Review: The Excitements by CJ Wray

I have discovered that I really enjoy books about feisty older people, especially older women. I don't know if it's because I myself am getting older or if there's some less obvious reason, but I do delight in the way that women who are looked over, underestimated, and treated as harmless manage to be expansive and wickedly intelligent and, by the end of their novels, the undisputed heros of their worlds. In short, they are just being the same women they were when they were younger, only sporting wrinkles and grey hair now. Getting old doesn't mean turning into a sweet old lady, not in books, and not in real life either. The two nonagenarian main characters in CJ Wray's delightful novel, The Excitements, prove that in spades.

Penny and Josephine Williamson are in their nineties. The sisters served their country during WWII and are about to go to Paris with their much beloved great-nephew Archie to be awarded the Legion d'honneur for their wartime efforts. This trip is not just a trip to France for any of the three as all of them have other connections to and memories of Paris that make the trip a fraught one.

The narrative swings back and forth from Penny and Josephine's time in the FANYs (Penny) and WRENS (Josephine) during the war, the post-war years, and the present. The story centers on the women but great-nephew Archie's past and how he came to be so connected to his aunts is also covered. Archie adores Penny and Josephine, devising "excitements" to keep their days entertaining, worrying about perceived cognitive declines, exasperated by the trouble that seems to follow the sweet, little old ladies, and dreading the day that these much loved women won't be there anymore. The aunts took Archie under their wings when he was young and have doted on him forever. But that doesn't mean that they have told him their many secrets. He has no idea what their wartime service included, no ideas about their most important loves and losses, and not a full picture of their current day activities either. All three characters are charming and as each of their backstories unfold, the various plot threads thicken deliciously and havoc ensues.

The novel starts off as pure entertainment but turns out to be filled with joy and great sorrow, touching on heavier topics than the reader might suspect. Despite that, it still maintains a madcap, caper-like feel. There's a supporting cast of irrascible elderly women veterans, shenanigans, love lost, DNA testing, social justice, the mores of the war years, especially as applied to women, and the occasional shoplifting and jewel theivery. The ending is a bit chaotic but fun, as is the spirit of the book as a whole. Reading about the Williamson sisters and their adventures is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

The Divorce by
Moa Herngren.
The book is being released by Harper Via on August 6, 2024.

The book's jacket copy says: There are two sides to every story . . .

Bea couldn't be more excited to trade the stifling Stockholm summer heat for vacation on Gotland Island. She’s looking forward to spending quality time with her beloved husband of thirty-two years, Niklas, and their two moody teenage daughters, and recuperating from the stress of daily life in the company of her beloved in-laws. One night shortly before their departure, Bea and Niklas have a seemingly mundane argument over a trivial issue, and Niklas goes out with a friend to blow off steam. As the hours pass, Niklas doesn’t come home, and Bea’s irritation soon gives way to panic as she imagines what kind of disaster might have happened to delay his return.

What she soon learns will change her life forever: while her husband is fine, their marriage is not. Her kind, gentle pediatrician husband wants to leave her. But while this might seem like sudden insanity to Bea, for Niklas, it’s anything but…

Written with the warmth and empathy that have made her insightful, page-turning family novels bestsellers in her native Sweden, Moa Herngren raises thoughtful questions about why relationships fall apart: Is the person who leaves always the bad guy? What emerges once you begin scratching the surface of what seems like a clear-cut situation? Told from dual perspectives, The Divorce is a gripping domestic drama that deftly explores the complexities of modern marriage.

Translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies

Review: The Hedgerow by Anne Leigh Parrish

Anne Leigh Parrish showed readers the losses women suffered when men came back from WWII and resumed their lives in society in her novel, an open door (lower case intentional). Now she's back with a sequel, The Hedgerow, named for the poetry press her heroine Edith wants to open in conjunction with her bookstore.

It's 1949 in Cambridge, MA. Edith may have escaped her unsatisfying and soul-sucking marriage to Walter but she cannot escape society's expectations for women quite so easily. Having moved into her wealthy British peer friend Henry's spacious apartment, she drifts into an affair with him and then subsequently into an engagement she's not sure she wants simply out of obligation and gratitude to him for his support during her separation and divorce. What she really wants is to devote herself to her bookstore and the fledgling poetry press she is launching but Henry's neediness continues to overwhelm her as she falls back into the habit of putting her own wants and needs second until things come to light that change her trajectory.

Edith inches her way to living the life she wants but it really is slow and incremental inching. Her character feels more lethargic and trapped than she was in the first book, trapped by society's expectations, Henry's money and the ease it brings to life, and by the surprising weight of the past, both her own and Henry's. She seems to have (and accept) an inability to feel deeply and passionately about anyone, even telling both Henry and his mother that she doesn't love him despite agreeing to marry him. There is a real feeling of lassitude arching over the story as a whole and Edith rarely breaks out of her entrenched ambivalence, finding a well of determination and courage only when she chooses to publish a poet whose work she knows will be controversial and potentially censored. Like in an open door, the tone of the novel is quiet as it examines the idea of duty and what roles are available to women. And also like an open door, the novel ends with Edith facing bigger, more surprising concerns that could force her to reevaluate her chosen path once again. I felt like this sequel was a little more plodding than the first novel and I'm a bit ambivalent myself about whether I'd follow Edith any further although I continue to think Parrish is an exceptional writer.

Thank you to the publisher and author for a copy of this book to review.

Review: Clear by Carys Davies

I fell in love with Carys Davies' writing when I read her short story collection, The Redemption of Galen Pike, many years ago and I'd always meant to read more of her work but somehow never did until now. Her newest novel, Clear, is impressive, quiet, and an almost indescribable work of beauty.

John Ferguson is a Presbyterian minister who has chosen, with many others, to break away from his church and to protest the practice of wealthy landowners having the power to appoint ministers. His rebellion against the established church leaves him and his wife, Mary, destitute though, so in an effort to earn a small amount of money, John agrees to take on the task of evicting the sole tenant left on a remote Scottish island in the waning years of the Scottish Clearances. But this is not the uncomplicated and easy assignment that the devout John envisions and his life will never be the same.

Opening with John sighting the forbidding island and lamenting his lack of swimming ability, it is clear that what he is facing will challenge and test him. Once he has landed on the island, he takes up residence in the old Baillie house and starts to explore his surroundings before trying to make contact with Ivar, the only remaining inhabitant of the island, and the man he is there to evict. When John meets with an accident and Ivar rescues him, the two men cannot communicate, each speaking a language very far removed from the other. Each man keeps secrets from the other even as John starts to learn Ivar's language and ultimately those secrets will change everything.

All three major characters, John, Ivar, and John's wife Mary, come into focus as the narrative moves back and forth amongst them, telling their histories as well as the history of the Clearances and of the rift in the Presbyterian Church. Davies is a spare writer, evoking much in few words. As the reader would expect on a remote and forbidding island, landscape and nature dominates in this haunting work. The characters drive the story along as they mirror the bleakness of the world around them. This is a spectacular, quiet novel of loneliness, connection, love, and the importance of shared language; a novel to be savored.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

Off the Books by
Soma Mei Sheng Frazier.
The book is being released by Henry Holt and Co. on July 30, 2024.

The book's jacket copy says: A captivating debut following a cross-country road trip that will make you believe in the goodness of people, Off the Books sheds light on the power in humanity during the most troubled of times.

Recent Dartmouth dropout Mei, in search of a new direction in life, drives a limo to make ends meet. Her grandfather convinces her to allow her customers to pay under the table, and before she knows it, she is working as a routine chauffeur for sex workers. Mei does her best to mind her own business, but her knack for discretion soon leads her on a life changing trip from San Francisco to Syracuse with a new client.

Handsome and reserved, Henry piques Mei's interest. Toting an enormous black suitcase with him everywhere he goes, he's more concerned with taking frequent breaks than making good time on the road. When Mei discovers Henry's secret, she does away with her usual close-lipped demeanor and decides she has no choice but to confront him. What Henry reveals rocks her to her core and shifts this once casual, transactional road trip to one of moral stakes and dangerous consequences.

An original take on the great American road trip, Off the Books is a beautifully crafted coming of age story that showcases the resilience of the human spirit and the power of doing the right thing. The spirit of Frazier's characters will stay with readers long after they have arrived at their destination.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

The Faculty Lounge by
Jennifer Mathieu.
The book is being released by Dutton on July 23, 2024.

The book's jacket copy says: By the acclaimed author of Moxie, a funny, bighearted adult debut that is at once an ode to educators, a timely glimpse at today's pressing school issues, and a tender character study, following a sprawling cast of teachers, administrators, and staff at a Texas high school

With its ensemble of warm and unforgettable characters, The Faculty Lounge shows readers a different side of school life. It all starts when an elderly substitute teacher at Baldwin High School is found dead in the faculty lounge. After a bit of a stir, life quickly returns to normal--it's not like it's the worst (or even most interesting) thing that has happened within the building's walls. But when, a week later, the spontaneous scattering of his ashes on the school grounds catches the attention of some busybody parents, it sets in motion a year that can only be described as wild, bizarre, tragic, mundane, beautiful, and humorous all at once.

In the midst of the ensuing hysteria and threats of disciplinary action, the novel peeks into the lives of the implicated adults who, it turns out, actually have first names and continue to exist when the school day is done. We meet: a former punk band front man, now a middle-aged principal who must battle it out with the schoolboard to keep his job; a no-nonsense school nurse willing to break the rules, despite the close watch on their campus, when a student arrives at her office with a dilemma; and a disgruntled English instructor who finds himself embroiled in even more controversy when he misfires a snarky email. Oh, and there's also a teacher make-out session in a supply closet during a lockdown.

As these people continue to manage the messiness of this school year, there is the looming threat of what will become of their beloved Baldwin High. Ultimately, at the heart of this unconventional workplace novel is a story of the power of human connection and of the joy of finding purpose in what it is we do every day.