Novels Now

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

Pages: 335
First Published: Oct. 5, 2010
Publisher: William Morrow
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

The Rutherford girl had been missing for eight days when Larry Ott returned home and found a monster waiting in his house.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Harper Collins Canada.

Reason for Reading: I love southern fiction and am always intrigued with stories where the past comes back to haunt the lives of those living in the present.

It’s the late 1970’s, rural Mississippi and white Larry Ott from a lower middle class home and black Silas Jones son of a poor working single mother, make for strange friends. But friends they are, though they have to keep it secret because of their colour, everyone, including their parents would cause a fuss, but as the years go by they drift apart. Silas becomes a jock baseball player eventually moving away to play college baseball. Larry, always a loner, likes horror books and comics, goes out on his first date and the girl disappears forever. No evidence or body is ever found but for the next 25 years Larry is ostracized as the likely killer of the missing girl. Now Silas is back, a constable of a nearby town, and when another girl goes missing all eyes focus once again on Larry.

This is an emotional, poignant story that focuses on many levels. It is a story of a close, bonding, but brief childhood friendship and a story of race relations in a variety of complicated situations. The most profound theme found here though is the burying of deep secrets of the past and leaving them to rot. The harm and destruction they can cause when no one comes forth to tell the truth and the turmoil caused when decades later the secrets are brought forth into the light.

This is a somewhat slow moving story, which centers mostly on the relationship of the two men, the secrets of the past which they each are only partially aware of, and how their lives have been affected. The crime is in the background and keeps the plot moving forward as well as giving cohesion to the meandering narrative which drifts back to the past and forwards to the present. Personally, I didn’t find the crime or the secrets very hard to figure out knowing quite early on how things would probably turn out. However, the story is certainly character driven and I highly enjoyed spending time with Larry Ott and Silas Jones, though one more than the other. Somewhat dark emotionally, yet not all doom and gloom, with an ending that may not leave you feeling all fuzzy; I found it a satisfying ending and am enticed to looking into Mr. Franklin’s previous novels.

Maps and Shadows by Krysia Jopek

Pages: 151
First Published: Dec. 16, 2010
Publisher: Aquila Polonica
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Everyone has a story.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Aquila Polonica.

Reason for Reading: I enjoy memoirs of the war (even fictionalized) and I particularly like WWII books which introduce me to new information that is not so widely known.

This is a novel but is based on the true story of the author’s father’s family (his siblings and their parents). I also think there is a fuzzy line between where the truth ends and the fiction begins. It truly seems that the author used the novel format simply so she could write her family’s story from all sides, giving voice to all four members old enough to tell their own story.

This story tells one Polish family’s experience as Russia invades and sends all Poles to labour camps in two places in the frozen Arctic. The Jopeks are sent to Siberia and it is from this point their story is told as they are separated and survive the war being sent from country to country, with even a few years stop in Tanganyika, until they eventually end up as people stripped of their Polish citizenship and start a new life in America. Told in the first person, the narrative switches back and forth between the father, who at first chance leaves Siberia to join the Polish army for the good of his family, the eldest son (the author’s father) who much later on joins the Young Polish Battalion (at first to help supply extra rations to his mother & siblings), the sister, the eldest child in the family and the mother, who tries to give her remaining children hope. The youngest boy is but 4 when they are deported and knows no other kind of life by the time the war is over.

I had a hard time with the Prologue but once the chapters started I became interested and the further on the story went the more involved I became in the lives of these people. I came to care for them and root for their survival. The Table of Contents tells us right off that the last chapter is called “The Burial” and with the wonder of whose burial it would be hanging over my head throughout the book I really came to love each and every one of them. Having read many books about the forced labour camps much of the information wasn’t new to me, yet of course it is always shocking that people were treated this way, and each person’s story is unique in its own way.

What I found absolutely fascinating was the whole role Poland had in WWII and how it’s people were treated by the “Allies”. First they are invaded by Communist Russia (their long time enemy) and then suddenly Russia becomes their “ally” in the war. The Polish people lost their country to Communist Russia; Poland had fought under its own flag in the war and yet no one came to help them get their country back. They were forbidden to march in the victory parade at the end of the war by the British and US so as not to offend Lenin. Stripped of their citizenship if they did not immediately return to the new Communist ruled Poland thousands of exiled Poles became “displaced persons” who had fought a war to save their country’s freedom, only in the end to be scattered to the ends of the earth: Britain, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Mexico, United States and the few who did go back home knowing it would never be the same with their enemy now in control.

A very vivid personal tale of one family’s experience of the war from their own unique experience, which would have been echoed by many other Polish families in similar yet unique to them ways. Also, an extremely eye-opening look at a not so familiar aspect of World War II’s history, the Polish experience, a people who fought hard and ended up with no country or citizenship.

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston

I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

Pages: 373
First Published: Aug. 17, 2010
Publisher: William Morrow
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

“Iso, time for -”

Acquired: Received a review copy from Harper Collins Canada.

Reason for Reading: I’ve read one of Lippman’s series books and it was ok but I love her standalones and read each new one as it comes out.

Eliza Benedict lives a perfectly content suburban mother and housewife life. Her husband has a high paying job in finance which she really doesn’t understand and she has two children, a 13yo girl and an 8yo boy. Then one day her past meets up with her present when she receives a letter in her mailbox (no stamp) from the man, who is sitting on death row, who kidnapped and raped her when she was 15yo, holding her hostage for 39 days. Walter was prosecuted for the murders of the two girls who came before and after her. His letters turn into a need to talk to her on the phone, which she eventually agrees to and then he wants to talk to her in person. He will be executed in two weeks. Walter is believed to be the perpetrator in several unsolved rape/murder cases and missing persons cases. Eliza wonders if she can somehow be the one to finally get his full confession from him. But Walter, who once had her so cowered and controlled she never tried to escape from him, may have ulterior motives and purposes to wanting to get close to her again.

This story is a bit different than others I’ve read by Lippman. It really isn’t a mystery in the sense that a crime is being solved but more a “tale of psychological manipulation” as Eliza finds herself going back over that time of her life that she had tidily shelved away. The story switches back and forth from the present as she deals with the unwanted but compelling attentions of Walter to the past as we see the whole kidnapping play out from the beginning until her eventual rescue. A compelling read that I highly enjoyed. Characterization and plot are both high factors in the telling of this story and I was glued to the pages. It’s not exactly a fast-paced story but it is evenly paced, moving forward continually at a steady pace.

The book also deals with the issue of the death penalty and the author has done so, very well. As she states in her Author’s Note “this is a novel, not a polemic”, some other authors (coughKathy Reichscough) could do well to note how to not let their novels turn into a personal soapbox. Ms. Lippman’s personal view on the topic is not necessarily evident, as she has strong characters on all sides: for, against and confused. The character with the strongest view is against, but she is portrayed as somewhat of a crackpot yet at times sympathetic. All the viewpoints can be seen from different angles even by the other characters. Well done. Another Lippman winner in my book.

A Little Death in Dixie by Lisa Turner

Pages: 298
First Published: Jun. 4, 2010
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Cops like me won’t admit it out loud, but a lot of us believe murder has its right time and proper reason.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Bell Bridge Books.

Reason for Reading: I love Southern fiction and am always game for mixing my favourite genres, this time with a crime mystery.

The publisher’s blurb tells us that a notorious socialite disappears and it’s either because she’s off on another drunken spree or perhaps something more sinister has happened. Then it hints at the story being more complex. So, with only that information to go on I really was not ready for the incredibly twisting, turning, complex plot that I found myself plunged into. As the publisher’s blurb states “a complex spider’s web of tragedy, mystery, suspicion, and sordid secrets”. I thought that was typical overstatement to get one to buy the book, but no, it really describes the book in better words than I could come up with. Leaving it there, I’m not going to tell any more of the plot either, because it is best to let it all unravel not knowing what is going to come next.

I positively loved this Southern mystery which takes place in Memphis. The two main characters Detective Billy Able and Mercy Snow, sister of the missing person, are both fully fleshed, flawed and realistic characters. This is a stand alone book but I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing them turning up again in a series. Every single person in this story has a skeleton in the closet or a dark secret, no one is totally innocent, even if it be only from withholding the truth. This cast of characters are dark, devious and eccentric bringing the Gothic flavour to the suspense. As the story progresses it becomes about so much more than a missing person, various other crimes are involved and the shocking reveals come out of nowhere.

Now, I did find the plot a little over the top, somewhat unrealistic in places (but again those are common Gothic elements) and possibly unsolvable by the reader because of the plot twists. There was so much going on though that I didn’t even try to figure out who did what; I found myself just quickly turning the pages eager to find out what could possibly happen next and how it would all turn out in the end. A well-written and complex suspense novel. As Ms. Turner’s first novel, I eagerly await what she will present for an encore.

Pages: 640 pages
Ages: 13+
First Published: (2007,2008 Japan) Sept. 28, 2010 English Trans.
Publisher: Tokyopop
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

Is a person’s life … set in stone?

Acquired: Received a review copy from Harper Collins Canada.

Reason for Reading: The publisher’s summary had me very interested plus I liked the idea of reading a small mangas series all in one go.

Dare I say it? I think this is the best manga I have read to date. What a compelling, epic saga that covers many years through flashbacks and skipping forward into the future. When a person dies a white gate opens in which their soul goes through to the other side (which the story does not explore) but on rare occasions a black gate will open and these gates are not satisfied with just one soul, they will try to suck the souls out of the nearby living and often cause mass destruction such as fires to gather as many souls as possible. Just as rare is a certain breed of people who can see these gates the Mitedamashi; they are also the only ones who can close black gates. This is the story of Hijiri, a boy, with a Mitedamashi guardian who grows to learn of his own special powers, his true background and his important role in the future. And I can’t tell you anything else because it’s just too exciting to find it out yourself as you read.

From the copyright dates, and some on-line searching, it looks like the individual volumes of this series were never published in English before, making this all-in-one edition the first English publication of a most awesome trilogy. Most manga series go on for several up to infinity volumes, so it is a real pleasure to sit down and read a series from start to finish, knowing when it ends, that really is the end. This story becomes very deep and without going into any detail it ends up questioning life and death. Do people who fear death so much have a right to put an end to death? If we could stop death, would that be ethical? Would it be good for us as human beings? Would we really want to live forever? When you think about forever do you really take into account how long forever actually is??

A truly brilliant story that had me glued to my seat, kept me turning the pages and had me finishing the book over the course of a day. The characters are all well-developed with pasts and certain things that motivate them to act and behave the way they do. Any character is worthy of being favoured by a reader and I think each will have their fans. Of course I liked Hijiri, the main character. So many people messed around with his life and yet he never stops caring and trusting. He starts off as a troublesome, mouthy little kid and grows to become a worthy leader. I also liked Michizane, a boy whose childhood was emotionally abusive and he is still not treated well, though it is through no fault of his own that he is not liked. He has an attitude to cover himself from being hurt and unfortunately often becomes the victim. But Hijiri befriends him right away (against his will) and eventually Michizine allows himself to care and trust. There are no long drawn out battle scenes, no s*x, no gory violence. What you do get for the Teen rating is the mild swear words (d@mn and h3ll) and after non-graphic kill scenes a spatter of blood or blood on hands, etc.

I can’t help but sound like I’m gushing, as I really did love this book and highly recommend it to fantasy manga fans or those who enjoy stories dealing with souls and death.

Blimpo

Pages: 446
Ages: 10+
First Published: May 11, 2010
Publisher: Random House
Genre: children, fantasy
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Virgil’s stomach rumbled like a gastric earthquake, registering somewhere between a 6.7 and 9.4 on the digestive Richter scale.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Random House Canada.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

I read this series for the pure fun of it and for Basye the third time is the charm. Blimpo is the best book yet of this series. As anyone reading the series knows, when we were told at the end of book two that the next volume would be called Blimpo, my eyes lit up knowing we would be returning to the character Virgil from book one. Virgil, who became Milton’s best friend in the first book, is the central figure in this volume earning him the position of hero.

Milton and Marlo are right where we left them at the end of Rapacia. Marlo is her usual opinionated, aggressive self and getting herself in trouble while at the same time finding out things she shouldn’t know; putting herself in a dangerous position when Milton finally comes to rescue her as promised in book 2. Milton is simply trying to keep away from Principal Bubb and hide. His first choice of friends include Jack Kerouac and a blind Viking who can see, both of whom are absolutely hilarious. But when Milton comes upon Blimpo, he puts on a fat suit and goes undercover to rescue Virgil. Little does he know of the nefarious plot going down between the vice principals to become make Blimpo much more powerful in the whole realm of Heck. The fun teachers in Blimpo are King Tantalus, complete with portable pool of water and peach tree, and the chubby Elvis.

The humour level was right where expected, funny and silly, worthy of a smile. This volume does bring back the toilet humour of book one but it isn’t overly done and fits well when used. The storyline is becoming more involved. While each book has its own individual open and shut plot, this book introduces some elements that will be ongoing and adds a deeper, overall story arc to the series. While not exactly ending with a cliff hanger, as foreshadowing is used to let us know where things are headed, the book does end with certain characters in situations that leave the reader anxious for the next volume. The only negative remark I have about Blimpo is the size. At well over 400 pages it is the largest of the series, with the others being 300-odd pages each. I am not a fan of authors who seemingly think that every book in a series needs to get larger and larger until the reader is stuck with unwieldy door stoppers by the end of the series. If Blimpo is larger because of the topic matter, then I see that as an extension of the author’s humour and can appreciate it, but I certainly hope to see the next volume back down to around the size of Book 2 (362 pgs).

Pages: 307 pages
First Published: June 24, 2010
Publisher: Viking
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

They had strung their shoes by the laces from a solitary elm before entering the woods edging the back field.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Penguin Group (Canada).

Reason for Reading: The early 1900s time frame and the New Brunswick setting appealed to me right away.

This book was brought to publication by Beverly Jensen’s family after her death in 2003. The book consists of interconnected short stories which tell the tale of two sisters who grew up in New Brunswick, poor, on a farm where their alcoholic father raised them on his own. A couple of the stories had been previously published.

From the beginning chapter (ie. story) I was taken into this book and immersed into the lives of the Hillock family, not to come back to the reality of my own family until I had finished. Even when I was not reading, I was thinking about the characters. These stories are completely character driven and the readers becomes intimately familiar with the major players. The book is divided into Parts and starts off in 1916 with the mother dying in the childbirth of the 3rd daughter, 4th child. This utterly destroys the dynamics of the family as it was the mother who connected her family together with maternal and womanly love. The father is devastated at the loss of the only one he has ever loved who has ever made him gentle, and being a hard man to begin with, eking out a living from an unforgiving land and the dangerous sea he has always taken his down time with a bottle. This leaves him incapable of raising three children, nor of being able to show them love or compassion, though it is there. This part of the book grabs your heart and makes for compelling reading. Each story is set a few years ahead of the previous one as the children grow to mid/late teens.

For the rest of the book the story concentrates on Della the oldest sister, the more responsible of the two, and continues to tell her life story up till 1987. The book mostly is told in the third person but occasionally is told from the first person point of view of individual characters. Avis, the younger sister, who has her father’s love of drink and is a beauty who lives vicariously with many men, is not explored as much but she does turn up and we continue to learn of her life. The stories now are spaced further apart often going ten year jumps as we follow this family drama. The bond between the sisters is always strong even when they are not getting along with each other and the deep feeling they have for each other shows up in many ways.

I loved this book! The stories mesh together well creating an episodic story telling format and I enjoyed the occasional first hand account from a character’s point of view. This is not a happy story. The girls lead hard lives. There is emotional abuse, infedelity, prison, alcoholism, drunkeness, eking out a living, yearning to *be* somebody, the decline into infirmity and death. Yet through it all there are moments of true love from places you would least expect it and there are times that these moments are bittersweet. The only thing I was bothered by was that the brother, Dalton, hardly made any appearances once they had grown and I think his character would have been interesting to watch as well. Though I suppose that can be forgiven since the title does say “Sisters”.

An interesting note, as I was reading the chapter near the end entitled “Wake” I got that deja vu feeling that I had read something entirely similar to this before, in fact that I had read it before which was baffling. So I turned to the copyright page and sure enough “Wake” had been previously published in The Best American Short Stories 2007 edition which I had read that year!

I recommend the book to those who enjoy family sagas and don’t mind a story told in an episodic manner.

Pages: 188 pages
Ages: 8+
First Published: Apr. 13, 2010
Publisher: Tundra Books
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

Shoshi Kapustin clapped her hands over her ears to shut out the pitying voices.

Reason for Reading: The combination of the time period (1898) and a dragon intrigued me. I read this aloud to my 9yo.

The Kapustins have immigrated to the USA because Papa has been gone for five years and has not answered any of their letters. Escaping the Cossacks and worried they arrive on Ellis Island, find the family restaurant and are told Papa left one day and didn’t come back. The aunt and uncle running the place have turned it into a shambles. On their first night there, aunt and uncle steal their money leaving a note that they have taken it as payment for the restaurant, Mama can have it, they are going south. Mama must figure out a way to make a living off the restaurant but her matzo balls won’t cook properly; they are more like stones. The children are trying to find Papa. The gangster Nick the Stick is making them pay protection money and they are never quite sure if their new friend Mr. Thornswaddle, circus barker extraordinaire, can be trusted. Oh, yes, and by the way they also accidentally brought a baby dragon over with them who doesn’t make the situation any easier.

A fun, story with lots of silly situations going on that are unrealistic. The Russian Jew immigrants bring with them a folk tale sense of the tall tale and much that happens in the story is over the top, creating some laugh out loud moments and just plain silliness. But also, the author manages to set the characters in the real world of a turn of the century Jewish neighbourhood in New York and the reader sees the immigrant experience as well as life for a child in this era of New York. The names of the characters are a lot of fun too, such as Aloysius P. Thornswaddle and Dingle Hinglehoffer and the book works well as a read aloud allowing the teller to put on both Jewish and Irish accents during some of the most fun bits.

The one thing that disappointed me was the dragon; he had no charisma. While not being a main character, he was a constant throughout the plot and he did not have a personality of his own. He was very lightly sketched out but there was nothing to endear him to the reading audience. I think if he’d been given a personality his place would have felt more as one of the main characters and it would have given the story that extra bit of oomph that feels to be lacking.