For some reason I find myself drawn to stories where at least one of the central characters is a child. In this story, that is Pat, the 14 year son of Harry Silver, a radio show producer soon-to-be 40 year old. Harry is on his second marriage, with a step-daughter and a daughter, as well as son Pat from his first marriage. His first wife is back in town after an absence of 10 years and she wants to get to know her son again. Into this emotional mix arrive 2 old soldiers, friends of Harry's father who fought together during WWII. And Harry's radio show gets the chop, just as the recession begins to bite.
Harry's easy life has come to an end and he has to step up to the plate and learn what it means to be a man. Will he follow his father and the two old soldiers to become stoic, insular and distant, albeit self-sufficient and brave or will he become a man for today's world?
Engaging and sometimes humorous, this is a novel well worth the read, especially if you're a parent and step-parent! Lovely, and recommended.
Thursday, 21 February 2013
The Accident by Linwood Barclay
This is a classic suspense drama, full of twists and turns. Glen Garber believes that he has an ordinary life, running his own small construction company and caring for his family, when his wife is killed in a seemingly random collision on the freeway. But all is not what it seems, nor are friendship and family relationships. Glen struggles through layer upon layer of unrelated catastrophies, trying to keep his business afloat and his daughter safe, while he solves the mystery surrounding the deaths of his wife, one of her friends and one of his employees.
This is an engaging read for those who like thrillers and detective stories. See if you can find the culprit(s) before Glen does! There is so much going on, though, that it felt like a script for Desperate Housewives with a bit of Homes Under the Hammer thrown in. Death, underworld crime, private detectives, police, betrayal, domestic relationships gone bad, and everything tangled in one unholy mess - it's enough to make anyone want to go live on a desert island away from it all!
Still, it kept me reading, keen to find out who done it - and enjoying the ride. Not bad.
This is an engaging read for those who like thrillers and detective stories. See if you can find the culprit(s) before Glen does! There is so much going on, though, that it felt like a script for Desperate Housewives with a bit of Homes Under the Hammer thrown in. Death, underworld crime, private detectives, police, betrayal, domestic relationships gone bad, and everything tangled in one unholy mess - it's enough to make anyone want to go live on a desert island away from it all!
Still, it kept me reading, keen to find out who done it - and enjoying the ride. Not bad.
Thursday, 14 February 2013
The Butterfly Cabinet by Bernie McGill
Harriet and Maddie are mistress and servant of a landed estate in Northern Ireland of the 1890's. When Harriet locks up her 4 year old daughter in a 'punishment room', alone, neither woman realises that the events that follow will haunt them and their descendants for years.
This story is told in the 2 different voices of Harriet, from a prison cell, as she writes her story in a little note book given to her by a priest, and Maddie, as an old lady from her room in a nursing home, told to Anna, who visits her as she waits to die. Both women hold secrets they kept hidden, until Maddie is driven to share both with Anna 70 years later, in the 1960s.
This is a haunting tale of maternal and carnal love, told with poetic lyricism. Thought provoking and quite disturbing, it raises questions about the many manifestations of mothering and its consequences. We are left to marvel that fearful histories turn on such small chances of fate.
Recommended, especially for the philosophers among you!
This story is told in the 2 different voices of Harriet, from a prison cell, as she writes her story in a little note book given to her by a priest, and Maddie, as an old lady from her room in a nursing home, told to Anna, who visits her as she waits to die. Both women hold secrets they kept hidden, until Maddie is driven to share both with Anna 70 years later, in the 1960s.
This is a haunting tale of maternal and carnal love, told with poetic lyricism. Thought provoking and quite disturbing, it raises questions about the many manifestations of mothering and its consequences. We are left to marvel that fearful histories turn on such small chances of fate.
Recommended, especially for the philosophers among you!
Saturday, 2 February 2013
A Theory of Relativity by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Georgia and Gordon McKenna are both adopted children. As brother and sister they have been like many other siblings - best friends, rivals, keepers of secrets and more. When Georgia and her husband, Ray, die when their car runs off the road, Gordon begins the tortuous process of adopting his sister's orphaned 1 year old daughter, Keefer.
But Ray's family also want Keefer and, in the absence of blood ties on the McKenna side of the family, Gordon's desperate battle to adopt his adored niece seems doomed to failure under current US law. As Gordon and his parents use every method they can think of to win Keefer's adoption case, Gordon grows and changes from being carefree and immature to become the person who can truly raise his niece and also fulfil his own potential.
This novel is inspired by a true story. A battle waged by one family that changed US law and overcame an anomaly that discriminated against adopted people in favour of blood relatives in one aspect of family law.
Jacquelyn Mitchard writes with a deep understanding and empathy of a father's love for a child. Of how enduring emotional ties can be built from the ordinary everyday, and that fatherhood doesn't have to be genetic to be true and real. Her portrayal of the daily stuff of childhood is a delight and instantly recognisable to anyone who has spent more than a couple of hours in the company of a a pre-school child in his/her natural environment!
Highly recommended.
But Ray's family also want Keefer and, in the absence of blood ties on the McKenna side of the family, Gordon's desperate battle to adopt his adored niece seems doomed to failure under current US law. As Gordon and his parents use every method they can think of to win Keefer's adoption case, Gordon grows and changes from being carefree and immature to become the person who can truly raise his niece and also fulfil his own potential.
This novel is inspired by a true story. A battle waged by one family that changed US law and overcame an anomaly that discriminated against adopted people in favour of blood relatives in one aspect of family law.
Jacquelyn Mitchard writes with a deep understanding and empathy of a father's love for a child. Of how enduring emotional ties can be built from the ordinary everyday, and that fatherhood doesn't have to be genetic to be true and real. Her portrayal of the daily stuff of childhood is a delight and instantly recognisable to anyone who has spent more than a couple of hours in the company of a a pre-school child in his/her natural environment!
Highly recommended.
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