Tag: England

Day 870: Jane Steele

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Cover for Jane SteeleBest Book of the Week!
Fans of Lyndsay Faye’s Timothy Wilde trilogy (I am one) have undoubtedly been looking forward to Jane Steele, which she describes as a riff on Jane Eyre. In this novel, which Faye dedicates to “Miss Eyre and Mr. Nickleby,” Jane Steele describes her life as one very similar to Jane Eyre’s, only with an important difference—Jane Steele is a serial killer.

At the beginning of the novel, Jane is nine or ten years old, living in a cottage with her mother on the grounds of Highgate House. Although her mother has told her Highgate House belongs to her, it is occupied by her Aunt Patience Barbary and her cousin Edwin. Mrs. Barbary hates Jane and her mother, and after her mother’s death from an overdose of some opiate, Mrs. Barbary wastes no time in preparing to ship Jane off to Lowan Bridge School, run by Mr. Vesalius Munt. But before that can happen, Edwin tries to rape Jane, who pushes him off a cliff to his death. Terrified by the perspicacious Constable Quillfeather, Jane goes meekly to school.

It is difficult to know how much to reveal in this review, but suffice it to say that almost every action in Jane Eyre is echoed in some way in Jane Steele, but always with a twist. Mr. Munt is, if anything, a worse sadist and hypocrite than the headmaster of Lowood School. Jane Steele has a dear friend in the school, Rebecca Clarke, who comes close to dying, but when Mr. Munt offers Jane a choice between further starving Clarke or agreeing to be sent to an asylum, Jane instead chooses to stab him with a letter opener. Jane being sixteen by then, she and Clarke run off to London.

link to NetgalleyEventually, Jane meets her Mr. Rochester when she forges credentials as a governess to go work at Highgate House. There she hopes to search for proof of her mother’s claim that the house belongs to her. She finds herself in an unusual environment. The house belongs to Mr. Charles Thornfield, a nephew of Patience Barbary. Her charge is a little Sikh girl named Sahjara, and the entire household is Sikh. This household has its own secrets, to do with the betrayal of the Khaba, the Sikh military, by its own leaders.

This novel is a romping good read, full of adventure. It features a missing treasure, secret identities, several oily villains, and the resurrection of the heroine’s self-esteem. Yes, Jane kills five men. Do we still like her? Absolutely. I think you’re going to love this book.

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Day 867: The Squire

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Cover for The SquireI don’t think I paid attention to what The Squire was about when I picked it up. Instead, I homed in on the author’s name when selecting it from a list of Persephone books. I’m not sure whether I would have picked it out if I had noticed, since it is about childbearing and motherhood, something I have no experience with. Further, some of the attitudes expressed, particularly about the role of men, are very out of date, although well in tune with the novel’s time.

The squire, who is known only as that through the novel, is a woman past 40 who is due to give birth. With her husband away, she is trying to run her household in the last days of her pregnancy, and there are quite a few crises, particularly with the servants. The squire already has four children, the youngest about four, and she spends a lot of time observing them and thinking about their characters.

There are some things about this novel that I found very foreign. One is how much time the squire spends thinking about death. First, I thought this was because she was about to give birth, but later she considers the same trait in her daughter Lucy, who is only 11 or 12. The other was my surprise at the role of the midwife, who is there more for after the birth than the birth itself. She keeps the squire almost totally isolated and quiet, trying to get her milk to come in correctly. What a contrast to today, when women are practically booted out the door of the hospital. But also, there is a strong class aspect to this and to all the squire’s problems. A woman from another class would have to take care of all her children during this time, unless she was lucky enough to have a neighbor or family member to help, and her biggest concern wouldn’t be hiring a new cook or nursemaid.

I found some aspects of this book interesting, but I didn’t really relate to the main character. But then again, I also felt some distance from The Happy Foreigner, so maybe my problem is with Bagnold as a writer rather than the subject matter of this novel.

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Day 866: Yuki Chan in Brontë Country

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Cover for Yuki Chan in Bronte CountryYuki Chan is on a pilgrimage of sorts. Her mother died ten years ago when Yuki was 13, and just before that she made a trip to England. Yuki is trying to visit the places her mother visited, to feel closer to her and to try to figure out why she died. This pilgrimage has brought her to Haworth and a tour of the Brontë’s house.

Yuki thinks of herself as a psychic detective, but we also follow some of her other musings, most of them very peculiar. She is clearly an eccentric personality.

I wasn’t sure how much I related to Yuki as she performed her various experiments, for example, standing in the same place before the Haworth parsonage window where her mother appears in a photo. She has five photos that she uses to retrace her mother’s footsteps.

link to NetgalleyDuring her adventures, she befriends a teenage girl named Denny. Denny has a bit of a lawless demeanor that gets them into some adventures as she takes Yuki around the snowy landscape on her brother’s motorcycle.

Ultimately, this novel is touching, but it takes a while before we understand Yuki’s compulsions. I don’t think we get any insight to any of the characters except Yuki herself. I only moderately enjoyed this quirky novel.

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Day 865: Arctic Summer

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Cover for Arctic SummerFrom its description, I thought that Arctic Summer might be one of the most interesting books I’m reading from the Walter Scott Prize list. It is described as a fictional biography of E. M. Forster, particularly leading up to his publication of A Passage to India.

That is certainly the time period the novel covers, and A Passage to India is one of its preoccupations. But the novel spends most of its time on Forster’s obsession with his homosexuality and his desire for sexual experience. As I’m not all that interested in reading about anyone’s obsession with sexuality, this novel was not the best fit for me.

The novel begins in 1912 on Forster’s first trip to India. While he is there, he will visit a good friend, Masood, and he has hopes that his life will open up, particularly in regard to sex. At the age of 33, he is still a virgin, his fear of disgrace holding him back from expressing his sexuality at home. Perhaps in India he will have an experience, maybe with Masood, whom he loves.

Unfortunately, Forster, who goes by Morgan, has a tendency to fall in love with heterosexual men and prefers men from a lower class, so nothing quite works out the way he wishes. Even when he finally has some encounters, years later, what he is actually looking for is love, which he never finds. The novel follows him during the long gestation of his novel about India, back to England, to Alexandria during World War I, and back to India again. During this time, his most significant relationships are with two friends who do not return his feelings.

The novel is extremely well written, and Galgut deeply characterizes Morgan, if not the other characters. It did make me wonder if any person could be so relentlessly focused on sex, although of course he is also lonely. It also made me wonder how, if he really felt this unrelenting focus, he ever got anything written. Certainly this novel makes you feel for Forster—he was a sad man.

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Day 863: A Banquet of Consequences

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Cover for A Banquet of ConsequencesDetective Sergeant Barbara Havers is in a lot of trouble with Superintendent Ardery since she nearly went off the rails in the previous Detective Lynley novel. So, Ardery is having Inspector Lynley keep her on a short leash. But Lynley thinks the leash is too short, because Barbara is tamping down everything, including her contributions to investigations. Finally, she is contacted about a case that Lynley thinks she can take charge of herself.

But the novel begins three years earlier. William Goldacre has been trying to reconcile with his girlfriend, Lily Foster. William has a condition that causes him to utter nonsense words and profanity when under stress. But Lily’s problem with him is the relationship he has with his family. William and Lily go on a camping trip, but Will commits suicide when he finds Lily reading his journal, and Lily is horrified about what she reads there.

In the present, Barbara encounters Caroline Goldacre, William’s mother, when she attends a talk by feminist Clare Abbott. Clare gives Barbara her card because she is interested in Barbara’s t-shirt, but Caroline, who is Clare’s assistant, takes it upon herself to ask for the card back. Rory Stratham, Clare’s agent and good friend, gives Barbara another card.

A few days later, Rory contacts Barbara to tell her that Clare was found dead in her hotel room. Although the death is considered natural, Rory finds it high suspicious. She also suspects someone, Caroline Goldacre, whose relationship with her employer seemed unusual at best.

When Barbara performs an initial investigation, she finds hotel staff who overheard Caroline and Clare arguing. An autopsy reveals that Clare was poisoned. Before Barbara can tell Rory, Rory herself has been poisoned, although she is not dead. Lynley dispatches Barbara and Sergeant Winston Nkata to Shaftsbury to investigate. Ardery’s orders are for Winston not to let Barbara out of his sight.

The evidence seems to point to Caroline Goldacre until the detectives find out that Clare borrowed Caroline’s toothpaste and that was the source of the poison for both women. But was someone trying to murder Caroline, or is Caroline simply a clever murderer who made it look that way? Caroline herself is manipulative and nasty to just about everyone.

I have been distressed by how melodramatic George’s series has been the past few books, basically since the death of Lynley’s wife. Although the Detective Lynley series is one of the few that has recurring characters who are as interesting as the mysteries, the last few years they have been behaving atypically. This book is the first in a while that seems back on track. The personal plots involve Lynley’s relationship with his current girlfriend and an amusing plan of Dorothea Harriman’s to spiff Barbara up and find her a boyfriend. I very much enjoyed this novel and feel that it is returning to the strong series it was when I first discovered it.

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Day 862: The Remains of the Day

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Cover for The Remains of the DayBest Book of the Week!
Having seen the movie The Remains of the Day years ago, I think it is just as well I waited so long to read it. Even so, some of the book’s scenes made me envision the movie, though I had forgotten most of it.

Stevens is the butler for Darlington House in the 1950’s. Lord Darlington, whom he served for 30 years, is gone, and now Stevens works for Mr. Farraday, an American. At Mr. Farraday’s suggestion, he has decided to take a holiday to visit the former Miss Keaton, who used to be the housekeeper in Darlington House. He surmises that her marriage is not altogether happy. She has split from her husband, and Stevens hopes she will agree to return to Darlington House as housekeeper. As he travels, he keeps a diary reflecting his thoughts on the journey.

To Stevens, his professional capabilities are the most important areas of his life. He reflects a great deal on such concepts as what dignity consists of. He has removed himself emotionally from the events of his own life, so much so that when his father is dying in the house, he won’t leave the dinner party he is serving. Stevens’ dedication is taken to such an extreme that when he sees in Mr. Farraday a disposition to banter with him, he, who has no sense of humor, begins to practice witticisms.

The Remains of the Day is the striking portrait of a unique individual as he comes to consider some of his life’s decisions. He has devoted his life to the service of Lord Darlington, whose political decisions before World War II left him a ruined man. Stevens thought he was helping Lord Darlington do important work, but later he had to re-evaluate that idea. In the meantime, Stevens ignored a possible other life for himself with Miss Keaton.

This novel tells a sad, sad story. Stevens is not always a reliable narrator for us, as his perceptions are as limited as his point of view. This is a novel of depth and brilliance, intricate as a puzzle box, as we delve the depth of Stevens’ psyche.

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Day 860: Thursday’s Children

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Cover for Thursday's ChildrenFrieda Klein has not been back to her home town of Braxton since she was 15, so she is surprised to hear from Maddie Capel, once a member of her group of friends. Maddie is concerned about the behavior of her teenage daughter Becky and wants Frieda to try to find out what’s bothering her.

Frieda is eventually able to get Becky to tell her that she was raped. A man came into her bedroom at night and raped her. Then he told her that no one would believe her if she reported it. Frieda believes her, though, because the same thing happened to her when she was a teenager, and the person used the same words. Frieda’s mother didn’t believe her at the time, and unfortunately Maddie doesn’t believe Becky.

In fact, once Maddie hears what Frieda has to say, she wants her to stay away from Becky, but she agrees to let Frieda see her one last time so she can recommend a different therapist. Frieda thinks Becky seems better, and Becky agrees to report the rape to the police. However, before she can do so, she is found dead, presumably having hanged herself.

Frieda doesn’t think Becky killed herself, though. She thinks the same person who raped her has been assaulting other troubled girls over the years. She also thinks the person learned Becky was going to the police and murdered her.

Frieda is determined to find the perpetrator, which means tracking down all her male friends from the time as well as a popular teacher who was reputed to have affairs with students. She also learns that her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in 23 years, is dying of cancer.

This novel is the fourth in Nicci French’s mystery/thriller series featuring psychotherapist Frieda Klein. Frieda is an interesting and complex character, extremely reserved but with a few close friends. A thread that continues from the first series is the existence of a serial killer that only Frieda knows is still alive. I enjoy this series, which always presents a challenging puzzle.

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Day 846: The Girl on the Train

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Cover for The Girl on the TrainRachel has been having a hard time the past year or two. Her husband Tom left her for another woman, and her excessive drinking lost her her job. She is so ashamed of this that she pretends to go to work every morning on the train so that her flatmate won’t know.

On the train each day she passes her old neighborhood, and she spots a couple living in a house four doors down from where she used to live. She fantasizes that the two are a happy couple and even gives them names. But one day as she passes by, she sees the wife kissing another man.

That weekend, the wife, whose name is Megan, disappears. Throughout the book, some chapters are written from Megan’s point of view, starting a year before and moving quickly to the present. Immediately, it becomes clear that Megan is a woman with secrets.

Rachel goes to the police with her information about a lover, mainly because she knows they will look first at Megan’s husband Scott, and Rachel doesn’t think he did anything. But Rachel’s credibility is soon destroyed by Tom and his new wife Anna, who let the police know she’s been stalking them when she drinks too much.

In fact, the night Megan disappeared, Rachel was in the neighborhood trying to see Tom. But she was drunk and only has a hazy memory of being helped up by a red-haired man she sometimes sees on the train. After the incident, she awakened at home with a gash in her head that she can’t remember getting.

Rachel can’t seem to keep herself from inserting herself into the investigation, even lying to Scott that she and Megan were friends. Of course, it will all fall apart. The reader wonders, did Rachel herself kill Megan?

This novel has been compared to Gone Girl after that novel’s great success. I realize that is a marketing ploy, but it actually had the effect of making me avoid The Girl on the Train for a while. That said, I think a better comparison is with the novels of Sophie Hannah, which feature troubled heroines who are usually being gaslighted by someone.

As such, it is an effective thriller, difficult to guess. As Rachel slowly pulls her act together, we get to like her. I liked this novel well enough, but Gillian Sharp is great. I’ve admired her work since well before Gone Girl became popular. So, no comparison.

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Day 844: Tess of the D’Urbervilles

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Cover for Tess of the D'UrbervillesBest Book of the Week!
I love Thomas Hardy’s rural novels set in southwest England, and one of the highlights of a trip to England years ago was visiting his cottage in Dorset. My favorite of his novels has long been Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which I recently reread. I don’t mind admitting that in this reread, I was picturing scenes from Roman Polanski’s wonderful movie Tess, which follows the novel carefully and envisions it beautifully.

There is no doubt about it, Tess is a real tear-jerker, so if you prefer novels with happy endings, this is not the one for you. Still, in its own way, the novel ends hopefully.

The novel spans about five or six years, and we meet Tess as a naive young country girl attending a club dance. There she first sees a young man who will be important to her, Angel Clare, but he does not dance with her.

Hardy can be quite the fatalist, though, and Tess’ fate is sealed already, when her father John Durbeyfield meets a clergyman who dabbles in genealogy. Parson Tringham ironically addresses him as “Sir John” and tells him his family is the remains of the once-powerful D’Urbervilles. Her father immediately sets off to celebrate.

Tess’ foolish and feckless parents learn there is a rich old lady by the name of D’Urberville some counties away, so when Tess is partially responsible for the death of her father’s horse (because her father was too drunk to take the bees to town), they push her to go visit the old lady and claim kinship with her in hope of financial benefit. There she meets the charming wastrel Alec D’Urberville, who knows perfectly well they are not related, his family having bought the name and titles.

Tess gets a job from Mrs. D’Urberville as a poultry keeper, but Alec is always pursing her with his attentions. Tess finds these attentions unpleasant, but she is too naive to know what they mean or what she might fear.

Tess returns home with a past that is obvious to everyone and heartache ahead of her. Eventually, she gets another chance, as a dairymaid. There she meets Angel Clare, a gentleman studying to be a farmer, and finally falls deeply in love. But Angel is an idealist who has fantasized her into the embodiment of a pure child of nature. So, he is the last person to forgive her past.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles was a controversial book when it was published in 1891, because Hardy subtitled it “A Pure Woman.” This subtitle caused an uproar with the Victorians. Hardy’s message is strongly against the societal and religious laws that would condemn Tess.

Another aspect of the novel that I found more interesting this time through is that it depicts a rural way of life that is long gone. Although many of Hardy’s novels are rurally based, this one has more about the customs, work, and lifestyle as we follow Tess from one workplace to another than any of his novels except Far from the Madding Crowd. Tess’ father is a freeholder, a step up from a migrant farm worker, one whose family has leased the same land for generations. But when John Durbeyfield dies, the lease is up, and his widow and family are abruptly evicted so that the landlord can make room for someone who works for him. Such activities, Hardy makes clear, are the root cause of people migrating from the country to towns and cities, not that they were unsatisfied with country life.

Years after reading this novel last, I still became thoroughly engrossed in the story. It is a powerful one, poetically written, with gorgeous descriptions of the countryside and vivid imagery. I just love this novel.

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Day 840: Juggling

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Cover for JugglingI am usually a huge fan of Barbara Trapido, but I have to admit to being slightly disappointed by Juggling. I think my problem is in the depiction of its characters.

Christina is the youngest of two sisters. Her parents, Alice and Joe, decided to get married after Alice’s best friend died and Alice decided to adopt her baby, Pam. They all moved to the U.S. from England, and Christina came along seven months later.

Christina is a pushy, lippy, verbally active child, and from early on she doesn’t get along with her father. She finds him too controlling and manipulative, even though he seems to encourage her sauciness.

When Alice met Joe, she was dating Roland. Later, Roland met and married Gentille, Peter’s French mother. Although Peter gets along with Roland, the move from his quiet Paris apartment to England and boarding school is hard on Peter until he comes under the protection of Jago.

Jago is a popular boy in school, but like many popular boys, he tends to be a bully and hangs with a thuggish crowd. Still, he is good friends with Peter until adolescence, when Peter’s lack of coolness becomes too obvious.

Fatefully, Christina and her gentle sister Pam enroll at the same school as Jago and Peter. Christina is fascinated by Jago, but she and her sister are too clean cut in their American fashions for him to be bothered. Still, Jago finds himself drawn to Pam. Pam is oblivious and begins a friendship with Peter based on a mutual love of music. Then a terrible event occurs that changes everything.

This Trapido novel is all over the place, with a boy who floats in the air, another boy who is a mean bully, a Cambridge don who cheats his student by stealing her paper, reshuffling of partners into too many combinations, a woman who purposefully tries to cause problems between a woman and her daughter. And we’re supposed to like all the characters, I think.

I usually like Trapido characters despite their flaws, but in this case I didn’t. I found it hard to like Christina, who takes everything so personally that she splits from her family about something that happened to someone else, even splitting from that person, who was not at fault. I didn’t buy her antipathy to her father. In fact, if anyone is manipulative, it is she. The more likable characters, such as Peter and Pam and Alice, are neglected for the loudmouths and bullies. About the only one of the more forceful characters I liked was Dulcie, who is loud and exuberant, not a bully.

Trapido seems to have made a thing about people pairing up with the wrong partners. In this case, there are just too many of them and too many coincidences. Hence the title of the book, I suppose.

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