Category: Books

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as All Saints Day. The evening before was dubbed All Hallows Eve which later became Halloween. Whether you honor saints or celebrate with pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts and candy corn, have a wonderful day!

FLIGHT AND SO MUCH MORE

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

I’ll start right off by stating that I loved this novel!  The characters are complex and fascinating, the writing is rich in detail, but not overdone, and I quickly became immersed in it.  Over one hundred years, these characters and their descendants connect and overlap and impact one another.  Marian and Jamie Graves are twins.  Their father, Addison, a ship captain, saves their lives and his own when his ship is sinking.  Their childhood is a strange one in Missoula, Missouri as their father disappears and they are raised by their alcoholic Uncle Wallace.  Marian is enthralled when she meets a barnstorming flying couple and becomes determined to learn to fly. 

 Enter the dangerous and seductive Barclay McQueen who wants to possess Marian but grants her wish for flying lessons.  With shorn hair and in trousers, Marian looks more male than female and uses this to her advantage.  She makes air deliveries for McQueen’s business and later delivers fighter planes in England during WWII.  And she works toward making an ambitious and arduous flight over the North and South Poles.

Interleaved with Marian and Jamie’s stories are chapters set in the present day.  Hadley Baxter is an actress who’s been selected to play Marian in a movie about her life.  Echoing Marian’s experiences, Hadley too was raised by a single uncle, and like Marian, she would like to take better control of her life.  This is Hollywood with a steady stream of gossip and lots of celebrity hook-ups.  

Marian is a pilot, Jamie becomes an artist, and Hadley wants to take herself and her craft more seriously.  Who these individuals love or lust after and how they experience race and gender combine for a wide-ranging romp through the history of the 20^th century.  I found the Hadley story not as compelling as those of Marian and Jamie, but overall was impressed, engaged, and amazed at how Shipstead put together the various puzzle pieces.  I found the ending unexpected, but very satisfying.  It’s a marvelous novel and so deserving of its nomination for the 2021 Booker Prize!  As one of the best books I’ve read this year, I highly recommend it.  (~JWFarrington)

Footnote:  My book group’s discussion brought forth a host of differing opinions.  A few individuals actively disliked the novel.  Some thought Marian was too self-centered; others thought her extreme self-focus was due to her dysfunctional childhood.  Probably Jamie was the most liked character with Eddie and perhaps Ruth close seconds.  All of us agreed that the Hadley story, while necessary for the plot, was less interesting overall. 

THE LIFE OF A RESIDENT

Committed:  Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training by Adam Stern

A graduate of Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, Adam Stern arrived at Harvard for his psychiatry residency feeling seriously outclassed.  This memoir of his four years details his interactions with various patients both in the hospital and in private practice, but he also shares the challenges of arranging a social life on a resident’s demanding schedule.  It’s a quick read and he’s a good writer. 

 I gained a better sense of the contrast between hospital psychiatric admissions and private practice. If you’re interested in medicine and mental health cases, then you should find it engaging.  (~JWFarrington)

SNOW ON THE Great Plains

The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

This is a novel about the tragic 1888 blizzard in Nebraska and Dakota that took the lives of hundreds of school kids.  At times it reads more like a documentary than a novel as the characters are not as well developed as you might expect.  Two sisters, Gerda and Raina, daughters of Norwegian immigrants, are teachers in schools three hours apart.  They make different decisions about how to respond to the midday temperature drop and the arrival of heavy snow.  One sister is hailed for her efforts, the other castigated.  

Gavin Woodson, a somewhat jaded young reporter, provides an overarching view of the depths of the tragedy. He travels around after the storm visiting families, witnessing the devastation, and hearing firsthand accounts of the lives of those who froze.  If you know little about this event, this novel graphically puts you there in the cold and snow.

Benjamin is also the author of several other historical novels I’ve read including The Aviator’s Wife and Mistress of the Ritz.

HANDMAIDEN TO ROYALS

Service to the Queen by Tessa Arlen

Marion Crawford, aka Crawfie, was a dedicated governess and companion to Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret beginning when they were young children through their late teens.  Away from her home in distant Scotland, Marion sorely missed her mother and then her fiancé as she carried out her duties in London.  The girls’ mother, Queen Elizabeth, known to most of us as the Queen Mother, was a dominating individual. She expected and demanded loyalty and obedience (some would rightly say too much) from those in her service.  

What suspense there is hinges on whether Marion will ever marry George and how her service to the queen will end.  The novel is rather flat but would still be of interest to those who are keen to know more about the princesses’ upbringing.

ADDENDUM

After reading The Personal Librarian, I bought tickets to visit the Morgan Library.  It’s a grand and sumptuous place, elaborately decorated.  I enjoyed gazing around Morgan’s office with its monstrous desk opposite an equally imposing fireplace.  Belle Greene’s large office is also a lovely space, no longer an office.  There are tiers of closed book stacks, but selected rare items are on display for closer viewing. In the new spaces designed by Renzo Piano in 2006, there are several exhibits to explore.  The Chief Penguin and I last visited the library when Renzo’s glass cubes were new, so it was fun to return.  I recommend a visit!

Note: Library photo and cover photo on Maui ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved). Shipstead photo courtesy of bookpage.com