The Lantern of Lost Memories

Hiiragi, Sanaka. The Lantern of Lost Memories. New York: Grand Central 2019. Print.

First Sentences:

The hands and the pendulum of the old wooden clock on the wall were motionless. Hirasaka cocked his head to listen, but the silence inside the photo studio was practically deafening.


Description:

I picked up Sanaka Hiiragi's The Lantern of Lost Memories, for two reasons: first, the intriguing title; and second, the premise that after death a person could revisit one day of their choosing from their life. Who could resist either of these? Certainly not me.

Although the first sentences are rather ordinary, within the first two pages one meets two very interesting characters, Mr. Hirasaka and Mrs. Hatsue Yagi. Mr. Hirasaka is the manager of a photography studio, complete with a room for taking posed photos, an astonishing number of cameras on display, and a room for developing photos. Mrs. Yagi is a 92-year-old woman who wakes up on a couch in Hirasaka's photo studio and learns that she is now dead.

 

Hirasaka explains to her that he and the studio are a sort of "staging post between life and death." He provides Mrs. Yagi a box of photographs, one taken each day during her 92 years. Mrs. Yagi's task is to select one photo for each year that will be attached to a "Lantern of Memories" in the next room which both she and Mr. Hirasaka will sit and watch before she enters into her afterlife.

You see, once you get here, it doesn't matter how wealthy or important you were in life. All you're left with are your memories.

The wonderful addition to this task is that Mrs. Yagi must select from all her photos one single one that is extraordinarily important to her. Together with Mr. Hirasaka, she will revisit that day in the past represented by that photo and watch her younger self and others involved with that significant day in her life. Of course, both she and Mr. Hirasaka will be invisible, unable to interact with anyone or change events from that past.

The photo was really only a mass of tiny dots, and yet within its foud corners it seemed to contain everything important about the day it was taken -- the rush of the wind, everything she'd heard and felt ... How was it possible for all that to be hiding among those specks of colour?

"Photos do have a certain power, don't they?" said Hirasaka quietly

That's all you get. Either you are captivated, as I was, by this concept and these gentle characters in these first few pages and definitely want to find out more, or you are ready to put the book down. As further enticement for you to pursue finishing this wonderful story, the remainder of the book follows not only Mrs. Yagi's selected day from her past, but offers the revisits of two other people. By the end, we find out who Mr. Hirasaka is, how he come to be the photo studio proprietor, and why he has no memories of his own life, no box of personal daily photos.

 

The Lantern of Lost Memories is so compelling in its quietness, gentleness, and humaneness as secrets are revealed and incidents remembered. These are marvelous characters, perfectly calm in their conversations and journeys into the past. I loved this book and envy anyone picking it up for the first time to enjoy the tranquility and intrigue of the people, setting, language, and plot of this fine novel. Highly recommended.

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

Ogawa, Yoko. The Housekeeper and the Professor.   

A brilliant, quiet, cranky mathematics professor who, after a head trauma, can only remember anything, including people's faces, for 80 minutes, before everything is erased from his mind. A young housekeeper and her 10-year-old son are hired to take care of him. After some struggles, they learn to adapt and relate to each other in unexpected ways.  (previously reviewed here)

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

 

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          (and an Intro to The First Sentence Reader)

Special Post - Holiday Gift Books

Description:

I know it is a bit early for the holidays, but since I am taking a break from writing new book recommendations until after the New Year, I thought people might be looking for interesting titles to read themselves or give to others over the gift-giving season.

Below are some of my favorites with links to my reviews. Every one of these I highly recommend. I hope a few will catch your interest and work their way onto your shelves for reading or for sharing with friends and family.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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          (and an Intro to The First Sentence Reader) 

________________________

Fiction

Animals

Horse (historical fiction) - Geraldine Brooks

Remarkable Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt

West With Giraffes (historical fiction) - Lynda Rutledge

  

Humor

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

Food: A Love Story - Jim Gaffigan

The Golf Omnibus  - P.G. Wodehouse

Round Ireland with a Fridge - Tony Hawks

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen  - Paul Torday

 

Mystery

Booked to Die - John Dunning

Remarkable Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt

The Twyford Code - Janice Hawlett

 

Romantic Relationships

The Japanese Lover - Isabelle Allende

Meet Me at the Museum - Anne Youngson

The Odds - Nan Stewart

The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

Two Across - Jefff Bartsch

 

Science Fiction

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing - Hank Green

Cold People - Tom Rob Smith

Golden State - Ben H. Winters

Machine Man  Max Barry

Seveneves  - Neal Stephenson

Sleeping Giants - Sylvain Neuval

 

Short Stories

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke - Arthur C. Clarke

 In Sunlight or in Shadow - Lawrence Block, editor

 

Small Towns / Western Setting

Juliet in August - Dianne Warren

Outlawed  - Anna North

Plainsong - Kent Haruf

The Whistling Season - Ivan Doig

 

Thrillers

Before I Go to Sleep - S.J. Watson

I Am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes

Memory Man - David Baldacci

Shibumi  - Travanian

The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides

Sometimes I Lie - Alice Feeney

 

Young Adult

Brewster  - Mark Slouka

Ender's Game - Orsen Scott Card

Five Children and It  - E. Nesbit

Hatchet - Gary Paulsen

The Hobbit  - J.R.R. Tolkein

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

 

Leftovers - Just Plain Great Reads

An American Marriage - Tayari Jones

Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson

The Immortalists  - Chloe Benjamin

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

Manners from Heaven - Quentin Crisp

The Speed of Dark - Elizabeth Moon

The Scapegoat - Daphne Du Maurier

To Serve Them All My Days - R.F. Delderfield

World of Wonders - Robertson Davies

 

Non-Fiction 

Animals

The Soul of an Octopus - Sy Montgomery

 

Books Themed

Dear Fahrenheit 451 - Annie Spence

One for the Books - Joe Queenan

Outwitting History - Aaron Lansky

The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distractions - Alan Jacobs

 

People

84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff

At Ease: Stories I Tell To Friends - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Educating Esme  - Esme Raji Codell

The Feather Thief - Kirk Wallace Johnson

The Hammersteins - Oscar Hammersteins

Insomniac City - Bill Hayes

The Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 - Victoria Wilson

Never Cry Wolf  - Farley Mowat

Nothing To Do But Stay - Carrie Young

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio - Terry Ryan

Shakespeare Saved My Life  - Laura Bates

We Took to the Woods - Louise Dickinson Rich

Sports

The Glory of Their Times - Lawrence Ritter

Handful of Summers - Gordon Forbes

Three-Year Swim Club - Julie Checkoway

Wait Till Next Year - Doris Kearns Goodwin

Why We Swim - Bonnie Tsui

 

War

To End All Wars - Adam Hochschild

The Volunteer - Jack Fairweather

We Die Alone - David Howarth

Winter Fortress - Neal Bascomb

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke

Clarke, Arthur C. The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke. New York: Tom Doherty Associates. 2000. Print.

First Sentences:

But what is science fiction anyway? Attempts to define it will continue as long as people write PhD theses. Meanwhile, I am content to accept Damon Knight's magisterial: "Science Fiction is what I point to and say 'That's science fiction.' "


Description:

Reading science fiction is not everyone's cup of tea. But I defy anyone reading even a single short story from Arthur C. Clarke's magnificent The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, to be less than gobsmacked by the imagination, vision, characters, and plot lines shown through every entry by the master writer.

 

Just a few examples of what you will find in this 966-page tome. (Don't worry, you don't have to read it front to back. But I guarantee that when you are done, you will wish there were more such gripping stories to devour):

• A world ruler chooses to be placed in a suspended hibernation vault in a secret location, to be revived after 100 years when doctors feel they will have developed a cure for his heart disease. Unfortunately, over the years people have forgotten the location of the vault and even the man himself, so he sleeps for millenniums until he wakes to an entirely new world;

• Two ordinary crew members of a lowly space transport ship that has been hit by a meteor, discover their oxygen supply has been damaged and is now completely gone. Thirty days from the rendezvous point, they calculate they have only twenty days of recycled air for both of them to survive, ten days short of their destination. (One of the stories that was used in the development of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey;

• A man discovers his known world is bordered in the distance by a huge, insurmountable, indestructible wall built by who knows who, and when, and most importantly for what reason. His goal, of course, is to somehow overcome this wall and discover what, if anything, is on the other side.

• One man journeys to discover whether the rumor of a mechanically futuristic city, hidden by the Earth's governing body from the rest of the world, really exists, the reasons behind its construction and secrecy, and why no person who has sought it out has ever returned or even been heard from again. 

•  An engineer in a power plant, due to an electrical accident, has his body somehow reversed so that, while he appears as completely normal, everything he sees is now mirrored, his right-handedness is now dominant left-handed, and food that once nourished him is rejected by his inner system. Even the coins in his pocket have reversed their inscriptions.
  

• Using a new radar system, scientists discover miles below the Earth's surface what might be signs of non-natural developments. Of course, they decide to drill a deep hole to discover what, if anything, they might discover there. Naturally, there is a surprise in store for them.

Each story is completely different from any previous tale, an impossibly entertaining facet that pulls readers from one plot and character to the next. You dip into various chapters throughout the collection or read them, as I did, in the chronological order Clarke wrote them, starting with his earliest published story in 1937 through his last (in this collection) in 1999.

I was completely engrossed by every story, challenged mentally and emotionally, but emerged at the end of each plot line with a feeling of satisfaction at having been stretched to see the world and people in completely new ways. Highly recommended.

(P.S. As a bonus, I include below his shortest story, just to give you a feel for the writer and his quirky, scientific, and expanded mind. Enjoy.

 

      'siseneG'   (published in Analog, May 1985.

 

And God said: 'Lines Aleph Zero to Aleph One -- Delete.'

      And the Universe ceased to exist. 

Then She pondered for several aeons, and sighed. 

'Cancel Programme GENESIS,' She ordered. 

It never had existed.  

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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

Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles

Chronological science fiction stories about the exploration of Mars by Man, from the first ships to the final days of Earth. Fabulous. (previously reviewed here)

 

Clear

Davies, Carys. Clear. New York: Scribner 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

He wished he could swim -- the swimming belt felt like a flimsy thin and it had been no comfort to be told not to worry, the men couldn't swim either. Each time they rose he glimpsed the rocky shore, the cliffs, the absence of any kind of landing; each time they descended, the rocks vanished and were replaced by a liquid wall of gray. He closed his eyes.


Description:

In the 1840s, the Scottish Clearances was a relentless movement by Scot landowners to remove poor tenants from their properties in order to turn the land into cheaper and more profitable sheep production. In Clear by Carys Davies, John Ferguson, an impoverished minister, agrees to take on the job of removing the last man from an isolated island off the northern coast of Scotland. John only takes on this work out of desperation to raise money for his struggling church. 

Of course, John is told by the landowner that the man to be removed will be set up in a better location, so should readily agree to leave his barren, wind-swept isolation for a better life. What could go wrong? In this intriguing historical novel, we soon find out.

On the first day on the island and before meeting anyone, John falls from a cliff, knocking himself out, and waking up in the hovel of Ivar, the very man he is supposed to evict. John does not speak the island's ancient language used by Ivar, but in the ensuing days, he slowly builds a dictionary of the forgotten words.

Ivar lives by scraping out a small garden and raising a few wild sheep, trading wool for his rent although due to the isolation of the island, the owner has not bothered to collect payment for decades. Tragedies in his family have left him to survive on the island alone.

Before the arrival of John Ferguson [Ivar thought] he'd never really thought of the things he saw or heard or touched or felt as words....It was strange to think of a fine sea mist, say, or the cold north-easterly wind that came in spring and damaged the corn ... It was as if he'd never fully understood his solitude until now -- as if, with the arrival of John Ferguson, he had been turned into something he'd never been or hadn't been for a long time... 

This quiet novel slowly unfolds the awkward relationship of the men as John recovers from his injury, living in close quarters in Ivar's sparse hut. And meanwhile, John's wife worries about her husband whom she hasn't been able to contact. She was against the work he was to undertake. Since the next boat to pick up John and Ivar is one month away, she is naturally restless for news of the men.

I loved this book. It is calming, exciting, intelligent, human, and challenging in its very quiet way. There is even an appendix with entries from an actual 1908 dictionary of the Norn language used in the Shetlands of Ivar. (Author Davies notes that the last native-speaker of Norn had died in 1850, just after the time period of this novel.)

Carys Davies is a new author to me, so I'm immediately ordering some of her other works. Fingers crossed they are anywhere near as good as Clear.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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          (and an Intro to The First Sentence Reader) 

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

Davies, Carys. West.   

A widowed mule-breeder hears of the discovery of huge bones in Tennessee and, leaving behind his sister and daughter on his run-down farm, sets off into unknown lands to see whether these ancient giants still exist.

 

Remarkable Bright Creatures

Van Pelt, Shelby. Remarkably Bright Creatures. New York: HarperCollins 202. Print.

First Sentences:

Darkness suits me. Each evening, I await the click of the overhead lights, leaving only the glow from the main tank. Not perfect, but close enough. Almost-darkness, like the middle-bottom of the sea. I lived there before I was captured and imprisoned....Darkness runs through my blood.

 

Description:

Not sure whether Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures, title refers to octopuses or humans. You see, a small part of this interesting novel is narrated by an curmudgeonly Giant Pacific octopus, a creature (named Marcellus, of course) held in a tank located in the Sowell Bay Aquarium for the past four years.

"Held" is a relative term. At night, Marcellus is able to squeeze through a tiny opening under his tank's lid, pull himself out, and slip-slide throughout the room, snacking on the other water creatures in adjacent tanks, opening locked doors, and generally exploring everything in the aquarium during the 18 minutes he can survive before he needs to return to water. 

 

Remarkably Bright Creatures focuses of Tova Sullivan, an elderly woman who cleans the aquarium, idly talking to the fish and other waterlife there, including Marcellus, as she mops floors and polishes the glass on the tanks. Tova recently lost her beloved husband to cancer, and also thirty years earlier suffered the loss of her teenage son who disappeared one night under unknown conditions. Cleaning the aquarium gives her something to do and help her cope.

Marcellus hears her kind words of greeting and observes her sadness. And when one evening Tova finds Marcellus accidentally trapped in computer cords outside his tank during one of his wanderings, she rescues him and the two form an secret friendship. Tova even finds she can place her arm inside his tank and Marcellus will wrap a tentacle around it, squeezing it gently, and leaving suction marks that puzzle Tova's friends.

 

It should be mentioned that during Marcellus late-night movements, he collects items and hides them safely under a rock in his tank. And one item, he realizes, might prove how Tova's son died. But communicating this information is far from easy.

It is lonely. Perhaps it would be less so if I had someone with whom to share my secrets. I am very good at keeping secrets. You might say I have no choice. Whom might I tell? My options are scant.

Then along comes a young man, Cameron, who visits Sowell Bay on a quest to look for his absentee father as well as any information about his mother who had abandoned him years ago without revealing Camderon's father's name. An old photograph, high school yearbook, and class ring have led him to Sowell Bay and eventually to work in the aquarium alongside Tova and Marcellus.

Now hang with me for a moment, all you doubters. It sounds like a ridiculous premise: a thinking, observant sea creature who understands English, and remembers every action, word, and creature (aquatic and human) who enter his viewing room? But Marcellus is no ordinary octopus, or maybe he is and we have never gave his species credit for their cleverness and brain.

Well, of course I am intelligent. All octopuses are. I remember each and every human face that pauses to gaze at my tank. Patterns come readily to me....When I choose to hear, I hear everything...my vision is precise. I can tell which particular human has touched the glass of my tank by the fingerprints left behind. Learning to read their letters and words was easy....My neurons number half a billion, and they are distributed among my eight arms....I have wondered whether I might have more intelligence in a single tentacle than a human does in its entire skull.

Author Van Pelt cleverly, convincingly, dreamily explores and eventually ties together the stories of loss and hope of these characters. It is an absorbing tale of realistic figures (including the octopus), who deal with personal and social challenges and heartbreak, but retain hope throughout all their trials. It is an optimistic book, full of positivity and endurance despite the obstacles placed before each of them. A quiet story to absorb you from page one to the very end.

Secrets are everywhere. Some humans are crammed full of them. How do they not explode. It seems to be a hallmark of the human species' abysmal communication skills....Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire. 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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          (and an Intro to The First Sentence Reader) 

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

Montgomery, Sy. The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness.

An absolutely fascinating account of the author's varied experiences with octopuses, relating numerous examples of their intelligence, interaction with humans, and lifestyles. Don't miss it.  (previously reviewed here)

The Bullet Swallower

James, Elizabeth Gonzalez. The Bullet Swallower. New York: Simopn & Schuster 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

Alferez Antonio Sonoro was born with gold in his eyes. The gold was sharp and it stung him so that he blinked uncontrollably and always carried a vial of salted water in his pocket. Of the four Sonoro brothers he was the only one thus signified, and his parents regarded it a blessing, incontestable proof of divine favor.


Description:

Sometimes just the title is so intriguing you at least have to open the book and check out the first sentences. Who can resist titles like some of my favorites: Last Night at the Brain Thieves Ball, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Speed of Dark, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Go As a River, The Improbability of Love, The Man Who Understood Women, Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and Quirkology? 

Books with similarly intriguing titles could have stories or information about virtually anything. Honestly, I feel any tempting title like these deserves to have at least the opening pages explored.

Add to this list Elizabeth Gonzalez James's tantalizing title and novel, The Bullet Swallower. What kind of story could such a title allude to? Magicians? Gun fighters? Medical patients? Definitely intriguing enough to lure me in. And I wasn't in any way disappointed.

In 1895, Antonio Sonoro sets off from his tiny farm in Mexico to try to save his wife and children from starvation after a long drought destroys their farm. He actually is a bandit, a quick-witted survivor, skilled with a gun, a ruthless man from a long lineage of ruthless men who once ruled the area and accumulated vast riches from their gold mines using local people and harsh labor conditions. 

But time, bad luck, and an evil curse have reduced the Sonoro line to only Antonio and his family, with little hope of them ever regaining his ancestors' former luck and fortune.

Antonio's current plan? Rob a train across the border in Houston which he had heard was carrying gold. He convinces his younger brother, Hugo, to help him, but their plans run afoul and the Sonoros find themselves on the wrong side of the Texas Rangers.

The book follows Antonio on his nail-biting journey through the desert as he is simultaneously hunted by the Rangers as well as doggedly seeking to meet up with these same lawmen to enact revenge on their leader.

He'd run from one certain death to another, and his chances of finding the Rangers were as good a finding a teardrop in the ocean. He hadn't seen a footprint in days, and he feared the silence and darkness and dead trees would swallow him...

Author James then jumps 70 years into the future to introduces a man named Jaime Sonoro. Jaime, a renown actor and singer, is living a comfortabl life with his family until he is given an ancient, moldy book. It describes the long, dark history of the Sonoro family, a name Jaime shares but knows nothing about its history. 

He begins to read of iron-fisted Sonoro rulers, men who flaunted humanity and the law to amass their fortune. But he also reads of the curse that trails this (his?) family in the form of bad luck. During his reading, he meets a mysterious figure, Remedio, who seems to know even more about the family and their fateful lives. 

He saw, for the barest second, malice in Remedio's eyes, a bright white flame that was gone as soon as Jaime was aware of having see it, if he had seen it.

Could Jaime Sonoro be somehow related to this ill-fated family and thus carry the curse? And who exactly is this mysterious figure who has moved into their house and seems to have a quiet knowledge of the Sonoros?

And the feeling of being watched followed Jaime in and out of the house, the hair always tickling the back of his neck like something he'd forgotten, something urgent but out of reach. He began imagining men in long trench coats spying on him from behind newspapers....He felt camera eyes on him while he sat alone at his desk reading. Since the book had come into the house -- he'd been in the habit of turning on lights to peek inside closets, checking always who was behind him, peering through the curtains, half expecting to see a madman outside wielding a tommy gun.

It's an unusual book, beautifully written about some dastardly people and their quests for survival, money, revenge, and overcoming their destiny. I dove into it based on the title and soon found myself totally immersed in this complex family and history, as well as the current stories of both the gun slinger and the modern actor/singer, men who might somehow be related.

Highly recommended for sheer adventure, brilliant writing, and captivating story-telling. Gripping in every way.

[P.S. An interesting tidbit about the book is that this story is based on the author's great grandfather, Antonio Gonzalez, who was a bandido in the last-1800s. He experienced much of the same history as the gunslinger, Antonio Sonoro, even being left for dead at one point and referred to as "El Tragabalas," the Bullet Swallower, just like Sonoro. It was a story author James had frequently heard growing up, one that certainly adds a twist of reality to the novel.]

Everything in this book is true except for the stuff I made up." - Elizabeth Gonzalez James (author)

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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

North, Anna. Outlawed.   

Ana, a young woman banished from her Western town in the 1980s, joins up with the Hole-In-The-Wall Gang, outlaws led by The Kid. But she learns this is no ordinary group of shoot-'em-up thugs. (previously reviewed here)

 

Anna O

Blake, Matthew. Anna O. New York: Harper 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

"The average human spends thirty-three years of their life asleep." She leans closer, enough for me to catch a gust of expensive perfume This is usually the moment when I know. "And that's what you do?"

"Yes.

"A sleep doctor?"

"I study people who commit crimes when they sleep."


Description:

Sometimes the premise and first lines of a book are just too intriguing not to give it a read. Such is the case with Matthew Blake's novel, Anna O. The irrestible plot here? Can a person who, while sleep-walking, commit and be charged for a crime (murder) that she, when awakened, cannot remember doing? And what if the woman in question, referred to as "Anna O," never wakes up after being found with a bloddy knife in her hand and two friends stabbed to death nearby.

And she still has not awakened after four years.

Time is running out for the London Ministry of Justice to bring her case to trial. She cannot be indefinitely held in Her Majesty's Prison Service, but cannot be released possibly to kill again. The Ministry seeks her murder conviction, something they cannot do unless Anna O: 1) awakens; 2) is ruled competent; and 3) is found guilty due  to overwhelming evidence (including her last text sent that said "I'm sorry. I think I've killed them").

Enter Dr. Benedict Prince, a forensic psychologist at the Abbey Sleep Clinic who specializes in "people who commit crimes when they sleep." The Ministry hires him to work with Anna O to re-awaken her. 

But Prince believes Anna O to have "resignation syndrome," a functional neurological disorder, having suffered a trauma so great that she has given up hope of living and therefore has retreated into the safer world of sleep. 

People think the animal side is the body and the rational side is the brain. But it's often the other way round.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that Prince's ex-wife, Clara, was the first police officer on the scene for the Anna O stabbings and is now is the major police figure on the case. Needless to say, Ben and Clara are at odds, with him wanting to undersatnd and study the sleeper, and Clara only wanting a conviction...that is, if Anna O ever awakens.

There are twists and turns aplenty as Prince tries various methods to reach into Anna O's consciousness, all the while dealing with the pressure of the Ministry, Clara, and social media advocates for Anna O's release or conviction. And just maybe not all these messenging figures are simply non-involved onlookers.

It's a fascinating study of sleep disorders, treatment, and consequences for sleep-walkers and the people they affect by their actions. This was a completely new concept to me, one clearly written in a well-told scenario by intelligent, concerned characters. 

Author Blake has a winning style and imagination, so I thoroughly enjoyed Anna O and look forward  with eager anticipation to his next book. For now, Anna O is a winner.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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          (and an Intro to The First Sentence Reader) 

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

Feeney, Alice. Sometimes I Lie.   

A paralyzed woman is just awakening from a long-term coma with only a vague memory of how she got in her condition. She can hear and understand what goes on in her hospital room but cannot respond as she tries to piece together bits of conversations to comprehend her history and the veracity of the people who now surround her, including her husband and best friend. (previously reviewed here)

The Appeal

Hallett, Janice. The Appeal. New York: Simon & Schuster 2021. Print.

First Sentences:

As discussed, it is best you know nothing before you read the enclosed.


Description:

I am always intrigued by epistolary novels. You know, the ones told completely through written documents (e.g. letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, texts, emails, etc.). Here, in Janice Hallett's first novel, The Appeal, she frames the story through the eyes of two junior lawyers assigned by their boss to read through a file of correspondence and related notes, then come to a conclusion about what really happened. Apparently, Tanner, their boss, needs information for an upcoming case he is defending and wants fresh eyes to study the details and present him with their thoughts.

 

Slowly, slowly, we read with the copious emails and notes exchanged between a small group of people who are preparing their roles for a community theater presentation. While they find nothing exciting at first, soon an email surfaces that the director's two-year-old granddaughter, Poppy, has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer that is probably incurable. But fortunately, her grandfather notes, Poppy's doctor has heard of promising results from a new drug in its test stages that might help, possibly even cure the child. It has not yet been approved for the general public, the Poppy's doctor has a means of obtaining the medicine at a stiff price: $175,000 for the first of four treatments.

An appeal goes out to the theater players and their friends and family to help raise the funds to acquire this test drug privately which can then be administered by the girl's doctor. Everyone contributes, creates fund-raising opportunities, and even dedicates the proceedings from the upcoming play to Poppy's medication.

But there are hints that maybe something might not be quite right in this appeal. And when a cast member is found dead after apparently falling off the balcony, no one knows quite what to think or whether anyone from their group might be responsible.

Epistolary novels usually reveal themselves slowly as we need time to, piece by piece, understand the characters and actions. Lots of writing is placed in front of the researching lawyers (and us readers) full of thoughts, ramblings, misdirection, rumors, accusations, dreams, and relationships flicker across the pages, writings presented to the lawyers (and us readers), for analysis and then discarded or held onto as key information.

Hallett is the master of spreading subtle clues buried in a complex plot and benign yet somehow suspicious characters. As I read these missives, I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye, unable to clarify whether it was really there or even what, if anything, it was, yet thinking that it might be important to remember and understand. Such is the skill that drew me to Hallett and novel, The Appeal. And I was not in any way sorry to be immersed in its story and characters. A challenging, satisfying read.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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

Hallett, Janice. The Twyford Code

The best, most baffling, intriguing mystery, full of twists, turns, questionable narration, undiscovered treasure, and a possible code/treasure map found in a child's book. Fantastic. (previously reviewed here)