Reported by Jeanne
Nevermore’s first book was Mother of Rain by Karen
Spears Zacharias. As the book opens, a family tragedy has sent ten year old
Maizee to live with an aunt and her
husband in Christian Bend, Tennessee.
The story follows Maizee as she struggles with the voices she hears in
her head. She marries, and gives birth
to a boy she names Rain. Her life gets more complicated when her husband is
drafted into the Army to fight overseas in World War II. Our reader saw part of the book’s theme as
being about the impact a mother’s life and death can have on a child. The book is written in Appalachian dialect
but was easy to understand. One member
wondered if there really is a Christian Bend, and the answer is yes: it’s a small unincorporated community in
Hawkins County.
The mother/child influence theme was also a
component of the next book, Mary’s Monster by Lita Judge. It is a
biography of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly told in free verse with
illustrations. Every member who has read
it has praised the book for its power and beauty. There are copies in both adult and YA, and
Nevermore proves that Mary’s Monster has definite crossover appeal
because it has been making the rounds of the entire Nevermore Book Club, and
earning rave reviews from all who have read it. It was quickly taken up by
another reader this time as well. It's also timely: 2018 is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein.
Before he became famous for such novels as Animal
Farm and 1984, George Orwell wrote a memoir entitled Down and Out
in Paris and London. In it, he details the travails of living poor in a
large city. In Paris, he worked as at a
hotel, gave English lessons, and worked as a dishwasher. He also pawned his clothes. Finally exhausted with working 17 hour days
without a break, he seeks employment back in London. He obtains a position teaching and caring for
a child with challenges, but he arrives back in London to find the family gone
abroad and he is left to scrounge a living as well as find a place to
sleep. Our reviewer thought it was
extremely interesting, and painted a vivid picture of the underclass in both
cities during the 20s and 30s. While
parts of his account were challenged, Orwell said that while he may not have
included events chronologically, all that he recorded actually happened at one
time or another.
Manhattan Beach
by Jennifer Egan is another historical novel which moves forward and backward
in time, and Nevermore members have read a lot of those lately. Part of the story is set during the Great
Depression, when eleven year old Anna meets Dexter, her father’s employer, at
Manhattan Beach. Anna senses that Dexter
is something more than what she’s been told but is uncertain what it means.
Years later, during WW II, Anna fights to become a diver repairing warships and
seeking to find out what became of her father who has gone missing and whom
Anna thinks is dead. Our reviewer said
it was a good book and well-written, but the current fashion for having books
move back and forth in time is getting a bit old.
The same comment was made about the next book, The
Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy. The May Mothers are a social group of women
who all had babies in May. They meet in
the park each week for a bit of socializing with their babies, but one week
they decide to have a “Mom’s Night” and get together at a bar without babies in
tow. What should have been a fun
occasion takes a terrifying turn when one of the mothers has her three month
old child kidnapped. The investigation reveals that every mother has
secrets. Our reader said it was pretty
good, but the technique of going back in time to reveal each character’s history
is becoming boring.
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