Liz Whaley has been a bookseller at Water Street Bookstore for over a decade. She's one of the most prolific readers I know, and even though she can't always be with us in the store, she faithfully reads all of the latest books, writes them up, and sends in her reviews. It's second best to having her here. Below are her favorites from 2014.
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Sarah Waters is a
terrific writer whom I sometimes think of as a contemporary Dickens. Her first novel, Fingersmith, was about a
group of pickpockets with an engaging cast of characters and their
adventures. After three others, set in
different periods, now comes The Paying Guests. It takes place in the early 1920s in
England and concerns a mother and adult daughter who have turned part of their
house into an apartment to make money now that they are nearly destitute
following the husband’s death. A rather
off-beat couple moves in, and Frances becomes friendly with Lillian. Soon their friendship blossoms into a secret
love affair. Eventually there is a
murder and a trial, providing a nail biter.
Euphoria by Lily King
A gorgeously written novel based
loosely on the experiences of three real anthropologists-- Margaret Mead,
Gregory Bateson, and Reo Fortune—when they were together for a few months in
1933 on the Sepic River of “what was then called the Territory of New Guinea”
(author’s acknowledgments). King
borrows from their lives but recounts a different tale. Sensual, erotic, raw, visceral and filled
with local characters, rituals, desires and passions, the novel
stuns with its evocation of a completely foreign world. The interplay of the three characters is
dangerous, nuanced, complex, enthralling.
The Children Act by Ian McEwan
A slim little novel
somewhat reminiscent of Saturday in that it centers on one
protagonist, this time a 59-year-old female judge in London, and much of it
takes place on one day. The novel
concerns the case of a 17-year-old Jehovah Witness with leukemia who is
refusing a necessary life saving blood transfusion, and his parents are also
refusing to give the hospital permission because it goes against their
religion. Fiona Maye is in the midst of
a crisis in her marriage and tries not to let that color her decision. Gripping, beautifully written, provocative.
Lucky Us by Amy Bloom
A fascinating novel
about the relationship between two half-sisters and their lives during the
1940s. Bloom writes with no wasted words
and with many phrases you want to copy, but you are propelled forward by the
plot. Rich minor characters too. Iris is the more outgoing, the extrovert, and
Eva, forever loyal, is quieter but very smart. The characters are firmly embedded in the
history of their time, and real world events are vividly revealed. I should have read it more slowly to savor it
more completely.
Florence Gordon by Brian Morton
An amazing achievement for a male writer, this wonderful novel is about a feisty 75-year-old feminist who is often blunt, even rude to people. She’s writing her memoir which is really a history of the latest phase of the women’s movement. She is bothered by her left foot which sometimes drags or moves without her controlling it. After a fall and a sprained ankle, she gets a cane. Eventually she is diagnosed with ALS, something she keeps secret. Her granddaughter, Emily, realizes Florence is ill but respects her and says nothing. The two have a lovely relationship. Florence is a delightful, if difficult, woman.
Now in paperback:
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
As
teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military
dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu,
beautiful, self-assured, departs for America to study. She has many ups and downs, all the while
feeling the weight of something entirely new to her: race. Obinze, quiet and thoughtful, had hoped to
join her but post 9/11 America will not let him in. Years later Obinze is a wealthy man in a
newly democratic Nigeria while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of a
blog about race in the U.S. When Ifemelu
returns to Nigeria, the two face problems. Bittersweet, but with much humor, this is a richly told story.
The Cartographer of No
Man’s Land by
P.S. Duffy
Here’s a WWI novel that belongs right up there with Birdsong
and A Very Long Engagement. Angus
MacGrath signs up in 1917 to serve as a cartographer in hopes of finding his
brother-in-law, Ebbin Hant, who has been reported missing in action. Instead of a safe location drawing maps,
Angus is sent to the front in France and becomes involved in the Battle for
Vimy Ridge. Accounts of battles and trench
warfare are graphic. Yet the writing is
often beautiful. Chapters alternate
with ones of Angus’s young son, Simon Peter, at home in Snag Harbor, Nova
Scotia. A poignant father-son tale also.
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Here is an inviting, long, old-fashioned novel, the kind to curl up with by the fire and just immerse yourself in. I hesitated about reading it as I had avoided Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love because I thought it sounded too self-indulgent. But this is an amazing achievement, the product of exhaustive and meticulous research and gifted story telling. We read about Alma Whitman, born in 1800 and living into her 80s. She is a very bright child who becomes a brilliant botanist. Yes, there’s a lot about botany, but there’s also Alma’s compelling life story, including all the complex people surrounding her.
Backlist:
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Eilis, a young woman in a small town in Ireland, can’t find a good job and is working in a grocery store for the nasty Miss Kelly. Eilis lives with her widowed mother and Rose, an attractive and accomplished older sister with a good job. Father Flood tells Eilis he can get her a good position in Brooklyn, and she can live with a Mrs. Kehoe, who takes in Irish female boarders. After experiencing seasickness on the ocean voyage and homesickness when she arrives in America, Eilis meets Tony, a young Italian man at a dance. He falls for her, and Eilis becomes comfortable with him. Then she Is called back to Ireland, and we read on to find out if she’ll return to Tony. Toibin captures the immigrant experience beautifully.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
A biting satire on American culture. A group called Bravo was caught on film by
Fox TV saving some troops in Iraq. The
government has brought Bravo back to the U.S. for a victory tour culminating in
the halftime festivities at the Dallas Cowboys football game on Thanksgiving Day. Fountain captures the language, often vulgar,
of the young men, whose spokesman is 19-year-old Billy Lynn. But it is the mindless gushing of the
civilians who praise the young men, and it is the obscenity of the whole
football culture that are so strong. An
amazing tour de force.
Other noteworthy reads:
Some Luck by Jane Smiley, the first novel in a hundred year trilogy,
from 1920 to 2020 about a family in Iowa.
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri covers
generations of an Indian family, moving from Calcutta to Rhode Island to
California and even Ireland, and spanning the years from 1960 to the present.
The
Goddess of Small Victories by Yannick Grannec is a novel that tells the life story of
Adele, the opinionated and outspoken widow of a famous, real mathematician who
worked at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
The
Luminaries by Eleanor Catton – a huge novel set primarily in 1866 in a
small town in New Zealand that involves the 12 signs of the Zodiac and how they
apply to the 12 main male protagonists.
Some good mysteries:
The Reckoning by Rennie Airth, the latest from one
of the great British mystery writers.
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
(aka J.K. Rowling), the very satisfying sequel to The Cuckoo’s Calling.
The
Long Way Home by Louise Penny, in which the beloved and inimitable
Armand Gamache, though retired, helps to solve another mystery.
The
Secret Place by Tana French – another about the Dublin Murder Squad
involving a murder on the grounds of a girls’ posh boarding school outside of
Dublin.
Four good nonfiction:
My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
Nothing to Be Frightened Of by
Julian Barnes
My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff
Dancing Fish and Ammonites: A Memoir
by Penelope Lively.
