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I must have passed out because I don’t remember who put me on this gurney without a blanket. [First Sentence]

Belly of the Whale by Linda Merlino
Kunati, 2008
Fiction; 199 pgs

I almost decided against reading Linda Merlino’s book, Belly of the Whale. It hits too close to home. Breast cancer has affected not only my mother and both of my grandmothers, but I lost a friend to cancer this past summer and the wound is still too fresh. Even just thinking about her now, the tears well up in my eyes. She was such a strong soul. Outwardly, she never wavered in her faith and hope, but I imagine there were times when she did doubt and feel angry at the circumstances she was in much like Linda Merlino’s protagonist, Hudson Catalina.

Hudson Catalina’s mother was a victim to breast cancer, losing her battle when Hudson was 14 years old. It was very difficult on the Catalina family, and Hudson took her mother’s illness and death hard. She worried, too, that one day her own fate would be similar to her mother’s, and it turned out she was right. Her battle with breast cancer sapped everything out of Hudson. She was tired and angry. She woke up one morning, having lost all faith and hope. Her husband and best friend, ever the optimists, did not understand the low that Hudson had reached. They weren’t ready to give up–never would be most likely. Hudson felt alone.

Hudson’s new resolve that her death to cancer was on the horizon would be challenged in a way she could never have anticipated. A night visit to the local market to pick up last minute party supplies for her daughter’s 5th birthday would change her life forever.

Ruby Desmond, owner of the Whales Market, is strong in her faith and has led a full life. She knows what it is like to have suffered great loss. She understands a little bit about how Hudson must be feeling and Hudson finds herself drawn to the woman and her stories about the past. Willy Wu is also working that night at the market. Willy Wu is a simple man with special needs. It is obvious he cares about Ruby immensely and takes his job seriously. With a fierce storm carrying on outside the doors of the market, the three settle in for a long night not realizing that danger was just around the corner.

Linda Merlino captures the emotions of the characters in such a way that had me feeling what they were feeling as the story unfolded. What stood out the most to me was Hudson’s feeling of despair and complete loss of hope. Similarly, there is the character of Buddy Baker, who was in an even darker place for he had given up long ago. Buddy has had a difficult life. He is a product of his environment and as a result is full of anger and pain. He is in a downward spiral with no end in sight, and I felt that with every turn of the page.

Belly of the Whale is a moving story about one woman’s internal struggle with the fate she has been dealt. And yet it is also a story about family and friendship as well as one of courage and hope even in the most tragic of circumstances. The story builds bit by bit, humor suffused with very serious situations. Linda Merlino is a talented writer who has written a heart wrenching story that had me in tears by the end.

Rating: (Good +)

I stared at my attorney as he began his defense that I did not share the blame in the murder of my son. [first sentence]

Janeology by Karen Harrington
Künati, 2008
Fiction; 246 pgs

It is difficult to know where to start in describing a book like Janeology. It is thriller-like on one level but also a bio-psychosocial character study of a woman who committed one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, that of murdering her own child.

Tom Nelson is on trial for failing to protect his twin children from their unstable mother. He hadn’t been present at the time of the drowning of his son and near drowning of his daughter. However, the prosecution and media are quick to lay blame at his feet. As the husband and father of the woman who murdered her own child, shouldn’t he have known she was a danger to the children? Jane’s depression after the miscarriage should have been a clear sign, they said.

Tom struggles with guilt, second guessing himself and the choices he made. He knows he was not the perfect husband, but he loved his wife and had no idea she was capable of hurting their children. Author Karen Harrington adeptly captures his pain, anger and confusion, putting the reader right into Tom’s shoes.

Tom’s attorney suggests a radical strategy of defense—to map Jane’s genealogy in an effort to demonstrate a hereditary cause for Jane’s behavior, which would, therefore, absolve Tom of responsibility in a jury’s eyes. Attorney Dave Frontella calls in a clairvoyant skilled in retrocognition to help prove his case. Mariah is able to read the past by using objects once owned by the dead.

Tom, Dave and Mariah begin their journey backwards in time, uncovering the dark secrets of Jane’s ancestors, going back several generations. Jane’s own upbringing is enough to raise questions about the impact that had on her eventual breakdown. The question of nurture versus nature arises in the novel. Although it really isn’t a situation of one or the other—but a combination of both nurture and nature, and the author does a good job of weaving these themes throughout the narrative.

Janeology is an intense and emotionally charged book that threads together family history to show one possibility of causation. Never in the novel did the author suggest this as an excuse for such behavior, only an explanation of how it might have led to such a tragic consequence. With the number of infanticide reports in today’s media,the author of Janeology deftly touches on a hot button subject, including the culpability of the non-offending parent. Karen Harrington is a talented writer and has crafted a thought provoking and intriguing novel.

Rating: (Very Good)

You can learn more about the author and her book Janeology at her website.

“It’s a sudden loss of muscle control,” is how I would always begin, feeling cornered, “while remaining conscious. It’s as if your body’s faintin’ but you’re not.” [ pg 24]

Aberrations by Penelope Przekop
Emerald Book Co, 2008
Fiction; 241 pgs

Angel Duet is 21 and everything she believed and thought she knew is about to change. Things couldn’t be worse when her father’s girlfriend, Carla, moves in, making her mark by taking down all of the photographs taken by Angel’s mother. The photos are the only material things that Angel really has to connect her to the woman she lost many years ago.

Angel feels like she is sleep walking through life. She puts much of the blame on the absence of her mother and the neurological condition from which she suffers: narcolepsy. Her narcolepsy controls so much of what she does and how she reacts, making it impossible for her to live like a “normal” person, or so she believes. She wants more than that for herself, however. Angel wants to break away from the rut she is in and wants to experience what it is to truly live.

Her father tried, in his own way, to be the best father he knew how to be to his daughter. The grief that came with having lost the woman he loved permeated their lives. His lies to protect Angel have never quite filled the void inside Angel, and now, more than anything, she wants to know the truth.

Taking a summer job working in the cotton fields, Angel makes two unlikely friends. Kimmy, the 26 year old virgin, is not so different than Angel, feeling stuck in a rut, barely living life, and longing for something more, something different. Tim has his own secret, which he is bursting to share. He is gay, feeling stifled by his hometown and society, and is tired of the prejudice and secrecy surrounding him. Tim opens a door into a world that neither Kimmy nor Angel had ever imagined stepping into. He offers them hope, but not quite in the way any of them, or even the reader, could have anticipated.

Angel felt lost and empty most of her life. She comes across as immature and selfish at first, but by the end of the novel, she has made great strides in coming into her own. In a way, this is a coming of age story about a young woman who only needed to find her way. The void she feels inside is not something that can be filled by something on the outside. It has to come from within. Angel’s decisions are not always the best ones, but as with all mistakes, she can only hope that she learns from them and is able move forward.

Aberrations is rich in characterization, each character complex and flawed, beautiful and ugly. The characters are so wrapped up in their own problems that they are not always able to see how similar their struggles are to those around them. Each of them has their own secrets and created their own lies. Secrets and lies have a way of spilling out no matter how hard a person tries to contain them. The mess left behind is not always so easy to forgive or accept.

Minor Spoiler Alert Begins Here

Although at first I was not sure what to think of Carla, she eventually came to be my favorite character in the novel. She was an outsider on the inside and her insight and dedication to the broken Duet family was steadfast. Mac was another one that grew on me as time went on, despite the fact that he was cheating on his wife. He came across as confident and sure of himself, and yet that was only a mask for what lay underneath. One of the saddest characters in the novel is Tim, who in the beginning seems to be the most together of the bunch. As Kimmy and Angel come into their own, growing as individuals, he stays much the same throughout the book. What once Angel most admired in Tim, was what eventually she came to recognize as biggest downfall.

Minor Spoiler Alert Ends Here

The writing is beautiful and I liked how the author added a Southern touch to the dialogue, least the reader forget where the novel is set. It actually takes place during the early 1980’s in Louisiana. It seems the perfect setting for this poignant story about love, family, friendship, forgiveness and redemption.

Aberrations was not quite what I expected. It was deeper and more satisfying. At times it was tragic but above all it was hopeful.

Rating: (Very Good)

Be sure and stop by Penelope Przekop’s website for more information about the author and her book.

If you live long enough, everything happens.
And then some of it happens again. [pg xii]

The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith
Harper Collins, 2008 (ARE)
Fiction; 209 pgs

Mark is an 11 year old boy whose life is out of balance. His mother has remarried and they have moved from London to the seaside community of Brighton. Mark was forced to leave behind his friends and the life he knew. His mother is deathly ill and Mark wants nothing more than to have things return to the way they once were. He directs most of his anger towards his new stepfather, David, who seems to control every facet of their life. It is his house that the family moved into and him that controls how much diet coke comes into the house.

Mark feels alone and unsure of his place in the new life he finds himself leading. He befriends an elderly woman who lives in an apartment in the basement of the family’s house. She has lived there for many years on her own. She opens her door to the young angry boy and lets him in on a little known secret about the centuries old house they live in. Behind a locked door lies the old servants’ quarters where once servants ran the house, cooking and cleaning, keeping things in order and maintaining the balance of life up above.

The Servants is a heartfelt story about a boy coming to terms with his mother’s illness and finding his way in life. Author Michael Marshall Smith’s writing is simple and genuine, allowing the reader into the mind of that 11 year old boy as he struggles to understand everything going on around him. It was impossible not to grow attached to Mark, to feel his pain and also to want to steer him in the right direction when he seemed to be off course. He just needs to find his own way and look beyond the surface of what is going on around him.

In addition to Mark’s character, I was drawn to David, the stepfather. Mark focused so much of his anger and energy on disliking his stepfather that one had to wonder what was going on in David’s mind. Mark’s own father and mother could do no wrong in Mark’s eyes. He put them on pedestals, making it difficult at first to get to know them. And yet, it proved an effective move on the author’s part in telling Mark’s story. The reader only experiences what Mark wants us to. It is his story, after all. Although this is Mark’s tale, I would like to have gotten to know the elderly woman in the basement more. Her own story must be a remarkable one.

There does not seem to be much to this story, at least not at first. Michael Marshall Smith’s The Servants is on one level a ghost story. On another, it is a story about love and family. And it is about finding one’s place in this mad crazy world we live in. I found The Servants to be a refreshing and charming story.

Rating: (Good +)

“The world is full of miracles, Mama. All we have to do is find the ones that belong to us.” [pg 27]

Tarnished Beauty by Cecelia Samartin
Atria Books, 2008 (ARE)
Fiction; 339 pgs

Jamilet is a naïve and imaginative young woman who carries a burden, an ugly birthmark that stretches from her shoulders, down her back, reaching to the back of her knees. She is ashamed of it and wants nothing more than to be rid of it. All her life, the birthmark has proven to be a curse, earning taunts and stares from her fellow villagers. It is the mark of the devil, some say.

Having reached adulthood and upon the death of her mother, Jamilet leaves behind her small Mexican hometown for the sprawling city of Los Angeles in hopes of finding a doctor who will remove the offending birthmark. She takes up residence with her Aunt Carmen, a woman Jamilet admired as a child. Carmen was a bit of a rebel in her day and one of the only people in Jamilet’s life who rarely gave Jamilet’s birthmark a second thought.

Jamilet takes a job working in an asylum, her only task to watch over and take care of the needs of an elderly man from Spain, Señor Peregrino. Her charge is not an easy man to work with. He is demanding and likes things done just so. She had been instructed not to engage Señor Peregrino in conversation; however, he coaxes her into listening to his life story, a story that soon captivates not only Jamilet but the reader as well. His is a story of love, betrayal and regret. A story Jamilet can relate to in her own way.

Señor Peregrino was as confident and steady as Jamilet was shy and unsure. The two form an unlikely bond. Just as Señor Peregrino set out as a young man on a pilgrimage to discover his fate, Jamilet’s journey to the United States was in a similar vein. Both had expectations and hopes that the road would lead them in one direction, when instead it took them in an entirely different one.

Jamilet’s plight is one most people can relate to, the feeling of being singled out, of being different, and wanting nothing more than to be “normal” and to fit in. Jamilet felt alone in her suffering, not believing anyone would understand what she was going through. She carries her birthmark like a secret, the shame of it always near the surface. I was slightly disappointed that the author did not take this particular story thread farther than she did. Still, I think that Jamilet’s story will appeal to many readers. Her story is not so different than our own in some respects, even if we do not wear the birthmark as she does.

Author Cecilia Samartin has written a heartfelt and bittersweet story. Each time I picked up the book, I looked forward to reading more of Señor Peregrino’s story just as Jamilet came to wanting to hear it. Tarnished Beauty seemed a perfect book choice for a warm spring day—gentle in style and thoughtful in nature.

Rating: (Good +)

Check out the author’s website for more information.