Review: The Madwoman Upstairs: A Novel

The Madwoman Upstairs: A Novel by Catherine Lowell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was recommended to me by my daughter, who works in the book-related industry and gets lots of ARCs (as a full-time student, not that she has time to read all of them.) However, this book she finished in one sitting, and found it funny, unique and eloquent. The story's taken place at Oxford University about an English major (like she is currently) does not hurt, either.

The book, strangely, reminded me of An Unnecessary Woman. The female protagonists in both books were intelligent, book-loving, yet reclusive and awkward. Most conversations and thoughts were either book related, or literary related. However, the two were vastly different in age. Although Aaliya in An Unnecessary woman was 72, Sam was only 20 here in this book. Sam was the last living descendant of the Brontes sisters. She started attending college in Oxford a few years after her Dad died a tragic death. She was homeschooled by her Dad all her young life on literatures (especially the ones by their famous ancestors) and hardly met any other human, so Oxford was a strange and intimidating new experience for her. When her Dad was alive, they played these treasure hunting games where her Dad would leave her a clue on a bookmark (hers) leading to other places with clues. The final destination always had a matching bookmark (his) with the treasure (usually a book.) Imagine her shock when the lawyer who took care of his Dad's estate gave her an almost empty shoebox with a "her" bookmark. In her understanding, her family was broke and had no inheritance or treasures left over from the sisters.

So, the story also has a small mystery with a treasure hunt, which I found just okay...although people who definitely needed a plot in their books will find it more intriguing. What I enjoyed about the book were the witty conversations, especially the ones between Sam and her tutor/professor Orville when they analyze literary works. I laughed out loud many times through out the book. This is when they first met:

"Why did you come to Oxford?"
"Everyone's got to be somewhere."
"Is that supposed to be funny?"....
"I came here study English Literature."
"And why was that?"
"I like books."
"You like books."
"I'm good at reading?"
"I did not ask you whether if you are literate. I asked you why you are studying English Literature. What do you imagine it will provide you?"
"Unemployment?".... "English is the study of what makes us human?"...
"Human biology is the study of what makes us human,"...."Try again."
"English is the study of civilization."
"History is the study of civilization," He corrected.
"English is the study of art."
"ART is the study of art.".....

The rest of the book was sprinkled with conversations like the above. They were more intense and take a bit of thinking to comprehend since they were filled with specific quotes and phrases from the Brontes and other books, as well as analyses of literature and writing. Knowing a little history and work of the Bronte sisters (and other classics) might help, but not necessary, to enjoy this gem of a novel. I also enjoyed how Sam moved from being a reliable narrator, to an unreliable one, and vice versa. It's fun to keep guessing. Watching her navigating her life is also cringe-worthy but enjoyable.

This review is getting out of hand, so I'll end with my favorite short quote from the book -

"It was the sort of library you'd marry a man for."









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Review: A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I haven't added any books to my "All time favorite" shelf for a while, but Ove definitely belongs up there with Mr. Penumbra and the old man who jumped out of a window. As someone who was not an English or literature major, it took me decades of reading and thousands of books to realize that my 5-star books usually have one or few the following items: interesting characters, an author with "heart" and/or beautiful prose. So, whether if the characters are relatable or lovable, whether if the plot is logical, or the recent favorite: whether if the narrator is unreliable, are just not the most important criteria in my scale.

With phrases like this one, my favorite, by the way (laughed hysterically at midnight and woke up the house), "Like a bolt of lightning up your urethra.", Mr. Backman did not make the fine prose society, but he's definitely a writer who truly, deeply understands human feelings and he has an amazing talent of making unique characters. One thing that amazes me is how young he is. How possibly someone so young understands the sadness and anger of Ove and Britt Marie?

"Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it's often one of the great motivations for the living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.

"We always think there's enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding onto the word like "IF."

Back to Ove. One of my favorite Japanese manga series was Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking Volume 1. It's a series about a pessimistic high school teacher that always fails at his suicidal attempts. The series explores and scrutinizes the various cultural and sociological aspects of the Japanese society in a satirical way. Ove reminds me of Sensei Zetsubou. After his wife Sonja died, Ove gave up living. This world is a place that he never cares for, anyway, people were not raised the same way as it used to be.

“Ove feels an instinctive skepticism towards all people taller than six feet; the blood can’t quite make it all the way up to the brain.”

“He can’t understand people who long to retire. How can anyone spend their whole life longing for the day when they become superfluous? Wandering about, a burden on society, what sort of man would ever wish for that? Staying at home, waiting to die. Or even worse: waiting for them to come and fetch you and put you in a home. Being dependent on other people to get to the toilet. Ove can’t think of anything worse. His wife often teases him, says he’s the only man she knows who’d rather be laid out in a coffin than travel in a mobility service van.”

"The two men have tattoos all over their throats, he notes. As if the SUV is not a clear enough advertisement for their stupidity."

“all over her face and sunglasses so big that one can’t tell whether they’re a pair of glasses or some kind of helmet.”

So Ove wanted to end his life and be with the only person that could understand him, but life was not done with him yet. To see all the surprises that life has in store for Ove, you'll have to read the book yourself...and love is love is love. At the time of writing this review, our world definitely needs more love.

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Review: Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although there are already many YA trilogies with the same formula - female protagonist, first person-narrative, war-torn world, love-triangle..., I think this series is worth reading due to the amazing world-building skills of the author. She's also the type that describes scenes, things and places quite skillfully and ornately (Think Night Circus). I can visualize her colorful (literally) world through-out the entire book, which was quite an amazing experience.I think the characters needs a bit more development, but since there will be two more books that I have to dwell into, my view hopefully will change.

If you are in love with the fantasy world in this series, make sure to check out the Map of Ravka and the expanded map in Siege and Storm by Keith Thompson. They took my breath away.

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Guest Review: Micro by Michael Crichton & Richard Preston

Micro (subtitled "Substitutions NOT Welcome") by Michael Crichton & Richard Preston 

In 1957, “The Incredible Shrinking Man” made its movie debut. As the title suggests, the story concerns a man who, after being exposed to radiation and an insect repellant, begins a non-stop voyage to a progressively more diminutive existence. Interestingly, he’s nearly eaten by a cat, fights a giant spider, and encounters other dangers as his vertical stature diminishes. As noted in my prior reviews, the story line in Micro by Michael Crichton & Richard Preston shows there is really nothing new under the sun.

My reaction to Micro can be compared to a meal I recently had at a local diner. After all, sometimes a good ol’ allegorical reference best explains one’s position. On that respective day, in a rather shameful display of gastronomic urgency, I hurried into the eatery in question, bypassed the food stained menus, misspelled specials on a blackboard, sat down and ordered spaghetti and meatballs. I mean, how long could it take the kitchen to boil water in a battered, dented pot, cook the pasta & roll two meatballs with the consistency of cement onto an unwashed dish and slap it down in front of me?

Okay; editorial privilege seems to have gotten the best of me in that last sentence because the place does have some pretty tasty meals. I’ve had pork chops there cooked to near perfection, real mashed potatoes, burgers that are quite tasty, delicious chicken and surprisingly good meatloaf. Nothing necessarily to die for, but when you think about it, the phrase at the beginning of this sentence is actually a fine compliment when talking about food in an eating establishment.

Now, my palate has by no means been trained to consider the more discriminating tastes of an epicurean feast. In other words, I’m by no stretch of the imagination a food aficionado. But I do know crap when I taste it. (Please note that last sentence is meant as a figurative reference; not literal.) So when my meal arrived, I was totally unprepared after I shoveled the first forkful into my mouth. There was no disguising it; someone in the kitchen had simply opened a jar of cheap tomato sauce, heated it up and poured it on the spaghetti. It was painfully obvious it wasn’t a “name” brand. Rather, it was one of those knock-off store brands that looks red but that’s as far any semblance to real food that can be made. Now that you read how good food simply can’t be compared to bad, I can segue to my book review.

Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park, Sphere, West World, Rising Sun, The Andromeda Strain and several other novels. But when he passed away in 2008, he left a large part of his book Micro unfinished; author Richard Preston was chosen to complete the novel. This book’s premise is about eight scientific graduate students who are hired to work at a company that’s developed a device that shrinks objects. The owner of the business is crazy, forces all the students into a room, shrinks them all the height of about a half inch and then has them released in a forest, hoping they’ll be killed. The rest of the story is their attempts overcome their collective plight while being chased by voracious insects.

And here’s where my “good food/bad food” analogy comes to light, as good writing has been replaced by bad. In all honesty, it should be noted Mr. Preston is an accomplished writer in his own right. A prime example is that his novel “The Hot Zone” which I discovered served as the loose interpretation of the 1995 movie “Outbreak” starring Dustin Hoffman.

Since Crichton previously proved himself being able to tell a story, I found Micro under Preston’s keyboard endeavors lacking in several areas necessary for me to find a book captivating. First and foremost is the development of a strong protagonist. I discovered a while ago that medical thriller author Robin Cook’s lead characters in novels such as Coma, Foreign Body, Fatal Cure, etc. piqued my interest because they are believable, possessing both exemplary traits and pitiful foibles. In other words, they’re real-to-life. I got to know them, cared about them, became concerned with their welfare.

In Micro, I was about half way into the book when the character I had assumed was the star or hero was summarily killed off. My reaction was an immediate WTH? From that point on, successive characters I thought might take the place of the one who was written off also gave up the spirit (some quite horrifically, I might add). Perhaps Mr. Preston was deliberate in this design but I personally found the inability to discern the story’s main protagonist bothersome and disconcerting.

Not to appear too negative, Mr. Preston does an admirable job of instructing us about the insects that harass the characters. Remember, this is not a world most of us are familiar with so his observations as seen through the graduate students are both enlightening and fascinating. In fact, I feel if I ever become as vertically challenged as these poor folks were, I might just make it out alive.

As I recall, there were also at least two occasions when the segue to different scenes happened so quickly I had to go back and re-read what had just occurred, thinking I had missed something. I don’t remember the specific instances of these offenses and therefore am not being overly helpful, but as a former proof-reader my eyes simply cannot overlook sudden shifts in developments such as these.

Towards the conclusion of the book, the characters meet a fellow shrunken human named Rourke, a scientist who worked for crazy business owner and who has been presumed dead. Rourke has a hidden lab complete with airplanes that are shrunken but fully operative. Crazy business owner finds the mini lab, pours gas all around it and sets it afire. Although an ability to fly planes is never mentioned in the book, three of the remaining characters jump into the planes and fly off into the night. I think Mr. Preston erred significantly when not explaining how the three were able to operate the planes. Rourke is also mentioned as watching the planes take off. Enough detail is given in this scene to substantiate his re-appearance but he’s gone; it’s another “loose string” the author missed.

Due to the inconsistencies noted, I didn’t find this an overly enticing read. And so, I have some advice for Mr. Preston, garnered from the song “Let It Be” by the Beatles. If he ever has the inkling to try and pick up the pieces of an unfinished novel by another author, please:

“Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be.

There will be an answer, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be.

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.”

Reviewed by JTP

Not a good follow up after The Thirteenth Tale

Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I waited 7 years for this book.

The plot: Was there one, or the author just followed her flow as she wrote with no clear direction? Nothing is logical except for the business aspects of the shops.

The pace: Slow with lots of repetitive scenes and actions.

The characters: Dicken-ish, an unlovable man and some revengeful rooks (large black raven-like birds).

The setting: Great, if you like business and old time London in a bleak and dark way with lots of deaths.

The writing: Only thing that kept me reading till the end; wonderful use of words, lyrical prose…not without struggle, though.

The story was quite simple. Bellman, as a boy, killed a rook with a catapult while his three friends watched. Bellman later became a very successful businessman, a family-owned mill and a stranger inspired funeral business called Bellman and Black. On the personal side he suffered through lots of deaths of family and friends. The deaths may or may not have something to do with his killing of the rook. He became a bit detached from his human side, ignoring friends and family. Then he died, which, similarly, may or may not has anything to do with the killing of the rook.

I could tell Diane Setterfield spent a great deal of time doing research for this book. Her descriptions and facts of rooks, mills and the funeral business were all spectacular and informative. Although most readers enjoy more plot-driven books, I truly love reading books that also implemented real facts of certain subjects, especially places, customs and history, as long as the facts contribute to the understanding of the story. Case in point: Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons and Diane Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches. Although Setterfield wrote extensively about running the business of a mill and a funeral home, and included lots of facts about rooks, and weak plot and character makes these facts overbearing and a waste of time. Her prose was brilliant, as usual. She’s an expert in using the right phrases and arranging her words for the right effect. Her usage of English is excellent and her descriptions evocative. Sometimes orotund and overly wordy in a lifeless way:

“Far from it. The rook is no theatrical conjuror with his top hat full of tricks, deluding your eye into perceiving what is not. He is quite the opposite: a magician of the real. Ask your eyes, What color is light? They cannot tell you. But a rook can. He captures the light, splits it, absorbs some and radiates the rest in a delightful demonstration of optics, showing you the truth about light that your own poor eyes cannot see.”

After reading the above paragraph, one would wonder: are colors and the rook’s perception of colors important to the story? NO.

Another one:

“His cry is harsh and grating, made for a more ancient world that existed before the innovation of the pipe, the lute and the viol. Before music was invented he was taught to sing by the planet itself. He mimicked the great rumble of the sea, the fearsome eruption of the volcanoes, the creaking of glaciers, and the geological groaning as the world split apart in its agony and remade itself.”

Lots of passages like the above two, plus pages and pages of words describing Bellman running his day-to-day businesses. Prose did not help the story’s lack of luster in this case.

Unless you intend to buy the book to read how beautiful her words are and you are okay without feeling a bit of resonance in your heart for the characters or their situation; or you are one of those more elite readers, skip this and read her first book, The Thirteenth Tale, instead.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance reading copy.



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A Haunting Tale...

How To Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Haunting.

I always see this word while reading reviews, or blurbs in the cover of hardback books, but have never used it myself. Since I’m usually one of those people who can predict the ending and turns of stories, I’m not easily fazed (maybe only once, while reading Stephen King’s Misery, but I was young and didn’t know any better). I’m glad there’s finally a book where I can use this particular word in my review.

Haunting.

Yes, haunting, chilling, poignant, evocative, stirring, startling, unnerving, disturbing, mesmerizing, terrifying, unforgettable… You can use any or a combination of these words to describe the book. No matter which one, this story will haunt you for a long, long time.

Marta and Hector are a couple living together. Their son, Kylan, has grown up and moved out. Early in the book, we instantly knew something is just not right with their relationship; something seems to be wrong with one or the other. Marta follows the instructions on one particular book her Mother-in-law gave her for her wedding, and her recites the rules in her mind as she carries out the tasks in her day:

Make your home a place of peace and order.

Your husband belongs to the outside world. The house is your domain, and your responsibility.

Never question his authority, for he always does what is best for the family, and has your interests at heart.

Hector goes to work as a teacher, and Marta stays home and does all the housewife duties: clean, cook, shop. She watches the clock closely since she always needed to be ready and have everything prepared, especially the meal, before Hector gets home. Marta does not remember anything before her marriage to Hector. Her whole universe and existence revolves around her husband.

After a hard day at work, your husband will want a hearty meal to replenish his spirits.

Marta is also on some kind of medications, and Hector always makes sure she remembers to take them. Sometimes he stands in front of her and examines her mouth after swallowing. You need them, he says. However, Marta decided to skip the medicine, and that’s when some weird visions appeared. She keeps seeing this frail, skinny blonde girl in various places of the house. She’s wearing white pyjamas with flowers. Sometimes she’s clean, healthy and has perfect nails; other times, skinny as bones, filthy with dirty bitten nails and the color of the pyjamas grey.

Never bother you husband with domestic matters.

Who is the girl? Is she hallucinating, as Hector keeps insisting she is, or is the girl a real person in repressed memory? Should Marta continue to take her medication, or skip to see and hear the girl more clearly? Nothing seems to be what it is. Could she trust her instincts and memories? Should she trust her husband instead, or is she losing her mind? Then, things get even worse when Kylan return to visit with his fiancée… Marta's sometimes strong, clear and coherent and other times lost, confused and full of doubt narrative will break your heart.

Always put the needs of the rest of the family above your own.

It’s unbelievable that this book is a debut and how young the author was when she wrote the book. Emma Chapman writes with the skill of an accomplished, mature and experienced author. The concept is brilliant, the plot tight and the prosecution smooth. She explores many facets of our society with ease and grace. She did not take the easy way out by providing us with a straightforward answer to the question we are still asking ourselves way after the last page is turned… Brilliant.

Thanks to the publisher and Bookbrowse for providing my advance reader’s copy.
This book will be released in October 2013.

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