Spotlight

Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively (1987)

In this Booker Prize-winning novel, a dying woman looks back on her life, her fraught relationships with friends, lovers, and family, and the one great loss that framed it all.  It takes us from her cold upbringing in inter-war England, through her adventurous war-years spent in Egypt, to her later career as a historian and mother. The main theme of the book is the passage of time, how current events, and our lives, move slowly but surely into history, like the burning of the mosquito coil that gives the book its name.

This is a wonderful novel, an honest portrayal of a complicated woman, who remains sympathetic despite doing some rather unsympathetic things. The writing is particularly noteworthy; it was never flashy but always beautiful. This was, all told, a pleasant surprise for me.

An interesting companion read would be Rosamunde Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers, also released in 1987, which covers similar themes and events from the perspective of the homefront.

Read this if you’re interested in:

• 20th Century History
• England
• Egypt
• Love
• Grief and Loss
• Complicated Family
• Motherhood

My Rating: Premise 10, Atmosphere 10, Main Character(s) 10, Plot 8, Intrigue 8, Relationships 10, Success 10, Writing 10, Enjoyment 8, Lasting Impact 8: TOTAL 92

Weekly Roundup

The Celebrants, Steven Rowley (2023), 89: When one of a group of six college friends dies just before graduation, the survivors enact a pact ‘to leave nothing unsaid,’ and hold living funerals for each other when they need a helping hand. Over the following decades, as life takes its toll on everyone, they gather to remember, to support, and to celebrate. This is a solid, bingeable addition to Rowley’s wonderfully diverse oeuvre. This could easily have been a five-star read for me, but I felt like it pulled a few punches here and there, losing a bit of emotional weight in the process. (Friendship, Life, Grief and Loss)

What’s Bred in the Bone (Cornish Trilogy 2), Robertson Davies (1985), 87: Ostensibly this is the story of one eccentric’s strange life and near-miss with greatness; but, it is far more about its themes than its plot. Here Davies picks up again on the psychological and artistic strands of his previous work, as well as the loving but scathing satire of the small-mindedness of the old, British Canada, that was a fading memory when he was writing and almost unrecognizable now, which was another of his favoured themes. And, Davies once again proves to be a master of the literary detail, creating masterpieces out of lines that most authors wouldn’t think twice about. And so, there is much to love here (a fact demonstrated by its being shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1986). But all that said, it didn’t quite work for me as a novel, and I have a hard time thinking about it without reference to his previous work. (CanLit, 20th C History, Canadian History, Art, Psychology, Greatness)

The Camino Club, Kevin Craig (2020), 86: Six Toronto teenagers participate in a program that has them walk the Camino de Santiago instead of going into juvenile detention, changing their lives for good. Three of the hardest things to do in writing are: making believable teenage characters, writing dialogue, and capturing people’s inner life — and this book relies heavily on all three of these. So, the fact that I think it got about 85% the way there on these counts is not intended to be a terrible criticism. It just kept this as a good, solid YA novel instead of something really special, which I think it could have actually been. (Camino de Santiago, Pilgrimage, YA, Friendship, Found Family)

Yours Truly (Part of Your World 2), Abby Jimenez (2023), 82: Hot-shot ER doc Briana is still reeling from the breakup of her marriage when a new doctor arrives at the hospital, licking his own wounds and making all the wrong impressions. But as they start to open up to each other, they realize they understand each other in ways they hadn’t expected. This is exactly what I’ve come to expect from an Abby Jimenez novel: There are great characters, fun banter, and narrative arcs that deal with important topics that are handled well without feeling incongruous with the novel’s light tone. (This one deserves particular praise for how it explores the impact of social anxiety on one of the main characters’ life.) But, at the same time, again like a typical Jimenez novel, it also has very smart and successful people who act very stupidly because of rigid expectations of how things must go. This will make you smile and cheer, but it might also make you want to throw it across the room at times. (Medicine, Social Anxiety, Organ Donation, Relationship Trauma, Complicated Families)

Barney’s Version, Mordecai Richler (1997), 75: Decades ago, Barney was acquitted of the murder of a friend and rival. Now, facing increasing memory loss and the upcoming publication of a book he expects to be damning, he sets out to tell his story of what really happened. First, here’s what I think was successful: Barney is one of the most unique and engaging narrative voices I’ve encountered in a while; also, the premise is pretty great. But, this wasn’t successful for me. While Richler did an incredible job of showing his narrator’s mind and memory leaving him, I found the resulting jumps in time and plotting to be difficult to follow. And, because the main character was written to be unlikable and politically incorrect twenty-five years ago, he is a very difficult hang by 2023 standards. Ultimately, this is a wonderful achievement, but I didn’t enjoy it. (CanLit, Rivalry, Aging, Memory Loss, Montreal)

Throwing Hearts, N.R. Walker (2020), 73: A volunteer in a program linking queer adults across generational divides meets his match when the group attends a pottery class. What worked here was some great banter and chemistry between the two leads and a really beautiful secondary plot involving two seniors. But, there wasn’t much a main plot to sustain  these successful elements in a meaningful way. (Romance, LGBTQ2S+, Intergenerational Friendship)

Greek Lessons, Han Kang (2011, trans. 2023), 71: A lonely Korean woman who has lost her ability to speak finds herself pulled towards her equally lonely Greek professor, who is slowly losing his vision. This was very well done and handles difficult subject matter with appropriate care. Unfortunately for me, it ended up feeling like a mixed green salad with a simple dressing: No matter how perfectly it’s done, it’s never going to feel like a meal. (Grief and Loss, Language, Perception, Connection, Loneliness)