Erika Robuck's Blog, page 14

Book Review: THE INVENTION OF WINGS

“I saw then what I hadn’t seen before, that I was very good at despising slavery in the abstract, in the removed and anonymous masses, but in the concrete, intimate flesh of the girl beside me, I’d lost the ability to be repulsed by it. I’d grown comfortable with the particulars of evil. There’s a frightful muteness that dwells at the center of all unspeakable things, and I had found my way into it.” ~Sue Monk Kidd, THE INVENTION OF WINGS 

From the Publisher

From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees, a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women…

Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection.

Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

My Recommendation

I was drawn to THE INVENTION OF WINGS because I am a huge fan of Kidd’s THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, and because I have a particular and personal interest in slavery and race relations. I expected the novel to be great, and it even surpassed my high expectations. Told in thoughtful, rich prose, Kidd’s novel is utterly absorbing, and continues to shine important light on the dark past of American slavery.

Sarah Grimke seems to be a fragile and tender girl, with a heart larger than her courage, but as the novel progresses, Sarah becomes a woman of great strength and integrity, capable of more than she could imagine. Told in alternating points of view, the sections of the slave girl, Handful, are equally mesmerizing because of her spunk and courage. She is an astute, intelligent, and wide-eyed observer of the women around her, and possesses the voice I most longed for when away from her scenes.

The accounts of slavery in the book are brutal without being gratuitous, and the relationships of familial and romantic love are realistic and compelling without a shred of sentimentality. Kidd is a master at balancing a wealth of largely unknown historical information with a transportive story of sin and redemption, tragedy and triumph, peopled with flawed characters whose lives bring about great personal and national growth.

THE INVENTION OF WINGS was selected as the next Oprah 2.0 pick for good reason. In a sweeping drama spanning decades, Sue Monk Kidd tackles the very marrow of the abolitionist movement, how it corresponded with the start of the women’s rights movement, and the heroic women at its heart. This is a novel that begs to be discussed and shared, and would make an excellent book club selection. I give THE INVENTION OF WINGS my highest recommendation.

Book Review: SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE

“[I]t seemed to Lilly, as she admired the lush fields, dotted here and there with flocks of plump sheep, that the war must belong to another world entirely. How else could she reconcile this sylvan bliss, now slipping so gently by her window, with the fact that guns were blazing, shell fire was raining down, and legions of men were fighting, killing, and dying, somewhere in France, all less than a hundred miles away?” Jennifer Robson, SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE

Publisher Description

Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford has struggled against both her mother’s expectations and the restrictions early 20th-century British society imposes upon women of “gentle breeding.”

Lilly longs to make a difference, to have a life of substance and meaning. Only one person other than her beloved brother Edward ever listened to what she really wanted–Robert Fraser, Edward’s best friend. But that was many years ago when he was visiting and Lilly was young, and she is certain Robbie has long forgotten her. 

Robbie Fraser knows he shouldn’t have come to the lavish ball given by Edward’s parents, the Earl and Countess of Cumberland. This world is far removed from the hospital in Whitechapel where he works as a surgeon. In his work, he is feted and admired by his colleagues and friends, yet his accomplishments count for nothing to the privileged few attending the Neville-Ashford gala. As he plots his quiet escape, he is stopped by a vision of loveliness-Lilly. He finds her utterly captivating. She believes he is the man of her dreams. 

In a few short weeks, the world is engulfed by war. As the lights go out across Europe, Robbie becomes a trauma surgeon in a field hospital on the Western Front, while Lilly breaks free of convention, as well as from her disapproving parents, leaving home and eventually becoming an ambulance driver with the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. When she is transferred to the same field hospital where Robbie works, she hopes to strengthen the growing bond between them. Yet how can love survive the class restrictions that separate them and the horrors and suffering of the Great War?

My Recommendation

I was asked to read an early copy of SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE to provide a cover quote, and upon finishing this sweeping, captivating novel set during WWI, I was delighted to do so.

From the opening pages, the vivid settings in SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE engage the imagination. We soon meet Lady Elizabeth and her aristocratic family, and see that this is a young woman suffocated by her station in life.

Lady Elizabeth quickly becomes “Lilly” as she defies her parents and gives up her life of privilege to truly live. From learning to drive and working in London, to becoming an ambulance driver for the WAAC, Lily wins over men and women alike, and demonstrates that in spite of her sheltered upbringing, she is strong and capable.

The plot moves with speed, brilliantly demonstrates the perils of falling in love during a time of war, and the characters’ growth and changes are believable and satisfying. If ATONEMENT and DOWNTON ABBEY had a child, SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE would be the result. Fans of the popular television series and historical fiction will devour this book.

FALLEN BEAUTY Book Launch and Review

 

My novel, FALLEN BEAUTY, releases on March 4th (NAL/Penguin USA) and I would like to cordially invite you to my launch party at Barnes & Noble in Annapolis, MD on Friday, March 7th at 7 PM. I will post details on my book tour stops as soon as they are finalized. For more information, visit my website or my Facebook Author Page.

I am also thrilled to share my first review from Booklist:

“In her fourth novel, Robuck weaves together two distinct narratives—the harrowing account of small-town seamstress Laura Kelley and the fiery escapades of famed poetess Edna St. Vincent Millay, where Robuck’s own voice comes most alive. The story begins amid the backdrop of 1928 New York with Laura, her lover, and the Ziegfeld Follies. Beguiled by the glamour and costume of Broadway and the passionate pangs of first love, Laura takes a chance that forever changes her life. Simultaneously, “Vincie,” restless from the frivolity and unreciprocated romance that accompany her notoriety, searches high and low for her next great muse. Two women on the edge—Laura both the core of town gossip as well as its drudging outcast; Vincie the detached inhabitant of the infamous Steepletop—are inevitably brought together by their artistic loves: Laura’s for costume design; Vincie’s for poetry. Through love and letdown, inspiration and hardship, and sisterhood and rivalry, both Laura and Vincie come to know the blazing beauty that sometimes sparks from even the greatest of mistakes.”— Briana Shemroske

Happy New Year!!

 

 

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Book Review: THE PIECES WE KEEP

Publisher Synopsis:

In this richly emotional novel, Kristina McMorris evokes the depth of a mother’s bond with her child, and the power of personal histories to echo through generations…

Two years have done little to ease veterinarian Audra Hughes’s grief over her husband’s untimely death. Eager for a fresh start, Audra plans to leave Portland for a new job in Philadelphia. Her seven-year-old son, Jack, seems apprehensive about flying–but it’s just the beginning of an anxiety that grows to consume him.

As Jack’s fears continue to surface in recurring and violent nightmares, Audra hardly recognizes the introverted boy he has become. Desperate, she traces snippets of information unearthed in Jack’s dreams, leading her to Sean Malloy, a struggling US Army veteran wounded in Afghanistan. Together they unravel a mystery dating back to World War II, and uncover old family secrets that still have the strength to wound–and perhaps, at last, to heal.

Intricate and beautifully written, The Pieces We Keep illuminates those moments when life asks us to reach beyond what we know and embrace what was once unthinkable. Deftly weaving together past and present, herein lies a story that is at once poignant and thought-provoking, and as unpredictable as the human heart.

My Recommendation:

I have been a long-time fan of McMorris’ popular war stories, and I was eager to read this multi-period novel set in the present day and during WWII. From the first page I was drawn into this story of family bonds, and the deep pain we feel when we are out of sync with those we love.

In the present day, Audra is a strong and struggling character, and while her obstacles are unique, the reader will identify with her complicated relationships. In the past, Vivian’s love affair with the mysterious Isaak, difficulties in her home, and the war make her happiness nearly impossible, but her passion and determination make a life she could not have imagined. Neither woman, however, can outrun her past, and the years and experiences collide in unpredictable and resonating ways.

McMorris uses language with elegance, and her prose is rich and sensory, captivating the reader and wholly immersing her in the book. Each chapter exposes new truths and ignites new questions, resulting in a fast-paced and satisfying novel of suspense. Fans of historical fiction and time-split novels will absolutely love THE PIECES WE KEEP. As much as I enjoy all of McMorris’ work, this might be my favorite.

For more on the book, please visit Kristina McMorris’ website:

http://www.kristinamcmorris.com/

My Favorite Books, 2013

 

I was recently chatting with some authors, when one confessed how much she loathed Best of Book Lists this time of year. We all chimed in with our shared exhaustion on the topic, and we admitted that our enjoyment of them was in direct correlation with whether or not we made a list. Because of this, I hesitated to create my own list, but I decided to anyway. Here is why.

The thing is, it’s not about who isn’t on the list; it’s about who is. And just because a book isn’t on the list, doesn’t mean I didn’t love it. In fact, on this blog I only recommend historical fiction that I LOVE. So if you’d like to know what I loved for the entire year, scroll through my posts.

My criteria for books on my favorites list is unscientific and simple:

*I read it obsessively.

*I can’t stop thinking about it.

*I can’t stop recommending it.

Without further ado, in no particular order, and with links to my reviews, here are my favorites of the books I read in 2013…

Bellman & Black, by Diane Setterfield
The Light in the Ruins, by Chris Bohjalain
Mrs. Poe, by Lynn Cullen
Margot, by Jillian Cantor
The Girl You Left Behind, by Jojo Moyes
The Illusion of Separateness, by Simon Van Booy
The Light Between Oceans, by M. L. Stedman
No One Is Here Except All of Us, by Ramona Ausubel
Looking for Me, by Beth Hoffman
The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert

If you have not read these novels, I highly recommend them. I’d also love to hear some of your must reads of the year.

 

*Photo Courtesy of Moonlight Traveler at DeviantArt.com

 

 

Book Review: THE GHOST BRIDE

“One evening, my father asked me if I would like to become a ghost bride…”

Publisher Description:

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family’s only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price.

After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lim’s handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits and monstrous bureaucracy—including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family—before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.

My Recommendation:

Reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno, THE GHOST BRIDE takes the reader from the misty streets of nineteenth-century China to the dream-like landscape of Death, where fate for the living and those who have crossed over can be equally terrifying.

Li Lan is a complex character living in frustrating circumstances, and it is only through her courage  and determination that she is able to attempt to change her future. Nothing and no one can be trusted on this journey, and the plot is one seen through veils that must be continually peeled away, but what results is a layered work of historical fantasy that both intrigues and satisfies.

Readers drawn to the paranormal and historical will be fascinated by THE GHOST BRIDE.

Book Review: THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS

“For the first five years of her life, Alma Whittaker was indeed a mere passenger of the world–as we are all passengers in such early youth–and so her story was not yet noble, nor was it particularly interesting, beyond the fact that this homely toddler passed her days without illness or incident, surrounded by a degree of wealth nearly unknown in the America of that time…” Elizabeth Gilbert, THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS

Publisher Synopsis:

In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist—but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.

Exquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, The Signature of All Things soars across the globe—from London to Peru to Philadelphia to Tahiti to Amsterdam, and beyond. Along the way, the story is peopled with unforgettable characters: missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses, and the quite mad. But most memorable of all, it is the story of Alma Whittaker, who—born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution—bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas. Written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time, Gilbert’s wise, deep, and spellbinding tale is certain to capture the hearts and minds of readers.

My Recommendation

THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS is 500 pages and, because I was enthralled by Alma Whittaker and her indomitable spirit of exploration, I read it in five nights.

It is a rare thing for an author to create such a cast of dynamic and unique characters as Gilbert has done in this novel. I adored Alma’s crotchety father, her sturdy mother, her feisty nursemaid, prim sister, wild friend, endearing love, eccentric guide, and even the mongrel, Roger, who bites Alma when she tries to feed him–and that is just a sampling of who one meets on the pages. The novel is rendered in a narrative voice full of cheekiness and authority, and the vast wealth of knowledge contained in its pages is extraordinary.

Not since Steinbeck’s EAST OF EDEN has an epic family saga of this magnitude so completely captivated and fascinated me. Bold, detailed, and dense as a Tahitian jungle, yet somehow far more accessible, THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS is a masterpiece. Unless you are a lady who sips tea with her pinky finger in the air, you simply must read THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS.

Book Review: BELLMAN AND BLACK

“I have heard it said, by those that cannot possibly know, that in the final moments of a man’s existence he sees his whole life pass before his eyes. If that were so, a cynic might assume William Bellman’s last moments to have been spent contemplating anew the lengthy series of calculations, contracts and business deals that made up his existence….What he unearthed, after it had lain buried some forty years in the archaeology of his mind, was a rook.”

Diane Setterfield, Bellman and Black

***

Publisher Description

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Thirteenth Tale comes a dark and mesmerizing ghost story guaranteed to haunt you to your very core.

As a boy, William Bellman commits one small, cruel act: killing a bird with his slingshot. Little does he know the unforeseen and terrible consequences of the deed, which is soon forgotten amidst the riot of boyhood games. By the time he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, William seems to be a man blessed by fortune—until tragedy strikes and the stranger in black comes. Then he starts to wonder if all his happiness is about to be eclipsed. Desperate to save the one precious thing he has left, William enters into a rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner, to found a decidedly macabre business.

And Bellman & Black is born.

My Recommendation

Do you enjoy dark, gothic, historic tales?

Do you enjoy novels that span a lifetime?

Are you preoccupied with, fascinated by, or frightened of black birds?

My answer to all of these questions is YES, and if you too have strange fascinations and phobias, I highly recommend BELLMAN AND BLACK.

Setterfield’s first novel, THE THIRTEENTH TALE, was a marvelously creepy and Poe-like book, and BELLMAN AND BLACK continues in that tradition. However, this second novel is even more meticulously crafted, entrancing, and unsettling than Setterfield’s first.

Framed in small writings on the nature and legend of rooks, each section of BELLMAN AND BLACK represents the nature of men. At the novel’s inception, we meet William Bellman, a young boy who kills a rook with a slingshot. Without understanding why, he and the boys in his company are forever haunted by the incident.

William grows up and achieves a high degree of success in business, but comes to understand that all is not in his control. The empires he creates are stained and shadowed, and while he does not understand why, William senses that all debts will be settled in the end.

There are no shocking climactic moments in BELLMAN AND BLACK, but rather a deepening sense of understanding and awe of the extreme powerlessness we all face, or will one day face, the conquering of pride, and the notion that something exists outside of humanity with far more weight than we can ever hope to hold.

As a book that begs to be pondered and discussed, BELLMAN AND BLACK would make an excellent book club selection. Fans of gothic historical novels will be enthralled by BELLMAN AND BLACK.

LETTERS OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY, 1923-1925

“I suppose you heard about the loss of my Juvenilia? I went up to Paris last week to see what was left and found that Hadley had made the job complet[e] by including all carbons, duplicates, etc… You, naturally, would say, “Good” etc. But don’t say it to me. I aint yet reached that mood. I worked 3 years on the damn stuff.” Hemingway to Ezra Pound, 23 January 1923, THE LETTERS OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY, 1923-1925

The Cambridge University Press, in collaboration with many, including editors Sandra Spanier, Albert J. Defazio III, and Robert W. Trogdon, has just released the second volume of Hemingway Letters, dating from the years 1923-1925. I am in the middle of reading the letters of literary legend (and personal obsession) Ernest Hemingway, and I’m reminded of the feeling of growing intimacy with the writer I had reading his papers at the JFK Museum in Boston.

Uncensored, vivid, humorous, vicious, touching, and fascinating, Volume Two of the Hemingway Letters gives fans of the author and those interested in the life of one living so much in history an unprecedented glimpse into the mind of a literary genius. From silly “screeds” to war buddies, to daring letters meant to goad his mother, Hemingway’s volatile and powerful personality comes through with clarity on the pages.

Footnotes for the letters assist both every day readers and scholars in understanding the context of each of them, and are invaluable and concise. Fans of the “Lost Generation” will thrill over references to John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, to name a few. Those who read and loved THE PARIS WIFE will be interested to learn about the beginning of the end of Hemingway’s first marriage to Hadley, from his point of view.

I look forward to future releases of the letters chronically the evolution of Ernest Hemingway. I highly recommend this volume for history and Hemingway fans.

http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/literature/american-literature/letters-ernest-hemingway-volume-2?format=HB