Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

I’m fascinated by fictional studies of marriage and what they reveal about people in general. Wife 22 does not, as fans of TLC’s Sister Wives might think, refer to the 22nd wife of a polygamist, but rather the pseudonym that’s been given to Alice Buckle as part of her participation in a survey about marriage.

Alice, a wife and mom who is a former playwright and current elementary school drama teacher, impulsively answers an email looking for volunteers to fill out surveys about their marriages. Answering the questions proves more complicated than she expected, especially when her correspondence with Researcher 101, her liaison at the sponsoring institute, becomes personal. Her growing relationship with Researcher 101, along with revisiting the high and low points of her marriage, has Alice wondering what she really wants. “I don’t know why,” Alice’s husband, William, tells her at one point, “you insist on keeping yourself from the things you love.” William’s lament, in many ways, sums up the novel for me. I found myself mad at both Alice and William on more than one occasion because they couldn’t seem to get together in the same place at the same time. They appeared to be deliberately turning away from one another, almost punishing themselves for some unnamed wrong. Yet this is not uncommon. Why do we restrain ourselves from whole-heartedly enjoying those things that make us happy?

For all the seriousness involved in watching someone figure out if she still wants to be married, there’s lots of humor and lighter moments throughout the novel. Alice is surrounded by a wide variety of people. She suspects her twelve- year-old son may be gay and just can’t admit it; her fifteen-year-old daughter is being stalked, albeit romantically, by an ex-boyfriend; her best friend has a fondness for hosting festive dinners of food from other cultures; and a friend from her past not only sends her daughter to live with the Buckles, but soon arrives, husband in tow, on the Buckles doorstep as well.

Alice is far from perfect, even a bit selfish, but that helped me see her as a more three-dimensional character. I enjoyed getting to know Alice, even if I was slightly disappointed not to get to know William a little better. Gideon’s technique of writing not only in prose, but also in emails, Facebook posts, and play dialogue successfully offers different perspectives on Alice’s dilemma.

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While I Was Gone by Sue Miller

Jo hasn’t seen Eli in over thirty years. In the meantime, she has married a minister, had three daughters and for the most part forgotten the event that marked her 20′s and those last horrific days spent at the house on Lumley Street. Now Eli and his wife have moved not far from her, into the rural Massachusetts town just as she has begun a period of restlessness, searching,  and transition in her life. The last time Jo felt like this she up and left her first husband then ran away to reinvent herself in the communal house in Boston where she hid her past from the free-spirited occupants. Even calling herself by another name. Will her secrecy resurface now that she’s been reminded of all that freedom and creativity? Will reunion with Eli kindle a yearning to escape her staid family life?

Sue Miller has a balanced view of her characters. She shows us how people hurt each other, which is what people do, then asks, can this act be forgiven and if so, how? Sometimes, there is heartbreak either way. And how we live with this heartbreak and love and go forward is what she writes about in an unsentimental, believable and ultimately compassionate way.

In the three books that I’ve read so far, Miller rather boldly explores the role that sexuality has in our lives. Not that they are extremely explicit, but sex plays a large part in the plot and character development. Fans of Jodi Picoult or Nicci French may like Sue Miller. The wintery setting and dark emotional territory of this novel reminded me of Louise Erdrich’s Shadow Tag.

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Driftless by David Rhodes

I loved this book and everybody in it. If you are a fan of small town life, this will be right up your alley. Driftless is set, naturally enough, in a small town in Wisconsin and follows the lives of many of its inhabitants. Reading through the reviews on Amazon it seems the common thread is a love of the characters and their relationships with one another.

The person that ties the whole story together is July Montgomery. July was a drifter who came into the area one dark night and decided to stay. Most of the other characters are lifelong residents of the region and they all come to rely on July in some way. I’m tempted to think that the name “July” symbolizes that he brought summer into an area that is filled with very long winters, but that may be my fanciful imagination. After thinking this for the bulk of the book, I recently found out that July is a character from another of Rhodes’ books that he wrote about thirty years ago. This makes me doubt that my original idea has any merit, but who knows?

The characters of this story encounter all sorts of challenges and adventures. A wild panther on the loose, an encounter with the Divine, dog fighting, gambling, and deadly blizzards are just a few of the situations that will keep you turning the pages.

Rhodes published three highly acclaimed novels in the 70’s. He was then involved in a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed. This is the first book he’s published since his accident and his excellent writing has continued. Driftless won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize. Having never heard of this award I went to their website and found that the Milkweed is for “ … fiction manuscripts of high literary quality that embody humane values and contribute to cultural understanding”. While this may sound like boring reading to some folks, I assure you this book is not!

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The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

Imagine if your whole family disappeared, and you were the only one left. Or maybe it was your best friend who was suddenly gone, or that kid you went to elementary school with, or your mailman. It might have been The Rapture that took them, but there’s no real way to know. They’re gone, and you’re still here. You’re one of the leftovers.

On October 14th, thousands of people suddenly disappeared from earth, leaving their friends, families, and worldly goods behind.  The Sudden Departure, as it came to be known, changed the shape of things across the world – religious groups were sparked, new philosophies and movements ran rampant, and the “survivors” had to learn to cope with losing their loved ones, and also with not being chosen themselves.

Tom Perrotta’s most recent book (named one of the best books of 2011 by NPR, the New York Times, and Kirkus, among others) takes you inside the lives and minds of the Garvey family and portrays the aftermath of the Sudden Departure on each family member. Although the events of October 14th didn’t directly affect the Garveys (parents Laurie and Kevin and their two teenage children, Jill and Tom, are all survivors,) they will never be the same. Laurie joins a cult of silent “watchers,” who are tasked with (silently) reminding those around them of what has happened. Kevin, now effectively a single parent, does his best to care for Jill and her friend Aimee (whose mother is among the missing.) While searching for love and companionship to help ease his pain, Kevin finds Nora, who has lost a husband and two young children – her entire family.

And then there are the kids.  Jill is an “Eyewitness” — she was there when her friend Jen disappeared — and has filled in her sadness with drugs and alcohol and sex. Tim is absent from the rest of the family after dropping out of college and not returning home, but has joined another sort of cult and traveled the country spreading their word. Now unsure about the choices he has made, Tim begins to question what he should do next.

I’ve read some criticism about The Leftovers lacking a real ending, but the way Perrotta closed the book left me feeling hopeful and excited for each character. He doesn’t complete the individual story lines, but shows the direction their new lives are heading.

The only other Perrotta book I’ve read is Little Children , which I also really enjoyed. Next I’ll pick up either Election  or The Abstinence Teacher – any recommendations on which is the better?

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Lower River by Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux, author of Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cape Town to Cairo and many other novels and travel narratives, has written a taut and tense story about sixty-something Ellis Hock. Having spent forty years minding the family haberdashery before and since his father’s death while marrying and raising a daughter, Ellis now finds himself single after his wife discovers his emails to a variety of women. While the messages aren’t erotic, they reveal a certain intimacy of thought with women who had shopped in his men’s clothing store. After the divorce, he’s lonely and realizes he has been for a long time, remembering only one truly happy period of his life: his four years in the Peace Corps teaching in a tiny Malawi village.

Ellis decides to fly to Africa with an open-ended ticket, intending to stay several weeks and visit Malabo. On his arrival, he discovers the village has changed, and for the worse. The elders are mostly dead with only one or two people left who remember his years with them building a school and teaching in it. The village’s headman is a seemingly pleasant fellow in his thirties, but Ellis is canny enough to realize he is welcome to stay only because of his satchel of money which he hands out in dribs and drabs. Days go by with things promised by the headman not done and when Ellis decides to leave, his attempts to depart the isolated village are thwarted at every turn and take a decidedly sinister turn.

This novel is an interesting picture of cultural differences, and though Ellis is aware how the villagers think from his previous experience, there is no meeting point with them. He is viewed by the poverty stricken locals as a source of riches and always as an outsider. If you’re thinking of retiring to a cheap foreign locale, read this book.

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The Year of the Gadfly by Jennifer Miller

When author Jennifer Miller contacted me through Goodreads to recommend that I read her book, she had clearly done her research. She’d seen how much I enjoyed Special Topics in Calamity Physics and figured that her debut novel, The Year of the Gadfly, would be right up my alley. Its part coming-of-age story set at a New England prep school, part mystery that spans 13 years and three perspectives, and all sinister secret societies, gothic architecture, and intrigue.

Iris’s recent loss of her best friend, not to mention being caught by her concerned parents while talking to her imaginary mentor, Edward R. Murrow, land her in a new school in a new town with a new start. Wanting to become a hard-nosed reporter, dedicated to discovering the truth and uncovering injustices in the world, Iris joins the school newspaper, The Oracle. Her pitches for stories are repeatedly rejected in favor of fluff pieces, and Iris begins to nose around into the reasons behind the cover ups and lies that seem so rampant at Mariana Academy.

The history of the school begins to unwind, slowly at first, and then more and more quickly. The story skips between Iris, her biology teacher Jonah Kaplan (a Mariana Academy alum), and Lily Morgan, a classmate of Jonah’s who grew up in the house that Iris’s family now rents. Jonah and Lily’s stories intertwine and skirt around the truth of what happened at Mariana 12 years before, leading to the death (or perhaps suicide?) of Jonah’s brother (and Lily’s boyfriend), Justin.

I don’t want to say much more and spoil anything for you, so pick this up and try it out for yourself. And if you enjoy this one, be sure to take a look at Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

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The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

The Space Between is the story of two families who have been tied together for many years, yet live completely separate lives. Bhima is a servant who leaves her home in the slums of Bombay every morning to spend her day cooking and cleaning for an upper class family. Sera is the seemingly fortunate woman she works for who is hiding the fact she is in an abusive marriage. These two women spend the majority of each day together and have shared much of their lives, yet there is a barrier that can’t be crossed.

Sera has often used her family’s wealth and position to help Bhima through hard times, and has even promised to contribute money for Bhima’s granddaughter, Maya, to attend college. Bhima hopes are focused on Maya. She believes if Maya succeeds in college she will pull the family out of the slums forever. All of Bhima’s savings and sacrifices are threatened, though, when Maya turns up pregnant at 17. When Bhima turns to Sera for help once again, their fragile relationship is changed forever.

This novel gives a glimpse into a society which was difficult for me to understand. Sera seems to both care for Bhima and be repulsed by her at the same time. She gladly helps her when she can, but she will not allow Bhima to sit on her furniture or drink from her glasses. She is happy with the relationship the way it is and can’t cope with any changes that might come.

Umrigar’s writing is beautiful and I liked most of the characters even if I sometimes didn’t agree with what they chose to do. This book was also one of my book club’s favorite selections. It made for a great discussion.

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Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos

I’m a huge fan of Marisa de los Santos, so I was greatly looking forward to this most recent book (she’s also the author of Love Walked In and Belong to Me). At the end of Pen and Will and Cat’s story, am I’m still meandering over it and deciding exactly what I think. The writing, of course, is beautiful. I love the way her sentences sort of go on forever and then I’m disappointed when they come to an end. Her use of language to invoke just the right feeling is extraordinary.

This particular story, that of the friendship of Pen and Will and Cat and how it’s affected by time and distance, seems familiar, yet has the added twist that they were once inseparable friends but are brought together now only by a strange email from Cat asking Pen and Will for help. As is typical of the author, it’s told backwards and forwards, through flashbacks and memories. It’s a technique that has worked well for her, though some may be a touch irritated at the slow pace in the beginning.

This is a wonderful, lovely book that has a lot to say about friendship and relationships and whether they can really ever be gone. It’s a treat just to read her writing, as very few writers seem to make me feel the characters as she does.

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The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

I read a review of this novel last year, and was intrigued, so I put it on my “to read” list. Last week I found myself in want of a light read, so I picked up The Last Letter from Your Lover. I was pleased to find that it was a poignant story, not just about love, but about discovering yourself and making difficult choices.

This is two stories that merge, one in the early 1960s, and one in 2003. Jennifer Stirling is a woman who has it all. She is poised, lovely and witty, married to an incredibly successful businessman. The novel opens with Jennifer recovering from a tragic car accident that has left her unsure of who she is and remembering nothing. As she slowly begins to piece her past together, she realizes that her life has not been what it appears. She finds several love letters hidden in her belongings, indicating that before the accident she was in love with someone else.

Forty years later, journalist Ellie Haworth’s life is a mess. She is involved with a married man and her career is careening towards disaster. An assignment sends her to the newspaper’s archives, where she stumbles upon a love letter buried in a file of apparently unrelated papers. With the tenacity of an investigator, Ellie goes in search of the people connected to the letter. She finds Jennifer, who willingly tells her story. In the process, each woman finds that what she believes isn’t necessarily the truth.

Although the conclusion of the novel is a bit predictable, the path to it is not. Several interesting twists and surprises will keep you reading, even when you think you know where this enjoyable story is taking you.

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Deep Down True by Juliette Fay

This week we’re featuring some of our favorite Audio Books, just in time for planning your summer road trips. You can also click the Audio Books tag at the bottom of this post or at the top of the tag cloud on the right hand side of our blog’s home page for more great audio book suggestions!

I actually listened to this book as a downloadable audio book, and I was afraid that the narration, which I didn’t like initially, was going to keep me from enjoying it. But, as it turned out, the narrator positively influenced my perception of the protagonist. I ended up loving it, and I think those of you who like good women’s literature will also fall in love with it. Juliette Fay is also the author of Shelter Me.

Dana, a recently divorced mom, job-challenged, with a wayward and slightly goth niece having shown up on her doorstep, struggles to figure out who she’s going to be now and how to be true to herself when everyone else needs a piece of her. She’s uncertain of what she wants, and at the same time, afraid of finding out what that is. It’s my favorite kind of book that can make me feel like I’m right there, feeling everything the main character feeling. I think I especially liked that she was a bit afraid, like she was never sure she was doing the right thing. Ultimately you have to be true to who you are beyond the surface, and if you are, whatever you do is the right thing.

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