The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher. Published in the mid-1980s, this is a well-crafted family saga about a widow and her three self-concerned children. She wants to return to her childhood village for a last remembrance, and none of her adult children will come with her. Over the course of several months, we are allowed to look back at her life during wartime, new marriage, true love, and the devastating loss of her parents. The back story is rich and interesting; the modern story, less so. All in all, it is a fine book, but unremarkable.
Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro. This novel is a booktube darling, but it is a book where a greater context, how the characters fit into the modern post-9/11 world, is lacking. A woman isn’t terribly satisfied with her lackluster marriage (kind husband who doesn’t know how to communicate his needs nor be curious enough to ask her, and the main character, who forbears and then withdraws.) The second she meets a writer who can talk to her via email about theology and literature, she is snagged into a cozy world of infidelity. The letters they write back and forth aren’t particularly interesting. She shows him poetry (which I like) and he makes some comments. In the long run, the relationship peters out and she writes a sermon about it, a sermon I found unpersuasive.
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti. A teenage daughter slowly learns about the fate of her dead mother and the ribald life of her father, Samuel. He has been shot twelve times, and each bullet hole symbolizes one of the adventurous stories. He is a criminal, unconcerned with society, unable to make many friends, and trying to hold on to his daughter. The action scenes are fun to read. Overall, the book comes together, though again, I like the old timelines better than the contemporary one.
Who is Rich? by Matthew Klam. Here’s a novel of infidelity that is truly mired in the politics and social class struggle of 2012. It’s the summer before the presidential election, so the world hasn’t yet been inflicted with Trumpism, but you can feel it coming when the protagonist has an affair with a funder of right-wing causes that have insinuated themselves into U.S. politics. The characters are richly drawn and the main character is deeply flawed and guilt ridden. He’s a one-hit wonder cartoonist, teaching at a writing conference. If you’ve ever been surrounded by writers, you will recognize some of these types of people, some talented, some not, but a good portion who are neurotic and jealous of the success of others, and scared of losing luster. It’s a funny novel, but also buttressed by deep melancholy. And it’s a more moral novel than Fire Sermon.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. The purpose of this novel is not to adjudicate the corruption of the legal system of the South, but to show how being falsely convicted and jailed for a rape can harm the already tenuous bonds of a rocky marriage. It is not perfect, but deeply moving and honest. The couple, Roy and Celestine, grapple with realities as best they can, neither failing but neither succeeding.
I Am, I Am, I Am: Fourteen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell. A memoir that expertly weaves together chance encounters and illnesses that could have caused the author, O’Farrell, to die. These range from an almost-drowning to encephalitis. The chapters are not arranged chronologically, but they do all culminate in a devastating final essay about O’Farrell’s daughter. This is some of the best writing I’ve read in a long time.
