Silver Sparrow

Jones, Tayari. Silver Sparrow. Chapel Hill: Algonquin 2011. Print.

First Sentences:

My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.

He was already married ten years when he first clamped eyes on my mother. In 1968, she was working at the gift-wrap counter at Davison's downtown when my father asked her to wrap the carving knife he had bought his wife for their wedding anniversary. Mother said she knew that something wasn't right between a man and a woman when the gift was a blade.

Description:

Thus begins Tayari Jones's highly engaging, challenging novel, Silver Sparrow. James Witherspoon was happily married to Laverne with a daughter Chaurisse. Then he met and fell in love with the beautiful Gwen. Knowing full well James was already married, Gwen married James anyways and produced a daughter, Dana. It is Dana who narrates the first half of this unusual family situation.

James doesn't hide Laverne and his original family from Gwen and Dana, but he does conceal his new second family from Laverne and Chaurisse while living his double life in the same city, splitting time between the two families. James chooses to give Laverne and Chaurisse an affluent lifestyle while relegating Gwen and Dana to second class status. He is loving, but simply cannot make public his illegal second family, nor afford to support both in the same grandiose manner. 

But fifteen-year-old Dana, as the "outside" child, decides to change things. She befriends Chaurisse, knowing they are sisters but keeps secret that information from Chaurisse. Together, without revealing their new friendship to their mothers, Dana and Chaurisse explore each other's home and family. Their interpersonal relationship drives each one to new levels of understanding of the complexity of separate families, boyfriends, and lifestyles. But only Dana know the truth about their shared father.

Then, just as you have everything figured out and personalities neatly explained, Chaurisse takes over the narration of the second half of the book. It is a unexpected twist to see the same story from her very different perspective. She becomes a much more complex character than we readers formerly believed, and her questions about Dana and her own confusing lifestyle build to a surprising climax.

Author Jones is a wonderful writer, portraying interesting characters in situations that are both unique and yet highly believable and engrossing. Her writing style is clean, almost breezy, despite the difficult subject matter. The strength of the book is in each of the characters: James, Gwen, Dana, Chaurisse, and many more friends and family members. All are completely human, sympathetic in many ways yet sometimes difficult to accept for the questionable decisions they make. No heroes or villains here, just ordinary people trying to deal with a difficult situation.

I loved the book as I enjoyed An American Marriage also by Tavari Jones. Definitely a writer to read now and hopefully in many more books in the future.

Love is a maze. Once you get in it, you're pretty much trapped. Maybe you manage to claw your way out, but then what have you accomplished?

Happy reading. 

Fred

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

Jones, Tayari. An American Marriage  

Celestial and Roy, newly married, are thrown into chaos when Roy is falsely accused and jailed for twelve years for a crime he didn't commit. Of course, both people and their friends and family adapt in different ways. Excellent. (previously reviewed here)

The Bookshop of Yesterdays

Meyerson, Amy. The Bookshop of Yesterdays. New York: Park Row 2018. Print

First Sentences:

The last time I saw my uncle, he bought me a dog

A golden retriever puppy with sad eyes and a heart-shaped note. I didn't have her long enough to give her a name. One moment she was running around my living room with the promise of many adventures together and the next she was gone.

It was the same way with Uncle Billy.

Description:

What's not to like about a story about books, a bookstore, and a mystery complete with clues hidden by a dead relative leading to who knows what? In Amy Meyerson's debut novel The Bookshop of Yesterdays, she gives us lucky readers all three in a clever, mixture, full of likable characters trying to find some semblance of order to everything. Throw in some complex relationships between family members and loves and you have a page-turning read good for pleasantly whiling away several hours immersed in a story that is hard to abandon.

Miranda, a book-lover who as a child, delighted in spending time in her Uncle Billy's bookstore, Prospero Books. He used to hide scavenger-hunt clues throughout the books in the store for Miranda to follow to some exotic treasure brought back by Billy from his world travels. When Billy dies and leave Prospero Books to Miranda, she plans a short visit to Los Angeles to check in on the bookshop's current condition. Soon, despite having little knowledge of running a business, Miranda finds herself immersed in the struggle to keep the bookstore afloat, postponing again and again the return to her home in the east. This requires juggling a relationship with her boyfriend on the other coast who wonders when she will return to their life ... if ever

But she discovers Billy has left a variety of literary clues again that lead her to information regarding his mysterious life, his travels, the bookstore, and the falling-out he had years ago with his sister (Miranda's mother) that lead to them not speaking or having contact for years. There is a family mystery that can only be unraveled through solving these newly-discovered literary clues. An understanding of Shakespeare's The Tempest is a particular key for Miranda who, of course, was named after the play's principle character.

It's an interesting mystery full of quirky characters who busily pursue a variety of avenues  wherever they might lead, but also keep closely guarded their own pathways that affect Miranda's life, her family, and the bookshop itself.

If nothing else, read Bookshop of Yesterdays for its challenging literary references that lead readers on a wild chase through the world of great books and authors. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

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

Dunning, John. Booked to Die.   

Cliff Janeway, former cop and avid collector of rare books, opens a bookstore and finds himself involved in a murder case. As he begins to understand the world of quality and uniqueness of rare books, he also is drawn into the murder of a book scout who had provided Janeway with books. Wonderful to read descriptions of rare books, their marketability, and the trials of opening a bookstore while following the investigation in the crime. Highly recommended (previously reviewed here)

The Immortalists

Benjamin, Chloe. The Immortalists. New York: Putnam 2018. Print

First Sentences:

Varya is thirteen ....

They wind through the neighborhood, all four of them: Varya, the eldest; Daniel, eleven; Klara, nine; and Simon, seven. 

Description:

What if you had the opportunity to know the exact date of your own death? Would you want to find out that information? Would knowing this date change your life in any way? In Chloe Benjamin's novel The Immortalists, the four young siblings in the Gold family decide to obtain this information for themselves. They meet with a gypsy woman and are each secretly told the dates of their deaths. Some of the children share this information about when they will die with their brothers and sisters, while one only says he will die "Young."

What follows in this brilliantly-written novel are separate chronologies for the lives of Varya, Daniel, Klara, and Simon Gold. Broken into four sections, the book tells four individual narratives, each focusing on one sibling, stretching from their late teens years on into adulthood. One child goes on to become a dancer, one a magician, one a doctor, and one a scientific researcher.

Readers become immersed into each of these lives, so I don't want to reveal more. But all the time as their stories unfold we readers cannot help wondering what an individual's death date is and what each character will do with this knowledge. Those dates are almost never referred to by the siblings, that is, until we finally learn that their day is upon them.

The tension between their everyday lives, loves, triumphs, and defeats is palpitating. While they have little interaction with each other in adulthood, there is a knowledge that each person, like themselves, knows a secret only they are privy to and must deal with that knowledge in their own way.

He heard the siren song of family -- how it pulls you despite all sense; how it forces you to discard your convictions, your righteous selfhood, in favor of profound dependence.

I couldn't stop turning pages, both because I was totally engrossed in their separate life stories and because I just had to know how each person addressed their secret. A truly fascinating plot, well-written, with characters one really cares about deeply. Highly recommended. 

And yet, and yet: Is it a story if you believe it?...On some days, she doesn't think it's absurd to believe that a thought can make something come true.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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

Benjamin, Chloe. The Anatomy of Dreams.   

The headmaster at a boarding school introduces two students into his research into dreams and how, shaping their dreams, they can possibly control stress and tension. But there are developments that bring questions into all three lives and reality and dreams.

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

Tinti, Hannah. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. New York: Random House. 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

When Loo was twelve years old her father taught her how to shoot a gun. 

He had a full case of them in his room, others hidden in boxes around the house.

Description:

Hannah Tinti's thriller, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, is an unusually quiet yet gripping thriller of a tale. Loo Hawley is a twelve-year-old girl growing up while traveling on the road with her secretive father, Steven, driving from anonymous place to anonymous place, living in hotel after hotel. Loo is naturally curious about her father's past, particularly about his relationship with her dead mother, Lily, whom he rarely mentions. 

When Loo and Hawley finally settle in her mother's hometown, Loo slowly begins to gather clues about her parents' life together. She is surprised to learn that their history is not all peaches and cream ... starting with stories about the twelve scars on Hawley's body, all from bullet wounds. 

Flipping seamlessly between their current life in Olympus, Massachusetts, and various criminal episodes from Samuel's past, author Tinti cleverly unfolds the stories behind the people that father and daughter encounter on their travels as well as the adventures that led to each of Samuel's wounds. And there are some doozies.

Meanwhile Loo is coming of age herself, struggling to form friendships with schoolmates, developing her first relationship with another young man, and seeking to understand who she is and what her mother meant to her and Hawley. 

Hawley proves himself a man of extremes: a loving father trying to protect his daughter, but one who owns and uses many guns in criminal activities. At each hotel, he tenderly erects on the bathroom shelf a collection of his deceased wife's belongings (shampoo, grocery list, photos, lipstick, toothbrush, cans of pineapple), yet never discusses her with Loo. He's a man longing to put down roots, yet takes to the road on any hint of inquiry into his life. 

I won't spoil the surprises about the characters or actions Loo and Hawley encounter, but suffice to say Twelve Lives is an engrossing, original tale of genuinely fascinating, honest, and unexpectedly sympathetic people who will pull you into a world of secrets, crime, love, protection, and adventure and won't let go. 

I was hooked by Tinti's writing and creative imagination for plot and sympathetic characters who try so hard to understand and make their world livable and safe for their friends and family despite the sadness and challenges faced during their travels. A keeper of a book for sure.

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:

Amity, Gaige. Schroder: A Novel

Eric Schroder on a whim picks up his daughter, Meadow, from her mother's house to take her for a drive. What starts out as an opportunity for Schroder to spend time with his daughter turns into a rambling roadtrip with unknown consequences for father and daughter alike, both good and bad. (previously reviewed here)

The Misfortune of Marion Palm

Culliton, Emily. The Misfortune of Marion Palm. New York: Knopf 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

Marion Palm is on the lam.

A blue JanSport knapsack filled with $40,000 rests between her ankles. She's taking a train to a midwestern city. She'll buy the ticket under an assumed name. She said goodbye to her two daughters an hour ago and lied about where she was going. She did not say goodbye to her husband.

Description:

Now there's an opening that is loaded with promise. A woman on the run with a bag full of money, leaving her kids and husband without a word. Even better, there is "Misfortune" in the book title. Sounds like some best laid plans will be going astray. I was immediately intrigued and quickly dove in to learn more.

And Emily Culliton's debut novel The Misfortune of Marion Palm, did not disappoint.on every level. Her great story, complex and sympathetic main character, various (unreliable?) narrators, and crisp writing kept me reading right to the very end to discover the final outcome.

Marion Palm has been embezzling money from her daughter's private school for years in order to afford family trips, household expenses, and other necessities. But when a school audit looms, she grabs the remaining cash and takes off without a real plan, leaving family, school, and police detectives in complete confusion.

Slowly it dawns on everyone that Marion is not just missing, kidnapped, hurt, or some other tragic possibility. When it slowly emerges that Marion is a thief, the everyday worlds of the people in her former life are forced to change along with their feelings toward her.

Meanwhile, Marion soon finds herself in an unexpected situation. After drifting aimlessly, she stumbles into a situation that offers her access to further income and high-end living conditions while still allowing her to preserve the secrecy of her past. Of course, she soon resumes her sneaking ways. But this time if her newest indiscretions are discovered, she will not merely answer to a simple school board, but will face repercussions from the mysterious, powerful people she works for. Are the risks she is now taking worth jeopardizing her life?

Unpredictable, thrilling, nerve-wracking, and highly-adaptable, Marion is an unforgettable character on a roller coaster of her own making. Staying one step ahead of discovery and punishment from various sources, Marion lives each day by her wits until new plans can be made and she can continue her new life with all it possibilities, both legal and not.

A previously unknown book and author for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the suspense and edge-of-your-seat situations facing Marion and other characters. Can't wait for Culliton's next book. Highly recommended\.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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

Lutz, Lisa. The Passenger  

A woman's husband has just fallen down the stairs, arriving dead at the bottom. The police suspicion of murder would fall to his wife, so she takes off in the family car with their savings and a new name as a fugitive trying to start a new life. (previously reviewed here)

An Odyssey

Mendelsohn, Daniel. An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic. New York: Knopf 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

One January evening a few years ago, just before the beginning of the spring term in which I was going to be teaching an undergraduate seminar on the Odyssey, my father, a retired research scientist who was then aged eighty-one, asked me, for reasons I thought I understood at the time, if he might sit in on the course, and I said yes.

Description:

When his 81-year-old father asks if he can sit in on his freshman seminar at Bard College on the Odyssey, Daniel Mendelsohn agrees. The resulting experiences from this intimate class and father-son interactions are the basis for an surprisingly compelling book, An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic.

What...could studying the ancient classics possibly teach students in the present day? ... Human nature..."[P]hilology,' from the Greek for "love of language" -- was nothing less than a means to a profound understanding of the "intellectual, sensual, and moral powers of man."

There are actually three plot lines to this book, each equally thought-provoking. First there is the class and its discussion of the epic poem, the Odyssey by Homer (or by several authors over the centuries who compile separate stories into one work). The seminar provides an in-depth analysis of the adventure poem with fascinating background of the Trojan War and its principle characters. There are translations and definitions of significant Greek text to fully understand the interesting implications of specific phrases. 

The one word in the English language that combines all of the various resonances that belong severally to "voyage" and "journey" and "travel" -- the distance but also the time, the time but also the emotion, the arduousness and the danger -- comes not from Latin but from Greek. That word is "odyssey."

During classroom discussions, Mendelsohn's father doesn't just sit quietly in a corner listening as Mendelsohn anticipated. Instead, he interjects his crusty opinions that often challenge or even contradict his son's direction in the seminar, with freshmen joining in with their opinions.

The second interwoven narrative gives background of the early home life of the Mendelsohn father and son including the prickly history between the two that crops up in the author's mind during comments made by Mendelsohn's father. Their relationship was challenging to say the least, with the precise mathematician father distancing himself from his gay son and setting high standards for behavior,

Finally, after the seminar concludes, father and son embark on a cruise that follows Odysseus' voyages through the Mediterranean. After such a testy seminar experience, how will these two survive living together on a boat for several weeks?

Now that I am old...I guess I can see the part about the importance of being out there and trying things even if you fail. You have to keep moving, at least. The worst thing is to go stale. Once that happens, you're finished.

I knew very little about the Odyssey before reading An Odyssey, so would have been satisfied with just the explanation and discussion of the poem. But having the other two tracts of an Odyssey made this a much rich  experience for me. As father and son's characters slowly reveal themselves, grow and falter, they take on the importance and adventure of Odysseus himself.

And surely, these two men along with Odysses, embark on life-changing odysseys. The Odyssey we learn is about Odysseus' son Telemachus' journey to find and understand his father, Odysseus, just as Mendelsohn begins to discover and understand his own father. 

I was realizing for the first time, how much the Odyssey knew about this ostensibly trivial but profound real-life phenomenon, the way that small things between people can be the foundation of the greatest intimacy...When you have those things, those things that couple have, they keep you connected long after everything else becomes unrecognizable.

A great read, one I really enjoyed thoroughly, definitely worth your time on so many levels.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

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

Homer. The Odyssey  

New, lean, fast-paced translation of the epic poem

LIttle Fires Everywhere

Ng, Celeste. Little Fires Everywhere. New York: Penguin 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children,had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

Description:

Celeste Ng can really write as evidenced by Everything I Never Told You, her gripping debut novel of family relationships, hidden lives, sadness, and passion. Her newest novel, Little Fires Everywhere, only adds to her reputation for understanding human nature and the dynamics behind interesting characters facing difficult decisions that have far-ranging implications.

It is a book that simply absorbs you into the quiet lives of the upper middle class community of Shaker Heights. 

All up and down the street the houses looked like any others -- but inside them were people who might be happy, or taking refuge, or steeling themselves to go out into the world, searching for something better. So many lives she would never know about, unfolding behind those doors.

The story is off and running with an opening scene that brings the Richardson family and residents of the neighborhood out of their homes to watch a fire completely engulf the home of Bill and Elena Richardson and their four children, Trip, Lexi, Moody, and Izzy. The family and neighbors seem to calmly accept that the fire was set by the angry, 14-year-old Izzy, but she is nowhere to be found.

Ng then recounts the backstory leading up to the fire, beginning with the mysterious Mia Warren, a photographer/artist, and her teenage daughter, Pearl, who rent a small house from the Richardsons. Mia and Pearl lead lives of vagabonds, traveling from city to city, stopping only when Mia feels inspiration for a new photographic image. In each city Mia finds employment that pays for rent and food, yet gives her time to work nights on her art. When a project is complete (six months or less), her photos are sent to a gallery in New York, and Mia and Pearl drive off, looking for new inspiration in another town. 

But Mia has recently promised Pearl that Shaker Heights will be where they will settle permanently. Mia is engrossed in a new project, so Pearl if free to make friends with the wealthy Richardson family. With them she experiences a new world of luxury and ease. But Pearl also faces conflicting passions and life decisions with the Richardson teens and parents.

All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing. It easily went out of control. It scaled walls and jumped over trenches....Better to control that spark and pass it carefully from one generation to the next, like an Olympic torch. ....Carefully controlled. Domesticated. Happy in captivity. The key...was to avoid conflagration.

Then we meet Shaker Heights residents Mark and Linda McCullough, a couple who adopt a child abandoned on the steps of a local firehouse. They have the wealth and love to offer a perfect home for the child. But issues arise when the birth mother, Bebe, turns up with a change of heart concerning the baby.

Mia becomes the touchstone for individuals wishing to share secrets, get advice, or just find a quiet solace from looming decisions. But little is known about Mia's past, a situation that bothers Elena Richardson enough to poke around into Mia's early life and turn over stones regarding some of the decisions Mia made that shaped her current life.

The problem with rules...was that they implied a right way and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time there were simply ways, not of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure which side of the line you stood on.

That's enough, no more hints. I can't give anything away of this compelling book and its everyday characters whose worlds are shaken. I loved each character, the writing, and especially the unexpected, highly satisfying ending. Not many stories wrap up with the same quality and bang as they begin. Highest recommendation.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

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

Kingsolver, Barbara. Pigs in Heaven  

Engrossing, challenging novel of Turtle and Taylor Greer, a Native American child and her adoptive mother, challenged in court to return the child to her tribe to gain a cultural upbringing. 

Gaige, Amity. Schroder: A Novel  

A man on a spontaneous whim, decided to kidnap his young daughter and take her on a road trip without her mother's knowledge or permission. He intends her no harm, but merely wants to be with her for some time. But what are the implications of his actions as the day turns into a week, into several weeks, into ...? Beautifully and passionately written. (previously reviewed here)

Locally Laid

Amundsen, Lucie B. Locally Laid: How We Built a Plucky, Industry-Changing Egg Farm - From Scratch. New York: Avery. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

At dusk, hens seek their coop. So reliable is this, there's even a saying, an adage: Chickens come home to roost.

It's hardwired. But our first shipment of nine hundred mature birds, just purchased from a commercial operation, stands on the field staring. They tilt and turn their heads to better align us with their side-placed eyes, as though awaiting instructions.

These hens are out of sync with sunset because until today, they have NEVER SEEN THE SUN. While I've worried about many things going wrong with our unlikely egg startup, CHICKENS not knowing HOW TO BE CHICKENS was not one of them.

Description:

Looking for a feel-good, laughs-on-every-page story of two happy-go-lucky young marrieds trying to start a business that far exceeds their expectations and abilities? Chock full of silly "Green Acres" situations that everyone laughs and also learns from?

Well, Lucie B. Amundsen's Locally Laid: How We Built a Plucky, Industry-Changing Egg Farm - From Scratch, is not the book for you. What it is is a rocky, inspirational, and creative true life story of one man's dream and twisting pathways to create a new method of raising healthier chickens for better eggs...all without having any previous knowledge of chickens or agriculture.

Sure, the story has its moments of funny situations, of unexpected happenings, and of make-shift solutions. But make no mistake, when Jason Amundsen convinces his wife, Lucie, that they should start a chicken ranch to sell eggs, she is definitely not a fan and only reluctantly offers support. Having already made several moves to follow Jason's dreams, Lucie and their two children are finally comfortably settled in Duluth, Minnesota in their converted rectory house (church parishioners can use their bathroom on Sundays).

After he is laid off from his job (with benefits), at Jason's urging they rent a farm in tiny Wrenshall, MN and commute from Duluth to tackle their mountain of daily chores from dawn to long past dark. Jason's brilliant idea is to raise free-range chickens that eat natural feed and bugs outdoors, penned in by rotating fences that open new sections of pasture regularly, a technique never used before. Of course, this process proves much more difficult and costly than raising hens in controlled spaces indoors with fixed heat, light, and roosting areas. But while Jason is doggedly persistent, Lucie remains highly skeptical and worried about finances and family. 

I am not a risk taker by nature, and there's a case to be made that I'm just a plain weenie. In the section of my heart reserved for stout entrepreneurism sits a shirking pinto bean or maybe an eraser head.

Their adventure begins when 2,000 mature hens are delivered which have never seen sunlight before, have no idea about how to eat from the ground, and have no interest in returning to a roost each evening. They have to be herded into their shelter each evening, individually hand-lifted onto their roosting perches, then driven out each morning to their allocated areas for feeding and frolicking. Every day. For two weeks until the hens get the idea themselves. And herding hens, like the boxer Rocky found out, is a tricky task. While it seems funny to read about, this problem multiplied by 2,000 could signal the real end to their dream on day one.

When anyone starts a new venture there's always a certain amount of claiming a title and growing into it, but with one's own farm, the learning is less curved and more a vertical endeavor. One day you're a guy standing in a field, the next you're the caretaker of hundreds of needy critters.

Soon we read of sanitation rules, bird peckings, prolapse egg deliveries, questionable breeders, marketing strategies, and their new brand name, "Locally Laid" which proves both inspirational and controversial in the community. Then there is the process of finding buyers for the thousands of eggs produced daily, each of which had to be carefully gathered, washed, inspected, weighed, sorted and boxed by hand (i.e., by Jason and family)

It's enough to make an efficiency consultant drink bourbon straight out of my work boot.

But survive they do, even when things seem hopeless and Lucie is ready to throw in the towel. Jason improvises clever techniques to conquer each obstacle to bring the eggs to market, a journey full of his (and her) commitment, perseverance, and general make-it-work philosophy.

It's a surprisingly moving, humorous, and well-written story of two people struggling to make a dream possible. Who could not root for them? Certainly not me, although I, like Lucie, thought they should have given up many times over. They are made of sterner stuff than I. 

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

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

MacDonald, Betty. The Egg and I

True mis-adventures of a young couple taking on a run-down farm in the 1930s to raise chickens and a family. Lighter in tone than Locally Laid, this story still shows the incredible difficulty of making an egg farm work while trying to raise a family and preserve a marriage. Delightful.

The Japanese Lover

Allende, Isabel. The Japanese Lover. New York: Atria. 2015. Print.

First Sentences:

When Irina Brazili began working at Lark House in 2010, she was twenty-three years old but already had few illusions about life.

Since the age of fifteen she had drifted from one job, one town, to another. She could not have imagined she would find a perfect niche for herself in that senior residence, or that over the next three years she would come to be as happy as in her childhood, before fate took a hand.

Description:

Sometimes a book I had no intention of pursuing grabs me and won't let go. It may have all the warning signs: "too romantic," "a woman's book," "no action." All these excuses soon didn't matter for this particular book as author Isabel Allede slowly, inexorably pulled me into her newest novel, The Japanese Lover. And I found it to be right up my alley: great characters, exquisite writing, and a story of persistent love over many decades. Yes, I am a romantic and occasionally am absorbed by an enduring love story such as this.

Covering over 70 years, The Japanese Lover tells the stories of two women: Irina, a young woman trying to hide from her mysterious past, and Alma who is old and living her dream with a secret lover she has known since her childhood. The two women meet in a home for the elderly where Alma lives and Irina works.

[Irina's] secret must be her ability to listen to the same story a thousand times over as if she were hearing it for the first time, all those tales the old folks keep repeating to accommodate the past and create an acceptable self-portrait, erasing remorse and extolling their real or imagined virtues. Nobody wants to end their life with a banal past.

Alma hires Irina to be her secretary to organize Alma's mementos and scrapbooks as well as her daily routines. Soon Irina is uncovering pieces of Alma's earlier years of wealth, travel, and relationships. She begins to pick up hints about a mysterious Japanese lover from Alma's past and possibly even her present. But Irina is reluctant to confront Alma as Irina has secrets of her own life and loves that she prefers to keep secret. 

Moving easily between the past and present for each of the women, Allende slowly unfolds two unique lives, each filled with abandonment, privilege, love, insecurity, and decisions about relationships that carry on into the present.

Maybe this sounds too soft, too cloying, too "something" for many readers. But I enjoyed it and read it quickly to find out what happened to these women and their loves. Maybe this story is not for everyone, but for me I was hopelessly involved from the first pages to the last. A lovely, complex tale of family, relationships, and strong love over the ages, with all its rewards and disappointments. 

Very few old folk are happy ... It's the most fragile and difficult stage of life, more so than childhood, because it grows worse day by day, and there is no future other than death.

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

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

Haruf, Kent. Our Souls at Night

Wonderful story of two elderly people who seek out a relationship of friendship and comfort with each other despite the disapproval of friends and family. (previously reviewed here)

Everything She Forgot

Ballantyne, Lisa. Everything She Forgot. New York: HarperCollins. 2015. Print.

First Sentences:

Margaret Holloway wrapped her scarf around her face before she walked out into the school parking lot.

Description:

Granted it's not the most electrifying first sentence, but still it sets the tone for how the writing style and narrative will unfold: simple, straightforward, calm. And you keep reading Lisa Ballantyne's Everything She Forgot because the plot and characters soon reveal themselves to be equally solid, real, and so very conflicted. 

What had happened to Margaret had sculpted the space between each of them, the way grief sculpts the soul, so that the unspoken took on a tangible shape, defining their family.

It is a thriller and mystery, as well as a sensitive portrayal of current and past lives. I don't want to give too much more and spoil the intricate twists of plot and overlapping characters. The book includes an awful car wreck involving a teacher who escapes physically unscathed but now has long-forgotten memories bubbling to the surface. There is a lost bag of thousands of ill-gotten dollars. Then there is a kidnapping of a 7-year-old girl by a man with only good intentions. There are gentle people growing up in violent environments, people longing for love, for relationships, and for a better future - longings that are sometimes resolved and sometimes end badly.

Enough of that. It is a compelling narrative that jumps between the present day and 30 years in the past. It is a car ride of discovery, a mystery of long-lost relationships, a story of love, of parents and children, and yes, even a little violence. 

In the end, it is a story of human nature vs. human nurture, both the good and bad. Only in the final pages are the different people and plot lines finally brought together for a satisfying, highly emotional ending.

And who cannot enjoy a book that offers so much depth of character and plot, one that keeps you hanging until the last sentences? Certainly not me.

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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

Ballantyne, Lisa. The Guilty One

A criminal lawyer must defend an 11-year-old boy accused of murdering his 8-year-old playmate on a playground. But the lawyer, following the twists and turns of the case, begins to relive his own troubled childhood. Great narrative, characters, and plotting switching from present case to past memories. 

Watson, S.J. Before I Go to Sleep

Every morning Christine wakes up without knowing her name, her face, the man lying in bed next to her, or anything from her past. She desperately wants to learn why her memory is erased each night while she sleeps, what her life is about, and who she can trust to tell her the truth. Fantastic. (previously reviewed here)