptions of the physical location - although a small town - convey that sense of isolation. Each character seems isolated in their own sorrows. The book is not an easy read, but definitely a worthwhile one and a beautifully written one.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.