Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan

Evensong by O'Nan has gotten a lot of press and sounded like a good book for a Yinzer to read. But it was the fourth an a series and so I began at the beginning of the series. O'Nan is originally from Pittsburgh and his roots shine through this work at almost every turn from the references to the city, its restaurants, and arts and culture. 

The novel covers the week that the Maxwell family spends at Lake Chautauqua  and the surrounding area. It is a favorite summer destination for those from the Pittsburgh and where people have a summer home. The family consists of Emily, who owns their cottage and is recently widowed, her sister-in-law Arlene and Emily's children Meg and Ken, Ken's wife Lisa and their children Sam and Ella, and Meg's children Justin and Sarah. They are all gathering for one final vacation because Emily is selling the summer home. 

Because of O'Nan's incredible mastery of description and insight, the reader understands the personality of each of the characters. In reality, it is very much like a psychoanalytic experience. The interaction between the family members is suggestive of how many families would act and react during a week where they all lived under one roof in small quarters. O'Nan uses the weather, rainy and dreary, to force more dialogue and communication among them. The reader is privy to teenage angst, budding sexuality, sibling rivalry, and marital strife. 

At the heart of the novel is Emily's desire to have her children take items that are especially meaningful to them as remembrances of their many years of vacationing on the lake as well as of their late father. It is something that inevitably every family experiences and the manner in which they go about it will hit home with many. They try to relive past adventures, restaurants, and familiar activities. With his mastery of description, O'Nan allows the reader to be privy to all the thoughts and vulnerabilities of the Maxwell family. 

The book is one of the most skilled examples of character study that I have read. It is definitely a treasure, especially for those who do not mind a long and detailed tome. I really did not want the book to end, but I will meet up with the family in his later books.

 

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

In some reviews The Dutch House has been described as a dark fairy tale. In many respects it is: an absent father, a wicked step-mother, 2 step sisters, and a brother and sister trying to survive life ala Hansel and Gretel. 

Set in the early 1950s and 1960s in Elkins Park and Jenkintown, Pennsylvania siblings Danny, the narrator, and his sister, Maeve try to cope with the sudden disappearance of their mother, Elna from their lives. They meet in their car in front of the house and reminisce about when they were residents there. 

When Elna Conroy leaves her husband Cyril in an attempt to flee the ornate excesses of their home, The Dutch House, the children are left in the care of their nanny, Fluffy. After Elna leaves, Danny spends the weekends with his father collecting the rent that is owe on the real estate that Cyril owns. In the meantime, Cyril remarries and Andrea and her two daughters, Bright and Norma move into the Dutch House. 

Danny was fifteen when Cyril dies suddenly in an accident and he is left alone with his step family because Maeve was out on her own. Andrea was not informed of this right away and took steps to ostracize her step children. All of Cyril's estate was left to her except for a trust fund targeted for Danny's education. Maeve proposes he go to medical school to use up as much of the money as possible. 

The novel as narrated by Danny shifts back and forth between the present and his memories that really impact the way he lives his life. He is beholden to Maeve for basically raising him and he despises Elna for abandoning him. His relationship with his wife, Celeste, walks a fine line as he reconciles what everyone wants him to do with his live vs. what he wants to do. He repeats his father's actions in buying homes for Celeste that she doesn't really like, much to his not understanding. 

The Dutch House is very much a character in this novel as it embodies and houses emotional and psychological realms. It is a place that Danny feels grounded and at the same time malcontent. Sitting with Maeve in front of the house gives him a sense of connection and secure. When Elna reappears in Danny's life, the house becomes a major player in his acceptance of her. The ending of the novel further cements the continuity of the house and family connection. 

Maeve develops Type I diabetes when she is a teenager. In two different sections of the book it is attributed to the fact that Elna abandoned her and the trauma of that act. It was interesting to see how Patchett handled the ups and downs of glucose levels and crises that arise from that. 

This is a very good read, especially for anyone who enjoys the interrelationships of families and coming of age. The writing is well crafted and the characters well drawn. Another Patchett recommended read.

 

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Hearkening back to the mid-1980s, Tell the Wolves I'm Home, allows an insight into the misunderstanding of the AIDS epidemic and the tragic deaths of so many of its victims. 

June Elbus, the fourteen year-old protagonist of the novel, lives with her older sister, Greta, and her parents who are accountants in Westchester, New York, only a short train ride from the city. She has developed a very strong relationship with her Uncle Finn, who is also her godfather. Finn is a world renowned painter who lives in New York City. He is gay and, as readers learn early on, dying of AIDS. Before he dies, it is his desire to paint a portrait of June and Greta. He finishes it right before he dies. The painting eventually is given to the Elbus family and stored in a safety deposit box at a local bank. Only June and Greta have keys to the box. 

At Finn's June notices a stranger, who does not come into the service. Danni, June's mother, harbors a great deal of animosity toward the man, whom she blames for killing her brother. It is Toby, Finn's boyfriend. As the novel progresses, Toby and June become friends as they both try to deal with the death of the person whom they both loved so dearly. Finn has written notes to each asking them to look after the other. June begins to realize that the person whom her mother despises is not really the awful person he is conjured up to be. In fact, he is the innocent victim of AIDS.

Throughout the novel, family dynamics are revealed in the relationship of Greta and June. Both are dealing with issues that manifest themselves in a strong sibling rivalary, while both deal with almost being orphans during the tax season. Greta is starring as Bloody Mary in the high school production of South Pacific and virtually coerces June into attending some of the rehearsals and parties after that are held in the woods behind the school. The woods have special meaning to June as this is where she goes for solitude and contemplation. June rescues Greta twice from the parties  when she has become intoxicated. 

 On the evening of the play Greta again invites June to join her, but she can't because she has been grounded for having defiled the painting. When Greta doesn't come home, she enlists the aid of Toby, who because of his alien status, is arrested while trying to rescue Greta. It is not long after that Toby succumbs to pneumonia and also dies. 

The novel is a fairly easy and quick read. The characters are three dimensional and play a role in the development of relationships between parents, friends, and relatives. The tremendous dread of coming into contact with a person who has AIDS reminds the reader of how dire the disease was in its early days. Tell the Wolves I'm Home won the Alex Award in 2013. This award is presented by YALSA to an adult book that has special appeal to the young adult reader. 

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

The Nest topped the New York Times best seller list for 11 weeks after its publication in 2016. The plot sounded intriguing and when it was a Kindle deal of the day, I purchased it. Then in July 2018, I saw it at Barnes and Noble on sale for $3.99, forgetting that I had it on my Kindle, I purchased it again. (This prompted me to enter all my Kindle books into LibraryThing). When my turn came to hostess book club, this was the book I selected. 

The premise of the novel is that the four Plumb siblings are to receive a sum of money, The Nest, that has been put in trust for them by their father. However, when Leo, the eldest, is involved in an horrendous car accident because he was high and drunk and is accompanied by a 19 year old waitress, the money is used by Francie, the mother, to pay off the legal and medical bills for the young woman. Needless to say this creates issues and conflicts for Jack, Melody, and Beatrice, the other siblings.   

The novel is narrated by an omniscient third person. In this way, the reader is able to see events from different points of view, one of the strongest qualities of the book. Each of the protagonists has counted on The Nest for a purpose - Jack to pay off a summer home, Melody to finance her twin daughters' college fund and Beatrice to regain the relationship that she had with her brother. None of the characters are particularly endearing as they seem self-centered and unable to put their own needs aside for others. The novel weaves the story around those relationships and a number of sub-plots - the coming out of one of Melody's daughters, the recovery of a valuable copy of Rodin's The Kiss from the rubble of the World Trade Center, and the renewal of an affair between Leo and Stephanie, his sister, Bea's publisher. 

The culmination of all the drama occurs the night of Melody's 40th birthday. This was the date by which Leo had promised to come up with a plan of distributing the remainder of The Nest to his siblings. The evening is marked by a storm of enormous proportions, meteorological, corporal, and psychological. 

Although the reviews in the book club discussion ranged from I loved it to I found it disturbing because of the sex and language, I felt that it was an excellent read. The character development was superb, despite finding them likeable, and the writing style sophisticated. I await Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's next novel and also the casting for the movie that has been picked up by Amazon.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

This is my first experience with a Moshfegh novel and it was definitely that - an experience. It is hard to categorize this book as to whether it was funny, depressing, or puzzling. The premise is that the narrator opts to take a year off life and hibernate while filling her body with drugs and television, and old movies. 

Set in 2000, the narrator has worked at a gallery but was fired because of sleeping on the job. She has two friends, Reva a classmate from Columbia and Trevor, a boyfriend from college who are a part of her solitary life. While at Columbia she is orphaned when her parents die within months of each other, causing anguish and despair. The most despicable character in the novel is Dr. Tuttle, her psychiatrist. At many points did I want to slap this woman for feeding the narrator a pharmacological diet of nothing but pills without any regard for interaction or what they would do to a person. But as a result of her parents' deaths, there is an unspecified amount of money and wealth to enable her to not work and have an apartment in NYC. 

As the reader is privy to her year of hibernation, it triggers almost a feeling of pity for the young woman. Reva tries to reason with her, but as a person dealing with her own issues, bulimia, her credibility loses some validity. As the two drive to attend Reva's mother's funeral, their relationship seems to strengthen and the then crumble. At unexpected turns she shows up in the narrator's apartment. She appears one day, depressed, that she she had broken up with her boyfriend, who was also her boss and was consequently being transferred to a new department located in the World Trade Center. (Just a bit of foreshadowing. On another occasion raids the medicine chest to take all of the pills. Upon waking up from a blackout period, the narrator rushes to Reva's where she, indeed, finds the pills. This solidifies her plan of hibernation for four months. 

There is no reason to reveal the ending. That is left for the reader to discover. Moshfegh is a master of language and developing the characters through their voices and the narrator's reaction to their conversations and descriptions. It will be an interesting lecture at the Ten Literary Evenings on 18 February when Moshfegh speaks about her books.

The Tumblng Turner Sisters by Juliette Fay

Sometimes you have to read a book that is just plain fun. Juliette Fay's The Tumbling Turner Sisters is just that kind of a book. Set in Johnson City, New York the novel journals the 4 Turner sisters as they take their place in a long list of vaudevillian performers at the end of the first decade of the 20th century.

Frank Turner, father to the sisters and husband to Ethel, gets into a brawl at a bar and injures his hand so badly that he cannot work as a boot stitcher. Ethel decides that in order to make some money for the family the sister will become a scantily clad vaudeville acrobatic act. Kit, Gert, Winnie, and Nell are a bit reluctant but rise to the occasion. Signed by Mortie Birnbaum the act hits the road to second rate theatres and opera houses of northern New York, including Sackets Harbor, Clayton, Oneonta, Geneva and Lyons. Told through the eyes and words of Gert and Winnie, the reader gains a real insight into the life of a performer and the history and society of 1919.

Nell is a widow whose husband fought in the Great War, survived the battles, but before he arrived home fell victim to the Spanish flu. Nell also has a baby, Harry. Gert and Winnie bring different perspectives to the novel. Gert is outgoing and flirtatious; Winnie is a bookworm who wants to go to college and become a doctor. Both get a taste of a bit of romance on tour. Secondary characters add to the drama and frivolity, even the act of two orangutans and a couple of parrots. Tip, the tap dancer, and Joe and his sister, Lucy play major roles in the lives of the young women.  

The historical events provide a sense of the times: the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire, prohibition, the influence of Birth of a Nation and the Klu Klux Klan, and the anti-immigrant feelings are major themes. Fay provides the reader with her historical resources including the memories and stories of her great grandfather who was a vaudeville dancer. 

Being set in upstate New York added to the appeal of the book. The places were familiar and could be easily pictured. Even in the epilogue, the mention of Tower Court and Wellesley College brought back fond memories. This was an enjoyable book and one that could be read in a fairly quick time frame. There are laughs and some tears, cheers and boos, relationships that grow and those that are jolted. A book to slip in between longer and more contemplative tomes.

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith

I was intrigued by the description of this book when I first read about it in Bookmarks magazine. I chose it for a read for our February book club and it was met with a somewhat lukewarm reception - that is until people read it. 

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos was one of the best books that I have read in the last few years. It has a bit of everything one could want in a book - history, mystery, art, and some interesting relationships. Taking place on 3 continents and in 3 eras of history, the novel weaves its tale through the painting, "At the Edge of a Wood." Smith gives the reader a detailed description of the painting before the narrative begins and he relates the story of Sara and her family. Barent, her husband is a painter in 17th century Holland. They have a young daughter and live what seems to be a bucolic life. And then, suddenly Kathrijn, their daughter dies of the plague and their world is turned upside down. 

Fast forward to 1957 and the apartment of Rachel and Marty DeGroot, a wealthy couple hosting a charity dinner after which Marty discovers that the painting "At the Edge of a Wood" that has hung above their bed has been replaced by a meticulously crafted forgery.  The forger is a young graduate student, Ellie Shipley,  whose specialty is women painters of the Dutch Golden age. DeGroot becomes obsessed with finding the original painting that has been in his family for 350 years and eventually he becomes acquainted with Ellie. As the story builds to a climax, after another 40 years, the original and forgery are side by side in an Australian art gallery where Ellie has held a prominent position. 

Concurrently, the reader learns of the hardships of Sara and her quest to be admitted to the Guild of St. Luke, the painters union in Holland. She is a strong woman and has had to overcome the hardship of both personal and monetary loss. Her story parallels the struggle of Ellie and so many women who were never really given the credit for their talents or intellect. 

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is an incredibly fulfilling read. It is full of twists and turns, wonderful character development, and themes. Smith deftly handles time and place from 1631 to 2000, from Holland to New York City, and Australian as he focuses on a painter, an art enthusiast, and a forger. This is not to be missed if a reader yearns to read a book that he or she does not want to end.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout, the award winning author of Olive Kitteridge, brings a new persona to the world of contemplative literature. The reader is introduced to Lucy Barton as she relates the story of her stay of nine weeks in a hospital in New York City. She is suffering from malaise after an appendectomy. Lucy has two daughters and a husband who is horribly "hospital phobic."

Midway through her hospital stay her mother arrives from Illinois at the request of Lucy's husband. During her brief 5 day stay with her daughter from whom she has been estranged, stories are exchanged about the family, neighbors, and other acquaintances. The time her mother spends with her affords the reader an window into Lucy's life and, most especially, her relationship with her mother. Lucy is from a very poor and underprivileged background. Her family, consisting of her parents and brother and sister, live in an uncle's garage until the uncle died and they could move into the house. Abusive actions were not uncommon in the household that was void of books and television, and Lucy managed to leave and really not look back. 

Being set in the 1980s at the height of the AIDS epidemic shows how Lucy is compassionate and caring. We see her grief at the death of a friend and at breakup of her marriage. She struggles to find meaning in all phases of her life. But most of all, it's the relationship with her mother that is the crux of the story. Lucy has no recollection of her mother ever kissing her, nor has she ever heard her say "I love you." It is painful, but rings true, because that can be life. 

The novel is really a book within a book and to describe its intricacies would be difficult as well as simplistic. The writing is profound. What is not written, the silences are just as powerful. My Name is Lucy Barton is a novel of darkness and light - just like the light of the Chrysler Building that shines through Lucy's hospital window. Strout achieves literary success not with plot twists, but with characters that tug at your heart and emotions. Don't miss this small but powerful and poignant book.

M Train by Patti Smith

Very few books resonate with a reader for a long time after the back cover is closed. Patti Smith's M Train is one of those incredible books. As talented a song writer and poet, Smith has a penchant for longer prose also. I cannot wait to hear her speak in October. 


The memoir seems to be in reality a means for her to pay homage to her late husband Fred Smith as well as cathartic means to move on with her life. She lost her husband in 1994 suddenly. Barely a month after that her brother died of a stroke. Those events in her life inspire her writing, which is lyrical and poignant. In an almost stream of consciousness style she remembers the distant past, the recent past, and her present situation.


Much of the book details the trips that Smith has taken, some on a whim and some with a decided purpose, but most revolving around her favorite writers. She and Fred travel to French Guiana to visit prison ruins that Genet spoke about. The trip was marred/highlighted by being taken into police custody when a body was found in the trunk of the taxi in which they were riding.


She visits the home of Freda Kahlo and Diego Rivera to fulfill a dream that took hold when she was a young girl and given a book on the works of Kahlo. Her trips also include pilgrimages to the graves of Brecht, Plath, Rimbaud, Genet. Her reverence for them is real and she is moved by being so close to the final resting places of their creative genius. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, her favorite book by Haruki Murakami inspires her travel to Japan for a writing hiatus. The ease with which Smith quotes authors and books, most esoteric works, boggles the mind of the less informed reader. I was in awe.

She writes in cafes around the world. They are an important part of her life and writing. Her favorite one in New York closes when the owner decides to relocate to Rockaway Beach. It is there she buys a deteriorating bungalow right before Sandy hits the beach. Her prose is interspersed with black and white photos taken with an old Polaroid camera - Virginia Wolfe's walking stick and the table where Goethe and Schiller wrote among many others. 



I eagerly anticipate reading Patti Smith's first memoir, Just Kids, in which she writes of her younger years, arrival in New York and her loving friendship with Robert Maplethorpe. I have admired Maplethorpe's work for a long time and will be anxious to read of his artistic brilliance. 
 
So many passages in the book necessitated a re-reading simply because they were just so beautiful and you needed them to become absorbed as part of you. It would take pages to fully describe this book. M Train is so memorable and closes with this elegiac passage:

“And then I walked out, straight through the twilight, treading the beaten earth. There were no dust clouds, no signs of anyone, but I paid no mind. I was my own lucky hand of solitaire. The desert landscape unchanging: a long, unwinding scroll that I would one day amuse myself by filling. I'm going to remember everything and then I'm going to write it all down. An aria to a coat. A requiem for a café. That's what I was thinking, in my dream, looking down at my hands.” 

Eddie's Bastard by William Kowalski

It really is true that belonging to book club can expand your reading vista. Whether browsing or searching, I probably would never have chosen this debut novel by William Kowalski. There were even some of us who tried to hide the title as we were reading. Eddie's Bastard  is a saga of a family, the Manns, and, as such, the reader is privy to all those ups and downs and secrets that are a part of family history.

A baby is left in a basket on the doorstep of an farmhouse in 1970. An older man discovers the little boy and by looking at the infant's eyes, knows immediately that the child is a member of his family. He names the boy William Amos Mann, or Billy for short. A a genealogist, it would have been helpful to have a pedigree chart for all the family members whose stories are drawn into the novel. Central to the story, also, is the grandfather, Thomas Mann, Jr.'s, diary from World War  II and his being shot down by a Japanese pilot. But then there is the introduction of another Mann who fought in the Civil War. At times it becomes confusing and takes a bit of perseverance. 

Billy is home-schooled by his grandfather and the two lead a virtually eremitical life, living on fried bologna sandwiches. (This actually created a craving and a trip to the grocery store to get the fixin's for the same.) Thomas was an alcoholic and Billy learned to cope with being very much on his own as he grew up.

Billy's world expands to include other towns people in the small town of Mannsville, not too far from Buffalo and Erie. There is the Annie Simpson whom he loves, but who has a horrific secret that she keeps, Elsie, the prostitute who shows Billy the ways of the world, and Dr. Connor, who knows everything about everyone in the town. It is through the characters that Billy's life is shaped. 

Although I found the book a bit slow in the beginning, I began to appreciate the writing, situations, and the character development. It was hilarious when the ostrich adventure recurs, and sad when the Simpsons were center stage. Throughout it all, it is really the story of a young boy and then young man who is on a quest to discover who he really is and from where he comes. This search drives him to the very end of the novel and leads the reader to think that there will be something more to Billy's life story. And there is, the sequel, Somewhere South of Here.  A good and satisfying read.