Fiction – Page 7 – …on the B.L.

The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay

November 7, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read No
Length 383
Quick Review A group of people are magically transported to another realm, which is in the middle of a war.

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My best friend loves Guy Gavriel Kay’s writing. He has been bugging me for about a decade to read one of his books, so finally I did. The Summer Tree was an obvious place to start because it’s the beginning of the Fionavar Tapestry series. Much to the dismay of my best friend, I hated it. Genuinely. The story is interesting, but the writing is horrible. I don’t know where the editor was, but they weren’t doing their job with this one.

Five acquaintances are whisked away to Fionavar for a celebration by magical beings. They accidentally find themselves at the center of a war spanning many lands. The plot is inventive but not necessarily original.

The Summer Tree dives right into the action. Often times, this is a great way of making the reader keep reading. Kay made a grave mistake in having the action begin immediately: there was no emotional investment in the characters. All this stuff was happening to them, and I had no interest or connection to them. Why should I care? They were flat and uninteresting. They are underdeveloped, which does not allow readers to connect with them or even for the characters to connect with each other.

I’m all for fantasy. It’s not my usual genre, but I do love Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. From Kay’s writing style in The Summer Tree, it’s evident he also admires Tolkien. He was trying for a Tolkienesque narrative but had problems carrying it out throughout the novel. On top of that, his descriptions are overly flowery but lack any concrete imagery. The dialogues are clunky and do not feel like anything real people would say to other real people. Kay tends to foreshadow often in a give-it-away style. Simultaneously, he does not explain things at all. Maybe, he’s leaving those mysteries to be spelled out in the other books, but it just feels riddled with plot holes. One of the most irritating aspects of the narrative was Kay’s repetition. I love repetition. It’s an amazing literary device, but he just does not do it well. I think he was trying to be poetic, but came across like he was suffering from short term memory loss.

One of my biggest issues with the book is Kay’s inability to write compelling women. I question if he’s ever talked to a woman. He has no idea how to create female characters with interesting emotions and motivations. There are also bits of odd sexual torture; they are abrupt and make absolutely zero sense. As a rape survivor, it was offense and insensitive. More importantly than that, it was unrealistic. Fantasy or not, sexual violence should make sense and be done in a way that mimics reality.

Kay tries for an epic on the same level of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Lewis’ Narnia, or Martin’s Westeros, but it echoes hollow. An idea with a lot of promise but a deficient execution. The Summer Tree does not have the emotional wallop an epic requires.

Memorable Quotes
I found no memorable quotes because the writing was painful to read.

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Title: The Summer Tree
Author: Guy Gavriel Kay
Publisher: Roc
Copyright: 1984
ISBN: 9780451458223

Books, Fiction

You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld

November 6, 2019November 6, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth a Read Yes
Length 256
Quick Review A collection of short stories chronicling and eviscerating characters navigating everyday problems of the modern era and socioeconomic status, gender, and love.

You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld | Dress | Earrings | Basket | Watch | Flower Crown

You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld in a basket of flowers.

Curtis Sittenfeld is one of my favorite authors; I have several of her novels sitting on my bookshelves – only one is unread. I came upon her writing in The New Yorker a few years ago, and I have been a huge fan ever since. In my opinion, she is one of the best contemporary writers. There is no hesitation in her stories to put words to thoughts, emotions, and judgements just about everyone can identify with. Her short story collection, You Think It, I’ll Say It, is no different.

I was familiar with one of the stories in the book because The Prairie Wife had previously been published in The New Yorker, but that didn’t stop me from reading it again.

Every story is told from the first person perspective. Sittenfeld has the ability to really bring the reader into the mindset of the character in that moment of their lives without having to spell everything or give an overwhelming amount of backstory. There is a rare artistry in the way she portrays each person with their own way of speaking, thinking, and processing the situations they find themselves in. Every story and character is a critique on the modern world and society; in one way or another, there is an essence of You Think It, I’ll Say It.

Sittenfeld tackles the subjects of marriage, emotional infidelity, class, education, gender roles, sex, finances, and so much more. Each story creates a picture of what living in today’s world looks like and our unique ability to silently watch and judge the entire world’s actions from the comfort of our own homes.

Relationships are at the center of You Think It, I’ll Say It, whether they are romantic or platonic relationships. Relationships are at the center of being human. Sittenfeld has no problem completely eviscerating her characters, their choices, and their motivations. It’s entertaining to read, but is entirely all too relatable.

I really loved reading this collection of short stories. They’re beautifully told. Perfect for the moments you don’t have time to emotionally invest yourself in a novel, but you want something engaging and thought provoking. You Think It, I’ll Say It has everything I want in fiction.

Memorable Quotes
“It’s not that she’s unaware that she’s an elitist asshole. She’s aware! She’s just powerless not to be one.”
“It turned out that simply by celebrating this particular birthday, I’d crossed some border of nonconformity, and while I still could – can – turn around, retrace my steps, and assume citizenship in the nation of wedlock, the expectation seems to be that I won’t.”

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Title: You Think It, I’ll Say It
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780525508700

Books, Fiction

Home for Erring and Outcast Girls by Julie Kibler

October 3, 2019October 3, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read Yes
Length 400
Quick Review A librarian stumbles across a puzzling part of history in the Berachah Home, where erring girls went for a fresh start.

Reading Home for Erring and Outcast Girls by Julie Kibler in downtown Houston. | Dress | Belt | Earrings | Watch | Sunglasses

Home for Erring and Outcast Girls by Julie Kibler is a much better novel than I expected to encounter. There are so many ways Kibler could have gone wrong, but she didn’t. Diving into complex women’s issues and how society dealt with the women in question paralleled by a century of “change.” Based on a real house in rural Texas serving real women, Kibler builds a world full of sorrow and empathy.

In 2017, Cate is a librarian working in a Texas University Library’s archives and becomes fascinated looking through documentation of the Berachah home after stumbling upon a cemetery in 2017. She has a penchant for running and running away; she lives a solitary life aside from making a connection with one of her student workers. Dealing with a mysterious past, flashbacks to 1998 as a highschooler slowly reveal insight into her troubled past. In 1904, Lizzie Bates, Docie, and Mattie Corder are escaping the evils of a patriarchal society by finding refuge in the Berachah Home for Erring and Outcast Girls. They find solace surrounded by religion and other fallen women and their children as they are taught skills to fend for themselves.

Kibler touches on everything from drugs to rape to incest to abuse and more in this raw historical fiction about loss and friendship. Home for Erring and Outcast Girls drives home the fact that women take a backseat to men, always. Their plans. Their dreams. Their reputations. Their futures. This has been a truth for the majority of societies for as long as history can document. As much as things are changing, much remains the same. Including Cate, as a contemporary woman, shows the parallel between the two eras and how little has changed for women. How little choice there is.

The Berachah Home really did exist outside of Arlington, Texas and was founded by James and Maggie Upchurch. They had a revolutionary idea to keep the children with their mothers. At the time, mother’s were separated from their children without a choice, more often than not, when the children were born out of wedlock. There are real excerpt from The Purity Journal, which went out to graduates of the home and donors.

Abuse is a central point in Home for Erring and Outcast Girls. Kibler makes a beautiful statement I and many other survivors of abuse, loss, abandonment, addiction, rape, assault, and more have felt: “Or how I maybe didn’t fight hard enough, or say no the right way, or at the right times.” Guilt and shame are a raw undercurrent in this book about being helpless and reclaiming an identity in the after. Everyone survives their own hell, but so many of the emotions and recovery processes are the similar.

Religion is a character in its own right in this novel. It plays a role of savior but also demon. Kibler is not afraid to show the church in the light of benefactor and evil doer depending on the point of view of the character. Religion is not one size fits all, and everyone has different experiences. Even in the most positive of lights, the church do not do right by women. Women are often depicted as temptresses “because churches, in general, are still bastions of judgement masquerading as refugees of grace and acceptance.”

I was utterly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Julie Kibler captured my interest and respect with her cutting and insightful novel Home for Erring and Outcast Girls.

Memorable Quotes
“A room filled with people can be lonelier than solitude.”
“Her ma had done what she must to survive, and that was how it was for women.”
“It was always the man who took what he wanted, and the woman who lost everything.”
“Devastation was a pain you thought would never go away, and sometimes it didn’t.”

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Title: Home for Erring and Outcast Girls
Author: Julie Kibler
Publisher: Crown
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780451499332

Books, Fiction

The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis

October 1, 2019September 30, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read Meh
Length 289
Quick Review The Barbizon is now condos but used to house hundreds of girls looking to make it in NYC. What happens when the lives of a long-time resident and new resident collide?

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The Barbizon really did exist as a women’s only residence in New York City. In 2005, the building was converted into condominiums. Fiona Davis creates a world where the two identities of the Barbizon meet in her novel The Dollhouse. A mystery with a touch of love and a lot of independent women searching for belonging.

Rose, a journalist, lives in the Barbizon with her boyfriend in 2016. Her boyfriend decides to go back to his ex-wife, Rose is left with a lot of time on her hands and a curiosity about the women who have been in her building for decades. Darby, an elderly tenant, never leaves her apartment without a veil, and the mystery piques Roses interest. Models, night clubs, drug raids, friendship, and more. Rose is on a journalist’s hunt with a personal investment.

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Davis crafts the plot of The Dollhouse well. The chapters alternate between following Rose in 2016 and Darby in 1952. There is restraint in the story telling and tries to add some good twists, but I found the plot fairly predictable.

Overall The Dollhouse maintains a nice pace throughout the story and avoids clichés until the last five pages when she throws a good book in the toilet. I actually did not mind this one at all, but the last bit just ruined it for me. Davis does a good job maintaining a consistent and interesting pace, but the ending comes quickly and suddenly. It’s as if her editor asked her to wrap everything up with a nice bow and throw the love story completely out of proportion with the rest of the story. It was saccharine and a little vomit inducing how spoonfed it was. What was an interesting story about finding oneself and relationships between women ended up being a deflated mess of an ooey-gooey love story.

If I could erase the last five pages, I would like The Dollhouse much better. I’m trying not to let the ending overpower the other nice 200 or so pages, but I can’t.

Memorable Quotes
“His eyes, which were the color of seawater, had a laserlike intensity that made politics the obvious career choice. That or terrorist interrogator.”
“Not scared of change, like Darby was, but scared of staying put, staying unchanged.”

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Title: The Dollhouse
Author: Fiona Davis
Publisher: Dutton
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9781101984994

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Books, Fiction

The Travelers by Regina Porter

August 30, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read Definitely
Length 320
Quick Review Starting with a bang, Porter dives into America’s past and complex issues with racism, classism, feminism, and all the other -isms as two families intermingle from the 1950’s to the last years of Obama’s presidency.

Reading *The Travelers* by Regina Porter in Old Town Spring, Texas. | Dress | Watch |

Regina Porter knows how to write. Her skill is on full display from the very beginning of The Travelers. This is an impressive piece of literature in and of itself, but the fact it is her debut makes it even more momentous. Simultaneously concise and epic, Porter packs a punch with every character and plot line. A story that is sure to leave an impression on anyone who picks it up.

With a huge cast of characters, The Travelers does its readers a favor by including a cast and familial context before the intricately woven plot begins. Convenient for reminding myself who’s who in the milieu without having to backtrack, I appreciated it..

Porter dives into the plot and complexities of relationships and humans search for answers with “When the boy was four, he asked his father why people needed sleep. His father said, “So God could unfuck all the things people fuck up.”” Two sentences. A striking way to start a novel that lives up to and surpasses the promise of its first impression. Spanning seven decades, The Travelers explores the realities of living in the United States through a variety of lenses and eras as two families come together.

This is not an easy book to read. It challenges readers to follow along a journey mired by stark realities. As chapters change so does the perspective, characters, era, setting, style, and tone. It’s a chameleon of a novel; changing drastically to fit the characters, situations, and times. There are no good characters or bad. Although, there are a few who fall much further on the wrong side of bad. Flaws and brilliance are present in each character. Instead of relying on tropes, The Travelers snapshots people’s lives to depict the greater faults in American society not just historically but currently.

People are not one thing. They are not just black. Just white. Just gay. Just rich. Just a father. Just an anything. Being human means being many things all at the same time and experiencing events in very unique and personal ways. We walk through life as a culmination of all our identities and experiences commingling simultaneously. Porter does not dilute her characters. They are not just white, mentally ill, black, veteran, sister, mixed, lover, poor, victim, straight, abuser, rich, gay, etc. She allows them to be many things concurrently.

The real triumph in The Travelers is Porter’s resistance to explain. She does not water down her stories or characters or layers by telling the reader how to perceive it. She lets it play out and leaves it. She has a straightforward yet nuanced way of writing. As in life; she allows the reader to infer and interpret what happens outside the line of sight. Readers are used to having a degree of omniscience, but Porter doesn’t allow this.

As a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence, Porter delivers one of the most believable literary sexual abuse encounters I’ve encountered. I admire her dedication to tackling often misunderstood and misrepresented atrocities with sincerity and tact. It’s a hard line to walk, and she does it well.

This is good Literature. With a capital L. The Iowa Writers’ Workshop has a reputation for excellence. It has earned this reputation because Regina Porter and writers of this caliber called it home for a time. It is an incredible program, and I’m not just saying so because I grew up in Iowa.

The Travelers is one of the most affecting contemporary novels I have encountered.

Memorable Quotes
“You can’t see the end in the beginning. So play it safe and get the beginning right.”
“But we inherit it. Don’t you want to know what makes them tick?”

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Title: The Travelers
Author: Regina Porter
Publisher: Hogarth
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780525576198

Books, Fiction

The Farm by Joanne Ramos

August 13, 2019August 12, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth a Read Yes
Length 336
Quick Review Golden Oaks is a gilded cage for the very wealthy to know their babies are getting the best of everything including surrogates.

Reading The Farm by Joanne Ramos in Jacksonville, North Carolina. | Dress | Shoes | Sunglasses

Cover of The Farm by Joanne Ramos. | Dress |

The Farm is Joanne Ramos’ debut novel. Ramos balances the outlandish and the painfully possible reality the near future could hold for privileged and not-so-privileged parts of society.

Golden Oaks is a place where young, healthy, pretty, desperate-for-money women go to be Hosts for lavishly wealthy Clients in want of a baby or three. Located a few hours outside of New York City, it couldn’t be a safer or more beautiful place for a baby to grow under the watchful eye of trained health professionals looking after every aspect of the baby and the Host. Women of all colors, backgrounds, and ethnicities are hosts at Golden Oaks, which is not-so-lovingly referred to as The Farm by many of the Hosts.

The story follows four women from vastly different backgrounds. Mae is an American of Asian descent who manages Golden Oaks. Jane is a Filipino immigrant trying to support her daughter. Ate is Jane’s older, Filipino, immigrant cousin who nannies for upper class New York families. Reagan is a young, wealthy, white woman trying to make enough money to support her art career without her father’s money and control. The Farm dives into socioeconomic diversity and driving forces behind poverty, emigration, and choices women make based solely on need.

Ramos fills The Farm with interesting plots and characters. There is a 1984 Big Brother kind of feel to the novel that is simultaneously overtly creepy yet almost comforting. Though, the plot has a happier rather than completely realistic ending, there are very realistic aspects and problems to Golden Oaks that ground the plot in human emotion and complexity. Ramos doesn’t simplify difficult concepts nor does she try to explain them. She tells a story about motivation, poverty, and womanhood allowing the reader to take away what they will.

The quote “Sometimes a person has no choice but hard choices…” is incredibly insightful and the entire point of The Farm. Though simple in concept, it can be hard for people who have never experienced that kind of desperation to understand what women will do when their backs are against a wall looking into the mouth of a hippo.

The Farm is heartbreaking and infuriating. Joanne Ramos’ has quite a literary career ahead of her if this is what she brings to the table with her debut novel.

Memorable Quotes
“But babies are stronger than people think, and smarter.”
“the monumental efforts taken to make Clients feel food about outsourcing their pregnancies.”
“As if being a good girl and being strong willed were in conflict.”

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Title: The Farm
Author: Joanne Ramos
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9781984853752