Review 2289: Heat Lightning

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Amy travels back to her childhood home in Michigan from New York ostensibly to recover from surgery but really to think about the situation with her husband, Geoffrey. There is tension among her relatives. The Westovers are a wealthy family, but it is 1930. Her father Alfred’s farm machinery factory doesn’t have many orders, but his brother DeWitt made some bad investments and is asking him for help.

Amy’s cousin Tom is drinking too much and soon has a more serious problem. Her redoubtable grandmother is managing her fortune but is dealing with requests for help from Tom and DeWitt.

Amy watches everyone’s interactions carefully, because she is looking for some inspiration. She feels that her generation has no code for behavior and is trying to formulate its own. She doesn’t know how she feels about Geoff and is looking for guidance in her parents’ loving interactions.

Although a lot of this novel is about family interactions, some of the dinner conversations are about scientific discoveries that came earlier than I expected, for example, about entropy. On the other hand, the idea of race expressed in the novel is not scientifically based (or perhaps language is not carefully used). Amy, for example, considers the European immigrant working class characters to be of a different race than her family and friends. They’re Italians and Swedes.

A distressing topic for modern audiences is what the family should do with Curly, the mentally disabled gardener.

Overall, I found this a thoughtful and interesting look at family dynamics.

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Review 2288: Arabella

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Merry Christmas, everyone! Here’s a romp for Christmas Day.

The vicarage children are excited to learn whether their mother’s best friend will invite their sister Arabella for a season in London, in the hopes she can make an eligible match. The invitation arrives from Lady Bridlington, and then the worry is that the upright Reverend Tallant will not allow her to go.

Soon Arabella is on her way to London from Yorkshire. But the perch of her uncle’s old carriage breaks, and she sees nothing wrong with going to the nearest house for shelter. Unfortunately, it is the hunting box of Robert Beaumarais, a leading figure in society and a very wealthy man, who assumes she is one of many girls trying to make his acquaintance. When she hears him saying this to his friend Lord Fleetwood, she says she is the rich Arabella Tallant, who hoped to be unrecognized in London.

Beaumarais sees through this lie but maliciously lets the indiscreet Lord Fleetwood think he knows about her. He also decides to make her debut a sensation. Soon, Arabella is a success but doesn’t dare accept anyone’s proposal because she realizes that they all think she is rich, whereas she has no money at all.

Although she is in an awkward position, she is enjoying herself. But then her brother Bertram, who is supposed to be at Oxford, arrives and begins to get himself into financial difficulties. To make things worse, Arabella has begun to realize she cares for Beaumarais and is afraid to admit her deceit.

Arabella is an adorable heroine, and Beaumarais a likable hero, as he fondly watches her dig herself deeper into trouble, hoping she will confide in him. Heyer is at her best and funniest with these absurd plots.

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Review 2287: In the Country of Others

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In the Country of Others tells the fictionalized story of Slimani’s own grandparents during a time of turmoil. During World War II, Amine Belhaj is a Moroccan soldier stationed in the Alsacian region of France. There he meets and marries his French wife Mathilde, and after the war, they go to live in Meknes, Morocco.

Mathilde finds it difficult to adjust to Moroccan life, especially once they move 15 miles out of town to live on the land Amine’s father bought and that he has dreamed of cultivating. Mathilde struggles to fight the total loss of power expected of an Arab wife. Amine can sometimes be physically abusive. Also, he works hard and spends all his time and money on the orchards. Mathilde would like to go into town and have some fun sometime. As what is considered a mixed-race couple, they are mocked on the street.

The narrative shifts mostly to her daughter Aïcha when she is a young girl starting school. Her parents send her to a Catholic school where she is mocked by her French schoolmates. She hates her kinky hair and is terrified when her parents leave her at school the first day.

As it gets into the 50s, the Moroccans move closer to war when France ignores their desire for independence. French people and homes are attacked.

This is a novel about sex and power. Although Mathilda doesn’t want Aïcha to be raised as a submissive woman, she finds herself forcing her sister-in-law Selma into marriage with an old man when Selma is deserted by her young French lover. It is also about power in terms of who will control the country.

It is an interesting story that’s told in a dispassionate way, keeping me from totally identifying with any of the characters. It’s clear toward the end that Aïcha is identifying with the native Moroccans rather than the French, even though she is half and half, but Slimani herself doesn’t seem to take any sides, either in war or in sexual politics, even though she clearly wants more for Moroccan women.

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Review 2286: #DeanStreetDecember! Because of Sam

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I could fairly easily guess the main plot of Because of Sam from about page 3, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable to read.

Mild-mannered Millie Maitland has not had an easy life. Her feckless husband died leaving her badly off when her daughter Amabel was a child, and she has had a financial struggle ever since. When a relative died and left money for the use of Amabel, Millie was only delighted that she could provide for her daughter. Even though her lawyer believed she could fairly spend some of the money for her own benefit, or rather for the benefit of both of them, she refused. She has done everything for Amabel, so that her daughter has no idea of how hard Millie has worked. The result is that Amabel, now in her late twenties, is a little spoiled, plain-spoken, used to being waited on, and inconsiderate.

The farmer Martin Heriot catches sight of Millie looking young and pretty at a wedding and decides he wants to get to know her better. She makes a little money taking care of people’s dogs, so he soon makes arrangements for her to board Sam, a Labrador puppy he says belongs to his cousin. This gives him an excuse to visit Millie. But Millie, with no idea of her own attractions, gets it into her head that he is coming to see Amabel.

On another front, a new arrival to this small post-World War II Scottish village is causing problems. Mrs. Noble is a predatory blond whose husband is stationed abroad. She first goes after Martin and then after a young husband of a new mother.

Although Clavering’s books are similar to those of D. E. Stevenson, her friend and neighbor, I think that without becoming at all heavy reading, they go a little more below the surface. I enjoy them very much.

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Review 2285: The Color of Lightning

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I have read several of Paulette Jiles’s books that are set in post-Civil War Texas and depict a countryside that’s dangerous and beautiful at the same time. Another characteristic of these books is that they feature brief appearances by the main characters of her other books. I believe that The Color of Lightning is the first of these books. Unlike the others, though, it is about a person who really existed.

Britt Johnson is a black freedman who travels with his wife and children along with his ex-master and a group of fellow Kentuckians to Texas to get away from the war in 1863. They all live in a small community called Elm Creek in Young County, Texas, at the edge of the area occupied by settlers. Although they are living in the traditional raiding lands of the Kiowa and the Comanche, the older residents of the settlement say they haven’t seen a native since they moved there.

Britt has been rounding up cattle, but his real ambition is to buy teams of horses and freight wagons so he can start a freight service for the area. While the men of the settlement are on a trip to Weatherford to get supplies, a force of 700 Kiowa and Comanche attack the white and black settlers of Young County. Britt’s oldest son Jim is killed and his wife Mary and children Cherry and Jube are captured. Elizabeth Fitzgerald’s daughter Susan is killed, and Elizabeth and her granddaughter Minnie are taken.

The United States government has removed its corrupt Indian agents from Indian Territory and for a few years makes an experiment of turning the various reservations over to the administration of religious organizations. Samuel Hammond is a Quaker who reluctantly agrees to take over the Kiowa-Comanche reservation. He hopes to manage the reservation without using force or violence, but he goes to work with no understanding of these native peoples, trying to contain them on the reservation when they have always been wanderers, stop the raiding (which he didn’t even know about when he took the job), and make the natives into farmers when they consider that women’s work.

In the meantime, Britt begins a long trip north to the winter territory of the Kiowa and Comanche to trade for his wife and children. He is given unexpected help from a young Comanche brave named Tissoyo whom he befriends on his trip. While he’s on his way, the story shifts to the lives of Mary, Cherry, and Jube in the Kiowa camp.

I think this novel did a really good job of representing the viewpoints of all of its characters—the settlers, the native people, the captives, and the Indian agency administrator. The novel is exciting at times and deeply interesting. Jiles is getting to be one of my favorite writers.

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Review 2284: The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths

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The Bathysphere Book is an engaging nonlinear account of the expeditions in 1930 made by William Beebe to explore the depths of the ocean as far as he could go in a bathysphere. In his last dive, he got down more then 3000 feet and was awed by the diversity and oddness of the life he found.

Illustrated by photographs and drawings that his fellow scientists made at his descriptions, the book contains his notes . It also goes off on interesting tangents to tell the stories of other explorers of the depths, the accomplishments of his fellow explorers, and some of the characters they encountered in their work and lives. It’s a shame that some of Beebe’s findings were disregarded, as he was considered more of a popular science writer and explorer than a scientist.

I am usually not a big nonfiction reader, but this book was really interesting, full of colorful and often neglected characters.

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Review 2283: Foster

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Foster is so good it made me cry. It is beautifully and sparely written, about a little girl who is sent away to stay with strangers, the Kinsellas, while her mother has yet another baby. Her father, we learn very quickly, has gambled away their heifer and tells lies for no reason. He tells the Kinsellas, “You can have her as long as you want her.” He forgets to leave her clothes.

The girl is scared and mistrustful. When she wets the bed, she expects to be punished and sent home, but Edna Kinsella says the old mattress has been weeping and merely cleans and airs it. The Kinsellas are kind. They give her clothes to wear and feed her well, and she helps Edna with chores. She begins to love living on the farm.

I will say no more except this is a lovely book.

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Review 2282: #DeanStreetDecember! Company in the Evening

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I finally could fit a book for Dean Street December into my schedule! This event is being hosted by Liz of Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home.

In 1940 London, Vicky is fairly satisfied with her life. Five years ago, in the midst of divorcing her husband Raymond for infidelity, she discovered she was pregnant. But she is getting along fine raising her daughter Antonia with the help of an old family retainer, Blakey. She works three days a week as a literary agent and devotes the other days to Antonia. She is an independent woman who doesn’t feel the need for company except for an occasional visit or outing and dislikes sentiment and receiving sympathy.

However, she finds herself inviting company when her mother tells her she’d like to sell her house and move in with her sister. The problem is what to do about Rene, Vicky’s widowed and very pregnant sister-in-law, who has little money and no family and lives with Vicky’s mother. Vicky has a spare room and feels she owes it to her mother to offer Rene a place to stay, even though she and Rene have almost nothing in common. She has no desire to invite her, but she does.

Soon enough, she becomes convinced that they are incompatible. Her efforts to get along with Rene usually end up being misunderstood. Worse, Blakey dislikes her. She is always brusque, but to Rene she is sometimes disrespectful.

Then Vicky runs into Raymond. The other woman returned to her husband, and Raymond is just recovering from a bout of tuberculosis and hopes to take a desk job in the army. They begin occasionally spending time together.

This novel takes a thoughtful look at marriage and at Vicky’s preconceptions of how marriage should be as she takes another look at what broke up her own. It is an intelligent, witty, and involving story. I liked it very much.

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Review 2281: Who Killed Father Christmas?

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British Library Crime Classics’ latest book is another of their holiday mystery collections. This one includes some clever puzzles, some ghost stories, and one truly exciting chase.

“The Christmas Thief” by Frank Howel Evans, published in 1911, features the adventures of two endearing young men, Tommy and Harry, two homeless boys who thwart a gang of thieves.

In “The Christmas Spirit” by Anthony Gilbert from 1952, Sedley busts the ghost of the Green Girl—or does he?

In Patricia Moyes’ “Who Killed Father Christmas?” from 1980, someone murders the substitute Father Christmas in the toy department of a store, and he turns out to have been an undercover policeman. The motive for the murder was fairly obvious, I thought, but not so much identity of the murderer.

In “Death at Christmas” by Glyn Daniel from 1959, a colleague dies of a heart attack after telling Dilwyn Rees he is being haunted by his dead wife. Although his boss thinks an overactive imagination killed him, Rees isn’t so sure.

Another crime in the toy department takes place in “Scotland Yard’s Christmas” by John Dickson Carr from 1957. Detective Inspector Robert Pollard is accompanied by his girlfriend and her nephew, and all I can say is, he’d better not marry her.

Will Scott’s “The Christmas Train” from 1933 features a Simon Templar-ish thief who intends to steal some jewels on the train, even though the owner is accompanied by the police.

“Herlock Sholmes’ Christmas Case” by Peter Todd from 1916 is a spoof of another mystery writer’s detective stories.

“A Present for Two” by Ellis Peters from 1958-9 features a quite exciting kidnapping and chase after someone steals a priceless manuscript from the village museum.

As usual, I enjoyed some of the stories more than others, but this is a fun seasonal read for mystery lovers.

I received this book from the publishers in exchange for a free and fair review.

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