Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

The selection for our February book group was the debut novel by Charmaine Wilkerson. It was hard to tell to what the title referred, but at first glance, we anticipated a more culinary offering than what was the actual focus of the novel. 

It is really a story of relationships, self-identity, coincidences, and a bit of mystery. Benny and Byron, sister and brother have been estranged for a number of years. They are brought back together by the death of their mother, Eleanor,  who leaves them a tape that she recorded that shed light on her life and a black cake. It was also a means to illuminate the trouble that begins the book when she was a small girl, Covey grew up on a Caribbean island in the 1950s. Her mother had left her and her father, driven away by his drinking and gambling. Covey and her best friend, Bunny were swimmers and enjoyed the waters together. In order to settle debts, Covey's father, Lin, arranges a marriage between Covey and "Little Man" Henry. From the wedding day on, the book details how Covey escaped and found a new life in London, where she went to meet the real love of her life, Gibbs Grant.  

The first part of the book was rough going for me as I tried to sort out the characters and their relationships to each other. When the tape recording revealed the true identities of the characters, it became much more enjoyable and ended up being a real page-turner. Wilkerson masterfully weaves the characters and their relationships together for the reader. As she does that she also amalgamates the themes of feminism, resilience, racism, homophobia, friendship and family ties. The chapters were short and both time-shifted as well as locality-shifted. Once the characters' true identities were revealed, it was not difficult to follow. The solution to the mystery was revealed slowly, but resolved in the last chapter, as was disposition of the black cake

A good and interesting read. 

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

 The Berry Pickers was an interesting novel in that the reader knew from the second chapter on what the solution to the central problem was. Narrated by the two main characters, Joe and Norma, it is the story of a family torn apart by the disappearance of the young Ruthie as her family is picking blueberries. 

The family would leave their home in Nova Scotia and travel to Maine to pick blueberries. In 1962, 4 year old Ruthie disappeared as she and brother Joe were eating a sandwich on a rock. Joe had taken his eyes off her as he fed scraps of bread to birds. The family was devastated and they spent the rest of the summer looking for her as they continued to work the fields. Joe felt the guilt the most for being the last person to see her. Ruthie's disappearance affects his entire life. 

In the alternate chapters, Norma recounts her life. She lives with her parents, Frank and Lenore who have adopted her with very little documentation as to where they found her. Norma senses that their is something not quite right in her ancestry since she has much darker skin than her parents. She also cannot come to terms about why she dreams about a Ruthie.  

Both stories inform their lives fro the next 50 years. Central to the theme of the novel is how families deal with tragedy, loss, and  reconciliation. Reading the prologue to the novel gives the reader insight into the narrative that follows. The suspense that the reader enjoys is how Peters will come to the likely conclusion. The strength of the book is in the character development of Joe, Norma/Ruthie and her Aunt June, Mae (Joe and Ruthie's sister, and Norma's parents. 

A very good read that sparked a lot of discussion at the Gables Book Club.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva

In between book club books gives a good time to try to catch up on the TBR shelf. This always leads me back to whatever Daniel Silva books are there. 

Portrait of an Unknown Woman  is a bit of departure from Silva's general M.O. There are no political stances, no threats of destroying world peace or any of the major nations, nor any international spy missions. What it is is a intriguing look into the world of art dealers, forgery, and some Ponzi schemes. 

Gabriel Allon, former head of Israeli intelligence has retired to Venice with his wife Chiara and his twin children. She has taken a job as the head of the Tiepolo Restoration Company and Gabriel has become the stay at home father while he recovers from the bullet wound that nearly killed him in The Cellist. Of course, if he remained in retirement, there would be no novel. Having received a call from his friend and London art gallery owner, Julian Isherwood, he sets off on the trail of a major art forgery ring that is operating from Berlin to Spain to the United States. After Isherwood receives a letter saying that a painting that he recently sold was a forgery and the woman who sent the letter was killed, there is only one person whom Isherwood would call. 

As the novel intertwines art history, forgery, and danger, Allon sets out a trap by creating forgeries of Grand Masters. Through a complicated series of events, especially sting operations involving Sarah, her husband Chris and some old arch-enemies of Gabriel, the investigation of the murder reaches a climax on the tarmac of a Long Island airport. 

Silva creates intense drama in his books without feeling the necessity of long-winded descriptions. It is interesting that he has shifted the focus of the novel to more of an art perspective and take Allon away from his intelligence job at The Office. This was a fascinating narrative into the real world of Gabriel Allon. It will be interesting to see how his character further evolves in the next novel, The Collector. 
 

Finding Freedom by Erin French

A little over a year ago a friend had mentioned this book that she was aware of The Lost Kitchen in Maine through another friend. I had put it on my TBR List and was glad when our book club chose it for our January selection. 

Finding Freedom is a memoir penned by Erin French with emotion, humor, and an uplifting message. She meticulously details her life from childhood, through puberty, a wake-up call to adulthood, and her success as an entrepreneur.  French grew up as the child of an abusive father who owned a diner and required that she spent her waking hours there from the time she was a tween. He enjoyed his beer and while he was with friends, imbibing, she was tending to the cleaning of the diner and prepping for the next day. He opposed her leaving to go to college, but she worked hard, saved her money, and was accepted. However, after 2 years she found herself single and pregnant and was forced to drop out. 

 She returned to her hometown, Freedom to raise her son. She had the support of her mother and nominal support of her father, only because the child was male. She becomes involved in a disastrous relationship, as abusive as her father from which she retreats to wine and pills.  He seems supportive enough as she follows her dream to open a restaurant and follow the passion she has for cooking, but resents her for calling him out for his alcoholism. French's honesty throughout this book is startling. She pulls no punches as she describes her descent into a situation that requires a stay in a rehab facility. 

With the support of her mother, who gets her own chapter in the book, and numerous other women of the area, she rights herself and in 2014 opened The Lost Kitchen. It has been a success and she is to be congratulated for becoming a successful chef and restaurateur.  The book leaves the reader uplifted with the knowledge that lives can be reawakened even from the deepest depths. This was an emotional read, but one that can be endured knowing the outcome.

 

A Christmas Memory by Richad Paul Evans

Our Book Club always tries to pick a lighter Christmas book for December and this year it was A Christmas Memory. The book begins with the narrator, Richard a young boy in 1967 losing his older brother Mark in the Viet Nam War. This event leads to the stress and turmoil in family relationships that results in the separation of his parents. 

Richard's father blames himself for his son's death and has a hard time meeting the demands of his job and the support of his family. This forces them to move from southern California back to the home of his mother in Salt Lake City. They are fortunate to be able to move into his grandmother's house, rat infested that it was. Concurrent with that move, his father gets his own place and his mother becomes the only parent in charge. However, she is distraught with guilt and spends most of her time in her room, coming out only to sporadically prepare food for Richard. 

Living next door to Richard is Mr. Foster, an elderly man who is virtually a recluse. At the first snowfall, Richard shovels his driveway, but does not see the beneficiary of his actions. It is only when Mr. Foster sees a number of Richard's classmates bullying him verbally and physically does he make an appearance to scare them off. Their friendship has been solidified, helped also by Mr. Foster's dog, Beau that Richard walks. It is a precious relationship with each benefiting from it in just the way they need to. 

Right before Christmas there is another startling revelation when Richard's teacher announces to the class that there is no Santa Claus. Ms. Covey is a horrible teacher who does not seem to like children and has made school a real chore for Richard. When another family crisis happens, Richard loses hope until he and Mr. Foster have some heart-to-heart talks. 

There is much wisdom imparted by this book and some very poignant scenes. In the end there is hope and life to live. As we discussed this at our Christmas luncheon, most admitted we shed a tear, but were buoyed by the end. A fast, heartwarming book. 
 

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

Admittedly, I am a fan of mysteries and "who dunnits." I Have Some Questions For You is an unconventional murder mystery with twists and turns that also deals with the social climate of our country in a very pointed way. Bodie Kane is the narrator of the novel, written in the most part as a letter to a high school music teacher, Mr. Bloch at the Granby School in New Hampshire. 

Just months before graduation in 1995, Thalia Keith is murdered after the performance of Camelot given at the school. The murder is investigated and a black man, Omar Evans, is arrested, convicted, and jailed for the crime. Evans had the opportunity and motive, so the police thought for committing the crime. Students were interviewed and the crime scene examined in a very perfunctory manner. 

After 20 years in 2018, Bodie is invited back to the school to teach a short class on film and another on podcasting, both of for which she has been acclaimed. Her students in the podcasting class are to come up with a topic of their own for the class. One young woman chooses the murder of Thalia and as Bodie helps her, she becomes obsessed with the crime and eventually thinks that Evans was not the murderer. In chapters that follow Makkai creates a scenario for anyone who had been with Thalia the night of her death as to possible motives and opportunity for each to kill her. It was a fascinating way to explain the way that Evans could not have been the perpetrator of the crime. The reader becomes convinced that each of the many characters could have been the murderer. The conclusion is a bit of surprise in some ways, but the manner in which it is proven is ingenious!

The men in the novel are, for the most part, all seemed to have demanded Thalia acquiesce to their demands. Writing at the beginning of the Me Too movement, Makkai has made a strong statement as to what situations such predators demand of women, while at the same time acknowledging the facts that in 1995, women were ill-equipped to handle such advances, let alone bring charges up on those men.  Concurrent to her time back at Granby, Bodie is going through her own marital struggles and at times the reader feels she should just cut that cord!

 

I Have Some Questions for You is a brilliant book and a page turner. It has appeared on almowt all the Best Books Lists for 2023 and understandably so. Hearing Rebecca Makkai speak on the book for Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures added another layer to the understanding of some of the characters and the process by which she wrote the book. 

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

The Violin Conspiracy was an interesting read about a young black man, RqyQuain McMillian, who rises from an amateur student violinist to one of the most accomplished virtuosos in the world of symphonic music who finds himself in the midst of a horrible mystery and crime. From the time as a young boy he has played a rental violin.

The novel begins in media res with Ray and his girlfriend Nicole in New York City where he is performing and with his violin being stolen from his hotel room. The time shifts back to Ray as a youth and recounts the months and years leading up to the crime. 

Ray lives with an overpowering mother and twin siblings. His mother thinks it is a waste of time for him to be playing the instrument when he could be working at Popeye's Chicken or a grocery store. She wants the teenager to contribute to the household expenses. The most supportive person in his life is his grandmother who encourages his playing. Then one Christmas she gives him an old violin that was his great grandfather's who was an enslaved man. It was old, covered in resin and in an old alligator case. When Ray has it cleaned, it is discovered that it is a Stradivarius, worth close to 10 million dollars. The flashback that occupies most of the novel details the struggles that Ray has had to endure a a black instrumentalist, even being arrested by a racist policeman in Baton Rouge. When he meets Nicole, a violist, he finds a support person who is encouraging and loving. 

The investigation into the theft of the Strad points to a number of people who would benefit from its sale: his family who believe that it should have been sold and they split the profits, the descendants, the Marks family, of the slave owner, who believe it is rightly theirs, and even a competitor at the world renowned Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.  Both his family and the Marks sue him. The mystery of the theft provides the main plot of the novel.

One of the most interesting parts of the book was the detail of Ray's repertoire.  I got side-tracked numerous times looking up some of the pieces and listening to them. to hear Itzhak Perlman play Serenade Melancolique is as moving as it was described as he played it in Moscow. Slocumb, an accomplished musician in his own right brings much insight into the classical music world. The mystery of the theft of Ray's violin is not without its red herrings plays out in a surprising solution.. A good, solid, and quick read.

 

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!

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Set in a future America, Celeste Ng's latest novel, Our Missing Hearts is disturbing, heartwarming, and realistically reflective of a time with which we can identify. Often described as a dystopian piece of literature, it is not as unbelievable at its publication date as The Handmaid's Tale or Fahrenheit 451 were. Instead, what occurs in the book is already happening in the United States.

Noah (Bird) Gardner, a 12 year-old mixed ethnic child,  lives with his father, Ethan, in Cambridge, MA. Ethan was a former professor who has now turned a library worker as to not draw attention to his home and his son. The library shelves are virtually empty because many of the books are considered dangerous to society. The books haven't been burned, but rather pulped and turned into toilet paper. Noah is befriended by librarians throughout the novel as they attempt to circumvent the ramifications of PACT. He questions why he witnesses Chinese people being accosted and abused.

 Noah's mother Margaret, a Chinese American has left the household because she published an innocent poem that became a rallying point for those who were opposing PACT - Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act that was set into place to guard against the influence of the Chinese. The act was put into place as a result of the Crisis that was describe in the novel:

"Some would blame speculation, or inflation, or a lack of consumer confidence—though what might have caused those would never be clear. In time, many would dredge up old lists of rivalries, searching for someone to blame; they would settle, in a few years, on China, that perilous perpetual yellow menace."

Noah becomes friends with a school friend, Sadie, whose has been taken from her family and been placed in a foster home. Under PACT if a parent is deemed to be subversive, a child can be removed to protect him or her from parental influence. She is determined to leave her foster parents to find her real parents. After Noah finds a note that he believes is from his mother, he leaves Cambridge for New York City on the same quest. He finds Domi, the Duchess, a friend of his mother and she becomes important in his journey. 

Margaret is not a person who stands by and accepts the government's position. Living under the radar she has a plan that will, hopefully, cause people to see how wrong PACT is. Her words will illuminate the lives of those who are so wounded. Stories need to be told. 

What resonates to the reader is the reality that many of the actions in the book. The Florida Parental Rights Act, a bill promoted and signed by Governor DeSantis in Florida is blatant censorship of texts and curriculum. After the pandemic, the hate crimes against Asians increased nearly 300% over the previous years. Much of that can be attributed to the president at the time referring to COVID-19 as the China flu. 

Our Missing Hearts is a powerful book, one that should be acknowledged as a cry to take heed of how our democracy is being threatened. It should be on everyone's To Be Read Shelf!

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

There are some books that beg to be reread and The Fraud by Zadie Smith is one of those books. Based on historical events surrounding the Tichborne trial of 1873, the novel is meticulously researched and craftily written.  Eliza Touchet is one of the central figures of the story and is a cousin of William Ainsworth, a nearly obscure writer of the 19th century, and also his housekeeper. In flashback and concurrent narration, it is also the story of Andrew Bogle, a Jamaican who was taken to England by Edward Tichborne. 

Throughout the novel as the events of the trial unfold, Eliza becomes the readers' eyes and ears to 19th century literary society where she entertains for her cousing, the likes of Dickens and Thackeray. Her dinner parties are renowned and anticipated. She knows, however, how dreadful her cousin's works of literature are and it is the one part of his life she does not manage. She even manages his wedding to Sarah Wells, his maid, with whom he has fathered a child. 

Although not a courtroom drama, the scenes at the trial are fascinating and show how Sarah, who is obsessed with the man who has claimed to be the the rightful heir of Sir Roger Tichborne and Eliza are on opposite sides. The Claimant has a very weak case in that he couldn't remember classmates, know how to speak French, and the presence of a tattoo, or absence of one. Eliza befriends Andrew Bogle and through him is able to decry her abhorrence of slavery and how the Americans vs. the English are handling that institution.

 Written in a serialized style, as Dickens would have,  The Fraud moves backward and forward through Eliza's life and also that of Andrew Bogle. The many locations in England often time necessitated having a map by my side to understand the travel and journeys made by the characters. It is a masterpiece of writing. Zadie Smith whom we were privileged to hear speak in September, 2023.