The Thirteenth Tale - Dianne Setterfield

 

  Rated: A++


Synopsis:

When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny.
All children mythologize their birth...

So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.

The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself — all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.


Thoughts:

Diane Setterfield's language is exquisite in this book.  From the first page of this novel I was sold.  I have read many reviews of this novel where the author was dreading the read (although all of them agreed it was worth the read).  I was even more surprised when some reviewers had said that the book was only a pretty good read, or that they found the narrator boring.  Well of course in comparison to Vida's story, the narrator is boring!  Margaret is used as our link to reality - she could be any one of the readers, whereas Vida's story is as dark and mysterious as any tale you would find in a gothic novel.  Again, I am stuck for words in describing my favourite novel.  If I had to pick one book that I would call my favourite novel of all time (although it would really be impossible for me to pick ONE book!), this novel is probably the closest I could choose.  I found the story original - you would never expect what happens in this novel.  The twists are almost unreal - but they stay plausible through Setterfield's expertise in prose and her control of her characters and plot. 


Anyone who thinks this is just a cute beach read would be mistaken.  The amount of color and depth this novel evokes is peerless.


Overall:

A fantastic read, especially for those who love the way words roll off your tongue, surprise twist, plot and character complexity, or for any true book lover. Dianne Setterfield has given us everything that makes a perfect novel: beautiful prose, a complex yet plausible plot, and excellent character depth.

Recommended

Book lovers.  Lovers of gothic mystery and prose.  Lovers of the unexpected and beautiful.  I could not recommend this book more.

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Book Review                     Book Review

The Salt Letters - Christine Balint

Rated: B-




Synopsis
(from Barnes & Noble)

Christine Balint's vivid first novel is the story of one woman's dramatic and agonizing journey from her home in genteel England to the then-unknown New World of Australia in 1854. Traveling in steerage aboard The Maiden Tide, Sarah is thrown into claustrophobic, filthy, and often flooded quarters with other "unmarried women," who stoically endure one horrific hardship after another: illness, infection, heat stroke, and lice, for starters. To pass the time, the women tell stories about the lives they've left behind, revealing tightly held secrets to the strangers who have become their traveling companions. But it's Sarah's memories of life at home in Shropshire, thoughts of her family and her cousin Richard, that keep her sane. She attempts to write to her mother, explaining the reasons for her departure and begging for forgiveness, but she is unable to finish the letters she begins. And she longs to see her cousin Richard, for whom she has left England for a more welcoming New World where she has heard that hard work is well rewarded and the soil is "moist and thick with nuggets of gold." Lush with sensuous prose and authentic detail, The Salt Letters is the tale of a woman whose physical and emotional limits are stretched to the breaking point -- all in the name of love. It is a compelling read by a truly "great" new writer.

Thoughts

I thought the prose was very fluid, very like an impressionist painting - the picture is vivid, but it's never ugly.  It definitely mirrors the thematic references to water.  Although I loved the way the words connected - more often than not, the thoughts do not connect nearly as well.  The book is full of water metaphors - but there are so many of them and there are so many insinuations that it becomes very unclear about what is actually going on, what she is remembering, and what she is imagining.  Is she pregnant?  Is Richard her half brother?  I believe the answer to these two are yes, but they are never really answered.  Is he on the ship with her?  Is he still alive?  Is he?  Those answers are much more ambiguous.  And the most vague of all - what is the meaning and importance of all the water metaphors?  The ending left me very confused with a distinct feeling of dissatisfaction to all of the questions I still had left.

Overall

I loved the prose, but I feel like the rest of the story was sacrificed to the superiority of the prose.  I like fluidity in my prose, but not in differentiating between memory and present, reality and imagination.  I feel like the author got lost in her writing - in such a way that it was to her own detriment.  I would not feel inclined to recommend this novel, but I do not regret reading it.  Despite my confusion towards the plot, the writing was exquisite.  And I know this makes me a hypocrite for not rating it even lower (I've even revised it so it's not as high as I originally rated it - a 6) since I always say plot above all things...but I am such a sucker for beautiful prose.

Recommended

Historical fiction and poetry lovers

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       Book Review                Book Review

Here On Earth by Alice Hoffman

Rating:  B+

Synopsis

From bestselling author Alice Hoffman comes Here on Earth, a spellbinding tale of love and obsession. After nearly twenty years of living in California, March Murray, along with her fifteen-year-old daughter, Gwen, returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up to attend the funeral of Judith Dale, the beloved housekeeper who raised her. Thrust into the world of her past, March slowly realizes the complexity of the choices made by those around her, including Mrs. Dale, who knew more of love than March could have ever suspected; Alan, the brother whose tragic history has left him grief-stricken, with alcohol his only solace; and Hollis, the boy she loved, the man she can't seem to stay away from. Erotic, disturbing, and compelling, Here on Earth is the dramatic and lyrical account of the joys of love, and the destruction love can release.

Thoughts

  Alice Hoffman is one of my favourite authors of this century.  I love how she takes you somewhere so dark, but always brings you back up for air, leaving you feeling like you have experienced something absolutely incredible.  I love how she is able to romanticize even the darkest tale.  That being said, this was a little too dark for my taste.  It describes how destructive love can be - how it can absolutely consume you.  A love like this painted in a better light would be how I would describe "true love" or your "soul mate" - how this one person draws you in and is the one match that understands your very core of being.  She paints the flip side of this - you can't help who this person is.  This person might be a despicable human being and you will love him or her just the same.   What Hoffman has created is a modern Wuthering Heights.  Normally I would like this.

  Let's start with Hollis - our Heathcliff of the novel.  Just like his predecessor, he is a dark, somewhat misunderstood villain.  You can understand his violent urges - jealousy, his resentment of his treatment as a youth, his need to control - but it somehow doesn't redeem his actions.  And beyond that, he is just so damn unlikeable!   I don't think Hoffman ever intends for us to like him either - he's possessive, callous, greedy, vengeful, and not a single character in the book likes him except for Hank, who worships him, and March.

March Murray.  Let's just start with her name.  It bothers me.  I couldn't really tell you why, perhaps it is the corny alliteration.  Or to make my next point, perhaps it is because it is an exceptionally bland name.  Which fits her exceptionally bland personality.  She seems to have almost no personality or distinguishing features other than the streaks of grey in her hair.  She is perfectly normal, and in my eyes, this is a fault.  This is all personal taste of course, I can understand why Hoffman chose to do this.  Just like Catherine (the elder) of Wuthering Heights, her story follows the same line - married to a man who she can not love back despite his exceeding kindness.  In both tales her brother is a man who despises the Heathcliff character and makes "Heathcliff's" life miserable.  After the brother falls from grace, "Heathcliff" takes his vengeance out on the brother's son.

This son in Hoffman's novel is Hank.  Despite Hollis's blatant mistreatment of Hank, Hank considers what Hollis does for him generous.  Hank is also Hollis's biggest foil - What Alan does to Hollis is the exact same situation Hollis puts Hank in.  Unlike Hollis, Hank shows gratitude, ethics, and goodwill towards all.  He does not maintain a state a resentment except, perhaps, to his father.  Hank was too naive for my taste, but as a character he really grows, and I grew to like him as well.

Out of all the characters though, Gwen has the most growth.  She starts out as a horribly bratty teen - I really disliked her character.  But when her mother reverts to being the child, Gwen really pulls herself together and takes care of things.  By the end of the book she was probably my favourite character.  Both she and Hank have such a mature outlook on life and love which really contrasts with the insanity that makes up the love between their pseudo parents.

Overall

The prose was beautiful as always with Alice Hoffman's work.  I thought it was very well-written, especially in her ability to use every character and every action for a specific reason.  It just didn't work for me.  The subject material and the way it was approached was a little darker than I liked.  I probably would have liked it if I had really felt a connection with any of the main characters.  Without that connection, it made it really hard for me to wade through.  A good book - just not for me.

Recommendations

The chick lit reader who enjoys tackling serious books, Oprah book club lovers (I've found that there are many books that I feel I should like but just can't bring myself to do it are on this list.  It's very strange), anyone who is a sucker for great flowing prose.

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Book Review                     Book Review

I'm back!!

I know it appears that I have vanished off the face of the earth for the past month, but I'm back (I know you thought you got rid of me :-p).  Moving took over a good few weeks of my life and I was excited to make use of my free weeks before school works - guess whose school blocks off this site?  Typical.  BUT I have internet now - it's been almost a month without it!!  So now that I've come up with my billions of excuses I shall go back to celebrating and enjoying my absolutely fabulous balcony.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell

Synopsis

Barnes and Noble:  "Let us begin with two girls at a dance," writes Maggie O'Farrell, and the reader is immediately pulled into a journey across continents, generations, and the hidden landscapes of the heart. The story she tells encompasses the confused present of a contemporary young woman, Iris Lockhart; the unsuspected past of Iris's grandmother, Kitty, adrift in the forgetfulness of Alzheimer's; and the long-concealed life of Kitty's sister Esme, who has spent a lifetime institutionalized for refusing to accept the conventions of 1930s Edinburgh society.

At the novel's opening, Iris's complicated life demands all her attention: Her vintage clothing shop barely turns a profit, she's having an affair with a married man, and she's never fully reconciled her intense attraction to her step-brother. But all this is pushed aside when Esme's existence is revealed to her, and she discovers that a great-aunt she never knew has been locked away for 60 years, a patient in a mental hospital that's preparing to close its doors for good. After initially refusing to do so, Iris decides to care for Esme and brings the elderly stranger into her home. As the two women become acquainted, Esme's memories—the childhood she and Kitty shared in India, the death of their young brother, the family's migration to Scotland, and Esme's youthful rebellion against the mores of her class—transform Iris's sense of her family's past, opening a vault of secrets that will change the character of everything she thought she knew.

With seamless narrative artistry, O'Farrell weaves an enthralling tale—and builds page-turning suspense—while shifting between Iris's and Esme's points of view, illuminating both with Kitty's fractured but vivid recollections. The taut fabric of the novel's telling enmeshes the reader in a tangled web of jealousy, deception, and betrayal that is shocking, heartbreaking, and unforgettable. Alive with the energy of trapped desires, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is a riveting work of literary imagination. 


Thoughts

When I closed this novel I was stunned.  I can not articulate how satisfied, confused, angry, delighted...but most of all how completely astounded I was.  I immediately wanted reread it - an urge I have never felt before.  Usually I sit and revel in the feeling of finishing a good book.  This one had me in a frenzy!

This review will be very hard - I have to convince you to absolutely read this novel...without letting the smallest secret slip, or the ambiance of the novel will be ruined.  O'Farrell juxtaposed Iris, the typical modern day woman, with Esme, the typical modern day woman - who grew up in the early twentieth century.  Much of what we would consider given was absolutely taboo in Esme's time.  The biggest example?  Wanting to continue her education rather than get married.  A series of events, many of them catalyzed by Esme's unwillingness to conform led to her confinement in a mental institution.

During this period of time, families could force a woman into an asylum simply because they wanted to get rid of her.  This wasn't some third world thing or fiction - this really happened, and more often than one would think.  Want proof?  Google it - or watch The Changeling with Angelina Jolie, an accurate depiction of what women who didn't conform had to go through (accurate for Hollywood, anyway).
What Esme went through was only fiction in that her character isn't real.

Esme was sent to the institution due to her parents' intolerance of her actions - but she stayed there due to her sister's jealousy - and the unforgivable act that Kitty committed.  Through Esme's thoughts and Kitty's memories, the dark acts of this family is slowly revealed.  It is utterly captivating - my only criticism is that Iris's life and her own scandal are overshadowed by her grandparents' pasts.

The novel ends vaguely - you know what happened, but certain details are so vivid that you puzzle over the meanings.  Most of all though, you are left questioning Esme's state of mind - is she mentally imbalanced, or was her act deliberate, and cold-blooded?  After all, while she may not have originally been unbalanced, she spent 60 years forgotten by her family, heavily medicated, and alone.  And then there's Iris, and her messed up love life - the novel ends in the middle of a confession, leaving the reader wondering what her decision will be.

This novel is very dark, and very twisted - as it often is when a novel is written about a family.  O'Farrell mastered the effect of knowing just how much the reader really wants to know - after all a book like this doesn't have the same impact if every secret is revealed.  It worms its way into your thoughts there and stays there for weeks - maybe even months.  I would rank this book as a top 3 contender for books I've read this year, if not THE best book I have read this year.

Overall

This was one of my favourite books of the year, and quite possibly of the past decade.  Maggie O'Farrell perfected the balance of what to reveal and when, and what to just let peek out.

Recommended

Again this felt like "modern gothic literature" although I still have yet to really understand what it means.  So if you like novels like The Thirteenth Tale and The Shadow of the Wind, this will suit your taste.   Any one who loves a good scandal and dark family secrets will also love this book.

The reader should also enjoy quick narrator and time changes since whose point of view and when it takes place changes at least every few pages.