BOOK REVIEW: Confessions of a Curious Bookseller by Elizabeth Green

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

This book was hard-going, but I’m glad I stuck with it to the end. Fortunately, with the epistolary format, it was a pretty quick read because the protagonist, Fawn Birchill, is not someone I’d want to spend a lot of time with.

Fawn is a mid-fifties-aged woman who owns and runs a used book store in Philadelphia. It’s in a rundown old Victorian home and she lives above the store. The building is on its last legs and she doesn’t have the resources to maintain it. Her ongoing struggles with the building mirror her struggles with her falling-apart life.

Fawn had a difficult childhood. Her father was also in retail, running an unsuccessful general store, using his two daughters as his workforce. Fawn’s resentment of her “lost childhood” fuels a lot of her dissatisfaction with life. She refuses to visit her dying father, and avoids her mother and sister. Instead, she makes a family of her three salesclerks (or tries to) and spends time with the lonely, elderly woman who rents an apartment in her home. (The attention she gives to this woman is her most redemptive characteristic, even if she does rob her to pay the bills.) She also lavishes attention on cats.

So far, so good. But Fawn is a terrible businesswoman and her store is just eking by. When a new bookstore opens two blocks away, a modern store with coffee, book signings, and events, Fawn is unable to compete. Or, maybe it isn’t the competition. Fawn’s store was likely to fail all on its own.

The story is told through Fawn’s email correspondence with her staff, her family, and an old friend/penpal that she has never met in person. Through these epistles, we are introduced to a petty, self-aggrandizing, lonely, and essentially pathetic woman who lies, makes pitiful attempts at manipulating others, and whines. Her attempts to extort help from other local businesses are truly cringe-worthy. Her attempts at snark come across as desperate rather than funny. Just based on these bits of public persona, she is horribly unlikeable.

Fortunately, interspersed with these emails, there are journal entries that show a different side to Fawn. She is unhappy, drinks too much, and shows just enough insight and self-reflection to salvage the character. 

There is a character arc with some growth. It takes the death of her father for her to realize how similar she has been to him and how much of her life she has spent trying to spite him with her own success– success that eludes her. Redemption comes late in the book but patience is rewarded. As Fawn rides off into the sunset, I do hope she’s destined for something better.

BOOK REVIEW: The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel

 I received this book free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I started The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel. I guess I thought it would be a history of fabric—who was wearing what, when.  And this book does deal with fabric and, to some extent, fashion, over the course of history, but it is so much more.

The premise is, as stated in the title, that textiles are responsible for the development of world civilization. Is that an overstatement? After reading this book, I’m convinced it’s not. From the very first fibers twisted together to make thread/rope, allowing for our ancient ancestors to begin using tools, up to the creation of textiles made out of microchips, allowing people in the not too distant future to wear their technologic devices, it is textiles that drive advance rather than technological advances improving textiles. Chemistry, arithmetic, banking, transportation, genetics, and pretty much anything you can think of: the desire for new fibers and fabrics have inspired the innovations driving progress.

I requested this book because I am an amateur crafter and have the historical novelist’s interest in fabric. But this well-researched book, with its convincing argument, written in absorbing prose, deserves a wider audience than people (like me) with a passing interest in the development of cloth. It’s a fascinating look at the progress of civilization.

BOOK REVIEW: Children of the Valley by Castle Freeman

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

I just finished Children of the Valley by Castle Freeman, jumping right into it after finishing Old Number Five.

When reading books in series that I love, I’ve found that extraordinary books are often followed by books that don’t excite me as much. Unfortunately, that’s the case here. Children of the Valley is an entertaining mystery/thriller. It would work fine as a standalone. In fact, it probably would work better as a standalone. I liked it less because, as a follow-up to Old Number Five, it’s disappointing.

Lucian Wing remains the same brave, dogged, but slow-motion law enforcer, the sheriff of a rural Northern Vermont county. An indeterminate amount of time has passed since the last book, which can be judged somewhat by the aging of Lucian’s mentor, the previous sheriff, Wingate. The current dilemma is that Lucian’s county is playing host to two runaway teenagers, a local boy who made good as a high school football player and a young rich girl named Pamela, who’s gone AWOL from boarding school. Pamela’s stepfather sends a few New York City goons to retrieve her. One of them, a slick lawyer-type, tries to enlist Lucian to locate the girl for them. (There is some question as to the intentions of the stepfather and some hints of abuse.) Lucian finds the pair, but rather than turn them in, he helps them to hide. Lucian’s usual pals (Homer, Cola, and Wingate) join in the fun. Things get violent.

The plot is a bit uneven but holds together well enough. Lucian’s voice and folksy wisdom are as enjoyable as ever. (And by that, I mean very enjoyable.) As an individual book, this is enough to recommend it.

The problem I have is that there’s no continuity to the series. Issues raised in the previous book are not merely swept under the rug; they don’t exist. Lucian’s mother with Alzheimer’s and overbearing brother? Absent. Not even a passing reference. Also, Lucian seems to be chronically looking for a decent deputy. In each of the previous books, we were introduced to wonderful characters, potential new deputies that I would love to have seen more of. They’re gone without a word. Still, if the core cast of characters is maintained without the addition of new long-timers, I can let go of newbies even if I liked them. And minor plot threads, like the declining mother, don’t have to be woven into the next instalment. That wasn’t my main objection.

The thing that disturbed me was that bombs were dropped at the end of the last book. One reason I picked up book three right away was to see how the author would sweep up the mess. Now I’m not sure how to interpret the ending of Old Number Five. Maybe Lucian’s betrayal of his own code of behavior wasn’t really a big deal to him. Which is sad because, for me, it really lessens the impact of the book. And are he and his wife simply settling down as an old married couple? Were they were just joking around at the end of the previous book? It could just have been a joke that I didn’t get. Or maybe it’s just that Lucian is doubling down on the philosophy that whatever the problem, it’s better to do nothing than to do something. I guess it would be consistent with his character to do his best to ignore a problem and hope it sorts itself out, but that’s not always satisfying for the reader.

BOOK REVIEW: Old Number Five by Castle Freeman

I am a huge fan of Castle Freeman’s work. I recently re-read All That I Have, in preparation for tackling books 2 and 3 of his Lucian Wing series. I ordered book 2, Old Number Five, and was given an estimated delivery date in mid-January, so I was thrilled to receive it before Christmas.

Old Number Five continues to follow the adventures of the laconic, low-key, Northern Vermont County Sheriff Lucian Wing. His philosophy of law enforcement is to pretty much let things sort themselves out and, generally, things do. He was a wild youth himself before a stint in the Navy straightened him out, so he has a certain sympathy for boys-being-boys. Most of the people he serves in the small towns in his jurisdiction approve of his approach. He’s cheap, and the various town councils mostly want low-budget law enforcement.

Lucian takes the same laid-back approach to his home life, which is a toxic mess. His wife has essentially booted him out so that her boyfriend, Jake, can move in. She keeps in touch when she needs Lucian to come around and fix things. Since he built the house himself and doesn’t want Jake wrecking it, he does his wife’s bidding in a passive-aggressive manner. It’s a small town, so everyone knows his business. Everyone is on his side. But everyone pretty much agrees that the best approach is to wait it out. His wife, Clemmie, will tire of Jake and come back to him. (Why on earth he would want her back is beyond me. And some of her complaints against him seem valid too. Maybe they are right for each other, but what an awful relationship.)

At any rate, Lucian’s current concerns are numerous. His mother is showing signs of Alzheimer’s and he’s not sure what to do about it. A feral dog is increasing its attacks on local livestock and people are spooked. And an attack on a local petty criminal adds to a number of earlier isolated events so that it’s becoming harder to overlook them. The violence is not subtle; it’s more of the literal eye-for-an-eye, chop-off-a-thief’s-hand type, so one might think it’s the work of an oddly Biblically-inspired vigilante. Moreover, the victims’ stories are not believable. They are clearly afraid of worse befalling them should they complain to the law.

Lucian’s approach would be to leave it alone since the victims are not pressing for action. Unfortunately, a big-city, ex-military busybody has moved to the area and gotten himself elected Chairman of the town Selectmen. He insists Lucian begin an investigation, and, when the pace of the investigation doesn’t suit him, he goes above Lucian’s head. The sheriff’s usual feet-dragging method, which has served him so well, isn’t going to cut it.

The writing is tight. The characters are concisely, wonderfully drawn. Lucian is smart and bitterly funny. The novel moves along at a quick pace. The mystery is well-cloaked but clues are sprinkled in enough that the answer slowly dawned on me. And then. . .

It’s a cliché to talk about a “shocking conclusion” but that’s what this was. Appalling, even. In so many ways, it’s appalling. I’m still rejecting what I read, even though it was sort-of brilliant. So now I have to move on to book three.

This series is highly recommended. Start at book one, or even earlier with Go With Me.

BOOK REVIEW: City of Dreams: The 400-year Epic History of Immigrant New York by Tyler Anbinder

My history/historical fiction book group has chosen City of Dreams: The 400-year Epic History of Immigrant New York by Tyler Anbinder for our next discussion.

This book is long. 

The title of the book is a good summary of what the book is about. Anbinder provides a well-researched, exhaustive look at immigration to New York City, starting from the initial Dutch colonists and proceeding up through the current day. Statistics are interspersed with more personal anecdotes to give the flavor of the immigrant experience. The book is informative rather than analytical. It focuses more on what pulls immigrants to the U.S. (economic factors, freedoms) than on what pushes them out of their countries of origin (although the Irish potato famine, pogroms against Russian Jews, and poverty in general are given consideration.) There are references to major historical events (the Civil War, the Great Depression, etc) but this is not a book about American history so context is a bit sketchy. 

There is an immense amount of data in the book. The anecdotes do help to move the narrative along and provide human interest. However, in general a lot of the information washed over me as the details of successive waves of immigration grew repetitive. The research that went into this book is impressive and it provides a strong overview of immigration in New York City, but it’s a difficult book to read in a chunk.

BOOK REVIEW: Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America, ed. by Nora Shalaway Carpenter

 I don’t read many short story collections but made an exception for Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America.

This thoughtful collection, edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter, shows slices of rural young adult life through short stories (prose and graphic art), poetry, and essays. They show the diversity, optimism, and love of place felt by young people living in small communities hours from big cities. The main message is that rural Americans are not stereotypes.

While targeted towards teens and young adults, the audience should not be limited to younger age groups. It’s a reassuring look into the minds of the next generation.

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2021

 My favorite reading challenge is the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, now hosted by The Intrepid Reader. I'm signing up for the Ancient History level, 25 historical novels to be read in 2021. 

Thank you to the Intrepid Reader for hosting!