A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

We have all heard the expression "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade" but Amor Towles takes this idea to the maximum in his novel A Gentleman in Moscow.  The story centers around Count Alexander Rostov a privileged, aristocrat in 1922 Moscow during the Bolshevik revolution.  Unable to establish a crime worthy of the death sentence (as was the case with many of the aristocrats of this era), the tribunal court sentenced the count to house arrest for life in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin.  The count who had never worked a day in his life and who had never really thought of anyone or anything except his pleasures, was suddenly faced with endless days of nothing.  The novel cleverly, humorously reveals the life that the count creates during the 30 years that he lives in the Metropol.  He found a real life with real people who worked in the hotel and who became his "family."  This family circle includes the irrepressible young Nina who shows the count that the whole world is inside the hotel if you just know where to look.  This young girl and later her daughter help the count gain a deeper connection to life and to what it means to love and protect and to have a real purpose in life.  If you read and enjoyed The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, you will love this gentleman.  He is charming and so is this book.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

    Love and marriage are tried and true plot lines for writers.  Telling a story about two people who meet, fall in love, marry and then weather the storms of their lives generates a tale that is often a blending of truths from the two people involved.  Lauren Groff in her novel, Fates and Furies, takes a much different approach to telling about the love and marriage of Lancelot (Lotto) and Mathilde.  This story is told through two entirely separate sections.  Lotto's story of love and life with Mathilde is found in the "fates" half of the book.  Lotto, the charming, handsome, wealthy young man who glides through life with ease is madly in love with his wife and lives in supremely blissful ignorance of any real problem.  Chance and "magic" take care of most of Lotto's success and he floats along, happy and content.  The second section, "furies," is a counterbalance to Lotto.  In this section Mathilde reveals many truths that Lotto never knew or never acknowledged about his wife and their life together.  Mathilde is much darker, much more filled with needs for revenge and retribution toward most of the people in her life except for Lotto.  These two damaged souls found each other and lived happily together in a kind of crazy dance on a ledge.  Lotto did not realize the danger he was so close to and Mathilde kept the demons at bay for Lotto's sake.  This is not a typical "marriage" story but perhaps that was Groff's plan, She says through Mathilde, "she was so tired of the old ways of telling stories, all those worn narrative plots...she needed something messier...something like a bomb going off."  This is not a feel good, pat yourself on the back, happy marriage book.  It is a beautifully written, thought provoking work that leaves readers with more questions than answers.  Kind of like real life.

These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

Growing up and watching shows like "Little House on the Prairie" I remember thinking I would never have survived that life.  Just cooking or doing the laundry looked like a monumental undertaking and this was a television show!  Undoubtedly, the reality of life as a settler or homesteader was certainly more difficult and intense than anything Hollywood could dream up.  Nancy Turner gave us just such a story in her novel These Is My Words a semi-biographical retelling of her relative Sarah Prine.  Based on the diary Sarah wrote between the years of 1881-1901 the life of this extraordinary young woman was given to us in her own words.  The tale begins as Sarah and her family traveled across the southern regions of the Arizona territory seeking a new life.  The trials they faced were daunting to say the least--Indian attacks, harsh weather, wild and dangerous animals, criminal and amoral men and few if any friendly people were their reality.  The resilience of Sarah is the heart of the story.  We watch her grow from a backwards girl to an entrepreneurial frontier woman.  She taught herself through reading any book she could find and was eventually able to earn the equivalence of a high school degree.  She created a business that allowed her to buy land and cattle and eventually a luxurious life for the time.  She protected her family fiercely and earned the respect of all those she encountered and the love of a rugged, Army captain.  Sarah's life was not easy, but she met it with enthusiasm and determination and she never bowed down to forces that could easily have caused her give up or break down.  I truly admired this pioneer woman.  She is the woman I would want to be if I had lived in this wild, untamed time in our country.

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf

Loneliness is something we have all felt at one time or another in our lives, but usually it is a short term condition.  But as we get older the likelihood of finding ourselves alone becomes more of a reality.  We would all like to have a quick, surefire fix to this problem, but it is not that easy.  When we find ourselves without a partner or a confidant we sometimes face a soul wrenching loneliness that seems to have no solution or end.  Kent Haruf in his last novel, Our Souls at Night, writes of this very situation in the lives of his character, Addie and Lewis.  Both of their spouses have passed away and they have been alone for some years.  In an act of sheer determination to change her life and a kind of defiance of cultural norms, Addie suggest to Lewis that they change their plight, that they choose not to be alone.  She ask him to come to her house and sleep with her every night so that they would not have to face those long, dark hours by themselves.  This decision sets into motion the plot of this story.  The happiness that grows between the characters is wonderful to see.  The healing that it brings to their lives and to others with whom they interact (like Ruth the elderly neighbor and Jamie, Addie's grandson) make for warm feelings and uplifted souls.  Unfortunately, Haruf's novel also highlights the realities of dealing with adult children and family dynamics.  The outcome of these conflicts in the story leave readers amazed by the cruelty of people who have inflexible ideas of how people should act as they age regardless of their desires or their happiness. The ending of this novel is not what most would want it to be, however, it is interesting to note that as Haruf was finishing the novel his wife persuaded him to soften the ending to some extent.  We readers are left with some hope.  Interestingly, Haruf wrote this novel in a few short months after being diagnosed with terminal cancer; it seems this book was his parting message to those he left behind.  We are lucky to have this last piece from a prominent America writer to remind us of what we should stand firm for as we age.  Happiness is a gift that is not to be taken lightly or put aside just because it might not be what others' preconceived ideas demand.  Time is short so we must "seize the day."

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

Most people's lives run a normal course.  We move through our youth with normal growing pains but nothing too overwhelming.  We walk through adulthood with trials and strains, but generally with little tragedy that is unexpected.  We reach our senior years and reflect back on our lives and for the most part feel a sense of satisfaction and even pride in our achievements.  We know, however, that not every life unfolds without problems.  Some people have tragic stories to tell.  Mary Lawson's, Crow Lake,  is such a tragic tale.  What began as a normal childhood is shattered into near chaos for Kate, the narrator of the novel.  When Kate is 7 years old her parents are killed in a car accident and she and her three sibling's life path is forever altered.  The story of Kate's life is framed by her two brothers and her baby sister but also by her small Canadian farm community.  Kate's trauma colors her every decision.  She clings desperately to her brother, Matt, and bases her life choices on her belief in the grand plan that Matt designed for their lives. Unfortunately, when this "plan" falls apart, Kate pulls away from her family believing that she can never truly connect with them again because they have all been left behind in their small world and she has gone on to earn an education and position in the outside world.  In the end she discovers that her life and her family's lives have actually become "normal" despite the trauma of their early years.  The tragedy of their youth did not in the end destroy them. Life has a way of working out the problems that seem to be insurmountable.  Lawson deftly draws us to the realization that we can make the choice to accept the ups and downs that we encounter, that we can find joy in our circumstances and that we can love the time we have with our loved ones instead of struggling to find answers to questions that will certainly confront us.  It seems in the end, she wants us to choose happiness and let go of what we cannot control.  Good advice for us all!

Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides, is a love story, but it is not a love story that leaves the reader feeling a "warm chocolate and wine" coziness at the happy ending.  Nothing could be further from the outcome of the characters of this novel.  Narrated by Tom Wingo, a "normal" southern gentleman, we are led slowly through the twisted, painful lives of the three Wingo children.  Raised by an abusive father and a devious, self-absorbed mother, the three Wingos spiral toward their damaged adult lives with little to protect them from their upbringing.  Tom reveals their traumatic lives through alternating scenes that flashback to childhood memories and his sessions with his sister, Savannah's, psychiatrist Dr. Lowenstein.  Readers will be horrified by the grisly rape of Tom, Savannah and their mother by escaped convicts and by the senseless shooting of their brother, Luke, after his pointless attempt to stand up against the government take over of their island home and town.  It is Tom's decision to reveal the "secrets" that have been buried for so long that finally allows him some healing.  It is also this revelation that bonds him to Lowenstein and opens the door to true love and  their affair.  But there is no typical happy ending for this story.  Tom decides he cannot stay with Lowenstein but that he must return to his wife and children in order to create a new narrative for the Wingo family.  He chooses to stay true to his southern roots and the values that he so strongly believes in.  In the end their is some healing for these broken people.  Given all the drama of the storyline, it is amazing that in reality Conroy's writing style is the true star of this book.  He adds so much detail that the reader can virtually smell the salty low-country marshes; we can feel the love/hate relationships held by mother and son; we can understand Tom's need to forego his love for Lowenstein and return to his family.  This was a beautifully written book that sweeps you along in it poetic prose and makes you long for more. 

Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

It seems when people are at their lowest points, they look for and find a hero to lift their spirits and take their minds off their own hardships.  We seem to be overrun with superheroes currently.  Marvel comics is a growing industry; the world it seems is in dire straights and needs to be rescued, maybe from itself.  Throughout our country's history, we have had many threatening events but the one that still connects to us is the Great Depression of 1929.  Even though we did not live through this time period, our parents and grandparents did and we felt their pain and witnessed their fear in all likelihood.  During this critical time there were many well know heroes especially in sports.  People have long remembered such heroes as those in baseball or boxing and even an Olympic hero, Jesse Owens.  Daniel Brown in his book Boys in the Boat, has revealed the little known story of the eight man rowing team from Washington University who, against all odds, won the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in German.  These young men clearly embodied the rise of the underdog to vanquish insurmountable foes.  They were never seen as the standard within the rowing community that for the most part was reserved for the elite of the Iv y league schools.  Not only did these eight men beat the beat America had to offer, but they defeated the furor's team which represented the white, pure Arian race of the Germany of WWII.  Brown did a masterful job of integrating the story of the Washington team into a fact filled explanation of German preparation for the 1936 Olympics where their intent was to show Germany as a progressive, modern world leader.  Brown obviously was inspired by the story of this rowing team and as often. happens, in telling this tale, he inspired us with real life heroes to be sure.