The Shadows in the Street

 

The Shadows in the Street by Susan Hill

Simon Serrailler #5

Mystery

2010 Chatto & Windus

Finished on October 22, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

Simon Serrailler has just wrapped up a particularly exhausting and difficult case for SIFT – Special Incident Flying Taskforce – and is on a sabbatical on a Scottish island when he is recalled to Lafferton. Two local prostitutes have vanished and are subsequently found strangled. By the time he gets back, another girl has disappeared. Is this a vendetta against prostitutes by someone with a warped mind? Or a series of killings by an angry punter? But then one of the Cathedral wives goes missing, followed by another young married woman, on her way to work.

Serrailler follows lead after lead, all of which become dead-ends. The fear is that more women will be killed, and that the murderer is right under their noses; meanwhile the public grow more angry and afraid. It is only through a piece of luck, a chance meeting and a life put in grave danger that he finally gets a result…

Susan Hill has a genius for evoking atmosphere and suspense, and her characters are so real that the reader is caught up not only in the mystery but in the drama of their lives.

It's been ten years since I read this fifth installment in the Serrailler series, but after a decade, most of the details were long forgotten. I thought it was very good, and almost gave it the same rating as I did in 2013, but in comparison to some recent 4.5/5 reads, it wasn't quite as good so I bumped it down to an even 4-star rating. I don't have much new to add to my original review, so I'll simply share that below. 

2013 Review (4.5/5):

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery, which kept me on the edge of my seat (and reading late into the night) for most of the second half. Hill kept me guessing and it was only at the very end that I finally sorted out the clues, threw out the red herrings, and worked out the identity of the killer. I rarely ever read a series out of order, but I had this book in my stacks and decided to give it a try without realizing there were four others leading up to this one. My only complaint is that the lack of substantial backstory forced me to flip back and forth between the early chapters, trying to piece together the relationships among the main characters. The introduction of new characters throughout the mystery also added to my confusion, making me stop and question their importance to the narrative. As I’ve discovered in other crime novels I’ve recently read (especially those set specifically in Great Britain and Ireland), I came upon quite a few abbreviations (PC, DCD, DI, DS, DCS, DCI, CID, OIOC), but eventually was able to sort them out, pretty much in time to realize their lack of importance. However, initially their presence disrupted the flow of the narrative. I guess that’s more than one complaint, but they’re very minor quibbles and I’m quite anxious to read the other titles in this series, as well Hill’s stand-alones.

On life after loss:

Ordinary things, Cat thought gratefully. Washing up the coffee cups. Making a lamb stew. Chopping vegetables. Ordinary life. That’s what saves us.

Final Thoughts: Susan Hill, where have you been all my life?! I loved this mystery! Readers who enjoy Tana French and Mo Hayder will likely concur.

2023 Additional Thoughts:

Of course, now that I've read the earlier books in the series, I'm familiar with the main cast of characters and wasn't confused by their relationships or the lack of backstory. An extensive backstory would have revealed too much should someone read the books out of order, as I did originally. I'm very happy that there are seven more books in this series (as well as four novellas) to look forward to. 

Fellowship Point

 

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark

Fiction

2022 Marysue Rucci Books

Finished on October 10, 2023

Rating: 5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy—to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels; and even more consuming, to permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly.

Polly Wister has led a different kind of life than Agnes: that of a well-off married woman with children, defined by her devotion to her husband, a philosophy professor with an inflated sense of stature. She strives to create beauty and harmony in her home, in her friendships, and in her family. Polly soon finds her loyalties torn between the wishes of her best friend and the wishes of her three sons—but what is it that Polly wants herself?

Agnes’s designs are further muddied when an enterprising young book editor named Maud Silver sets out to convince Agnes to write her memoirs. Agnes’s resistance cannot prevent long-buried memories and secrets from coming to light with far-reaching repercussions for all.

It's been a couple of weeks since I finished reading this marvelous novel, and while it took me over three weeks to read, I'm still thinking about Agnes, Polly, and Maud, wishing I could return to Fellowship Point and their stories. Fellowship Point is a literary work with a strong sense of place and unforgettable characters. It took me several chapters before I was fully immersed in the story (and I didn't care for a few of the men), but I loved the friendship (80 years long!) between Agnes & Polly. Friends and neighbors their entire lives, this is an epic friendship, though not without its faults...

I guessed one of the plot twists, but not most significant one, which was a lovely surprise and almost had me shouting, "No way!" Alice Elliott Dark is a new-to-me author, and I plan to jump into her backlist as soon as possible with hopes for a new novel in the coming years.  

Some random passages that spoke to me:

Rarely did she have to compromise for anyone, a privilege she did not take for granted and refused to squander. She was eighty, but she had not slowed down. Just the opposite. Her remaining work was urgent, and she was well aware of working alongside the specter of the unknown moment of her last breath.

and

The world through the looking glass, the parallel universe where life is as it should be, so close to us yet impenetrable except when we accept the graces and the love offered to us. What I have learned is the grace and love are offered all the time, in every new moment, at every glimpse of the sky, or dawn of a day that has never before existed, or squirrel skittering along a branch, or a conversation with a sister or a friend, or the sense of time suspended when reading a good book. We are free, always, to accept what is offered; it is we who don't recognize this. This is our free will. The result is what we call our experience, which in turn forms our beliefs. There are a lot of bad ideas in the world. I have less and less patience with any ideas at all. Animals, flowers, the sea. Friends. Children. Art. The end.

Is it too soon for a second reading? Perhaps on audio? Fellowship Point may just be my favorite book of 2023.

I have to include this photo from my neighborhood. It reminds me so much of the cover art for Fellowship Point!

A Month in Summary - September 2023

Strait of Georgia

Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

September 2023

We are currently on the road, or should I say we're on "Van Isle" as the locals call Vancouver Island. We began our trip two weeks ago and are currently in Nanaimo for the next few days. We've been to Victoria, Saanichton, Campbell River, Telegraph Cove, Black Creek, as well as a few spots in Oregon and Washington. We have two more weeks of fun as we head over to the western side of the island, then down to Port Townsend and the Seattle area before we head home. This trip has checked several items from my bucket list, most notably: three black bear sightings (across a small river from us!), more humpback whales than you could count, and two orcas! I also saw four eagles and several kingfishers, but those weren't new-to-me sightings; just fun. I also conquered my fear of driving our 26' motorhome onto the Black Ball Ferry, which took us from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia. Thank goodness for the awesome parking crew who helped guide me into our space on the ferry!

I haven't done much reading while we're exploring the island, but I am enjoying another big novel and should finish in the next week or so. I had another wonderful month of reading before we left Oregon, wrapping up a very long audiobook that turned out to be a great listening experience. I also read two new novels that I can recommend highly. 

Books Read (click on the title for my review):

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton (5/5)

Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur (4.5/5)

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (4/5)

Good Harbor by Anita Diamant (3/5)

DNFs:

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Movies & TV Series:

The Fall - Starts out very dark and disturbing, but I'm glad we stuck with it through the end of the third (and final) season. The conclusion was somewhat anticlimactic, but overall a very good show.

Visitors:

Pippa, Nathan, Mom and Meghan

Ana and Mark

Proud Moment:

Our daughter, who is a fashion influencer (Fashion Jackson), launched her clothing line on September 7th! We couldn't be more proud of all she's achieved in the past decade. You can read more about the launch here and check out the latest arrivals on the website (MAYSON the label ).

Travels:

As mentioned, we are currently on another road trip through Canada. I'll blog about in the coming months, but for now, here are some highlights from our trip.

Victoria, B.C.

Telegraph Cove, B.C.

Prince of Whales excursion

Sunrise over the Strait of Georgia

My favorite travel companion

For more photos of our journey, follow me on Instagram.

Good Harbor

Good Harbor by Anita Diamant

Fiction

2001 Scribner

Finished on September 15, 2023

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Anita Diamant, whose rich portrayal of the biblical world of women illuminated her acclaimed international bestseller The Red Tent, now crafts a moving novel of contemporary female friendship.

Good Harbor is the long stretch of Cape Ann beach where two women friends walk and talk, sharing their personal histories and learning life's lessons from each other. Kathleen Levine, a longtime resident of Gloucester, Massachusetts, is maternal and steady, a devoted children's librarian, a convert to Judaism, and mother to two grown sons. When her serene life is thrown into turmoil by a diagnosis of breast cancer at fifty-nine, painful past secrets emerge and she desperately needs a friend. Forty-two-year-old Joyce Tabachnik is a sharp-witted freelance writer who is also at a fragile point in her life. She's come to Gloucester to follow her literary aspirations, but realizes that her husband and young daughter are becoming increasingly distant. Together, Kathleen and Joyce forge a once-in-a-lifetime bond and help each other to confront scars left by old emotional wounds.

I decided to pull this one off my shelf and give it a second reading. Cancer, infidelity, and books are the main themes and while I zipped through it quickly, it's not one that's going back in my permanent collection. I read this in 2001 and wrote a short post about it here.

20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge Results - 2023

 

I love the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge and this summer was the fourth year that I've participated. I like to wait until the fall equinox (September 23rd) rather than Labor Day to finish up the challenge, giving myself three extra weeks to complete my goals, but we had visitors this past weekend, followed by a month-long road trip that began a couple of days ago. So, I decided that I better wrap it up now before life gets busier!

This year I chose 20 novels, many of which have been in my stacks for well over a decade. I had so many DNF'd titles in this collection, but it's nice to have finally sampled them and cleared them off my shelves. I had high hopes for a few, but I started those shortly after reading Tom Lake, which may have set up any book for failure. 

In addition to the books on my original list, I added a few others, including a couple of audiobooks. I wound up reading 16 books (see image below), but gave up on a dozen. Overall, I'm very pleased with my results. I won't link to each review (they're all available on this blog), but here are the final ratings:

Three 5-star books

Four 4.5-star books

Five 4-star books

One 3.5-star book

Two 3-star books

One 2-star books

For past posts (and results) about this challenge, click here. 

Lonesome Dove

 

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Fiction - Western

2017 Phoenix Books (first published in 1985)

Narrated by Lee Horsley

Finished on September 14, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize­–winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember. 

I finally did it! I read Lonesome Dove! 

As mentioned in the publisher's blurb, Lonesome Dove has a little bit of everything: cowboys, horse thieves, Indians, whores, ranchers, and two former Texas Rangers, not to mention gunfights, snake bites, dust storms, grasshoppers, and blizzards. It took a long time before I got hooked (well over my usual 100 pages cut-off point), but I stuck with it since so many readers have raved about this book. (My sister-in-law has encouraged me for at least two decades to read the saga.) I listened to the audio for over 5 weeks (it runs just shy of 37 hours!) and was happy when I finally got to the point in which I started looking forward to my daily listen, eager to find out what adventures were in store for Gus, Call, and the Hat Creek Outfit. 

Lee Horsley does a fine job with the audio narration of Larry McMurtry's epic, although I was a little put off by Horsley's reading during the first hour or so; once he stopped breathing directly into the microphone, I could enjoy his vocal characterizations of each individual. While some listeners have complained about the volume Horsley uses for Gus McCrae's character, I didn't mind his loud voice, which reminded me of Calamity Jane's voice in the HBO series, Deadwood. It's all just part of Gus's colorful personality.

Westerns are not my usual choice of fiction, and I can only think of four that I've read in the genre: Whiskey When We're Dry (John Larison), All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy), News of the World (Paulette Jiles), and These Is My Words (Nancy Turner), all of which I loved. I might consider reading the other books in McMurtry's tetralogy, but I'd just as soon re-read Lonesome Dove, it was that entertaining. I laughed out loud and felt sad when lives were lost. It will be a long time before I forget Gus, Call, Newt, Lippy, Dish, Pea Eye, Lorie, and Clara. Now to watch the miniseries. 

Highly recommend.

Little Monsters

 

Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur

Fiction

2023 Avid Reader Press

Finished on September 11, 2023

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the author of the bestselling memoir Wild Game comes a riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families, and long-buried secrets—for fans of the New York Times bestsellers The Paper Palace and Ask Again, Yes .

Ken and Abby Gardner lost their mother when they were small and they have been haunted by her absence ever since. Their father, Adam, a brilliant oceanographer, raised them mostly on his own in his remote home on Cape Cod, where the attachment between Ken and Abby deepened into something complicated—and as adults their relationship is strained. Now, years later, the siblings’ lives are still deeply entwined. Ken is a successful businessman with political ambitions and a picture-perfect family and Abby is a talented visual artist who depends on her brother’s goodwill, in part because he owns the studio where she lives and works.

As the novel opens, Adam is approaching his seventieth birthday, staring down his mortality and fading relevance. He has always managed his bipolar disorder with medication, but he’s determined to make one last scientific breakthrough and so he has secretly stopped taking his pills, which he knows will infuriate his children. Meanwhile, Abby and Ken are both harboring secrets of their own, and there is a new person on the periphery of the family—Steph, who doesn’t make her connection known. As Adam grows more attuned to the frequencies of the deep sea and less so to the people around him, Ken and Abby each plan the elaborate gifts they will present to their father on his birthday, jostling for primacy in this small family unit.

Set in the fraught summer of 2016, and drawing on the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, Little Monsters is an absorbing, sharply observed family story by a writer who knows Cape Cod inside and out—its Edenic lushness and its snakes.

I was not familiar with Adrienne Brodeur when I saw an Instagram post about her new novel, Little Monsters, but something about that review piqued my interest. I've always been drawn to family dramas and this one did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, I spent the past two nights reading long after my normal bedtime, never once feeling sleepy, and finishing the book at 5 a.m. this morning. I can't remember the last time I stayed up all night reading a book! Brodeur's attention to detail and lyrical prose makes me wish she had an extensive backlist in which I could immerse myself. The setting is magical and the characters are mostly likeable. I never warmed to Ken or Adam, but I wanted more of Abby, Jenny and Steph; maybe a sequel centered around the young cousins and their relationships could be equally entertaining. 

For those who have read and enjoyed The Arrivals (Meg Mitchell Moore), The Most Fun We Ever Had (Claire Lombardo), Signal Fires (Dani Shapiro), Commonwealth (Ann Patchett), or The Children's Crusade (Ann Packer), this one's for you! Highly recommend.

The Light Pirate

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

Fiction

2022 Grand Central Publishing

Finished on September 3, 2023

Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding)

Publisher's Blurb:

Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels gradually wreak havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker; his pregnant wife, Frida; and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds to search for them. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before.

As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature.

Told in four parts—power, water, light, and time—The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness. 

Imagine a time when it is literally too hot to go outside during daylight hours. If you do, your core body temperature will rise so quickly, you will suffer from heat exhaustion within minutes and die. Nocturnal life becomes the norm for survival.

Imagine a year in which there are so many hurricanes that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) goes through the entire alphabet, only to start over again before the end of the "season."

Imagine the disappearance of Miami-Dade County, the Outer Banks, and other coastal cities, all preceded by a mass exodus of residents to safer locations where they endure perpetual wildfires in their new communities.

These calamities are not difficult to imagine. One just needs to read the news and know how close we are coming to creating the above into realities. The following  headline was published in the New York Times on Labor Day:

In a typical Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, August is the ramp-up to September’s peak. This season came to life almost overnight in mid-August, producing a record four named storms in less than 48 hours. [Emphasis mine]

I also read this in The New York Times earlier this month:

More than any past year, this summer felt like the moment that climate change came for the vacationer. It began with heat waves across Southern Europe, where popular attractions closed to avoid the intolerable midafternoon temperatures. The infernal heat cured the kindling for wildfires, which were soon raging in Italy, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece and elsewhere, forcing holiday cancellations and, as in the case of Rhodes, large-scale evacuations. On the other side of the world, another fire, this one likely supercharged by hurricane winds, consumed Lahaina on Maui, killing at least 115 people.

Hail as big as tennis balls pounded towns in northern Italy. Torrential rain triggered flash floods across Central Europe. All of this wild weather has coincided with tourism’s great rebound, the year when tourist numbers are expected to recover to prepandemic levels.

and

There are few contingencies in motion for when the weather in today’s most popular destinations becomes a bane rather than a blessing. Many people are speculating that European summer travel patterns are bound to migrate north as prospective vacationers deem an increasing likelihood of sustained 110-degree Fahrenheit temperatures too much to bear. Uncanny sights like the ghostly hotel towers of Varosha, a once-glamorous resort in Cyprus that was abandoned after the Turkish invasion of 1974, may become commonplace across Europe’s southern coasts.

The gravity of the climate crisis should not be lost on readers of The Light Pirate, a novel so timely and smartly written, it should be required reading not only of high school students, but all citizens of this planet. Cli-fi is a new-to-me genre, but unlike its sister Sci-fi, it's far too realistic and terrifying, the imminent threat all too near and not to be ignored. As Kirby, one of the main characters, believes:

This world is worried, of course, about climbing temperatures and vengeful wildfires and rising tides. The headlines are absolutely terrible[...]. Incessant. Exhausting. But they're just that. Headlines. Things that happen to other people, elsewhere. The Middle East, Indonesia, Northern California, the Bahamas: those poor people. Southern Florida and the Keys, Louisiana, Puerto Rico: those poor people. The safe zones have shrunk, will go on shrinking, but the people still firmly attached to the idea that there will continue to be such lines--between safe and not safe, between us and those poor people--are determined to go on as they always have.

and

By the time Kirby reaches the parking lot, he realizes that he's known for weeks. Months, even. It was the same with the beaches. The same with the floods, the hurricanes, the sea level. Didn't he know all of this was coming? Didn't everyone? They've known for years. Decades. It didn't make any difference. None at all. Because now it's here and despite all that knowing, he's lost. Everyone is. They had all hung their hats on the question of proximity. Yes, it will be bad, they said to one another, but we have years. We have time. Somehow we'll solve this along the way. He doesn't even have the energy to be angry. 

I'm not a fan of magical realism, but I was willing to suspend disbelief and just go with it. The occurences are not a distraction and, truthfully, I enjoyed those parts of the story. Don't let that label dissuade you from reading this powerful book!

Thought-provoking is a hackneyed term, but I can't think of a better descriptor for The Light Pirate. It's a gripping read from the opening lines, easing up before the halfway point, but never losing momentum or growing sluggish. I haven't read a lot of climate fiction, but Ash Davidson's debut novel, Damnation Spring (an environmental story set in the California redwood forests) came to mind as I read Brooks-Dalton's provocative, cautionary tale. 

I loved this novel, which is so beautifully written with well-drawn characters I hated to say goodbye to. I couldn't put it down! The Light Pirate is one to own, to share with others, to discuss in book groups, and to inspire all of us to do more to save our planet. Highly recommend.

A Month in Summary - August 2023

Little Whale Cove

Depoe Bay, Oregon

August 2023

Glancing back at my calendar, August was a crazy busy month, with only a couple of days when we had nothing going on. We had three families visiting from California, Colorado, and Texas (not all at the same time!), and we enjoyed meeting a couple of the youngest of those visitors for the first time. The weather couldn't have been nicer; lots of sunshine and comfortable temps so we were able to sit outside on our back deck. It doesn't always rain in Oregon, ya know. :) Actually, we had a much needed rain shower last night, which was lovely. It's been a very dry summer! However, I'm hoping the weather will continue to be nice for our upcoming trip to Canada. 

I'm wrapping up my Summer Reading Challenge this weekend and will get a separate post up for that later next week. As far as August goes, I had a really good month of reading. My favorite book was Tom Lake, but there are four others that were also very good. I gave up on a few books that I started shortly after I finished Tom Lake, and maybe I didn't give those a fair chance, but they were too light and predictable, and didn't hold my interest.

Books Read (click on the title for my review):

The Downstairs Neighbor by Helen Cooper (4/5)

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (4.5/5)

The Windsor Knot by SJ Bennett (4/5)

Our Town by Thornton Wilder (3/5)

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (5/5)

The Vows of Silence by Susan Hill (4.5/5)

Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan (2/5)

Gave Up On:

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

How to Walk Away by Katherine Center

Movies & TV Series:

The Valhalla Murders - Terrible dubbing, but not bad. "An Oslo detective with a painful past returns to his native Iceland to help a police officer hunt for a serial killer with a link to a mysterious photograph."

The Bear - Very good! I'm currently watching Season Two and will be sorry when I'm caught up. I loved the episode with a guest appearance from Olivia Coleman. (Every Second Counts. IYKYK.)

Barbie - First movie I've seen in a theater in several years. I went with a group of friends (with low expectations), and while I didn't love it, there was plenty to discuss about women's roles in history, which led to a discussion about the upcoming presidential election and women's rights.

The Fall (Season One) - Disturbing! After watching the first episode, we realized we'd already watched the first season of this series, but didn't remember enough so we decided to continue watching. The psychological thriller examines the lives of two hunters -- one is a serial killer who preys on victims in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the other is a female detective drafted from the London Metropolitan Police to catch him. 

National Theater Live: Fleabag - I went with some friends to see this production at our local performing arts center, in spite of the fact that I've never watched Fleabag. In preparation for the show, I did watch the first episode, just to familiarize myself with the character. Unfortunately, all four of us were disappointed with Phoebe Waller-Bridge's solo theater performance. "Fleabag is a rip-roaring look at some sort of woman living her sort of life. She may seem oversexed, emotionally unfiltered, and self-obsessed, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. With family and friendships under strain and a guinea pig café struggling to keep afloat, Fleabag suddenly finds herself with nothing to lose."

We had a lovely time before the show at Local Oceans, a great seafood restaurant in Newport. Their grilled halibut and peaches are a seasonal favorite.

In the Dark - This BBC program has only four episodes, which is nice since sometimes we don't feel like getting sucked into a long, drawn-out show.

Visitors:

Quinn, Heather and Cora

Heather, Cora, Quinn, Mom, Alison and Brian

Dulcie, Sylvie, Mom, Alison and Brian

Vivie and Emie

Corynn, Vivie, Linda, Mom, Emie and Ryan

Mom and Mark

As I mentioned earlier, we are heading out on another road trip in mid-October. We plan to explore the eastern side of Vancouver Island, beginning and ending with a few days near Victoria. I'm hoping to start blogging about our recent trip to Canada this past summer, but until then, you can checkout my posts about last year's trip to Glacier National Park. I would love to go back there someday, but there are so many other places to visit first.

Happy reading!

Looking Back - Spilling Clarence

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Spilling Clarence by Anne Ursu

Fiction

2002 Hyperion

Finished on January 25, 2002

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

What if you could suddenly remember everything that ever happened in your life Would it be a blessing -- or a curse

The answer is found in Spilling Clarence, a satisfying, witty, romantic, and tender novel. In the fictional town of Clarence, Minnesota, a breakroom microwave sparks a smoky fire at the pharmaceutical factory and triggers a massive chemical spill. Panic-stricken and paralyzed, the townspeople wait until the all-clear signal to assure them everything's back to normal. Except that it isn't. Over the coming days, the citizens of Clarence fall under the spell of a strange and powerful drug that unlocks their memories. They become trapped by their own reminiscences: of love and death, of war and childhood, of family they've lost and sins they've committed.

Beautifully rendered with a light comic touch, this bittersweet first novel is about more than the sum of its beguiling parts. It's about the need to remember, and about the bliss of forgetting. A universe peopled by exquisitely drawn characters, Spilling Clarence is a funny, moving story with a truly original premise that introduces the impressive talents of an exciting new writer.

My Original Thoughts (2002):

Read most of this on my day off. The first few pages grabbed my attention as the narrative moved to a chain bookstore called Davis & Dean (remineding me of B&N and Borders). A father and daughter are enjoying their Friday afternoon ritual of visiting the bookstore when a psychopharmaceutical factory has an accident and a memory-enhancing drug is released into the air of small college town named Clarence. Bernie, a widower, teaches at the college. His nine-year-old daughter is precocious, but likeable. Somewhat predictable, but very suspenseful. A hint of Stephen King's stories. 

The voice in the first half of the book was annoying. Almost a "tell-it-like-it-is" that felt abrupt and choppy. The narrator seems to address the reader as someone describing a made-for-tv movie. But, thankfully, the second half is almost void of this "style."

My Current Thoughts:

I no longer have a copy of this debut novel, but I remember that I enjoyed it quite well.