David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "sisters"
CARTHAGE
I’ve always enjoyed Joyce Carol Oates’s short stories, but the only novel I remember reading was FOXFIRE, about a girl gang. I know how versatile she is, so I thought I’d give her another trial.
CARTHAGE starts out sounding like a “48 Hours” episode. A girl goes missing in the woods, and her sister’s fiancé, a soldier suffering from PTS, is the principal suspect. But this is Joyce Carol Oates, so I knew there was a twist coming. It took 100 pages but it finally did.
As a reader you have to be wondering if Cressida Mayfield was really murdered or is still alive. This is a book about sibling rivalry. Cressida considers herself the ugly duckling of the family, and Juliet Mayfield is prom queen beautiful with a personality to match, but Cressida is the smart one, and she likes to pretend she doesn’t care what people think of her. Secretly she plays tricks on her older sister, messing up her computer, then fixing it for her to cover up her duplicity.
Then there’s Brett Kincaid, the soldier with PTS, who also has a heart of gold, which proves to be his undoing in more than one way. Cressida crushes on him because he rescued her when she wandered into a bad part of town. There’s more than a suggestion that Brett Kincaid wasn’t blown up by the Taliban. Oates includes what sounds like something out of the Vietnam War, with soldiers taking “trophies” like ears, fingers and toes. Brett balked at that and went to his superiors.
He returns a changed man who doesn’t want to saddle Juliet with his problems; they break up and Cressida makes her play at a time when Brett is drunk and confused as to what actually happened. He’s also having flashbacks to what went on in Afghanistan, and it gets all confused with the Cressida incident. There’s blood in his truck and he has scratches on his face. He confesses.
Zeno Mayfield is the father of the two girls; he’s a former mayor of Carthage, a real take charge kind of guy. What happened to his daughter changes him. His wife resorts to community service, going so far as to forgive Brett and visit him in prison.
The second half of the novel could be a different book, concentrating on a covert prison reform project carried out by an old liberal professor, who’s written several best sellers on various societal pitfalls. He has a young intern assistant, who takes care of the mundane stuff for him, like drive his car, pay his bills, do research etc.
I was expecting a humdinger of a climax, but the book just sort of fades away, with a lot of loose ends, like what happened to the old professor who seemed to have a special fondness for the young intern.
CARTHAGE starts out sounding like a “48 Hours” episode. A girl goes missing in the woods, and her sister’s fiancé, a soldier suffering from PTS, is the principal suspect. But this is Joyce Carol Oates, so I knew there was a twist coming. It took 100 pages but it finally did.
As a reader you have to be wondering if Cressida Mayfield was really murdered or is still alive. This is a book about sibling rivalry. Cressida considers herself the ugly duckling of the family, and Juliet Mayfield is prom queen beautiful with a personality to match, but Cressida is the smart one, and she likes to pretend she doesn’t care what people think of her. Secretly she plays tricks on her older sister, messing up her computer, then fixing it for her to cover up her duplicity.
Then there’s Brett Kincaid, the soldier with PTS, who also has a heart of gold, which proves to be his undoing in more than one way. Cressida crushes on him because he rescued her when she wandered into a bad part of town. There’s more than a suggestion that Brett Kincaid wasn’t blown up by the Taliban. Oates includes what sounds like something out of the Vietnam War, with soldiers taking “trophies” like ears, fingers and toes. Brett balked at that and went to his superiors.
He returns a changed man who doesn’t want to saddle Juliet with his problems; they break up and Cressida makes her play at a time when Brett is drunk and confused as to what actually happened. He’s also having flashbacks to what went on in Afghanistan, and it gets all confused with the Cressida incident. There’s blood in his truck and he has scratches on his face. He confesses.
Zeno Mayfield is the father of the two girls; he’s a former mayor of Carthage, a real take charge kind of guy. What happened to his daughter changes him. His wife resorts to community service, going so far as to forgive Brett and visit him in prison.
The second half of the novel could be a different book, concentrating on a covert prison reform project carried out by an old liberal professor, who’s written several best sellers on various societal pitfalls. He has a young intern assistant, who takes care of the mundane stuff for him, like drive his car, pay his bills, do research etc.
I was expecting a humdinger of a climax, but the book just sort of fades away, with a lot of loose ends, like what happened to the old professor who seemed to have a special fondness for the young intern.
The Daughters of Mars
Thomas Kenneally is best known for SCHINDLER’S LIST, but if you’re expecting more of the same from THE DAUGHTERS OF MARS, you won’t get it. For one thing DAUGHTERS is more fictionalized. It’s about the two Durance sisters, Naomi and Sally who enlist in the Australian nurses’ corps.
At first the two don’t seem to like each other. You see, they’re from “The Bush” and Naomi left to work in the big city, leaving Sally to take care of their parents. This proved to be more than she could handle when her mother came down with cancer. Her mother was in so much pain that she wanted to die. Sally began to save small amounts of morphine, which Naomi found. Sally assumed Naomi gave it to their mother, because she died. Sally can’t get over the guilt she feels.
The two girls wind up on a hospital ship helping the wounded men at the ill-conceived front in the Dardenelles, Gallipoli. Kenneally provides many twists and turns you won’t expect. One of the first is the torpedoing of the hospital ship. Their matron (head nurse) Mitchie loses her leg in the aftermath. She’s sent home as is Naomi for disobeying orders. There are several themes throughout the story that have little to do with war, and the reason Naomi is sent home is one of them. The orderlies and the colonel in charge of Naomi and Sally’s unit don’t respect women, making it harder to do their jobs. One of the good guys is an orderly named Sergeant Kearnan, a Quaker who will assume a larger role later in the story. He, along with Naomi, take charge of the lifeboat the nurses end up in.
Eventually the two girls are sent to France, Sally as a regular in the nurses’ corps, and Naomi as a volunteer in the hospital founded by Lady Tarlton, whose husband was a politician in Australia. One-legged Mitchie also makes it back working with Tarlton as one of her right-hand men. There’s another twist involving Lady Tarlton’s driver that results in the loss of one of our principal characters. There’s also a flu epidemic that affects the story. If you’ve studied WWI at all, you know that influenza killed almost as many soldiers as did bullets, bombs, and artillery. The girls, especially Sally, stick with pretty much the same clique of nurses throughout the novel. There’s taciturn Freud who can handle most anything except being raped by one of the young soldiers. There’s Honora, the funny one who suffers a loss that jars her sense of humor; Leonora, the pretty one, and Nettice who falls in love with a blind young captain. Both girls have a love life also, and both of their men are affected either physically or by war time idiocy.
Just when things look their worst, Australian divisions arrive to save the day. There’s very little mention of the Americans, and none of Black Jack Pershing. Perhaps the most perplexing part of the book is the ending. One of the sisters succumbs to influenza but one of the Australian papers gets it wrong; We don’t know which one died. Keneally begins to tell us which one survived, then pulls the old switcheroo, which might annoy the reader.
This book is not as good as SCHINDLER’S LIST, but it does support William Tecumseh Sherman’s saying, “War is hell.”
At first the two don’t seem to like each other. You see, they’re from “The Bush” and Naomi left to work in the big city, leaving Sally to take care of their parents. This proved to be more than she could handle when her mother came down with cancer. Her mother was in so much pain that she wanted to die. Sally began to save small amounts of morphine, which Naomi found. Sally assumed Naomi gave it to their mother, because she died. Sally can’t get over the guilt she feels.
The two girls wind up on a hospital ship helping the wounded men at the ill-conceived front in the Dardenelles, Gallipoli. Kenneally provides many twists and turns you won’t expect. One of the first is the torpedoing of the hospital ship. Their matron (head nurse) Mitchie loses her leg in the aftermath. She’s sent home as is Naomi for disobeying orders. There are several themes throughout the story that have little to do with war, and the reason Naomi is sent home is one of them. The orderlies and the colonel in charge of Naomi and Sally’s unit don’t respect women, making it harder to do their jobs. One of the good guys is an orderly named Sergeant Kearnan, a Quaker who will assume a larger role later in the story. He, along with Naomi, take charge of the lifeboat the nurses end up in.
Eventually the two girls are sent to France, Sally as a regular in the nurses’ corps, and Naomi as a volunteer in the hospital founded by Lady Tarlton, whose husband was a politician in Australia. One-legged Mitchie also makes it back working with Tarlton as one of her right-hand men. There’s another twist involving Lady Tarlton’s driver that results in the loss of one of our principal characters. There’s also a flu epidemic that affects the story. If you’ve studied WWI at all, you know that influenza killed almost as many soldiers as did bullets, bombs, and artillery. The girls, especially Sally, stick with pretty much the same clique of nurses throughout the novel. There’s taciturn Freud who can handle most anything except being raped by one of the young soldiers. There’s Honora, the funny one who suffers a loss that jars her sense of humor; Leonora, the pretty one, and Nettice who falls in love with a blind young captain. Both girls have a love life also, and both of their men are affected either physically or by war time idiocy.
Just when things look their worst, Australian divisions arrive to save the day. There’s very little mention of the Americans, and none of Black Jack Pershing. Perhaps the most perplexing part of the book is the ending. One of the sisters succumbs to influenza but one of the Australian papers gets it wrong; We don’t know which one died. Keneally begins to tell us which one survived, then pulls the old switcheroo, which might annoy the reader.
This book is not as good as SCHINDLER’S LIST, but it does support William Tecumseh Sherman’s saying, “War is hell.”
How Quickly She Disappears
Elizabeth's sister disappears when she was a young girl. They were twins, and Elizabeth senses that Jacqueline is still alive.
She has an opportunity to find her when an airline pilot named Alfred Seidel enters her life. He's a substitute mail pilot serving the interior of Alaska, where Elizabeth and her husband John have moved for his job as a teacher. Elizabeth stays home to homeschool her daughter Marjorie who reminds her a lot of Jacqueline.
Then the story gets a bit hard to believe. Seidel says he has problems with his plane and asks if he can stay at Elizabeth's house. There is no hotel or motel in the small of Tanacross, a mostly Athabaskan town and she and John have an extra bedroom. There's nothing wrong with Seidel's plane, but when Mack, a friend of Elizabeth and John's, sniffs out the real reason he's there, Seidel murders him and is imprisoned.
He wants to see Elizabeth and hints that he knows where Jacqueline is. She's still alive. You won't believe what he has to say, but he keeps stringing her along until of all things, she agrees to let him talk to Marjorie, who's been acting up because her mother is spending too much time obsessing over Jacqueline, alone for twenty minutes. You know this can't be good. He's a murderer after all.
The book did have me on pins and needles toward the end when Elizabeth gets closer to finding out about Jacqueline, so close that she carries a gun.
If you can get past the coincidences (Alfred lived in Elizabeth's town in Pennsylvania, and she had no idea who he was despite the fact that he's been stalking her for years), you'll enjoy this book, but if you're constantly saying, “Wait a minute!” you won't. I ignored the little voice inside my head that was muttering those words.
She has an opportunity to find her when an airline pilot named Alfred Seidel enters her life. He's a substitute mail pilot serving the interior of Alaska, where Elizabeth and her husband John have moved for his job as a teacher. Elizabeth stays home to homeschool her daughter Marjorie who reminds her a lot of Jacqueline.
Then the story gets a bit hard to believe. Seidel says he has problems with his plane and asks if he can stay at Elizabeth's house. There is no hotel or motel in the small of Tanacross, a mostly Athabaskan town and she and John have an extra bedroom. There's nothing wrong with Seidel's plane, but when Mack, a friend of Elizabeth and John's, sniffs out the real reason he's there, Seidel murders him and is imprisoned.
He wants to see Elizabeth and hints that he knows where Jacqueline is. She's still alive. You won't believe what he has to say, but he keeps stringing her along until of all things, she agrees to let him talk to Marjorie, who's been acting up because her mother is spending too much time obsessing over Jacqueline, alone for twenty minutes. You know this can't be good. He's a murderer after all.
The book did have me on pins and needles toward the end when Elizabeth gets closer to finding out about Jacqueline, so close that she carries a gun.
If you can get past the coincidences (Alfred lived in Elizabeth's town in Pennsylvania, and she had no idea who he was despite the fact that he's been stalking her for years), you'll enjoy this book, but if you're constantly saying, “Wait a minute!” you won't. I ignored the little voice inside my head that was muttering those words.
Long Bright River
The title LONG, BRIGHT RIVER is somewhat perplexing. For one thing it's a dark novel about drug abuse and murder, and the word “bright” doesn't seem to fit. The reader doesn't find out why author Liz Moore used that title until late in the book, and I almost mistook that chapter for the acknowledgments.
The book is about two sisters, one a drug addict and a prostitute, the other a patrol officer for the Philadelphia Police Department.
Then Kacey, the younger of the two, the drug addicted one, goes missing, and Mickey is obsessed with finding her, so obsessed that she neglects her job. Somebody is also murdering prostitutes and Mickey gets a tip as to who it is.
Liz Moore offers a couple of red herrings to start. At first she targets a drug pusher named “Doc”. There's a minor theme involved here. Even the worst of us has some redeeming qualities. She misjudges Doc, and she misinterprets what's going on with her former husband, Simon, who groomed her as a counselor at the Police Athletic League. She thinks he might be a suspect, and when she follows him to the neighborhood where the prostitutes hang out, she's certain he's the killer. Mickey has a platonic relationship with her former partner, Truman, which could lead to something more serious but never does. He's on leave due to what she thinks is a job related injury. But Kacey's fellow prostitutes suggest he might be the real killer. That ruins that relationship. If you're the type who's obsessive about finding the one who done it, concentrate on the first couple of chapters. That's what most mystery authors do. They plant a hint at the beginning.
Another part of the suspense is whether or not Kacey will turn up dead like the other prostitutes. There are a few examples of foreshadowing. At one point Liz Moore actually tells the reader, so you'll know before the resolution. Another one is when Mickey finds several letters and child support checks from her father, who left the family when their mother, also addicted, died, at her grouchy grandmother's house. Her name is Gee, and she's a real winner.
There's also a surprise concerning Mickey's son, Thomas, whom we assumed was Mickey and Simon's son. Not the case. Guess who the real mother is.
Dennis Lehane, author of MYSTIC RIVER, really liked this book. Personally, I thought Mickey spent too much time running around in circles. The story wasn't moving.
The book is about two sisters, one a drug addict and a prostitute, the other a patrol officer for the Philadelphia Police Department.
Then Kacey, the younger of the two, the drug addicted one, goes missing, and Mickey is obsessed with finding her, so obsessed that she neglects her job. Somebody is also murdering prostitutes and Mickey gets a tip as to who it is.
Liz Moore offers a couple of red herrings to start. At first she targets a drug pusher named “Doc”. There's a minor theme involved here. Even the worst of us has some redeeming qualities. She misjudges Doc, and she misinterprets what's going on with her former husband, Simon, who groomed her as a counselor at the Police Athletic League. She thinks he might be a suspect, and when she follows him to the neighborhood where the prostitutes hang out, she's certain he's the killer. Mickey has a platonic relationship with her former partner, Truman, which could lead to something more serious but never does. He's on leave due to what she thinks is a job related injury. But Kacey's fellow prostitutes suggest he might be the real killer. That ruins that relationship. If you're the type who's obsessive about finding the one who done it, concentrate on the first couple of chapters. That's what most mystery authors do. They plant a hint at the beginning.
Another part of the suspense is whether or not Kacey will turn up dead like the other prostitutes. There are a few examples of foreshadowing. At one point Liz Moore actually tells the reader, so you'll know before the resolution. Another one is when Mickey finds several letters and child support checks from her father, who left the family when their mother, also addicted, died, at her grouchy grandmother's house. Her name is Gee, and she's a real winner.
There's also a surprise concerning Mickey's son, Thomas, whom we assumed was Mickey and Simon's son. Not the case. Guess who the real mother is.
Dennis Lehane, author of MYSTIC RIVER, really liked this book. Personally, I thought Mickey spent too much time running around in circles. The story wasn't moving.
