BOOK REVIEW: Must I Go: A Novel by Yiyun Li

Must I Go: A Novel by Yiyun Li fits partly into the mold of a crotchety elderly woman (in an assisted-living facility) telling her life story. The unusual aspect of the story is that she chooses to do this not because of the memoir-writing class that is inspiring others in the facility, but because she has located a published (abridged) diary of an old lover, and feels the need to append it.

The first part of the book is set-up. The protagonist, Lilia, has been married and widowed three times and has a passel of children from her first husband. But just before she met him, she met the lover, Roland, and they had a one-night stand. She was sixteen years old, beautiful, and saw him as an exciting man of the world. (He seemed to see her as available and disposable.) They met again when she tracked him down in a hotel in the city and had sex again. At the same visit to the city, she met her first husband. She was already pregnant with Roland’s baby.

It’s possible her memories of Roland would have faded over time, if not for the daughter they shared that he was never aware of. But what truly made him unforgettable was that the daughter, Lucy, killed herself in her early twenties. Lilia can’t think of Roland without thinking about Lucy or vice versa. 

At any rate, Roland always wanted to be a novelist, and Lilia kept an eye out for his novel. He never wrote one, but his diary was published posthumously and she found that. She relives her life in the reliving of his, learns a good deal about him, and decides that even though Lucy never knew her biological father, it was important that Lucy’s daughter and granddaughter know of him. So she as she read the diary, she pasted notes into it that were both clarifying and questioning.

This is an interesting premise and structure. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an interesting story. Roland had been a larger-than-life figure in Lilia’s head until she read the diary and discovered (if she didn’t, the reader certainly does) that he is a dull man, who wavered between imagining himself fascinating and bemoaning his own dullness. Lilia’s personal claim to fame is her ability to repress all her emotions. Repression may serve her well enough, since losing a child to suicide is an unfathomable tragedy, but it doesn’t serve the narrative of the story. We end up with two not very likeable protagonists, perseverating over the disappointments and suffering of their lives in an increasingly monotonous way. There are some lovely insights and turns of phrase, but these weren’t enough to sustain my interest in the book.

BOOK REVIEW: Much Ado About Margaret by Madeleine Roux

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

Much Ado About Margaret by Madeleine Roux is a Regency Romance homage to Shakespeare, and particularly to Much Ado About Nothing. The main characters, Margaret Arden and Bridger Fletcher, resemble Beatrice and Benedick. The main trope is enemies to lovers.

Margaret has wanted all her life to write novels. After her father’s death, she becomes more frantically determined to be published. She needs money. As the eldest daughter and with two younger sisters and a mother to support, she is being coerced by her aunts to marry soon and well. She wants to do right by her sisters, but not at the cost of sacrificing herself. She has a manuscript that she knows will succeed, but when she sends it to a publisher, it is ignored. And when she thrusts a copy into the hands of the publisher at a party, he pushes it back and insults not only the book, but female authors in general. The publisher is Bridger Fletcher.

Shortly, they meet again at Margaret’s cousin’s wedding. The cousin is Bridger’s closest friend. Bridger is dealing with troubles of his own, a dying demon of a father and an alcoholic older brother bent on ruin. All three men have terrible tempers, which partly explains Bridger’s cruel response to Margaret. However, Margaret’s manuscript is accidently scattered by the wind, and Bridger finds a few pages. He discovers he was horribly wrong about the book, and wants to publish it after all. Can Margaret forgive him for his initial rudeness? 

Likely, yes. Especially since they are both strongly physically attracted to one another and both share a love of literature. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by ill-intentioned family, friends, and ex-fiancees and a wedding drama that plays with plot themes from Shakespeare’s play.

It’s an interesting premise and fun to pick out where the plot might reference Shakespeare. However, I wasn’t caught up by any chemistry between the hero and heroine, primarily, I think, because of the dialogues, which didn’t ring true for me.

BOOK REVIEW: The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I felt the urge to read a classic, and chose F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and the Damned. What a gorgeous and depressing book.

Of course, the prose is lush. Oddly, the normal narrative is interrupted from time to time by scenes written as though for a screenplay. And that works, because the characters are acting their way through life. They are the shallowest protagonists to ever compel me to read over 120,000 words spanning just under a decade of their lives. They are not likeable. They aren’t even pitiable. And yet, I couldn’t walk away from the train wreck of their lives.

Anthony Patch is a young man, recently graduated from Yale, with no ambition and no direction. He inherited from his mother enough money to live on, just enough to maintain an indolent lifestyle. When he falls into debt, he sells off his principal, without much awareness of the fact that his income is thus going to fall. He isn’t much concerned, at any rate, because he has a fabulously wealthy grandfather and considers himself the man’s only heir. Never mind that he can scarcely bear the old man’s company. Grandfather Patch made his fortune in the usual unscrupulous ways, then settled into a life of pious judgmentalism. The grandfather doesn’t like Anthony any more than Anthony likes him. The rare times Anthony visits his sole remaining relative, he is always asked what his plans are. When is he going to work?

Anthony drifts along in his semi-sleepwalking state, accompanied by his best friend Maury, who also doesn’t have to earn a living. They drink a lot and have conversations that are as witty and deep as any drunk college kids. They have a third friend, Dick, who wants to be a writer. They are scornful of Dick, who talks of nothing but his work-in-progress, both because of his specific ambition, writing a novel, but also for having any ambition at all.

And then along comes Dick’s cousin, Gloria Gilbert. She is beautiful. She’s also self-centered, selfish, and a siren. Every man she meets falls for her. Her beauty and her charisma stem from her youth and her indifference. She needs to be the center of attention, and she is.

Anthony falls hard for her. And then, she falls hard for Anthony. They then proceed to bring out the worst in each other. Partying hard. Drinking far too much. Living beyond their means. Growing bored with one another. Waiting for Anthony’s grandfather to die.

The timeline carries them through WWI, which almost touches them, but not quite. Their ultimate downfall is always on the horizon, but the pace of their deterioration picks up as Anthony descends farther and farther into alcoholism. It’s brutal.

The novel is not as tightly plotted as The Great Gatsby. And it is far less emotionally compelling than Tender is the Night, my favorite Fitzgerald work thus far. But after reading it, I’m more determined to work my way through all of Fitzgerald’s novels.

BOOK REVIEW: The Modern Art Invasion: Picasso, Duchamp, and the 1913 Armory Show That Scandalized America by Elizabeth Lunday

I know next to nothing about art/art history. But I became intrigued by a reference to the 1913 Armory Show and wanted to learn more about it. Modern Art had been dribbling across the Atlantic from Paris to New York thanks to a few intrepid collectors and artists. Yet the U.S. was mostly isolated from European influences: impressionism, cubism, fauvism, etc. It took the determination of a small group of artists who were dissatisfied with the grip held over American art by the ultra-conservative National Academy of Design to break that grip. They decided to put together an art show that encouraged young American artists and exposed the U.S. to new ways of thinking about art. The Armory Show took America (or at least New York) by storm.

The Modern Art Invasion: Picasso, Duchamp, and the 1913 Armory Show That Scandalized America by Elizabeth Lunday is a quick-paced introduction to twentieth-century art history. Focusing on the personalities of the organizers and their detractors, the author gives a concise (and a bit whirlwind) tour through art of the time. Not long after the show closed in the U.S., Europe was engulfed by war. Yet the impulse to create new art, to challenge assumptions about art, to question even what constitutes art, survived the war and came surging back when it ended. 

This is a fascinating and informative book with an extensive bibliography for those who want to delve deeper. Highly recommended!

BOOK REVIEW: In France Profound: The Long History of a House, a Mountain Town, and a People by T. D. Allman

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

So who doesn’t want to buy a centuries-old mansion on a picturesque hilltop in the south of France, fix it up, befriend your neighbors, and spend years soaking up the culture and history of the region? Also, eat the food and drink the wine? T.D. Allman, an award-winning American foreign correspondent, did just that. And then, when he realized he was now the most senior resident in Lauzerte, he wrote a memoir-like history of the town, the region, his house, and his place in it.

In France Profound: The Long History of a House, a Mountain Town, and a People is an engrossing history of France Profonde, the southern part of France geographically distant from the capital, culturally distinct, and yet never quite able to escape Paris’ influence.

The timeline proceeds mostly chronologically from the Middle Ages to the present. Allman gives emphasis to history-changing people and events–those that are important to the story he’s telling. He centers the tale on what was formerly known as the province of Quercy, but is now the department of Lot and part of the department of Tarn-et-Garonne. It’s fascinating to see the history of France unfolding from the perspective of this off-the-beaten-track part of the country. Most interesting to me were the chapters on Count Raymond VI and Count Raymond VII of Toulouse and the Albigensian Crusade. Allman’s agnostic view of the various religious wars makes a case for their pointlessness. But the long history of the region’s involvement in all the successive wars showed the importance of the area in all major European conflicts.

The author uses his 800-year-old house as a metaphor for the timelessness and the changes of the area. Initially, the town was isolated and known for its beautiful medieval appearance. Allman points out that the medieval touches were recent, which is disillusioning. But the geography and culture of the region were more resistant to change and to fashion. I think I was as sorrowful as he was to watch the life of the town move down the mountain (in order to provide for more convenient car parks) and suffer the influx of chain stores and fast food places. 

Looking up the author when I finished the book, I was sad to see he died in May. This book was published posthumously. But what an incredibly full life he led!

For fans of memoir, French history, and France in general, this book is recommended. It’s a bit lengthy and I found some of the digressions slow-going, but overall, it’s a beautiful book.

BOOK REVIEW: The Captain's Old Love by Mary Lancaster

The Captain’s Old Love by Mary Lancaster is a lovely regency romance by one of my go-to historical romance authors.

Captain Sir Julius Vale has just retired from the Royal Navy in order to care for his younger siblings after the death of his father. (There are a lot of them!) Julius has lost an eye and injured his leg in the war against France, but he would still be sailing in spite of these maladies if not for his obligations at home. The familial solicitousness is not all one-sided. His siblings are equally worried about him. They want to see him happy. They want to see him married. But Julius is not looking for a wife. Years ago, he was jilted by a lady he loved desperately. He has never gotten over her, and he carries a grudge.

Antonia Temple is the lady. Julius has the misfortune (or good fortune?) of coming across her at the first ball he attends back in Blackhaven (the town where his home and family are located.) She is as stunned to see him as he is to see her. And she gives every appearance of being as hurt and as resentful.

Who jilted whom?

Julius and Antonia are delightfully level-headed and quick to seek out the truth rather than wallowing in self-pity and anger. They might be able to find their way back to one another if they can hold onto a tenuous trust. But whoever was responsible for their earlier estrangement is still determined to keep them apart. And tenuous trust might not be enough.

The hero and heroine make this an entertaining read. The villain is a bit over the top, but needs to be if he’s going to be able to drive a wedge between a pair so right for one another. This is book 1 in the One Night in Blackhaven series, and I have book 2 queued up on my kindle!

BOOK REVIEW: Rock Bottom, Tennessee and Rock Bottom Rising by Kimberly Nixon

I just about never read a series out of order, but this time, I did. Reading the sequel made me determined to read book one.

(Book one) Rock Bottom, Tennessee by Kimberly Nixon is a poignant story of poverty and loss set in the Appalachian mountains in the early 1900s. In the argument between nature and nurture, the story comes down squarely on the side of nurture. The protagonist, Ruby Sullivan, was a sweet little girl, but she is subjected to a painfully hard life. Her father died the night she was born, her mother abandoned her, her brothers left home as soon as they were able, and she was brought up by her resentful grandparents. She grew up with very low self esteem and an underdeveloped sense of right and wrong.

Ruby is beautiful. She’s gifted with intelligence and a will to succeed, but little opportunity to do so. During her childhood, she excelled at schoolwork, but was often pulled from class to help on her grandparents’ farm. She had one friend, Leon, a similarly disadvantaged boy who worked part-time for her grandfather. And she had one supporter, Joseph MacCallum, the schoolteacher, who first comes to admire her smarts and her resilience, and then, falls in love with her.

Readers will sympathize with Ruby’s plight, her grasp at stability, and her inability to accept love that’s freely given. When tragedy strikes, Ruby throws caution to the wind and reaches for excitement and happiness in a self-destructive way, piling up one poor choice after another.

Based on the life-story of the author’s grandmother, Rock Bottom, Tennessee fits the story into its setting in a way that draws you in, and then tugs at your heartstrings.

The sequel, Rock Bottom Rising, is what I read first, and I highly recommend it also. Here’s my review:

Prepare to be inspired by this Depression-Era-to-WWII novel based on the adventures of the author's fascinating grandmother. Ruby Sullivan Ross, a resilient woman haunted by her past mistakes, must continually reinvent herself as she journeys from poverty, poor decisions, and dependence on crooked men to a promising life of self-sufficiency and self-respect. In Rock Bottom Rising, Nixon brings us a powerful tale of sacrifice, regret, and the redemptive power of forgiveness. Readers will feel Ruby's pain and root for her rise.