Manhattan Beach by Jenifer Egan

Pulitzer prize winner Jennifer Egan is credited with employing original, stylized literary forms in her writing.  While this is significant and makes her writing stand out, in her latest novel, Manhattan Beach, the stream of consciousness and over packed story lines makes the book difficult and unnecessarily burdened with many plotlines that are not needed or helpful to the main themes. The list of the many story lines includes those involving gangsters, union workers, deep sea divers, undeveloped love interests, handicapped children, and disappearing parents.   The main characters, Anna, Stiles, Eddie, Dexter, and Charlie's trials were sometimes fully developed but often we are left with questions as to why the character said or did what they did. There were a good number of unexplained connections between characters also.  Was Anna in love with Stiles? Was she a good woman or was she somehow damaged? Did Eddie turn on Dexter because he had a change of heart about what was right and wrong?  All of this detracted from the important themes that Egan included.  The main story line of Anna fighting against the male dominated world was engaging because she managed to become an underwater diver working during the war repairing ships.  The number of female characters that "played the game" to survive or to avoid social  backlash was significant and demonstrated the plight that the women faced every day.  This theme alone was enough to build the story around, but Egan also included the rampant attitudes of racial inequality and aversion to physical handicaps showing the  painful results of these prejudices that seemed to be the norm during this time in our history.  Perhaps the most important theme for Egan is the almost existential idea of "time" that has its way with all of us.  We all may try to fight the good fight; we may struggle tirelessly to change our lives.  We may believe we can reconcile our lives but in the end we all sink slowly into the unknowable dark when we die.  "Time" is the looming hazard that we all face and that we all fail to concur.  This novel was gloomy and left the reader with a sense of futility.  Well written but dark.

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

I grew up listening to stories detailing my parents lives during the depression years.  They told unbelievable tales of having little food, being grateful for hand me down clothes, and of working multiple odd jobs and then giving the money earned to their parents in support of the family as a whole.  Even as desperately poor as my parents were their lives really were not as horrible as many.  In Lisa Wingate's novel, Before We Were Yours, we see that the trauma felt by many children of the depression was almost unbearable and the depravity of some adults was beyond evil.  Wingate incorporates the real life orphanage director, Georgia Tann, into her historical fiction.  Hailed as a visionary philanthropist, Tann in fact kidnapped children from poor desperate families and "sold" them to people who longed for children for but were unable to have them on their own.  Large sums of money was given to Tann,  some in the form of blackmail after she placed a child.  Before We Were Yours is told through two viewpoints.  The first narrator, Avery, comes from a wealthy, political family with deep southern roots and years of social service.  This family works at being upstanding and beyond reproach.  The second narrator is Rill a depression river rat, who we discover is one of the stolen children in Georgia Tann's network.  Wingate tells us the story of these two women and their families with careful intertwining narratives that unravel a mystery filled with unexpected connections and surprising decisions made to protect the innocent.  This is a really satisfying read.  The characters are sympathetic,  the choices they made are understandable and the informative backstory is really unbelievably heart wrenching.  None of us can ever really understand the affect the Depression had on the people who lived through it, but we can appreciate the resiliency of those who came through it and lived a full and productive life.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

In Kristin Hannah's new novel, The Great Alone, readers watch helplessly as the Allbright family (Ernt, Cora and Leni) breakdown and disintegrate into their catastrophic and dysfunctional end. Sadly, the parents in this family of three were crippled by the PTSD Ernt, the father, suffers from after returning from Vietnam and a POW camp.  Paranoid and dangerous, Ernt decides to move the family to Alaska to live off the grid.  Desperate to appease Ernt, Cora and Leni follow blindly to furthest reaches of Alaska because as Cora says, "you don't stop loving someone when they're hurt."  Unfortunately, Ernt had no help or support in the wilderness and he slowly spiraled totally out of control.  Mama and Leni bore the brunt of his violence and survived their first years in the outback primarily because of the kindness of the small community of people who lived nearby.  Remarkably, Leni and her mother learned to survive in the harsh environment and they even came to love Alaska.  Called the Great Alone, this natural wilderness area showed itself to be terrible and beautiful, turbulent and grand.  Likewise, Leni's life demonstrated unbelievable highs and lows as she grapples her way to adulthood.  Somehow, she managed to traverse the minefield of her life while finding love and community.  This book is not without its problems.  There is a "too pat" ending that somehow puts a rosy top on the horrific events that fill the novel.  But regardless of the Greek tragedy/Romeo and Juliet storyline the ending leaves you with a sense of satisfaction and even a bit of awe with regard to the resilient characters who survive the Great Alone.

The Immortalist by Chloe Benjamin

Would you want to know the date of your death?  Would it propel you to action or freeze you with fear?  Would you love more generously or isolate yourself from others?  Chloe Benjamin in her novel, The Immortalist, opens these questions and more in her examination of the four Gold siblings.  A slow unwinding of each of their lives reveals the impact of the prophecy given to them by the traveling "seer" when they were just children.  Simon, the youngest, throws caution to the wind and embarks on an all out hedonistic search for physical pleasure and experiences.  Klara, with her fierce determination to succeed as a magician, finds life a precarious balancing act that she does not really want to endure.  Daniel, who becomes an army doctor sacrifices self in his efforts to "save" as many soldiers as he can.  And lastly, Varya the eldest, spends her life in pursuit of longevity enhancements for humanity through her research and studies.  Each of the Gold's probe into the unanswerable questions we all face.  What in our life is destined and what is our choice?  What power does our mind have over our life?  Will we succumb to our own fears or can we succeed against all odds?  Do we need connections with family and friends or do we suffer more for having them?  Readers are left with more questions than answers, and yet there were moments of memorable and thought provoking descriptions of love and family and life.  This is not a "light" read but it was interesting and brought out much to be discussed.

The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

Over the last few years we have been given the wonderful gift of great books about WWII driven by female heroines. We met strong women who fought against they evil they faced in the dark world and who enlightened us and inspired us to believer we too could be more than we ever thought possible  Jessica Shattuck tells a female driven story of WWII with a much different perspective.  He novel, The Women in the Castle, is historical fiction but it is grounded in truth.  Shattuck researched her book for seven years, but it really was a  lifetime in the making.  One of her three main female characters, Ania, is based on Shattuck's grandmother who was in reality a Nazi, a true believer in Hitler's youth movement and propaganda.  The other two women who we follow are reflective of "real" Germans also.  Marianne is the owner of the castle and is the strong moral backbone of the resistance population in Gernany and Benita is the poor but beautiful farm girl who just wants to escape her dreadful reality which traps her in a life of poverty.  Over the years, Shattuck realized that the Germans she knew were not able to or willing to answer such basic questions as, "Did you not know what was happening? or Were you not seeing what Hitler was doing?"  Using these three characters with totally different connections to the Nazi regime, we are given a realistic portrayal of what German people really saw and accepted and why they reacted as they did.  This book does not in any way excuse the horrific acts of Hitler and his followers, but it does give a viable explanation of the actions of the everyday Germans.  When we ask ourselves "How could they do that?" Shattuck seems to say "Walk in their shoes before you judge."  This was a really eye opening book.  The storyline was interesting and complicated but truly enlightening.

Small Great Things

Jodi Picoult has adopted as her preferred style the moral dilemma format for her novels. She has tackled many issues from abortion to organ donations.  Picoult clearly sees American racism as a compelling social issue in her novel Small Great Things. She opens this piece acknowledging her position as "white and class privileged." The author realizes she may not be up to the challenges of this issue.  She begins the book by painstakingly revealing her rigorous research both with women of color and skinheads. Despite the many roadblocks, Picoult chooses to make a brave attempt to start a conversation about the very real, very pervasive racism in American society. The story centers around the trial of a black delivery nurse, Ruth, who is accused of deliberately causing the death of the infant son of a white supremist couple who have demanded Ruth never touch their baby while in the hospital nursery.  The courtroom scenes and the introduction of interesting, relatable characters carries this story and makes it compelling.  Unfortunately, by the end of the trial, Picoult's storyline jumps to extremes in order to satisfy her audience or so it seems.   Perhaps the author has tackled too much in her social awareness campaign.  Readers will easily see themes of segregation, the challenges of black ambition, the welfare system and of course, race and the justice system.  There are just too many unlikely plot leaps for this story to remain totally believable.  The novel is flawed but as most of Picoult's work, it opens great discussions.  The author's good intentions must be given credit and surely accomplished most of what she intended.  In a social climate as divided as ours tends to be, any conversation is a good thing.  Maybe good talk is as much as we can hope for.  Let the discussion begin.

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout has mastered a unique writing form only seen minimally in modern fiction.  In her book Anything is Possible she writes nine linked tales about people in a small town in Illinois.  Nine lives that are entwined by life experiences that reveal misery, heartache, pain and loss.  Nine lives that are broken by miserable marriage, war trauma, and childhood abuse.  Strout laces into each expose a piece from that story's central character's past---a soldier who suffers from PSTD renews a friendship with a former classmate; the retired school janitor tries to help a reclusive, lonely man that he happens upon and recognizes as that sad, lonely boy from his school.  These are small lives that seem of little consequence.  The writer shares the stories unemotionally and unsympathetically.  She often depicts the glaring flaw in many of her characters of continually look for and usually finding someone they can feel superior to no matter how bad their own situation might be.  Juxtaposed to this depressing truth is her quiet reassurance that there is always hope.  Strout shows us people who succeed, people who are kind and helpful and who overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.  The author never tries to hide the fact that this is indeed a sad, hard world.  But like Steinbeck, Strout tells the story of people who, even though trapped by circumstances out of their control, find a way to survive.  This author writes honestly and succinctly but manages to convey deep and meaningful stories  Her characters are real people that we as readers recognize and connect to and maybe even see ourselves in.  Strout's books reveal real life and hopefully will open real discussions that can help all of us see that "anything is possible."