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Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

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The Sweetness of Water
by Nathan Harris

This Novel Is a Literary Gift: An Extraordinary Story That Is Unsettling but Always Insightful (4/14/2023)

This may be a perfect novel. The plot is compelling. The characters are painted with such vividness that they seem real. And the writing…oh my goodness. The writing sings. It is beautiful, lyrical, and poetry in prose. It's the kind of writing that demands to be reread.

…more

Spring: A Seasonal Quartet Novel
by Ali Smith

A Somewhat Difficult Book to Read—in Both Form and Story—But It Will Make You Think! (4/14/2023)

It may be titled "Spring," but this is not a book about the blossoming of new love or reveling in Earth's colorful pastel rebirth. It is bleak and dark with just a smidgen of hope. It's also experimental in form—so much so that when I was about 35 pages into the book, I …more stopped reading and started over at page one, which made all the difference to understanding what was happening.

Written by Scottish author Ali Smith, this is the third in what the author describes as a seasonal quartet. Unlike virtually all book series, this one does not need to be read in order. Each book is totally independent of the others. If they weren't grouped together as a quartet, you wouldn't even know they were a series.

But one thing the books in this seasonal quartet do have in common is they are all stories interwoven with political discourse. (Some might even call it political diatribe.) "Spring" is focused on immigration issues in Britain, specifically how immigrants are treated once they arrive. Many are housed in Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) where they are held indefinitely—like prisoners—even though they are only supposed to be detained for 72 hours.

This is a book about lost souls in a very divided Britain. Richard Lease is an aging TV and film director who hasn't worked in years. Paddy, the woman who taught him so much and served as his muse has died. He is devastated and suicidal so he decides to travel north from London to Scotland to send her off—at least in his mind. Meanwhile, Brittany Hall is off to her dreaded job at an IRC when a little girl named Florence waylays her and convinces her to go with her to Scotland. Florence is an unusual child to say the least. She has a nearly magical ability to charm everyone around her to give her things, allow her to accomplish the seemingly impossible, and basically just get her way. It is this child of 12 who saves Richard's life, and the three of them begin a journey that is rife with joy, sadness, and betrayal. But in the spring, there is always hope (even if it's just a smidgen)—for new life, for reconciliation, and for love.

Just as much as it's about immigration, it is also a book about the importance of stories—the ones we live, the ones we tell, the ones we read. English majors and avid readers will enjoy the frequent literary namedropping and almost cameo-like appearances of short story writer Katherine Mansfield and poet Rainer Maria Rilke, as well as silent film star Charlie Chaplin and British visual artist Tacita Dean.

At times, the minimal plot of the book can be confusing as it bounces around in time. It didn't keep me reading past my bedtime. But it's an interesting way to frame the dire human concern of immigration and what happens to real people in real ways that are alarming, frightening, and abusive.

It may be somewhat difficult to read, but this is a book that will make you think. (less)

One Two Three
by Laurie Frankel

Imaginatively Written, but It Should Be Shelved in the YA Section. Overall, It's Disappointing. (4/14/2023)

This book by Laurie Frankel is a lot of contradictory things:
-- It's billed as a novel for grown-ups, but it should be shelved in the young adult section.
-- It's a riveting story, but it goes on far too long, spoiling something that started out really good.
-- I wanted to …more love it because "This Is How It Always Is," also by Laurie Frankel, is one of my favorite books of all time, but I just couldn't love it that much.

This is the story of three sisters, 16-year-old triplets Mab, Monday, and Mirabel. They call each other One, Two, and Three based on their birth order and the number of syllables in their names. This is also the story of their town, Bourne, where 17 years ago a chemical company poisoned the town's water and the residents. Many, many of them died, including the triplets' father, many got cancer, and most of the children were born with birth defects. While Mab is considered "normal," Monday is autistic, and Mirabel, while brilliant, was born physically deformed with only her right arm and hand fully functioning, leaving her unable to walk or talk. Why not move away? Their mother, Nora, is mad. So very, very angry. And she spends her life, when she's not caring for her daughters or working one of her three jobs, fighting the chemical company and seeking restitution for the little town of Bourne. It truly is her purpose in life.

Then, quite suddenly, everything changes in this place almost everyone else forgot about.

This is the story of what can go disastrously wrong when unscrupulous, uncaring people are in charge and then get away with it. It's well researched in terms of science and law, so the novel feels authentic. We're all rooting for the underdogs here, and while the ups and downs, the incessant legal wrangling, and evidence sleuthing are at first fascinating, it all just goes on way too long. What Frankel tries to do is build the story to a climax we'll never forget, but unfortunately the result falls flat like a balloon after all the air has leaked out—and it's only because it took too long to get there.

Still, this novel is very well-written, as well as imaginatively written, with each chapter titled "One, "Two," or "Three" and told from the point of view and in the distinct first-person voices of Mab, Monday, or Mirabel. It's a clever writing ploy, and it works really well. Unfortunately, it's just not enough to pull the story out of the mire into which it eventually sinks.

A lovely bonus: This book is a love letter to libraries and librarians, while it also gives a tip of the hat to vocabulary words learned well and used appropriately in conversation. (less)

The Language of Flowers: A Novel
by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

A Poignant, Thoughtful, and Insightful Book That Will Keep You Reading Far Past Your Bedtime (4/14/2023)

This book is so much more than a story about flowers. This is a book about what it means to love a child and the truly horrible things that happen to a child who is not loved—not enough food, no proper clothing, and worst of all, no self-esteem or confidence.

This is a story …more

The Night Watch
by Sarah Waters

This Book Is Sheer Genius! Exquisitely Written and Absolutely Engrossing to Read (4/14/2023)

Brilliant! Simply brilliant! Exquisitely written by Sarah Waters in a highly creative and imaginative format—going backward in time instead of forward—this is a World War II story about the British home front and a group of young women who are trying to make a life for …more

A Good Neighborhood
by Therese Anne Fowler

A Political Message Disguised as a Novel and Delivered with All the Subtlety of a Sledgehammer (4/14/2023)

This is a political message disguised as a novel and delivered with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

And you can almost choose your favorite cause because they're all here: racism, sexism, environmental rights, rich vs. poor, suburban sprawl, the role of women in society, …more and teen sex/hook-up culture.

Written by Therese Anne Fowler, this is the story of two very different families who must coexist as neighbors. Valerie Alston-Holt, a black college professor, and her biracial and uber-talented son, Xavier, live in Oak Knoll, a quiet and established suburb of a major North Carolina city. Their home is modest: a three-bedroom, one bath model built in the 1950s. Growing in the backyard is a century-old massive oak tree, which Valerie loves like other people love their dogs. But all is not well. The small house behind them has been razed, all the old trees cut down, and a showcase McMansion with an inground pool has been constructed. The Whitmans—Brad, Julia, Juniper, and Lily—move in. Both families have their backstories, albeit very stereotypical and one-dimensional. When the oak tree shows serious signs of distress and decay, caused by the disruption of its root system from the house construction, relations between the neighbors rapidly deteriorate. Adding to the tension is the developing love relationship—from simple flirting to a whole lot more—between Xavier and Juniper. He is a graduating high school senior headed to the prestigious San Francisco Conservatory of Music, while she, who harbors a deep, dark secret, is one year younger and a white Evangelical Christian.

What I liked: The form of the novel appears to mimic a Greek tragedy, complete with the omniscient, third-person chorus chiming in (a lot!) to offer "off stage" comments and background information. This is a clever literary trick that works quite well.

What I didn't like: The novel's greatest defect is the writing. I expected more from Fowler. Much of the dialogue seems fake (who talks like that?), the plot is forced without flowing naturally, and some of the main characters are so superficial they come off as both unappealing and inauthentic. The bad guy is very, very bad, and the good guy is very, very good. No subtleties here.

I rolled my eyes so much while reading this novel that it's amazing I could keep them on the page long enough to finish it. (less)

The Dictionary of Lost Words
by Pip Williams

If You Love Words, You'll Love This Book! (4/14/2023)

If a book were your favorite comfy sweater, this would be it. It's a slow, steady, and quietly fascinating read about the men and the very few women who were involved in the making of the venerable Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

It's also a book about linguistic …more

Sag Harbor: A Novel
by Colson Whitehead

A Trip to the Beach Like None You've Ever Had! The Writing Is Brilliant, but the Plot Crawls (4/14/2023)

This is the power of reading: It will take you places you can never go in real life. Exhibit A is this book.

This is a coming-of-age story about a nerdy and awkward 15-year-old, prep school-educated black boy, who is spending the summer of 1985 at his family's beach house …more

Garden Spells
by Sarah Addison Allen

A Delight to Read! An Enchanting Love Story Infused with a Touch of Magic (4/14/2023)

If you need a summer escape from the real world, just open this delightful book by Sarah Addison Allen. It’s the literary equivalent of a bundle of fresh, colorful flowers.

This novel is written in the genre of magical realism, so you must be able to suspend your belief ( …more

Call Your Daughter Home
by Deb Spera

Emotionally Searing and Difficult to Read, but It’s One of the Best Books I’ve Read (4/14/2023)

This is a story about the deep South. This is a story about the indelible bond and incredible courage of women. But most of all, this is a story about our shared humanity. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time.

Magnificently written by Deb Spera, this novel …more takes place in and near the swamps of South Carolina in the 1920s just after a boll weevil infestation destroyed the cotton crops and the livelihoods of countless people rich and poor. The book is written in the first person by three women:
--Annie is wife of a powerful man who has lost everything but quickly switches from growing cotton to tobacco on his plantation that still has empty slave cabins on the property.
--Gertrude is a poor, white woman with an abusive husband, four daughters, and no money.
--Retta is the black maid for Annie’s family. Happily married to Odell, the couple still grieve for the only child they lost when the little girl was eight years old.

The lives of these three women intersect in surprising ways, beginning when Retta rescues Gertrude and her daughters and takes them in, much to the disapproval of her black neighbors. But evil and dark, ugly secrets are lurking in the swamp and on the plantation, and when the three women figure out something so horrible, so wicked, so reprehensible, they have very different reactions as to how to tame it. Together, these women and mothers have a power they wouldn’t have alone.

The writing is brilliant with each woman’s voice so distinctive, so nuanced, so razor-sharp that the chapter headings listing the narrator’s name don’t even need to be there. You will know who it is by the style, which is quite a literary accomplishment.

Like the swamp around which the novel is set, this story will suck you in. The last third of the book is so compelling—actually, explosive—that it’s nearly impossible to stop reading. But the book is a tough one emotionally. The plot is unerring and relentless, exploring age-old taboos and physical abuse that hit me hard in the heart. Just know this going into it. A happy, carefree beach book it is not. Instead, it is emotionally searing. But isn’t that true of a lot of great works of literature?

This is an extraordinary book and one of the best I have read. (less)

A Fine Imitation: A Novel
by Amber Brock

Entertaining! A Fun ChickLit Escape Read with a Well-Crafted Plot That Has Several Clever Twists (4/14/2023)

This book is a ChickLit escape read. Take it to the beach. Read it curled up in front of the fireplace during a snowstorm. It will keep you entertained for hours. But like most ChickLit, it’s all plot without the enduring depth of literature. That said, we all need books …more

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
by Tiya Miles

A Brilliant Melding of the Scholarly and the Personal. Quite Simply, This Is Essential Reading. (4/14/2023)

It’s just an old cotton seed bag. But it is truly priceless.

Sometime in the 1850s, Rose, an enslaved woman in Charleston, South Carolina, gave the bag to her nine-year-old daughter, Ashley, on the eve of her being sold away from her family to another South Carolina …more

Summer: Seasonal Quartet #4
by Ali Smith

A Literary Delight with Exquisite Writing, but Despite the Title, It’s Not a Beach Book (4/13/2023)

Despite the title, this is a not a light and romantic romp at the beach. This is a serious book about serious subjects—from the horrors of Nazi brutalities to the isolation of the Covid pandemic—but the story had me riveted.

Written by Ali Smith, this is the fourth in her …more seasonal quartet that officially begins with "Autumn: A Novel," but can be read in any order, since the stories are not related to each other. That said, I would advise—just for the fun of it—reading them during the season for which each is named. The author’s purpose for the four books is daunting: Each book is topical about current news events as they were happening when she was writing. (Novelists don’t do that! Except Ali Smith did. And pulled it off. Somehow.)

The barely-there plot begins in February 2020 just as people around the world are learning about a vicious and highly contagious virus. The story focuses on a handful of people—from a 13-year-old boy who is brilliant but somewhat delinquent to a 104-year-old man whose memories are more real to him than his daily existence. While the core of the story takes place in winter, many of the characters remember a summer that was special to them.

This is how it begins: On the beach in Brighton, Robert, age 13, does something truly mean and dangerous to his older sister, Sacha. Charlotte and Art (characters from "Winter"), who are wandering on the beach in the dead of winter, offer her assistance, accompanying her home. It is there that they meet the children’s mother, Grace, along with Robert (who hilariously falls madly in love with Charlotte), and the five of them—strangers who become like family—go on an unlikely journey together. From this barebones plot the story branches out so we learn the detailed backgrounds—some filled with joy, some with tragedy—of these and other characters. And the tie that binds these disparate people together is…summer.

Each of the four books in the series features a Shakespeare play, a Charles Dickens novel, and a contemporary artist. In "Summer," we have "A Winter’s Tale," "David Copperfield," and Italian filmmaker Lorenza Mazzetti. Yes, it’s an intellectual book about summer!

This final book in the seasonal quartet is far less political than "Autumn" (Brexit) and "Spring" (immigrants who are detained illegally) and more focused on the human psyche with characters so vivid, complex, and real that they just pop off the page.

The writing is exquisite, and it was this more than anything else, that kept me turning the pages. This book is a literary delight. (less)

The Daughters of Erietown: A Novel
by Connie Schultz

A Bit of a Soap Opera Plot, but It’s a Captivating Story That Brilliantly Captures a Bygone Era (4/13/2023)

As much as this is the story of a marriage, it is even more a story of a bygone era when men were the ones who went to work, women were housewives, races and ethnicities lived in separate neighborhoods, and Dad’s word—no matter how unfair—ruled. This is a story that will …more

Anxious People
by Fredrik Backman

Read This Book! It's Brilliantly Plotted, Heartwarming, and Hilarious (4/13/2023)

This is the story of a bank robber who botches the job and then inadvertently takes eight people hostage, all of whom are viewing an apartment for sale in a small town in Sweden the day before New Year's Eve. It's also the story of the two police officers—a father and a son— …more

Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi

Fierce and Triumphant: A Historical Novel/Family Epic That Will Sear Your Heart and Soul (4/13/2023)

This a historical novel/family epic masquerading as the most creative collection of short stories I have ever read.

The premise: It is the summer of 1775 on the Gold Coast of West Africa. (The Gold Coast was a British Crown colony until its independence in 1957 when it …more

Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel
by Shelby Van Pelt

A Summer ChickLit Delight: An Endearing Novel About Death, Grief, and the Power of Love to Heal (4/13/2023)

It could happen! Well, maybe. OK, never. But that doesn't mean this book—a summer ChickLit delight—won't tug at your heartstrings and make you smile. It is an endearing novel about the tragedy of death, the anguish of grief, and the power of love to heal. And it's partly …more

Catherine House: A Novel
by Elisabeth Thomas

A Gothic Mystery, Thriller, and Coming-of-Age Novel That Is Both a Page-Turner and a Slog (4/13/2023)

The best way to describe this unusual novel by Elisabeth Thomas is: Peculiar. It's strange, odd, and weird. It's also creepy and eerie.

This Gothic mystery, thriller, coming-of-age novel is both a page-turner and a slog. How can it be both? The twisted, mysterious, and very …more dark plot makes it tempting to binge-read the book, but the novel just drags on and on and on.

It takes the first 60 pages to set up the story, so if you're the kind of reader who gives a book 50 pages and then calls it quits if it's not enticing enough, don't bother with this one. Then it takes the next 60 pages for something to really happen. Eventually, it picks up quite a bit, but it can still get bogged down in parts and then crawl to a sloooooow read before picking up again. Where was the publisher's editor in all this?

The twisted, mysterious, and dark plot: Catherine House is an elite college nestled in the woods of a small town in Pennsylvania. Students study there for three years, including the summers. Every student is given a full ride with absolutely no expenses. Sound good? There are also the creepy requirements and rules that all students must obey: The college is walled in by a fence. No one may leave. Students are totally isolated from the outside world—no news, no music, no phone calls. They may not have any contact whatsoever with family or friends until after graduation. They can't even wear their own clothing; the college provides everything they will need from jeans and white T-shirts to shampoo. But this is no convent or monastery. The college encourages students to drink LOTS of wine (all provided free) and to have rampant casual sex and out-of-control parties. An initiation and weekly "sessions" make this very much a cult-like experience. The academic work is rigorous in all disciplines, but this is especially so in the "new materials" concentration, where faculty and students are experimenting with a substance called plasm. This mysterious material can heal physical wounds and psychic disorders. But something nefarious, sinister, and top secret is going on in those labs. The main character is Ines Murillo, a mediocre, lazy student concentrating in art history. After the unexplained death of her roommate and other weird things she notices, Ines tries to crack the mystery of the plasm labs.

With more astute editing to create a more succinct storyline, this novel could have been far better. It's a shame it's not. (less)

The Prophets
by Robert Jones Jr.

The Prose Sings Like Poetry, but It's a Difficult Read—a Real Sucker Punch to the Heart (4/13/2023)

This literary novel is so beautifully and powerfully written that the prose sings like poetry, demanding that readers stop and reread not only paragraphs but also entire pages.

Masterfully written by Robert Jones Jr., this is the story of the forbidden love between Samuel …more

Walking on Eggshells: Navigating the Delicate Relationship Between Adult Children and Parents
by Jane Isay

Valuable Tips on How to Parent Grown Up Children Without Conflict (or Shut Up and Wear Beige) (4/13/2023)

When my oldest child was engaged to be married, a dear friend asked me, "Do you know the most important job for the mother of the groom?" I eagerly replied, "Do tell!" She quipped, "Shut up and wear beige." After I stopped laughing, I realized that this is spot-on advice …more for not only being the mother of the groom, but also being the mother and mother-in-law of grown children male or female. Keep your opinions to yourself unless you are asked and stay in the background.

Even if you are blessed with a good relationship with your grown children and their spouses as I am, there will still be times of conflict. That is the point of this book by Jane Isay: Tips on navigating these relationships now that everyone is an adult and you, the parent, have lost your parental authority. We all must learn and master new roles, and this can be tricky at times. After all, when we experience conflict with our grown-up children, it can be unnerving at best and extremely hurtful at worst. Our advice is not appreciated and can even be resented. So parents must relearn how to parent.

Most of the book's advice is given through real-life examples of parent/grown child relationships, some of which are nearly off the rails but most of which are very solid with just some bumps of conflict. How these various conflicts started, what happened during the conflict, and how the conflict was resolved—or not—is the crux of the book. Some readers may find this quite helpful, especially if they see themselves in one of the examples, but others may not find value in something that doesn't mirror their own situation. Still, there is value in realizing you're not alone, as well as that others have it far worse than you do!

Some of what you will learn in this book is:
• How to foster a peer relationship between the generations with love and understanding. This requires more change and growth on the part of the parents than it does on the grown children.

• How to better communicate with your grown children, especially when they aren't living up to your expectations, hopes, and dreams for them.

• Find out THE most difficult task for parents of adults, but if you can do this and you are almost ensured of relationship success.

• Find out a lot more, including how to deal with divorce, stepfamilies, the challenges of giving/loaning money to grown children, and those emotion-packed holiday get-togethers. (less)

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