Transatlantic by Colum McCann

        

In TRANSATLANTIC,  prize-winning author Colum McCann combines three historical events, all involving the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from North America to Ireland:  the lecture tour of escaped American slave, Frederick Douglass, in 1845, just at the onset of the potato famine; the first non-stop transatlantic flight made in 1919 by John Alcock and Arthur Brown; and the multiple crossings made by former Senator George Mitchell in his efforts to broker the 1998 Belfast Peace Agreement which ended “The Troubles,” a three-decades long period of conflict between Nationalists (Catholics) and Unionists (Protestants).

           

These three events are bridged by a succession of women, the first of whom, Lily Duggan, crosses the ocean in the other direction, leaving Ireland for America to escape poverty and famine. Life is not much easier in America, but Lily prospers. After serving as a washerwoman and nurse in Civil War battlefield hospitals, she marries and raises a family. Her daughter, Emily, is a bookish girl who eventually becomes a journalist and covers the story of Alcock and Brown’s take-off from Newfoundland. Emily and her daughter, Lottie, cross to Ireland by ship where Lottie marries and has her own daughter, Hannah. Together Lottie and Hannah bear the personal suffering brought on by “The Troubles,” and then Hannah alone must deal with the consequences of the financial collapse of 2008.

The progress made in 150 years can be astounding. People regularly travel by plane across the Atlantic Ocean. Political and religious violence ceases to terrorize the citizens of the British Isles. And in 2008, another black American visits Ireland, this time rather than an escaped slave he is the President of the United States. The abolition of slavery, the development of intercontinental flight, a treaty to end a long, violent struggle are important developments in the course of history.  And, inevitably, the course of history affects the lives of the ordinary people of the world.  

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Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford

Jamie Ford, author of Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, returns to his Seattle roots in his second novel Songs of Willow Frost.  First we meet William Eng, a lovable Chinese American orphan who lives at the Sacred Heart Orphanage.  All of the boy orphans are given the same birthday when they arrive at Sacred Heart- September 28^th: coronation date of the honorable Pope Leo XII.  On this day, all of the boys are shepherded downtown to see a motion picture as a special birthday treat.  This year (1934) the boys are taken to a showing of Cimarron.  William hunkers down in his seat to share his popcorn and Orange Crush with his best friend when something unthinkable happens.  During the Follies reel, the audience meets a new actress with a sweet, sad voice: Willow Frost.  William is stunned.  Though he can’t explain how, he knows that the woman on the screen is in fact his mother whom he hasn’t seen in five years.  Shaken, William tries to ply information out of the sisters at Sacred Heart but to no avail.  He know his Ah-ma wouldn’t have abandoned him and believes that if he can just get out of the orphanage long enough to see her in person at an upcoming show, she’d take him home again.

Life in the orphanage is not easy.  But William knows that he has it a lot better than many orphans- some roam the streets begging, others are sent off to labor farms or to work in factories.  And while he feels the strong pull to run away from the orphanage in order to find his mother, he knows that if he is caught, he probably won’t be sent anywhere as nice as Sacred Heart.  Bolstered by his best friend, the adorable but blind Charlotte, the two hatch a plan to escape from the orphanage and trek to the 5^th Avenue Theatre to see Willow. 

Charlotte and William manage to sneak out of Sacred Heart and even see Willow’s show.  Afterwards, they wait with a line of other admirers outside the Stage Door.  William gets Willows autograph and calls her Ah-ma and when the actress begins to cry William knows that he’s finally found his mother.  But she is whisked off in a taxi and William is left sitting in the alley for hours.  One of the performers takes pity on William and Charlotte and gives them backstage tickets for the next performance.  There, William gets a chance to speak with Willow before her next performance.  Unfortunately, Sister Briganti arrives to take the two orphans back to Sacred Heart before William can get all of the answers about his past.

Will William find Willow again?  Will he ever find out how he wound up at Sacred Heart?  But most importantly, does Willow still want her little boy?  Songs of Willow Frost is an interesting tale about the bond of parent and child, duty to society and the history of early motion pictures.  While it does not combine the number of issues as did Ford’s first novel Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,  Songs of Willow Frost is not a Sophomore Slump of a book.  Ford brings new life to a new era in Seattle and the reader is more than happy to go along for the ride.

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Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

Catherine Bailey meets Lee, a gorgeous police officer whose charismatic nature makes everyone like him.  She falls in love but soon his true character shines through and she becomes scared of him and his controlling ways.  She plans an escape which goes wrong.  Fast forward four years later.  Lee is behind bars but Catherine’s life has been changed forever.  Suffering from both post-traumatic stress and obsessive compulsive disorder she is spending her time living in fear.  Lee is released from prison and Catherine knows he will come after her.  Told in alternating chapters of flashbacks and present time this novel will cause you to think twice about domestic violence.  Checkout Into the Darkest Corner@ the library!

Between My Father and the King by Janet Frame

Janet Frame was an award winning author from New Zealand. Between My Father and the King, a collection of some of her previously unpublished and uncollected short stories, is an excellent introduction to this talented author who died in 2004. The stories, many told from the point of view of children or spouses in working class families, are stories of hope and disappointment. The best plums grow on the neighbor’s side of the fence. A vagrant’s book collection is not worth a fortune. Grandmother, on her first visit, does not live up to her grandchildren’s expectations. The daughter who was given a lovely lace dress is not allowed to attend the dance. And the King does not sufficiently appreciate the father’s service in World War I. In these and other stories, the author creates a true voice for a child or adult who hasn't got much in life except acute powers of observation. The reader can feel the anticipation of having a new dress, plum jam, hot scones, a cup of tea, a visitor, a new piece of furniture or set of dishes. And when the anticipation leads to yet another disappointment, the resigned acceptance of those used to disappointment makes each story heart-breaking but not maudlin.

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Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

The Queen’s Gambit is a chess opening in which a pawn is temporarily sacrificed to give the player a strong center presence. In The Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle, the life of Elizabeth Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII, becomes a chess game after her marriage. In order to keep her position and her head, she must plan carefully, stay at least one move ahead of her enemies, and arrange her allies carefully around her. To succeed at this game, she needs the loyalty of her maid-servant, Dot, illiterate and lowly-born, who understands the importance of keeping the Queen’s secrets, even at great danger to herself.

Katherine Parr was thirty, twice-widowed and childless, when her modesty and common sense caught the eye of King Henry VIII. His proposal of marriage could not be refused.  Katherine was forced to put aside self-interest to marry a husband who was by this time elderly, sick, bad-tempered and dangerous. Henry was a man who could suddenly turn on those close to him and order anyone, even his queen, banished, arrested or executed. Katherine endured some close calls, but with the help of servants and friends and her own intuition about the King’s moods, she was able to outwit her enemies and outlive the king. In this book her story is told from two points of view, Katherine’s and Dot’s.  Each was a woman who rose above her station. Katherine, of aristocratic but not royal blood, became Queen of England. Dot, the uneducated daughter of a thatcher, became the Queen’s most trusted retainer. Together they navigated the chess board of the English Court, the gossip, the intrigues, the back-biting, the maneuvering for favor.

After Henry’s death, both Katherine and Dot married for love. Dot created a happy home and family, but Katherine’s fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, proved to be a social-climbing philanderer. Neither of Katherine’s positions, Queen and Dowager Queen, could provide happiness or safety. After careful strategizing in Henry’s Court kept her alive, she died at age thirty-six, as so many sixteenth century women did, in childbirth.

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Seven Houses in France by Bernardo Atxaga

George Orwell has observed that colonialism is destructive to the imperialists as well as the native population of the colonized country. This maxim would appear to be proved in SEVEN HOUSES IN FRANCE except that the reader cannot imagine the Belgian officers in this book any less cruel and avaricious had they never left Belgium. As members of King Leopold’s Force Publique in the Congo Free State, they are charged with fighting the rebels and forcing the local people to harvest rubber from the jungle. However, they spend most of their time amusing themselves in cruel and debauched activities. The commander of the outpost, Captain Biran, is also, through poaching mahogany and ivory, amassing a fortune so his beautiful wife can own seven fashionable houses in France. The camaraderie of the officer corps is disturbed in August, 1904, when a new soldier, Chrysostome Liege, arrives. He is a mystery to his fellow officers, telling them little about his himself. He provokes jealousy and resentment by proving to be the best marksman at the outpost. And he is an enigma and threat to them because he is a devout Christian who refuses to join in their sport of raping native women. When these officers become aware that Chrysostome has become sincerely fond of a native woman, they seize the opportunity to torment him. The resulting tragedy has a domino effect of successive acts of violence as the Belgians turn on one another.

The pervasive cruelty in this book is not graphically described, but the Belgians’ casual attitude toward it is revealing. The Congo Free State was the site of an unprecedented man-made human disaster in which King Leopold enriched himself by exploiting the local people and natural resources of the area. KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST by Adam Hochschild is a well-researched book on this subject.         

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A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve

Margaret and Patrick set off on a Kenyan adventure.  He’s a doctor who will be doing research and running clinics.  Margaret is a photographer who ends up getting a job with the local paper.  Their friends suggest a trip up Mount Kenya and the couple agree even though Margaret has doubts about her abilities.  She ends up being the slowest member of the group and when a tragedy occurs she is blamed by all, even her husband.  Their marriage will never be the same.    They avoid talking about it and Margaret develops an attraction for her coworker.  Anita Shreve delves into human emotion and uses her personal experiences in Kenya to bring the country to life.  Check out A Change in Altitude @ the library!