Author: annsepstein@att.net

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Rating 4) – Four on the Aisle. In Ann Patchett’s novel Tom Lake, three rapt daughters urge their mother, Lara, to tell them about her early days as an actress while they pick cherries on the family farm in northern Michigan. Patchett’s narrative shifts smoothly between youth’s infatuation and midlife’s contentment. As a writer of multi-generational novels (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire her cross-age agility. Unfortunately, Patchett is less facile differentiating between the daughters, other than identifying them as the horticulturist, the veterinarian, and would-be actress. Lara’s beloved husband is also a cipher. And her fellow actors in Our Town, the Thornton Wilder play whose wistfulness infuses the novel, are briefly interesting as characters, but never emerge as people. Perhaps this indistinctness is the inevitable result of a narrative dominated by the storyteller mother. I wondered whether Patchett, herself a storyteller, wanted to be Lara, swept up in a whirlwind youth before happily settling into writing and owning a bookstore. If so, I get it. As I read Tom Lake, I spun my own “back in the day” story for my daughter and grandsons. I expect other readers will do the same. I hope they’re satisfied with the tales they tell themselves, because Patchett’s, while entertaining, does not merit a standing ovation when the curtain comes down.

A novel infused with the wistfulness of “Our Town”

Why writers write: “Why am I compelled to write? Because the world I create compensates for what the real world does not give me.” – Gloria E. Anzaldúa

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Never Simple: A Memoir by Liz Scheier (Rating 4) – Ambivalent. Grieving the death of a parent with whom one had fraught relationship is harder than the “clean” mourning that follows the end of a primarily loving one. In Never Simple: A Memoir, Liz Scheier tries to come to terms with a mother who smothered her with love, but was also physically and emotionally abusive, a liar (including about who Liz’s father was), financially dependent, combative, and eventually afflicted with dementia. I read the book with personal interest. My mother, while not physically abusive, was in most other ways a replica of Judith Scheier. I also read it as a writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), looking for the narrative’s literary arc. My reaction to the book, like Liz’s feelings toward her mother, was “ambivalent.” On the downside, Scheier presents her own life in repetitive detail, sacrificing the book’s momentum in her attempts to convince readers of her unfair treatment. We get it; no reruns needed. On the upside, in the final chapter, after her mother dies, Scheier empathically recognizes, “She was both dealt a bad hand and played that hand badly.” Of their relationship, she concludes, “You can still love someone who has caused you a lot of harm.” Never Simple is both an accusation and an absolution. When life’s injustice meets mental illness, it is indeed “never simple.”

A fraught mother-daughter relationship

Why writers read: “Reading makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person.” – Nora Ephron

My Amazon and Goodreads review of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Rating 3) – Cluttered. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride is the story of pre-WWII Chicken Hill, a poor area in Pottstown, Pennsylvania inhabited by Jews and Negroes. Among the “good” Jews are Chona, the generous proprietress of the title establishment, and her open-minded husband, Moshe, a theater entrepreneur. Among the “good” Negroes are Nate, a hard-working man with a past, and his good-hearted and loyal wife Addie, who have taken in Dodo, their bright but deaf orphaned nephew who the State wants to cart off to an “educational” mental institution. The town itself harbors many “bad” bigots, most notably the despised but powerful Doc Roberts. The collusion of Negroes and Jews to save Dodo drives the story, but what should be a propulsive tale is instead a novel cluttered with less-than-minor characters, confusing plot fragments, and digressions that merely show off the author’s wit. McBride needs an editor with the chutzpah to tell him to cut three-quarters of the self-indulgent prose. As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I’ve learned that at least ninety-percent of the fascinating (to me) information I discover in my research should remain in my notes. Facts serve fiction when they further character and plot. Otherwise, they belong in engaging nonfiction tracts. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is somewhat redeemed by the touching Epilogue, but it doesn’t justify the hours spent reading what precedes it. If you enjoyed McBride’s Deacon King Kong, you’ll probably like The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. If, like me, you were irritated by the former, I expect you’ll be impatient with his latest book too.

A community unites to save a boy

Why writers read: “My alma mater was books, a good library I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.” – Malcolm X