Ansay, A. Manette "Blue Water"

Ansay, A. Manette "Blue Water" - 2006

I read a book by Manette Ansay (Vinegar Hill) a couple of years ago and really liked it. Talking about it a while ago, I felt I really needed to read another one of her books. And I didn't regret it.

The story was captivating and suspenseful. You couldn't wait to turn the page. The author has a great writing style. The protagonists are well described, the plot good to follow and you can feel with the characters.

As in her other book, we ask ourselves how much a person can endure but also, how can we forgive someone. You find all kinds of emotions in the novel, love and hate, anger and hope, grief and forgiveness. There are solutions but also problems that cannot be solved. An interesting story.

Certainly not my last book by Manette Ansay.

From the back cover:

"Aboard their sailboat, Chelone, Megan and Rex Van Dorn look like a couple living their dream. But when people ask, 'Do you have children?' Meg doesn't know how to answer. For their only child, Evan, was killed in a car accident, and behind the wheel was Cindy Ann Kreisler, Meg's one-time best friend.

The couple's only plan, as they set sail, is to put as much distance between themselves and Cindy Ann as possible. But when Meg returns to shore for her brother's wedding, she is forced to face the ties that bind her to the woman who has wounded her so badly. As Meg well knows, Cindy Ann has secrets and sorrows of her own - which date back to the summer of their brief friendship."

Perry, Matthew "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing"

Perry, Matthew "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" - 2022

Do you like F.R.I.E.N.D.S.? If you do, your favourite character might be the same as the one of many: Chandler Bing.

I knew he had a problem with alcoholism. I wondered how he still managed to play such an upbeat character.

Matthew Perry opens up, he tells us everything about his life. While some might find this a little too much, I think this is a great book for those trying to understand this illness. Because that's what it is, an illness. I suffer from migraines and I've heard a lot of things about it, like just taking an aspirin, ignoring it, can't be that bad etc. Anyone suffering from a chronicle, invisible illness can tell you about that. But suffering from alcoholism or drug abuse is different, a lot of people blame them for what they are "doing", not feeling compassion for what is happening to them!

I think when reading Matthew's autobiography, you can understand how hard it is to battle such an illness and that comments like the ones above don't help but hinder.

   

This was a book my son gave me for Christmas. He knows how much I love F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Actually, my whole family does. Say anything and we can answer with a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. quote, we can actually have whole conversations with F.R.I.E.N.D.S. quotes. We have lots of gadgets with F.R.I.E.N.D.S. quotes, coasters, glasses, cups, plates etc. We once gave the boys cushion covers with the quote "The Cushions are the Essence of the Chair" and they both have them in their apartments. Would he have given it to me if he had read it himself beforehand and had known about all the details? I don't know but I hope he would have and I am glad he did.

There is a lot of Matthew in Chandler and a lot of Chandler in Matthew, as could be expected. Reading this memoir makes me love him even more. This is probably one of the saddest story I will read this year. So dark, so devastating.

The book is so honest, you feel the author talks to you personally as his very best friend whom he can rely on. I wish Matthew Perry all the best in the future.

From the back cover:

"The BELOVED STAR OF FRIENDS takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this 'CANDID, DARKLY FUNNY...POIGNANT' memoir (The New York Times)

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK by Time, Associated Press, Goodreads, USA Today, and more!
'Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.'

So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.

In an extraordinary story that only he could tell - and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it - Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening - as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for."

Khorsandi, Shappi "Nina is Not OK"

Khorsandi, Shappi "Nina is Not OK" - 2016

Shaparak "Shappi" Khorsandi is an Iranian-born British comedian and author. I've known her from various British panel and quiz shows and I think she is absolutely fabulous.

So, when her memoir "A Beginner's Guide to English" was published, I really wanted to read it and found it just as great as the comedian herself. Then I learned that she had also written a novel "Nina is Not OK". Without even looking at the content (which I hardly ever do), I bought the book and started reading.

At first I was disappointed. Nina, the protagonist, came across as one of those heroines from chick lit novels. Superficial and dumb. If she had been blonde, she would have been the best example for the kind of girls that are always seem to populate those novels.

But, after a little while, the novel begins to grow on you. This is not a superficial book about some stupid teenagers, this is a book that deals with many problem topics. You can tell at times that the author has a great sense of humour though this is not a funny book. But I started to like the characters very much, not all of them, of course, otherwise there would be no problems and this book would never have been written. But there are not only accusations but also trials to solve some of those problems.

Some horrible things happen in this novel and I'm sure it's too much for some readers but the scenes had to be included in order to understand what was going on. Alcoholism in a family and sexual abuse are the worst things but it's not all.

While the mother's feelings are not portrayed as much as those of Nina, I think mothers can very well understand the nightmares they all go through, not just Nina. And if you didn't think alcoholism was an illness before, you will certainly understand those people better after reading this book. And hopefully not make the same mistakes everyone around Nina made.

I don't like alcohol, so I always find it hard to understand how someone can drink so much. It's not that I judge them, I just can't follow personally. I've had to take so much medication in my life that I am always afraid I get addicted to some of them. I do think that this book helps to understand people who are afflicted with this illness.

I hope Shappi Khorsandi will write more books. This one was fabulous.

From the back cover:

"Nina does not have a drinking problem. She likes a drink, sure. But what 17-year-old doesn’t?

And if she sometimes wakes up with little memory of what happened the night before , then her friends are all too happy to fill in the blanks. Nina’s drunken exploits are the stuff of college legend.

But then one dark Sunday morning, even her friends can’t help piece together Saturday night. All Nina feels is a deep sense of shame, that something very bad has happened to her…"

Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - 1943

Many of my friends have told me about this book and it has been on my wishlist for ages. I finally made it. And I am glad I did. A young girl growing up in poverty loves reading. That might have been my story though we were never as poor as the Nolan family. Probably because my father didn't drink and brought the money home he earned through his regular job. But I can totally relate to Francie. How she came to love books and how they became her only friends sometimes. Books are always there for you.

I could also understand Francie's mother Katie, how she tried to save some pennies in order to get food onto the table. It must have been so hard for her.

Francie lived a hundred years ago but her message lives on and is still as valid now as it was back then. With an education, we can get out of the deepest holes.

This book is well written, from the point of view of a girl growing up but with a very adult understanding. It makes you think about life and its meaning.

In any case, I could relate to Francie so well that I just had to love this book. I would have loved to read this when I was young.

From the back cover:

"A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one. It cuts right to the heart of life ... If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience...  It is a poignant and deeply understanding story of childhood and family relationships. The Nolans lived in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from 1902 until 1919... Their daughter Francie and their son Neely knew more than their fair share of the privations and sufferings that are the lot of a great city's poor. Primarily this is Francie's book. She is a superb feat of characterization, an imaginative, alert, resourceful child. And Francie's growing up and beginnings of wisdom are the substance of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."

Vance, J.D. "Hillbilly Elegy"

Vance, J.D. "Hillbilly Elegy: a memoir of a family and culture in crisis" - 2016

This book was chosen as our latest book club book. After having read Arlie Russell Hochschild's "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right", I thought, not another book that tries to explain Donald Trump. I doubt that any book can ever explain why he was elected because I believe there is no real reason for him.

However, I would not call this a book that explains why people vote for someone like that, it is a book that tries to explain how you can get out of a life that gives you no chances. Because the author was just someone like that, he had a mother who was addicted, who ran from one man to the next and would neglect her children. If things got too bad, the grandmother would step in as I am sure many grandmothers do.

Yes, J.D. Vance made me understand those people better. I don't know a community like that in Europe, where you more or less are doomed when you come from a certain area, where the school doesn't do much to help you get out of your situation. It was interesting to read and I think every politician should read this, should try to give these kids a better chance in life.

An interesting view about a society most people know nothing about. And that includes myself and the other members of my book club.

We discussed this in our international book club in June 2017.

From the back cover:

"From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class.
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis - that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.

But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country."

Hawkins, Paula "The Girl on the Train"

Hawkins, Paula "The Girl on the Train" - 2015

Before I started reading this book, I wasn't sure whether I would like it or not. If I would have have to make a guess, I probably would have thought I might not like it.

So, I was quite surprised to find that I did like it. A lot, actually. I am NOT a fan of mysteries, thrillers, crime stories, chick lit, and this has a little of all of them. The girl on the train looks at the people in the gardens while she passes them by. It's interesting to see how much she can see from the short glances she gets. Makes you think whether you can spin a story from every glimpse you get from anybody's life.

Anyway, the story was well written, full of suspense (although it is easy to guess what happened but you are not a hundred percent sure). Rachel, the protagonist, leads a bad life, she's an unemployed alcoholic. The way her life is described makes you realize how empty such a life can be.

I wouldn't say this was the best book I read last year but it certainly had something.

From the back cover:

"Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.
UNTIL TODAY
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.
Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.
Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…"

O'Faolain, Nuala "Almost There"

O'Faolain, Nuala "Almost There: The Onward Journey of a Dublin Woman" - 2003

I love reading biographies, especially about interesting women, even if I don't really know them. So, I thought this might be an interesting read, the biography of an Irish woman writer.

However, I was disappointed. The writing wasn't all that great, the life not all that interesting, or at least she didn't succeed in persuading me that she had an interesting life or something worth mentioning. She's dragging on and on, retelling some stories from her life that, written like this, might be interesting to her family or people who know her closely but didn't really captivate me, my interest was not awakened. Neither in this book nor in the author. The ramblings of an unhappy woman.

All in all, I found the book pretty boring. I have another book of her on my TBR pile (My Dream of You), something a friend recommended. But I think it will take me quite a while until I tackle that.

From the back cover: "In 1996, a small Irish press approached Nuala O'Faolain, then a writer for the Irish Times newspaper, to publish a collection of her opinion columns. She offered to write an introduction to give the opinions a context - to explain the life experience that had shaped this Irish woman's views - and, convinced that none but a few diehard fans of the columns would ever see the book, she took the opportunity to interrogate herself, as fully and candidly as she could, as to what she had made of her life. But the introduction, the 'accidental memoir of a Dublin woman', was discovered, and 'Are You Somebody?' became an international bestseller. It launched a new life for its author at a time when she had long let go of expectations that anything could dislodge patterns of regret and solitude well fixed and too familiar.
Suddenly in mid-life there was the possibility of radical change. Whereas the memoir ended with its author reconciled to a peaceful if lonely future, now opportunities opened up, and there were thrilling choices to make - choices that forced her to address the question of how to live a better life herself and, therefore, of what makes any life better.
'Almost There' begins at the moment when O'Faolain's life began to change, and its both tells the story of life in the subtle, radical, and, above all, unforeseen renewal, and meditates on that story. It is on one level a tale of good fortune chasing out bad - of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative examination of one woman's experience of 'the crucible of middle age' - a time of life that faces in two directions, forging the shape of the years to come, and clarifying and solidifying one's relationships to friends and lovers (past and present), family and self.
Fiercely intelligent, hilarious, moving, generous, and full of surprises, this book is a crystalline reflections of a singular character, utterly engaged in life!"

Lamb, Wally "We are Water"

Lamb, Wally "We are Water" - 2013

I have only read four books by Wally Lamb so far but I can honestly say that he belongs to one of my favourite authors. He is not just a good writer, a writer who can only be admired for his talent, he manages to put so many different subjects into his stories, every single one could be a whole series. A friend mentioned that she has the feeling that he is talking to you rather than her reading his story. I think that is an excellently accurate description of the author and his writing. I also love how he goes back and forth between characters and time, thereby building up the suspension until you can hardly bare it anymore. Still, he does not confuse you with his writing, he makes it easy to follow the story. And it feels real, you feel included. That's why I love Wally Lamb. And he is one of the successful authors I've read from the beginning of his career.

This is a highly interesting story of a family full of secrets. Old secrets and new secrets. Secrets outside of the family and secrets inside. This is a very intense novel that brings up all kinds of emotions and fears. It is written from many aspects, most of the main characters have a possibility to describe their view of the story. We can see both sides of alcoholism, for example, of child abuse (not that anyone wants to defend the "other" side but it's interesting to see how these stories develop), of almost any negative side of our society, racism, prisons, drugs, anything you can imagine, it's in there. A family, mother, father, three children, all mostly successful in their jobs, looks nice from the outside. But Wally Lamb shows us the inside. Intriguing.

Now I only have one question: Mr. Lamb, when are you going to write your next book?

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Anna Oh, mother of three and successful artist, is picking out her wedding dress for the second time in her life. In the pretty, rustic town of Three Rivers Connecticut, where she raised her kids, Anna is preparing to marry Viveca, who is the opposite of her ex-husband in almost every way. But the wedding provokes very mixed reactions, opening a Pandora’s Box of toxic secrets – dark and painful truths which will change the family dynamic forever.
We are Water is a brilliant portrait of modern America, written by a beloved and bestselling author who tackles life's complex issues with his trademark humour, wisdom and compassion."

While looking up this book, I have learned that there is another fiction novel by Wally Lamb that I have not read (Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story) as well as two non-fiction books about women prisoners that I have not yet read. Will have to put them on my wishlist.

My reviews to his other books are here.

McCullers, Carson "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"

McCullers, Carson "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" - 1940

I have had this book on my wishlist ever since I first heard the title. It seems entrancing. A book worth reading. "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". What is it hunting? And why? Those are the first thoughts one has when hearing that phrase.

When I started reading the book, I learned that the author was just 23 when she wrote this, her first book. When I finished reading the book, all I could think was how on earth someone that young can have such profound understanding of the world, of the human race. What a gift this must be but also probably quite a burden.

This story is far from happy, as we can imagine by the title, I guess. There is a lot of despair in the novel. But also a lot of hope. And it teaches us, that even with the racism prevalent at the time, people are the same all over the world, no matter what colour their skin, what religion they follow or what their social or financial status is.

A wonderful book that makes you think a lot about the world and whether it has changed in the last hundred years. I don't think it has.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Carson McCullers was all of twenty-three when she published her first novel, 'The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'. She became an overnight literary sensation, and soon such authors as Tennessee Williams were calling her 'the greatest prose writer that the South [has] produced.' ...

'The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter' tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.
 
Richard Wright was astonished by McCullers's ability 'to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness.' Hers is a humanity that touches all who come to her work, whether for the first time or, as so many do, time and time again.

 'The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter' is Carson McCullers at her most compassionate, most enduring best."

Keyes, Marian "Rachel's Holiday"

Keyes, Marian "Rachel's Holiday" - 1998

Marian Keyes does not really represent the kind of author I would choose to read but I have read a few of those chick lits when I first started reading in English, somehow I thought they might be easier but they were so boring after the first ones … Nevertheless, I still had this book laying around and read it in some holidays a couple of years ago.

I was pleasantly surprised. A good book about rehabilitation and how an alcoholic is in constant denial. Rachel is entering rehab but she thinks she is going to have a great holiday. Well described, you can follow her "reasoning", her way of trying to deal or not deal with the situation. Interesting.

Book Description:

"'How did it end up like this? Twenty-seven, unemployed, mistaken for a drug addict, in a treatment centre in the back arse of nowhere with an empty Valium bottle in my knickers . . .'

Meet Rachel Walsh. She has a pair of size 8 feet and such a fondness for recreational drugs that her family has forked out the cash for a spell in Cloisters - Dublin's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic. She's only agreed to her incarceration because she's heard that rehab is wall-to-wall jacuzzis, gymnasiums and rock stars going tepid turkey - and it's about time she had a holiday.

But what Rachel doesn't count on are the toe-curling embarrassments heaped on her by family and group therapy, the dearth of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll - and missing Luke, her ex. What kind of a new start in life is this?"

Frazier, Charles "Nightwoods"

Frazier, Charles "Nightwoods" - 2011

After reading "Cold Mountain", I couldn't wait for the next book of this author. Nine years later, "Thirteen Moons" appeared and I was back at the beginning, couldn't wait for the next one. I am grateful that I didn't have to wait as long this time, though four years is quite a long time, as well.

"Nightwoods", a young woman has to look after her murdered sister's twins. Not a new plot. But - there is so much more to this story, and not just the beautiful description of Charles Frazier's beloved Appalachians. He manages to describe ordinary people's lives like nobody else. All his novels have been about completely different topics, at completely different times, and, yet, he makes you feel like you are "there" all the time. Brilliant.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"The extraordinary author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons returns with a dazzling new novel of suspense and love set in small-town North Carolina in the early 1960s.

Charles Frazier puts his remarkable gifts in the service of a lean, taut narrative while losing none of the transcendent prose, virtuosic storytelling, and insight into human nature that have made him one of the most beloved and celebrated authors in the world. Now, with his brilliant portrait of Luce, a young woman who inherits her murdered sister's troubled twins, Frazier has created his most memorable heroine.

Before the children, Luce was content with the reimbursements of the rich Appalachian landscape, choosing to live apart from the small community around her. But the coming of the children changes everything, cracking open her solitary life in difficult, hopeful, dangerous ways.

Charles Frazier is known for his historical literary odysseys, and for making figures in the past come vividly to life. Set in the twentieth century, Nightwoods resonates with the timelessness of a great work of art."

McCourt, Frank "'Tis: A Memoir"

McCourt, Frank "'Tis: A Memoir" - 1999

What happens after "Angela's Ashes"? Frank McCourt leaves Ireland and goes back to the States. We all know that he became a teacher and then wrote his book but haven't heard anything from the time in between.

This can be learned in Frank McCourt's second book, just as well written as the first one, also not always a happy time, after all, he is a poor immigrant with no education. And the road to a successful life is strewn with a lot of stones, stumble stones as well as stepping stones. That the author ends up successfully, is due more to some guardian angels as to his own good choice of the right kind of stones. But he is always confident, and I think that made him the man he was in the end.

I liked this book just as much as his first one and his third one "Teacher Man".

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"Frank McCourt continues his life story in the brilliant, bestselling sequel to the million-selling 'Angela's Ashes' .

'Angela's Ashes' was a publishing phenomenon. Frank McCourt's critically-acclaimed, lyrical memoir of his Limerick childhood won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics' Circle Award, the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award amongst others, and rapidly became a word-of-mouth bestseller topping all charts worldwide for over two years. It left readers and critics alike eager to hear more about Frank McCourt's incredible, poignant life. ''Tis' is the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant with rotten teeth, infected eyes and no formal education to brilliant raconteur and schoolteacher. Saved first by a straying priest, then by the Democratic party, then by the United States Army, then by New York University – which admitted him on a trial basis though he had no high school diploma – Frank had the same vulnerable but invincible spirit at nineteen that he had at eight and still has today. And ''Tis' is a tale of survival as vivid, harrowing, and hilarious as Angela's Ashes. Yet again, it is through the power of storytelling that Frank finds a life for himself. 'It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he’s done. McCourt proves himself one of the very best' (Newsweek). 'With ‘'Tis', McCourt blesses his readers with another chapter of his story, but as it closes, they will want still more."

Ashworth, Andrea "Once in a House on Fire"

Ashworth, Andrea "Once in a House on Fire" - 1999

I absolutely loved this book. The writing is just wonderful. You can imagine being there which is the best praise I can give to an author.

Andrea Ashworth describes her youth in a penniless household full of violence and other problems. Her depressive mother sends the family through a series of stepfathers, none of whom can be describe as "normal" family members.

I just admire Andrea for what she achieved despite all the problems she had and could have used as an excuse to fall into the same pattern as her mother did. I felt sorry for the mother at times, angry at others but then sorry again because I can see how you end up like her. She just didn't have any hope that anything could get better if she changed.

In any case, I can highly recommend this book. And no, I don't want to hear anything that would spoil my admiration for the book and the author, either.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"For Andrea Ashworth, home is not a place of comfort and solace, but of violence and fear. Her father died when she was five, leaving her close-knit, loving family to battle with poverty abuse and the long shadow of depression. But from the ashes of 1970s Manchester and the hardships of her coming-of-age in the late 1980s, Andrea finds the courage to rise...

Written with eye-opening honesty, rare beauty and intense power, Once in a House on Fire is a ground-breaking memoir, endearing in its humour and compassion, and life-affirming in its portrait of terrible circumstances triumphantly overcome."

Brontë, Anne "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"

Brontë, Anne "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" - 1848

I love classics. I think of all the Brontë novels, this is my favourite. It reminds me of Jane Austen, though in a different direction.

The novel is exciting from the beginning. The description of the mysterious woman moving into Wildfell Hall, the suspicious neighbours, the generous landlord ... everything is quite interesting already. Then she disappears and the mystery gets even bigger.

The style of the novel is extraordinary. Various authors of that time have used this way, describing the story through various narrators and therefore having the reader always know more than the protagonists.

I like that style. It must be hard for the author to change the writing style throughout the novel and not lose track of the story. But it's great for the reader. The suspension gets even higher. You feel for Gilbert but you feel even more for Helen and her little boy.

What a life those women had to lead. Am I glad I live in this time and age.

Even though she is less famous than her sister Charlotte and Emily, I still prefer this novel to "Jane Eyre" and definitely to "Wuthering Heights".

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful and sometimes violent novel of expectation, love, oppression, sin, religion and betrayal. It portrays the disintegration of the marriage of Helen Huntingdon, the mysterious ‘tenant’ of the title, and her dissolute, alcoholic husband. Defying convention, Helen leaves her husband to protect their young son from his father’s influence, and earns her own living as an artist. Whilst in hiding at Wildfell Hall, she encounters Gilbert Markham, who falls in love with her.

On its first publication in 1848, Anne Brontë’s second novel was criticised for being ‘coarse’ and ‘brutal’. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenges the social conventions of the early nineteenth century in a strong defence of women’s rights in the face of psychological abuse from their husbands."

Walls, Jeannette "The Glass Castle"

Walls, Jeannette "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" - 2005

What would you do if your childhood was more than extraordinary, when you tried everything to escape it and finally manage to get out? Jeannette Walls tells us her story, the story of her parents, her siblings and herself. From growing up on the street, never knowing whether they had anything to eat the next day, let alone finding a place to sleep to becoming a top journalist. That is an extremely long way and Jeanette Walls is able to describe this as if you'd been there. The account of a life both devastating, as well as encouraging.

Interesting.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"This is a startling memoir of a successful journalist's journey from the deserted and dusty mining towns of the American Southwest, to an antique filled apartment on Park Avenue. Jeanette Walls narrates her nomadic and adventurous childhood with her dreaming, 'brilliant' but alcoholic parents. At the age of seventeen she escapes on a Greyhound bus to New York with her older sister; her younger siblings follow later. After pursuing the education and civilisation her parents sought to escape, Jeanette eventually succeeds in her quest for the 'mundane, middle class existence' she had always craved. In her apartment, overlooked by 'a portrait of someone else's ancestor' she recounts poignant remembered images of star watching with her father, juxtaposed with recollections of irregular meals, accidents and police-car chases and reveals her complex feelings of shame, guilt, pity and pride toward her parents."

McCourt, Frank "Angela's Ashes"

McCourt, Frank "Angela's Ashes" - 1996

I read this book ages ago, with my first book club in the UK. A wonderful autobiography, so vivid. And miserable. What a miserable life. Tolstoy starts "Anna Karenina" with: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Frank McCourt even adds to this: "Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood." Now, this family has a very miserable childhood and Frank McCourt has a talent describing it, unbelievable. You ask yourself how people can live like that. An alcoholic father, sick children, no job, no money, no food.

But there is also hope in this book, and Frank McCourt is the best proof to that. Despite his miserable childhood, he managed to become a teacher and then a Pulitzer Price winning author.

We discussed this in our British Book Club in June 1999.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"Stunning reissue of the phenomenal worldwide bestseller: Frank McCourt's sad, funny, bittersweet memoir of growing up in New York in the 30s and in Ireland in the 40s.

It is a story of extreme hardship and suffering, in Brooklyn tenements and Limerick slums – too many children, too little money, his mother Angela barely coping as his father Malachy's drinking bouts constantly brings the family to the brink of disaster. It is a story of courage and survival against apparently overwhelming odds.

Written with the vitality and resonance of a work of fiction, and with a remarkable absence of sentimentality, ‘Angela’s Ashes’ is imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's distinctive humour and compassion. Out of terrible circumstances, he has created a glorious book in the tradition of Ireland's literary masters, which bears all the marks of a great classic."

His second book  "'Tis" tells us about his life in the US and his third "Teacher Man" about his life as a teacher..

Frank McCourt received a Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography in 1997.

Frazier, Charles "Cold Mountain"

Frazier, Charles "Cold Mountain" - 1997

"Based on local history and family stories passed down by the author's great-great-grandfather, Cold Mountain is the tale of a wounded soldier Inman, who walks away from the ravages of the war and back home to his prewar sweetheart, Ada. Inman's odyssey through the devastated landscape of the soon-to-be-defeated South interweaves with Ada's struggle to revive her father's farm, with the help of an intrepid young drifter named Ruby. As their long-separated lives begin to converge at the close of the war, Inman and Ada confront the vastly transformed world they've been delivered."

I have read this book twice, the first time with my British book club when it was just published and then again when the movie came out and I wanted to get into it again before watching it. I was not happy with the ending the first time round, well, I didn't really get it but the second time it made sense and I liked it better.

This is a book about the American Civil War, about love, struggles in bad times, companionship. But it doesn't just show the life of people during the Civil War, it seems to be a never ending description of life. I think it is a great novel that will live on and be read for generations.

All in all, "Cold Mountain" fantastic, the movie was very good, too, I rarely say that after I read a book, really worth watching, whether you've read the book or not.

This was his book about the Civil War, his second book "Thirteen Moons", dates earlier, it has a lot about the Indians (or Native Americans as they are called now but in the book they were called Indians because that was the term at the time). I love reading any books that bring history or other cultures into my life, I can really recommend his books.

We discussed this in our British Book Club in February 2000.

I have read the next book by this extraordinary author. "Nightwoods". Charles Frazier is amazing.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.