The Darcys: The Ruling Passion

Fan Fiction by Linda Berdoll

Bodice ripper: yes. More Pride and Prejudice: YES PLEASE!

This novel is third in a series that continues the story of Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy, one of my favorite literary couples of all time.  The series also includes Darcy and Elizabeth: Days and Nights at Pemberley and Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues. Jane Austen would turn over in her grave at these books, though. It's often been commented that Austen's great romances end at the wedding day because she never married, so she couldn't write about the marriage itself. I think that's junk--she wrote about plenty of marriages, some merely convenient, some loving, some so irritating you love to hate them. But she certainly didn't write about passion or hot hot lovin'; Austen was too decorous for that. Linda Berdoll has no such qualms. These books are as steamy as a sauna. They're definitely a guilty pleasure for me, much like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.

One funny anecdote about these books is that they were first given to me by my mother-in-law. I try not to remind my husband of that while I'm reading the books, including some little bits aloud to him. I don't think she knew they were so bawdy when she gave the first two to me, just that they were about Pride and Prejudice which she knows I love. Thank you, Pat.

My admiration for the books is obvious, for the love and the characters and letting me continue to live in Elizabeth's sassy head (I named my daughter partly for this Elizabeth and partly for my sister Elizabeth, that's how much I love her). The plot is also engaging and slightly mysterious. There's a twist you'll totally see coming if you've read the other books. My one complaint is that the timeline takes some convoluted turns--at one point I said aloud, "Wait, he's dead!" Berdoll keeps the plot hopping by jumping back and forth between not only London and Pemberley (the country estate) but between the end of the last novel and recent events in the new one. It's a little confusing, in my opinion. It's actually something she did in the previous books, but my friend Jiorgia and I agree she does so more in this recent installment. She also seems to focus on the politics of the day more in this book, but I guess that makes sense given that one of the characters is a secretary to a Lord.

One last disclaimer: there is also some heartbreak about children in this book, which you might expect due to the lack of medical knowledge at the time (bloodletting? really?). But I wasn't ready for it and it pretty well slew me. If you're tenderhearted about babies right now, read with caution. But also know that great passion and devotion is often built as much by shared sorrow as by love. I think many of us have experienced that.

Island Beneath the Sea

Novel by Isabel Allende

I would like to BE Isabel Allende. I have read her memoirs and even though she has had some horrible experiences (losing her daughter to a debilitating illness, living through revolution in Chile), she has made an amazing life for herself and is writing some of the richest novels I can find. Her stories are dense and sweet, satisfying and easy to read all at once.

This particular novel is out of Allende's usual sphere of writing; while she usually writes about California or Chile, this takes place in the colony that became Haiti and then in New Orleans during the late 1700's and early 1800's. A slave named Tete and her owner, Toulouse Valmorain, have a complicated relationship that grows ever more intertwined through a slave revolt, various marriages, and a move away from their home colony of Saint-Domingue.  A statement by the author says she became interested in this point in history when researching New Orleans for her novel Zorro (which is also fantastic). It's easy to see why Allende was intrigued: the stories and culture of the Caribbean and New Orleans are suggestive and sinuous and savory. Yet against this delightful backdrop are the horrors of slavery and war, and then layered upon that are the lovely, intelligent, humanistic characters that Allende imagines for us. Rich indeed.

What I loved most about this book was the humility and grace the main characters exhibited. That is, the protagonists. The good guys. The antagonist, Valmorain, repeatedly shows how weakness and hubris prevents him from being the man he could be. He does some despicable acts, yet is inescapable in the story. But the women (whom Allende always leans toward in her stories) are either loudly or quietly strong, clever in their survival, giving in their relationships with each other, dedicated to their children, humble about their faults, and always reaching for happiness. I just love the way Allende paints them. I suppose that's what makes me want to be more like her; her characters are fictional, but she must have some of these traits in order to portray them in her stories.

Next up: a series of young adult novels that I'm considering assigning to my honors social studies class. These kids are lucky--if I don't like the books, they won't have to read them.

The Outside Boy

Novel by Jeanine Cummins

"But as he stood and brushed his hands against his trousers, I had the feeling I'd taken something very big from him. Like he'd seen I was missing a leg, so he'd lopped his own one off and gave it to me."

" 'F***ing Americans,' I said quietly.
Why did they always have to go reviving everything? Martin looked at me distastefully, which I knew was probably because any curse on the Americans was really a blaspheme against Elvis. He shook his head at me slowly."

Behold the genius of The Outside Boy. From the point of view of an adolescent boy-Irish Traveller (gypsy) in the late 1950's, you get beautifully seriousness metaphors about his complicated relationship with his dad, and hilariously serious narration about the most important things to boys his age: girls and Elvis. Christy, as the boy is called, is also searching for the truth about his mother, who apparently died in childbirth, and trying to fit into a town for the first time in his life. It's classic coming of age, but in a different setting than I've ever imagined.

I think it's interesting that there is so much, well, interest, in all manner of gypsies these days. The TV reality series"My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" on TLC was kind of horrifying, but it marks a renewed curiosity about this way of life.  This book, published in 2010, piggybacks on that. It treats the Travelling culture (really, with two l's, I checked) carefully, portraying it as wonderful for its freedom and pitiable for its poverty and subsequent "need" for thievery. I don't really know enough about the recent or modern gypsy culture to have an opinion, but I do want to find out more now.

I liked this book.  Christy is a very appealing character, and there's a bit of a mystery, accents (my favorite!), and anthropology. And no wonder--this was actually recommended to me, rather than picked at random off the library shelves. I will pay it forward and recommend it to you!

City of Thieves

Novel by David Benioff

Yeah, it's been a long time since I've posted, which means I'm not exactly flying through the books. Too many Christmas cards to address and magazines to read, and not enough books I'm really loving. The most recent was another dubious find from library book club section. This fictional take on the historical siege of Leningrad during World War II is engaging and horrifying at the same time. It combined some of the things I love about a story with many of the things I hate.

The book starts off in one of my favorite ways: with a frame. It's narrated initially by a young American writer interviewing his grandfather, who then becomes the narrator, like in the movie version of The Princess Bride. The grandfather then tells of his experience as a young man, being commanded by a powerful Russian general to find a dozen eggs in the nearly foodless, blockaded city of Leningrad. I love this approach because it's like two stories in one.  By the time I got to the end, I had forgotten about the grandpa from the beginning, and realizing he was the one living through the story was like experiencing it all over again.

I also enjoyed reading about Leningrad in the 1940's and Russian culture in general--I only really know about Russian culture from movies (embarrassing ones like Anastasia) so I learned a great deal. And for some reason, books about WWII continue to attract even this generation. I found myself thinking about that while I read and wondering if 9/11 would ever have the same kind of powerful place in literature and movies. Anyway, the historical fiction element, plus a sweet ending, made this book sort of enjoyable.

The downside, though: I literally had to skip whole pages because of the violence and end-of-the-world type of activities of the characters. Death is everywhere, from starvation, cannibalism, cold, guns, bombs, dogs...and the characters go back and forth between disgust, mourning, and nonchalance as they are constantly stepping over dead bodies. I hate how cynical and paranoid this kind of stuff makes me feel. It makes me want to become a hoarder. I don't like it.

So you have to make your own decision (as always): does the good plot, transportation to another world, and engaging characterization outweigh the desperate, wormy feeling that some scenes will give you in your tummy? The choice is yours. But my choice is clear: when I go to the library with my daughter during Christmas vacation, I must not check out any more books. I need to read the vast pile on my night stand of books actually recommended by someone I know and trust, not ones that I judge by the cover. Mmmm, Isabel Allende...

Fever 1793

Young Adult Fiction by Laurie Halse Anderson

I love the YA genre. I get to pretend that I read these books on behalf of my middle school students, but the truth is that they are so refreshing. They're easy and quick reads, for one, but they are also exactly what they promise, with only the expected surprises. After reading two suspense novels, the last of which tried oh-so hard to be cool, it was nice to open a book that looked like historical fiction about yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793 and find that's exactly what it was. It reminded me of an American Girls novel, with a sweet young narrator who is focused on boys, chores, and fun in her post-colonial world. The fact that something is wrong with that world is hinted at on the second page, and the fever strikes on page 13. It's not just young readers who like a story that gets right to the point. And, of course, this has the setting in another time and place that I love, and the satisfying ending I absolutely need. I hate to be left wondering.

I am left curious about this author, however, and feel I need to read more of her work. She has another YA book called Speak that was something of a controversy at my school's library a few years ago. Speak is about the rape of a teenager. That's all I know about it so I can't say where I land on the controversy but now I want to read the book and see.

By the way, I found this book in the young adult summer-award section at the public library. It is a GREAT source for books for teens--it's divided into two age categories and winners are picked by kids, not adults. I've liked every single one of the books I read from this list, and really loved a few.

Side note: After Fever 1791 I started a book called The Tortilla Curtain (also a find from the library, but the adult book club section).  About 20 pages into this book about a relationship between a posh California couple and Mexican immigrants, I realized something sounded off. I checked the publication date and it's 1995. No thanks. This may be a current issue still but I don't want to read someone's take on it from 16 years ago. Guess I'll just miss out on this one.

The Yiddish Policeman's Detective Club

Novel by Michael Chabon

Two things:
1) Dang, I am a sucker for the book club selections at the library.
2) This is my first rant about a book on the blog.

So I picked up this book because the title was intriguing (see previous entries about my love for books set in other places). However, I had to Google the book and author to even figure out what was going on in the first few pages. Because for one thing, I know no Yiddish, which is sprayed all over the pages. And for another, the book is set in a fictional world that sounds real but makes you question your sanity. A Jewish state in Sitka, Alaska, that was settled after the new country of Israel was disbanded? Those things are not real. So I figured out. It's actually kind of a genius way of writing, getting to make up your own history but in a real world setting. And Michael Chabon is apparently kind of a genius author, but way too high brow for me. And, final straw, I hated the ending. It basically doesn't have one. So I threw the book across the room (you're welcome, Stefanie Johnson).

A few good things about the book are the characters and family relationships: everyone has known everyone forever or is related to or was married to everyone, so the back story is rich. Also the metaphors and imagery are amazing. I sometimes get tired of too much description and Chabon uses metaphor in about every line, but some of it is so real and just right. There's the pretty stuff, like "A badge of grass, a green broach pinned at the collarbone of the mountain." But there's also some dry humor, like the way it feels to ride in a very small airplane in turbulence: "All the pins and bolts came loose from Landsman's skeleton, and his head got turned around backward, and his arms fell off, and his eyeball rolled under the cabin heater." So great. I wish I could write that. But if I could, I'm pretty sure I'd put it in a book with a real ending.

The Redbreast

Novel by Jo Nesbo

I don't know why I read this novel. It came in the mail from the library, and I can't remember if I requested it for myself or for my husband. I vaguely recall reading a review in the newspaper, but not what exactly about it intrigued me. So as I dug in, repeatedly asking myself, "Why am I reading this?" I thought this would be my first post about a book I didn't like. But I guess I'm a bit of an easy audience.  The book ended up being totally absorbing and may start a new trend in my reading: European mystery novels ("The Girl Who... ", here I come.)

So this novel was written in 2000 and is the third in a series, but I'd never heard of it because it was only translated into English in 2006. It has won several awards, including one aptly named "The Best Norwegian Crime Novel Of All Time." How's that for specific? The book follows a detective named Harry Hole (not aptly named), a recovering and sometimes relapsing alcoholic, as he investigates a series of murders involving modern Neo-Nazis and former Norwegian soldiers who fought for Germany in World War II.  For a serial book, this one starts off right in the middle of the action and catches you up on the essentials of the characters when you need to know. In fact, if it didn't keep mentioning something that happened in Australia, I wouldn't have known it was part of a series. The author also uses that style of jumping back and forth in time and point of view, for which I am a complete sucker. Because this is a mystery, I would just start to think I was figuring something out, and then the setting would change in the next section and I would lose my ideas. I re-read the opening sequences of this book three times, and the final time I found some subtle foreshadowing about the way the mystery is solved.

Also, this is another example of a book teaching me about culture and history.  My heritage is Norwegian and I thought I knew a good deal about Norway, but apparently not as much about current Norwegian culture, and nothing about Norwegian involvement in World War II. That part of the book reminded me of "A Very Long Engagement," which is about World War I but also centers on the confusion of the trenches and missing soldiers. The two books are incredibly different in other ways, but both transport me to another world. There were some downsides in that for this book, however, mostly because it was written for a Norwegian audience. There were official acronyms I didn't understand and lots of cultural references I didn't follow. Plus there was some really weird wording at times, and I'm still not sure if it's the way Nesbo writes or the way it was translated.

I will likely be reading more Harry Hole and Girls Who Kicked Stuff in the future (even if that sounds creepy). But not right away, because I've noticed my severe lack of non-fiction reading lately. I read three memoirs in June and nothing but novels since then, so I'm going back to The Duchess to give her another try. And I've also got the newest Isabel Allende whispering to me in seductive Spanish accents from my bedside table. But I'll get back to the Scandinavian crime dramas sooner or later, because this one was very intriguing and a nice break from my norm.

PS- Do you like the new design? I like that it fills the screen more. Less scrolling.