A Better Man by Louise Penny

I have posted frequently about Louise Penny’s series of mysteries featuring Armand Gamache from the Quebec village of Three Pines. Her latest, just published this week, is titled A BETTER MAN and focuses on what is likely to be the last case shared by Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir due to the latter’s move to Paris. There are numerous references to past events in the series, especially concerning Gamache’s career and Clara’s progress as an artist, and it is a wonderful adventure to join familiar characters in the small Quebec village. That community once again holds together in the face of threatening natural disaster and psychological pummeling for its inhabitants.  Also tested are the professional relationships between Beauvoir (now commanding his former mentor), Gamache, Isabelle Lacoste, and others.  All of this is deftly developed and portrayed by Penny against the background of a case involving spousal abuse and the tragic death of a young, pregnant woman named Vivienne. As always, I am highly recommending this mystery series by an award-winning author.  Booklist, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly all gave A BETTER MAN starred reviews.

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Serpa

CALL YOUR DAUGHTER HOME by Deb Serpa is a work of historical fiction set amidst the rural poverty and segregated society of 1924 South Carolina. Three women share the storytelling: Gertrude Pardee, Oretta Bootles, and Annie Coles. Gertrude, forced to marry as a teen, has four young daughters and an often drunk and abusive husband.  She can barely afford to feed the family until she is offered a job at the Sewing Circle.  That business is owned by Annie through her own family legacy, although her husband Edwin is an influential plantation owner dealing with the cotton crop’s destruction by the boll weevil and trying to make money by converting to tobacco. Retta lives in Shake Rag, with her ailing husband and other former slaves or their descendants. She has long worked as housekeeper for Miss Annie’s family and is a kind soul who often helps others, including Gertrude and her girls. CALL YOUR DAUGHTER HOME is filled with conflict between family members, especially mothers and daughters. There are questions of morality, faith, guilt, and retribution which are adeptly handled and woven throughout the story. At one point, Preacher quotes Ephesians 6:11, “put on the whole armor of God” in order to stand “against spiritual wickedness in high places.” In addition, these women, two of whom have lost children, have to rely on their own mothers’ words (“Mama used to say if you don’t ask for help, nobody will know how to give it”) and the concern they develop for each other. Each experiences both physical and emotional pain and questions her own abilities, as expressed in reflections like: “I wasn’t a good mother, that much is fact, but I was the only kind I knew how to be” or “I can’t see what is to come. … I fear I will stumble over the edge without knowing, and tumble to the sharp rocks below, too late to save my own soul.” In a note on “A Bit of Background,” Serpa explains how her own grandmother and great-grandmother influenced this book, including details like the peach cobbler recipe. She says that she was “humbled and inspired by the ferocity of their motherhood.” Book group members, especially readers of titles like Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing or Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, will certainly empathize with the characters in Serpa’s debut novel which was a LibraryReads selection in June. This title might work for Junior Theme; Booklist recommended CALL YOUR DAUGHTER HOME for teens, too, due to the “complicated mother-daughter relationships.”

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

I have been mentioning Gail Honeyman’s debut novel, ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE, to several people lately since I found that I really do want to introduce readers to Eleanor. She undergoes an amazing, but gradual, transformation from a socially inept and rather unlikeable character to the person in charge of planning the office Christmas Party. Initially, Eleanor’s life at thirty years old is full of routine – she has been in the same job for close to a decade, lived in the same apartment, and spends her weekends alone drinking vodka to help forget a troubled childhood.

But a catalyst of sorts occurs when she and co-worker Raymond stop to help Sammy, an elderly man who has fallen and needs to get to hospital. Over time, Eleanor meets Sammy’s family and becomes more able to accept and respond to overtures from others, even recognizing her own limitations: “I tried to fathom his expression. I find it hard to work out people’s expressions sometimes. The cryptic crossword is much, much easier.” Eleanor forms an almost obsessive crush on a musician which leads to a major change in attitude (being willing to try new actions). And that, in turn, leads to small changes in appearance (clothing and hairstyle) and in her social life (attending parties, meeting Raymond for lunch) so that she slowly morphs into someone who begins thinking of others and becomes someone about whom I really cared. Her observations, though seemingly naïve, are often humorous and spot on. ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE received a starred review from Booklist and was the top LibraryReads recommendation for May.