false 10 13 13 true 5667072 read 0 true 1844335 currently-reading 0 true 1844334 to-read 9 false 1844717 books-i-ve-read 2 false 1844510 books-i-wrote http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15360415 to: Without a Backward Glance (Paperback) by Kate Veitch
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Why? This question holds open a gaping hole in the lives of a husband and four children for decades after a woman -- his wife, their mother -- gets into the back seat of a car on Christmas Eve, 1967, and disappears, evidently forever and without explanation.

As Chapter One of this fine novel opens, the reader becomes immersed in the twenty-first century lives of the children, now adult, and their aging father, Alex. How have they managed? How have they coped, each one, with this unexplained loss?

Set in her home country by Australian novelist Kate Veitch, this is an engrossing story of depth, color, and complexity that deals with universal feelings.

As my trust in the author's compassion and insight grew, I became increasingly eager to see what the children had been able to make or would be able to make of their lives.

The oldest, Deborah, her brothers Robert and James, and Meredith, a toddler when Mummy flees, struggle with the questions you and I would have had, surely. Why did she leave? How could she, and on Christmas Eve? Was it my fault, did I drive her away? Didn't she love me?

We are not dragged through the immediate traumas of the motherless child or the abandoned husband. Instead, we are introduced by Veitch to five distinct, well-drawn personalities in a complex family sharing a central, mysterious loss. (And, eventually, to a sixth.) Masterful in shifting speech patterns and tone as she moves from one character to another, Veitch gives her characters such life that I began to read slowly, not wanting to reach the end.

Sisters and brothers share knowledge and memories not accessible to others, and Veitch understands the profound power and inevitable exasperations of being close to siblings. I was drawn to these four. I was less sympathetic to the aggrieved father/husband and the mostly absent mother/wife.

In fact, by the end of the book, a part of me longed for punishment to be meted out for the crime that begins the story. Perhaps because I am male, I wanted Veitch to provide an ending to the story as dramatic as its start. I wanted, finally, action, catharsis, maybe even justice, some balancing of the scales. But what, in adult life, could equal the profundity of a child being deliberately abandoned by a mother?

I suspect the movie version of this novel (surely there will be one and it could become a classic) will give me what my emotions craved, but my reasoning mind knows the "big finish" I missed in the book will not be an improvement.

Veitch wrote this right and true, providing an ending populated with people who are no longer who they were in 1967, people less interested in sorting out what WAS than in getting on with what IS, with each other and with their own families and careers. How very like life. I think you’ll love this book and recommend it to friends.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28124871 to: Kwa Heri Means Goodbye (paperback) by Dorothy Stephens
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Kenya? As a new home, as a place to live while rearing three small children? For most of us whose knowledge of this African country consists of impressions gleaned from what we read and see on TV news these days, the very idea of moving there sounds way too scary.

There's been so much news of violence and chaos in Kenya in recent months that I would be fearful, even, of visiting there, and Dorothy Stephens had similar reactions 50-some years ago when her husband announced that he was being posted by the United States Information Service (USIA) to Nairobi.

Dorothy, 33 at the time, had just read a novel about a Mau Mau uprising against the British in Kenya when Bob, excited by this chance to serve and advance his career, proposed that they move there with their children, two in grammar school and one only two years old.

"Kwa Heri Means Goodbye: Memories of Kenya 1957-1959" is one result of this family relocation, and it is a fascinating, richly detailed story of a three-year adventure that changed the lives of all five members of the Stephens family.

The tale begins with reflections on what it took to screw up one's courage to make such a change. Then it moves on to the necessarily rushed preparations, to the emotions of leaving one's home country, and, in clear and colourful language, to what it was like to fly in at night, land, and begin experiencing a totally new culture.

After many engrossing stories of difficulties and triumphs, the book ends with how hard it was for the Stephens family to say "kwa heri" to Kenya and its people. The children gained an education in world-awareness and cultural diversity that couldn't have been matched in Michigan or anywhere else, and so did their parents.

Dorothy Stephen was a keen observer and her immersion in the daily life of being a mother who needed, often, the advice and help of her Kenyan counterparts gave her opportunities to learn about the practices, personalities, and living conditions of African women.

Bob's ASIA position required her to host occasional events that introduced her to others in the diplomatic corps and gave her a chance to meet and form insightful opinions of many of Africa's leaders at that time.

This is a well-written memoir that will retain, perhaps forever, its appeal for those interested in Kenya. It is also a story of personal development that will always provide pleasure to those of us who love adventure stories with fact-based authenticity.


]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26362239 Joanna's review of The Elements of Style (Fourth Edition)
by William Strunk Jr.

I have read "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" and enjoyed it thoroughly. Have you seen Bill Bryson's "The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way"? There are some things up with which he will not put. I liked it quite a lot.

You surely do read a lot, for a person as busy as you are! -- Bob ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26291542 Ami's review of Without a Backward Glance
by Kate Veitch

Ah, I see. Well, of course, cultures and people within cultures differ on such things. As many Australians say frequently, "No worries."

Best wishes to you and your friends. -- Bob ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26328324 to: Telegraph Days: A Novel (Hardcover) by Larry McMurtry
bookshelves: books-i-ve-read
Having been so pleased with "Lonesome Dove" and some of Larry McMurtry's other writing, I always come to my fellow Texan's novels with high hopes, but this one falls closer to "Texasville" than "Lonesome Dove," I'm afraid. My main criticism is that the main character is a bright, talented, very young woman living in the Old West with attitudes and actions right out of "Sex and the City." I was amused for a while, but ultimately I found her to be too unlikely to accept. -- Bob Hill ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15358225 to: The Time Traveler's Wife (Paperback) by Audrey Niffenegger
Well written. Fascinating concept. This novel kept me coming back although I had to check the dates of segments often because the time sequence jumps around. Much of the power of this book comes from the awareness of the two main characters of how tenuous life is plus the suggestion that love may last longer. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15366458 to: The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way (Paperback) by Bill Bryson
A delightful book for anyone interested in the English language and how it came to be the complex and often illogical language that it is. One bonus is that Bryson's information may set you free from the idea that no sentence should ever end with a preposition.

Unless, of course, that's an idea up with which you cannot put. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15366330 to: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Mass Market Paperback) by Bill Bryson
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]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15365885 to: In a Sunburned Country (Paperback) by Bill Bryson
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This is the wittiest and most entertaining book I know of on modern Australia. I highly recommend it to everyone. Don't read it, though, in any setting where you'd be wise to avoid laughing loudly.

Fortunately for my own book on Australia, Bryson never got to Brisbane, to which my wife and I moved shortly before we were given "In a Sunburned Country." ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15365144 to: Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals (Paperback) by Rupert Sheldrake
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A scientist who writes well, Sheldrake has amazing stories to tell about dogs and other animals in this book, and some of them are so well documented that it would be hard for anyone to reject them out of hand, strange though they are.

Highly recommended for dog lovers and for anyone with an interest considering the possibility that what we normally consider to be real may not be all there is. ]]>