I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

It is difficult to really put a label on this book. Yes, it is a dystopian novel set sometime in the future, but it is also a story of compassion, fortitude, love and hope. In the beginning the reader is introduced to Rainy and his wife, Lark, who live near the shore of Lake Superior. Rainy plays the bass guitar in a small band and Rainy is the owner of a bookstore. They often rent out a small part of their home to travelers or those who are trying to flee from the wealthy who are increasingly making life more difficult for the laborers. The latest boarder is a young man, Kellan. Kellan warns Rainy that a many named Werryck is evil and that he should run when he arrives. It is a bit mysterious warning, but one that sets the tone for the novel

As the plot moves forward, after her birthday party, Lark is murdered, their house ransacked and Rainy is beside himself with grief. He realizes that among the crowd, Werryck was the old man who was asking him questions. He flees the town on his small boat, Flower, just in the nick of time. He believes that he can track down Lark and so he sets off on Lake Superior with its rough seas and dangers to find her. It is and Orpeheus and Eurydice like adventure for sure. 

 Along the way as he docks in various towns, he meets strangers willing to help him and some who are down-right mean spirited. He finds Sol, a girl trying to escape her nasty uncle, King Richard, hiding in the boat as he leaves the dock. He protects her and they sail together trying to make it to Canada. After a storm they find their small boat shipwrecked next to Werryck's large cruiser - a medicine ship. Rainy spends many nights in a cell with little to eat or drink, but remains hopeful that he will persevere. 

I Cheerfully Refuse touches on so many of the issues of the world in which we live: climate change, the rule by the wealthy who pay no attention to civil liberty, medical inequalities where the poor are not treated,  It was a bleak time and many of the citizens turned to Willow, a drug that induced a peaceful suicide as they tried to get to a "better" place. The writing is eloquent and descriptive. Rainy is a strong narrator and the reader witnesses his desperation and hope as he seeks to find Lark and a community for himself. 

Enger was a soft-spoken speaker who gave pertinent background to the novel as he related its development during the pandemic and the life experiences that contributed to the plot of the novel.

Leif Enger - 7 April 2025

Leif Enger - 7 April 2025

Leif Enger - 7 April 2025

 

The Maid by Nita Prose

The January selection for our book club was a delightful debut novel by Nita Prose who was inspired to write it as a result of walking into her hotel room and startling the maid. She began to think that a maid really knows quite a bit about the hotel guests, whereas the guests know nothing about the maid. So began the story of Molly Gray, a very conscientious maid at the luxury Regency Grand Hotel. 

Molly was raised by her grandmother after her mother disappeared from their lives. Gran had a profound influence on Molly in her actions and thoughts even after she had died. Molly continues the same cleaning routine of their apartment and hear her grandmother's voice when faced with a decision. Molly was not very comfortable in social situations whether because of her isolation in living with her grandmother or, perhaps, because she may have been autistic. 

She is a very hard worker and finds it difficult to understand how other maids can't be so dedicated to their work, especially the head maid, Cheryl, who steals tips from the other maids. One day when cleaning the penthouse suite, she discovers the body of Mr. Black, a tycoon and frequent guest in the hotel. Molly and Black's wife, Giselle, are close acquaintances and Molly has no idea of what has happened. Molly becomes embroiled in the investigation of what is, perhaps, considered murder.  

To detail the rest of the plot would inevitably spoil the enjoyment of the novel. Throughout The Maid reminds the reader of an Agatha Chirstie "who-done-it" with twists, turns and red herrings. At the same time it is like the game of Clue - was it Molly with a rope, Rodney with a knife, Juan Manuel with a hammer? The characters are well-developed, the writing flowing, and the resolution a real surprise! It was a delightful mystery with which to curl up in front of a fire and have a cup of tea or two!

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

The third book in the Inspector Armand Gamache series, The Cruelest Month was a winner. We had originally downloaded this as an audio book for our trip to North Carolina, but with nasty weather, traffic, and all the French names and character iterations, it was hard to follow. After finishing some book club books, I decided to revisit the print version. 

It is hard to summarize an twisted and complex mystery novel. Set in Three Pines, Québec, this book mirrors some of the intricate English mysteries. Over Easter weekend, as villagers are in the midst of holiday preparations, a psychic, Jeanne Chauvet comes to the town and is convinced to conduct a seance. One is held Friday night, basically a dud, and another Saturday evening at the old and deserted Hadley House. On Saturday night one of the attendees, Madeleine Favreau, collapse and dies. Was it fright or was it murder? 

Gamache and the Sûreté du Québec are called in to investigate. His investigation establishes that the death is actually murder and all the séance participants can be considered suspects, with no fewer than 4 or 5 having motive. He adeptly pieces together the case and arranges for another gathering of the group to uncover the murderer. 

In a previous book in the series, Gamache had accused a superior of some very serious crimes and this subplot figures into The Cruelest Month. With stories appearing in the newspapers and circulating in the office, Gamache postulates that there may be a mole within his team. He threatens to resign his position as part of the ploy, but in the end (since we know that there are 15 more Inspector Gamache books) both his name and the murder are solved. 

Louise Penny's books are enjoyable with challenging mysteries to solve and characters that become like old friends. Can't wait to read the next one. 

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood with a reread of The Handmaid's Tale

With some time created by sheltering at home, I picked up The Testaments finally to read. After about a chapter, I realized that since it had been eons since I had read The Handmaid's Tale, that I had better reread it. It is very enlightening to revisit an incredible book that was written in 1985. My first read was a result of a wonderful woman and mentor giving it to the members of a pastoral nominating committee for a church in our previous hometown. She insisted that, before we make a decision, that all read it. This was very difficult for some of the men on the committee, but since they respected her, the did it. Needless to say, it made for some heated conversation and debate over the roles women played in the world. The Handmaid's Tale (THT) is a dystopian novel that takes place in Gilead where the women are subjugated to men in a patriarchal society. The ending, "Historical Notes,"  leaves the reader in the air as to what really happened to the protagonist of the story, Offred. For many years, Atwood had been urged by her fans to write a sequel to the novel. She resisted for thirty-four until she wrote and published The Testaments. 

Set in Gilead fifteen years after The Handmaid's Tale, the novel is narrated by three females: Aunt Lydia, who was one of the most powerful and cruel of the Aunts from THT, Daisy, a young girl living in Canada, and Agnes, a child who has grown up in Gilead. Through their eyes the reader gains insight into the workings of Mayday, a resistance movement against Gilead, The Eyes, and the Pearl Sisters. Aunt Lydia hints at a movement to overthrow the Gilead regime as she writes her memoirs as the Arudua Hall holograph. 

Meanwhile, Daisy relates her story as a "witness" testimony. Her parents, Melanie and Neil, who we come to find out are adoptive parents, are killed in an explosion at their business. Daisy is taken in by Ada, who works for Mayday. She learns her true identity and is "returned" to Gilead and assumes the name Jade, a young woman, who will be trained to be an Aunt and critical to the coup that is being planned. 

Agnes has spent her life in Gilead, raised in an elite family, by her mother, Tabitha, and father Commander Kyle. After her mother dies, her father remarries Paula, the so epitome of the wicked step-mother. She is promised to be wed to a notorious Commander Judd, but convinces Aunt Lydia that this is not in her best interest to wed. 

The story that is told by these three narrators reveals more about the horrors of a society that has subjugated women to mere handmaids. However, the most frightening thought, as in THT, is that one sees it in our own society. Reading it, I sent many quotes to my daughter, who is an Atwood devotee and scholar. Have we not in thirty-five years grown to dispel so much of the prevailing Gilead philosophy? NO, we haven't!

We were custodians of an invaluable treasure that existed, unseen, inside us; we were precious flowers that had to be kept safely inside glass houses, or else we would be ambushed and our petals would be torn off and our treasure would be stolen and we would be ripped apart and trampled by the ravenous men who might lurk around any corner, out there in the wide sharp-edged sin-ridden world.

Women have more value than just their bodies and this indoctrination is merely a scare tactic.  

Would you like someone at our Calm and Balm clinic to consult?" Perhaps not just yet," he said. "Most likely it is imaginary, as so many of these female complaints prove to be."

How many women deal with this on a day-to-day basis? And this

It was always a cruelty to promise them equality...Simply by their nature they can never achieve it. We have already begun the merciful task of lowering their expectations.  

 Finally, as in The Handmaid's Tale, "The Thirteenth Symposium," sheds light on the fate of Gilead, Aunt Lydia, Offred, and the realization that the narrators of the historical documents are taken seriously. 
 
Atwood is a master of prose, thought, and insight into our society. She has written, what seemed to a fact thirty-four years ago and what we are seeing as a reality today - the sexual assault of women. Her writing is eloquent and elegant and The Testaments, as The Handmaid's Tale will be worth a reread in the not so distant future. WOW!!

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

The third novel by Edugyan is a remarkable piece of prose that should be on everyone's reading list. It chronicles the life of enslaved George Washington Black on his journey from childhood to manhood and the injustices he suffers for being a black person. 

The novel opens in 1830 when Wash is eleven years old and is working on Faith Plantation in the Barbados. His life is one tortured by the master and mentored by a woman, Big Kit, who nurtures, advises, and comforts him. One evening Wash is called to be a house slave and it is there he first meets Titch Wilde, the brother of his master and whom we come to find is an abolitionist. Something about Wash impresses Titch and he asks to have the young boy help him in his new project. From there a partnership is formed and with since Wash will be the right size for experimentation in his new invention, the cloud cutter, a hot air balloon. He becomes impressed with Wash's artistic talent and the two become more and more dedicated to the study of nature and the world beyond Barbados.

The adventures that fill the novel are instigated by an horrendous accident involving the balloon, the suicide of a member of the Wilde family, and the realization that Wash will never be safe on the plantation. The maiden voyage of the balloon is fast tracked and Titch and Wash escape the island. From there their journey is by boat to Virginia, then to Canada as Titch looks for his father whom he has been informed is still alive. All the while Wash is being pursued by a bounty hunter who wishes to take him back to Barbados. His further journey is to Nova Scotia where he meets Tanna Goff and her father, Geoffrey, a zoologist. They are impressed by Wash's drawing and enlist him to do the illustrations for Goff's book. Then to London, where he discovers his heritage and Morocco to search for a benevolent friend. 

Washington Black is a magical read. The brutalities of slavery are addressed, the miracles of nature described, and the fragility of freedom confronted. If it were not for a review in our local paper right before Edugyan's appearance in Pittsburgh, I probably would not have picked this book up. If I had not, I would have been missing something very special. Unfortunately, the author was not going to sign books the evening of the lecture, but the bookstore that handles the sales of authors' books had agreed to swap my unsigned copy for a pre-signed one. What a fortuitous happenstance that when we arrived at the hall, Ms. Edugyan was pre-signing the books and we were lucky that she offered to sign ours.

Her lecture was one of the best that we have attended. She is articulate, erudite, and engaging. I have put her other 2 books on my TBR list.

Still Life by Louise Penny

When three of my friends, two librarians and one lawyer, posted on Facebook that they had attended a book lecture by Louise Penny, I figured that I was missing something. And so, I borrowed the first of her Inspector Gamache novels and read away. Yes, I was definitely missing something, a page turner and absolutely delightful read. 

The action takes place in Three Pines, what seems to be a quaint Quebec village. The town is shocked by the death of one of its most upstanding and lovely residents, Jane Neal. Her body was found in the woods with an arrow piercing her heart by Ben Hadley. For most of the residents, it appeared to be a hunting accident, but the team of investigators led by Armand Gamache doesn't buy into that theory. Jane has just had a painting accepted into the opening of the Arts Williamsburg. Fair Day is a depiction of the annual fair and includes portraits of the villagers. Clara Morrow, Jane's best friend, also reveals that the painted was finished just about the time of another villager, Timmer's death. Add another cause for Gamache's suspicion.  

At this point, no one is about to be left out of the questioning and when Matthew Croft seems anxious during his interview, Gamache and his second in command, Jean Guy Beauvoir, decide to search the Croft home. In the basement they find an arrowhead with Jane's blood and a bow that was about to be burned in the furnace. The Croft's son, Phillip, becomes the leading suspect until his father confesses. But the story doesn't fit and Gamache refuses to arrest him, an action that has him removed from the case. 

Enter Yolande, Jane's money hungry niece. Yolande feels that she is the rightful heir to the home and Jane's belongings and moves right in. There is something quite fishy about this and effort is expended on finding the will that would prove this. Unfortunately, for Yolande, Jane's will was changed and now the house becomes open to the investigating team. They find the reason that no one was ever able to pass from the kitchen into the living area of the house while Jane was alive. It is there that the clue to the real murderer is found. 

This was a fascinating who dun it book and I believe that I have found an author who will help fill the void left by P.D.James in my quest for good mysteries. Penny is a cerebral writer and if her subsequent books are half as good as Still Life, I will be content. She is popular, placing a hold for the next in the series of 16 so far, yields an 8 week wait.