Cynthia Sally Haggard's Blog: Cynthia Sally's Blog, page 62

Curtis Sittenfeld’s AMERICAN WIFE

[image error]Curtis Sittenfeld’s AMERICAN WIFE is the fictionalized story of Laura Bush. It is entertaining, funny and tragic, and shows off Ms. Sittenfeld’s pitch perfect voice for both Charlie Blackwell (the George Bush character) and Alice Lindgren (the Laura Bush character).

The novel is in four parts.

Part 1: 1272 Amity Lane, takes us from 1954, when Alice is eight years old to 1963, when she is seventeen and has a tragic accident that changes her forever. This part of the novel is a gripping read, because Ms. Sittenfeld does such a wonderful job of setting up Alice and her family in their ordinary everyday lives, making the tragedy that follows more shocking.

Part 2: 3859 Sproule Street is the story of how Alice and Charlie fell in love in the summer of 1977, and married in the Fall of that year. Here, Ms. Sttenfeld’s ear for speech deploys brilliantly in conveying the Charlie Blackwell character. There is a lot of graphic sex, and even a description of a male body part here.

Part 3: 402 Maronee Drive is about the problems that occur in Alice and Charlie’s marriage, especially over the issue of Charlie’s alcoholism. Set in 1988, it tells how Charlie finally comes to grips with his demons when he discovers religion, after Alice threatens to leave him.

Part 4: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue deals with the threat to expose a secret from Alice’s past if she will not intervene in a Supreme Court Justice nomination. It is set in 2007, during President Blackwell’s second term, and conveys very well the issues and turbulence of that time when the US was fighting a war on two fronts.

Highly recommended: Four Stars.

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Mr. Locke is an apt name for her “guardian”…(THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY by Alix E. Harrow, narrated by January LaVoy)

[image error]How wonderful to read something so imaginative! I loved the voice of naughty (temerarious) January Scaller, who at 7 had precociously worked out how to annoy everyone. Her mischievous side really drew me in. But what was also wonderful is how a 7-year-old motherless girl is so very vulnerable to the blandishments of her “guardian” with the apt name of Mr. Locke, so that when he admonishes her that she must learn to “stay in her place,” she does just that, learning to suffocate her true nature, just as young ladies of her era (the novel is set in the years 1901 and 1911) learn to curb their growing curves by jamming them into corsets.

I LISTENED to this novel, and the voice of January LaVoy really helped the get a flavor of this story. I really LOVED the way she captured the accents of 7-year-old January, her father Julian, her mother Adelaide. Highly recommended. Five Stars.

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Reading Sundays: A SURPRISING CURE (Part 1) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard

This story is based upon the research of Sheila Rowbotham. For more details about the life of Miriam Daniell and Robert Nicol, see her book “Rebel Crossings.”

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Bristol, England

September 1889

I had been forbidden from knowing my wife for three long years. The doctor had been most emphatic on that point. Of course I objected, and in the strongest possible terms. But Miss Jex-Blake fixed her small brown eyes on mine, telling me that my wife had a terrible disease, that those charming little warts I used to call my ‘love buttons’ that my Miriam had in her most intimate place were the signs of cancer. I shivered inwardly. How could something so lovely be so poisonous? And if she had it, did I? Miss Jex-Blake continued that it was my fault my wife had such a condition, and that she was going to operate. I fled, hurrying through the streets so fast I almost knocked someone down. Three doctors pronounced me healthy.

But Miriam’s condition persisted. When I pressed her, she reluctantly complained of burning sensations down there. Every summer she visited Edinburgh to “take the air,” as we told all of our acquaintances. No-one knew what was wrong with her except myself, my consulting physician, Miriam, and her lady doctor. Unless, of course, Miriam chose to confide in Helena Born, her bosom friend. But surely, even she wouldn’t do such a thing. [To be continued next week.]

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WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch

[image error]WHITE OLEANDER is the kind of novel that agents still talk about, over twenty years after it was published in 1999. As I was curious to see what they were talking about, I recently read it.

The agents were right. This is an amazing novel, not just for the outrageous but believable character of Ingrid Magnusson and her daughter Astrid, not just for the amazing plot twists and turns, but for the amazing prose style.

“What was the best day of your life?” she asked me one afternoon as we lay on the free-form couch, her head on one armrest, min on the other. Judy Garland sang on the stereo, “My Funny Valentine.”

“Today,” I said.

“No.” She laughed, throwing her napkin at me. “From before.”

I tried to remember, but it was like looking for buried coins in the sand. I kept turning things over, cutting myself on rusty cans, broken beer bottles hidden there, but eventually I found an old coin, brushed it off. I could read the date, the country of origin.

It was when we were living in Amsterdam.”

What a great use of metaphor and simile. Here is another example.

And now it was too late. I looked at Sergei across the table in Rena’s kitchen. He could care less about my boyfriend in New York. He didn’t even care about his girlfriend in the next room. He was just like one of Rena’s white cats – eat, sleep, and fornicate. Since the night I’d seen them together on the couch, he was always watching me with his hint of a grin, as if there were some secret we shared.

“So how is your boyfriend?” he asked. “Big? Is he big?”

Niki laughed. “He’s huge, Sergei. Haven’t you heard of him? Moby Dick.”

Olivia had told me all about men like Sergei. Hard men with blue veins in their sculpted white arms, heavy-lidded blue eyes and narrow waists. You could make a deal with a man like that. A man who knew what he wanted. I kept my eyes on the broccoli and cheese.

“You get tired of waiting,” he said. “You come see me.”

“What if you’re no good?” I said, making the other girls laugh.

“Only worry you fall in love Sergei,” he said, his voice like a hand between my legs.

What’s not to like about this book? The ending. I really didn’t like it. I didn’t like being left with two choices, two ways that this heartbreaking story might go. I thought that the author should have done that hard work for me. Four stars.

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SHE SAID by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

[image error]SHE SAID is the highly disturbing account of the activities of Harvey Weinstein, and Brett Kavanaugh. It tells how Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey investigated the rumors about Harvey Weinstein to produce their sensational piece which published in the New York Times on 5 October 2017. This stirred up such a hornet’s nest that EIGHTY women came forward to say they had been molested or assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. Nothing like this has every happened before.

[image error]Later, the journalists investigated similar rumors about Brett Kavanaugh, interviewing Christine Blasey Ford, who recounted a traumatic experience she had when Kavanaugh tried to rape her when they were both teenagers. Subsequently, Gwyneth Paltrow hosted a meeting at her Los Angeles home of all the sources who came forward to report abuse they’d received at the hands of powerful men. These women included actress Ashely Judd, and Christine Blasey Ford.

It was thrilling to watch the unraveling of the privileged life Harvey Weinstein had in the wake of these allegations. The Weinstein Company went bankrupt, and Harvey Weinstein was forced to surrender his passport and wear an ankle bracelet. He was sentenced to 23 years for rape on 11 March 2020.

[image error]It was heartbreaking to hear the testimony of the women, summoned to Harvey Weinstein’s hotel for what they imagined to be a business meeting, only to have Weinstein meeting them half-naked, (or actually naked) demanding massages, back rubs, blow jobs. When they refused, he responded with bullying tactics, in some cases raping them, in all cases humiliating them with his outrageous requests.

If you want to know how the “Me Too” movement ignited, read this book. Five stars.

 

 

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Isabel Wolff’s A VINTAGE AFFAIR

[image error]A VINTAGE AFFAIR is the story of a friendship that ended in tragedy. Or rather, two friendships that ended in tragedy, both causing a tremendous amount of survivor guilt to both women involved.

One story takes place in France during the second world war. The other is a contemporary story set in present-day London. But author Isabel Wolff is a talented story-teller who manages to weave these plot threads together in a way that does not seem cliched or predictable. And although I am generally not fond of contemporary fiction (I tend to find it too depressing), I did enjoy getting to know the protagonist Phoebe Swift, who not only opens a vintage clothing store in London, but also goes on a emotional roller-coaster of a ride during this novel.

If you love reading about the recent past, especially about beautiful clothes, and if you enjoy reading something that will stir your emotions and cause you to think, this is the book for you. Perfect for a curl up by the fire during one of those cold days we are having now. Five stars.

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Reading Sundays: SHADES OF UNREALITY (Part 11), a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard

My scribe sighed as she sat in one of those moon-backed chairs.

“It’s not so simple.” She stroked Pandora’s orange fur as if she were a real cat. We have to think about what robots are going to be used for. The greatest need is to help nurses move elderly people. Many nurses have been badly injured trying to move them. Robots could do that task instead, and save their backs.”

“So what is the difficulty?” I took the chair opposite, arranging my velvet skirts around my feet.

“We don’t want robots taking decisions into their own hands, because we don’t know if we can trust them to act ethically. It would be a real problem if a robot with the strength to lift people suddenly turned that strength against them, breaking their arms and legs.”

I shuddered. Why had it not occurred to me that these beings could be a force for evil as well as good? Perhaps because they didn’t seem human?

“You do not think they should have rights?” I asked.

“Not until we know a great deal more about them,” said my scribe. “We need a public discussion.”

“I would like to attend such an important meeting,” I remarked. “When is it going to be?”

She smiled. “We don’t do things by formal meetings any more. This discussion will take place in the press, over the airwaves and on social media.”

I was silent. How could I respond to something I didn’t understand? Perhaps I should leave this matter to others. My six hundred years was weighing on me, and I was becoming tired.

My scribe smiled again. “Let us celebrate your birthday.” She went to another silver box in the guardroom-kitchen and drew out a bottle of bubbly wine, and a cake. But best of all was my present, a silver box the size of a pack of playing cards, which she told me was called an iPhone.[image error] I used it to take pictures of my new friends.

THE END

Shades of Unreality first appeared in Sci-Phi Journal.

Food for Thought:

SHADES OF UNREALITY plays with the principle questions of ontology, what is a thing, what things fit into which categories, and what are the various modes of being. SHADES is populated by two stuffed toys, one figment of the imagination, one robot, assorted machines and one human being, all of whom engage in lively conversation about what it means to be real, and the ethical implications of that reality.   

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William Boyd’s RESTLESS

[image error]RESTLESS by William Boyd is one of those novels with a parallel plot. There is the present-day told from the point-of-view of Ruth Gilmartin a 20-something PhD student at Oxford and a single Mum. Then there is the story of Eva Delectorskaya, a woman of Russian-English heritage, working as a spy for Britain in New York in 1940 and 1941. Her job was to pose as a journalist spreading disinformation about the progress of the war in an effort to encourage the United States to join the fight against the Nazis.

This may sound only moderately interesting, but in William Boyd’s hands it becomes completely gripping. Both POV characters, Ruth and Eva, are so real. While it is true that inevitably Ruth’s story is not that interesting, nevertheless, her story kept me glued to the page, partly because I’m old enough to remember the Baader-Meinhof gang, and I kept wondering if she were harboring some of the members in her apartment.

As for Eva, well she is completely compelling. Strikingly beautiful and breathtakingly smart she is astonishingly good at her job, and manages to wriggle out of a couple of very difficult situations. Most of the pleasure of this novel is in watching such a smart woman outsmart some pretty smart men. Five stars.

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SECRET GERMANY: Stefan George and his Circle by Robert Edward Norton

[image error]Who was Stefan George? If you look him up, you will find out that he was born in 1868 and died in 1933, and that he was a poet. In fact, he was one of the most important and influential poets to have written in German, making him as great as Goethe, Hölderlin or Rilke.

However, that was not why I was interested in him. I was interested because he was the mentor and friend to Claus von Stauffenberg, when he was a young man.

Stauffenberg will always be remembered as the person who put the bomb near Hitler, in one (of many) assassinations attempts. Unfortunately, after he left the room, someone nudged the briefcase in which the bomb was planted so that it went behind a barrier. When it exploded, its destructive power killed some of the people in that war room.

But not Hitler. The only person who ever killed Hitler was himself.

In trying to figure out what sort of person could have been an aristocrat, an army officer and the eventual would-be assassin of Adolf Hitler, I found that my steps led me to Stefan George.

Describing George as a poet doesn’t even begin to explain his influence, especially to those of us who are not that plugged-in to poetry. But if I described him as a charismatic leader, a person who had almost shamanistic powers over the young men whom he attracted, then you begin to see what I mean.

The Countess von Stauffenberg was, at first, slightly concerned that her three teenaged sons had been smitten with George, and were lobbying her hard to join his circle. So she went to visit him. He must have been extremely charming because she left feeling reassured that no harm would come to her boys.

But as you page through this fascinating account by Robert E. Norton, titled SECRET GERMANY: STEFAN GEORGE AND HIS CIRCLE,  you cannot help but wonder what she had to be reassured about. Look at his face! Doesn’t he seem malevolent? Or as a young person would say today, “The creep factor is awesome”. Five stars.

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THE BEAST’S GARDEN BY Kate Forsyth. Narrated by Jennifer Vuletic.

[image error]I am a fan of Kate Forsyth. I love the way in which she takes folk tales and put a new twist on them. I loved Bitter Greens (her take on Rapunzel), and The Wild Girl, her story behind the story of how the Grimm brother’s acquired their tales, from their next-door neighbor Dortchen Wild. I have The Blue Rose, her newest novel, on my reading shelf.

I happened to come across THE BEAST’S GARDEN when I was writing my own novel, FAREWELL MY LIFE, which is set partly in Germany in 1938. I was enthralled by her tale of the young woman who marries a Nazi officer whom she detests, only to realize that he is working against the Nazis. By the time she realizes it, she has betrayed him and must save his life.

The details in THE BEAST’S GARDEN show how much research Ms. Forsyth did on her novel. But what I remember most is the love that the Nazi officer felt for his young wife Ava. Five Stars.

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