The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

Wow, wow, wow, wow and wow!!  There are few books that stop me in my tracks and cause me to really think about who I am and what I believe about the human race and our treatment of each other, but Sarah Blake’s The Guest Book did just that and more.  As a former English teacher, I often come across books that I believe would be great novels to read and discuss and write about, and Blake’s book is one in that catagory for sure.  The interesting thing about this book is that there are so many themes, so many great characters, so many social issues I would hardly know where to begin if I tried to use it in a class.  There are at least 7 characters who are deserving of in depth discussion.  These characters are so real it is easy to find yourself thinking about them long after you put the book down wondering if you are like them or how you would react to them if you met them face to face.  Likewise, there are so many social issues that beg for illumination and exam.  The rise of Nazi Germany, capitalism, racism, class distinctions, sexuality are all integrated into this story of three generations and are all handled with a deft hand by the author.  And certainly there are themes such as feminism, family dynamics, and racial inequality that are ageless and which demand discussion and reflection.  This book was not one that I would describe as an easy read.  The author spent eight years writing it and clearly it was a act of love.  I was struck many times by the way Blake interweaves three different generations within one page of writing.  Truly a magnificently drawn story.  This is the book I will recommend throughout this year.  Great read!!

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Tamari Jones’ book, An American Marriage, is certainly about marriage, but it is so much more than that relationships are difficult and expectations are often not met.  The central characters, Roy and Celestial, are a young married couple struggling with many of the typical issues of young, upwardly mobile people trying to negotiate normal problems with money, jobs, insecurities and infidelities.  Their difficulties are compounded by the fact that they are a black couple tackling the social injustices that are abundant and real.  Supported by their strong parents, this couple would appear to have everything they need to make it to their goal of prosperity and success.  Unfortunately, the planned life never happens for Roy and Celestial.  On one ill fated night while staying at a roadside motel, Roy is falsely identified as the man that raped another guest.  Wrongly accused, Roy was tried and sentenced to prison.  For five years Roy languishes in jail waiting for the truth to be found out.  Celestial works tirelessly to get Roy’s sentence overturned, but she also continues on her path to a successful career through her art.  Happily she succeeds but at a cost.  She draws further and further away from Roy who spirals farther and farther into the stereotypical role of a convict.
This story is heartbreaking on so many levels.  This vibrant couple is broken by Roy’s conviction even though they both know, he is innocent.  Roy is broken at least in that he loses his sense of determination and optimism about what his life could be.  But to me the biggest loss is to the reader who is forced to face the reality of the plight of many people who are denied the benefits most of us take for granted. This is a disturbing snapshot of lives forever changed simply because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.  This novel has a satisfying ending, but it certainly is not happily ever after.

The Story of Arthur Trulov by Elizabeth Berg

  Maybe The Beatles had it right after all.....”All we need is love!”  It certainly appears Elizabeth Berg believes this to be a universal truth as it is a central theme in her novel, The Story of Arthur Trulov.  Berg quietly but beautifully details “love” in different forms allowing the reader to come to their own revelations or understandings.  The story centers around Arthur an elderly widower and Maddy a lonely, love starved teen.  The two meet in an unlikely way when they strike up a conversation in the cemetery where Arthur visits his deceased wife’s grave every day and Maddy hides out when she cannot face school or the taunts of her classmates.  Both characters are searching for a way to deal with the loneliness with which they live.  Their friendship is unconventional, but it is lovely to watch develop.  We appreciate that they come into the relationship with an open mind and accept and enjoy each other as they are.  Juxtaposed to this unique relationship are the other characters in the novel who demonstrate the more negative attitudes of “love.”  Maddy’s father we learn has been remote and unreachable her whole life and it seems this is due to the debilitating loss he has lived with since her mother was killed in an accident when Maddy was just a baby.  It is clear he truly loved his wife, but the loss of that love broke him and as a result nearly broke Maddy.  Arthur’s neighbor, Louise, demonstrates another extreme of lost first love and the consequences of the loss that have shaped her entire life. Fortunately, the author gives us a beautiful picture of “true love” with Arthur and Nola and it this picture that makes all the difference to Maddy.  This is a lovely story and one that warms you from the inside out.  These are characters you want to know and would love to spend more time with just to feel the warmth and joy that their love brings.  If you enjoyed A Man Called Ove, then you will love The Story of Arthur Trulov.  If you cling to the hope that love is all you really need, then this book is made for you.

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner

  Yes, this is another book about WWII but  The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner is developed in a much different way than others I have read.  The story begins when we meet our elderly narrator, Elise, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, a disease she personifies and refers to as her childhood nemesis “Agnes”.  However, if not for “Agnes”, Elise would not have been given the iPad to help her remember people and contacts and without the iPad she would not have learned that a Google search would find people anywhere in the world and if not for the search she would not have found Mariko her oldest and dearest childhood friend.  Memories of Mariko have been a constant throughout Elise’s long life, but more so now that “Agnes” had come to steal everything that was important, especially her memories. Elise realized that if she was ever going to see Mariko again, she needed to go find her now before Agnes destroyed her ability to do so.  Finding Mariko, even if it meant traveling across the country, was the only thing Elise could think to do in order to fill this hole in her life story.  Seeing Mariko and finishing their “book” would allow Elise to feel that her life was complete and that it had meaning.  Of course, this journey would not easily be accomplished.  Elise was old and she was not well and she was sure to be thwarted by “Agnes”.   Even with all these obstacles, Elise was determined and so her quest begins.
  Traveling to California, Elise’s memories of childhood emerge.  We learn she was born and raised in Iowa where her father had come to work after leaving Germany as a young man. There she was living the life of any ordinary American teenager when WWII began.  But this conflict was far away and nothing that really impacted her life.  All this changed suddenly when the FBI agents arrived at her home and arrested her father after accusing him of being a German spy.  Nothing could have been further from the truth, but much like with Japanese Americans, German immigrants and their families living in the USA were shunned and in some cases sent to internment camps without trials or even to chance to defend themselves.  Elise and her family were eventually sent to the internment camp at Crystal City, Texas and it was there that she met Mariko and they became best friends.
  The story about these two teenagers and their ordeal in the internment camp is eye opening and disturbing because we learn that the families in this camp were not released at the end of the war but instead were exchanged for prisoners of war being held in the parent’s home country. This country was Germany in Elise’s case, a country she had visited once, knew little about and that was nearly destroyed by the war. The reality was that these American girls were sent to foreign countries to survive the devastation of the war even though they were born in America and were citizens here. This piece of US history is not one that makes me proud even though I understand that the fear that permeated the time brought on decisions that can only be seen as cruel in hindsight and that would not normally have been tolerated.
  This story within a story is a unique look at WWII; it is engaging and and informative, but more than anything it is a story of friendship and redemption and one that reinforces the idea that regardless of time and distance and even people who make terrible decisions, life will find a way and the heart will find its home.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Quirky characters are not always able to win you over even though you may feel their pain or understand their “quirkiness.”  That is not the case with Eleanor Oliphant.  This anti-social, anti-fashion, anti-political correctness girl is so extremely out in left field you celebrate her. The debut novel of Gail Honeyman slowly and carefully reveals to us the twists and tangles of Eleanor’s life which has been anything but easy.  Raised by a cruel, vindictive mother whose abuse was relentless and dangerous, Eleanor has determined that complete withdrawal from people is the safest path to take.  Other than her daily sojourns to work, she is completely cutoff from people and that is the way she prefers it.  Naturally, this changes when she is thrown into a commitment to help a coworker in caring for an older man who they rescue after a fall in the middle of the road.  The relationships that form between Eleanor and the old man and Raymond, the geeky computer guy from work, are hilarious and heart wrenching at the same time.  Throw into this forced change in Eleanor’s life the surprise encounter with “the man of her dreams” and the plot ‘thickens” to say the least.  This is a wonderful story showing that maybe the world is not such a bad place, maybe there is a reason to reach out and connect with others and maybe the pain of our childhood does not need to control us forever.  Eleanor Oliphant was not completely fine but who among us really is.  Eleanor Oliphant is completely charming and well on the road to being just wonderful.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

If you lived through the 60’s and 70’s and were even mildly aware of the rock ‘n roll revolution, or if you can recall the screaming masses of Beatle fans and even more importantly Woodstock, you are the perfect person to read Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  Having only watched this explosion of “sex, drugs and rock’n roll” from the safety of Indiana, I was only minimally aware of the culture that surrounded the bands that ruled the rock scene, but even I knew that these groups were big and loud and somehow living a life that was on the edge and more “dangerous” than mine or my friends by a long shot.  Add to this music history tour a vivid description of the life of an up and coming band on the road including the groupies and the roadies and you can see that this life was fast and fun and exhausting all at the same time.  But maybe more interesting was the in-depth demonstration of how the music was created in the first place, how the genius of a musician was often magnified by the input of a partner and then refined by the music producers and technicians and you can see the brilliance of Taylor Reid’s novel.  While reading you may find yourself Googling information about this fictitious band.  The Six seem so real; Daisy Jones reminds you so much of a real lead singer that you listened to and knew so well in your youth.  All this may seem entirely enough for a really good book, but on top of this Reid added a compelling love story triangle and a twist ending.  Really, this book is a great one for your summer read.  Turn up the music and enjoy.

Sold On Monday by Kristina McMorris

If you have ever read or heard of  the book The Orphan Train or your children read one of the series books in elementary school, you understand the premise of Sold On Monday by Kristina McMorris.  The twist in this novel is that the children who are shown in a newspaper article dramatizing the extreme plight of many families during the Depression were not really for sale.  They just happened to be in wrong place at the right time and were used by a young reporter determined to get his byline into his newspaper.  The story was well received and the reporter was moving up in the news business when he discovered that his picture had unintentionally caused the “sale” of two children.  The reporter’s guilt over using a “fake” picture for his article propels him into a search for the brother and sister in order to return them to their mother and to correct his egregious mistake. At first glance upon finding the two children, the reporter feels relieved because their new home is obviously with a wealthy, upclass family and their lives appear to be much improved.  Fortunately, a friend working at the newspaper badgers the reporter into further investigation of the family because she refuses to leave the kids knowing their mother wants them back.  It was at this point in the narrative that the twists and turns become very melodramatic and cliche.  Knowing that there are true stories of depression era “orphans” who suffered through painful “adoptions,” made this book seem a bit soap operalike and contrived to me. However, if you enjoy stories of moral redemption with a love story added in and then a happy ending, this book is one you will like. A true to history book would have been more satisfying personally (even though I was relieved to have a happy ending!) but this book has been heralded by many critics as one of the new books of 2019 that readers will not want to miss.