Helen's Book Reviews

 

April 2011

Juliet
by Anne Fortier
Anne Fortier’s novel “Juliet” contrasts the life of present day young woman named Juliet Jacobs with that of Giulietta Tolomei, a young woman of fourteenth century Sienna. Giulietta may have been the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Juliet.  Julie and her twin sister Janice had lived with their Aunt Rose since they were small children.  They had been told that their parents had died in Tuscany and their great aunt went to Italy to bring them home to raise them in America.  Aunt Rose refused to reveal any details of their parents’ lives and always claimed that Italy was a dirty, dangerous place.  The twins were definitely discouraged from traveling to their place of birth.  Both Julie and her sister lead rather aimless lives.  Although they completed college degrees, neither girl has a career level job.  They have been led to believe that their Aunt Rose has enough money to provide for them.  When Aunt Rose suddenly dies, there are some surprising provisions in her will.  Janice is left her home and financial estate, while Julie is left with only a passport and a key.  This is very surprising to Julie because she had always felt that if Aunt Rose had a favorite, she was the favored niece.  The bigger surprise is the name on what appears to be her passport.  Instead of Julie Jacobs, she learns that she is Giuletta Tolomei.

Shakespeare did not develop original plots.  His plays are a rehash of history, old fables, or religious themes.  The Tolomeis and the Salimbenis of Sienna were feuding families and the love story of their Romeo and Juliet was written in 1476 by Masuccio Salernitano.  One hundred years later, Shakespeare hears the story and a legend is created.  The present day Julie knows nothing of this, but only knows that she wants to learn why her mother was obsessed with Sienna and what the key that is her inheritance will unlock.  Even before she arrived in Sienna she met a woman from one of the rival families, the Salimbenis.  Another Salembeni , Alessandro, instantly disliked Julie.  Since he is chief of security and Julie had a minor police record for demonstrations in Denmark, she is both suspicious and frightened by his animosity.  The plot is just complicated enough to absorb the reader with descriptions of ancient treasures, architecture, and historical events.  Julie is obsessed with the clues her mother left and surprised when the search becomes dangerous.    4-1-11

Freedom
by Jonathan Frazen reviewed April 5, 2011The novel “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen tells the life story of the couple Patty and Walter Berglund.  Each had a difficult childhood.  Patty was the child of prosperous parents, but her emotional life was shadowed when she was raped in high school and no one, including her parents, was willing to provide guidance to help her cope with the consequences.  Walter had an alcoholic father and was the only child in the family who had any academic interests.  His seriousness and sense of responsibility was ridiculed by his father and brothers.  These two misfits met in college.

The book begins with the early married life of this couple.  They are portrayed as a typical liberal middle-class couple who renovate an old home in urban St. Paul, Minnesota.  They catch the first wave of neighborhood gentrification.  Patty is a stay-at-home mom who makes the house, family, and neighborhood her work.  Suddenly, this perfect façade seems to crack.  Their son, Joey, is obsessed with making money and defying his parents’ liberal values.  The real fracture comes when he becomes sexually involved with the girl next door, and eventually moves in with her family.

The second part of the book is written in the form of an autobiography supposedly written by Patty at the urging of her therapist.  In this, she describes the fascination that she had always had for Richard Katz who had been Walter’s college roommate.  Katz is an indie rock musician who has always had an admiration for Walter’s principles and intellect.  As college students they often had prolonged arguments about the meaning of life.  As their adult life moves on, Walter and Patty seem like the prosperous, mature grown-ups while Katz is stuck in a drug-hazed nomadic life.  About the time that their son moves out, Katz finally achieves some success as a musician.  This trio always seems to have a see saw relationship of stability and maturity.  Patty and Richard have a brief relationship at about the time that Walter accepts a very unusual job in Washington D. C.  He is someone who has spent his entire life as an ardent environmentalist, working for conservation causes.  His new, very lucrative job is with big coal.  Walter thinks that he has devised a way to please both environmentalists and those who wish to excavate any valuable minerals from an area.  The challenges faced by this couple, their children, and their friends mirror an era’s social changes. 4-5-11

The Man from Saigon
by Marti Leimbach reviewed April 12, 2011
Marti Leimbach’s novel “The Man from Saigon” tells a very different story than that of the usual war novel.  She has no real connection to America’s Vietnam War and was only a child at the time that it was occurring.  She has created characters and situations by relying on documents.  Her focus is what happens between the characters.  Susan Gifford is one of the first female war correspondents working in 1967 Vietnam.  She was sent there by a small magazine and expected to cover only human interest stories.  Hoang Van Son made a major effort to become indispensible to her as a photographer.  He had become a familiar figure to the other reporters covering the war as he tried to sell his photographs.  Most reporters are accompanied by photographers so they had no need of his services.  Susan is fascinated by his work and since she works alone, they soon become a regular team.  In addition to their work, they often eat together and soon Son is using her room to develop his pictures.  Susan develops complete trust in Son, relying on his assurances that certain places will be safe.  On a personal level, she becomes involved with Marc Davis, a married network reporter.  Marc has probably been in Vietnam too long.  He has spent 23 months with the troops, longer than any of them are usually deployed.  Although he is a very competent reporter, he has been there so long that he has become very skeptical of any official pronouncements. He has also developed a serious drug problem.

Susan becomes committed to writing the best wartime coverage that she can produce.  She goes beyond the human interest stories found in orphanages and hospitals that her magazine expected her to write.  Instead, she accompanies troops on missions and finds herself in dangerous situations.  She experiences the same boredom during the quiet periods and feels the same terror the soldiers face in combat.  Her first time under fire terrifies her, but she begins to crave what she considers an authentic experience.  Susan and Son go out on a troop convoy expecting a quiet day.  Instead, suddenly the line of vehicles is attacked.  As non-combatants, they jump into the bushes and try to put distance between themselves and the action.  After stumbling around briefly in the jungle, they are captured by three Viet Cong soldiers.  While they are prisoners, Susan is forced to understand Son’s real identity. 4-12-11

Tumtum and Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall
by Emily Bern reviewed April 19, 2011
Most children call a book that has around two hundred pages and is written for juveniles a chapter book.  Emily Bearn has written a charming one called “Tumtum and Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall”.  The first page of the book tells the reader what to expect.  “Hidden in the broom cupboard of Rose Cottage are two grand gates that lead to the loveliest little house you’ve ever seen.  Nutmouse Hall.  Shh, don’t tell anyone…No one knows it’s there…not even Arthur and Lucy who live in Rose Cottage.  This is the home of Tumtum and Nutmeg…”  This children’s novel has the fascination with small, hidden creatures that exist in such classics as “The Wind in the Willows” and “The Borrowers”.  Rose Cottage has a mouse couple that live in splendor at Nutmouse Hall.  There is a small mouse hole behind a heavy piece of furniture that is never moved from its spot in Rose Cottage.  That hole has tiny gates that lead to the hall.  Their home has a mouse sized banqueting hall and ballroom.  There are seventeen bedrooms and xxxx bathrooms.  The mouse wife called her husband Tumtum because he has a bit of a tummy.  His nickname for his wife is Nutmeg because she has nutmeg colored mouse hair.

The Mildew family lives in Rose Cottage.  Arthur and Lucy are the children of a truly absent-minded inventor.  Their mother died years ago so they are left with the irregular care of their father.  Mr. Mildew invented a very successful crumb eatingXXXX which made enough money to keep the family going for several years, but now the money has run out and Mr. Mildew’s new invention is not working out.  The mice live in great comfort but squalor exists in Rose Cottage.  Nutmeg is very concerned about the children, so she decides that since she and Tumtum have no little mice they should do everything they can to the make the children’s lives more comfortable.  In imaginative ways the mice creep around, repairing the electricity, improving the food, and mending clothing.

There are three stories in this book, one about the way that the mice and the children defeat the horrible Aunt Ivy who comes for a visit and plans to eradicate all mice from the cottage.  In another story, General Marchmouse frees himself and some gerbils from a cage at the children’s school. 4-19-11

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
reviewed April 26, 2011

“The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain fictionalizes the courtship and marriage of Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson.  They met in Chicago when Hadley visited Kate Smith, an old college roommate.  Hemingway was rooming with a cousin of Kate’s, so they met as members of a partying group of young people with artistic aspirations.  Hadley is an amateur pianist and Hemingway has written newspaper articles.  Their courtship continues through letters after Hadley returns to live with her sister in St. Louis.  On another visit to Chicago she meets Hemingway’s parents and soon a wedding is planned.  The setting on Michigan’s Walloon Lake is well described.  The time he spent hunting and fishing in Michigan provided Hemingway with rich material for articles and short stories.  Soon friends convince the couple that contacts and experiences are better for a writer in Europe.

Hadley has a trust fund that provides the couple with the basics of a life in Europe.  They decide to go to France because Hemingway has admired the work that F. Scott Fitzgerald and others are doing there.  He is able to sell news articles to the Toronto Star newspaper so he can stay professionally active.  The apartment they rent is above a bar and very noisy so Hemingway rents a small room to use as a writing studio.  When money is tight, he spends his writing time in small Parisian cafes.  He works at his craft in a disciplined manner like a job with set hours.  Hemingway has had life experiences driving an ambulance during World War I and now the couple begins to interact with the “bright young things” so that he will have material for another type of book.

When they married, Hadley was eight years older than the twenty year old Hemingway.  The fictionalization of their time together supposes that Hemingway was looking for some stability and someone who believed in his gifts.  The damage to their marriage was caused by all the temptations offered by Paris.  Although the couple met many brilliant people and had an exciting time at bars, cafes, and racetracks, the “Lost Generation” was partially made up of people who were a threat to their marriage.  Serious drinking and long parties added to overwhelming flattery does not help people mature.  The book is a portrait of life in Paris in the 20’s.  Hemingway himself also wrote of this time in “The Moveable Feast”.  That was one source Ms McLain used very effectively. [4-26-11]