Letters From Father Christmas

Tolkien, J.R.R. Letters From Father Christmas. New York: Houghton Mifflin 1976. Print.

First Sentences:

Christmas House, North Pole

22nd December 1920

 

Dear John,

 

I heard you ask daddy what I was like and where I lived. I have drawn me and my house for you...I am just off now for Oxford with my bundle of toys -- some for you. Hope I shall arrive in time; the snow is very thick at the North Pole tonight. Your loving Father Christmas 

Description:

There is no book more delightful in so many ways than J.R.R. Tolkein's Letters from Father Christmas. These are hand-written letters, complete with water-color illustrations, from Santa (J.R.R. Tolkein) to Tolkein's three children, starting when John, the eldest, was three years old in 1920. Letters from Father Christmas compiles twenty years of these simple, heartfelt notes about Santa and his beautiful, often disaster-prone life in the North Pole.

 

 

Here we can read about the latest antics of Santa's mischievious Chief Assistant, the North Polar Bear, as well as descriptions of various other characters like the Red Gnome, Snow-elves, Cave Bears, and many more. Of course, Santa writes about his own life and the unexpected challenges he faced over the past year, such as when the North Polar Bear got into Santa's basement and accidently set off all the fireworks used for the Northern Lights. Or when the North Polar Bear climbed the North Pole, broke it, and fell through Santa roof, ruining many children's presents.

These letters were lovingly selected and presented by Baille Tolkein, the wife of Tolkein's third son, Christopher. She includes samples of the envelopes, stamps, and marginalia comments from the Polar Bear on Santa's original notes. 

The quality and colors of the water color pictures and letters are exquisite, while the impish writing style of Santa himself makes this small book a perfect companion for a reading session with any youngster, or just to savor by yourself alone by the fire. Tolkein truly makes the magic of Santa and his polar world come to life. 

 

You won't be sorry you picked up this imaginative, artistic collection from the mind of J.R.R. Tolkein. Of course, it earns my Highest Recommendation.

 

 

 Happy reading. 

 

Fred

Other book recommendations
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Rylant, Cynthis. Henry and Mudge and a Very Merry Christmas.   

If you are looking for a book to read to and look at wonderful illustrations with very young children, or let them read alone when a bit older, I highly recommend the "Henry and Mudge" books. This series focuses on the adventures of a ordinary young boy and his huge, drooling, lazy afraid-of-thunder dog, whimsically written and illustrated. The stories are highly familiar scenarios to most kids, from tree houses to visiting relatives and building forts in the snow. Delightful for adults and children alike, a rare quality.

 

The Lamplighters

Stonex, Emma. The Lamplighters. New York: Viking 2021. Print

First Sentences:

When Jory opens the curtains, the day is light and gray, the radio playing a half-known song.

He listens to the news, about a girl who's gone missing from a bus stop up north, and drinks from a mug of brown tea.


Description:

Emma Stonex's The Lamplighters is based on an incredible, true mystery. According to the Author's Note section, in December, 1900, three lighthouse keepers disappeared from a remote rock lighthouse on the island of Eilean Mor in the Outer Hebrides." They were never found. 

The Lamplighters is a fictionalized view depicting a similar occurrence. Set in the 1970s, author Stonex creates the world of life on a lighthouse island, of three keepers and their lives, their routines, and their secrets, all building up to a similar disappearance of all three men just like the historic incident from the 1900s.

The book opens with the scheduled relief boat trying to land on the lighthouse island in high seas. The lighthouse door, the relief men discover, is locked from the inside. The interior of the tower is neatly in order, but Arthur, Bill, and Vincent, the lighthouse keepers, are eerily not seen or answering to the relief men's calls. 

There had been no recent communication from the light tower, so this was deemed a "rescue mission" rather than a "relief" mission. In reality, the relief men felt they would be looking for bodies. It was inconceivable that the three keepers could have escaped the island without a boat. The door locked from the inside seemed to confirm the three keepers (or their bodies) had to be inside the tower or on the island someplace.

But they weren't.

There was no indication of a getaway, no sign of flight, nothing to suggest the keepers have gone anywhere at all...The table is laid for a meal uneaten. Two places, not three -- a knife and fork each, a plate waiting for food...The clock on the wall has stopped at eight forty-five.

So what happened? That is the ticklish, locked-room question that, twenty years later, an adventure writer, Dan Sharp, wants to try to answer. Sharp tries to dig into the circumstances that led to the men's disappearance by examining letters, old news articles, and interviewing the surviving wives, girlfriends, family, and town acquaintances. No source provides more than a few meager clues. 

Alternating between Sharp's investigation in the present with the daily routines of the lighthouse keepers twenty years in the past, The Lamplighters quietly keeps you closely involved with this mystery, forcing readers to examine every detail to try to predict what happened to these three men, and why?

Intriguing? To be sure. Tense? Of course. And engrossing? Of the highest order. I strongly predict this will be a book for a quiet, compelling read that keeps you wondering about the circumstances and people, and whether author Stonex will possibly reach any ending that proves satisfactory..

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Stedman, M.L. The Light Between Oceans.   

A lighthouse keeper and his young wife live on a small island off the isolated coast of Australia. Childless in their young marriage, they are surprised when a rowboat washes ashore carrying a dead man and a living three-month-old baby. The lighthouse keeper's young wife is adamant, after several miscarriages, that they keep the child themselves without revealing the source of the baby, but the morally principled husband feels they should seek out the infant's family.  (previously reviewed here)

 

Life Among the Savages

 Jackson, Shirley. Life Among the Savages. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young. 1948. Print

First Sentences:

Our house is old, and noisy, and full.

When we moved into it we had two children and about five thousand books; I expect that when we finally overflow and move out again we will have perhaps twenty children and easily half a million books....

I cannot think of a preferable way of life, except one without children....


Description:

Shirley Jackson is best known for her creepy short story, "The Lottery" with its surprise, horrifying ending. But in a completely different vein is her humorous memoir of her family adventures in their everyday world, Life Among the Savages, which details her life with husband and children in rural New Hampshire.

After getting a notice of eviction from their New York City apartment due to the forgotten end date of their lease, Jackson, husband, and two children knew they had to look for a larger place outside the city. But they delayed their search out of procrastination until just days before being kicked out of their apartment. Then they remembered friends who had successfully re-located to a small town in New Hampshire. So Jackson's family finally started (and ended) their house search there.

The house hunt is the first adventure she relates. An agent in the rural town shows them only places to buy (despite their protestations that the Jacksons wanted to rent a normal house). All had no plumbing, were falling down or without heat, often all the above. 

Once settled, Jackson gives us stories of their highly-personable children, starting with son Laurie's first day of school:

The day Laurie started kindergarten he renounced corduroy overalls with bibs and began wearing blue jeans with a belt; ...an era of my life was ended, my sweet-voiced nursery-school tot replaced by a long-trousered, swaggering character who forgot to stop at the corner and wave goodbye to me.

Laurie came home with lots of stories in the first weeks of school, all involving a fellow student named Charles, who did one bad thing after another and was punished by their teacher. Biting, saying nasty words, and throwing chalk, Charles became a fascinating character in the Jackson family's life. Jackson herself was incredibly curious to meet Charles' mother and see what kind of woman could raise such a mischievous boy. Then came the first parent-teacher night when she found out from Laurie's teacher that Laurie had taken some time to adjust to school ... and that there was no Charles in the class. 

Jackson's imaginative daughter Jannie gets her share of coverage. 

Daughter Jannie (age 5) went by Mrs. Ellenoy, "the second Mrs. Ellenoy," because the first had died and left her with 7 daughters all named Martha. 

Jackson's husband, usually a quiet figure in the family adventures, was the central figure of a wonderful story involving his air gun (bought for "target practice"), their pet cat, a chipmunk, and a bat that all came together inside the house. 

Other delightful tales included:

• When the family thinks about buying a car (their first since no one knew how to drive) and the ensuing arguments about who would get to sit in the front passenger seat. Of course, after they finally do get a car, son Laurie decides he'd rather have a plane, and the fights renew over who would get to sit on the wing.

• When Father and son bond over coin collecting, but are dismayed to find one shipment that contains both a bag of valuable coins as well as a bag of counterfeit coins. The bags had burst, accidently scattering the real and fake coins together to be somehow sorted over the weeks to come.

Life Among the Savages is just a lovely, clever, funny, and completely believable accounting of a normal family living an everyday life in a small town. Absolutely delightful in all ways, a welcome antidote to our grouchy, pandemic-stay-at-home blues.

Happy reading.

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Gilbreth, Franklin B. Cheaper by the Dozen.   

Memoirs of a family with twelve, yes that's 12, children, iled by the quirky father, a famous time-management expert who tries to regulate the learning and activities of the household. Don't need to say any more except that it is cleverly written and extremely funny, full of wonderful stories.

Presidio

Kenedy, Randy. Presidio. New York: Touchstone 2018. Print

First Sentences:

Later, in the glove box, the police found a folder of notes. It said: 

Notes for the police:  (Or anybody else who finds this and wants to read it.): My name is Troy Alan Falconer. These are the things I love most: I love checking into a motel room on a hot afternoon, when the cool air inside smells of freon and anonymity. (They always leave the A/C running for you.) I love checking out at dawn, my hair combed wet to meet the world. I love hard-shell luggage and Swiss-made watches...I love driving cars down empty highways in the middle of the night, listening to the music of sincere-sounding country singers like Wynn Stewart and Jim Reves....I love these things for their own sake. But I can enjoy them only when they posses a certain additional quality...of belonging rightfully and legally to comeone other than myself.

Description:

There are a few more items Troy Falconer records in his "Folder for the Police" left in an abandoned car in the opening sentences of Randy Kenedy's Presidio. Right away, we getr a picture of, and maybe even like, this audacious man -- at least, I did. The reference to the police finding these notes in an abandoned car was a bit ominous, probably foreshadowning that this man might not be a person worthy of affection. But that's what pulled me into this character and plot.

Turns out, Troy is a car thief traveling through the desert expanse of the Texas Panhandle region in the 1970s. He is a man who loves cars and is quite good at taking them from unsuspecting people, usually fellow travelers staying in cheap motels. He loves driving, too, especially "full-size automatic sedans with electric windows and bench seats, upholstered in breathable fabric, not vinyl." He has his standards.  

I'd like you to believe that I started out with some kind of justification, a reason better than anger and want. But that was mostly it -- same old story. It wasn't until later that it changed from a profession into a way of life, a calling that felt almost religious if I'd been inclued that way.

If I had, I would have been its reverend. Preaching my message of freedom through loss from my pulpit behind the dashboard.

Troy returns after many years away to his bleak hometown to help his estranged brother, Harlan, find his wife and get back the money she took when she ran away. Of course, they first steal a car before setting off after the woman. Unfortunately, they inadvertantly make off with something else hidden in the stolen car. When the brothers discover their unexpected cargo, they realize their plans must change and they head on backroads towards the Mexican border town of Presidio.

With the police right behind them.

Part diary entries (remember, the notes left in the glove compartment for the police?), part stream-of-consciousness narrative of his history, and part meditations by Troy, Presidio offers non-stop tension and personality for the travelers. These are really "alive" characters, vivid in all their faults and dreams. Beautifully written, the story also throws in fascinating details about cars, car stealing, cheap motels, and the flat Texas desert that they blow past on their drive.

The land no longer seemed actively hostile. It just seemed like one of the places on the earth that had long ago stopped bothering to hide its indifference.

This is a debut novel by Randy Kennedy, so I sincerely hope this is the first of many more stories to come from him. I'll be right there ready to read them all.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Lutz, Lisa. The Passenger.   

Tonya, the narrator, takes to the open road to avoid police who might question how her husband ended up dead after a fall down the stairs. Tonya changes her name, cars, living accomodations, jobs, and lifestyles on her odysee for a new, anonymous life away from pursuit. Gripping and unexpected on every page. (Previously reviewed here)

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet

Larsen, Reif. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet New York: Penguin 2009. Print

First Sentences:

The phone call came late one August afternoon as my older sister Gracie and I sat out on the back porch shucking the sweet corn into the big tin buckets.

The buckets were still peppered with little teeth-marks from this past spring, when Verywell, our ranch hound, became depresed and turned to eating metal.

Description:

How can I explain the marvelous characters, setting, actions and illustrations of Reif Larsen's debut novel, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet? It's impossible to fully describe the genius mind and illustrations of its narrator, T.S. Spivet, a twelve-year-old map-maker extrordinaire. I can only offer examples which hopefully will hint at and temp you into the adventures and intricacy of this wonderful book.

Tecumseh Sparrow (T.S.) Spivet is no ordinary maker of topographical drawings of land, oceans, cities. No, he is an acute observer of the world and its patterns and behaviors. Spivet draws intricate diagrams of actions (e.g., the motions of his father drinking whiskey), objects (the history of the family phone cord), actions (the internal mechinations of how his parents met at a square dance), senses (separate freight train noises combine into a leasing sandwich of sound), emotions (The McAwesome Trident of Desire as demonstrated by McDonald's), and yes, even geography (the Yuma Bat Field #2 showing the location of Spivet's last will and testament). These and so many more are included in the margins of almost every page in the book, along with T.S.'s insightful captions. All from a young boy living on an isolated ranch in Montana.

A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected. To do this right is very difficult.

While these examples may sound frivilous, make no mistake: T.S. Spivet is a very serious person. The phone call he receives in the opening pages of the book is from The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., announcing that he has won the prestigious Baird Award, along with a job at The Smithsonian. He is asked to travel to Washington D.C. to receive the prize in a formal ceremony and then give a speech to a roomful of scientists regarding his drawings used by the Smithsonian in their exhibits.

The problem? The Smithsonian doesn't know he is only twelve years old. They assume when Spivet talks over the phone to them about his school, that he is referring to a prestigious teaching post at some important higher-level institution, not his middle school. Also, Spivet's parents do not know of his relationship with The Smithsonian, the prize, or the travel requirement. His father is a weathered cowboy who is right at home doing manly things around their sprawling ranch, while his mother pursues her own biological study to discover an illusive species of beetle which may not even exist.

What to do? Of course, after much careful packing and no actual planning regarding transportation, Sopivet hops a freight train for Washington D.C. two thousand miles away with just a suitcase filled with his drawing instruments and some energy bars.  

During the journey, Spivet has time to reflect on his life, his family, the world passing by, and his future life among scientists at The Smithsonian. As his mind roves, he draws fantastic sketches with explanations of various things, people, or actions from his past, present travels, and his possible future. These are the most gloriously fun, informative, and artístic footnotes you will ever read.

This is so much more than just a simple travel story. Spivet reflects and pieces together fragments (and, of course, maps) about his life on a ranch with disconnected parents, an older sister who is into pop music, the sudden death of his younger brother (in which Spivet seems to have played a role), and a family genealogy of women scientists living in the isolated region of Montana. Each influences his travel and future plans, what he can make of them.

I won't reveal any more about Spivet and his journey so as not to spoil any part of the joy I hope you experience reading this book. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's moved onto my all-time favorite list and will be re-read by me many times to immerse myself into this brilliant, curious mind and world.

Mediocrity is a fungus of the mind. We must constantly rally against it -- it will try to creep into all that we do, but we must not let it.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet  

Not sure if Hatchet is exactly like T.S. Spivit, but both do focus on pre-teen narrators on an unknown journey full of obstacles they must face with their wits, bravery, and humor. Hatchet  relates how one boy survives a plane crash deep in the Canadian forests and must try to figure out how to survive. Even if these books aren't too similar, I can't miss an opportunity to get people to read Hatchet, too. It's the best. Highly recommended.

A Long Way Home

Brierley, Saroo. A Long Way Home: A Memoir. New York: Putnam Sons. 2013. Print

First Sentences:

They're gone.

I've been thinking about this day for twenty-five years. Growing up half a world away, with a new name and a new family, wondering whether I would ever see my mother and brothers and sister again. And now here I am, standing at a door near the corner of a run-down building in a poor district of a small, dusty town in central India -- the place I grew up -- and no one lives here. It's empty.

The last time I stood on this ground, I was five years old.




Description:

Imagine yourself at age five, sitting patiently on a train platform waiting for your older brother. When he doesn't return, you think he already jumped a train home, so you hop into an empty rail car that unfortunately locks behind you and prevents you from exiting. When the train finally stops, you find yourself hundreds of miles away in one of the world's largest train stations in Calcutta, India, alone.

A Long Way Home: A Memoir is the true adventure of Saroo Brierley, a five-year-old boy who gets lost in a foreign city. Illiterate, not even sure of his own name or the name of his
hometown, he must live by his wits for several weeks in the train station and on the nearby streets, his pleas for help ignored by everyone. Each day he selects a train and rides it to the end of it run, hoping that the train might be the same one that brought him to Calcutta and might now return him home. Day after day he rides, never seeing any familiar station, nor conductor or adult who might question a solitary child in the car or station.

He is eventually picked up by police and taken to a shelter for homeless children, a very dangerous place with threats coming from both inside and outside its walls. Luckily, he is transferred to an orphanage and eventually adopted by a loving family in Australia.

But as he grows up, he still remember his Indian home with his older brother, his mother, and younger sister. Because he cannot remember the exact name of his tiny city, using Google Earth he begins to trace each of the hundreds of railroad lines flowing in and out of Calcutta and explore aerial views of the towns along those tracks, hoping to spot a landmark he remembers. It is the work of years, but (as Brierley reveals in the opening sentences) he eventually discovers what he thinks could be his family home.

But what of his mother? What happened that night when he and his brother were separated? Why was he not able to get off the train? How far had he actually come from his village? And what does all this mean to his new parents and life in Australia? Many questions remain that can only be resolved by visiting this tiny city, his possible familial home.

The fact that Brierley wrote about his return to his Indian home in his first lines makes the book not a "will he or won't he find his family" story, but rather one that focuses on the journey taken to get to that point. It is the day-by-day recollections of a myriad of experiences of a five-year-old and later college-age man, taking readers into his world of survival and searching, living on the streets, the people who befriend or threaten him, and the family that loves him in Australia.

Brierley is an extraordinary story-teller, clearly weaving his life experiences into a gripping, compelling tale that reveals both the vast anonymity and poverty of the Indian environment as well as intimate thoughts and actions of one little boy and later a man struggling to find his home and family. His story has become internationally famous and now there is even a movie possibility, quite a giant step for a lost, illiterate, and poverty-stricken five-year-old,

It is a riveting story of triumph, discovery, and personal drive to survive and reach for answers to questions despite impossible obstacles. Wonderful, inspiring, and eye-opening. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping: A Novel

Another look at the world of a child trying to cope in the confusing world of loneliness, quirkiness, and family. Not quite the same story as Saroo's in losing a parent, but the young girl here is raised by a uniquely odd aunt and describes her feelings of survival and coping honestly and touchingly. I just love this book, so wanted to recommend it even if it is not exactly like Long Way Home. So there. 

Franklin, Miles. My Brilliant Career

Written when only 19 years old, author Miles Franklin recalls at her life in Australia in the 1890s which she found wanting for a budding writer. Her family life goes from humble origins to enjoying a world with a wealthy grandmother to teaching and living on a squalid farm. Wonderfully poignant and well-written, a classic in every sense of the word.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir

McCracken, Elizabeth. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir. New York: Littleton, Brown. 2008. Print

First Sentences:

Once upon a time, before I knew anything about the subject, a woman told me I should write a book about the lighter side of losing a child.

(This is not that book.)

Description:

Discovering a new author can lead you to topics well outside your usual preferences as you glom onto every book which that author has written. You follow serendipitous pathways from one subject to another just to keep reading the words of a quality writer. Subject matter, to me, is always secondary to writing style and characters. If an author you enjoy writes it, you will come (and read it). 

Such an experience is now happening to me with Elizabeth McCracken, my newest favorite writer. After being fascinated by her book, The Giant's House, I have been reading everything else she has written (Niagara Falls All Over Again; Thunderstruck; Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry). 

Now I have completed An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir, about a topic I probably would not have explored except that McCracken had written about it. The subject? The stillbirth death of her first child, along with the events leading to that day and the recovery she and her husband undergo, culminating with the successful birth of her second child one year later.

The title gave me no hint as to its subject, although the intricate, confusing linkage of these words was intriguing to me, an unsuspecting reader. As any great writer does, she provides information in her first sentences to separate the sheep from the goat readers who are uncertain whether to continue reading. She seems to say, "This book is about the death of my baby, so keep reading or move on." For me, I was all in based on these in-your-face initial sentences and McCracken's previous triumphs in books. 

She engagingly details the intimate and sometimes funny story of her early single years, her love for her husband, and their life in an ancient French farmhouse.  McCracken and her husband, both authors, are living in rural France during her pregnancy and the delivery. During her pregnancy, they refer to their expected child "Pudding," originally a joke but it sticks and actually becomes the name they choose for the death certificate and coffin. McCracken's writes openly about her normal pregnancy full of joy, expectations, worries and hopes common to expectant parents ... right up to the moment when she learns her child is dead inside her, and she "stepped over the border from happy pregnancy to grief."

During an examination shortly before her due date, no heart beat could be heard inside the womb. Her thoughts at that moment are numbing, especially when she realizes she will still have to go through the delivery, knowing the result will be a dead baby. I cannot relate to you the kind of sadness she describes so clearly, so honestly, and so achingly final.

The memoir jumps back and forth between her life before, during, and after Pudding's death, including her second successful pregnancy. Because she foreshadows the stillborn delivery in the first sentences, she has no need to hide that event which permeates every memory. McCracken writes of incidents with her thoughts felt at those moments, as well as with the emotions she now has as she looks back with new irony and understanding. And such emotion she reveals to us:

The first thing we did back at Savary [their French farmhouse] was dismantle the future....Edward broke down the portable crib...I threw out all my maternity clothes...tossed out stuffed hippopotamus and any other toylike object....but not the baby clothes.

Who can separate practicality from hope from lingering superstition? We wanted another child. We wanted to fill those clothes.  

The anticipated autopsy report provides a new concern for McCracken. 

All summer long we'd waited for the autopsy results. I wanted to read them and I didn't want to read them. I was terrified that the verdict would say, essentially, Cause of death: maternal oblivion.... [The conclusion actually was] chorioamniotitis, with no known histological cause.

The book also provides an insightful look at the power words and actions have on someone who has experienced a calamity. Well-meaning people inquire about McCracken's baby and she finds explanations the hardest thing to do. She feels she needs a card similar to those passed out by deaf people asking for money.

When Pudding died, I wanted my stack [of cards]. My first child was stillborn, it would say on the front....I want people to know but I don't want to say it aloud. People don't like to hear it but I think they might not mind reading it on a card.... [I could give it to] every single person who noticed I was pregnant the second time, and said "Congratulations! It this your first?"

She notes that people can have a positive impact as well. As a cancer survivor I found I could identify with the power friends and family can have during one's struggle to deal with unexpected and overpoweringly sad circumstances.

Before Pudding died, I'd thought condolence notes were simply small bits of old-fashioned etiquette, important but universally acknowledged as inadequate gestures. Now they felt like oxygen, and only now do I fully understand why: to know that other people were sad made Pudding more real.

There is some unexpected humor as well. After hearing of the dead baby inside her, she is asked by a nurse, in French, whether they want "une nonne" (a nun). Her husband hears "Un nain" (a dwarf), so they later laugh at the concept that French hospitals have "Dwarfs of Grief" to comfort those who suffer a tragedy.

So how does a reader like me who enjoys Lee Child bloody thrillers, memoirs about prisons, humorous crime capers, sports histories, space exploration, and Tolkien get helplessly mixed up with a memoir of such sadness as the loss of a child? It's simple. McCracken is a highly skilled writer who can really tell a story with feeling and honesty, with personality and even self-deprecating humor. An Exact Replica has all my elements for a quality read: great writing, interesting characters, and a compelling story. I was led to this book because I simply wanted to read more by McCracken, but then found myself thoroughly engrossed and even able to relate to her descriptions of a world of hospitals, people, and sorrow.

McCracken recalls a sentence that keeps going through her mind: "This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending." I think these words perfectly describe this book. This memoir is not simply a terrible tragedy; it is story of a happy, normal woman encountering a harsh reality, painstakingly recording her thoughts, and then trying to move forward. You cannot simply "read" this book impassively; you are totally absorbed into her mind and actions, experiencing along side her every hope and trial. It is a powerful read about tragedy and hope.


Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

McCracken, Elizabeth. The Giant's House: A Romance

A fiercely independent, crotchety librarian takes a special interest in a young boy who is remarkably curious about information, books, and discussions. And he is a giant, growing to over 8' tall by age 18. (previously reviewed here)

Hitchens, Christopher. Mortality.

One man's personal thoughts on his battle with cancer. Very compelling reading to help readers understand what someone with this disease is feeling regarding his illness, how friends interact with him, care from his doctors, and his plans.

Diamond, John. Because Cowards Get Cancer Too: A Hypochondriac Confronts His Nemesis.

Thoughtful, personal, and humorous account of John Diamond's long struggle with cancer as originally told through his column in the Times of London. Highly recommended along with the Hitchens' book for anyone who wants to know what having cancer is like. His words ring true to me as a fellow cancer patient. (previously reviewed here)

Halpern, Susan. The Etiquette of Illness: What to Say When You Can't Find the Words.

Excellent suggestions and practical applications for talking (or not talking) to people with illness: how to say what you want without causing offense or embarrassment, what they want you to say, when to just remain silent. Very valuable examples and advice for well-intentioned friends and family of patients of all ages and illnesses.

Schroder: A Novel

Gaige, Amity. Schroder: A Novel. New York: Twelve. 2013. Print

First Sentences:

What follows is a record of where Meadow and I have been since our disappearance.

My lawyer says I should tell the whole story. Where we went, what we did, who we met, etc. As you know, Laura, I'm not a reticent person. I'm talkative -- you could even say chatty -- for a man. But I haven't spoken a word for days. It's a vow I've taken. My mouth tastes old and damp, like a cave.

Description:

Amity Gaige's Schroder: A Novel is a rare book: compelling and unsettling, loving and surprising all at the same time. It is the story of one father's overwhelming love for his daughter, his confusion about the break-up of his marriage, and his uncertainty about his own life and identity.

Beautifully and passionately written, Schroder is the journal written by Eric Kennedy from his jail cell detailing the reasons for his spontaneous abduction of his daughter and their activities during those weeks. While seemingly a horrifying premise, Eric tells his story calmly and rationally, adding bits of his own history. He reflects on his childhood flight from East Germany with his father to the United States, his fabrication of a new last name and life history to get into a boys' camp, and his love for his wife, Laura, and their six-year-old daughter Meadow. 

But Eric also records his insecurities with his own parenthood, with relationships, and his private research project that seems to have neither purpose nor end. And he writes of Laura's frustration and ongoing conflict with him about his parenting shortcomings and their eventual separation, divorce and limited visitation arrangements. Without his daughter and his wife, his life starts to go downhill. 

There was the underlying problem of days. Between every allotted weekend visitation sprawled the weeks themselves. Worm-eaten, heartsick, exaggerated days bookended by conciliatory Saturdays and Sundays in her presence. Then, every other weekend without her. Grief made those weekends drag. 

During one visit with Meadow, he suddenly decides they need a road trip and off they go, with no real plan or explanation given to his ex-wife and Meadow's mother, Laura. The journey seems slightly irregular even to Eric, but he relishes the opportunity to spend time with his daughter. Meadow is excited at first, then a bit puzzled about the whole experience. But she loves her father and together they move from location to location, quietly under the radar, searching for ... what?

Soon, however, their trip grows into something else: an reckless, endless flight away from his former life. Turning back and delivering Meadow to her mother is inevitable Eric knows, but as the days and miles pile up, return becomes not a simple solution. Such an action will be full with repercussions and probably signaling the end to his life with Meadow.

I realized that my situation was irreparable. I was like dead man, appealing my death. It made me too sad, to realize how late and how insufficient such an appeal would be.

Over the days his relationship with Meadow changes, both for better and worse. He has sole responsibility for the safety, care, and feeding of a six-year-old, and his rises to that occasion as often as he acts completely irresponsibility towards her. He becomes more and more conflicted.

I had forgotten about the vortex that gets created when you love a kid. Because I wanted to be with my daughter more than anything, and yet I also wanted to be free of that desire. I wanted to be free of that desire because I knew being with her had an end.

He sometimes ponders about what ex-wife Laura is doing, considers her fears for her daughter, and her probable confusion as to Eric's intentions. He is sure she is angry and does not understand her actions that caused this situation. Although he still loves Laura and secretly hopes for a reconciliation and more happy years together in the future, in his more calm moments knows it will never be. 

But he cannot give up on the road trip with Meadow, his final chance to be with her on an extended basis, no matter the cost 

I knew it was cruel not to call you, to tell you that Meadow was all right, that is wasn't as bad as you were thinking. But I was used to your absence, and we were both used to cruelty by then, I mean the casual cruelty of people dismantling their life together.

Eric is never violent or even mean to Meadow, showing her only loving devotion as her father. She occasionally questions their adventure and the new people and places they encounter, but her father is there, she has plenty of junk food to eat and no school, so life seems pretty good to her.

This is a strongly written story about an intelligent, troubled, and wounded man who seizes on an opportunity and rides it to whatever conclusion comes, right or wrong. His desire to spend time with his daughter consumes him. As he writes this detailed journal which "could someday help him in court," we readers slowly enter his mind and life, seeing their influences that lead to this adventure. 

His sadness, passion, insecurity, intelligence, and dedication to having a life with Meadow drive him constantly. It is absolutely riveting to follow his story and his wild attempts to find and then preserve love and relationships:

Because in the end, the great warring forces of our existence are not life versus death...but rather love versus time. In the majority, love does not survive time's passage. But sometimes it does. It must, sometimes.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Flynn, Gillian. Gone Girl

The deterioration of a marriage to the point where the husband is accused of killing his wife who has disappeared. But is that the whole story? (previously reviewed here)