Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

Reflecting this age of extreme weather events, Jennifer Brown has written a gripping novel, Torn Away, which explores the impact of a tornado on one Missouri community and in particular on a sixteen-year-old girl named Jersey. The descriptions of sights and sounds are vivid and readers will sense the horror which Jersey experiences both during and after the storm.

The story is an emotional roller-coaster as Jersey struggles to deal with the grief and sadness due to losing family members and being forced to live in unfamiliar surroundings. At the beginning of the book, Jersey seems like a strong, if typically self-centered, teenager.  It's a stretch towards the middle of the story to believe that she wouldn't more quickly be utilizing her anger and desire for self-preservation to escape a situation where she is totally mistreated, hardly offered any comfort, and not even addressed by name. I wanted to give Jersey that much-needed hug as she dealt with being frightened and with feelings of depression; I also wanted to confront the step-parent who sent her away to complete strangers and separated her from friends at such a heart-breaking time. Still emotionally numb, she is later sent to yet more extended family and lashes out cruelly.  Fortunately, those adults – mellowed by their own regrets – try to be more caring and patient with her. Like Brown's Hate List, expect to see Torn Away on the Abe Lincoln Award list in the near future.  

East Coast Prowl

Hear of "the bee's knees" and the "cat's meow?" Well, the "cat's pajamas" is also related to the jazz era and similarly refers to something unusual and sought after. In the case of Marie-Helene Bertino's new book, 2am at the Cat's Pajamas, it specifically refers to a nightclub which has seen better days and happier times. To me, the entire book had kind of that melancholy feel and although it was extremely well-written, there were SO many characters and story lines that I found it difficult to keep them all straight.  The youngest person is Madeleine and yes, she is essentially an orphan, who smiles at the good, frowns at the bad and sometimes is very sad ...

Living and breathing bebop in Philadelphia, nine-year old Madeleine's life intertwines with Mrs. Santiago who owns a dog named Pedro (one of the more memorable secondary characters), with a teacher named Sarina Greene who still has a crush on her former high school boyfriend named Ben, and with the owner (Jack Lorca) and musicians (The Cubanistas, plus Lorca's son Alex) from the Cat's Pajamas.  All are lonely and "mis-connected" as Bertino attempts to weave the stories together over a 24 hour period.  It's confusing with plenty of activity, an antique guitar, and even some magical realism occurring on Christmas Eve Eve.

If you do not have the patience or inclination to unravel 2am at the Cat's Pajamas which will be published in early August, I would instead HIGHLY recommend Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home is an outstanding book -- another debut novel with a young girl (14 year-old June) and art (painting, not music, this time) at its center. Set in 1980s New York, the story focuses on the aftermath of Uncle Finn's death from AIDS.  A New York Times bestseller, Tell the Wolves I'm Home has won numerous awards, including the Alex Award, and was recommended to me by two young people. Like them, I found June's efforts to come to terms with her Uncle's death to be extremely moving. Brunt profiles a range of emotions as June struggles with her other family relationships, especially with an older sister. June truly begins to develop her own independence while learning more about her uncle's life and the ability to "see" him through others. Tell the Wolves I'm Home will capture your attention – it's an emotional, engaging read and is certainly hard to forget. I wish that I had found it sooner and can readily see this novel being used for Junior Theme by students who want to write more about AIDS and society's reactions - both compassionate and ignorant - to that disease.

All We Had by Annie Weatherwax

The main characters of All We Had by Annie Weatherwax are a young girl, 13 year-old Ruthie, and her Mom, Rita who struggle against extreme poverty.  In this powerful debut novel, they move around with garbage bags for suitcases; rely mainly on men for help and housing and do not eat well (favoring Diet Cokes and donuts). The Mom is almost always smoking and reaching for reassurance from the lipstick which she keeps in her oversized handbag.

As the novel opens, they head East from California; the road trip aspects of this novel help to propel it along and Ruthie's voice drew me in. The duo eventually finds jobs in Fat River, a town in middle America which comes upon hard times with the 2008 recession. Weatherwax vividly describes life in poverty (dead squirrel in the leaky ceiling, mice, bugs), sub-prime loans, and the threat of homelessness ….  Yet, as small town America is wont to do, Fat River is a caring community, especially Peter Pam (transgender waitress at the local diner), Miss Frankfurt, the high school principal, and the Hansons, elderly owners of the local hardware store.

What were my immediate connections as I read All We Had? One is this week’s Economist article, "Choose Your Parents Wisely" and its graph about effective parenting which appears in this posting. I think Weatherwax would ask, "How much do circumstances dictate our choices?" Another connection was today's Wall Street Journal on "Start Early to Raise Money Savvy Kids" by Beth Kobliner who writes about the website MoneyAsYouGrow.org  (a site also recommended by the American Library Association).  The lessons on financial literacy such as "want is not the same as need" definitely apply to Ruthie and Rita's choices, especially their trip to the local Wal-Mart, a simultaneously sad and amusing Weatherwax observation on their economic situation and survival. 

Although there are a few mature scenes involving the Mom and her male friends and plenty of profanity, Ruthie's coming of age story and the mother-daughter relationship issues in All We Had will appeal to mature teens. A relatively quick and provocative read,  All We Had by award-winning Annie Weatherwax is an important commentary on today's American society which seems to be increasingly fragmented by class.

Expected publication date: August 5, 2014.

Coming of Age and the Chinese American Dream

I just finished Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok which definitely has the feel of her earlier work, Girl in Translation – it is also about a poor immigrant girl with little support from parents (e.g., when school suggests she is dyslexic, Dad is too intimidated to find out more).  In Mambo in Chinatown the Dad is more tied to another culture and is not able to help his child assimilate successfully. Instead, the main character, Charlie, makes her own way by pursuing work at a dance company, a setting which Kwok evokes with some interesting descriptions.  Jean Kwok is a very approachable author and I enjoy her books.  However, I felt that this one could have relied less on coincidences and done more to help the reader understand certain cultural aspects such as tenacious respect for elders particularly since I was so very frustrated for Charlie and her lack of opportunities and adult support.  Maybe it is just that I did not fully appreciate how hard it was for Charlie to break away from her parents' culture?

I have been thinking quite a bit about immigration and assimilation because as I was simultaneously reading a non-fiction work, A Chinaman’s Chance by Eric Liu, which I found to be a MUCH more entertaining and informative read. Consider simply the section, “A Guide to Punctuation,” where he comments on the impact of describing Americans of Chinese ethnicity in these different ways:

• Chinese-American
• Chinese / American
• Chinese, American
• Chinese (American)
• (Chinese) American or
• Chinese American

I think that my students, particularly those who are first or second generation Americans of ANY ethnicity, will find A Chinaman’s Chance to be a fascinating read. Applying Liu’s research to their own lives or to fictionalized accounts like those by Jean Kwok or Amy Tan will give them much to contemplate.  They could also pair it with works by Maxine Kingston Hong or with Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese. In fact, our Senior Writers Seminar students already read American Born Chinese and I am excited that one of our teachers is considering including A Chinaman’s Chance on that syllabus. A former Presidential speechwriter turned educator, Eric Liu is a very conversational and personable writer – I learned much and enjoyed the way he wove stories about his own family and about historical figures and events (like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882) into his argument. He also includes a very extensive bibliography for further reference. This is a book that I hope to find time to re-read and to reflect upon further; it is one of the best of the year for me so far.   

Relationships ... lost and found

In Landline by Rainbow Rowell Georgie McCool is out to save her 15 years of marriage.  Her husband Neal travels to Omaha with their 2 daughters to celebrate 2013’s Christmas while Georgie stays behind for work in Los Angeles….. magically (and due to some clever writing!) she makes the connection via a landline from 2013 to 1998 when she and Neal were dating and struggling to come to terms with what they each wanted from the relationship.  Remember those emotions? How everything seemed more vivid? And had more drama?  It’s easy to see (from the outside) that Georgie needs to take some deep breaths and think about what is really important to her – watching her go through that process can be painful at times.  Readers who have been in longer-term relationships will definitely appreciate this novel, but to me that means 20-somethings or older – NOT the high school students who loved Rowell’s Eleanor and Park and Fangirl.

Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy is a collection of short stories centered in a street in Dublin and many of them focus on marriages, too. Binchy explores the life choices we make – the advice that we often choose not to follow and the consequences of those decisions. This is a book about love and loss which I would ration – picking it up for a story now and again – in part to avoid the feeling of similar plots (although there are plenty of unexpected twists) and in part to savor the last published writing of a favorite author for 30 years beginning with reading Light a Penny Candle, and continuing through Circle of Friends, Scarlet Feather and many more.

Possible read-alikes for Binchy: Jeffrey Archer, Rosamunde Pilcher, Kate Morton, Lucinda Riley, Adriana Trigiani.  Check Novelist for others.

 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

If you love It's a Wonderful Life and Jimmy Stewart, then read A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. The much beloved main character is Ove, a 59 year-old Swedish man who recently lost his wife and thinks his own life should be over. He's funny and heartwarming and exasperatingly "crotchety" and rule-bound all at the same time.  A new family -- Lanky One, pregnant Parvaneh and their girls (ages 3 and 7) -- move in next door and the adventures begin…

Ove slowly opens up to a stray cat,  re-establishes relationships with other neighbors and  uses his anger to find the will to battle the "white shirts" (bureaucrats who are just as inflexible in Sweden as in the US).  Along the way, readers learn about Ove’s young life and his marriage to Sonja:  "He never understood why she chose him.  She only loved abstract things like music and books and strange words. Ove was a man entirely filled with tangible things.  He liked screwdrivers and oil filters.  He went through life with his hands firmly shoved into his pockets.  She danced."

In all honesty, I was a bit put off by some of the talk of suicide - especially for high school age readers, but I ultimately found the character to be endearing and even highly amusing at times. With so many crises and those unique neighbors, the vignettes circle round and each is charmingly told as Ove convinces us that "men are what they are because of what they do. Not what they say." Yes, there were also several moments when felt like crying, but I was heartened by the way in which the community rallied around Ove much like the movie character George Bailey finally learned the value of his life when seen through the eyes of others.

Prime Minister’s Secret Agent by Susan Elia MacNeal

I liked the fact that there were multiple story lines in this book – a 4^th in a mystery series set at the time of WWII. The book features Maggie Hope, a young American thwarted in her desires to academically pursue mathematics due to her gender. Instead, she has moved to the UK and her courage and skills eventually lead to adventures involving cryptography and interactions with several historical figures, including Winston Churchill. Readers could start with this as a stand-alone, but I recommend reading the earlier books (starting with Mr. Churchill’s Secretary) and getting to "know" Maggie and her friends and colleagues as they mature and are shaped by wartime events. In The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent, MacNeal again addresses the hard choices and horrors of war, weaving in development of biological weapons, PTSD/depression and personal sacrifice.

This title picked up when Maggie left the SOE (Special Operations Executive) training area in Scotland and actively sought to find the reason for two murders and her close friend’s sudden illness. In addition, it was fascinating to read details about the US and British spy apparatus, particularly in regards to what was known prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Even knowing what would happen, I kept hoping there was a way to prevent the carnage suffered there. With several unresolved plot elements, author MacNeal clearly has plans for more historical mysteries featuring Maggie.

Reminiscent of titles by Rhys Bowen, Charles Todd, or Jacqueline Winspear, look for The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent and others in the Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal if you are looking for stories about a strong, clever woman or are a fan of the pbs series The Bletchley Circle.