Nevermore: Anne Tyler, Doerr, Mukherjee, Lindemuth, Winspear, Powell

Nevermore has moved into the internet age with COVID-19, so this week’s meeting was courtesy of Zoom.  Technical glitches aside, it was wonderful to have so many familiar faces on the screen!

The first book up was Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler.  It’s the story of a 40-something year old Micah Mortimer who has a steady female companion but who immerses himself in his need for order and quiet.  He works as a super for an apartment building and also offers tech support as the Tech Hermit.  He lives a very orderly, safe existence until one day when a young man shows up on his doorstep, claiming to be his son.  Then Micah’s lady friend is evicted from her apartment and the man who values order and solitude is suddenly faced with the prospect of more human contact that he is used to.  While our reader usually loves Tyler’s books, she said this one just did not do it for her and is not recommended.

Our next member has been reading books by Harriet Doerr, whose first novel was the acclaimed Stones for Ibarra which was published when the author was 74.  The story centers on the Evertons, an American couple who move to a small village in Mexico to reopen a copper mine once owned by the husband’s grandfather.  The book is beautifully written. The reader also read Tiger in the Grass which is a collection of stories and essays by Doerr, including new stories with the Evertons, but also Doerr’s own reminiscences.  Both were highly recommended.

The Gene:  An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee fascinated our next reviewer. The emphasis in the book is on the history of genetics, though the author does weave his family history in to illustrate some of the principles.  However, our reader was most impressed with how the book shows that real science is about gathering data and in unbiased examination of that data.  Many of the pioneers in the field were not appreciated in their own time.  The author also wrote the excellent history of cancer entitled The Emperor of All Maladies.

In the words of Monty Python, and now for something completely different:  My Brother’s Destroyer by Clayton Lindemuth is the first in the Baer Creighton series.  Creighton is a moonshiner with the ability to know when someone is lying and who has no compunction about wreaking vengeance on those who wrong him or his dog, Fred.  The book was described as very redneck and very entertaining. 

The American Agent is the fifteenth in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear.  Maisie is back in London after escaping Nazi Berlin, and working as an ambulance driver when she meets a young American reporter, Catherine Saxon.  When Catherine is found murdered, Maisie is called in to help investigate.  It’s an entertaining historical mystery.

Finally, Women in the War Zone by Anne Powell is once again extravagantly praised by a Nevermore member. Powell collected first-hand accounts of women who worked in hospital services on the front lines during World War I, at a time when women were not really accepted as medical personnel.  Their experiences were as horrifying as they were heroic, shedding light on a hidden part of history. Our reader admired the strong, brave, independent women she met within the pages and recommended the book very highly.

Nevermore: Bookshop of Yesterdays, Fourth Monkey, Breathing Lessons, Outsider, Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen

Reported by Kristin

With a group full of book lovers, it’s no surprise that the first title mentioned was The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson.  Miranda Brooks fondly remembers her Uncle Billy and his Los Angeles bookstore while she was growing up, but lost touch with him after he and Miranda’s mother have a falling-out.  Sixteen years later, Miranda learns that Uncle Billy has died and has left her his bookstore, and the clues left within.  Miranda spends a summer deciphering clues and following a mysterious scavenger hunt, as well as discovering more about her family.  Our reader found this story quite interesting, although rather predictable.

Next up was The Fourth Monkey by J. D. Barker.  The first book featuring Detective Sam Parker, this installment features a killer who has frightened Chicago residents for over five years.  Playing off the idea of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” the fourth monkey here is “do no evil.”  Our reader said that she read the entire book in one day and simply “could not put the darn thing down.”

Another reader picked up an older novel by Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons.  The story centers around Maggie and Ira Moran, a long married couple who spend a road trip reflecting upon their lives.  Married just after high school, Maggie and Ira have had more than their share of differences, joys, and heartaches.  Enthusiastically recommending this book as funny and relatable, our reader also noted that the book was so much better than the movie of the same name.

Turning to non-fiction, the next book club member shared her pleasurable experience in reading The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue, by New York Times bestselling author Frederick Forsyth.  Known for his suspense novels full of spies, arms dealers, and drug cartels, Forsyth has finally written the story of his own life.  A pilot in the Royal Air Force as a young man, Forsyth then turned to journalism as a Reuters correspondent, later working for the BBC.  With life adventures taking him across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and more, our reader found Forsyth to be a fascinating character.

Blending history with imagination, Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird was up next, a story of an African queen who was brought to the New World in slavery, and her descendants.  The granddaughter, Cathy Williams, was born into slavery but seized her chance to fight during the Civil War by dressing as a man and joining the Buffalo Soldiers.  Based on the life of Cathay Williams who enlisted in the United States army as “William Cathay,” this novel was regarded as an interesting read.

Nevermore: Crime, Prisons, Breathing Lessons, Unsheltered, Cigar Factory, Forbidden Place

 Reported by Jeanne

In My Father’s House: A New View of how Crime Runs in the Family by Fox Butterfield was deemed both fascinating and horrifying by our first reader.  National Book Award winner Butterfield investigated a single family, the Bogles, whose members have criminal records that date back decades.  Generations of the family spent time incarcerated; younger members learned the family trade from their elders.  Our reader called the book “unbelievable” but quickly added that was in the sense of amazing, not untrue.  She said it was an excellent book and she recommended it highly.

Another book proved a good companion to Butterfield’s: American Prison by Shane Bauer, a journalist for Mother Jones who took a job working at a for-profit prison in Louisiana. Paid $9 an hour, Bauer found training was lacking and the institution was dangerously understaffed. 

The ever-popular Anne Tyler was up next, with her novel Breathing Lessons.  Maggie and Ike Moran have been married for 28 years, despite it being a union of opposites:  Ike is practical, competent, rock steady, while Maggie is capricious, scattered, and impulsive.  On a long drive to a funeral, the two reflect on their lives and their marriage.  Our reviewer said it was as funny as heck, but with a lot of tender spots.

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver is set in Vineland, New Jersey where a contemporary family has just inherited a house.  Beset by financial woes, including an ailing father and adult children who have returned home, Willa and Iano are first relieved and thrilled to inherit a house. The reality is that the house is falling down and they don’t have the resources for repairs.  Some 150 years earlier, a young science teacher lived in the house and was faced with challenges over his wish to teach the controversial theory put forth by Charles Darwin.  Kingsolver uses the two time lines to comment on current social issues as well as historical ones.  Our reader confessed she didn’t finish it because she didn’t like moving back and forth in time, though the writing was good.

The next book was also a historical novel, The Cigar Factory:  A Novel of Charleston by Michele Moore.  Starting in 1895, the book follows two families who are involved in making cigars: the white McGonegals and the African American Ravenels.  Our reader said it was an easy and fun read, and that it was fascinating to learn about the process.  She also praised the author’s way with dialog and dialect.

Finally, The Forbidden Place  by Susanne Jansson is a thriller about a young Swedish biologist who is doing environmental surveys in a peat bog where human sacrifices had been found in the past.  Now, however, she finds an injured man with gold coins in his pockets, just like those ancient sacrifices—and there are other bodies turning up. Our reader was enthralled by the book, saying that the author knew how to write and to keep the reader guessing.  It was a real page turner, she said.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

 Reviewed by Ambrea

Kate Battista feels stuck.  Having dropped out of college, after a heated altercation with one of her professors, Kate has taken to overseeing her eccentric father’s home, babysitting her air-headed younger sister, Bunny, and working at a local preschool to help make ends meet.  Despite her best intentions, she always seems to land herself in trouble.  If it isn’t Bunny bringing boys home or her father forgetting his lunch (again), then she’s being called into her supervisor’s office because the parents don’t care for Kate’s unfettered cynicism or her blunt-edged honesty.

And then, quite suddenly, her father drops a bombshell:  his lab assistant, Pyotr, is on the verge of being deported, putting their entire project in peril—unless Kate can find it in her heart to help them.  Kate, however, wants nothing to do with their cockamamie plan to keep Pyotr in the states; in fact, she’s furious they would ever consider having her marry a complete and utter stranger.  But, as Pyotr and her father try to bring her around, Kate finds herself thawing just a little more each day and thinking, maybe…just maybe, their plan might work after all.

Vinegar Girl, a reimagined version of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, is an interesting novel, to say the least.  A little odd, yes, but it was strangely compelling.  I couldn’t help getting wound up in Kate Battista’s life, couldn’t help wondering what would happen as she struggles to deal with her wild child sister, tries to corral her father’s mismanagement, and fend off Pyotr’s unexpected affection.  I was somehow hooked by her story, and I found that I simply couldn’t put this book down.

I’ve never read anything by Anne Tyler and, oddly enough, I’ve never had the opportunity to read (but I have seen) The Taming of the Shrew.  Despite my lack of exposure to both writer and inspiration, I thoroughly enjoyed Vinegar Girl.  First off, I feel like I should note that Tyler is a wonderful writer.  There’s a quality to her work that drew me in from the first page, a cadence to the narration that made the story appealing on a visceral level, a way the characters were made that kept me coming back for more.  I grew to appreciate the plot, the characters, the subtle shifts in language as Kate changed her mind and new layers were added to her relationship with Pyotr.  Personally, I enjoyed the journey.

Moreover, Tyler is a descriptive writer.

As a reader, I hate when authors don’t set the stage, when they don’t offer descriptions of their characters or give weak descriptions about the scene.  Tyler, however, does a wonderful job of bringing her characters to life, showing off the little details that make them unique and, confidentially, intriguing, and unfolding an entire world on the pages.  She helps me sink into the story, helps me feel like I’m really there with Kate as she weeds her garden or as she walks the few blocks to her father’s lab because he forgot his lunch (again) or fights with Bunny over the boy she wasn’t supposed to bring into the house (again).

Plus, I found Kate to be singularly enjoyable.  She’s headstrong, she’s fiery, she’s brutally honest and blunt even when speaking to small children, and she’s incredibly intelligent.  Tyler crafts a compelling and sympathetic character in Kate, creating a complex female heroine who is pulled in many different directions by her loyalty to her family, her interests in her own career, her dreams for herself and her own indomitable sense of independence.  She’s frequently sharp and a bit caustic, but her prickly personality is simply part of her appeal.

Some part of me did wish for more and for better opportunities for Kate Battista.  I wished she wasn’t so constricted by her family, confined by their subsequent eccentricities and individual challenges—that she wasn’t thrown into such an awkward situation with Pyotr.  It just seems like she sacrifices so much for her family, for the people she loves and, honestly, it feels a bit unfair to her.  But, I suppose, if she’s happy with how things turned out, who am I to judge?

Note:  This is one in a series of books by famous authors who are presenting fresh versions of various Shakespeare plays. The Hogarth Shakespeare series will include Jo Nesbo's version of Macbeth, Gillian Flynn's retelling of Hamlet,  and Margaret Atwood will retell The Tempest.