MORE GREAT READS FOR OCTOBER, 2017
The
Survivor’s Guide to Family Happiness, by Maddie Dawson
Where
would the dedicated reader be without Chick Lit? If nothing else, the genre helps us to
distinguish between ‘Light Reading’ – encompassing at one end the
Bodice-Rippers which all seem to involve Dukes wearing tartan who fall for
spirited (and beautiful) wenches from humble backgrounds, to the Feel-Good Heart-Warmers
that make us go ‘Aaaaaaah’, only to forget them when something more substantial
from the higher end presents itself – as indeed it should.
Maddie
Dawson’s higher end charming story ticks all the boxes: it’s a heart-warmer; the reader feels good at the end and no-one
has to wear tartan. Instead, real-life
problems that we can all identify with are faced by ordinary, typical, disfunctional characters
that we easily recognise as ourselves or our neighbours. Ms Dawson casts a loving and astute eye here
on families, especially of the adoptive kind, particularly that of Nina Popkin
who is now mid-30s, divorced by her husband after six months of marriage – he
fell in love with his bank teller and moved out on the day he confessed – and
completely on her own after nursing her beloved adoptive mother through her
last illness. It’s time, thinks Nina, to
start a search for her real family, her birth family, kin who will fill
the awful, yawning gap in her solitary life.
No-one should have to go through life alone.
Which
she doesn’t, because Nina has true friends and a new romance on the horizon –
one that fills her with dismay, because Carter, though divorced, continues to
live in the family home with his ex-wife and his two teenage children because
he can’t bear to be away from them – the kids, that is, not the wife. When the living arrangements eventually get
sorted, Carter’s daughter, a terrifying fifteen-year old who dyes her hair with
purple markers because she wants to be different and has a to-do list that
includes having sex as soon as possible to ‘get it out of the way’ is
instrumental in helping Nina search for her birth mother who (thanks to Google)
is eventually revealed as a Pop Star of the Eighties.
In
due course a younger sister is found, the biggest shock to that being that they
both went to the same school, and Nina is ashamed to think that in those days
she thought Lindy Walsh was a snivelly little thing. Now Lindy Walsh is not interested in any kind
of sister relationship with Nina, much less making contact with their birth
mother. Finding a replacement family is
proving to be much harder than Nina thought, particularly when it is obvious
that all concerned consider her to be ‘needy’.
Which she is, but surely in a good way?
This
is a charming story, and what elevates it into the higher ranks of Chick-Litdom
is Nina’s floundering approach to the perils and joys of a ready-made family,
and her inept but persistent attempts to bond with her true sister and birth
mother: the laughs come thick and fast,
as do the tears, as in all families. FOUR STARS.
The
Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See
Fortunately, Li-yan’s mother enjoys a special status in
the village. She is a respected midwife
and wishes to pass on her skills to Li-yan, the lowly daughter who is addressed
as ‘Girl’ by all the male members of her family, but if Li-yan learns well, she
too will have a status denied other women.
Also, Li-yan’s mother reveals a special secret known only to the female
members of her family: she is the
custodian of a special grove of tea-trees which she lovingly tends. Li-yan will be the next guardian of this
secret, and no man must ever know where
these trees are.
Li-yan is not happy.
She does not want to be a midwife, especially after her first ‘birthing’
where newborn twins were killed because they would bring misfortune to the
village – just because there were two of them;
she is interested in learning
about teas and their myriad varieties and production, but the secret grove can
remain so, as far as she’s concerned – she wants an education! And the effort she employs to achieve her
goals is mighty – until she falls in love, as all young people do, but with a
young man who is not welcomed by her family.
The resulting baby from their union should be killed according to tribal
tradition, but Li-yan’s mother, that superb midwife, helps her to give birth in
the secret grove; then it is up to
Li-yan to take the baby to an orphanage in the nearest big town ,for abandoning
her will give her a chance at life not possible in the Tea Mountains.
Ms
See writes so well of the crippling traditions and superstitions of a remote
people that the reader’s heart aches along with Li-yan’s as she eventually
gains everything she dreams of: an
education; a business; an enviable reputation as a Tea Master; a strong and loving husband; a prosperous life in America, and a son, the
greatest gift of all – except for the yawning hole in her heart where her
daughter should rest. Will she ever find
her?
The
reader certainly hopes so, especially as Li-yan’s child is adopted by Americans
and we are treated to a parallel story of Haley’s childhood, youth and
experiences both positive and negative of being a Chinese American
Adoptee. Ms See’s impeccable research
delves into every aspect of brown skin in a white family and the contradictory
emotions such a state evokes, and this great story is played out against a
backdrop of the huge changes made in Chinese contemporary history over the last
forty years – all melded together by the timeless allure and mystique of an
ancient and beloved beverage. FIVE STARS.
A
Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towle
Moscow, 1922. Thirty year-old Count
Alexander Ilyich Rostov, scion of a formerly illustrious family of the Russian
aristocracy faces a Bolshevik committee dedicated to investigating his reasons
for returning to Russia on pain of execution by firing squad, rather than
staying in exile in Paris with so many other cowardly White Russians. His reply that he ‘missed the climate’ was
greeted with the disdain it deserved, and if he hadn’t displayed
pre-revolutionary valour during the First World War he would have been executed
forthwith: instead, his punishment is to
remain under house arrest as a ‘Former Person’ in the Metropol Hotel, directly
opposite the Kremlin. If he should leave
in the future for any reason at all, then
he will be shot.
Alexander
is a cultured bon vivant, educated to
his very fingertips, an aristocrat to the bone.
He is also an optimist, determined not to be daunted by his new
situation – even when his sumptuous apartment at the Metropol as part of his
new circumstances is substituted for a poky attic room in the servants’
quarters, but he is still able to move precious items of furniture and possessions
he holds dear into his new ‘accommodation’.
Things could be worse – he could be dead! As it is, he is still able to indulge himself
in his daily epicurean routines in the hotel’s various restaurants, forming
firm friendships with the staff, all of whom accept him for the good man that
he is, especially bored nine year-old Nina, whose father is an important cog in
Stalin’s new government. Their
friendship is so strong that many years later, she entrusts her own precious
child Sofia to his care (to his utter bewilderment!) while she searches for her
husband, sent in disgrace to a Siberian Gulag.
Yes,
life is tolerable at the Metropol, thanks to the staff loyalty and friendship –
why, it is even possible to have a romantic liaison with ‘a willowy young
beauty’ who is a rising film star: she
is attracted to his wit and urbanity, not to mention more intimate skills. For the fact that he must never venture past
the front door, his life contains everything he enjoys or desires. Until a new waiter is employed in one of the
hotel restaurants: his waiting skills
are negligible; he is rude and inept –
but he has contacts in high places, and he loathes
Alexander, viewing him as a prime example of an effete and evil class
system, the remains of which Comrade Stalin is purging assiduously. Alexander has an enemy without making the
slightest effort to gain one, and his life is more dangerous as a result.
Alexander’s
story is recounted in prose as elegant and witty as its protagonist. Amor Towle has created a singular and
unforgettable man who makes the very best of his circumstances despite fate’s
attempts to defeat his perpetual optimism - he is eventually employed as the hotel’s
top restaurant’s head waiter, a position designed to humiliate, instead
producing the opposite effect: he excels
at his new job, for no-one knows wonderful food and wine better than he. But when a threat to Sofia rears its head, he
must risk his own life to save hers.
This
is a beautiful story of friendship and loyalty set against a background of some
of the most turbulent times of Russia’s history – across the road from the
Kremlin in fact, for the Metropol Hotel is as much a character as its occupants
in this fine novel. SIX STARS
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