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November Mini-Reviews

November 21, 2019

mini-reviews

All of the book love from Monday’s review of The Starless Sea really took it out of me so I’m giving myself (and you) a word break for the rest of the week. Today is mini-reviews—three very different books with fewer words about each.

 

 

mid-month

Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date: October 15, 2019
three-half-stars
Your Local Book Store, Amazon

In Adrienne Brodeur’s memoir, Wild Game fact once again proves to be infinitely stranger than fiction. Adrienne is 14 when her mother confides in her that her husband’s best friend has kissed her. And she liked it and wants Adrienne to help facilitate a full-blown affair. This all takes place at the families’ summer homes on Cape Cod. A beautiful home and lifestyle paid for by Adrienne’s wealthy older stepfather. A man her mother pursued hard despite a fifteen-year age difference, who has suffered strokes and is not as active as he once was. As Brodeur details in the memoir’s pages fidelity is not her mother’s strong suit.

This situation continues into Adrienne’s twenties with her lying to virtually everyone around her, including the other man’s wife and children. She buys into her mother’s rationalizations that keeping the affair secret is a kindness to their older, frail, spouses. At some point, she becomes an adult but is still not able to break away from her mother. Who, let’s be clear, falls somewhere on the spectrum between mega-narcissist and textbook sociopath. She is a wretched human being in a pretty package with no thought for anyone in the world but herself. Her emotional abuse of Adrienne goes far beyond just getting her to collude in her lies.

All of this left me torn between sympathy for Adrienne as a teen and judgment as an adult. I’m still not sure how I feel, especially as Adrienne grapples with her own fallout from her twisted relationship with her mother. Read Wild Game only if you’re in the mood for Mommie Dearest mothering and sordid human behavior.

 

mini-reviews

Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Published by Bantam Press
Publication date: October 15, 2019
three-stars
Your Local Book Store, Amazon

I’m both embarrassed and happy to report that my faith in Sophie Kinsella has been restored. Embarrassed because she’s a successful author who could care less whether I believe in her and happy because in returning to Becky Bloomwood, the Shopaholic, she gave me the happy, cotton candy reading I needed.

Christmas Shopaholic is exactly what anyone who knows about this series would expect: Becky has committed to hosting Christmas for her extended family and has immediately gone into too-much, simply-too-much territory. Everything she sees and hears about is the ONE thing she must have to make her Christmas perfect. Of course, it all goes terribly wrong, but ends up just right. There are no surprises here, but I didn’t want any. I wanted Kinsella to keep Becky teetering on the edge of chaos with a supporting cast of characters I have come to know and love and that’s exactly what I got. Does Christmas Shopaholic get a bit silly? Yes. Did I care? No. It made me laugh throughout and that’s all I wanted and needed. Hurrah and thank you, Ms. Kinsella.

 

mini-reviewsThe Innocents by Michael Crummey
Published by Doubleday Books
Publication date: November 12, 2019
four-stars
Your Local Book Store, Amazon

When Evered is 12 his father dies. His mother and new baby sister already died in that long winter. Now, he and his little sister Ada, 10, are alone in a secluded cove on the northern coast of Newfoundland. Their only contact with the outer world is a ship that arrives twice a year to trade their catch of dried salted cod for all the supplies they need for the next six months. The ship won’t arrive until spring so first they have to figure out how to live that long. In the same way that they are all they have in the world, Evered and Ada are all the reader has in Michael Crummey’s gripping novel, The Innocents.

You might think that a novel with only two characters in a hut eking out a subsistence living would be dull. Maybe in the wrong hands, but Evered and Ada come fully to life thanks to Crummey. I was immersed in this novel. First of all, they’re children! Even in the 18th century this is extreme. But it’s the only oversized factor in The Innocents as Crummey doesn’t feel the need to add wildly dramatic embellishments. The fight to survive in a desolate, brutal environment with virtually none of the tools common to the times is story enough. Instead, he uses his writing to go deep into the hearts and minds of these two children who grow up alone, largely uninfluenced by the outside world. The result is compelling reading.

 

 

three-half-stars

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14 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: coming-of-age, historical fiction, literary, memoir, mini-reviews

Comments

  1. Kristin says

    November 21, 2019 at 10:28 am

    “You might think that a novel with only two characters in a hut eking out a subsistence living would be dull. ”

    Just as I might imagine a novel about a man locked in a hotel in Moscow for 30 years would be dull. And yet it wasn’t. Great writing prevails!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      November 22, 2019 at 8:13 am

      YES!! Oh my gosh, I loved that book so much. This is that ‘make you feel as if you’re there’ kind of writing I always enjoy.

      Reply
  2. Debi Morton says

    November 21, 2019 at 4:19 pm

    I’m curious about The Innocents. Is it basically a read-alike of Where the Crawdads Sing, or is there enough difference to be compelling without getting caught up in their sameness?

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      November 22, 2019 at 8:12 am

      Good question, but no, they are nothing alike. This is set in the 1700s. In Crawdads she interacted with other people even though she lived alone. These children are absolutely alone. They only see people twice a year.

      Reply
  3. Meaghan says

    November 21, 2019 at 7:22 pm

    I just finished Christmas Shopaholic and couldn’t agree with you more! I love how light and frothy these books are, and Becky has just enough heart to make me really enjoy reading her stories. Hoping for even more in this (guilty pleasure) series!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      November 22, 2019 at 8:10 am

      I know! I really hope she’s gotten her groove back because I didn’t enjoy her last two books at all.

      Reply
  4. Susie | Novel Visits says

    November 21, 2019 at 8:31 pm

    I felt exactly the same way you did about Wild Game. Torn between sympathy & judgement says it perfectly!

    The Innocents is one I haven’t considered, but now you have me curious about it.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      November 22, 2019 at 8:09 am

      It’s very unusual- reminded me a bit of Our Endless Summer Days. The isolation. But the writing is so authentic- I felt as if I were looking into their world.

      Reply
  5. Laila says

    November 22, 2019 at 6:08 pm

    I’ve been curious about the Shopaholic books for a while but haven’t yet read any. Sounds like I need to pick one up! I need some lighter bookish date now and then.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      November 24, 2019 at 8:33 am

      The series is exactly that. I literally laugh out loud reading the earlier books. Becky is hilarious in her belief that a well-written note will get her shopping debts erased. Some of the later ones got to be a bit much, but this one was back on track. They’re pure light entertainment.

      Reply
  6. susan says

    November 27, 2019 at 3:09 pm

    I’m glad to hear about The Innocents and that it isn’t too slow. I loved Sweetland. I’m surprised Crummey didn’t win this year’s Giller Prize in Canada …. he’s a wonderful writer — are they crazy?! I have a copy of The Innocents but need to fit it in somewhere this month.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      November 28, 2019 at 10:19 am

      Good to hear- I’ll add Sweetland to my TBR. I’ve never read him before.

      Reply
  7. Allison | Mind Joggle says

    November 29, 2019 at 4:30 pm

    Oh, I love survival books. Your description of The Innocents reminds me of Island of the Blue Dolphins, which I’m sure is what turned me on to survival books as a kid, and the love has stuck since then. I’ll have to check it out!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 2, 2019 at 10:48 am

      This one is beautifully written. It feels authentic- in that he uses the language of the times in places. Very evocative.

      Reply

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