Novels Now

The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth
Medical History/Memoir
2009 Penguin
Finished on 4/28/09
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Product Description

An unforgettable story of the joy of motherhood, the bravery of a community, and the hope of one extraordinary woman

At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in post war London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she meets while delivering babies all over London—from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives to the woman with twenty-four children who can’t speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side—illuminate a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, The Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has, a mother.

About the author

Jennifer Worth trained as a nurse at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, England. She then moved to London to train as a midwife. She later became a staff nurse at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, and then ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in Euston. Music had always been her passion and in 1973 Jennifer left nursing in order to study music intensively. She gained the Licentiate of the London College of Music in 1974 and was awarded a fellowship ten years later. Mother of two daughters and grandmother of two; Jennifer lives in Hertfordshire with her husband Philip Worth.

I generally don’t read a lot of nonfiction, but I sure do love memoirs, so I was happy to accept a review copy of The Midwife. I had a little bit of difficulty getting started, stumbling a bit through the introduction, but after that it was smooth sailing. The author has an engaging style and I was quickly transported to the streets of East London.

This is one of those books that must cause a bit of confusion for bookstore buyers and merchandisers. The subtitle indicates that it’s a memoir. However, Barnes & Noble has it shelved in the medical history section. I’m not sure it’s either. I think it falls more into the area of British history, as many of the anecdotes have more to do with life in London after World War II than with the art and science of delivering babies. Regardless of its classification, it’s a lovely story of a young woman living amongst a group of kind-hearted nuns, learning the ropes of midwifery.

On the joy of a delivery:

I am about ready to leave. It has been a long day and night, but a profound sense of fulfilment and satisfaction lighten my step and lift my heart. Muriel and baby are both asleep as I creep out of the room. The good people downstairs offer me more tea, which again I decline as gracefully as I can, saying that breakfast will be waiting for me at Nonnatus House. I give instructions to call us if there seems to be any cause for worry, but say that I will be back again around lunch time, and again in the evening.

I entered the house in the rain and the dark. There had been a fever of excitement and anticipation, and the anxiety of a woman in labour, on the brink of bringing forth new life. I leave a calm, sleeping household, with the new soul in the midst, and step out into the morning sunlight.

I cycled through the dark deserted streets, the silent docks, past the locked gates, the empty ports. Now I cycle through bright early morning, the sun just rising over the river, the gates open or opening, men streaming through the streets, calling to each other; engines beginning to sound, the cranes to move; lorries turning in through the huge gates; the sounds of a ship as it moved. A dockyard is not really a glamorous places, but to a young girl with only three hours sleep on twenty-four hours work, after the quiet thrill of a safe delivery of a healthy baby, it is intoxicating. I don’t even feel tired.

From large families (one delivery is of a woman’s 25th child!) to rickets to interracial births to the horrors of the “workhouse,” Worth entertains and enlightens her readers with anecdotes that help balance the story’s grim poverty and hardships with stories imbued with her keen sense of humor:

A convent is essentially a female establishment. However, of necessity, the male of the species cannot be excluded entirely. Fred was the boiler-man and odd-jobber of Nonnatus House. He was typical of the Cockney of his day and age. Stunted growth, short bowed legs, powerful hairy arms, pugnacious, obstinate, resourceful; all these attributes were combined with endless chat and irrepressible good humour. His most striking characteristic was a spectacular squint. One eye was permanently directed north-east, whilst the other roved in a south-westerly direction. If you added to this the single yellow tooth jutting from his upper jaw, which he generally held over his lower lip and sucked, you would not say he was a beautiful specimen of manhood.

I noticed an occasional repetition to some of the stories, making me wonder if each chapter originated as an essay or column, later to be woven together in the form of a book. This is very minor quibble, as it really didn’t distract from my enjoyment of the narrative.

The Midwife is much more than simply a memoir about a young woman’s experiences in her new role as a midwife. It’s a warm, engaging examination of life in a convent, life in London’s post-war slums, and the friendships that grow between the nuns, midwives and mothers-to-be. If you enjoy any sort of medical narrative or historical memoirs (such as Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes), you’ll fall in love with Worth’s richly evocative story. I certainly did.

Be sure to watch this wonderful video (from BookVideos.tv) of Jennifer Worth discussing her memoir. There are some marvelous black and white photographs included throughout the clip.

The horror of this case was that the corruption lay inside the ‘domestic sanctum’, that the bolts, locks and fastenings of the house were hopelessly redundant. ‘The secret lies with someone who was within…the household collectively must be responsible for this mysterious and dreadful event. Not one of them ought to be at large till the whole mystery is cleared up…one (or more) of the family is guilty.’ The Morning Post article was reprinted in The Times the next day, and in newspapers throughout the country over the rest of the week.  ‘Let the best detective talent in the country be engaged,’ demanded the Somerset and Wilts Journal. - from The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, page 38 -

In the early morning hours of June 30, 1860 three year old Saville Kent was abducted from his bed and murdered, his tiny body discovered the next day concealed in the privy, his throat cut ear to ear. The case cast everyone living in the household under suspicion. Samuel Kent (Saville’s father), the nursemaid Elizabeth Gough, Constance Kent (Saville’s 16 year old half sister), and William Kent (Saville’s 14 year old half brother) were to become the focus of the investigation, along with an odd villager named William Nutt who was the man to locate the child’s body. Within a short period of time Scotland Yard dispatched Detective-Inspector Jonathan (Jack) Whicher to the scene. Whicher, known for his cunning and skill, and embodying all the traits of the ideal Victorian sleuth would later be demonized for his probing investigation.

The Road Hill Case, as the murder came to be known, not only inflamed the public’s imagination, but it also changed the way detectives were viewed and ushered in a new era of fiction called ’sensation fiction.’

Kate Summerscale’s book is at once a compelling and fascinating look at Victorian England through the lens of a horrific crime. Summerscale examines nineteenth century societal mores, the evolving view of women, sexual awareness, and the role of the news media and literature in shaping views of morality, guilt and innocence.

Victorian women were seen as pure and innocent creatures, prone to hysteria and fits of insanity.

Women were thought to be prone to insanity, whether as a result of suppressed menstruation, a surplus of sexual energy, or the upheavals of puberty. - from The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, page 244 -

In addition, middle class English families had historically found shelter within the walls of their homes. Privacy was rarely interfered with - even when it came to investigating crimes.

Privacy had become the essential attribute of the middle-class Victorian family, and the bourgeoisie acquired an expertise in secrecy (the word ’secretive’ was first recorded in 1853). - from The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, page 109 -

When Whicher concluded that the murder of Saville had been committed by his sixteen year old half sister, and attempted to shore up that conclusion by probing deep within a middle-class family, the public (and press) were reluctant to accept his theory. Whicher was accused of exploiting the privacy of the family and the innocence of a young girl. In accusing Constance Kent of the brutal crime, Whicher also seemed to be challenging Victorian beliefs.

‘The steps you have taken will be such as to ruin her for life - every hope is gone with regard to this young girl…And where is the evidence? The one fact - and I am ashamed in this land of liberty and justice to refer to it - is the suspicion of Mr. Whicher [...] - from The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, page 154 -

It was almost inconceivable that a respectable girl could be possessed of enough fury and emotion to kill, and enough cool to cover it. The public preferred to believe in the detective’s villainy, to attribute the moral pollution to him. - from The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, page 154 -

I found it interesting to read about the view of the press during the nineteenth century. Not only were they demonized, but later novels based on the Road Hill case and articles which referenced it were thought to be a corrupting influence on those who read them. I am reminded of present day arguments which suggest reading questionable material can damage young minds.

The dizzying expansion of the press in the 1850s prompted worries that readers might be corrupted, infected, inspired by the sex and violence in newspaper articles. The new journalists shared much with the detectives: they were seen alternately as crusaders for truth and as sleazy voyeurs. - from The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, page 106 -

In the early 1860s the emotions aroused by the Road Hill murder went underground, leaving the pages of the press to reappear, disguised and intensified, in the pages of fiction. On 6 July 1861, almost exactly a year after the murder, the first installment of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret appeared in Robin Goodfellow magazine. - from The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, page 217 -

Many feared that sensation novels were a ‘virus’ that might create the corruption they described, forming a circle of excitement - sexual and violent - that coursed through every stratum of society. - from The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, page 219 -

Summerscale’s writing is clear and probing. Her book does not just look at a sensational crime, but explores the evolution of today’s crime scene investigation, the role of the press in criminal cases, the changing societal mores during the Victorian era, and how real life influenced literature. Wilkie Collins’ classic novel The Moonstone is based in large part on the Road Hill murder case. Although certain facts were altered (ie: the crime was not a murder, but a theft; and splashes of paint replaced splashes of blood), the salient features remained intact (a missing nightdress, a renowned detective, a middle class household whose privacy is invaded, and the focus on a young girl within the home).

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a fascinating read for anyone interested in crime solving or mysteries. It will also appeal to those readers who are drawn to Victorian era literature or interested in reading more about the psychology and sociology of  the nineteenth century. Summerscales’ detailed text made me eager to read some of the fictional literature she referenced.

Highly recommended.

 
Still I Rise is a graphic history book about the struggles, heroic, and triumphant history of African Americans. It mentions all of the largely known history but it also tells of more little known facts and of important people who helped shape how America is today.

Something I certainly didn’t learn in my school history books was that of indentured servitude which lead to slavery. I didn’t enjoy my history classes back in grammar school or high school because the text books were dry.

This book would make students want to learn the history of African Americans! It is a short book but the details of the history included are rich in detail. It is well researched, well written, and beautifully illustrated.

This is my first time reading a graphic book. There have been some that sound good but I have been hesitant. I visualize a comic strip, like the Sunday funnies in the newspaper. I just couldn’t believe that they could be taken seriously. Still I Rise has changes my view point! If you haven’t read a graphic book, this would be a good place to start!

Highly recommended!

5/5

Letter to my Daughter
Maya Angelou
166 pages        

Letter to my Daughter is a book of wisdom, a collection of 28 short works — mostly essays, and a couple of poems. Ms. Angelou doesn’t have a daughter (her only child is a son); this book is dedicated to women all around the world. Angelou plumbs the depths of more than 80 years on the planet to serve up bits of her experience as lessons for her readers. Some of the essays, particularly those pertaining to her younger adult years, concern violence and disrespect towards women. In others, Angelou relates cultural blunders or near misses made during her travels. The embedded lesson is usually not about the gaffe itself, but the personal learning and growth that came from it:

In an unfamiliar culture, it is wise to offer no innovations, no suggestions, or lessons.
The epitome of sophistication is utter simplicity. (p. 91)

In fact, most of her lessons came from mistakes. I admired Angelou’s ability to expose her own vulnerability for the reader’s benefit. My only complaint about this book is that its 166 pages are misleading. Each piece is quite short, usually 2-4 pages. Each essay is padded with additional pages (a cover page, a blank page, etc.), and of course there are obligatory pages about the author, the typeface, and so on. I would have preferred a greater percentage of this book be devoted to Angelou’s words of wisdom. Nevertheless, these essays lend themselves well to periodic re-reading, and this book will remain on my shelves to be dipped into later.

Clara’s War: A young girl’s true story of miraculous survival under the Nazis by Clara Kramer with Stephen Glantz

Pages: 339
First Published: 2008 UK (Apr. 7, 2009 CAN)(April 21, 2009 US)
Genre: memoir, nonfiction, Holocaust
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

My entire family was camped out on blankets and goosedown bedding in the apple orchard behind Aunt Uchka’s little house.

Reason for Reading: I am always driven to read first hand Holocaust accounts, especially from children’s points of view.

Comments: Young teenager Clara Kramer is living in a small Polish town when WWII starts. The book is her story retold from her memories and from the aid of her diaries kept while hidden during the last 2 years of the war. Starting off in 1939, we get a quick feel for pre-war life, then immediately a Russian protection takeover then quick withdrawal. The Germans soon infiltrate the town and a Jewish Ghetto is set up and the 5,000 Jews in the town are rounded up, sent to the Ghetto, packed onto cattle trains, while others desperately seek hiding places.

Clara’s family along with a group of family and friends ask their Polish maid to
persuade her husband to hide them. This isn’t so hard since he is having a secret affair with her best friend (who happens to be Jewish and part of the group to be hidden). They ask him to requisition one of the families houses, which the Germans gladly give him, as he has some standing in the community, and then the children in the group (because of their size) start to dig a dugout underneath the house. Eventually everyone helps out and the dugout becomes big enough (just) for the 18 people to squeeze into.

Mr. Beck, the man who is hiding them is actually quite well known for his antisemitism and he regularly has Nazi visitors to his house. Later on the Nazi’s impose themselves on his hospitality and at any time there could be 6 or 7 Nazi soldiers or even SS officials sleeping above the hidden Jews. Beck is not who he first appears to be though and as the life of these people unfold both those downstairs and upstairs we learn how humanity can triumph over even the most degradable conditions.

At times a heart-wrenching tale, at others an uplifting tale of survival against all odds. No matter how many books one reads of the Jewish Holocaust, it is always unbelievable that humans could have treated other humans this way. A story of triumph, love and respect that is well worth the read. Also rather a unique tale in that 18 people were hidden by one small family literally right under the feet of the Nazis themselves.

I only wonder as to why no photographs are included, not even an author’s photo of Clara. At first I thought none may have survived but in the final chapter Clara tells us what happened to all persons involved up to the present and she says the photos are all that remain from that time period. It would have been nice to have had faces to go with the names or even at the least a photo of Clara herself at any age.

If you are reading Jewish Holocaust memoirs this is one not to be missed. Read it.

Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd
Brief Lives series

Pages: 160
First Published: Jan, 2009 (UK, 2008/Can, Mar.2009)
Genre: biography, non-fiction
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

On the evening of 26 September 1849, Edgar Allan Poe stopped in the office of a physician in Richmond, Virginia — John Carter — and obtained a palliative for the fever that had beset him.

Comments: This is a short, or rather, brief biography of Edgar Allan Poe, part of a series the author has done called Brief Lives in which also includes biographies of Chaucer, Newton and Turner. This is not the first biography of Poe I have read, nor will it be the last. It has been quite some years since I last read of Poe, though, so the information was all coming fresh to my hazy mind.

For such a short book, there is a wealth of information and detail included that leaves nothing out of Poe’s tragically brief life. His melancholy and morbid life is so fascinating as one compares it to the macabre literature and poetry that he wrote. Poe was an orphan early in life, taken in by people of no relation, who, after the mother’s death, refused to have anything to do with him. He became notorious and well-known during his life but never enjoyed appreciation for his work while he was alive and thus fortune alluded him, leaving him always on the verge of penury. He also had a habit of attaching himself to women who died at young ages of consumption from his birth mother through several ladies down to his own wife. Of course, his frequent bouts of extreme drinking lasting for days which left him to be found laying in ditches by acquaintances did not help his health or his reputation.

The book is well written, including many direct quotes from contemporary sources, taken from people who knew him and newspapers of the time and his own words. The author has done a good job of giving a background as to whether the modern reader should take those quotes as truth or with a grain of salt. While focusing on his life a good deal of time is also spent on the writing of certain of his works and the literary criticism of the time; in fact a whole chapter is devoted to The Raven. I enjoyed the book and found it very interesting, even to one who had read the story before; I found this a rather studious approach to the subject. This does make the reader take the work serious but on the other hand, I did find the writing a bit dry at times. I prefer my biographies to be written in a narrative which almost reads like fiction and the quotes and literary criticism got in the way of that for me. But nevertheless a well-written book and certainly a good place to start for the person who has never read anything on Poe himself before; with only 160 pages it will give you the answer as to whether you want to read more about the man himself.

The Side-Yard Superhero by Rick D. Niece
Book One in the Trilogy, Life in DeGraff: An Automythography

Pages: 173
First Published: Mar. 1, 2009
Genre: memoir,
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

Comments: First of all, I’ll admit I’m a sucker for early 20th century boyhood memoirs. No idea why, seeing as I’m a girl but there you have it. This book tells snippets of the author’s life living in DeGraff, Ohio and small former steel mill town during the 1950s and ’60s. The book does go in chronological order though there is no general plot rather single episodes or remembrances pulled from his life. What makes this book different from any of the others is Rick’s best friend. Bernie, is his name. An older boy, a teenager actually to Rick’s nine years when they first meet, who has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair bound. Bernie doesn’t talk very well and his arms and legs are always twitching but Rick can tell what he says, waits for him to get it all out and quickly becomes unaware of Bernie’s quirks. Rick and Bernie did a lot of special things together, special for Bernie as he got to experience things he never would have otherwise, and special for Rick as he grew up learning the joys of life through the eyes of one who was overjoyed with the simple things in life.

I found the book well-written, in a simplistic straight forward way, like listening to the man himself reminiscing. Interspersed throughout the book are a number of poems which I quite enjoyed, and I am so not a poetry person. While the story of the author’s friendship with Bernie is the focal point of the book, not every chapter involved him as Rick also described other events in his life. An eccentric cast of neighbours rounds out the book, such as Fern Burdette who only wore a bra from the waist up and Frank Tully the man who appeared to be a professional attendee, he was at every function that ever went on in town. A very quaint, enjoyable story. There are no famous, rich or celebrities in these pages; just plain ol’ down to earth good folks. And that is the pleasure of the book; the enjoyment of the good old days when people didn’t even lock the doors to their homes. If you like small town stories or boyhood memoirs, you’ll like this one. Recommended.

But in Iraq, there was never one story, there were always many stories, layers of episodes, each one a wound. [pg 6]

Unpolished Gem: My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me by Alice Pung

Pages: 282
First Published: Jan. 27, 2009
Genre: memoir
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

In 1980, my father, mother, grandmother, and Auntie Kieu arrived in Australia by plane.

Comments: A Chinese family escapes communism by moving to Cambodia, only to find some years later that the next generation must escape from the dictator Pol Pot. This Chinese-Cambodian family of grandmother, brother, sister, and brother’s eight-month pregnant wife are given a choice of Canada or Australia. Knowing nothing of either country they chose Australia because the father does know it doesn’t snow in Australia.

This is a story of three women from three different generations with very different life experiences and especially the life of a second-generation immigrant. Alice, the daughter born shortly after arrival in Australia, tells the story of her life living between two cultures. Her beloved Grandmother, from China, was the second wife of a Chinese man and very traditional in her Chinese religious beliefs. Her mother, a product of Chinese rearing, even though born in Cambodia, remains within the Asian community in the new land and never learns English beyond a few words and phrases. Alice, an Australian by birth, goes to a ghost (white man’s) school and finds her culture clash of being an Australian girl within the confines of her old Chinese way upbringing.

While concentrating on Alice’s life, we learn a bit of the Cambodian and Chinese way of life through off-hand comments and brief explanations of the mother and grandmother’s past. However, the book is mostly concerned with the here and now of Alice’s life in Australia as she lives with her mother and grandmother (and father, of course) being raised with Chinese religion and morals, while being pushed to become a part of the white man’s world and yet keep her Chinese heritage and dignity.

This is a very entertaining memoir and full of interesting details of the Chinese way of life. Alice’s grandmother and mother are very strong characters both, though in very different ways, smothering her with the strict rules of Chinese behaviour and the Chinese beliefs. The mother makes Alice’s life very difficult as she does not learn English and Alice, though taught to speak Chinese as a child, slowly looses much of her ability to speak the language as she goes to school and interacts with her own new culture.

A truly wonderful read, the book is very humorous and yet at times touching and tragic. In a way, I found this memoir to be like an Amy Tan fiction in the way it deals with the mother/daughter relationship and having read all Tan’s books I can wholeheartedly say that Amy Tan fans will surely enjoy Alice Pung’s writing and the story this book has to tell. I’m very impressed with Ms. Pung’s first book and wonder if she’ll turn to fiction for her next book. I can certainly see her following in the footsteps of Amy Tan and Lisa See. Recommended!

She Always Knew How: Mae West, A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Pages: 303
Finished: Mar. 11, 2009
First Published: Feb. 10, 2009
Genre: biography
Rating: 4/5

Reason for Reading: Received a review copy from Simon & Schuster Canada.

First sentence:

My first thought was, women need a Bill of Rights. “And then I thought, no, what women need is — a Bill of Wrongs.”

Comments: A very interesting biography of Mae West written by an author who interviewed West extensively near the end of her life. Mae West was a feminist before the word was invented, and a very racy character, who created herself an image based on sex that she always upheld in public. The book covers Mae’s entire life from her parents up to and including her death in 1980. Mae lived through most of the 20th century and is a legend today for her risque work both on the stage and as a playwright and her movies that pushed the boundaries of 1930s/40s morals. Mae had a way of saying the tamest thing in such a sexy way it became a double entendre.

While a biography, the book is almost completely written in Mae’s own words quoted extensively from interviews with the author and also from a few of her contemporaries such as George Cukor. The author interjects with her own narrative briefly here and there to make a cohesive narrative. I found the book extremely interesting. I love this time period of Hollywood. Though I must say Ms. West does come across as egocentric and narcissistic which surprised me not really knowing anything about the woman herself. One thing I very much enjoyed was every time a play or movie was mentioned the author included a brief synopsis of the plot and since many of these, especially the plays, were unknown to me it was very interesting indeed. I wonder if a book of Mae West’s plays has ever been published… I’d certainly like to read them.

The author has written plenty of other biographies on actors/directors of the golden age of Hollywood and I will look out for them in the future. While I always prefer to read auto-biographies, what I look for biographies is an author who respects the subject and doesn’t dish dirt nor come up with all sorts of wild (unprovable) theories. Charlotte Chandler has most certainly lived up to my expectations of a good biographer.

Pieces of My Heart: A Life by Robert J. Wagner, with Scott Eyman

Pages: 324
First Published: Sept. 2008
Genre: memoir
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

I was twelve years old when my future passed in front of me.

Comments: This is Robert J. Wagner’s personal memoir from his birth to 2008, when he was 78. Wagner briefly tells of his parents and then spends a small time on his childhood moving into the full story of his life at the time of his mid-teens. Wagner is one of the unfortunately few remaining from the generation that actually worked and played with the greats of the Golden Age of movies. He intimately knew the likes of Jack Warner, Bette Davis, and Fred Astaire, among many others. It is brilliant to read of these people from a first-hand account. Then of course Wagner was in his prime along with all the stars of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Wagner drops names right, left and center in this book but he refrains from “dishing dirt” on anyone. Oh, he has some colourful stories to tell but he is not vindictive to anyone, not even Warren Beatty who stole his Natalie away from him.

A wonderful read, Robert J. Wagner has lead a long and eventful life immersed in show business from the movies to the stage to TV and back again. I remember seeing him recently on Three and a Half Men and he’s still a looker. Of course, everyone from my generation remembers him most from the TV show Hart to Hart and Wagner spends just the right amount of time on that period of his life. Of course, he also spends a great deal on his relationship with Natalie Wood, one of the great love stories to come from the entertainment world, and it’s tragic end.

Wagner has the help of a co-author to make this a wonderfully written story. I was totally captivated. Wagner comes off more than a bit egotistical at times but then he comes off that way in person and in the characters he’s played on TV, so it is somewhat expected. He does have the annoying habit of letting you know of every man he introduces that is g*y and whether they made a pass at him or not. From famous people to backstage unknowns, this is something I really wasn’t interested. Do I need or even want to know if a camera guy was g*y and didn’t make a pass at him? That aside a really incredible read that anyone interested in Wagner’s life or just that of movies and television from the 50s to the 80s will certainly enjoy.

“Mile Stones Five Year Diary” was written in gold letters across the book’s worn cover. Holding my breath, I released the brass latch. Despite the rusted keyhole, the diary was unlocked. Little pieces of red leather sprinkled onto my white comforter. “This book belongs to…Florence Wolfson.” - from The Red Leather Diary, page 13 -

In 2003, journalist Lily Koppel exited her apartment at 98 Riverside Drive in New York and was surprised to see more than fifty trunks and valises from a bygone era piled high in a red dumpster. Intrigued, she climbed up and began excavating. Amid relics from the 1920s and 30s, stored within the confines of a forgotten trunk, was a small red leather diary written by a young girl. This discovery would not only change the course of Koppel’s life, but would open up the long forgotten world of Florence Wolfson - a precocious and passionate young woman who dreamed of a literary life and sought love while growing up in New York City. Born in 1915, Florence Wolfson came of age during Prohibition, the Depression and WWII. She was raised by Jewish immigrant parents who worked their way up to Manhattan’s fashionable neighborhoods. Florence’s voice within the pages of her diary drew Koppel to her. Here was a young girl who was highly intelligent, ahead of her time and driven to live life to its fullest.

The Red Leather Diary combines diary entries with narrative developed from interviews Koppel had with ninety year old Florence…who she located with help from a private investigator three years after discovering the diary.  The book gives the reader a glimpse into the thoughts and dreams of a privileged girl who excelled in music, art and writing. It is also filled with teenage passion and drama as Florence discovers love with both boys and girls.  Florence Wolfson started a literary salon (a novel idea) in 1934 which included famous poets John Berryman and Delmore Schwartz; and she traveled alone  to Europe in 1936, on the cusp of WWII. Koppel captures the life of this enigmatic and strongly independent young woman perfectly.

But the book is not just about Florence - it is also about its author who arrived in New York City at the age of 22  seeking to make her own mark in the world. In an interview at the end of the book, Lily Koppel writes:

When I moved to New York, like every young person drawn to the big city, my quest echoed Florence’s: I was seeking love, meaning in my life, and, as a writer, a story.

Koppel’s discovery inflamed her imagination. When she finally was able to meet Florence Wolfson face to face, an immediate friendship formed - a unique  connection between a young woman at the beginning of her life and an older woman looking back on her youth.

How do you feel when a forgotten chunk of your life, full of adolescent angst and passion, is handed to you? How do you feel when you see your striving, feeling, immature self through your now elderly  eyes? It stopped my heart for a moment. That was me? - written by Florence (Wolfson) Howitt, September 3, 2007 -

I read straight through The Red Leather Diary, finding myself immersed in a time long gone through the words of a girl who wanted to live in the center of it all. Koppel has written a marvelous book that tugs at the reader’s imagination.

Highly recommended.

The youngest of the McCourt brothers.

First there was Angela’s Ashes and other books by Frank McCourt. Then his brother Malachy with the book A Monk Swimming. Now the youngest of the McCourt brothers, Alphie has written a book.

Not many years after his brothers move to New York City from Ireland, Alphie and his mother followed. We hear about his family, this time from Alphie’s perspective but much the same as what his brothers describe. Then we hear about his life.

Alphie didn’t have the same luck in life as his brothers had. He went from dead-end job to the other throughout his life. He also battled alcoholism. Things looked up for awhile when he owned a restaurant, but that eventually went bankrupt.

He does share one talent with his brother’s and that is writing. He shared songs, stories and poems throughout his story, which were enhanced by the audio version of the is book as he sang the songs. Not that he’s a great singer, but you get to hear them they way they were meant to be heard. A bit of the books got repetative so it could have used a bit more editing.

Alphie McCourt’s story is honest, funny, and sad. I hope his writing is the start in a new and better chapter in his life!

Recommended.

3.5/5

Otherwise by Farley Mowat

Pages: 309
First Published: Oct. 28, 2008
Genre: non-fiction, memoir, autobiography
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

Born in Mid-May 1921 — lilac time in the small town of Trenton on the northern shore of Lake Ontario’s Bay of Quinte — I spent my early years messing about in swamps, woods, and farmyards; falling in and out of boats; and surviving in various decrepit houses while establishing fundamental relationships with such disparate beings as snapping turtles, portly spiders, rapier-billed herons, honeybees, a bear who visited me in dreams, Charlie Haultain’s silver foxes, crayfish and eels, water snakes along the Murray Canal, a passel of mongrel dogs, and Beatrix — an enormous earthworm who lived through an entire winter in a tin can by my bedside.

Comments: Otherwise is Farley Mowat’s memoirs of his life between the years 1937 and 1948. The opening pages quickly get us to his teen year’s and his last year of living in Saskatchewan where he became a friend for life of the Others (the wildlife). Farley’s family moves frequently but he always manages to find local wildlife whether they be living in small rooms or on a boat. Farley, along with his pals, volunteer and join the service where he was to spend the days of World War II fighting mostly in Italy. Finally after the War he comes home, marries, but is unable to settle down to ‘post-war’ life and he goes on ventures for the scientific community back to Saskatchewan and finally up to the northernmost parts of Canada where he spends time with the in-land Inuit.

The time frame this book covers parts of his life that are written in more detail in such books as And No Birds Sang and The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be. While those books are about certain experiences in his life, this book is about him directly and the defining years of his life, the years that made him the man that he came be. Beautifully written, compelling reading, humorous and touching at times Mowat knows how to write and fans of the author will not be disappointed with his latest foray. While not exactly a page-turner, it is the type of book that is hard to put down and I often picked it up to read over my current fiction book before turning the lights out at night. An all-round enjoyable read with fascinating information about Saskatchewan wild-life, scientific procedures of the thirties and forties, Canadian army life and the Inuit. This would also be the perfect book to read for those who have never had the pleasure of reading Farley Mowat.

Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice by Maureen McCormick

Pages: 274
First Published: Oct. 14, 2008
Genre: autobiography/memoir, non-fiction
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

This story begins in the fall of 2006 in Los Angeles.

Comments: In the prologue, Maureen McCormick starts with when she came out of the woodwork to appear in the reality show Celebrity Fit Club. Then she begins a chronological story of her life as a child appearing in many commercials, especially for Mattel, on to the Brady Bunch years, her unsuccessful attempts to achieve acting status beyond Marcia Brady, her eventual success on Broadway and her life now. She gets into the nitty-gritty describing her early introduction to drugs and sex, her eventual addiction to cocaine throughout the seventies and eighties and then her life current life as a born-again Christian. She talks of her struggles with her dysfunctional family and her love for her mentally challenged brother. Maureen names names but keeps a respectful tone by concentrating on her own troubles and not dwelling on others. In once instance she uses a pseudonym for a famous person she was involved with in the drug/sex scene.

I found Maureen’s tone and narrative extremely readable. Her story of her childhood is written with a child-like wonderment as she entered the life of show business and became a cultural icon. Her voice becomes more mature as she herself matures and she presents herself as someone who can take the blame for her own actions. Not often do I find biographies page-turners. I love entertainment memoirs but non-fiction doesn’t often grip me to that extent. But this book was one I couldn’t put down, I kept picking it up in favour over the fiction book I was co-currently reading. While the book only partially concerns the Brady years, (which I wish there was more of) any fan of the show is bound to enjoy this look at the behind the scenes aspects, to find out what the real Marcia Brady was like, and whatever happened to her.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Pages: 299 (+extensive Notes, Bibliography & Index)
First Published: Feb. 24, 2009
Genre: Biography, Travel, Memoir
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Comments: This is a biography of early twentieth century explorer, Percy Fawcett. Fawcett was an accomplished explorer of the Amazon jungles and recipient of the Royal Geographical Association’s Gold Medal. He is most known for his determination in finding a lost city and civilization hidden in the depths of the jungle, often called El Dorado, Fawcett labeled his unfound city “Z”.

I pulled the map from my back pocket.

The book begins with Fawcett’s early days as an explorer up to his infamous journey in which he took his 22-year old son with him and simply vanished from the face of the earth. Many others have gone in since to find him and either disappeared themselves or returned defeated and emaciated.

Between chapters of Fawcett’s story, the author occasionally jumps to his own tale of following in the footsteps of Fawcett’s ill-fated last journey using modern technology.

A very compelling read. Fawcett is truly a larger than life character and his story makes for good reading. I really enjoyed the time period, 1900s-1920s, and am fascinated with exploration of that period. A well written biography with plenty of original source quotations including from Fawcett’s own journals. I only wish the book had included some photographs. I like to see who I’m reading about but all in all a very interesting and compelling biography and description of the days of exploration.

Edited to Add: While my arc edition has no photographs, the finished book *will* have photos and maps. That’s great news!

Wife in the North by Judith O’Reilly
Memoir
2008 Public Affairs Books
Finished on 12/12/08
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher’s Blurb:

Perhaps it was because she was pregnant and hormones had eaten her brain that Judith O’Reilly was persuaded by her husband to leave London for the northern wilds. But pregnancy hadn’t addled her enough not to have a back-up plan: If life in the country didn’t measure up, the family would return to the city.

Far from home, Judith, a journalist and mother of three young children, discovers just how tough an assignment making a new life is. In the heart of the country, with no decent coffee in sight, Judith swaps high heels for rubber boots and media-darlings for evangelical strangers and farmers’ wives in an effort to do that simple thing women do—make hers a happy family.

Her headlong foray into the country invites adventure at every turn. As she adjusts to the lay of the land and searches for her own true north in an alien landscape, her story offers a hilarious, heartfelt reflection of how to navigate the challenges and rewards of motherhood, marriage, and family.

Oh, my gosh! I couldn’t have chosen a better time to read this hilarious book. With its bloglike daily posts, it was a perfect read for the hectic holiday season. I could pick it up and set it down without losing the moment of the narrative, much like catching up on a favorite blog after being away from the computer for a week or so.

O’Reilly is a wonderful storyteller. She had me laughing out loud one moment and bringing a lump to my throat the next. And as with any good book, I wound up marking numerous passages with Post-it Notes.

On mothers and daughters:

One day you wrap, in acid-free tissue layers, the daughter in you. You admire it as you put away its girlish chiffon colours, you mourn its passing as you stand on tiptoe to put it away on the very highest shelf. From a hanger, you take off and shake out the sensible navy role of mother and slip it on. Mother not only to your children but to your own mother. I am at that moment.

On friendship:

Real friends I count like beads on a rosary… You do not keep every friend you ever make. If you are lucky, you keep one or maybe two from the pigeonholes of life: study, jobs, children. One of the best places for making friends is, of course, the office. I have friends from all of the places I worked, newspapers and TV. If you invest wisely, you double them as they grow old and marry. Some friends become another family. Some friends you talk to once a year. A few are there in every crisis and extremity. You hurt when they hurt. There are times you put down the phone when they have read you the latest chapter of their life and weep for them. Some occasionally disappoint. Occasionally, you disappoint back. You try to listen. In sadness and disaster, you say: “I love you,” and hope they can hear between their shouts of pain. You say: “I’m here for you,” and hope they can see you in their darkness. It seems the least that you can do.

On country life and laundry:

I do things in Northumberland that I would never do otherwise. I hang out washing. I enjoy the weight of a wet shirt in my hand, the reach of my arm and the tidy clip of the plastic peg. Sunshine in my eyes, I squint and string the clothes along the line which runs across the common grass between the sea-fringed fields and the cottages. Then, I catch and heave and hoist them up to the clouds; a length of skinny, metal piping, standing guard, the line caught in its wooden, snake-tongued mouth. They flap and flurry in the northern breezes, lift, noisy and excited in the whippy gusts straight blown from the world’s other side to here. It relaxes me to do it, see it, hear it.

On grief:

I took the Yorkshire Mother out to lunch. It was a strange sort of occasion. She has four sons, sprawling, brawling sorts of boys, much like my own, and an older daughter. She should have five sons, not four. Her eldest would have been twenty-one today but no key to the door for him. Dead before his time, seven years ago. Last week, waiting for our boys to come out of school, she said: “Wednesday would have been his birthday. I’ll be going to his grave instead.” My heart took on the colour of her sadness. I said: “Would it be weird to have lunch with me before you go?” A mother does not forget a son’s birthday however far from home he is. We chinked our glasses, drank up the champagne fizz, wiped out the bubbles with our fingers, then filled the empty glasses with our tears.

I truly enjoyed this gem of a book and can think of several friends I’d recommend it to. However, I do have a couple of minor quibbles. About halfway through, I began to grow tired of the author’s sarcastic complaints about her husband and her unhappiness in her new location. I suspect she wanted to show an honest reaction to the family’s relocation 350 miles north of her beloved London, yet I couldn’t help but cringe when she started to complain once again. Kind of like that awkward feeling you get when you’re at a dinner party and a husband or wife begins to criticize the other spouse in front of the guests. You feel badly, wishing you weren’t a witness to their rants. You love them and enjoy their company, but would rather not have an intimate knowledge of their unhappiness.

On compromise and dissatisfaction:

My husband left for London for two weeks. Let me see, how long have we lived here. Oh yes, three weeks. How pregnant am I? Seven months. How many children do I have? Two and a bit. Do I want to be here? No. Excellent. He has a deadline, he always seems to have a deadline. He is the one who wants to live up here, yet he is the one who has to work away for weeks at a time. I knew he would have to go back soon after we moved: he can do part of his job down the line but not all of it. Seeing him go—not having him here—is about as hard as I thought it would be. He called me. He said: “I miss you.” I gripped the phone, said, “If we lived in London, you wouldn’t have to miss me.”

and

One of my acute frustrations living up here is the lack of space. Outside it’s all glorious green rolling acres everywhere while the beaches are empty stretches of washed sand. Inside this rural dream country life, it is hell. Five of us squished together in what is effectively a two-bedroom, toy-strewn hovel. Six, counting Girl Friday when she is here. The house is like something from eighteenth-century pre-revolution England—all cottage industry and screaming children with a little less smallpox.

I also feel Wife in the North would have been even more enjoyable if it weren’t quite so long. The stories (good and bad) became repetitious and I actually considered setting the book aside for a bit, if not entirely. I’m glad I continued on, though. The author shares a touching piece of personal history in the final pages and I would have hated to have missed reading those passages.

Wife in the North is a bit reminiscent of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence
(yes, there’s a home renovation) and Jeannie Laskas’ Fifty Acres and a Poodle (no, there aren’t any cute animal tales). Great laughs, touching stories, and a lovely glimpse into life in the country.

You can peruse Judith’s blog, but be aware if you plan to read her book, many (if not all) of her posts prior to December 31, 2007 are included in the book.

There’s also a very good review by a Waterstone’s bookseller here.

Stalin’s Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival by Owen Matthews

Pages: 287
First Published: Sept. 16, 2008
Genre: memoir/biography
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

On a shelf in a cellar in the former KGB headquarters in Chernigov, in the black earth country in the heart of the Ukraine, lies a thick file with a crumbling brown cardboard cover.

Comments: This is the story of 20th century Russia told through the lives of one family, three generations long. Starting just after the Russian Revolution the author talks of his grandfather who was a good communist and belonged to the Party. Unfortunately, he said something he shouldn’t have at the wrong time and was executed as a dissident against the Party. Then we are told the lives of the author’s mother and father. The mother was a Russian girl and the father was a British man who had a deep interest in Russian literature, language and the people. So he went to Russia on a scholarship and fell in love with the Russian girl. They tried to recruit him into the KGB but he refused to betray his own country and was blacklisted from Russia. The two of them then spend the next 6 years writing letters almost daily to each other as he tries to get through the communist bureaucracy and blackmark on his name so he can marry his sweetheart and take her out of Russia. Meanwhile, the author inserts himself into the story when he is born and speaks of events that happened in the past then returns to his experiences in modern Russia. The author is a journalist and currently works for Newsweek in Russia.

This is a very interesting book if you are interested in modern Russian history. The author manages to combine the new trend of biography/memoir very well. The author never makes the book about himself, even though he does write of himself. He keeps the story of his ancestors in the forefront. By telling his families history he also tells the history of Russia, its transformation to Communism, perestroika and finally to today’s democratic society. I found at times the political parts made me start wool-gathering but, of course, it is necessary to understand the politics to understand the lives these people lived and the book is definitely not heavy-handed with politics. The people always remain in the forefront. Recommended to those with an interest in Russian history.

American Widow by Alissa Torres
Art by Choi

Pages: 209
First Published: Sept, 2008
Genre: Graphic Novel, Memoir
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

The World Trade Center was just hit by a plane! Turn on your TV!

Comments: This is the author’s memoir of the tragedy of her life, becoming a widow on 9/11. Her husband was on his second day at his new job above the 85th floor and she was pregnant with their first child. The book jumps from moment to moment as she learns of his death, hopes that he is alive and missing, finding out he was a jumper, joins victim groups, goes through the bureaucracy of the charity help organizations and remembers past moment with her husband.

The book lacks a cohesive narrative jumping from one event to another and sometimes just showing the author’s grief and emotions rather than telling a story. Of course, this is a depressing and sad story and it is hard to ‘review’ the story of someone’s grief. The author’s emotion and pain is clearly at the centre of this book rather than a story with a plot or characterization. For those interested in the after effects of 9/11 on the families left behind by those who were killed this sad, tragic tale of a woman who survives her grief and starts a new life for her baby, this book will certainly appeal.

We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo and the 200 Wild Animals That Change Their Lives Forever by Benjamin Mee

Pages: 261
First Published: Sept, 2008
Genre: memoir
Rating: 2.5/5

First sentence:

Mum and I arrived as the new owners of Dartmoor Wildlife Park in Devon for the first time at around six o’clock on the evening of 20 October 2006, and stepped out of the car to the sound of wolves howling in the misty darkness.

Comments: Benjamin Mee is a journalist living in Southern France with his wife and 2 children, writing DIY articles for a British magazine. One day his sister calls to say she’s found the perfect thing for him, a zoo is for sale in England. Why doesn’t the family by it with the money from their recently deceased father. Ben’s mum, brother and sister all jump on board and so begins the journey of buying a dilapidated zoo full of animals.

At the beginning of the story Ben’s wife has recently been given the all clear after struggling with brain cancer but we soon know that she is not going to make it very far into the book when she has a very bad recurrence.

When I first was interested in reading this book I had sort of imagined a modern day Gerald Durrell and possibly set expectations too high. The book was readable and at time humorous but really didn’t have much substance to it. We’re taken through the whole process from trying to find finances, rebuilding to the first few opening months of the running zoo. There were fun antidotes about the animals and the employees but nowhere near as many as I had expected. Instead there were pages of evolutionary musings which were tedious and Ben’s frequent use of “DIY” irritated me to no end. Didn’t that expression go out with the nineties?

Ben comes across as having a bit of an ego and his observations are always from how they affected him, while I would have enjoyed more of an objective view which brought the other zoo keepers to deeper light as characters. While the book’s title notes “200 Wild Animals” most of the antidotes were about wolves, tigers, pumas and peacocks, with only a few other animals briefly thrown in for variety. I expected a wider variety of animal discussion and more about their characteristics and habits than about there evolution. Just not what I expected, perhaps others will get more out of it than me.