West

Davies, Carys. West. New York: Scribner 2018. Print.

First Sentences:

From what she could see he had two guns, a hatchet, a knife, his rolled blanket, the big tin chest, various bags and bundles, one of which, she supposed, contained her mother's things.


Description:

Characters with passion are always compelling to read about. People like Ahab for the white whale, Jean Valjean striving for goodness, Sherlock Holmes and his pursuit of logical deduction, and Romeo for his consuming love all drive readers into worlds most can barely imagine for their intensity.

Such is also the case for Cy Bellman in Carys Davies' quiet, spare novel, West. Bellman is a widower living on his broken down farm in Pennsylvania in 1815, raising mules along side his 10-year-old daughter, Bess. After seeing an article in a newspaper regarding the discovery of gigantic bones in Kentucky, Bellman leaves his farm and daughter in the care of his highly-dubious sister, Julie, driven by the urgency and passion to explore the unknown Western regions of America. He desired with all his being to see for himself these immense creatures who left colossal bones behind and might still be wandering in undiscovered locations.

The whole thing had lit a spark in him. For half a day he'd sat without moving. He'd read it a dozen times....there were no illustrations, but in his mind they resembled a ruined church, or a shipwreck of stone -- the monstrous bones, the prodigious tusks, uncovered where they lay, stuck in the salty Kentucky mud: teeth the size of pumpkins, shoulder blades a yard wide, jawbones that suggested a head as tall as a large man. A creature entirely unknown.

Who in 1815 (or any other age for that matter) could resist seeing such incredible giants? Certainly not Bellman, a man looking for a dream after his wife's recent death. He meticulously plans his journey of a thousand miles, to be undertaken alone, crossing unknown territory to find these creatures for himself. 

 

He promises Bess and his sister to be away only a year or two, but he secretly knows his passion to see these animals may drive him far away from home, possibly for a much longer period.

I have to go. I have to go and see. That's all I can tell you. 

Davies' slim novel recounts Bellman's adventures in brief, strong sentences as the widower wanders through lands he'd never before passed through, suffering bone-chilling winters, and encounters with unfriendly residents, trappers, and local Indians. No one he talks with has ever seen such creatures. Many laugh to themselves, wondering gleefully where Bellman thinks animals that size could be hiding. 

But Bellman never loses his passion, never doubts his ability to achieve his goal, pushing through every challenge in his quest. He steadfastly writes his daughter of his adventures, giving these notes to passersby traveling in the opposite direction, entreating them to promise his letters will be delivered.

And back on the farm, Bess also never loses her faith in her father. She sneaks into the local library to pour over maps of the regions Bellman might pass through, trying to predict where he is, what he is experiencing, and when he might return. Bellman's sister, Julie, and the townspeople harbor no such respect for his quest and are open in their disdain for him leaving his family and livelihood.

Author Davies pulls you into the passionate mind of Cy Bellman from page one, sharing his yearning thoughts for his project, worrying with him about how he will survive his next challenge, and feeling his hopefulness about just what might lie ahead over that next mountain or in the wild woodlands ahead.

I loved this book and will reread it again very soon just to savor the simple writing style, the adventurous story, and the passion driving Cy Bellman in his quest to view for himself these incredible giants. 

(P.S. Carys Davies is a new author to me, so I quickly grabbed onto her book, Clear, another highly recommended read about passionate people in personally challenging situations.)

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

 

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Davies, Carys. Clear.   

An impoverished minister takes on the job to remove a lone man living on an isolated Scottish island, a man who speaks a forgotten language and hasn't been in contact with other people for decades. Wonderful character study of these trying to understand each other.  (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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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.

 

Horse

Brooks, Geraldine. Horse. New York: Viking 2022. Print.

First Sentences:

"The deceptively reductive forms of the artist's work belie the density of meaning forged by a bifurcated existence. These glyphs and ideograms signal to us from the crossroads: freedom and slavery. White and Black, rural and Urban."

No. Nup. That wouldn't do. It reeked of PhD. This was meant to be read by normal people. Theo pressed the delete key and watched the letters march backward to oblivion.


Description:

I love books that have multiple plot lines, diverse characters, and seemingly unrelated actions that somehow get linked together at some point. Geraldine Brook's Horse, is a compelling example of this technique. I was fully engrossed in each separate story and loved when they finally somehow meshed.

Based on historic facts, Horse focuses on the stories of four people: Jarret, an enslaved boy in the Civil War era and his young horse foal; Theo, an art historian who finds a painting of a racehorse in the trash which he thinks was created by a famous artist; Marsha, an art gallery owner who becomes interested in the authenticity of this painting; and Jess, an Australian scientist working in the Smithsonian who uncovers a long-forgotten skeleton of a horse in the museum's attic.

You might already have guessed how these stories will tie together, but that is not really a big mystery. It's how these divergent lives and events provide captivating histories which lead to a final convergence that makes Horse such an outstanding read.

Readers become familiar with the young slave, Jarret, and his father, Harry, training racehorses for a wealthy plantation owner in the 1850s. One colt, Lexington, while under their care begins winning local races until nefarious dealings take the horse out of Jarret's control. We follow his races, travel, and even an actual incident from the Civil War through the eyes of Jarret as he cares for the horse.

We also learn about the real life Thomas Scott, a struggling artist who makes several paintings of Lexington with Jarret standing beside the horse. It is this painting that Theo years later discovers in a pile of rubbish that starts his interest in both the artist and the horse.

Theo's investigation leads him to Jess in the Smithsonian, an expert in reassembling and then studying bones from the museum's collection. Of course, they find the skeleton of Lexington in the museum's attic and begin to piece together the story of this famous animal.

Each history is slowly, engagingly unfolded for us by author Brooks. Her technique of each chapter bouncing to a different era and its characters pulls readers into the separate worlds of people connected by one horse. This style also leaves us drooling over what might happen next to each person as the following chapter skips away to a different era and its history. 

Details like Jarret's innovative training methods for his colt, Jess' observation of the unique bone structure of the skeleton, the popular world of race horse painting, Theo's dogged pursuit for information about an artist he admires .. all provide a rich texture and compelling action to keep us reading page after page, totally immersed with each person and the experiences they encounter, all with the commonality of a brilliant horse. 

An Afterword by the author details her research into the primary source publications and pictures about Lexington and "Jarret," referenced in the Scott painting (which actually was found in the trash), but contained no background she could find on the groom. Other characters depicted in this novel are real, with Brooks' Afterword describing each major player and what she learned about them to weave this novel.

As you can tell, I loved the story, characters, and writing style immensely. I was fascinated that the events depicted are based on the real life of an astonishing horse, a real painting found in the trash, and many other details, with a backstory now imaginatively fleshed out by Brooks. Read it and enjoy. It is highly recommended.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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

Gaffney, Ginger. Half Broke.   

A true memoir of a the author who works in a prison program that teacher felons how to train and ride difficult horses. Tremendous, personal, emotional account beautifully written. (previously reviewed here)

 

The Hour I First Believed

Lamb, Wally. The Hour I First Believed. New York: HarperColliuns 2008. Print.

First Sentences:

They were both working their final shift at Blackjack Pizza that night, although nobody but the two of them realized it was that. Give them this much: they were talented secret-keepers.


Description:

This is a very difficult book for me to review and recommend. It is probably not for everyone since the backdrop is the shooting at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Given this violent background setting, this book probably doesn't sound like anything a sane person would want to read any more about, particularly if it's a 700-page historical novel. 

I, too, was one of those hesitant readers. But my interest in author Wally Lamb after reading his book, She's Come Undone, made me want to give The Hour I First Believed at least a fair try (you know, look at the first couple of sentences). And those words were enough to hook me.

I quickly realized that The Hour I First Believed was not simply a re-telling of that horrific incident, but rather a character study and journey towards recovery for one couple who experienced the shooting and the ensuing repercussions. The shooting itself is not completely avoided, of course. It is retold in bits and pieces, framed with some background information from the killers' actual diaries, videos, and interviews. So I kept reading and reading, becoming more and more involved in the main characters, their thoughts, fears, frustrations, and hopes.

The book centers on the fictional narrator, Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, both long-time employees at Columbine High School. Caelum is a literature teacher while Maureen is the school's nurse. On the day of the shooting, Caelum was away from Colorado for a conference. But after seeing a live TV breaking news report on the shooting, he speeds homne, trying desperately to learn about the safety of this wife. He soon finds that Maureen, while safe, experienced first-hand the murderous boys words and actions, as well as saw their victims, most of whom she knew as students or as colleagues and friends. 

And after, she becomes a changed person....as does her husband.

We readers, through Caelem's stream-of-consciousness observations and interactions, follow this damaged couple as they try to address Maureen's new personality and fears, both together and singly. Each wonders whether they have done anything to have foreseen this tragedy or somehow acted to prevent even a small part of it. Questions, guilt, accusations, and self-examination fill their minds. 

In the days, week, months, and years, now, since they opened fire, I have searched wherever I could for the whys, hows, and whether-or-nots of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's rampage. They had been my students first, but I became theirs, stalking them so that I might rescue my wife from the aftermath of what they'd done.

And the couple must deal with other issues as well. Caelum is called on to settle the Connecticut estate and home of his recently-deceased aunt who helped raise him. Along the way, Caelum discovers documents, letters, and diaries in her attic  which reveal his true family history and heritage. Maureen, meanwhile, is trying to re-connect with a troubled student who disappeared during the shooting, as well as recover enough herself to return to work nursing.

You never really forgive yourself. At least I haven't ben able to. But if you can find ways to be useful to others, you can begin to figure out how to live inside your own skin, no matter what you did.

It's not a feel good read by any means, but definitely a fascinating, compelling character study of people dealing with trauma, never an easy process. It is also a well-researched depiction in what happened at Columbine, what it was like for the people who actually experienced it, and how those incidents affected one fictional couple, one community, and many, many lives ever after.

 

Fred

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Read, Shelley. Go As a River.   

A small town girl in rural Colorado has her life changed after one chance encounter which she must face and address for the rest of her life. (Previously reviewed here.)

Outlawed

North, Anna. Outlawed. New York: Bloombury. 2021. Print.

First Sentences:
 

In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw. Like a lot of things, it didn't happen all at once. First I had to get married.

Description:

 

Interesting first sentence, especially when readers quickly discover the "outlaw" is a woman in Anna North's novel, Outlawed. Set in the 1890's Old West, the story is narrated by Ada, a seventeen-year-old woman, joyous in the first months of her young marriage to her handsome husband. That is until he, his family, and the town suspect she is unable to become pregnant. 

In a world where barren women are hanged as witches, Ada is forced to flee to a convent and later runs away again to join the notorious Hole in the Wall gang (not the Paul Newman/Robert Redford one) led by the bigger-than-life figure known as "The Kid."

Ada is allow to join the small gang due to her medical skills learned in her youth while assisting her midwife mother. The Kid provides Ada shelter and a new family as part of the gang. She learns to ride and shoot a gun under the tutelage of other members until she is deemed skilled enough to accompany them on a stagecoach holdup, which leads to disastrous results. 

 

But The Kid has bigger plans for the gang than small time heists. That plan, while promising great rewards, involves deadly risks for everyone who participates. And the sheriff from Ada's hometown is still hunting for her to answer charges of putting curses other women to affect their childbirths, and jailing her for life.

 

I loved every one of these characters, from the sensitive Ada to the mythical Kid to all the members of the Hole in the Wall gang. And their tale is beautifully written by author North: descriptive, energetic, melancholy, and hopeful in the same paragraph. This is truly a book to be savored for its style, characters, setting, and story - each first rate, in my opinion. 

I'll leave you with one of Ada's reflections in the early morning light before a job.

The sky went from blue-black to royal blue to aquamarine and then, in the sudden manner of the mountain regions, bright with streaks of gold and pink like the tails of gleaming horses. The meadowlarks awoke, with songs that, on another day, would have made me smile. Coyotes chuckled in the predawn and then went silent, shamed out of the scavenging by the light of day.

Highly recommended.

 

Happy reading. 

Fred

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Elwes, Cary. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride

Recollections from the star of the wonderful adventure comedy, The Princess Bride, about the making of the movie, from ad-libbed comments by Billy Crystal that made Mandy Patinkin laugh so hard he broke a rib, to the weeks of sword fighting instruction, to Andre the Giant plowing around the landscape on a motorcycle, breaking Elwes toe in the process. Delightful.

Dancing at the Rascal Fair

Doig, Ivan. Dancing at the Rascal Fair. New York: Scribner 1987. Print.

First Sentences:

To say the truth, it was not how I expected -- stepping off toward America past a drowned horse.


Description:

Intriguing first sentence, isn't it? Bodes very well for an unexpected backstory, and Ivan Doig's Dancing at the Rascal Fair, comes through, delivering a wonderous story on every level: writing, characters, setting, and plot.

 

I picked this novel up out of desperation during a visit to my sister-in-law's house where I had run out of compelling books to read. Having recently finishing Doig's wonderful English Creek about turn-of-the-century life in isolated Montana, it was delightful for me to come upon Dancing at the Rascal Fair on her shelves just waiting to be read. And it turned out to be my favorite novel of the entire year.

 

The first book chronologically in Doig's "Montana Trilogy," Dancing depicts the tale of two young boys who immigrate from Neithermuir, Scotland to Gros Ventre, Montana. This tiny town is where Angus McCaskill, one of the boys and the book's narrator, has a distant uncle. The story follows Angus and his best friend, Rob Barclay, on their journey by boat, train, truck, and foot to end up in the mountainous, newly settled "town" (i.e., tents and two log saloons) of Gros Ventre. Here, Angus' uncle Lucas owned one of the two rustic saloons. It was Lucas who encouraged them to settle in the wide open valley nearby despite their lack of homesteading experience. As Lucas put it:

The Scotch are wonderful at living anywhere but in Scotland....At least Montana is the prettiest place in the world to work yourself to death, ay?

From there, we follow the boys as they explore and eventually settle on land worthy of sheep-raising, the livelihood they agreed to undertake as partners, pooling the work and any profits. They slowly become part of the community made up of early settlers who are both quirky and guarded in accepting new homesteaders. Their sheep-raising proves a challenge as well.

Rob and I were having to learn that trying to control a thousand sheep on a new range was like trying to herd water. How were the woollies? Innocently thriving when last seen an hour ago, but who knew what they might have managed to do to themselves since.

Rob and Angus slowly, surely establish a toehold in both their sheep and personal enterprises. They prove to be stubbon, hard-working, resiliant, and at times volitle, the exact combination of traits needed for survival.

Rememberd joy is twice sweet. Rob's face definitely said so, for he had that bright unbeatable look on him, In a mood like this he'd have called out "fire" in a gunshop just to see what might happen.

And that is just the beginning of their story about this wonderous Montana land, the people, the adventures in living, and the dreams they cling to throughout long winters, droughts, isolation, and disasters. And even through love.

You won't find it in the instructions on the thing, but for the first year of a marriage, time bunches itself in a dense way it never quite does again. Everything happens double-quick and twice as strong to a new pair in life -- and not just in the one room of the house you'd expect.

It is not a book about sheep-raising, although that is the background of all endeavours. It is a book about people, relationships, hard living, and dreams. There is plenty of action, loves, excitement, travels, and local wisdom filling every page to make this book my favorite of the year. It's so easy to fall in love with these characters and their lives, to breathlessly await their next adventure with interesting men and women, and the emotions that drive this community of settlers to survive and prosper.

Dancing at the rascal fair,

devils and angels all were there,

heel and toe, pair by pair,

dancing at the rascal fair.

Awarded my "Highest Recommendation."

 

[P.S. You can read more about the history of Scotch Valley, Montana and the descendents of the McCaskill and Barclay families in Doig's English Creek and Ride With Me, Maria Montana.]

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Doig, Ivan. The Whistling Season.   

A Chicago woman in 1909 answers an advertisement for a housekeeper for a widower and his three young sons living in an isolated Montana town. She writes that she "Can't cook, but doesn't bite," and gets the job sight unseen (by both of them). She brings her brother with her on the train and he reluctantly becomes a unique schoolteacher. Simply wonderful, a great read not to be missed.  (previously reviewed here)

 

The Giver of Stars

Moyes, Jojo. The Giver of Stars. New York: Viking 2019. Print.

First Sentences:

Listen.

Three miles deep in the forest just below Arnott's Ridge, and you're in silence so dense it's like you're wading through it. There's no birdsong past dawn, not even in high summer, and especially not now, with the chill air so thick with moisture that it stills those few leaves clinging gamely to the branches.


Description:

Who can resist a title like The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes? And those wonderfully descriptive first sentences shown above? And then you find out the plot focuses on library books and the women who deliver them on horseback (actually, muleback) to families buried deep in the woods of Appalachia. Even better, you learn this novel is based on a real-life library system...well, how can you not pick this historical novel up and gobble it down?

Alice, an British woman living England in the 1930s, meets and falls in love with Bennett Van Cleve, a wealthy American coal baron. They marry and move to a small town in Kentucky to live with Bennett's father near the coal mines he and Bennett oversee with a cold hand.

As Alice becomes more bored with her subserviant, sequestered life expected by these two men, she decides on a whim to join several women starting a Books by Mule program. Started by Eleanor Roosevelt as part of the Works Progress Administration to provide Depression jobs, this program employed women to deliver library books to poverty-stricken families living deep in the woods of Kentucky hills. (Note: This was an actual program in the 1930s, developed and completely operated by women.)

Alice learns to ride a mule -- her first -- and navigate the twisting, rocky, unmarked trails in all weather, forming friendships with families along the way. Children love the picture and alphabet books she brings, while mothers are grateful for the spare time Alice provides them while she reads to the youngsters. 

Bennett and his father naturally do not approve of this occupation, feeling it unsuitable for a woman to leave her home responsibilities to ride off into the wilderness and intermingle with people who are not her status. As their marriage becomes more distant, Alice begins to blossom in her new job. Together with the other women, they organize the library holdings and expand their routes to reach more readers.

And of course, there are complications with other townspeople, her husband, other townswomen, and even some of the backwoods residents. Love relationships enter and leave so naturally throughout the plot.

The writing, like the characters, is wonderfully rugged and beautiful at the same time. And coupled with the local phrases, the atmosphere of the book seems Both delightful and honest. 

- That Mack McGuire, he makes my heart flutter like a clean sheet on a long line.

- It's hot enough out here to fry a snake.

Sometimes you just need a good, solid book with admirable characters leading realistic yet challenging and loving lives. The Giver of Gifts is such a book. Highly recommended.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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

Doig, Ivan. The Whistling Season.   

A Chicago woman in 1909 answers an advertisement for a housekeeper for a widower and his three young sons living in an isolated Montana town. She writes that she "Can't cook, but doesn't bite," and gets the job sight unseen (by both of them). She brings her brother with her on the train and he reluctantly becomes a unique schoolteacher. Simply wonderful, a great read not to be missed.  (previously reviewed here)

The Electric Hotel

Smith, Dominic. The Electric Hotel. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2019. Print

First Sentences:

Each morning, for more than thirty years, Claude Ballard returned to the hotel lobby with two cameras strapped across his chest and a tote bag full of foraged mushrooms and herbs.

His long walking circuit took in Little Armenia, where he photographed rug sellers, smoking cigarettes in the dawning light or, more recently, the homeless college dropouts and beatniks along Sunset Boulevard, striplings, the doorman called them, the ambassadors of Hollywood ruin. 

Description:

Here is a fascinating novel. Dominic Smith'sThe Electric Hotel follows the fictional life of narrator Claude Ballard, an ancient cinematographer from the earliest days of movies. Ballard, now an old man, has a chance encounter with a graduate film student in the seedy Knickerbocker hotel in Hollywood where Ballard has lived for decades.

Celebrities once sat in easy chairs smoking cigars or reading Variety, but now an unemployed screenwriter was taking his pet iguana for a morning stroll and Susan Berg, an actress of the silent era, stood in her robe whispering a monologue to an empty chaise lounge.

The student and Ballard talk about Ballard's life in the first days of films working in Paris with the Lumiere brothers and their astonishing moving pictures. Ballard traveled the world as a projectionist for the Lumieres to bring their new medium to growing audiences. Soon he is not only cranking the projector but making and showing his own short, experimental film clips.

Ballard dreams of creating an epic, ground-breaking movie, a unique story starring the beautiful Sabine Montrose, an acclaimed stage actress who was once Ballard's lover. His shocking film centers around a mysterious widow who oversees a hotel outfitted with new electric lights, a place where gentlemen lodgers check in but soon disappear. Ballard's ambitious story is complete with a daredevil stunt man capable of lighting himself on fire, a dirigible, and scenes shot for the first time completely at night under lights, His struggles to finance and complete this movie, keep his relationship with Sabine alive, and develop new filming techniques.

World War I brings on new challenges and opportunities for Ballard. He is captured by Germans and forced to make a documentary to prove that the German takeover of Belgium was peaceful and welcomed by the native people. Of course, Ballard has his own plans.

Historically researched by Smith, The Electric Hotel has it all: part history, part love story, part human drama. He carefully describes the development and evolution of snippets of film showing non-related actions growing into longer stories with stage actors and assigned lines and actions. Smith shows the battle with Thomas Edison over the use of patented motion picture equipment techniques, outcomes that bankrupted many production companies.

Readers will be absorbed into this fascinating early days of movies and the origins of production companies, actors, stories, and techniques to bring movies to a hungry audience. Dreamers and achievers like Ballard lead the way, slowly developing the techniques and plots, then melding them with the actors into a unique movie and experience. Wonderful reading.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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Vance, Jeffery. Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian.   

Wonderful book about the famous silent comedian, Harold Lloyd, full of photos of sets, actors, and Lloyd's personal collection, as well as plot summaries and insider stories for each of his films. Wonderful! (previously reviewed here)

Brooks, Lulu. Lulu in Hollywood.   

Louise Brooks was picked out of the chorus line of the Ziegfeld Follies in 1925, placed in silent films, and became a huge sex star of the screen. This, her autobiographical work, is the compilation of many of her articles she wrote, diaries, and personal musings. A great look at the early days of film. (previously reviewed here)

Little

Carey, Edward. Little. New York: Riverhead 2018. Print

First Sentences:

In the same year that the five-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Minuet for Harpsichord, in the precise year when the British captured Pondicherry in India from the French, in the exact year in which the melody for "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was first published, in that very year, which is to say 1761, whilst in the city of Paris people at their salons told tales of beasts in castles and men with blue beards and beauties that would not wake and cats in boots and slippers made of glass and youngest children with tufts in their hair and daughters wrapped in donkey skin, and whilst in London people at their clubs discuss the coronation of King George III and Queen Charlotte: many miles away from all this activity, in a small village in Alsace, in the presence of a ruddy midwife, two village maids, and a terrified mother, was born a certain undersized baby. 

Description:

Whew! Quite a loooong, convoluted first sentence. But it captures the detailed style and the slightly formal language that composes Edward Carey's new novel, Little. Like Carey's first book, Observatory Mansions, (about a man who acts as a living-statue and lives in his run-down family among eccentrics and who, as a hobby, steals precious minutia from strangers for his private museum), Little is chock full of strange characters both troubling and compelling.

As he pushed [the door] open a bell attached to it sounded twice, a loud noise in all that hush. It was a sad sound, two dolorous clangs, that seemed to say, That. Hurt.

Little takes place in the late 1700s, focusing on the life of Marie, an undersized child, naturally nicknamed "Little," and her difficult life in France. With both parents dead, she lives in Paris with a poor, reclusive doctor named Curtius who sculpts human organs out of wax for display in hospitals. This uncomfortably quiet man teaches Little the art of wax sculpture while he demystifies the organs of the human body. They find some fame by taking life molds of the heads (living and dead) of famous Frenchmen like Voltaire. 

Wax gives us light; without wax we would like in the darkness. How much of our lives have we seen because of wax? How would we illuminate theaters and ballrooms without it? How would the little boy with monsters under his bed dispel them without wax....We strike a match and burn a candle and a little bit of daylight is restored to us, because of wax.

Little is provided escape from this poverty-stricken life when Elizabeth, the cousin of the King, requests she move to Versailles to teach her art. Little lives in a cupboard as do many other servants who aren't sufficiently important to deserve a room, and is only allowed out when summoned by the princess. But a deep friendship and learning relationship is formed between the two girls.

But that life is short-lived when the Revolution starts and the royal family is under siege. Little finds herself removed from the palace by Elisabeth herself, but whether out of anger or for Little's protection is unknown.

I learned not only that your loved one may be forbidden you, given away to someone else, but also that though you love someone they may run from  you, and you may open your arms but they shall not come in. The Elisabeth I loved was no longer. What was left was a shell, a plaster personage. Hollow. Inside was nothing but stale air unable to get out. How I wished to crack her open.

The fighting destroys most of Paris and Little must forge a new life on her own wits and wax-figure skills while avoiding the guillotine herself for her association with the palace. The results of these struggles are both surprising and satisfying.

It is a challenging, intriguing story of eccentric characters living in poverty, abuse, innovation, and triumph over adversity. Readers will be buried deeply in this eighteenth century world of Paris and Revolution, but it is a strangely compelling world that provides fascination on each page. I found it a compelling story about a historical figure and her era.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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

Carey, Edward. Observatory Mansions.   

The sprawling familial house of Francis Orme is now apartments filled with very odd people. Orme himself is quite a character, with a job as a living statue and a collection of items he stole from other people to add to his private museum. Dizzily unpredictable and unique, Observatory Mansions is challenging and compelling at the same time: a book you are unable to put down, no matter how much you may want to, simple to find out how these people and their stories play out.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things

Hoffman, Alice. The Museum of Extraordinary Things. New York: Schribner. 2014. Print.

First Sentences:

You would think it would be impossible to find anything new in the world, creatures no man has ever seen before, one-of-a-kind oddities in which nature has taken a backseat to the coursing pulse of the fantastical and the marvelous.

Description:

I'm not really sure how to categorize Alice Hoffman's The Museum of Extraordinary Things. A romance? Historical fiction? Fantasy? Mystery? Character study? Really, it is all of these things and much more.

Coralie is the daughter of Professor Sardie, the proprietor of the small Museum of Extraordinary Things in 1911. The Museum is a collection of "Living Wonders" such as odd people, animals, and other freaks of nature placed on exhibit to the public vacationing at nearby Coney Island.

Coralie appears in the museum as a mermaid who swims in a giant tank under the observation of paying customers. She is rarely allowed outside the museum except for occasional swims in the Hudson River, where one night she spies a handsome photographer, Eddie, shooting pictures in the moonlight.

Eddie has his own demons as an immigrant Jew who fled Russia with his father. He becomes Americanized, changes his name from Ezekiel to Eddie, and strikes out on his own, abandoning his father and his faith, to become a photographer. He documents the historic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire where hundreds of workers, mostly women, died because they had been locked in their workrooms by owners who wanted to prevent workers taking breaks.

Eddie is persuaded to search for one young woman from that factory whose body was not dound among those who perished in the fire. As he unravels her story, her fate and the lives of Professor Sardie and eventually Coralie come together.

In 1911 the museum is facing competition from the new attractions of Dreamland, a lavish amusement park that will open soon to huge crowds, people who no longer are interested in the small sideshow offerings of the Museum. So Professor Sardie hatches a scheme for an attraction like no other, a new creature that will capture the attention of the world and bring back his audience ... with the reluctant assistance of Coralie.

The story is bracketed by two major events in America at the turn of the century: the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the fire at the Coney Island Dreamland fire. This peek at turn of the century New York life also introduces readers to a variety of extraordinary characters including a mystic, a recluse, a grifter, an blind photographer, a scarred housekeeper, and many more. 

It is a strange story, full of wondrous people and events, a story that gently takes hold of you slowly until you cannot extract yourself from it by putting down this book. I was completely caught up in these conflicts and personal struggles, as well as absorbed in the historical events of the two great fires that changed the world at that time. There are the struggles of daughter and father, of father and son, that are recognizable to everyone, yet here played out with intelligence and emotion. And of course there is the compelling love story between Coralie and Eddie.

Love is the one thing that's not easy to find.It's an achievement, Eddie, to feel such a glorious emotion, whether it's returned or not.

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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

Swyler, Erika. The Book of Speculation

A mysterious book of a magician's is passed from hand to hand between small carnival and circus performers, including someone known as a "swimmer," someone who can hold her breath for long periods underwater during performances. She searches for the history of this book and its importance. (Previously reviewed here.)

Morganstern, Erin. The Night Circus

Wonderful behind the scenes look at a circus and the lives of two young magicians competing to be the best in the world.