Tag: Book Reviews

A pocket full of love, letters and loneliness in my handbag

Letters to Eloise 

Emily Williams

 

 

 

 

 

Set in the nineties, this first-person narrative is a tender tale of life’s journey. Initially, one can luxuriate in simplicity of university life until the narrative and the mystery begin to unfold.  Flora, ‘beautiful and talented’ is an engaging, likeable character from the outset.  Letters to Flora’s unborn child will be constructed from her inner dialogue.

The people in Flora’s life construct the narrative threads.  Although, surrounded by supportive friends and family, Flora is secretive.  Friends and family love Flora and there are tender moments.  For instance, the letter that Flora’s father writes to the unborn child is incredibly moving. Her mother’s silent support is beautiful while support from her friends evoke humour.  The constant in the narrative is the developing relationship that Flora has with Little Bump.  Flora’s experience of her difficult pregnancy and analysis of her relationships pull the reader into the story.  Is Flora hiding something?  Each time it seems as if a mystery has been solved, the narrative moves on.  Initially, the mystery of the child’s father intrigues.  The reader longs for a certain man to be the father, yet the undertones of something unsettling unnerves and nudges the reader.

As you get to know Flora, you want to protect and support her and Little Bump.  Flora’s need to confide in Little Bump successfully confirms her loneliness. One questions if she is truly’ happy’.  Flora seems naïve, vulnerable yet she successfully analyses her role in the two relationships in her life.  She explores how the relationships developed and moulded to the circumstances.  The juxtaposition of the two relationships reveal insight into Flora’s psyche. With one lover, she experienced the ‘distant music that guided our feet and our entwined bodies did the rest’. This is juxtaposed with ‘I winced. I glared around the small pungent smelling storeroom.’  Here, the discomfort is clearly signified in the language choices and reinforced through the punctuation.  One wants to warn Flora but was she already aware of it?  She is a clever student.

The plot moves in and out of contrasting past experiences with the two lovers.  Flora is ‘not entirely comfortable’, at times, and neither is the reader.   Humour is contrasted with despair.  A secretive, cliched relationship is compared with a natural, good humoured relationship.  Surely, the unconfessed love that she ‘wished [she] had told him’ is the shadow that is pressing on Flora’s mind.  Her memories of happier times provide support for Flora during the isolation of her pregnancy.  Williams skilfully builds layers of intrigue.  Flora becomes trapped in events and her silence.  She admits that:

‘It is all a cruel game, this life of mine, as I begin to lose track of what is real and what isn’t.’

The real cruelty isn’t fully in focus until the end of the novel. This novel is intriguing and offers far more than the blurb promises.  I completed the novel in the early hours of the morning as I could not abandon Flora.  This is a powerful exploration of a mother’s love for her unborn child, first love, seduction and love for family and friends.  Williams successfully explores some complex and challenging themes and places betrayal at the core.

This is a clever debut novel that will move you.

 

Click to buy on Amazon

 

Please see all my reviews at Books in Handbag and my blog at jessiecahalin.com

The Old Friend in my Handbag

Carol Drinkwater’s The Forgotten Summer is safely stored in my handbag and can be enjoyed at any time, but a generous glass of Chateauneuf du Pape is a recommended companion.

I devoured Drinkwater’s memoirs and drank up her wisdom, and her novel, Forgotten Summer, did not disappoint me.  Drinkwater wraps up her nuggets of wisdom, and powerful observations, in a beautifully crafted narrative.

This is so much more than the story of an English girl that fell in love with a Frenchman.  Jane’s memories of her life, thirty years on, are the starting point for Jane’s exploration of another world that her husband inhabited.

Read the complete review of Forgotten Summer in My Reading.

 

Drinkwater books are like my old friends.  I started this reading friendship with the Olive Farm books.

I escaped into the world of Apassionata immediately. I could feel the heat of the sun on my face as I ran away to the Mediterranean, with the narrator’s voice in my head. The descriptions are vivid, soothing and thoroughly necessary; they nourish the imagination and transport you.

Read the complete review of The Olive Farm in My Reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out my blog at jessiecahalin.com

A short story tattooed on my mind

Tess and Tattoos

Helene Leuschel

 

 

 

 

 

This short story made me miss the launch of the new series of Strictly Come Dancing!

This compelling literary, scientific and philosophical story is no ordinary, predictable tale. From the outset, one is searching for the manipulator.  The clever use of perspective and narrative structure guides the reader into the narrative and instructs.  It is an intelligent study of the human condition and the psyche: though this may seem challenging – it isn’t.  Engaging with the central character becomes an obsession for the reader.

Like Sandra, the reader connects with the ‘fragile’ Tess who suffers ‘deep unease into the roots of her hair’. Stage, by stage Tess’s life is deconstructed.  The comparison between Sandra’s life and Tess’s life is clever. On the surface, the elderly Tess is as vulnerable as Sandra’s children; but unlike the children, Tess has lived a life.  Sandra asks a pertinent question:

‘Why was it that young children and, for that matter senile adults, are put into the category of innocence and naivety?’

Tess is lonely but is not innocent or naïve.  She knows how to get attention from Sandra in the care home.  Tess is ‘waiting for death’ but has learnt so much about people.  She knows about the destructive power of jealousy.

‘…you’ll never be happy ..’ if you feel ‘jealous’. The story examines the flaws in human nature and suggests that everyone would be happier if they felt ‘genuinely pleased for those that did better than ourselves.’ Jealousy is presented as a catalyst for a manipulative mind.  Tess has studied the character flaws that contribute to the psyche of a manipulator.

The story reaches out to the reader offering a positive philosophy for life.  Victims of emotionally and physically abusive relationships can gain courage from this story to take action, rather than applying the ‘basic tricks’ to survive. Perhaps, this groundbreaking story should be prescribed in counselling sessions.

This powerful short story will be forever tattooed on my mind.  While reading, I felt like the character who is ‘constantly standing on a tightrope…balancing…over troubled waters’. This short story delivered some surprises, and even cleverly manipulated the reader.  I urge readers to explore this narrative and to discover the symbolism of the tattoo.

 

Click to get a free copy from HeleneLeuschel.com

 

Please see all my reviews at Books In Handbag and my blog at jessiecahalin.com.

Essential book about the complexities of families for my handbag

Please see my blog at jessiecahalin.com

Practicing Normal 

Cara Sue Achterberg

An essential book about the complexities of families for my handbag but be prepared to experience a cocktail of emotions.

 

 

Click here to buy on Amazon

This clever novel may force you onto the psychiatrist’s couch to analyse your own life as well as searching for answers to the characters’ questions. For instance, Jenna asks:

‘Do you think that we all start out good and learn to be bad or are we just inherently good and others bad?’

‘Practicing Normal’ explores how the emotional landscape of our families influence who we are.  Achterberg presents a skilful construction of modern family life that the reader can ponder and deconstruct: these are real people, with real issues, there is no ‘phoney’ nonsense because you get right inside of their minds.

The changing dynamic of Kate and Everett’s love is contrasted with the self-absorbing excitement of teenage love.  Achterberg intelligently observes how our relationship with our parents and other experiences shape the capacity to love and the need to be loved.  She explores the impact of children and other demands on a relationship.  Achterberg’s style of writing is intelligent and measured, as she provides the reader with the knowledge of the issues that torment the characters.  Kate explains that ‘It wasn’t until the kids came along that loving him felt like an effort.’  Everett tells Kate that she ‘completes him’ yet admits that he is addicted to sex with other women.  The different perspectives from the characters are skilfully juxtaposed so that you gain a balanced perspective on events: Achterberg teaches her reader to empathise with all characters.

Kate moves from one crisis to another but believes that ‘crisis is better than real life’.  Sadly, she is a prisoner to routine and everyone else’s emotional needs:  She is a very astute observer of her family members but doesn’t confront them.  The reader knows why she isn’t happy and wants to shout at her to take action.  We gain insight into Kate from her daughter, Jenna.  Although Jenna is a disaffected teenager ‘pelting everyone with her anger’, she is the most insightful. Indeed, her father, Everett, is not as mature as his daughter.  He says, ‘I don’t buy the Asperger’s shit’ even though his son has been diagnosed with this condition.  Jenna observes that her father is angry because ‘his kids are not living up to his expectations’ of ‘normal’, and she luxuriates in wearing a mask of rebellion.  As a reader one despises Everett’s lack of empathy as much as one adores the boundless empathy of Jenna and her mother.

Everett doesn’t celebrate the amazing qualities of his own son who is ‘clever’, ‘funny’ and ‘awesome’. In contrast, Jenna and Kate are great at helping JT to be himself but they both struggle to celebrate their own qualities. Through Kate and Jenna, we learn about the challenges and rewards of supporting a child with Asperger’s.  JT is the happiest character, living in his own world without the burden of worrying about others; ironically Everett is living in his own world, without a concern for others, but it isn’t making him happy.  Is there a similarity between the emotional literacy of father and son that help them in the end?  Maybe Everett needs to learn that, that ‘Love isn’t romance.  It’s a grind. It’s being there every day, even when you don’t want to be.’

The characters in this novel are not static.  You will have to read the novel to see if the characters settle themselves like ‘the sun settles itself in the sky’ at the end of the day.  Be warned that this isn’t a cosy romance novel and it will challenge you.

I suggest that you bury yourself in the novel and let Achterberg teach you why, ‘the perfect house with the perfect family’ is only ever a veneer because everyone has issues and emotional baggage to handle.

Please see all my reviews on My Reading at https://jessiecahalin.com/my-reading/.