Lucretia Grindle's Villa Triste has been on my reading list for years - and it is fantastic.
In many ways, all of them good, the book's structure reminded me of Elizabeth Is Missing. Villa Triste essentially consists of two narratives. One of them is the slowly unfolding tale of Caterina Cammaccio, a nurse by day and a reluctant partisan (or Italian resistance fighter) by night. The setting is World War II Florence, simultaneously occupied by Nazis and overrun with fascists. The other narrative is actually a mystery. Giovanni Trantemento, an elderly and decorated former partisan, has been brutally murdered in his own home. As Florence's top cop, it's up to Alessandro Palliotti to solve the crime, but when another former partisan is similarly murdered elsewhere in Italy, it's clear to him that Trantemento's murder wasn't a mere crime of opportunity.
As in Elizabeth is Missing, the two narratives that form the heart of Villa Triste are closely intertwined and the story unfolds magnificently. (I should add that the way in which the events during the war directly impact the current mystery also recalls Once We Were Brothers.) Grindle has pulled off both the mystery and historical fiction elements of her novel beautifully, while creating an array of remarkable characters.
I have read no small number of books (fiction and non-fiction) with World War II as the backdrop. Villa Triste is the first book I've read about the war in Italy, though, which also lent it an additional interest factor as I was reading.This is an easy book to recommend to lovers of historical fiction or mysteries or both. Happy reading!
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Elizabeth Is Missing
Maud, 82 and suffering from dementia, is overwrought that her friend, Elizabeth, is missing. Or maybe not, she can't really remember. She has notes in her pockets and in her purse; some tell her Elizabeth is missing and others say definitely not. If only she could remember. And try she does, but as she tries to make sense of Elizabeth's disappearance, memories flood back of another disappearance, this of her older sister Sukey who simply vanished in 1946. As Maud's dementia worsens and she spins further and further from reality, she begins to puzzle back together the details of her sister's disappearance, making startling discoveries from a distance of 70 years.
I have to say: Wow, I loved this book! Emma Healey's Elizabeth Is Missing is one of the most fascinating, amazing, well-constructed novels I have read this year. Often, parallel narratives can fall apart, but this one simply gets better as the book progresses. What's more, this is a stunning, poignant look at aging and dementia. The reader can feel the losses and confusion mount around Maud and her daughter Helen, whom Maud is often unable to recognize. Healey creates a genuine portrait of a woman falling away from the world and, frankly, Elizabeth Is Missing is all the more terrifying for being so. (I couldn't help but think - repeatedly - how very much I did not want to end up like Maud, missing sister and friend aside.)
The bottom line: I read this entire book in less than 48 hours. It is simply wonderful. I cannot recommend it enough.
I have to say: Wow, I loved this book! Emma Healey's Elizabeth Is Missing is one of the most fascinating, amazing, well-constructed novels I have read this year. Often, parallel narratives can fall apart, but this one simply gets better as the book progresses. What's more, this is a stunning, poignant look at aging and dementia. The reader can feel the losses and confusion mount around Maud and her daughter Helen, whom Maud is often unable to recognize. Healey creates a genuine portrait of a woman falling away from the world and, frankly, Elizabeth Is Missing is all the more terrifying for being so. (I couldn't help but think - repeatedly - how very much I did not want to end up like Maud, missing sister and friend aside.)
The bottom line: I read this entire book in less than 48 hours. It is simply wonderful. I cannot recommend it enough.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
A friend recommended Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple as a quick, fun summer read, which it is. I actually finished it several days ago, but I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to say about it until now.
A little background: Bernadette Fox is one unhappy lady. Living in Seattle, married to a Microsoft exec, with a well-loved daughter, you might think she'd be a bit happier. Instead, she is, essentially, a recluse, who hates (in no particular order) the rain, the drivers, Idaho, Canada, other parents at her daughters school, and leaving the house. She hires a virtual personal assistant from India to do things like make Thanksgiving dinner reservations. So things really fall apart when her daughter insists on a family trip to Antarctica one Christmas. Fall apart as in Bernadette disappears, hence the title of the book. She just might be a little crazy.
I liked a lot about this book, most especially the style. It's written as a collection of emails, memos, letters from school, and other assorted documents, with the occasional narrative paragraph through in for good measure. The style allows for multiple perspectives simultaneously and also moves the story along at a rapid clip. The plot itself is pretty kooky, but just this side of believable from a reader perspective. (Fishing vests, the Russian mafia, and mudslides are all involved somewhere along the line, no easy feat for a writer!)
I had a harder time connecting with the characters themselves. Bernadette is, as previously stated, coming undone. I had a hard time pinning how Semple wanted the reader to feel about Bernadette's fellow private school mothers and even husband and father Elgin. All too often,15-year-old Bee feels like the most grown-up person in the room...er, book.
Semple does manage what would seem to be impossible by keeping a book about a mother's disappearance fun and upbeat. It reads quickly and at no point did I contemplate abandoning Where'd You Go, Bernadette? Still, I hesitate to give it a full endorsement because at the end of the day it felt just a little bit hollow.
A little background: Bernadette Fox is one unhappy lady. Living in Seattle, married to a Microsoft exec, with a well-loved daughter, you might think she'd be a bit happier. Instead, she is, essentially, a recluse, who hates (in no particular order) the rain, the drivers, Idaho, Canada, other parents at her daughters school, and leaving the house. She hires a virtual personal assistant from India to do things like make Thanksgiving dinner reservations. So things really fall apart when her daughter insists on a family trip to Antarctica one Christmas. Fall apart as in Bernadette disappears, hence the title of the book. She just might be a little crazy.
I liked a lot about this book, most especially the style. It's written as a collection of emails, memos, letters from school, and other assorted documents, with the occasional narrative paragraph through in for good measure. The style allows for multiple perspectives simultaneously and also moves the story along at a rapid clip. The plot itself is pretty kooky, but just this side of believable from a reader perspective. (Fishing vests, the Russian mafia, and mudslides are all involved somewhere along the line, no easy feat for a writer!)
I had a harder time connecting with the characters themselves. Bernadette is, as previously stated, coming undone. I had a hard time pinning how Semple wanted the reader to feel about Bernadette's fellow private school mothers and even husband and father Elgin. All too often,15-year-old Bee feels like the most grown-up person in the room...er, book.
Semple does manage what would seem to be impossible by keeping a book about a mother's disappearance fun and upbeat. It reads quickly and at no point did I contemplate abandoning Where'd You Go, Bernadette? Still, I hesitate to give it a full endorsement because at the end of the day it felt just a little bit hollow.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Death of a Gossip
Lady Jane Winters' fellow vacationers can't stand her, but which one of them had sufficient reason for wanting her dead?
It was almost exactly a year ago that I first discovered M.C. Beaton. I don't have a particularly good excuse for why it's taken me a full year to read another Beaton book, this one Death of a Gossip. I've mentioned before (many times; thank you for indulging me) my love of Agatha Christie, and Beaton's books feel similar to me. There are lots of characters - in this case, the vacationers at and owners of a Scottish salmon fishing school - a consistent detective - Hamish Macbeth - and plenty of motives to go around. Death of a Gossip (and I'm getting the impression this holds true for pretty much all Beaton books) is a fun and quick read. Hopefully it won't take me a year before I rediscover this!
It was almost exactly a year ago that I first discovered M.C. Beaton. I don't have a particularly good excuse for why it's taken me a full year to read another Beaton book, this one Death of a Gossip. I've mentioned before (many times; thank you for indulging me) my love of Agatha Christie, and Beaton's books feel similar to me. There are lots of characters - in this case, the vacationers at and owners of a Scottish salmon fishing school - a consistent detective - Hamish Macbeth - and plenty of motives to go around. Death of a Gossip (and I'm getting the impression this holds true for pretty much all Beaton books) is a fun and quick read. Hopefully it won't take me a year before I rediscover this!
Sunday, July 6, 2014
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
A.J. Fikry is the owner of a small bookstore on one of the coastal islands off Massachusetts. Life has not been especially kind to A.J. recently: his wife died in a tragic accident, sales at his store are down and still falling, and his most prized possession (a rare, first-edition book, of course) has been stolen from under his nose - and then he learns his favorite publishing house agent has died and been replaced by a young flibbertygibbet who doesn't even know all the types of books he dislikes and, therefore, will not carry in his store. He is not short on self-pity.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry was recommended by one of the librarians at my local library, and especially recommended for readers who enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society or Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. I loved both (but read Major Pettigrew before I began this blog), and also haven't exactly been batting 1.000 selecting my own books lately.
So. The story is great. Gabrielle Zevin has created engaging characters and an interesting plot, all woven around the fabric of - what else? - other books. A.J.'s reviews of various books are highly enjoyable and add to the readability of Storied Life. My only complaint is that, in many ways, I was only beginning to truly care about the characters and be interested in what happened to them, personally, as opposed to focusing on the creative and well-written narrative, when the book ended. I realize not every book can - or should - be a tome à la Roses, but I wasn't quite ready to close the book on A.J. Fikry.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry was recommended by one of the librarians at my local library, and especially recommended for readers who enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society or Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. I loved both (but read Major Pettigrew before I began this blog), and also haven't exactly been batting 1.000 selecting my own books lately.
So. The story is great. Gabrielle Zevin has created engaging characters and an interesting plot, all woven around the fabric of - what else? - other books. A.J.'s reviews of various books are highly enjoyable and add to the readability of Storied Life. My only complaint is that, in many ways, I was only beginning to truly care about the characters and be interested in what happened to them, personally, as opposed to focusing on the creative and well-written narrative, when the book ended. I realize not every book can - or should - be a tome à la Roses, but I wasn't quite ready to close the book on A.J. Fikry.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge appears to have been all things that modern presidents rarely are: unfailingly humble, forged by circumstances that can only generously be called modest, and genuinely decent. At least that is how Amity Shlaes portrays the 30th president in his aptly-named tome, Coolidge.
Unfortunately, Coolidge's rise through Massachusetts politics and to the White House is, with all due respect to Amity's research and prose, rather dull. Or at least would not seem to require 500+ pages. I read diligently, closely event, for 250 or 300 pages and then decided life is too short to become bogged down in the minutiae of, for example, the Teapot Dome Scandal. (My patience was perhaps especially short having just slogged through another too-long bio - on the life and times of Jane Franklin.)
For those who wish to become intimately acquainted with Calvin Coolidge, you could not ask for more than what Shlaes delivers here. For those interested in a snapshot of the Coolidge administration, Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927 does an excellent job of providing just that and laying the groundwork for all that was to come - namely, Hoover and the Great Depression.
Unfortunately, Coolidge's rise through Massachusetts politics and to the White House is, with all due respect to Amity's research and prose, rather dull. Or at least would not seem to require 500+ pages. I read diligently, closely event, for 250 or 300 pages and then decided life is too short to become bogged down in the minutiae of, for example, the Teapot Dome Scandal. (My patience was perhaps especially short having just slogged through another too-long bio - on the life and times of Jane Franklin.)
For those who wish to become intimately acquainted with Calvin Coolidge, you could not ask for more than what Shlaes delivers here. For those interested in a snapshot of the Coolidge administration, Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927 does an excellent job of providing just that and laying the groundwork for all that was to come - namely, Hoover and the Great Depression.
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