Wilderness by Lance Weller

Rating

* * * * *

The book's description from Lance Weller's website:

Thirty years after the Civil War’s Battle of the Wilderness left him maimed, Abel Truman has found his way to the edge of the continent, the rugged, majestic coast of Washington State, where he lives alone in a driftwood shack with his beloved dog. Wilderness is the story of Abel, now an old and ailing man, and his heroic final journey over the snowbound Olympic Mountains. It’s a quest he has little hope of completing but still must undertake to settle matters of the heart that predate even the horrors of the war.

As Abel makes his way into the foothills, the violence he endures at the hands of two thugs who are after his dog is crosscut with his memories of the horrors of the war, the friends he lost, and the savagery he took part in and witnessed. And yet, darkness is cut by light, especially in the people who have touched his life—from Jane Dao-Ming Poole, the daughter of murdered Chinese immigrants, to Hypatia, an escaped slave who nursed him back to life, and finally to the unbearable memory of the wife and child he lost as a young man. Haunted by tragedy, loss, and unspeakable brutality, Abel has somehow managed to hold on to his humanity, finding way stations of kindness along his tortured and ultimately redemptive path.

Quite simply, Wilderness is a beautiful and heartbreaking story. Beautiful in the writing which inspires strong emotions of compassion, sympathy and appreciation of both the nature of people touched by tragedy and suffering and yet persevering to live a meaningful life without giving in to despair and loss of morals, and the Nature, with its landscape, the wilderness surrounding humans, this powerful element of rebirth, always escaping absolute destruction. Heartbreaking in how much pure evil can live in the hearts of men who are determined to hurt others and ruin their lives simply because they can. Heartbreaking also in watching innocent people get hurt, suffer and die in the nightmare of what is perhaps the worst of all wars, civil war (not that there are good wars because there aren't, ever). And Civil War and the battle of the Wilderness is an important event in American history this novel deals with as well.

The Battle of the Wilderness in 1864

Lance Weller is such a talented writer that saying how unbelievable it is his Wilderness is a debut novel seems somehow trite and taking away something from the depth of Mr. Weller's gift. It just somehow doesn't seem to matter whether it's his first or tenth novel. What matters is the story, the characters (good and evil and somewhere in-between) and the meaning, all of which will linger in one's memory for quite some time. Really, I would be surprised and not a little disappointed if anyone who reads it, would find Wilderness lacking in anything.

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FTC: I received an e-galley of Wilderness by Lance Weller from the publisher, Bloomsbury via NetGalley for a review.

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

Rating

* * * * *

The book's synopsis from the publisher's website:

The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both.

Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.

For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

I wanted to write a nice, elaborate review to give justice to this wonderful novel because I feel that the most significant aspects of it have somehow been overlooked. Unfortunately, I seem to not be able to write what I really want, so maybe shorter will be better this time.

1. I believe The Chaperone is first and foremost about people's inability and/or unwillingness to change. It's about our judgmental natures and our arrogance rendering 'us' better than 'them' even though we're all human, some women better than other women, even though we're the same gender and in the end we are facing the same challenges. Some of us choose to change and make a change, and that's why humanity moves forward. But some of us choose to stay in denial, live an illusory life that allows them to think their morals are better and the rest of us should live accordingly, unless we want to be judged and condemned for stepping outside the line. This is why even though humanity does move forward, it's also doing it at a snail's pace. Today we, who read The Chaperone are not that much more morally open-minded than Cora and her circle of female friends were in the 1920s, just like they were not all that much better than the society was in The Age of Innocence that Cora was reading when in NYC.

2. Homosexuality is still something many of us have big issues understanding, accepting or wanting to accept. I know that there are many books dealing with homosexuality exclusively, mostly in a form of erotica writing. But I will most likely never read them. That's why The Chaperone is a book that mattered to me so greatly. Thanks to Ms. Moriarty, my heart was shattered over the tragic life of the one homosexual couple in the novel that strangely no one mentioned. I loved this couple so, so much and when their lives came to an end, I just wept at the injustice of this whole, f&$#ed world where because of our stupid arrogance and bigotry we ruin other people, we take away their right to be happy and to show their happiness to the whole world. Oh, I'm still tearing up about it.

Anyway, there's a lot more to the book which almost every other review mentions. I simply wanted to write about what hasn't been mentioned.

The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

Rating

* * * * *

The book's description from the author's website:

East London, 1888 - a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night. Where shining hopes meet the darkest truths.

Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, a bright, defiant young woman dares to dream of a life beyond tumbledown wharves, gaslit alleys, and the grim and crumbling dwellings of the poor.

Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.

But Fiona's plans are shattered when the actions of a dark and brutal man force her to flee London for New York. There, her indomitable spirit – and the ghosts of her past – propel her rise from a modest West Side shop front to the top of Manhattan's tea trade.

Fiona's old ghosts do not rest quietly, however, and to silence them, she must venture back to the London of her childhood, where a deadly confrontation with her past becomes the key to her future.

This was such a great book! I was entranced by Fiona's story, her sheer will to survive despite everything bad that happened, and a lot happened, and especially by her and Joe's love for each other, the strength of their bond that just couldn't be broken. I was very happy that Ms. Donnelly didn't make a Mary Sue out of Fiona. Despite her great qualities, the fact that she managed to charm almost everyone who came in contact with her, Fiona had a little bit of a mean streak in her, which made her all the more realistic, considering that she grew up in a poor neighborhood, had to fend and fight tooth and nail for herself and her family. I would like to make a small reference here to Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo. Even though I'm by no means comparing one to the other, Fiona was the Countess of Whitechapel, with her determination to get the revenge on people who ruined her life and the very soul of hers. 'There will be blood' is pretty much what kept popping up in my mind throughout the story. And I was cheering Fiona on all the way through. Out with 'turning the other cheek' and in with sharpening the claws and going for the jugular. We don't have enough of these kinds of characters, if you ask me.

There really isn't anything criticism that I can offer here. I simply loved every page of The Tea Rose. I loved the good people, even the ones who strayed and made mistakes, whom I thought I would hate; I hated the bad ones and wanted to see them punished almost as much as Fiona did. I'll tell you one thing, there were no 'in-betweeners'. It doesn't mean the characters were either black or white, most of them were gray like the November sky at one point or another, especially the decent ones. But in the end, what mattered was in their hearts, in their very nature and it was truly either good or bad to the bone.

I've seen it mentioned in a few other reviews that Ms. Donnelly wrote a soap opera. It was mostly meant as a criticism, but I'm on the side of readers like Misfit *nod*, who say that yes, The Tea Rose does read like a soap opera, but it's one of the best quality. Because there really isn't anything wrong with soap operas of the yesteryear that made this whole 'genre' of TV programs wildly successful, is there? Millions of people watch them to this day, whereas other shows come and go. Yes, some events in Fiona's life may seem far fetched but they're really not all that impossible. She had the guts, the determination and the brains. Most importantly, she had a dream that she would not let go of. I know there are and always have been women like her all over the world and throughout the history. I must also say, it's refreshing to read about a female character that makes me proud and glad we belong to the same species, in lieu of recent 'wimpy' and submissive girls who only live for a man (the one-hundred-times regurgitated Twilight and infamous Bella plus stacks and stacks of YA drivel with doe-eyed-i-can't-live-without-him silly little girls) or live for a man only and for his abusive ways and whose main goal in life is to be objectified by the very man they love (here's to you! Fifty Shades of Grey and your author counting her pounds and laughing).

Anyway, I might have gone on a little rant there but The Tea Rose really was refreshing to me and despite the tears I've shed (there will be many moments when your heart just breaks), I finished this book and closed it with a smile on my face and a contented sigh that not all is lost in the reading world yet.

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FTC: I bought The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly.

The Traitor's Wife by Kathleen Kent

Rating:

* * * *


The book's description from the author's website:

This novel was originally published under the title The Wolves of Andover.

In the harsh wilderness of colonial Massachusetts, Martha Allen works as a servant in her cousin's household, taking charge and locking wills with everyone. Thomas Carrier labors for the family and is known both for his immense strength and size and mysterious past. The two begin a courtship that suits their independent natures, with Thomas slowly revealing the story of his part in the English Civil War. But in the rugged new world they inhabit, danger is ever present, whether it be from the assassins sent from London to kill the executioner of Charles I or the wolves—in many forms—who hunt for blood. A love story and a tale of courage, The Traitor's Wife confirms Kathleen Kent's ability to craft powerful stories from the dramatic background of America's earliest days.

The Traitor's Wife was my first experience with the early history of colonial America. For some reason, I have never been all that interested in this period in history (even though, historical fiction and history in general are my favorites). I can't say that Kent's book kindled my fire for books set in the Puritans' America, but it alone was written so skillfully that I indeed was interested and felt myself being pulled into that long gone world. What made The Traitor's Wife especially engaging is the retelling of England's Civil War led by Oliver Cromwell. The author blended these two continents and their moments in history smoothly, without causing any confusion.

In all honesty, I was for a moment considering rating The Traitor's Wife at three stars instead of four but in the end I realized that it would have been unfair to the author for a couple of reasons. One, it's well written. Ms. Kent is one of those rare writers (especially debut ones) who have a proper command of the English written language. I know, it may sound silly and definitely not as something to point out as a part of quality literature, but sadly bad language skills seem to be the norm nowadays among authors. For me, it's not the direction I want to see the literary art going and that's why any book that's written using the proper English will always get a higher rating from me. The meanings of this are many, but the main one is that the author (in this case Kathleen Kent) actually cares about her work, puts a lot of time and effort in creating something of value, and, however indirectly, respects her future readers.

Speaking of effort, a good amount of it Ms. Kent invested in the research of Thomas Carrier's and Martha Carrier's lives. Pretty much all that's in The Traitor's Wife, is factually and historically accurate  and where history blends with myth (whether Thomas Carrier was Thomas Morgan), Kathleen Kent freely admits to it in her afterword, which is yet another thing that separates her as a true practitioner of the craft from 'authors' who only wish to be just as good.

Lastly, and maybe even most importantly, The Traitor's Wife is simply a really good story. There is something in it that pulled me right in and made me want to just keep reading until I got to the last page. I can't even remember when was the last time I finished an over-300-page novel in two days, as I did Kent's book. It wasn't simple or simplistic and therefore easy to finish quickly, but rather a true pleasure to read, with the first pages already inviting me to immerse myself in the lives of Martha and Thomas and their growing love for each other. I'm only glad that I just found The Heretic's Daughter (Ms. Kent' debut novel) in my library (that's what happens when you have more books than wits to remember them all) since Kathleen Kent is the author whose books I'll always look for and read.

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FTC: I received The Traitor's Wife from the publisher, Hachette Book Group via NetGalley.