This is Happiness by Niall Williams

WOW! What a read. Our March Book Club took place on St. Patrick's Day and the hostess chose Niall Williams book, set in Ireland, as an appropriate selection. I have a friend who is an enthusiastic fan of Williams' books so this one had been on my TBR list for a while. I can say now, that I have also joined that group of fans. 

Set in Faha in County Kerry, Ireland This is Happiness is the account of electricity coming to the village in 1958. It is told through the eyes of Noel (Noe) Crowe, now 78 years old as he reflects on the summer when he was 17. After one of the most descriptive and poetic passages in literature about the village and the rain that has been pelleting it for days, the action begins close to Easter when Christy MacMahon, who is supervising the laying of cables to the village, becomes a lodger in Noe's grandparent's (Goady and Ganga) home and shares a room with Noe. 

The reader is brought into the Easter season with the rituals of Spy Wednesday and the remainder of the Holy Week. Noe had been attending seminary, but decided to take a break. Description of the parishioners and the Mass bring the Catholic rites full front. Williams through Noe provides enough of character traits that really entices the reader to learn more about them. 

As the plot develops, the reader discovers that the real reason for his arrival in Faha is to ask forgiveness of the chemist's wife, Annie Mooney Gafney for leaving her at the altar. That plot is really one of three in the novel. Second, Noe has his romantic feelings awaken as he becomes infatuated with all three Troy sisters. Finally, central to Christy's arrival are the lengthy descriptions of the actual installation of electricity from cutting the logs in Finland to getting them installed as poles in Faha.

There are really no words that accurately describe the lyrical prose that permeates this novel. Rarely do I highlight so many sentences and add so many bookmarks to an eBook as I did this novel. Williams writing is an ode to description and the feelings that are derived from the beautiful combination of words that evoke a time and place for a reader. I cannot wait to read his next book, Time of the Child, which I understand is even more poetic and poignant than this novel.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

A sweeping novel of 3 generations of an Indian family, The Covenant of Water,  is one of the best books that have been written in the last years. At 765 pages, it is definitely not a fast read, but a read that will provide the reader one of the most pleasurable hours that can be spent with a book. Verghese is a masterful storyteller and possesses the gift of understanding how to craft words into a literary masterpiece. 

The novel opens a young 12 year-old girl, who will be known as Big Ammachi marries a man over 20 years her senior. She leaves her home and travels with him to Kerala and his estate, Parambil. He had been married before and has a son, JoJo. After about 7 years she delivers a baby girl, Baby Mol, who is developmentally challenged. Her husband's family has been afflicted with The Condition, a predisposition to a fear of water that is borne out by the drowning of a member of the family in each generation. Through the birth of her son, Philipose, and then, the granddaughter, Mariamma, the Big Ammachi establishes herself as the patriarch of the family. Through her eyes, the reader feels her joys and pains and is privileged to her wisdom as she guides the family.  

Part Two of The Covenant of Water introduces Digby Kilpour from Glasgow, Scotland. He has been raised by his mother, Gwendolyn, after his father disappeared when he was very young. She suffers from depression, which causes her to take her own life. Digby decides to leave Scotland and join the Indian Medical Service, where he studies to be a gifted surgeon. His story is told parallel to that of Big Ammachi's and the reader knows that their families' lives will cross paths at some point in the novel. 

To detail the intricate story lines would take about as many pages as the book itself. No character is exempt from grief and loss, one of the major themes of the novel. It is the way each character deals with tragedy that gives insight into all aspects of the human condition. In many books, the reader feels disconnect from the people about whom the story is centered. This is not the case in Verghese's book. There is joy as new babies are born and good deeds are accomplished and tears are shed as death invades the families. But Verghese also gives glimmers of hope as the characters evolve and grow.  

Added to this theme is the glimpse into the world of India from 1907 through 1977 and how it has grown from moved from primitive to modern with the advances made in home amenities, sanitation, and medical breakthroughs. It is fascinating and compelling. Not only is the reader engrossed, but s/he is also educated and enlightened. The Covenant of Water should be on everyone's To Read List. 

On 13 November 2023 we were so lucky to hear Abraham Verghese speak on his book. Without a note and in front of the podium. What a treat!

Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris

After reading the prologue and then continuing to the novel itself, I was not sure how the reader was going to get from Point A to Point B. The prologue, set in 1937, describes an apparent escape from Alcatraz, where a young girl has gone missing. As the  pages unfolded, it did become clear and proved to be a very good read. The Edge of Lost is an account of the life of Shanley Keagen, a young boy who is introduced as a young boy living with his uncle in Ireland. His uncle is quite taken with the drink and is eventually kicked off the dole. Shan tries to help make ends meet by performing comedy in some of the pubs. He has in his possession a photo of his mother and a man whom he thinks is his father, am American sailor. His desire is to go to the United States to find him. 

With no other recourse, Uncle Will decides that the two will leave for America to find Shan's father. However, on the voyage, Will dies and Shan is orphaned.  With a serendipitous piece of fortune, he is adopted by an Italian family, the Capellos, and begins his new life in Brooklyn as Tommy Capello. His brother Nick and sister Lina receive him into the family with just less than open arms. Shan/Tommy does will in school and begins to help out his father in the plumbing business while still pursuing the dream of meeting his father. Nick becomes mixed up in some of the criminal activities surrounding prohibition, although he was not really a criminal. Because of this Tommy Capello is sentenced to Leavenworth Prison. From there his is moved to Alcatraz, where he is a model prisoner and is assigned to work in the greenhouses and gardens. 

The intersection of the two story lines is what keeps the reader anxiously turning pages. McMorris skillfully blends the accounts of Italian and Irish immigrants with the hardships of life during the prohibition and depression in America. She has provided an intriguing glimpse into life in that period as well as what it must have been like to live on The Rock as both civilian and prisoner. The twist in the ending pages was one that was not telegraphed in the earlier part of the novel and was a surprise for sure. Good and interesting read.
 

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half  has been critically acclaimed in many publications and on social media. I would concur that it is deserving of the accolades. 

The novel concerns the life of twins Desiree and Stella Vignes, who live in a small town, Mallard, Louisiana. The town was founded as a place for light skinned Negroes to settle. However, it is a place that still experiences violent racial divisions. When the twins were very young, their father was murdered by a white mob, which leaves their mother, Adele, left to raise the girls. Pulled out of school to help with the household expenses, the girls decide to run away from home in 1954. when they are sixteen. After a brief period of living together their paths diverge and the separation lasts for over twenty years. The paths that their lives take are also divergent. Desiree marries a dark skinned black man and has a daughter, Jude, who is also very dark. Stella uses her light skin as a way to pass, marries her white boss, Blake Sanders,  and also has a blue eyed blonde daughter, Kennedy. 

After Desiree can take the abuse doled out from her husband in 1968 she returns to Mallard with Jude and go to live with her mother. Her intention is that it is temporary, but leaving just doesn't work out. She stays to take care of her mother, who begins to show signs of Alzheimers, meets a male companion, Early, and raises Jude there. Jude decides that she wants to go to school at UCLA where she meets Reese, a transgendered male. Stella moves to Los Angeles and  raises Kennedy there with a silver spoon in her mouth. Their subdivision must deal with the racial tensions of integration when a black family moves in across the street from the Sanders. Stella lives in fear that she will be found out and she tries to shield Kennedy from the family.

The reader has a distinct feeling that the paths of these two sisters and the cousins will cross somewhere and sometime during the pages that follow. This increases the tension in the novel and makes the book a page turner. Despite some fast forwarding and flashbacks, the book is an easy read, but an uneasy one at the same time. It is a unsettling examination of race relations, stereotyping of individuals, and the effects that lies have upon the human condition. At every turn prejudice screams out from the pages, whether it is the rich vs. poor, white vs. black, or straight vs. the LGBTA+ world. In the end, familial ties are underscored and the idea of going home emphasized. Bennett is a gifted storyteller and the ending of the book leaves a quiet understanding those themes.