BOOK REVIEW: Boy by Nicole Galland

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

I’ve been wanting to read one of Nicole Galland’s historical novels for a long time, but never got around to it. So I was pleased to review an e-galley for Boy.

Set in Elizabethan England and intermingling the worlds of the theater, the queen’s court and courtiers, and the scientists of the day, Galland centers the story around two gender-bending protagonists.

Alexander Cooke (Sander) is an apprentice actor at the Globe Playhouse and a city-wide celebrity. Slender, pretty, and coquettish, he stars in the female roles of Shakespeare’s great plays and is admired wherever he goes. Much of that admiration, particularly among the highborn and/or well-to-do, is due to his powerful sex appeal, making him a favorite of both women and men. Sander loves the attention. And the sex.

However, he’s getting older and the term of his apprenticeship is coming to an end. Sander knows he is outgrowing the female leads without growing into male roles. He isn’t interested in taking on a more managerial role. He wants to act. And if he cannot act, he needs a new “career.” He wants to be a courtier with a patron.

Joan Buckler is Sander’s oldest friend. They grew up together and know each other’s deepest secrets. However, while Sander is not particularly bright (except for a phenomenal memory), Joan is exceptionally smart. She wants to be a natural philosopher. Her problem is that she is female, with no hope of studying such things with the masters.

The crux of the novel focuses first on the budding physical attraction between these longtime friends, and then its blossoming into romantic love and strong sexual desire. Sander, in an effort to do something to please Joan, utilizes his acquaintance with Sir Francis Bacon to introduce Joan (who is masquerading as “Jack”) to Bacon’s circle and his ideas of inductive logic.

While Joan is furthering her education, Sander seeks patronage. This is even more important now that he wants to be able to support Joan as his wife. Unfortunately, he is fixed upon joining the circle around the earl of Essex, who was once one of the queen’s favorites but is now very much on the outs.

Galland does a lovely job of bringing young Sander and Joan to life. Sander is a complicated (if shallow) character who is redeemed by his love for his soul mate. Joan is bright, loyal, and brave. The London of the Elizabethan era is described in detail as the two make their way around in it. And the intrigue of Queen Elizabeth’s court is shown through the efforts of rivals for influence as they work to manipulate the queen’s favor.

This all requires a lot of set-up. The story ultimately reaches a satisfying conclusion; however, much of the book is slow as all the pieces must be maneuvered into position. I found my engagement with the story waxed and waned throughout. It’s definitely a worthwhile read for fans of historical fiction and the time of Shakespeare, but for a 350-page book, it read longer. 

BOOK REVIEW: Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein

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

Fagin the Thief is Allison Epstein’s third novel and, for me, she is three for three. Her historical novels are all quite different, but all insanely good. (A Tip for the Hangman and Let the Dead Bury the Dead are must-reads.) 

Fagin the Thief is a retelling of Dickens’ Oliver Twist, primarily from the viewpoint of Fagin, though we also get peeks into the psyches of Bill Sykes and Nan. Full disclosure: I’ve never read Oliver Twist. What I know of the story comes from the musical Oliver! and from popular references. But you don’t need to know anything about Oliver Twist to appreciate Fagin the Thief. Oliver, the poor orphan, is hardly present in this novel, but he serves as the catalyst for the culminating events.

Jacob Fagin was orphaned at a young age. His father had been hanged as a thief, and Jacob’s main goal in life (other than staying alive in general) is not to die the way his father did. But a boy has to eat, and Fagin doesn’t see any palatable options for a fatherless, impoverished Jewish boy other than thievery. With the aid of a skilled pickpocket, he learns to provide for himself. And as he grows older (and ages) he becomes a teacher to other young boys who are as desperate and bold as he once was. Yes, he is raising them up into a life of crime, but he feeds them, houses them, teaches them a skill, and cares for them.

Epstein portrays the grit, hunger, and desperation of London’s slums with such realism that the reader can empathize not just with Fagin, but also with the true villain of the piece, Bill Sykes. Once one of Fagin’s trainees, Sykes is not satisfied with the takings available to a pickpocket. And Fagin has to watch as the crimes escalate and Sykes becomes crueler and ever more violent.

This is a novel full of morally ambiguous characters who are shaped by their environment as well as their personal demons. The true evils in the book are poverty and prejudice. There is a message in the book, but it doesn’t stoop to preachiness. It takes the reader right into the lives of people who are so downtrodden that to be taken in by a master thief could be seen as a blessing.

Not only that, but the writing is superb.  Highly recommended.

BOOK REVIEW: The Greek Treasure by Irving Stone

Many years ago, my mom passed along to me a book she’d read by Irving Stone. I believe it was Those Who Love, about Abigail and John Adams. I devoured it, and then read several of his other novels. I became hooked not only on Irving Stone, but on biographical fiction in general.

Recently, I’ve been taking some online Great Books classes that have included The Iliad and The Odyssey, and it brought to mind one of the Irving Stone books that I loved, The Greek Treasure. This is a dual biographical novel of Sophia and Henry Schliemann, amateur archeologists who are known for tenacious excavations at Troy and Mycenae. And while most of Schliemann’s conclusions (many controversial at the time) subsequently proved false, he generated excitement about the rewards of archeology in the late 1800s, and reawakened debates about the historicity of Homer’s great epics. (Schliemann was pro-Homer as a factual historian.)

Irving Stone’s novel is seen through the eyes of Sophia, a Greek girl from a family facing impoverishment, who, at 17 or 18, was given in marriage to Henry, who was 47 at the time. Recently divorced, he wanted a Greek wife for inspiration as he embarked on his excavations at Hisarlik, his presumed site of Troy. Henry was a fabulously wealthy German, who had risen from poverty by shady means, and then devoted his life and fortune to his archeological pursuits.

I think when I first read this novel, I was more impressed with Schliemann and his findings, as well as Sophia’s growth and participation in the digs. However, reading it again, I am more appalled by Henry’s megalomania and his treatment of his wife. The author does an excellent job of showing the nuances of Sophia’s relationship to her husband. Her subjugation was typical of her culture and the times. In a way, she was given a good deal of freedom and her life was enriched by the education he afforded her and the opportunity to take part in the digs. But these were crumbs he threw her way, so long as she toed the line, lavished him with praise, and kept her doubts and disappointments to herself.

The novel is meticulously detailed. The excitement of discovery comes through, as does the difficulty of the process. But I confess that I was often driven to skimming over the laundry lists of the gold and bronze items pulled from the earth. And I found myself weighing in on the side of Henry’s antagonists. His justifications for stealing artifacts (LOTS of artifacts) rang hollow.

Irving Stone’s books are not as readily available as they used to be, especially the more obscure ones. I found The Greek Treasure in my local university library. And while the writing style is a tad ponderous, the novel is still a compelling read. I expect now that I know where to go to look for Stone’s novels, I’ll be re-reading more of them.

BOOK REVIEW: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

I thought I had read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce in a college English class, but I clearly had not. I just finished reading it for the first time.

A summary is deceptively simple. Joyce presents a fictionalized account of his youth and coming of age, from babyhood to young adulthood, through the eyes and thoughts of the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. Dedalus struggles with issues of family, of Irish identity and politics, of Catholicism and faith, and of his increasing understanding of his own artistic, literary temperament. He learns he must break free of it all and strike out on his own.

Of course, this superficial summary doesn’t do justice to the book. It’s not easy to read, but it is extraordinarily rewarding. Joyce’s writing has to be experienced. Maybe I’ll try tackling Dubliners. 

BOOK REVIEW: susan, linda, nina and cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli

Our book group will be meeting next week to discuss susan, linda, nina & cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli. The book uses mini-biographies of Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg, and Cokie Roberts to tell the story of the birth and growth of National Public Radio. It incorporates references to or anecdotes about newsworthy events of the 60's thru the 2000's, providing historical context. And it serves as a reminder of just how unequal the playing field was just 50-60 years ago. White men ruled simply by virtue of being white men. The women (not only these four) who insinuated themselves into newsroom spaces and worked to break through the glass ceiling are inspirational. And it’s disturbing to think that the achievements of not so long ago can be forgotten, dismissed, or rolled back.

The message of the book is important and it is good to pay homage to these “Founding Mothers of NPR.” However the book is not as focused on the four women in the title as I might have liked. It veered off quite a bit into the contributions of the various men (NPR presidents, board members, hosts and cohosts, etc) who were also involved in the founding of NPR. At times, the narrative seemed to lose focus as it veered from anecdote to anecdote.

Still, it’s a great pick for a book club with both male and female members, all of an age to remember some of the events and who may have been NPR listeners at a time when these women were at the top of their game. It should yield great discussion.

BOOK REVIEW: High Wages by Dorothy Whipple

Somehow, I started following Persephone Books on Instagram. This is a UK “publisher of neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women writers and mostly mid-20^th century, in elegant grey editions. A bookshop, too.” Now I want to go to the UK just to go to this bookshop.

The reviews they post of books they’ve chosen to republish are always so compelling I add the novels to my TBR list, but some are hard to find in the U.S.

Fortunately, my library had an old copy of Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield, which was superb.

More recently, I was drawn in by the blurb for High Wages by Dorothy Whipple, and bought the kindle edition from Persephone Books:

Persephone Books edition

 "High Wages (1930) was Dorothy Whipple's second novel. It is about a girl called Jane who gets a badly-paid job in a draper’s shop in the early years of the last century. Yet the title of the book is based on a Carlyle quotation – ‘Experience doth take dreadfully high wages, but she teacheth like none other’ – and Jane, having saved some money and been lent some by a friend, opens her own dress-shop.
As Jane Brocket writes in her Persephone Preface: the novel ‘is a celebration of the Lancastrian values of hard work and stubbornness, and there could be no finer setting for a shop-girl-made-good story than the county in which cotton was king.’"

 

This sweet old-fashioned novel is the story of Jane Carter, a young girl who arrives in the small England town of Tidsley, looking for work. She is clever, pretty, well-spoken, and has a bit of experience working in a shop, so when she sees an ad in the window of Mr. Chadwick’s draper’s shop, she applies. And thus, her life story begins.

Jane navigates the world through a career in retail. First, she is the exploited shopgirl working for

An old edition with 
a funner cover

Mr. Chadwick. She is cleverer and braver than he is, and eventually strikes out on her own. Not only is her dress shop a great success, but she is a success. Never succumbing to greed and meanness, she treats her own employees (and investor) well.

WWI is seen through the lens of its effects on Tidsley and on small-town commerce. Men go away. Some come back unscathed (like the well-to-do, handsome, but vapid Noel Yarde) while others are changed (the bookish, sensitive librarian Wilfrid). But Jane’s star continues to rise throughout.

In fact, Jane has her life, and her narrow world, well under control, until she falls in love with the wrong man.

The novel contrasts the industry and generosity of the working class compared to the cheapness, greed, and exploitative natures of the employers. The upper class (wealthy professionals and their monied offspring) are shown as lazy, boring, and bored. The story has an almost allegorical feel to it, but isn’t quite a “lesson” novel. It’s a quick, fascinating read. A period piece. And delightful.

BOOK REVIEW: Akmaral by Judith Lindbergh

 The captivating novel Akmaral by Judith Lindbergh is a superb blend of history and imagination.

The heroine, Akmaral, is a warrior and leader of her people, the Sauromatae, nomads who roamed the Central Asian steppes thousands of years ago. In her aul (her clan), women and men are equally ferocious and skilled at warfare. They fight side by side. They have a rich, complex culture and religious life, but the challenges of a harsh landscape, famine, and clashes with other auls mean raids and skirmishes are a constant. Their most revered god is the god of war.

A larger threat looms than the frequent bloody raids. The fierce Scythians are approaching. This  is a huge tribe of warriors whose migrations push aside, enslave, or destroy all peoples in their paths. As the two cultures collide, Akmaral’s people capture an intriguing man named Timor, a Scythian slave. Timor is a proud warrior whose skill eventually impresses even the Sauromatae war chief Erzhan. But Timor’s loyalties are divided and grow more so after he and Akmaral become lovers. 

This immersive, beautifully written novel succeeds in transporting readers to a time and place that is utterly foreign, and yet so exquisitely detailed that you will feel you are there. Highly recommended.