The Last Queen by C. W. Gortner

January 30, 2020

The Last Queen by C. W. Gortner

Joanna (Juana) of Castile was the second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, older sister of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII of England.  As a toddler, Joanna was promised in marriage to Philip of Flanders of the House of Habsburg and she was sent to Flanders at the age of 16.  After her mother’s death, Joanna became Queen of Castile in her own right.  Although initially happy in her marriage and the mother of five children, Joanna grew dissatisfied with her husband’s overwhelming desire to rule as king of Castile.  But after returning to Spain to take her throne, Joanna soon realized that she was surrounded by men determined to seize her crown.

I love a good historical novel about royalty and have read a number of books by Philippa Gregory, Alison Weir, and Margaret George.  Most books about the royals focus on the British royal families, so I was glad to find a well-written, well-researched fictional biography of Joanna of Castile.  She was also known as Juana la Loca (Joanna the Mad), declared mad and unfit to rule by her own father Ferdinand.  Juana is another one of those unfortunate queens that you keep hoping will have a different, happier ending to their stories (others include but are not limited to Anne Boleyn or really any of Henry VIII’s wives, Mary Queen of Scots, and Marie Antoinette).

Being a female member of any royal family has pretty much sucked down through the ages, since daughters and sisters were used as human chess pieces and baby machines with little regard for their happiness or the appropriateness of their arranged marriages.  There was also the overwhelming boredom these women experienced – days spent oppressed by court etiquette, endless embroidering, gossiping and plotting, with virtually no privacy.  If you were young and lucky and had forward-thinking parents, you got a few lessons in music and languages.  But other than look ornamental, show up for court occasions, and produce a lot of children, queens didn't do much of anything (has anything changed in the 21st century?).

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

January 30, 2020

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

Loosely based on the author’s life growing up in Queensland in Australia, this is a story of coming-of-age meets survival.  Eli Bell and his older brother August live with their mother Frances and her boyfriend Lyle, both heroin dealers, in the suburb of Darra outside Brisbane in Queensland, Australia.  August is mute following a childhood trauma, while Eli searches for what it takes to be a good man.  Lyle is the only father figure that Eli remembers, and he loves Lyle deeply and wants to believe that Lyle is a good man, despite his profession. But unexpected events force Eli out of childhood, as he attempts to navigate a world of crime, drugs, and domestic abuse.

Normally I don’t care for books with juvenile narrators since the point of view is usually pretty narrow, but Trent Dalton has written a pair of very engaging characters in Eli Bell and his brother August.  Eli's voice is full of poetry and unexpected humor, a combination of adolescent adventure and adult experiences.  Most of the characters are based on people that Dalton knew as a child - I did love the inclusion of Arthur “Slim” Halliday, an actual criminal best known for his jail escapes, who Dalton knew when he was a child.  However, I don’t think the episodes of magical realism added anything to the narrative, and the last 50 pages of the book stretch the reader’s belief a little too far.  Other than that, the first 400 pages of the book are a wonderful read, not always pleasant or happy, but always heartfelt.

The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood

January 25, 2020

The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood

After dozens of dead bodies are discovered at the compound of a survivalist cult in a remote area of Wales, police find one adult and a few children are the only survivors.  Romy is the single adult to survive.  She is pregnant and hiding her pregnancy because she fears that the police won’t let her go if they find out.  Romy and her two younger siblings are taken in by their aunt, their only living relative, who grew up in a fundamentalist religious colony outside London.  But as soon as Romy is away from the prying eyes of authority, she begins searching for other cult members who were either absent at the time of the murder/suicide, or left the compound years earlier, and it soon becomes clear that Romy has her own agenda. 

Who doesn’t love a good cult book?  This one has overtones of the Jonestown mass suicides in Guyana in 1978.  Unlike Marwood’s previous books, The Poison Garden isn’t really mystery or a thriller, although there is plenty of suspense about life within the survivalist cult and as the former cult members try to assimilate (or not) into their new surroundings.  There were a number of errors in the text, so I hope a good editor went through and corrected the text before publication (for example, Romy was in the hospital for several weeks after being removed from the compound – since present day passages are set in 2016, a routine blood test or physical exam would almost certainly have revealed her pregnancy).  A fast and entertaining read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino

January 22, 2020

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino

After committing a robbery and having their getaway car break down, three amateur criminals hide out in an abandoned general store. To their surprise, envelopes begin dropping through the mail slot, most of them stating a problem and requesting advice, but some thanking the store owner for advice given in the past.  The three wannabe crooks decide to answer the letters, first as a joke, and then in an earnest attempt to actually be of some help.

The plot (if you can call it a plot) focuses on an old fashioned general store that has been closed for decades, and a nearby orphanage that all of the characters are connected to in some way.  The store exists in a kind of time warp – inside the store, it’s 30 years in the past, while time outside the store runs normally.  Rather than a straightforward novel format, the story consists of a series of inter-connected vignettes, often transitioning to another character's story with little or no explanation.  It’s a quick read and overall optimistic with a certain charm, but a lot of it felt like the author wanted to write about some of his favorite things, like the Beatles.  One of my complaints is that there is no real ending – the reader ends up with the three guys sitting around the general store looking at each other with their eyes twinkling – what is that supposed to mean?  I understand that the author is a well-known mystery writer in Japan, and that this is his first effort outside the mystery genre.  Maybe it was the translation that made it seem clunky.  

Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis

January 21, 2020

Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis

For Elmer Gantry, religion is strictly a racket.  During his college years studying law (and barely passing his classes), he realizes that his voice is his most powerful tool (or weapon).  After raising hell in college, getting kicked out of the seminary, and working as a successful traveling salesman, Elmer meets up with a charismatic woman evangelist, Sister Sharon Falconer, and becomes an insincere, hypocritical, yet very effective evangelist, treating it like just another scam he can use to fool the rubes.

In stark contrast to Elmer is his seminary classmate Frank Shallard.  Not only does Frank strive to live a godly life, he has doubts about his faith, his calling, and the existence of God almost from his seminary days.  He contemplates a different calling for himself, wanting to explore aspects of current thought such as evolution.  Frank is scandalized by Elmer’s actions, especially his inflammatory preaching.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to read a classic every month.  I started with Lewis’ Elmer Gantry because it happened to be available through the library.  Sinclair Lewis’ novel satirizes religion, evangelism, and small town attitudes long before the days and downfall of televangelists like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker (couldn’t you just see Elmer as a televangelist?).  Elmer Gantry isn’t technically historical fiction since it is a story set in the 1920’s and written in the 1920’s.  The novel differs significantly from the film version of the story.

Overall, Elmer is the definition of smarmy, a bull-shitter of the first magnitude.  He is desperately ambitious to BE someone, to be envied and revered, looked up to, a man of wealth and substance, but he doesn’t want to work for it.  The fire scene in the revival tent is a physical embodiment of Elmer’s morals:  he actually climbs over the fallen to get out of the burning tent, not caring that he is stepping on others.  He mistreats his wife and children, looks down on everyone else, lies and cheats.  He is often hurtful to others, even when he thinks he is being funny.  As a pastor, he advocates for a crackdown on vice, while being careful to hide his own adulterous activities.  Elmer Gantry is like a train wreck – he’s awful, but you just can’t look away.

The Tenant by Katrine Engberg

January 16, 2020

The Tenant by Katrine Engberg

A young woman is found brutally murdered in her Copenhagen apartment.  The police have few clues and no leads, except that the owner of the building was writing a crime novel that exactly describes the murder.

The plot was complex and original, and I was expecting some really dark Scandinavian noir, like something by Jo Nesbo.  But this one turned out to be disappointing.  It was all over the place – there was too much going on, too much unnecessary backstory.  Too much time was spent on the angst of one of the detectives, and almost no time was spent with the other one.  I found both of the detectives in this police procedural to be unlikable, and neither one seems to be very good at their jobs or enjoy what they do.  Anette is big, loud, sneering, sloppy, and socially inept – not good attributes in a detective.  Jeppe is weak, horny, self-pitying, dependent on pain meds, and socially inept – also not good attributes in a detective.  Their relationship is antagonistic at best.  I also disliked the author’s cutesy decision to give the two detectives rhyming surnames.  I believe this is the first book in a series, but I don’t think I’ll be revisiting Koerner and Werner in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

January 13, 2020

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

On the island of Jeju off the coast of Korea, famous for its haenyeo (women divers), the women support their families with their diving, while their husbands keep house and raise the children.  Because women earn more money than men, daughters are more valued than sons.  Two girls from widely different backgrounds become friends, divers, and rivals. 

I started off by listening to this but I disliked the narrator’s style – she fluctuated between totally flat and the edge of hysteria.  Once I got the print book, the story moved along much faster.

I have read many of Lisa See's previous titles, and this one is very well researched but more violent than her other books – Young-sook and Mi-ja and their families lived through violent and oppressive times.  I admit that I skimmed over some of the more brutal passages.  There are lots of legends, customs, stories, and information about the haenyeo and diving.  See explains at one point why the women become divers to support their families (women’s earnings are taxed at a lower rate than men’s wages).  A glossary of terms would have helped since I’m not sure what some of the items were.  Except for the level of violence, this would be a good choice for a book discussion group.

Readers who are interested in reading about the Korean women divers may also like White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht, which tells the story of two sisters who are separated when one is kidnapped by the Japanese.  If you’re looking for a very good novel about life in Korea during the Japanese occupation, try Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.